Sir Keir Starmer is expected to announce the UK's recognition of a Palestinian state in a statement on Sunday afternoon.

The move comes after the prime minister said in July the UK would shift its position in September unless Israel met conditions including agreeing to a ceasefire in Gaza and committing to a long-term sustainable peace deal that delivers a two-state solution.

It represents a major change in British foreign policy after successive governments said recognition should come as part of a peace process and at a time of maximum impact.

The move has drawn fierce criticism from the Israeli government, hostage families and some Conservatives.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu previously said such a move "rewards terror".

However, UK ministers argue there was a moral responsibility to act to keep the hope of a long-term peace deal alive.

Government sources said the situation on the ground had worsened significantly in the last few weeks. They cited images showing starvation and violence in Gaza, which the prime minister has previously described as "intolerable".

Israel's latest ground operation in Gaza City, described by a UN official as "cataclysmic", has forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee.

Earlier this week, a United Nations commision of inquiry concluded Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, which Israel denounced as "distorted and false".

Ministers also highlighted the continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law, as a key factor in the decision to recognise Palestinian statehood.

Justice Secretary David Lammy, who was foreign secretary in July when the path to recognition was announced, cited the controversial E1 settlement project which critics warn would put an end to hopes for a viable, contiguous Palestinian state.

He said: "The recognition of a Palestinian state is as a consequence of the serious expansion that we're seeing in the West Bank, the settler violence that we're seeing in the West Bank, and the intention and indications that we're seeing to build for example the E1 development that would run a coach and horses through the possibility of a two-state solution."

Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the UK's recognition pledge when he visited Sir Keir earlier this month, with Downing Street saying both leaders had agreed Hamas had no role in future governance of Palestine.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she wanted to see a two-state solution in the Middle East.

But writing in The Telegraph over the weekend, she said: "It is obvious, and the US has been clear on this, that recognition of a Palestinian state at this time and without the release of the hostages, would be a reward for terrorism."

Meanwhile, in an open letter to Sir Keir on Saturday, family members of some of the hostages taken by Hamas urged the Prime Minister not to take the step until the remaining 48, of whom 20 are believed to still be alive, had been returned.

The announcement of the forthcoming recognition had "dramatically complicated efforts to bring home our loved ones", they wrote. "Hamas has already celebrated the UK's decision as a victory and reneged on a ceasefire deal."

During a state visit to the UK this week, US President Donald Trump also said he disagreed with recognition.

Sir Keir had set a deadline of the UN General Assembly meeting, which takes place this week, for Israel to take "substantive steps to end the appalling situation in Gaza, agree to a ceasefire and commit to a long-term, sustainable peace, reviving the prospect of a two-state solution".

Speaking in July, he said: "I've always said we will recognise a Palestinian state as a contribution to a proper peace process, at the moment of maximum impact for the two-state solution.

"With that solution now under threat, this is the moment to act."

A number of other countries including Portugal, France, Canada and Australia have also said they will recognise a Palestinian state, while Spain, Ireland and Norway took the step last year.

Palestine is currently recognised by around 75% of the UN's 193 member states, but has no internationally agreed boundaries, no capital and no army - making recognition largely symbolic.

The two-state solution refers to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel currently occupies both the West Bank and Gaza, meaning the Palestinian Authority is not in full control of its land or people.

Recognising a Palestinian state has long been a cause championed by many within the Labour Party. The PM has been under mounting pressure to take a tougher stance on Israel, particularly from MPs on the left of his party.

Shortly before he gave his speech in July, more than half of Labour MPs signed a letter calling for the government to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

However, critics questioned why the government had appeared to put conditions on Israel but not on Hamas, when it set out its path to recognition.

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Ephraim Mirvis, called on the government to pause its decision.

"The intended recognition is not contingent upon a functioning or democratic Palestinian government, nor even upon the most basic commitment to a peaceful future," he said.

"Astonishingly, it is not even conditional upon the release of the 48 hostages who remain in captivity."

Government sources insisted their demands for Hamas to release the hostages and agree to a ceasefire had not changed.

But officials in the Foreign Office argued statehood was a right of the Palestinian people and could not be dependent on Hamas, which the government views as a terrorist organisation.

Speaking on Thursday when he hosted President Trump at Chequers, Sir Keir reiterated that Hamas could play "no part" in any future Palestinian state.

The Israeli military launched its Gaza campaign in response to the unprecedented Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

At least 64,964 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Rohan Mehta - not his real name - spent over $8,000 (£5,900) on flights in his scramble to get back to the US ahead of a deadline that would dramatically increase visa fees for some.

He had been in Nagpur, India for the anniversary of his father's death before he cut his trip short.

On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order adding a $100,000 (£74,000) fee for applicants to the visa programme for skilled foreign workers which US-based companies would have to pay.

