Holly Hagan-Blyth opened up about intimacy after childbirth while co-hosting the CBeebies Parenting Helpline
Sex is an integral part of many people's relationships. But for some, a loss of libido is common after life-changing events, such as pregnancy and childbirth, according to the NHS.
Reality TV star and fitness coach Holly Hagan-Blyth says this happened to her after having her son.
"I could have said, 'listen, if you don't touch me ever again, I'm not even bothered' because that's just how I felt at the time," she said when co-hosting the CBeebies Parenting Helpline.
Sex and relationship therapist Rachel Gold said mothers often expect to become intimate again after their six-week postnatal check.
"I think that really fools people into believing that this must be the time to have sex again, but it isn't true."
Holly said her sex drive dipped after the arrival of her son Alpha-Jax in 2023 and she started to avoid any sort of intimacy.
"Whenever I would give him [her husband Jacob] any type of affection, like a touch or a cuddle, I felt it was going to lead to the full thing, to sex, and I didn't want that."
"I started having a negative connotation doing anything towards him."
Being open with her husband helped, she says.
"As soon as I said, this is how I'm feeling, 'whenever I'm cuddling you and touching, can we just not make it lead to the next thing? Because it's just making me not want to do that', and all of a sudden everything was so much better because that pressure was taken off."
Her husband Jacob was worried she no longer fancied him.
"I was like, 'you need to realise this has nothing to do with you. I am feeling this way at the moment, but I don't think any differently of you.'"
"I don't really feel like having sex right now, or even maybe in the next few months. This is my issue that I'm going through, and I just need to work through it."
Holly hopes that couples experiencing the same issues can be more open.
"People do say the relationship changes after having a child, but I don't think that until you're in it, you really, truly, realise how much it changes."
Dr Jennifer Lincoln, a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology, says there are many reasons why women may not want to have sex after giving birth.
"There's a lot of healing that happens. It takes about six weeks for the uterus to return to its pre-pregnancy size. Any tears in the vagina or perineum are also healing."
There are also big hormonal changes for women which can impact their libido.
"Levels of estrogen and progesterone drop drastically. The lower estrogen levels can lead to physical changes like vaginal dryness, which can make sex painful."
"People usually think menopause is the single most acute shift in hormone levels that a woman will ever experience, but actually the few days surrounding childbirth are."
Holly Hagan-Blyth
Rachel stresses there is no timeline for resuming sex and it is unique to every couple.
It's not just an issue that affects mothers. CBeebies Parenting Helpline listener Frankie, who had her baby three months ago, said her male partner had gone off sex.
"I hate my body at the moment, and all I want is a bit more attention from my partner, but he just doesn't want to have sex with me anymore. I feel stuck."
Rachel says that men sometimes struggle to be open about their feelings.
"Stepping into fatherhood can bring up all sorts of things in a man... that could be a very big factor putting him off wanting to have sex."
Fleur Parker, a practitioner from childbirth charity the NCT, says dealing with these emotions is often not seen as a priority for men.
"Talking honestly to your partner about how you're feeling can really help; do not assume they know what's happening or what you are thinking."
Tips for couples starting sex again after birth
If penetration hurts, say so. If you pretend that everything's all right when it isn't, you may start to see sex as unpleasant
Take it gently, hormonal changes after childbirth may mean couples may need to use a lubricant to help make sex more comfortable
Make time to relax together. You're more likely to engage in intimacy when your minds are on each other rather than on other things
Get help if you need it. If a mother is still experiencing pain when they have their postnatal check, it is important to talk to a local GP
Around one in 13 scheduled stops at City Thameslink were cancelled over the past year
City Thameslink in London has been named the worst of Britain's busiest railway stations for cancellations in the year to August.
About one in 13 of almost 150,000 scheduled stops there were cancelled during that time, according to Office of Rail and Road (ORR) figures analysed by BBC.
Those cancellations were among about three million cancelled stops in Britain of a scheduled 89 million.
The government says it is determined to drive up standards as it delivers what it describes as the biggest overhaul of the railways in a generation.
Action to improve the reliability of services cannot come soon enough for passengers like 23-year-old Cat Edge, a student from Surrey who contacted the BBC via Your Voice, Your BBC News.
One in 10 train stops were cancelled at her local train station of Earlswood in the year to August 2025.
She said when trains were delayed and trying to make up the time to reach bigger stops like nearby Gatwick, stops at smaller stations like hers were cancelled.
