Vice President JD Vance celebrated the 250th anniversary of the US Marine Corps at an event that included a live artillery demonstration.
That demonstration - which took place at Camp Pendleton in Southern California - drew the ire of the state's governor Gavin Newsom, in part because the exercise closed a section of a popular interstate.
"Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn't just wrong — it's dangerous," Newsom, a Democrat who has often disagreed with the Trump administration, said in a statement.
During his remarks, Vance recalled his time in the Marines, railed against what he called a Democrat-caused government shutdown and critiqued previous military diversity initiatives.
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The Marines fired live artillery as part of a demonstration commemorating their 250th anniversary
The demonstration was the largest in a decade in the continental US, the Marines said, and involved fighter jets, Navy vessels, helicopters and live fire from a towed howitzer.
In response to the exercise, Newsom said he closed a section of Interstate 5 in Southern California "due to extreme life safety risk and distraction to drivers, including sudden unexpected and loud explosions".
But officials in the vice-president's office disputed Newsom's remarks that the demonstration was dangerous and accused the California governor of trying to stoke fears.
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"If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead," William Martin, Vance's communications director, told CNN. "It would come as no surprise that he would stoop so low considering his pathetic track record of failure as governor."
Vance, who spoke in front of hundreds of marines, praised his time in the military.
"I would not be here today, I would not be the vice president of the United States, I would not be the man I am today were it not for those four years that I served in the Marine Corps," he said.
Vance spent four years in the Marines and served a tour in Iraq in 2005.
But his remarks largely focused on politics, and in part he attacked "woke" aspects of the military.
"It is our common purpose, it is our common mission and it is the fact that every single person here bleeds Marine Corps green," the vice president said.
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One of the Trump administration's focuses has been eliminating diversity initiatives, particularly within the Pentagon.
Vance also used the stage time to rail against the nearly three-week long government shutdown and put blame on Democrats, particularly Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
"I bring greetings today from our commander in chief, Donald J Trump, and he wanted me to tell each and every single one of you that he's proud of you, that he loves you and that despite the Schumer shutdown, he is going to do everything he can to make sure you get paid exactly as you deserve," he said.
While thousands of federal workers are working without pay, the Defence Department is paying troops.
Doctors have long recommended that infants avoid peanuts. But in 2017, experts officially reversed that guidance, and food allergies decreased sharply.
Bereaved families are calling for a public inquiry into what they say are "repeated failures" by the UK government to protect vulnerable people from a website promoting suicide.
A report by the Molly Rose Foundation says departments were warned 65 times about the online forum, which BBC News is not naming, and others like it but did not act.
The suicide prevention charity says at least 133 people have died in the UK as a result of a toxic chemical promoted by the site and similar forums.
The government has not said whether it will consider an inquiry but said sites must prevent users from accessing illegal suicide and self-harm content or face "robust enforcement, including substantial fines".
Families and survivors have written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer asking him for an inquiry to look into why warnings from coroners and campaigners have been ignored.
David Parfett, whose son Tom took his own life in 2021, told the BBC successive governments had offered sympathy but no accountability.
"The people who host the suicide platforms to spread their cult-like messages that suicide is normal - and earn money from selling death - continue to be several steps ahead of government ministers and law enforcement bodies," he said.
"I can think of no better memorial for my son than knowing people like him are protected from harm while they recover their mental health."
David and six other families are being represented by the law firm Leigh Day who have also written a letter to the prime minister highlighting their concerns about the main suicide forum.
The letter says victims were groomed online, and tended to be in their early 20s, with the youngest known victim being 13.
It argues a public inquiry is needed because coroners' courts cannot institute the changes needed to protect vulnerable people.
'Ignored and dismissed'
According to the report, coroners raised concerns and sent repeated warnings to the Home Office, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, and Department of Health and Social Care on dozens of occasions since 2019, when the forum that has been criticised by the families first emerged.