Companies and immigration lawyers had already advised those on the H-1B visa who were outside the US to return before the order came into force Sunday.

A day later, the White House clarified it would be a one-time fee and would not apply to current visa holders, but it was too late for some.

Workers from India receive by far the most skilled visas in the programme, at more than 70% of the 85,000 issued each year.

Despite the clarification posted on X by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, concern and confusion had already spread.

The BBC spoke to many H-1B visa holders from India.

Many have been working in the US for decades.

None wanted to be identified as they were not authorised by their employers. Many refused to speak to us entirely.

Rohan Mehta, a software professional, has lived in the US with his family for 11 years but had travelled to Nagpur at the beginning of the month to see relatives commemorating his father's death.

But on 20 September, he said he feared he would not be able to return to his home if he did not get back before the deadline.

He spent over $8,000 (£5,900) in eight hours booking and rebooking return flights to the US.

"I booked multiple options because most were cutting it very close," he said just after he had boarded a Virgin Atlantic flight from Mumbai to John F. Kennedy International Airport.

"Even if there was a slight delay, I'd have missed the deadline."

• Trump adds $100,000 fee for skilled worker visa applicants
• India warns H-1B visa fee will have 'humanitarian consequences'

In its clarification, the White House said the new fee, which is more than 60 times the amount currently charged, would not be enforced until the next round of visa applications was approved.

Rohan Mehta described the last few days as "traumatic" adding he was glad his wife and daughter had not come to India with him on this trip.

"I'm regretting the choices I've made in life. I gave the prime of my youth to working for this country [the US] and now I feel like I'm not wanted.

"My daughter has spent her entire life in the US. I'm not sure how I'll uproot my life from there and start all over in India."

The H-1B is a work visa programme for people looking to work in the US in specialised fields and roles. Employers are able to sponsor professionals to get them into the country with a job offer required for the application.

According to government statistics, the greatest beneficiary of the programme the previous fiscal year was Amazon, followed by tech giants Tata, Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google.

Another visa holder who was on holiday in Europe agreed there was confusion.

"We are yet to see how employers are thinking and how this will play out.

"From my understanding, the order is only for new H-1B visas. Immigration lawyers are still figuring it out and have advised us to go back."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X clarifying some details including that it would not be an annual fee, just a one-off.

She wrote: "Those who already hold H-1B visas and are currently outside of the country right now will not be charged $100,000 to re-enter.

"H-1B visa holders can leave and re-enter the country to the same extent as they normally would."

She added that the new fee would only apply to "new visas, not renewals, and not current visa holders".

Air travellers are facing another day of disruption at several European airports including Heathrow, after a cyber-attack knocked out a check-in and baggage system.

There were hundreds of delays on Saturday after the software used by several airlines failed, with affected airports boarding passengers using pen and paper.

Brussels Airport said it had "no indication yet" when the system would be functional again and had asked airlines to cancel half their departing flights.

RTX, which owns software provider Collins Aerospace, said it was "aware of a cyber-related disruption" to its system in "select airports" and that it hoped to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

It identified its Muse software - which allows different airlines to use the same check-in desks and boarding gates at an airport, rather than requiring their own - as the system that had been affected.

The company has yet to disclose what went wrong or how long it expects the outage to last.

Heathrow said on Sunday that efforts to resolve the issue were ongoing.

It apologised to those who had faced delays but stressed that "the vast majority of flights have continued to operate", urging passengers to check their flight status before travelling to the airport and arrive in good time.

The BBC understands that British Airways has continued to operate as normal at the airport using a back-up system, but that most other airlines that service it had been affected by the outage.

There were hours-long queues on Saturday and some 47% of Heathrow's departing flights were delayed, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Additional staff were at hand in check-in areas to help minimise disruption.

Lucy Spencer told the BBC that she had queued to check in for a Malaysia Airlines flight for more than two hours, and that staff had been checking passengers in over the phone.

Another passenger, Monazza Aslam, said she had to wait since the early hours of the morning with her elderly parents, and that the delays meant they had missed their connecting flight.

Brussels Airport said manual check-in would continue on Sunday and that extra staff had been drafted in to help minimise disruption.

It said 44 departing flights had been cancelled so far on Sunday, and that it anticipated long queues at check-in and further delays.

Europe's combined aviation safety organisation, Eurocontrol, said airline operators had been asked to cancel half their flight schedules to and from the airport until 02:00 on Monday due to the disruption.

Meanwhile, Dublin Airport said that while the technical issues persisted and some airlines were continuing to check in manually, it was expecting to operate a full schedule on Sunday.

A spokesperson told the BBC: "Passengers are advised to contact their airline directly for updates on their flight."

Berlin Brandenburg Airport is asking travellers to use online or self-service check-in instead of the desks while the outage is ongoing.

It said there had been eight cancellations in and out of the airport on Saturday, but that delays were generally less than 45 minutes.