Despite leaving extra time, Cat said she was often late for university.
"It does feel like I miss out and come across poorly," she said. "It's difficult with professors who themselves have busy schedules, trying to say, 'oh, can I have a 20-minute lenience window?' It's quite embarrassing."
Earlswood had the sixth worst cancellation rate of any train station in Britain in the past year, excluding a small number of stations with unreliable or incomplete data.
It is managed by Thameslink, also in charge of City Thameslink station, which had the worst cancellation rate of Britain's 100 busiest stations.
Cat said: "It's so stressful, especially if when you get on a train, it's dark and you don't know whether it's actually going to stop at your station. It's scary."
She said she would welcome more advance notice if a train is not stopping at her station and would like more reliable trains late at night.
"That's when it's the worst and you're the most vulnerable," she added.
Cat Edge
Cat Edge says trains from her local station are often cancelled, and it can make her feel unsafe at night
Emma Pickard, network operations and performance director for Thameslink and Network Rail, said they were "deeply sorry" for the disruption experienced by passengers.
She said Thameslink had been working hard to make services more reliable, tackling issues such as signalling and power supply faults, improving traincrew availability, and investing to make the network more resilient to severe weather and other unexpected events.
"When incidents outside our control do occur, such as poor weather or trespass we aim to restore the service as quickly as possible, however on a network as busy and complex as Thameslink's the disruption can be felt widely," she said.
"At times we have to make the very difficult decision to cancel some trains to get the timetable back on track."
'I was walking until midnight'
Sheila O'Donnell
Sheila O'Donnell had to walk for an hour and a half to get home following a cancellation
The issue of trains being cancelled late at night can be particularly difficult for passengers in rural areas.
Sheila O'Donnell, 73, lives in Arnside in Cumbria. She said her train was often cancelled when getting home from work or out seeing friends in nearby cities.
Our data shows one in 17 planned stops from the station ended up being cancelled in the past year.
"It happens so often, I'm resigned to it," she said. "The worst one I've had, I was on the train to Liverpool to celebrate somebody's big birthday, I got back to Lancaster at 21:10 to find the next train had been cancelled."
A friend dropped her at the bus station but the nearest stop was still a walk of 4.5 miles (7.24 km) from her home.
"I couldn't get a taxi," she said. "From 22:30 to midnight, I had to walk home along the dark country lane. Hardly any lights and I needed the torch on my phone."
BBC analysis calculated the percentage of cancelled stops out of those scheduled for the last 13 periods of data published by the Office of Rail and Road.
Out of all 2,549 stations, 78 were excluded from the analysis due to missing or unreliable data. This differs from the cancellation analysis by the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail and train operators.
Britain’s worst train stations for cancellations revealed
Michael Solomon Williams from Campaign for Better Transport said around three million train cancellations was "simply unacceptable" and eroding faith in the railways.
"We need a reliable, affordable and accessible rail network to deliver economic growth, increase productivity and reduce carbon emissions," he said.
He called for "tougher targets, automatic compensation, and proper investment to restore trust" with the rail industry and government collaborating.
Peter Howard
Peter Howard tries to avoid trains altogether following several cancellations during the pandemic
Peter Howard, 58, commutes from Macclesfield to London. After several cancellations during the pandemic, he decided to avoid trains altogether.
"I just got fed up with it," he said. "I thought I'm not taking that risk any more and I ended up driving."
Over the years, Peter said train cancellations meant he had missed working meetings, his son's sports day and school pick-ups.
He said: "They were the ones that hurt the most. There'd be that sense of disappointment - 'dad's not here, he should have been'.
Peter has since returned to using the trains and feels the situation has improved recently, but added: "There was a period, I think last year in the summer, where it was something of a Russian roulette as to whether the train had turned up or not."
The data shows that, in the past year, one in 24 planned stops ended up being cancelled in Macclesfield.
Great British Railways, a new arm's length body, will oversee the rail system in England, Wales and Scotland in a move that the government hopes will bring savings while also reducing delays and cancellations.
The legislation needed to establish the new body is still due to go through parliament, but some services have already been transferred into public ownership as franchises held by private companies start to expire. All services are expected to be publicly owned by the end of 2027.
The DfT said it was already starting to see "positive signs of progress with overall cancellations starting to fall".
On the face of it, the number of cancelled train stops has gone down in the most recent four-week period, when compared to the period just before or the same period last year.
However, the cancellation rate for the past year was still slightly higher than the previous one - 3.3%, up from 3.2%.