The report highlighted four main findings:
The Home Office's refusal to tighten regulation of the substance, which remains easily obtainable online, while UK Border Force "struggles to respond to imports" from overseas sellers
The media regulator Ofcom's decision to rely on "voluntary measures" from the main forum's operators rather than taking steps to restrict UK access
Repeated failures by government departments to act on coroners' warnings
Operational shortcomings, including inconsistent police welfare checks and delays in making antidotes available to emergency services
A government spokesperson said that the substance in question "is closely monitored and is reportable under the Poisons Act" meaning retailers should tell the authorities if they suspect it is being bought to cause harm.
But campaigners say the government's response has been fragmented and slow, with officials "passing the parcel" rather than taking co-ordinated action.
Adele Zeynep Walton, whose sister Aimee died in 2022, said families like hers had been "ignored and dismissed".
"She was creative, a very talented artist, gifted musician," she told BBC News.
"Aimee was hardworking and achieved great GCSE results, however she was shy and quiet and struggled to make friends.
"Every time I learn of a new life lost to the website that killed my sister three years ago, I'm infuriated that another family has had to go through this preventable tragedy."
The demand for an inquiry follows concerns raised by the BBC in 2023, when an investigation revealed sites offering instructions and encouragement for suicide and evading regulations.
Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said the state's failure to act had "cost countless lives".
He also accused Ofcom of being "inexplicably slow" to restrict UK access to the main website the Foundation has raised concerns about.
UK users are currently unable to access the forum, which is based in the US. A message on the forum's homepage says it was not blocked to people in the UK as a result of government action but instead because of a "proactive" decision to "protect the platform and its users".
"We operate under the protection of the First Amendment. However, UK authorities have signalled intentions to enforce their domestic laws on foreign platforms, potentially leading to criminal liability or service disruption," the message reads.
In a statement, Ofcom said: "In response to our enforcement action, the online suicide forum put in place a geo-block to restrict access by people with UK IP addresses.
"Services that choose to block access by people in the UK must not encourage or promote ways to avoid these restrictions."
It added the forum remained on its watchlist and a previously-launched investigation into it remained open while it checked the block was being maintained.
If you, or someone you know, has been affected by mental health issues BBC Action Line has put together a list of organisations which can help.
Whatever our job, we all want to impress rather than disappoint.
But ambition can be a very slippery slope. Before you know it, work is coming home with you - seeping into weekends and disrupting time with family and friends.
Experts agree learning to set boundaries is the way to stem the flow.
Career coach Helen Tupper, co-founder of Squiggly Careers, suggests a simple language shift can help reinforce boundaries.
She recommends replacing "I can't" with "I don't".
"I can't" invites negotiation - people might try to convince you that you actually can," she says.
But "I don't" is more definitive and harder to challenge.
For example you can say "I don't go to meetings after 5pm on a Wednesday because I pick my kids up then," she suggests.
Model and TV chef Lorraine Pascale says not doing this ultimately led to her burning out.
Alongside her television career, she opened a patisserie in Covent Garden and published a series of cookbooks, all whilst raising her daughter.
"I just wasn't very good at saying no.
"You don't want to upset people, everyone's feeding stuff in your ear as to what you should be doing. So you just keep going," she told BBC Woman's Hour.
She adds that her perfectionism, including personally approving every recipe in her books, didn't help.
For Lorraine, burnout manifested physically and mentally - including "not wanting to go near" cakes.
"It was like an all-body reaction - a tightness in my chest," she explains. "I was having arguments with myself. A lot of self-blame, a lot of guilt, and a lot of tiredness."
Lorraine, who found success as a model and TV chef before she experienced burnout, pictured in the Woman's Hour studio
Lorraine's experience shows burnout can affect anyone at any level, even if statistics suggest it is more likely to happen to women - in part because of added family responsibilities.
Dr Claire Ashley, author of The Burnout Doctor, says on a practical front, sticking to a firm routine over when you finish work each day allows our brains to complete the "stress cycle" and enjoy time off.
But the real solution is adjusting your goals to your "current capacity".
"Ask yourself whether what you want to achieve is reasonable given your mental and emotional resources at the time," she says.