EasyJet and Ryanair, which do not operate out of Heathrow but are among Europe's biggest airlines, said on Saturday that they were operating as normal.

A National Cyber Security Centre spokesperson said on Saturday that it was working with Collins Aerospace, affected UK airports, the Department for Transport and law enforcement to fully understand the impact of the incident.

The European Commission, which plays a role in managing airspace across Europe, said it was "closely monitoring the cyber-attack", but that there was no indication it had been "widespread or severe".

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander also said she was aware of the incident and was "getting regular updates and monitoring the situation".

It was only last July that a global IT crash due to a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike caused disruption to aviation, grounding flights across the US.

Analysts said at the time that the incident highlighted how the industry could be vulnerable to issues with digital systems.

Charities and universities have criticised the UK government's "excessively harsh" rules preventing university students from Gaza bringing their families with them to Britain.

Last week, 34 Gaza students with scholarships at British universities were evacuated ahead of starting their studies.

But some students said they would have to give up their places rather than leave family in Gaza, after learning tighter immigration rules barred them from bringing dependents.

Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said the government wanted "to bring people who are able to study, not to cause them further pain or hardship" by making students leave family behind.

Chief Executive of the Refugee Council Enver Solomon said: "it is excessively harsh to tell students fleeing the appalling devastation in Gaza that while they can study safely here, they must leave their loved ones behind.

"No one should be forced to choose between their education and their family.

"The government should urgently reconsider and ensure families can stay together in safety."

Oxford University said it was "very concerned" about the impact of current restrictions on student dependents, which it said "risks preventing talented Gazan scholars with very young children and babies from taking up their places".

Scottish Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said she demanded a meeting with foreign secretary Yvette Cooper, saying the Holyrood government "cannot comprehend why these families are not being allowed to travel and stay together in safety in the UK".

"On a humanitarian level, given the horrors that these people have endured, there is a moral imperative that this ask is honoured," she said.

The evacuation of 34 students follows months of campaigning by politicians, academics, and others on behalf of more than 100 Palestinian students holding offers from UK universities this year.

The group includes members of the Chevening Scholarship, a mostly government-funded scheme for international students to study a one-year master's degree in the UK.

The BBC understands a maximum of 20 children this year would come to the UK if dependents of Chevening scholars were to be allowed.

At least one exception is known to have been granted by Yvette Cooper when she was home secretary, who allowed a female Chevening scholar to bring her two-year-old child.

For Manar Al-Houbi, taking up her PhD place at Glasgow University would mean leaving her three young children and her husband behind in Gaza.

"We are a family, we are one unit, we cannot be separated", she told the BBC, speaking as a military plane flew over her tent in Khan Younis.

Ms Al-Houbi said she had completed her masters degree in the UK in 2018 "and it was one of the most difficult periods in all my life because I was separated from my family, so I decided not to repeat this experience".

As part of a crackdown on immigration, most international students are now not allowed to bring their dependents with them to the UK - but PhD students are still able to bring their families.

In Ms Al-Houbi's case, the BBC understands that while her children are eligible for a visa to come to the UK, they are not eligible to be evacuated from Gaza.

Ms Al-Houbi said she learned she would not be able to bring her children "only days before our evacuation".

She added: "It was very difficult time for me to know that I have to choose between my family and my education.

"It's impossible for me to be separated from them - I can't be separated from my husband and my children".

Lammy told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that the government is "actually dependent on Israeli permissions to bring people out and that has not been easy to get".

But he added that the UK's intention was "to bring people who are able to study - not to cause them further pain or hardship" by having to leave their families behind.

Last week, a group of severely ill children arrived in the UK from Gaza for urgent NHS specialist medical care.

Israel launched a major ground offensive on Gaza City on Tuesday.

On the same day, a United Nations commission of inquiry found Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israel's foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as "distorted and false".

Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to an attack led by Hamas militants on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 65,141 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry.

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Air travellers are facing another day of disruption at several European airports including Heathrow, after a cyber-attack knocked out a check-in and baggage system.

There were hundreds of delays on Saturday after the software used by several airlines failed, with affected airports boarding passengers using pen and paper.

Brussels Airport said it had "no indication yet" when the system would be functional again and had asked airlines to cancel half their departing flights.

RTX, which owns software provider Collins Aerospace, said it was "aware of a cyber-related disruption" to its system in "select airports" and that it hoped to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

It identified its Muse software - which allows different airlines to use the same check-in desks and boarding gates at an airport, rather than requiring their own - as the system that had been affected.

The company has yet to disclose what went wrong or how long it expects the outage to last.

Heathrow said on Sunday that efforts to resolve the issue were ongoing.

It apologised to those who had faced delays but stressed that "the vast majority of flights have continued to operate", urging passengers to check their flight status before travelling to the airport and arrive in good time.