A Rail Delivery Group spokeperson said train operators "spare no effort to maintain as many services as possible" but extreme weather, infrastructure faults and trespass could have an impact.
It apologised to those affected, saying it had introduced Visual Disruption Maps - videos to help passengers navigate service changes - and was raising awareness of the Delay Repay scheme to simplify compensation.
Additional reporting by Kris Bramwell, Lauren Woodhead and Jonathan Fagg
All flights to and from Denmark's largest airport have been suspended after drone sightings, police have said.
Between two to three large drones were seen flying in the area around Copenhagen Airport, according to authorities.
Take-offs and landings at the airport have been suspended since around 20:30 local time (19:30 BST).
"[The airport] is currently closed for take-off and landing, as 2-3 large drones have been seen flying in the area. The time horizon is currently unknown," police said in a statement on X.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
David Tennant (pictured left, in The Hack), plays the real-life Guardian journalist Nick Davies (right, in 2011)
Writer Jack Thorne has praised the "remarkable" journalists who exposed the use of phone hacking in some parts of the media, ahead of a new TV series about the scandal.
ITV's forthcoming drama The Hack stars David Tennant as Nick Davies, the investigative Guardian reporter who exposed the extent of hacking at Sunday tabloid the News of the World.
Thorne, who also wrote Netflix hit Adolescence, told BBC Radio 4's Today: "I thought I knew this as a story, I thought it was a story about journalists behaving badly, I thought the story started and ended with that.
"But actually... you see it's a lot more than that. It's a relationship between the press, politics and the police that's really troubling. And what we try to do in this show is uncover the detail of that."
Getty Images
Thorne said phone hacking exposed a "troubling" relationship between some parts of the media and the police
The News of the World was closed down in 2011, after it emerged journalists at the paper had hacked phones of public figures in an effort to obtain exclusive stories.
Davies published several stories about phone hacking throughout the scandal, but public outrage reached a new level when it came to light that murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's voicemails were among those which had been hacked, giving her parents false hope that she was still alive.
For the ITV dramatisation of the scandal, Thorne has collaborated with some of the same team who made the hugely successful Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
"The difference between this and Mr Bates, which I think is really fascinating, is that Mr Bates was about the fact that journalism couldn't get purchase on this," Thorne told presenter Justin Webb.
Several journalists working for outlets including Computer Weekly, Private Eye and the BBC covered the Post Office Horizon IT scandal, but the story cut through to the public in a much bigger way after ITV's dramatisation aired in January 2024.
"There were brilliant journalists doing amazing work in the post office case," Thorne said, "but in this case, this is a celebration of brilliant journalists who actually managed to call their own industry to account.
"And I've thought a lot about that when working on this," he continued. "I think that I am instinctively a coward when it comes to looking at problems and calling out things within my own industry.
"The brilliance of these people [the journalists who exposed phone hacking]... to look at what's happening within the media sphere, and to do damage to that industry, is quite remarkable."
The Hack tells the story from two different points of view - that of Davies, as the journalist reporting on it, and police detective Dave Cook (played by Robert Carlyle), who investigated the murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan.
Tennant is one of more than 1,600 celebrities and other public figures to have settled out of court with News Group Newspapers, the publishers of the News of the World, over the phone hacking scandal.
Getty Images
Adolescence, created and written by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham, swept up at the recent Emmy Awards
The launch of The Hack comes after another of Thorne's TV dramas, Adolescence, dominated the Emmy Awards earlier this month.
The series, co-created by actor Stephen Graham, told the story of a schoolboy named Jamie Miller accused of murdering a female classmate, and explored the impact of smartphones and social media on teenagers.
Asked if there would be a follow-up, Thorne said: "Certainly not a sequel, I think we've told the Miller story as well as we possibly can.
"We might, well we're trying, Stephen [Graham] and I are trying, to write something which uses the same techniques, works with the same group of people, to shed light on a different aspect of our society."
The Hack begins on Wednesday 24 September at 21:00 BST on ITV1 and ITVX
“I support the Democrat in the race,” Ms. Harris said during an interview with Rachel Maddow. She added of the Democratic Party, “we’ve got a big tent and we’ve got a lot of stars.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris during a charity gala in April. She endorsed Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York during an interview on Monday night.
President Trump’s executive order threatened to prosecute donors who support antifascist philosophy and issued a domestic terrorism designation that doesn’t exist under U.S. law.