In Lorraine's case this involved stepping back from cooking and going to therapy. This helped her understand that the toxic elements of her drive to impress stemmed from her childhood in foster care.
She's since begun studying psychology herself and says she is "much better" - gradually getting back into cooking on more "intentional" terms.
Of course, stress and long hours are part of any job.
But stats show an increase in the number of workers reaching breaking point.
Nine out of 10 workers have experienced high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the past year, research suggests.
Feeling stressed or burnt out isn't the same as having clinical burnout - even if we often use the term loosely.
Dr Ashley says exhaustion, detachment, and reduced performance are the three defining symptoms.
Unless we meet all these, we don't yet have diagnosable burnout. But of course this doesn't mean we're not on the way.
'Run your own race'
Tupper, who wrote her book after experiencing burnout herself, says it's important to stop, celebrate and acknowledge your own successes, not just focus on the next thing.
Doing our best to avoid comparisons with colleagues can also help, so we run our own race, Tupper adds.
Of course, not everyone is in a position to push back at work - especially in corporate, or hierarchical job environments.
Dr Richard Duggins, an NHS psychiatrist and the author of Burnout-Free Working, often helps patients who feel they can't assert boundaries.
He encourages workers to talk to their boss regardless of how junior they are.
"Most employers, even the hard-nosed ones, will listen and make adjustments when they understand that preventing burnout benefits everyone."
He says setting boundaries, asking for help, or adjusting workload or flexibility can all help, but in the end if the workplace environment doesn't change then we need to make changes to protect ourselves.
Appreciating our life stages can be help with this, notes Dr Ashley.
"It's okay to say that someone working part-time, or with family responsibilities, may not be able to match the workload of a younger colleague."
As Lorraine puts it: "Ambitious is fine. Being ambitious is a beautiful thing, but just learn to say no more often."
A statue of Matthew Fontaine Maury, a Confederate officer, on display
A massive monument of General Robert E Lee that once sparked riots in the Virginia city of Charlottesville is now a pile of melted-down bronze, artfully displayed in a Los Angeles museum.
Next to the sculpture are barrels of toxic "slag" leftover from the melting process.
Around the corner, there is a massive, graffitied equestrian statue of Lee and Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson – the two most famous Confederate generals in the US Civil War, which the Confederacy lost in 1865 and ultimately led to the end of slavery in the United States.
"They fought for slavery," says curator Hamza Walker, who has been working for eight years to acquire and borrow the massive monuments amid lawsuits and the logistical challenges of moving tens of thousands of pounds of bronze and granite to Los Angeles.
"The idea of lionising those figures. What did they believe? They believed in white supremacy. Period."
Coming at a time when President Donald Trump is ordering statues and paintings of Confederate generals to be reinstalled, the warring narratives of American history are at the heart of "Monuments," which opens 23 October at The Brick and at the Geffen Contemporary at the Museum of Contemporary Art.
The 18 decommissioned Confederate monuments are displayed alongside pieces of contemporary art. The massive, graffitied statue of Lee and Jackson, for example, stands next to a giant replica sculpture of the "General Lee" car from the iconic TV show, The Dukes of Hazzard.
BBC / Regan Morris
Jalane Schmidt, an activist who campaigned for the statue of Lee to be removed from Charlottesville, stands in front of the sculpture the statue has become
President Trump has often spoken of General Lee's bravery and he and others have criticized the removal and toppling of Confederate monuments, saying it's revisionist history.
White nationalists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, triggering deadly clashes, to keep the statue from being removed. In the aftermath, similar statues sparked clashes in cities across the US.
"Under this historical revision, our Nation's unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed," President Trump wrote in a March executive order calling for paintings and monuments to be reinstalled.
But Mr Walker says putting Lee and Jackson on pedestals – even though they lost the war – is racist and promotes the Lost Cause ideology that argues the Civil War was a noble cause for states' rights and not about slavery.
"States rights to do what? The reason for the Civil War was slavery," he said, adding that it perpetuates the idea that the South was a "noble victim", and that slavery wasn't so terrible.