The BBC understands that British Airways has continued to operate as normal at the airport using a back-up system, but that most other airlines that service it had been affected by the outage.

There were hours-long queues on Saturday and some 47% of Heathrow's departing flights were delayed, according to flight tracker FlightAware. Additional staff were at hand in check-in areas to help minimise disruption.

Lucy Spencer told the BBC that she had queued to check in for a Malaysia Airlines flight for more than two hours, and that staff had been checking passengers in over the phone.

Another passenger, Monazza Aslam, said she had to wait since the early hours of the morning with her elderly parents, and that the delays meant they had missed their connecting flight.

Brussels Airport said manual check-in would continue on Sunday and that extra staff had been drafted in to help minimise disruption.

It said 44 departing flights had been cancelled so far on Sunday, and that it anticipated long queues at check-in and further delays.

Europe's combined aviation safety organisation, Eurocontrol, said airline operators had been asked to cancel half their flight schedules to and from the airport until 02:00 on Monday due to the disruption.

Meanwhile, Dublin Airport said that while the technical issues persisted and some airlines were continuing to check in manually, it was expecting to operate a full schedule on Sunday.

A spokesperson told the BBC: "Passengers are advised to contact their airline directly for updates on their flight."

Berlin Brandenburg Airport is asking travellers to use online or self-service check-in instead of the desks while the outage is ongoing.

It said there had been eight cancellations in and out of the airport on Saturday, but that delays were generally less than 45 minutes.

EasyJet and Ryanair, which do not operate out of Heathrow but are among Europe's biggest airlines, said on Saturday that they were operating as normal.

A National Cyber Security Centre spokesperson said on Saturday that it was working with Collins Aerospace, affected UK airports, the Department for Transport and law enforcement to fully understand the impact of the incident.

The European Commission, which plays a role in managing airspace across Europe, said it was "closely monitoring the cyber-attack", but that there was no indication it had been "widespread or severe".

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander also said she was aware of the incident and was "getting regular updates and monitoring the situation".

It was only last July that a global IT crash due to a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike caused disruption to aviation, grounding flights across the US.

Analysts said at the time that the incident highlighted how the industry could be vulnerable to issues with digital systems.

Veteran broadcaster John Stapleton has died at the age of 79 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, his agent has said.

The presenter, who featured widely on programmes including the BBC's Watchdog and GMTV's News Hour and began his career at the Oldham Chronicle, died in hospital on Sunday morning.

His condition was complicated by pneumonia, his agent said.

Jackie Gill said "his son Nick and daughter-in-law Lisa have been constantly at his side and John died peacefully in hospital".

A range of tributes have been paid to Stapleton, including form Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins, who described him as a "brilliant broadcaster" and a "genuinely lovely man".

Newsreader Mark Austin said his death was "incredibly sad".

"A good man and top presenter who could turn his hand to anything. Best wishes to his family," he said.

Stapleton revealed his diagnosis in television interviews in October 2024.

Appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain, he said: "There's no point in being miserable. It won't ever change.

"I mean, Parkinson's is here with me now for the rest of my life. Best I can do is try and control it and take the advice of all the experts."

Stapleton presented BBC's Watchdog with his wife Lynn from 1985 to 1993.

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

States are there to protect. But so are fathers.

Abdel Aziz Majarmeh was standing next to his 13-year-old son, Islam, as he was shot dead by Israeli forces this month at the entrance to Jenin refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank.

"My son fell to the ground, and then I heard the sound of a shot," he said. "An army jeep came up and five or six soldiers pointed their weapons at me, telling me to leave. I didn't even know my son was martyred. I started dragging him away."

Abdel Aziz said he had gone to the camp – occupied by Israel's army since January – to retrieve family documents from his home there.

"There is no one for me to complain to," he told me. "They control everything. The Palestinian Authority can't even protect itself – it only implements the decisions of the Jews."

As a Palestinian, Abdel Aziz is resigned to his powerlessness. As a father, he's tormented.

"In my mind, I keep asking that soldier: why pick on a 13-year-old boy? I'm standing right next to him. Shoot me. Why are you shooting children? I'm here, shoot me."

Israel's army said it had fired to neutralize a threat posed by suspects who had approached them in a closed military area, and was examining the incident.

It refused to clarify what threat the teenager had posed.

Cities like Jenin were put under the full control of the Palestinian Authority three decades ago, under the Israeli-Palestinian Oslo Peace Accords.

They were meant to be the seeds from which statehood would grow.

But Israel says it was terrorism that flourished there. In January, it sent tanks into Jenin and the neighbouring city of Tulkarem to crush armed Palestinian groups, saying it would apply lessons learned in Gaza.

Since then, Israeli forces have remained, razing large areas of the camps in both cities, and demolishing buildings in other areas.

The UK, France and other countries are now set to recognise a Palestinian state, as Israeli control spreads across the West Bank and the Gaza War grinds on.

