The Prince and Princess of Wales have visited the Natural History Museum in their first official engagement since the summer.

Catherine, who is patron of the museum, and William were shown the gardens, which are used recreationally as well as for research and teaching, by the institution's director Doug Gurr.

The visit comes as the new school term starts for their three children, George, Charlotte and Louis.

The young family was last seen in public driving to church close to Balmoral Castle in Aberdeenshire, last month.

• 'A fresh start': William and Kate to move to new Windsor home
• Princess Kate helped me through mental health crisis, says brother

In August, the BBC was told that the family will be moving into the eight-bedroom Forest Lodge in Windsor Great Park.

They currently live in Adelaide Cottage in the castle grounds, where they have been since August 2022, but have decided to make a change after a challenging 18 months, during which the princess was dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

Thursday's visit saw the royal couple meet children participating in educational programmes in the museum gardens, designed to help them connect with nature and boost biodiversity.

The Natural History Museum's gardens opened in 2024, and features grassland, wetland and woodland habitats, and are described as a living laboratory where visitors and scientists can identify and monitor wildlife in an urban environment.

The princess has previously spoken about how important it is for children to spend time in nature. In 2019, she helped create the back to nature play garden that exhibited in the Chelsea Flower Show.

Earlier this year, she urged people to "reconnect to nature and celebrate a new dawn within our hearts" in Spring, her social media video series on seasons.

Catherine and William will also be shown how technology is being used to inform the Natural History Museum's research diversity projects and conservation.

The jobs of thousands of Lloyds Banking Group staff are at risk as part of a performance shake-up at the financial firm.

The banking group is set to tell those it deems are among the weakest performing 5% that they could be made redundant unless their work improves.

It marks the second time in less than two years that thousands of Lloyds' employees have faced job losses, after it cut 1,600 roles in January last year.

The BTU union warned of staff being "hounded out of the business", but Lloyds spokesperson said it was "striving to embed a high-performance culture in the organisation".

"To achieve this, and in line with wider industry practice, we continuously look for ways to help our colleagues perform at their best," the Lloyds spokesperson added.

"We know that change can be uncomfortable, but we are excited about the opportunities ahead as we propel forward to achieve our growth ambitions and delivering exceptional customer experiences."

About 3,000 people deemed by Lloyds to be underperforming will be told their jobs are risk, with roughly 1,500 expected to lose their jobs, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the story.

Bosses at the company will be reviewing data from a HR software programme to monitor progress, the newspaper said.

The firm is not understood to be looking to cut a specific number of jobs but to solve an issue with low numbers of people leaving the banking group over time.

The performance policy has echoes of so-called "rank and yank", which was popularised in the US by the former chief executive of General Motors Jack Welch.

He supported "ranking" employees by performance and then "yanking" the worst performing out of the company.

Accord Union, which claims it represents more than 22,000 staff, said it was "asking Lloyds Banking Group to reassure its staff that it will continue to uphold the integrity of the established performance management processes".

The BTU union, which claims to represent 17,000 Lloyds staff but is not recognised as an official union and so it not consulted by Lloyds Banking Group, said it did not support the company's actions.

"In Lloyds, it will simply become a numbers game and staff will be hounded out of the business. We've seen it before," it said.

A bus driver has been taken to hospital after a collision in central London in which several passengers and pedestrians are understood to have been injured.

The Met Police, the London Ambulance Service (LAS) and London's Air Ambulance were called to Victoria Street in Westminster at about 08:20 BST, the force said.

There are no reported fatalities, the Met added.

An LAS spokesperson said the incident was ongoing and it was working with emergency services partners.

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Is it possible to become immortal with the help of organ transplants? That was the unexpected topic of discussion this week between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin when they met at a military parade in Beijing.

A translator, speaking in Mandarin on behalf of Putin, told Xi how human organs can be repeatedly transplanted "so that one can get younger and younger" in spite of age, and might even be able to stave off old age "indefinitely".

"It's predicted that in this century it might become possible to live to 150," he added.

Their smiles and laughter suggest it was a bit of banter, but might they be on to something?

Organ transplants certainly save lives - in the UK, over 100,000 people have been saved in the last 30 years, says NHS Blood and Transplant.

And continued advancements in medicine and technology mean transplanted organs are lasting far longer once in people.

Some patients have had a kidney transplant that has kept working for more than 50 years.