US comedian Jimmy Kimmel will return to his late-night talk show on Tuesday after he was suspended for making jokes relating to the death of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Disney, which owns the US broadcast network that airs Jimmy Kimmel Live, said on Monday that it suspended the show because it "felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive".
"We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday," Disney said.
The comic's abrupt suspension came after threats by the federal tv regulator to revoke ABC's broadcast licence, sparking nationwide debates over free speech.
US President Donald Trump had welcomed Kimmel's suspension and suggested that some TV networks should have their licences "taken away" for negative coverage of the president.
Trump did not address Kimmel's reinstatement when a reporter asked about it during a White House event on Monday.
Critics and First Amendment advocates have railed against the decision as censorship and a violation of free speech.
Kimmel has not yet publicly addressed the suspension or the fallout.
The row started after Kimmel said in his monologue on 15 September that the "Maga gang" were "desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them" and trying to "score political points from it".
He also made fun of Trump's reaction to the influencer's murder, showing a clip of the president responding to a quesiton about how he was mourning the death by changing the subject to construction of a new White House ballroom.
Kimmel compared the response to "how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish".
Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of broadcast regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), threatened to act against ABC and its parent company Disney over Kimmel's remarks.
The spat comes as Vice President JD Vance and other White House allies have been pushing a national campaign to punish anyone who has criticised Kirk in the wake of his death.
Hours after Mr Carr made his initial remarks about Kimmel's monologue, Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, said it would not air Kimmel's show "for the foreseeable future".
Sinclair, the largest ABC affiliate group in the US, followed suit and ABC announced that it would "indefinitely" suspend the programme.
Mr Carr thanked Nexstar "for doing the right thing" and said he hoped other broadcasters would follow its lead. Nexstar is currently seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2bn (£4.5bn) merger with Tegna.
Nexstar and Sinclair did not immediately respond on Monday to the BBC's requests for comment.
ABC's decision was met with protests in California and lambasted by the writers and actors guilds, lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alike, who argued that the suspension violates free speech rights and spurs a chilling effect.
Kimmel's late-night colleagues, including Jon Stewart, John Oliver and outgoing CBS host Stephen Colbert, rallied behind him and hundreds of celebrities and Hollywood creatives signed on to a letter backing Kimmel.
Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro are among those who called Kimmel's suspension a "dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation".
"At what point did we become North Korea?" That was the question Nigel Farage posed when asked by a US congressional committee about limitations on freedom of speech in the UK.
He was condemning the "awful authoritarian situation we have sunk into", which he claimed had led to various arrests including that of Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan over his views on challenging "a trans-identified male" in "a female-only space".
When I heard the question, I confess I thought that the leader of Reform UK had gone over the top.
Farage was comparing his country - my country - with a brutal dictatorship that murders, imprisons and tortures opponents.
And he was doing it in front of an influential audience of American lawmakers.
Lucy North/PA Wire
'I don't regret anything I've tweeted,' Graham Linehan said earlier this month
When I interviewed his deputy, Richard Tice on Radio 4's Today, I asked him whether he really believed that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was the same as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Three times I asked the question. Three times Tice swerved it, suggesting Farage was simply using "an analogy".
But Farage is not alone in questioning how far restrictions to freedom of speech have gone in the UK.
Tensions around the limits of free speech are nothing new and since the advent of social media in the mid-2000s, the arguments have been simmering.
Now, though, they're reaching a boiling point.
BENJAMIN CREMEL/AFP via Getty Images
Farage lambasted the 'awful authoritarian situation we have sunk into'
During his recent visit, US Vice-President JD Vance said he did not want the UK to go down a "very dark path" of losing free speech.
The US business magazine Forbes carried an editorial this month that took this argument further still.
In it, editor-in-chief Steve Forbes condemned the UK's "plunge into the kind of speech censorship usually associated with tin pot Third World dictatorships".
He argues that, in stark contrast to the United States - where free speech is protected by the first amendment to the constitution, "the UK has, with increasing vigour, been curbing what one is allowed to say, all in the name of fighting racism, sexism, Islamophobia, transgenderism, climate-change denial and whatever else the woke extremists conjure up".
So, how exactly did we get to the point where the UK is being compared to a dictatorship and, given how inflamed the conversation has become, what - if anything - would it take to turn down the heat?
Big tech dialled up the debate
The case of Lucy Connolly has become a cause celebre to some in the UK and beyond.