Jenin's mayor, Mohammed Jarrar, took me to the camp entrance near where Islam was shot. The army vehicles stationed here on my previous visits are nowhere to be seen, but a large earth berm now blocks the road in, and locals say Israeli snipers still scan the area from the buildings overhead.

Mr Jarrar told me around 40% of Jenin was now a military area for Israeli forces, with around a quarter of residents – including the entire camp – displaced from their homes.

"It was clear from the beginning this was a major political plan, not a security operation," he told me. "This Israeli government wants to annex the West Bank and in preparation for that, it wants to prevent any [armed] opposition to its plan."

Israel has also placed the Palestinian Authority under a long-term economic siege, withholding tax revenues the PA needs to pay teachers and police.

Israel accuses it of funding terrorism by compensating the families of Palestinian militants who are killed. The PA says it has now scrapped that payment scheme.

Mr Jarrar said it was now very challenging to provide even basic services to the local population, and to persuade young people not to leave.

Against this backdrop, he said, the recognition of a Palestinian state by Britain, France and others is important, even after more than 140 other nations have already done so.

"It confirms the fact that the Palestinian people possess a state, even if it is under occupation," he told me. "I know that this recognition will lead to [greater] occupation of the West Bank. But even so I believe recognition is more important, because it will shape the future of the Palestinian people, and the international community will be called on to defend their rights."

Recognition of a Palestinian state by the UK and France is also a recognition of the political chasm between Israel and its European allies over this issue.

"There will be no Palestinian state," Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, told settlers in the West Bank last week. "This place is ours. We will see to our heritage, our land and our security."

Netanyahu has built his career on preventing a Palestinian state, and his government has pushed hard on expanding settlements in the West Bank.

His far-right allies have been pushing for formal annexation, with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich recently outlining a plan to annex 82% of West Bank, with the remaining Palestinian enclaves cut off from each other.

US President Donald Trump has opposed the recognition of a Palestinian state, but has not publicly criticised Israeli moves towards annexation.

Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and has never left.

Establishing civilian settlements on occupied land is illegal under the Geneva Conventions, but Israel argues that it has a historic Jewish right to the West Bank.

Around half a million settlers now live there, and the Israeli organisation, Peace Now, which tracks settlement expansion, says more than 100 new outposts have appeared across the West Bank in the past two years.

Outposts are illegal under both international and Israeli law, but they receive tacit approval from Netanyahu's government as well as state support in the form of roads, security and utilities.

Earlier this summer, Ayman Soufan saw new neighbours arrive on the hill next to his house, in the hills south of Nablus.

From his window, he and his grandchildren have a clear view of the simple wooden shelter and corrugated iron shed put up by Israeli settlers that Ayman says are from the nearby settlement of Yitzhar.

"This outpost they set up here is to push us out of our house. Every day a settler comes, bangs on the house, shouting 'leave, leave!'," he told me. "They throw their garbage at our doorstep. I call the authorities and they say, "We'll send the army". But the army never comes. The settlers are the army, they are the police, they are everything."

Ayman's family built this house, near the village of Burin, a few years after Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.

Israel was temporarily given control over rural areas like this under the Oslo peace accords, with the intention that they would eventually be transferred to a future Palestinian State, after negotiations over settlements there.

But Israeli control has remained, settlements have mushroomed, and human rights groups say Israeli forces are increasingly supportive of settler attacks.

Ayman said his father had died from a heart attack as settlers set fire to the house in 2003, and that his home had been torched several more times since then.

"Who is supposed to protect me," Ayman asked. "The Palestinian police? They can't even prevent this happening in the cities, how will they come here? Here, my security is in the hands of the people who occupy me."

International recognition of a Palestinian state is a good thing, he says, even if little will change on the ground.

"What's coming is worse," he said. "But if I ever leave this house, it'll be when I'm carried out dead. This house where I was born, where I grew up and lived my childhood; every corner has a memory for me. How can I leave it?"

In the decades since the Oslo Accords, Israeli narratives have hardened, armed Palestinian groups have strengthened, and the control of the Palestinian Authority government has been eaten away.

"Palestine was never theirs and will never be theirs," said bereaved father Abdel Aziz Majarmeh. "Sooner or later, today, tomorrow, in a year or two, they will leave this country. And Palestine will be liberated."

The UK and France have clung to the idea that two separate states – Israeli and Palestinian – are the solution to the conflict here, even as Palestinian territory was taken, and Palestinian institutions undermined.

Now the Gaza war, and questions over who will govern Gaza afterwards, have forced that political gridlock into open confrontation, as Netanyahu's far-right allies push hard for annexation.

Some Israelis say the West Bank is like the Wild West: a place where statehood and sovereignty are decided not by laws and declarations but by facts on the ground.