The lifespan of an organ depends on how healthy the donor and recipient is - plus how well they look after it.

For example, if you were to have a new kidney from a living donor, you might expect it to last 20 to 25 years.

If you get it from a deceased donor, that drops to 15 to 20 years.

The type of organ matters too.

A liver might last around 20 years, a heart 15 years and lungs nearly 10 years, according to research.

Ticket to eternal life?

Putin and Xi may be talking about having multiple organs transplanted and perhaps repeatedly.

Having surgery is a big undertaking, though, with significant risks. Each time you go under the knife you are rolling the dice.

Currently, people who get a new organ also have to take strong anti-rejection drugs called immunosuppressants for life. These can have side-effects, such as high blood pressure, and increase the risk of infections.

Rejection - when your immune system starts to attack the transplanted organ because it recognises it as coming from a different person - can sometimes still happen even if you are taking your medication.

Tailor-made organs

Scientists are working on making rejection-free organs, using genetically-altered pigs as the donors.

They use a gene editing tool know as crispr to remove some of the pig genes and add certain human genes to make the organ more compatible.

Breeding special pigs for this is ideal, say experts, since their organs are roughly the right size for people.

The science is still extremely experimental, but a heart and a kidney operation has gone ahead.

The two men who agreed to having the procedures were pioneers of this new field of transplantation medicine.

Both have since died but helped advance xenotransplantation - the transplanting of living cells, tissues or organs from one species to another.

Another avenue being explored is growing brand new organs using our own human cells.

Stem cells have the ability to grow into any type of cell or tissue found in the body.

No research group has yet been able to make fully functional, transplantable human organs, but scientists are getting closer.

In December 2020, UK researchers UCL and the Francis Crick Institute rebuilt a human thymus - an essential organ in the immune system - using human stem cells and a bioengineered scaffold.

When transplanted into mice as a test, it appeared to work.

And scientists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London say they have grown human intestinal grafts using stem cells from patient tissue that could one day lead to personalised transplants for children with intestinal failure.

But these advances are for treating ill health, rather than keeping people alive to 150.

Tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson, meanwhile, is spending millions a year trying to reduce his biological age.

He's not tried getting new organs yet - as far as we know - but has infused himself with his 17-year-old son's plasma.

He's since stopped that, after seeing no benefits and increased medical scrutiny from organisations such as the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr Julian Mutz from King's College London said beyond organ transplantation, approaches like plasma replacement are being explored, but these remain experimental.

"Whether such strategies will have a meaningful impact on lifespan, particularly maximum human lifespan, remains uncertain, though it is an area of considerable scientific interest."

Prof Neil Mabbott, an expert in immunopathology at the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh, speculates that living to 125 years old might be the upper limit.

"The verified oldest living person was a Frenchwoman, Jeanne Calment who lived for 122 years, between 1875 and1997, " he told BBC News.

And while damaged and diseased organs may be replaceable by transplants, as we age our bodies become much less resilient or able to cope with physical stressors.

"We begin to respond less effectively to infections, and our bodies become more frail, prone to injury and are less able to recover and repair.

"The stress, trauma and impact of transplant surgery, alongside the continued use of immunosuppressive drugs required to prevent rejection of the transplanted organs would be too severe in patients of such advanced age."

He says rather than focussing on extending life-span, we should instead strive for healthy years lived.

Prof Mabbott said: "Living a lot longer, but suffering from the multiple morbidities that can accompany aging, and in-and-out of hospital for another tissue transplant does not sound an attractive way to spend my retirement!"

The leaders of about 30 Western countries are taking part in a summit in Paris with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky, with the aim of giving Kyiv security assurances if a ceasefire is agreed, and persuading the US to provide support.

Hopes of a deal to end the fighting have receded since Russia's Vladimir Putin met Donald Trump in Alaska, although the US president said on the eve of Thursday's talks that "we're going to get it done".

Trump was due to talk to leaders of the "Coalition of the Willing" by phone after the Paris summit, and French officials said it was important for many European partners that any military guarantees for Kyiv involved an "American safety net".

Last month he said the US was willing to help "probably" with air support, and Western allies are keen for Trump to confirm that.

The summit opened on Thursday, chaired by France's Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and many of the leaders took part remotely.

Nato chief Mark Rutte said the aim was to have "clarity" on what the coalition could deliver so they could discuss what the Americans could provide.