The former childminder from Northampton, who is married to a Conservative councillor, had posted an abhorrent message on X, calling for people to "set fire" to hotels housing asylum seekers following the murder of three young girls at a dance class in Southport in July 2024.
It was viewed hundreds of thousands of times at a time when the threat of violence was very real.
Police/PA Wire
Lucy Connolly was jailed for 31 months after calling for hotels housing asylum seekers to be set on fire
Connolly had pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing "threatening or abusive" written material on X. And yet she was given the red carpet treatment at the Reform party conference, as "Britain's favourite political prisoner".
The length of her prison sentence - 31 months although she only served 40% before she was released - was questioned by many, including people who were appalled by what she had written.
It is just one case that highlights how much social media has changed the shape of the debate around free speech and made heroes and villains of ordinary people.
And I use the word "ordinary" deliberately because views similar to Connolly's will have been expressed up and down the land by others who might well have said, as she now does, "I was an idiot".
But while it's unlikely that any action would have been taken had she said what she did in a coffee shop or a bar, the fact she posted it on social media changed things.
ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has changed the rules for Facebook and Instagram
What's more, big tech firms have changed their approach in recent years.
After Musk bought Twitter, which he re-named X, he changed content moderation, which he regards as "a propaganda word for censorship" - and he talks a lot about people spreading "the woke mind virus".
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has also changed the rules governing Meta and Instagram.
In the case of Connolly, her post was "accelerated by the algorithm" and spread far more widely, according to Lilian Edwards, an emeritus professor at Newcastle University.
Dilemma around policing speech
The arrest of Graham Linehan at Heathrow, too, raised further questions around policing freedom of speech - and put the way issues are handled under renewed scrutiny.
Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley has voiced his own concerns. "It's a nonsense to pretend that with all of the (online) content out there that enforcement is the answer to that," he has said.
What these cases both illustrate is the lack of consensus about what can and should be policed online in the UK, and by who.
And a lack of consensus too about how we can set apart the unpleasant, offensive, ugly and hateful things said online from those that are genuinely threatening or dangerous.
PA
Sir Mark Rowley: 'It's a nonsense to pretend that with all of the content out there that enforcement is the answer'
In the UK, the Human Rights Act does give protection to free speech but as a "qualified right".
This means that "governments can restrict that right… provided that the response is proportionate - [or] 'necessary in a democratic society' is what people tend to say", according to Lorna Woods, professor of internet law at the University of Essex.
But some of the comments made at the protest in London earlier this month, billed by far-right, anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson as a "free speech rally," demonstrate that, despite other controversies, that right isn't that qualified.
Like nailing jelly to the wall
"Violence is coming" and "you either fight back or die", the billionaire X owner Elon Musk told flag-waving protesters via video link.
Along with his call for the overthrow of the government, some might argue that his words at the rally were an incitement to violence.
But the UK's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, the barrister Jonathan Hall KC, has said that Musk's words would not have broken the law.
"Politicians use martial language all the time, don't they?" he told BBC Radio 4's Today. "Metaphors such as fights and struggles are pretty normal. And he was talking about it contingently, wasn't he? He wasn't saying: 'Go out immediately.'"
Reuters
Musk called moderation "a propaganda word for censorship"
Yet the fact both men were able to address a huge crowd in London is perhaps evidence that there is rather more leeway for free speech in this country than those likening the UK to a "tin pot dictatorship" suggest.
According to Essex University's Prof Lorna Woods, the lowest level of views that can be prosecuted in British criminal law are those deemed "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".
These are concepts that few people without a law degree could easily define, let alone agree upon.
It is the job of the police initially, but ultimately the courts, to try to nail that particular piece of jelly to the wall.
Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Former deputy PM Sir Nick Clegg says the the UK is "out of whack" with other countries on free speech
The UK is "out of whack" with other countries, according to Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister who later became right-hand man to Zuckerberg. He believes the UK needs to "think long and hard" about "whether we've overdone it" on policing speech.
"Surely part of the definition of being in a free society is people say ghastly things, offensive things, awful things, ugly things, and we don't sweep them under the carpet," he has said.
Free speech versus 'me speech'
What the British public want is another story.
Earlier this month, in a survey by YouGov, 5,035 British adults were asked what was most important when it came to online behaviour: 28% said it was that people were able to express themselves freely but 61% prioritised keeping them safe from threats and abuse.
"People tend to prefer safety to free speech [online]," argues Anthony Wells, a director at YouGov.
What's more, there seems to be a generational divide.