Israel has long argued there can be no Palestinian state without its agreement.

Now, by pushing ahead with recognition, the UK, France and others are signalling that Israel can't cancel statehood alone.

A political fact by Israel's allies to counter its facts on the ground.

A secret Russian-funded network is attempting to disrupt upcoming democratic elections in an eastern European state, the BBC has found.

Using an undercover reporter, we discovered the network promised to pay participants if they posted pro-Russian propaganda and fake news undermining Moldova's pro-EU ruling party ahead of the country's 28 September parliamentary ballot.

Participants were paid to find supporters of Moldova's pro-Russia opposition to secretly record - and also to carry out a so-called poll. This was done in the name of a non-existent organisation, making it illegal. The results of this selective sampling, an organiser from the network suggested, could lay the groundwork to question the outcome of the election.

The results of the so-called poll, suggesting the ruling party will lose, have already been published online.

In fact, official polls suggest the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) founded by President Maia Sandu is currently ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP).

We have found links between the secret network and Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor - sanctioned by the US for "the Kremlin's malign influence operations" and now a fugitive in Moscow. The UK has also sanctioned him for corruption.

We have also found links between the network and a non-profit organisation (NGO) called Evrazia.

Evrazia has connections to Mr Shor and was sanctioned by the UK, US and EU for allegedly bribing Moldovan citizens to vote against EU membership last year. The referendum on joining passed, but by a very small margin.

"In 2024 the focus of [Ilan Shor's] campaign was money. This year the focus is disinformation," Moldova's chief of police, Viorel Cernauteanu, told the BBC World Service.

We asked Ilan Shor and Evrazia to respond to our investigation findings - they did not provide a response.

• If you're in the UK you can watch the story on Global Eye, BBC 2 at 19:00 BST on Monday 22 September

Moldova may be small, but sandwiched between Ukraine, and EU-member Romania, it has strategic significance for both Europe and the Kremlin, experts say.

The World Service infiltrated the network - co-ordinated on the messaging app Telegram - through a link sent to us by a whistleblower.

This gave us a crucial insight into how an anti-democratic propaganda network operates.

Our undercover reporter Ana, and 34 other recruits, were asked to attend secret online seminars which would "prepare operatives". With titles like "How to go from your kitchen to national leader", they seemed to serve as a vetting process. Ana and the others had to pass regular tests on what they had learned.

Our reporter was then contacted by a network co-ordinator called Alina Juc. Ms Juc's social media profile says she is from Transnistria, a separatist region of eastern Moldova loyal to Moscow, and her Instagram shows she has made multiple trips to Russia over the past few years.

Ms Juc told Ana she would be paid 3,000 Moldovan lei ($170, £125) a month to produce TikTok and Facebook posts in the run-up to the election, and that she would be sent the money from Promsvyazbank (PSB) - a sanctioned Russian state-owned bank which acts as the official bank for the Russian defence ministry, and is a shareholder in one of Ilan Shor's companies.

Ana and the other recruits were trained to produce social media posts using ChatGPT. Content "attracts people if the picture contains some satire… over reality", they were told, but that too much AI should be avoided to ensure posts felt "organic".

Inside the Telegram group, Ana and the BBC had access to previous instructions issued to participants. Initially, they had been asked for patriotic posts about historical figures in Moldovan history - but gradually the demands had become overtly political.

Ana was asked to post unfounded allegations - including that Moldova's current government is planning to falsify the election results, Moldova's potential EU membership is contingent on its citizens becoming LGBTQ+, and that President Sandu is facilitating child trafficking.

Social media campaigns are now frequently central to national elections. We monitored the social media posts supporting Moldova's ruling party PAS, but did not uncover any obvious disinformation campaign.

Throughout our undercover exercise with the network we only shared posts which were factually accurate, and we limited their number.

We wanted to find out who else was in the network, as we had evidence it was made up of multiple groups similar to the one we infiltrated. We looked for patterns of similar activity across other accounts that we could monitor through our Telegram access.

The network, we concluded, is made up of at least 90 TikTok accounts - some masquerading as news outlets - which have posted thousands of videos totalling more than 23 million views and 860,000 likes since January. Moldova's population is just 2.4 million.

We shared our findings with US-based Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), and it told us its analysis shows the network could be even bigger. The broader network has amassed more than 55 million views and over 2.2 million likes on TikTok since January, DFRLab found.

The network did not just post disinformation. Ms Juc also offered Ana 200 Moldovan lei ($12, £9) an hour in cash to conduct unofficial polling, interviewing people in Moldova's capital about their preferred candidates in the election.

Before conducting this task, participants were given training on how to subtly sway those being polled.

They were also asked to secretly tape the interviewees who said they supported the pro-Russian opposition.

Ms Juc revealed this was to "prevent the vote from being rigged" suggesting the survey results and the secret recordings would be used, in the event of a PAS victory, as supposed evidence that it won unfairly.