Air support could include help with air defence or intelligence, but details so far are vague.

A source at the Élysée Palace said there were three aims behind the security guarantees: to strengthen Ukraine's armed forces; to support them by deploying a separate force to make it clear to Russia that Ukraine has Western backing; and to have a US safety net, which the Americans would obviously have to maintain.

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said ahead of the talks that Kyiv had received "signals" from the Americans that they would provide a backstop.

US special envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Paris ahead of the summit and reports said he was due to meet Zelensky.

• 4,000 miles from Ukraine this Asian city is part of Russia's war

• Putin: Russia will achieve aims military with no deal

More than 40 months after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Putin has said this week that there is "a certain light at the end of the tunnel" and that "there are options for ensuring Ukraine's security in the event the conflict ends".

However, Russia has made clear that no Western forces should be deployed to Ukraine and it has insisted that it should be one of the countries acting as "guarantors" - an idea rejected by Kyiv and its allies.

Putin has also raised the unrealistic prospect of Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky coming to Moscow for talks.

Mark Rutte said on Thursday that Russia had no veto on Western troops being deployed to Ukraine: "Why are we interested in what Russia thinks about troops in Ukraine? It's a sovereign country. It's not for them to decide."

President Trump told CBS News on Wednesday that he remained committed to reaching a deal to end the war and said he continued to have a good relationship with both Putin and Zelensky.

"I think we're going to get it all straightened out," he said.

UK Defence Secretary John Healey has praised Trump, who he says "brought Putin into talks" and "not closed off any options".

Ukraine is looking to the Coalition of the Willing to come up with a reassurance force involving British, French and other European troops. Germany has said it is too soon to make that kind of commitment.

The Russian leader, who spent Wednesday with China's Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, claims that his country's military is pushing forward on all fronts in Ukraine.

He warned that without a deal Moscow was prepared to "resolve all our tasks militarily".

While Ukraine and its allies say a ceasefire should be agreed initially, Russia has insisted its campaign will not end before a full peace deal.

The source at the Élysée Palace said it had already become clear that Russia had no intention of having a ceasefire as part of a peace deal.

The source pointed to the demarcation line between North and South Korea, where a ceasefire had lasted for years with a powerfully armed, allied American deployment serving as a signal to North Korea. That concept was extremely important for the Ukrainians, the source added.

At least 32 people have died in Nigeria's northern Niger state after a boat sank in a river, an official has told the BBC.

The reportedly overloaded boat, said to have been carrying about 100 passengers including women and children, capsized when it struck a submerged tree stump on the River Niger in the Borgu area on Wednesday morning.

Abdullahi Baba Ara, the spokesman of the National Emergency Management Agency (Nema) in the state, told BBC Hausa on Thursday that more than 50 other people had been rescued, with eight still missing.

Search operations are continuing.

Mr Ara said the government had set up a team of "water marshals" to stop boat operators from overloading their vessels and ensure passengers wear life jackets.

"Perhaps the water marshals were not on duty when this boat took off," he said, adding that investigations had started.

A local district head told the Reuters news agency that he had been at the scene soon after the accident.

"I was at the scene yesterday around 12 pm until 4 pm. The boat carried more than 100 people. We were able to recover 31 corpses from the river. The boat was also recovered and removed," Reuters quoted Sa'adu Inuwa Muhammad as saying.

Boat accidents are fairly common in Nigeria, often due to overloading, poor regulation and inadequate safety precautions.

About 25 people went missing last month after a boat accident in Sokoto state.

In December last year, 54 bodies were recovered from the River Niger after a boat that may have been carrying more than 200 passengers capsized.

The government has made it mandatory for water travellers to always wear life jackets, but this is often not enforced.

In February, the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola, set up a "Special Committee on the Prevention of Boat Mishaps in Nigeria", and in May the ministry announced that it would be distributing 42,000 life jackets across 12 riverine states in the country.

Later in the month, the National Inland Water Ways Authority (NIWA) kicked off a campaign they called "No Life Jacket, No Travel", and "No Night Travelling" in Niger and Kwara states where boat accidents have occurred regularly in the recent past.

Niger state is Nigeria's largest by land mass and people tend to travel a lot by water as it is often the fastest and cheapest means of getting around.