Mark Kerrison / Getty Images and SOPA Images / Getty Images
In a new YouGov survey, 61% of Britons said keeping people safe online was more important than absolute free speech
In my conversations with young people in their 20s and 30s - the age of my own children - I often hear the view that far from being an ideal to be strived for, free speech is the cause of much of the anger, division and fear they live with every day.
In recent years a "cancel culture" has emerged in which those with "unacceptable" views can be hounded out of their jobs, no platformed as speakers or intimidated as students.
Even back in 2021, a YouGov poll of Britons found that a majority of those surveyed - some 57% - had sometimes stopped themselves from expressing political or social views because of the fear of being judged or negative responses.
For those who believe that free speech is under threat in the country, these figures can be used as evidence that decades of political correctness has had a chilling effect on people's ability to express their opinions.
"Our definitions of what constitutes hate speech, and I think a very broadened definition of what constitutes harm, is meaning that people feel like they are walking on eggshells and they're frightened - not just that they'll have the police around, but that they'll be cancelled if they say the wrong thing," the former Brexit Party MEP Baroness Claire Fox told the BBC's The World Tonight.
But dig deeper and this debate, like so much else, is also about politics and the deepening and, increasingly, angry and violent divisions in our society.
What can America teach us?
Even with its constitutional protection for free speech, plenty in the UK question what basis Americans have to lecture Britain on free speech, given the arguments they are having back at home.
The anger and division sparked by the assassination of the conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk in Utah this month ramped up the debate further on that side of the Atlantic over where the boundaries should lie between what is offensive, hateful and dangerous.
Michael Le Brecht/Disney via Getty Images
ABC has suspended talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel over comments about the killing of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk
Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi appalled many conservatives when she declared that, "There's free speech and then there's hate speech".
It seemed to take her into precisely the territory, which has caused so many problems here in the UK.
President Trump himself has threatened to sue the New York Times for $15bn (£11bn) over what he calls defamation and libel, adding to the long list of media outlets he has taken to the courts over stories - the newspaper has called it "intimidation tactics" - and he celebrated the sacking of the late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel as "great news for America".
The US historian Tim Snyder, who is an outspoken public critic of the direction America is heading under Trump believes that free speech should be distinguished from what he calls "me speech".
Win McNamee/Getty Images
Trump has threatened to sue the New York Times for $15 billion
"Me speech is a common practice among rich and influential Americans," writes Mr Snyder. "Practitioners of me speech use the phrase free speech quite a bit.
"But what they mean is free speech for themselves. They want a monopoly on it.
"They believe that they are right about everything, and so they should always have giant platforms, in real life or on social media.
"The people with whom they disagree, however, should be called out and intimidated in an organised way on social media, or subjected to algorithmic discrimination so that their voices are not heard."
As much about listening
This issue is one I've felt strongly about for as long as I can remember. My grandparents knew first hand what it was to be persecuted for who you were and what you thought or said. They were German Jews who fled the Nazis for what then was the relative security of China and later had to flee the Communists there.
As a child, I recall watching in reverential silence as each day, after lunch, my grandfather held a huge radio on his lap and turned the dial, skipping stations until he found the BBC World Service. There, he had learned, he would find news he could trust and speech which was free of political control.
So important was this to him that he had risked hiding with his wife and daughter (my mother) in a cupboard in their home in Shanghai to listen to it on a banned shortwave radio.
Nick says he finds it hard to accept comparisons between the UK and a dictatorship
That is why I find any comparison between the UK and a dictatorship a little hard to swallow.
What I learned as the grandchild of those who had fled not one but two murderous ideologies was that free speech was about listening as much as talking.
What mattered above all else is being able to hear both sides of an argument and learn the facts behind them - without having that information controlled by governments, rich and powerful media owners, or anyone else.
Nick Robinson is presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme and Political Thinking.
Top image credit: Carlos Jasso / Getty Images
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The UK government should offer discount visas to US cancer scientists who have had their research cancelled by the Trump administration, Sir Ed Davey will say.
"The UK should step up and say: If Trump won't back this research, we will," the Liberal Democrat leader will say in a speech to his party's conference in Bournemouth on Tuesday.
He will propose the setting up of a fellowship scheme for US scientists seeking to escape the US government's "anti-science agenda".
The Lib Dem leader has stepped up his attacks on the US president this week and accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of wanting to turn the UK into "Trump's America".
His staunch criticism of Farage, President Trump and his allies is expected to be a big theme of Sir Ed's keynote speech on the final day of his party's conference.