Our evidence also suggests the network our reporter joined is being bank-rolled from Russia. Ana overheard - and filmed - Alina Juc on the phone asking for money from Moscow.

"Listen, can you bring money from Moscow… I just need to give my people their salaries," we filmed her saying.

It was not clear who would be sending her the money, but we have found links between the network and Ilan Shor via NGO Evrazia.

Ilan Shor and Evrazia did not respond to our investigation findings.

The BBC found photos of Ana's handler, Alina Juc, on Evrazia's website - and one of the Telegram groups Ana was added to was called "Evrazia leaders."

The UK Foreign Office says Evrazia operates "in Moldova on behalf of corrupt fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor… to destabilise Moldovan democracy."

We asked Alina Juc to comment on our findings - she did not respond.

TikTok said it had implemented additional safety and security measures ahead of the elections and continued to "aggressively counter deceptive behaviour". Facebook's owner Meta did not respond to our findings.

The Russian embassy in the UK denied involvement in fake news and electoral interference and claimed that it was the EU that had been interfering in Moldova's election.

Additional Reporting: Malvina Cojocari, Andreea Jitaru, Angela Stanciu

Veteran broadcaster John Stapleton has died at the age of 79 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, his agent has said.

The presenter, who featured widely on programmes including the BBC's Watchdog and GMTV's News Hour and began his career at the Oldham Chronicle, died in hospital on Sunday morning.

His condition was complicated by pneumonia, his agent said.

Jackie Gill said "his son Nick and daughter-in-law Lisa have been constantly at his side and John died peacefully in hospital".

A range of tributes have been paid to Stapleton, including form Good Morning Britain presenter Charlotte Hawkins, who described him as a "brilliant broadcaster" and a "genuinely lovely man".

Newsreader Mark Austin said his death was "incredibly sad".

"A good man and top presenter who could turn his hand to anything. Best wishes to his family," he said.

Stapleton revealed his diagnosis in television interviews in October 2024.

Appearing on ITV's Good Morning Britain, he said: "There's no point in being miserable. It won't ever change.

"I mean, Parkinson's is here with me now for the rest of my life. Best I can do is try and control it and take the advice of all the experts."

Stapleton presented BBC's Watchdog with his wife Lynn from 1985 to 1993.

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

Justice Secretary David Lammy has announced 10,000 more prison officers will be given body armour in a bid to improve safety in jails after several high-profile attacks.

Lammy said he was determined to "restore tough law and order" and "ensure prisons are fit for purpose" during a visit to Belmarsh prison in south-east London.

The new equipment is part of a £15m boost in funding, which will also include 500 Tasers for trained staff.

The move comes after three prison officers were taken to hospital after they were allegedly attacked with hot oil and makeshift weapons by Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi at HMP Frankland in April.

Included in the new gear will be protective vests for every prison guard working in high-security facilities.

Lammy said the new investment sent a clear message of support to the country's prison officers.

"Our dedicated prison officers put themselves in harm's way every day to protect us," he said.

"This new investment sends a clear message: we back our staff and we will give them the tools they need to do their jobs safely."

Hashem Abedi has been charged with attempting to murder the HMP Frankland prison officers and is due to appear in court on 25 September.

The three prison officers were taken to hospital with serious injuries following the attack on 11 April.

Lammy told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that it "must be right" to equip prison guards with Tasers and body armour so when they are "faced with these scenes they are able to deal with it".

He added that family members of prison guards were "depending on the state to keep their loved ones safe".

The independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Jonathan Hall KC has been appointed to investigate the alleged attack and make recommendations to improve safety for frontline officers.

Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick welcomed the move, saying "frontline officers have been left exposed for far too long".

"They cannot afford more delays - this equipment needs to reach them immediately," he added.

A secret Russian-funded network is attempting to disrupt upcoming democratic elections in an eastern European state, the BBC has found.

Using an undercover reporter, we discovered the network promised to pay participants if they posted pro-Russian propaganda and fake news undermining Moldova's pro-EU ruling party ahead of the country's 28 September parliamentary ballot.

Participants were paid to find supporters of Moldova's pro-Russia opposition to secretly record - and also to carry out a so-called poll. This was done in the name of a non-existent organisation, making it illegal. The results of this selective sampling, an organiser from the network suggested, could lay the groundwork to question the outcome of the election.

The results of the so-called poll, suggesting the ruling party will lose, have already been published online.

In fact, official polls suggest the ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) founded by President Maia Sandu is currently ahead of the pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc (BEP).

We have found links between the secret network and Moldovan oligarch Ilan Shor - sanctioned by the US for "the Kremlin's malign influence operations" and now a fugitive in Moscow. The UK has also sanctioned him for corruption.

We have also found links between the network and a non-profit organisation (NGO) called Evrazia.