More Nigeria stories from the BBC:

• More than 50 dead and dozens missing after Nigeria boat sinks
• Africa's patchy transport network gets a tech boost
• Should I stay or should I go? The dilemma for young Nigerians
• 'I thought I would die with my six children' - survivor of Nigeria dam collapse

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

An investigation has been launched after a grandfather mistakenly took home the wrong child from a daycare centre in Sydney, Australia.

The man arrived to collect his grandchild from First Steps Learning Academy in the southern suburb of Bangor, on Monday afternoon.

But he accidentally took home a different child, who was asleep in a dark room.

The mistake only became clear when the mother of the child arrived at the centre to find that her one-year-old was not there, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"I can't explain the feeling," she told the newspaper.

"They couldn't tell me his [the man's] name, they couldn't tell me who he was, they couldn't tell me who he was meant to pick up. They couldn't tell me what he looked like, apart from that he was wearing shorts and he was an older gentleman," the mother, who asked not to be named, explained.

As part of safety protocols, childcare centres do not allow children to be collected by anyone else except recognised parents, guardians or carers

But she also said the grandfather is not to blame.

"We are not angry with him. We are not upset at him – we blame the day care."

The grandfather's wife told the Sydney Morning Herald that her husband is "devastated" and has "owned the mistake".

"When he realised, he raced that child back so fast," she said.

First Steps told the BBC that the educator involved in the incident has been stood down.

"We sincerely apologise to the families directly involved in this deeply upsetting and isolated incident," nursery director Trisha Hastie said.

She added that has never happened before at any of First Steps' nurseries, and it has strengthened procedures to "ensure this never happens again".

An investigation is underway into the "deeply concerning and serious incident", the New South Wales Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority said.

The incident comes at a time of heightened awareness surrounding safety at Australia's childcare centres, and last month, new legislative changes were announced aimed at improving safety standards in the sector.

A second man has been arrested over "disgusting" racist abuse sent on social media to England footballer Jess Carter.

Police began investigating after receiving reports the messages had been sent to the 27-year-old defender during the UEFA Women's Euros in July.

Officers from Derbyshire Constabulary have arrested a 30-year-old man from Ripley on suspicion of making malicious communications.

It follows the arrest of a 59-year-old man, from Great Harwood, Lancashire, on suspicion of the same offence last week.

Cheshire Police's Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the National Police Chief Council's lead for football policing, said: "Nobody should be subjected to such disgusting abuse, and we want to make it clear that racist abuse of this nature will not be tolerated."

Carter, from Warwick, previously said she was taking a step back from social media after she was targeted with online racism during the tournament.

Following the incident, the UK Football Policing Unit launched an investigation involving social media companies to track down those responsible for the messages.

"I would like to commend her for standing up to this abuse and assisting with our investigation," Mr Roberts added.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Lancashire on Sounds and follow BBC Lancashire on Facebook, X and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.

An investigation has been launched after a grandfather mistakenly took home the wrong child from a daycare centre in Sydney, Australia.

The man arrived to collect his grandchild from First Steps Learning Academy in the southern suburb of Bangor, on Monday afternoon.

But he accidentally took home a different child, who was asleep in a dark room.

The mistake only became clear when the mother of the child arrived at the centre to find that her one-year-old was not there, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

"I can't explain the feeling," she told the newspaper.

"They couldn't tell me his [the man's] name, they couldn't tell me who he was, they couldn't tell me who he was meant to pick up. They couldn't tell me what he looked like, apart from that he was wearing shorts and he was an older gentleman," the mother, who asked not to be named, explained.

As part of safety protocols, childcare centres do not allow children to be collected by anyone else except recognised parents, guardians or carers

But she also said the grandfather is not to blame.

"We are not angry with him. We are not upset at him – we blame the day care."

The grandfather's wife told the Sydney Morning Herald that her husband is "devastated" and has "owned the mistake".

"When he realised, he raced that child back so fast," she said.

First Steps told the BBC that the educator involved in the incident has been stood down.

"We sincerely apologise to the families directly involved in this deeply upsetting and isolated incident," nursery director Trisha Hastie said.

She added that has never happened before at any of First Steps' nurseries, and it has strengthened procedures to "ensure this never happens again".

An investigation is underway into the "deeply concerning and serious incident", the New South Wales Early Childhood Education and Care Regulatory Authority said.

The incident comes at a time of heightened awareness surrounding safety at Australia's childcare centres, and last month, new legislative changes were announced aimed at improving safety standards in the sector.