In February, the US government cut billions of dollars from overheads in grants for biomedical research as a part of broader cost-saving measures.
The US government said it was "vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overheads".
At the time, the boss of the American Society of Clinical Oncology said the move "would be devastating to the pace and progress of cancer research in America".
"Slashing federal research funding at a time when science is revolutionising cancer care risks leaving millions of patients without the promise and potential of life-saving breakthroughs," said Clifford Hudis.
According to a poll conducted by the Nature journal, 75% of its readers were considering leaving the US and heading to Europe or Canada as a result of the actions of Trump.
The Liberal Democrats have not set out what level of discounts the UK government should offer to researchers wanting to come to the UK. Costs to purchase a visa can exceed £1,000.
In his conference speech, Sir Ed will argue that the UK should be "stepping into the vacuum left by Trump's anti-science agenda - leading the world in the fight against cancer".
The Liberal Democrat leader is also expected to criticise Reform UK party members for applauding a US decision to cut research for mRNA vaccines.
Twenty-two projects had been examining how the vaccine technology could counter viruses such as bird flu.
Sir Ed will say: "It is hard to express the cruelty and stupidity of cutting off research into medicine that has the power to save so many lives."
In addition to criticising Trump, Sir Ed has also been increasingly vocal in his attacks on the billionaire and former Trump ally Elon Musk.
On Sunday, he called on the UK's communications regulator Ofcom to "go after" Musk over "crimes" he claims are being committed on the tech mogul's social media platform X.
Sir Ed has also accused Musk of "inciting violence" when he addressed a rally in London via video link. In response, the X owner called the Liberal Democrat leader a "craven coward".
Asked by Sky News if he was worried about legal threats from Musk, Sir Ed said: "If he ... sues me, let's see how he fares, because I don't think he'll win."
The Lib Dems have become well known for their political stunts alongside a policy offer focused on social care and other priorities under Sir Ed's leadership.
It brought them success at last year's general election, with the party winning 72 seats in the House of Commons - its highest ever share.
But the Lib Dems have struck a more serious tone at this year's conference, as the party considers it's next move ahead of local elections next year.
On the opening night of the conference, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron draped himself in a flag and called on members to "reclaim patriotism" from the far right.
Farron told a hall full of activists to "stop being so flaming squeamish and English" and reclaim the UK's flags from groups who seek to "divide and destroy".
Unusually for the Lib Dems, they have gone out of their way to claim that they are the true patriots, in contrast to Farage, who they have dubbed a "plastic patriot".
In an interview with the BBC, Sir Ed said his party has a moral duty to keep Farage and his Reform UK party out of power.
Major medical groups say it is safe for pregnant women to take Tylenol, also known as Paracetamol
Trump officials are expected to link the use of pain reliever Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, according to US media reports.
At an Oval Office event on Monday, the US president will reportedly advise pregnant women in the US to only take Tylenol, known as paracetamol elsewhere, to relieve high fevers.
At the Charlie Kirk memorial service on Sunday, Trump said he had an "amazing" announcement coming on autism, saying it was "out of control" but they might now have a reason why.
Some studies have shown a link between pregnant women taking Tylenol and autism, but these findings are inconsistent and do not prove the drug causes autism.
Tylenol is a popular brand of pain relief medication sold in the United States, Canada and some other countries. Its active ingredient is acetaminophen, which is called paracetamol outside North America.
Tylenol maker Kenvue has defended the use of the drug in pregnant women.
In a statement to the BBC, it said: "We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers."
Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women, it added, and without it, women face a dangerous choice between suffering through conditions like fever or use riskier alternatives.
The BBC has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.
In April, the leader of HHS, Robert F Kennedy Jr, pledged "a massive testing and research effort" to determine the cause of autism in five months.
But experts have cautioned that finding the causes of autism - a complex syndrome that has been researched for decades - would not be simple.
The widely held view of researchers is that there is no single cause of autism, which is thought to be the result of a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology said doctors across the country have consistently identified Tylenol as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant women.
"[S]tudies that have been conducted in the past, show no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during any trimester and fetal developmental issues," the group has said.
The drug is recommended by other major medical groups as well as other governments around the world.
In August, a review of research led by the dean of Harvard University's Chan School of Public Health found that children may be more likely to develop autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders when exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy.
The researchers argued some steps should be taken to limit use of the drug, but said the pain reliever was still important for treating maternal fever and pain, which can also have negative effects for children.