Evrazia has connections to Mr Shor and was sanctioned by the UK, US and EU for allegedly bribing Moldovan citizens to vote against EU membership last year. The referendum on joining passed, but by a very small margin.

"In 2024 the focus of [Ilan Shor's] campaign was money. This year the focus is disinformation," Moldova's chief of police, Viorel Cernauteanu, told the BBC World Service.

We asked Ilan Shor and Evrazia to respond to our investigation findings - they did not provide a response.

• If you're in the UK you can watch the story on Global Eye, BBC 2 at 19:00 BST on Monday 22 September

Moldova may be small, but sandwiched between Ukraine, and EU-member Romania, it has strategic significance for both Europe and the Kremlin, experts say.

The World Service infiltrated the network - co-ordinated on the messaging app Telegram - through a link sent to us by a whistleblower.

This gave us a crucial insight into how an anti-democratic propaganda network operates.

Our undercover reporter Ana, and 34 other recruits, were asked to attend secret online seminars which would "prepare operatives". With titles like "How to go from your kitchen to national leader", they seemed to serve as a vetting process. Ana and the others had to pass regular tests on what they had learned.

Our reporter was then contacted by a network co-ordinator called Alina Juc. Ms Juc's social media profile says she is from Transnistria, a separatist region of eastern Moldova loyal to Moscow, and her Instagram shows she has made multiple trips to Russia over the past few years.

Ms Juc told Ana she would be paid 3,000 Moldovan lei ($170, £125) a month to produce TikTok and Facebook posts in the run-up to the election, and that she would be sent the money from Promsvyazbank (PSB) - a sanctioned Russian state-owned bank which acts as the official bank for the Russian defence ministry, and is a shareholder in one of Ilan Shor's companies.

Ana and the other recruits were trained to produce social media posts using ChatGPT. Content "attracts people if the picture contains some satire… over reality", they were told, but that too much AI should be avoided to ensure posts felt "organic".

Inside the Telegram group, Ana and the BBC had access to previous instructions issued to participants. Initially, they had been asked for patriotic posts about historical figures in Moldovan history - but gradually the demands had become overtly political.

Ana was asked to post unfounded allegations - including that Moldova's current government is planning to falsify the election results, Moldova's potential EU membership is contingent on its citizens becoming LGBTQ+, and that President Sandu is facilitating child trafficking.

Social media campaigns are now frequently central to national elections. We monitored the social media posts supporting Moldova's ruling party PAS, but did not uncover any obvious disinformation campaign.

Throughout our undercover exercise with the network we only shared posts which were factually accurate, and we limited their number.

We wanted to find out who else was in the network, as we had evidence it was made up of multiple groups similar to the one we infiltrated. We looked for patterns of similar activity across other accounts that we could monitor through our Telegram access.

The network, we concluded, is made up of at least 90 TikTok accounts - some masquerading as news outlets - which have posted thousands of videos totalling more than 23 million views and 860,000 likes since January. Moldova's population is just 2.4 million.

We shared our findings with US-based Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), and it told us its analysis shows the network could be even bigger. The broader network has amassed more than 55 million views and over 2.2 million likes on TikTok since January, DFRLab found.

The network did not just post disinformation. Ms Juc also offered Ana 200 Moldovan lei ($12, £9) an hour in cash to conduct unofficial polling, interviewing people in Moldova's capital about their preferred candidates in the election.

Before conducting this task, participants were given training on how to subtly sway those being polled.

They were also asked to secretly tape the interviewees who said they supported the pro-Russian opposition.

Ms Juc revealed this was to "prevent the vote from being rigged" suggesting the survey results and the secret recordings would be used, in the event of a PAS victory, as supposed evidence that it won unfairly.

Our evidence also suggests the network our reporter joined is being bank-rolled from Russia. Ana overheard - and filmed - Alina Juc on the phone asking for money from Moscow.

"Listen, can you bring money from Moscow… I just need to give my people their salaries," we filmed her saying.

It was not clear who would be sending her the money, but we have found links between the network and Ilan Shor via NGO Evrazia.

Ilan Shor and Evrazia did not respond to our investigation findings.

The BBC found photos of Ana's handler, Alina Juc, on Evrazia's website - and one of the Telegram groups Ana was added to was called "Evrazia leaders."

The UK Foreign Office says Evrazia operates "in Moldova on behalf of corrupt fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor… to destabilise Moldovan democracy."

We asked Alina Juc to comment on our findings - she did not respond.

TikTok said it had implemented additional safety and security measures ahead of the elections and continued to "aggressively counter deceptive behaviour". Facebook's owner Meta did not respond to our findings.

The Russian embassy in the UK denied involvement in fake news and electoral interference and claimed that it was the EU that had been interfering in Moldova's election.

Additional Reporting: Malvina Cojocari, Andreea Jitaru, Angela Stanciu