"There is no robust evidence or convincing studies to suggest there is any causal relationship," said Monique Botha, a professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University.
Dr Botha added that pain relief for pregnant women was "woefully lacking", with Tylenol being one of the only safe options for the population.
Autism diagnoses have increased sharply since 2000, and by 2020 the rate among 8-year-olds reached 2.77%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Scientists attribute at least part of the rise to increased awareness of autism and an expanding definition of the disorder. Researchers have also been investigating environmental factors.
In the past, Kennedy has offered debunked theories about the rising rates of autism, blaming vaccines despite a lack of evidence.
All flights to and from Denmark's largest airport have been suspended after drone sightings, police have said.
Between two to three large drones were seen flying in the area around Copenhagen Airport, according to authorities.
Take-offs and landings at the airport have been suspended since around 20:30 local time (19:30 BST).
"[The airport] is currently closed for take-off and landing, as 2-3 large drones have been seen flying in the area. The time horizon is currently unknown," police said in a statement on X.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
Jacob Winkler aimed a laser pointer at the presidential helicopter as it took off from the White House on Saturday, the authorities said. He was charged with a felony.
President Trump boarding Marine One at the White House on Sunday. A man was charged with a felony for shining a laser pointer at the presidential helicopter on Saturday.
The president is pushing up against the statute of limitations in his pursuit of charges against a former F.B.I. director, and also wants the attorney general of New York and a California senator prosecuted.
Mr. Mamdani intends to appear at explicitly Jewish spaces during the High Holy Days, seeking to bridge a divide with some Jewish voters as he runs for mayor.
Major medical groups say it is safe for pregnant women to take Tylenol, also known as Paracetamol
Trump officials are expected to link the use of pain reliever Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, according to US media reports.
At an Oval Office event on Monday, the US president will reportedly advise pregnant women in the US to only take Tylenol, known as paracetamol elsewhere, to relieve high fevers.
At the Charlie Kirk memorial service on Sunday, Trump said he had an "amazing" announcement coming on autism, saying it was "out of control" but they might now have a reason why.
Some studies have shown a link between pregnant women taking Tylenol and autism, but these findings are inconsistent and do not prove the drug causes autism.
Tylenol is a popular brand of pain relief medication sold in the United States, Canada and some other countries. Its active ingredient is acetaminophen, which is called paracetamol outside North America.
Tylenol maker Kenvue has defended the use of the drug in pregnant women.
In a statement to the BBC, it said: "We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers."
Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women, it added, and without it, women face a dangerous choice between suffering through conditions like fever or use riskier alternatives.
The BBC has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.
In April, the leader of HHS, Robert F Kennedy Jr, pledged "a massive testing and research effort" to determine the cause of autism in five months.
But experts have cautioned that finding the causes of autism - a complex syndrome that has been researched for decades - would not be simple.
The widely held view of researchers is that there is no single cause of autism, which is thought to be the result of a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.
The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology said doctors across the country have consistently identified Tylenol as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant women.
"[S]tudies that have been conducted in the past, show no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during any trimester and fetal developmental issues," the group has said.
The drug is recommended by other major medical groups as well as other governments around the world.
In August, a review of research led by the dean of Harvard University's Chan School of Public Health found that children may be more likely to develop autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders when exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy.
The researchers argued some steps should be taken to limit use of the drug, but said the pain reliever was still important for treating maternal fever and pain, which can also have negative effects for children.
"There is no robust evidence or convincing studies to suggest there is any causal relationship," said Monique Botha, a professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University.
Dr Botha added that pain relief for pregnant women was "woefully lacking", with Tylenol being one of the only safe options for the population.
Autism diagnoses have increased sharply since 2000, and by 2020 the rate among 8-year-olds reached 2.77%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Scientists attribute at least part of the rise to increased awareness of autism and an expanding definition of the disorder. Researchers have also been investigating environmental factors.
In the past, Kennedy has offered debunked theories about the rising rates of autism, blaming vaccines despite a lack of evidence.
All flights to and from Denmark's largest airport have been suspended after drone sightings, police have said.
Between two to three large drones were seen flying in the area around Copenhagen Airport, according to authorities.
Take-offs and landings at the airport have been suspended since around 20:30 local time (19:30 BST).
"[The airport] is currently closed for take-off and landing, as 2-3 large drones have been seen flying in the area. The time horizon is currently unknown," police said in a statement on X.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.
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