"If you could distance them from slavery, right, then you could portray them as heroes, even though they lost the war and were on the wrong side of history, fighting for something that was morally repugnant," he says.
BBC Keith “Chuck” Tayman
"Unmanned Drone" by artist Kara Walker is the centrepiece of the exhibit
The centrepiece of the show is "Unmanned Drone" – a completely reconstructed sculpture of Stonewall Jackson by artist Kara Walker, who transformed the horse and its rider heading into battle into a headless, zombie-like creature.
"The southern vernacular would be a 'haint', which would be a ghostly form," Kara Walker, who is not related to Hamza Walker, told the BBC when asked how she describes the work. "It's an attempt to rethink the legacies of Stonewall Jackson as a mythology, as mythological holder for white supremacy."
Most of the monuments on display will be returned to the cities and towns they've been borrowed from when the show closes in May. But Kara Walker's sculpture will need to find a new home. And the bronze ingots from the melted down Lee sculpture will be transformed again into a new work of art.
The statue was removed in 2021 and melted in 2023 after the Charlottesville City Council voted to donate the statue to the Jefferson School - African American Heritage Center.
"It's a toxic representation of history, this lost cause narrative, and we're purifying it," says Jalane Schmidt, an activist and professor who was there when the statue came down in Charlottesville, and when it was melted at a secret foundry. She came to see it in its new form in Los Angeles.
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White nationalists marched on Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017
Living in Charlottesville, she said, the statue was always in the background until a teenage girl in 2016 started a petition to rename Lee Park and remove the statue because she found it offensive that the city would celebrate someone who fought for slavery.
The statue was the focal point for the Unite the Right rally in 2017, which turned deadly when a 21-year-old white nationalist plowed his car into counter protesters killing Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old paralegal and civil rights activist.
Schmidt says the petition and the rally changed public opinion about the monuments in Charlottesville and elsewhere.
"Especially after Unite the Right, after we were attacked, well, clearly this was evidence that, you know, people are willing to die for symbols, but they're also willing to kill for them," she said. "We had to remove them just for our own health."
People light up their homes and streets with tiny earthen lamps, called diyas in Hindi
Millions of Indians are celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights, one of Hinduism's most significant and widely observed festivals.
While lamps and firecrackers light up homes and streets during the festival, they also worsen air pollution - a problem especially pronounced in northern India, where winter months already bring poor air quality.
This year, the Supreme Court has permitted the sale and use of "green crackers" in the capital, Delhi, to help curb air pollution, ending a ban on crackers that has been in place since 2020.
"Green crackers" claim to emit 20–30% less pollution than traditional firecrackers, but critics doubt their actual effectiveness in protecting the environment.
In recent years, several states have restricted or banned firecrackers to combat rising air pollution, but the rules are often flouted, further worsening air quality in the days after Diwali.
Getty Images
Authorities have been cracking down on traditional firecrackers as pollution levels rise
Reuters
Fireworks light up the streets and sky as people celebrate Diwali
Getty Images
Food plays a central role in the celebrations
But Diwali is about much more than fireworks. Food plays a central role in the celebrations.
Families prepare a variety of traditional Indian sweets which are shared with friends and neighbours. Festive meals often include rich curries, savoury snacks, and special breads.
In the days leading up to the festival, people clean and decorate their homes, shop for new clothes, and buy traditional sweets to exchange as gifts with friends and family.
Many also create traditional and colourful rangoli designs outside their doors to invite luck and positivity. On Diwali itself, families worship Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth.
Diwali's appeal goes beyond religion, drawing people from different communities and faiths to join in the celebrations.
Across India's cities and towns, markets bustle with shoppers buying sweets, gifts, decorations, and firecrackers, giving a significant boost to the economy each year.
Debarchan Chatterjee/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Markets bustle with shoppers buying gifts and decorations, giving a significant boost to the economy
Getty Images
People decorate their homes with colourful paper lanterns to celebrate the festival
Getty Images
The festival unites communities as people of all faiths join in festivities
Getty Images
A building in Mumbai city lit up with paper laterns hung outside houses
As the New York City mayoral campaign enters its final weeks, the candidates appeared at a forum at Queens College and at a soccer tournament in Coney Island.
Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani’s campaign hosted a soccer tournament at Maimonides Park in Brooklyn, where teams from different boroughs competed in color-coded jerseys.
People light up their homes and streets with tiny earthen lamps, called diyas in Hindi
Millions of Indians are celebrating Diwali, the festival of lights, one of Hinduism's most significant and widely observed festivals.
While lamps and firecrackers light up homes and streets during the festival, they also worsen air pollution - a problem especially pronounced in northern India, where winter months already bring poor air quality.
This year, the Supreme Court has permitted the sale and use of "green crackers" in the capital, Delhi, to help curb air pollution, ending a ban on crackers that has been in place since 2020.
"Green crackers" claim to emit 20–30% less pollution than traditional firecrackers, but critics doubt their actual effectiveness in protecting the environment.
In recent years, several states have restricted or banned firecrackers to combat rising air pollution, but the rules are often flouted, further worsening air quality in the days after Diwali.
Getty Images
Authorities have been cracking down on traditional firecrackers as pollution levels rise
Reuters
Fireworks light up the streets and sky as people celebrate Diwali
Getty Images
Food plays a central role in the celebrations
But Diwali is about much more than fireworks. Food plays a central role in the celebrations.
Families prepare a variety of traditional Indian sweets which are shared with friends and neighbours. Festive meals often include rich curries, savoury snacks, and special breads.
In the days leading up to the festival, people clean and decorate their homes, shop for new clothes, and buy traditional sweets to exchange as gifts with friends and family.
Many also create traditional and colourful rangoli designs outside their doors to invite luck and positivity. On Diwali itself, families worship Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth.
Diwali's appeal goes beyond religion, drawing people from different communities and faiths to join in the celebrations.
Across India's cities and towns, markets bustle with shoppers buying sweets, gifts, decorations, and firecrackers, giving a significant boost to the economy each year.
Debarchan Chatterjee/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Markets bustle with shoppers buying gifts and decorations, giving a significant boost to the economy
Getty Images
People decorate their homes with colourful paper lanterns to celebrate the festival
Getty Images
The festival unites communities as people of all faiths join in festivities
Getty Images
A building in Mumbai city lit up with paper laterns hung outside houses
A cargo plane has skidded off a runway at Hong Kong International Airport and landed in the sea, killing at least one person, local media have reported.
The Emirates flight, operating as Aerotranscargo, was arriving from Dubai just before 04:00 local time when it hit a vehicle on the north runway, local media reports.
Four crew members on board have been rescued and taken to hospital, but two ground staff "fell into the sea", a statement from the Civil Aviation department says. Their condition is unclear.
The affected runway is closed, but the airport's other two runways are still in operation.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
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Cate Blanchett has teamed up with Kew's Millennium Seed Bank
She's a Hollywood A-lister, with a mantelpiece groaning under the weight of awards. But Cate Blanchett has taken an unexpected diversion from her day job - to immerse herself in the world of the humble seed.
Her eyes light up as she enthuses about the banksia species from her native Australia.
"It's quite a brutal looking seed pod that only releases its seed in extremely high temperatures," she tells us.
"It does look like a cross between a mallet and a toilet brush. So they're not always pretty, but yet what comes out of them is so spectacular."
RBG Kew
Australia's banksia seed pods explode open after being exposed to fire
We meet her at Kew's Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) at Wakehurst botanic garden in Sussex. She lives locally and teamed up with the project as it celebrates its 25th anniversary.
"Really, I stumbled upon Wakehurst. I was just in awe of the landscape and I always feel regenerated by being in the natural world," she says.
"And then I discovered the seed bank, and I literally had my mind blown by the work that goes on here… and I thought, anything I can do to be connected to it - I found it so inspiring."
The MSB is home to more than 2.5 billion seeds collected from 40,000 wild plant species around the world.
The seeds, which come in every shape, size and colour, are carefully processed, dried and then stored in freezers at a chilly -20C.
RBG Kew
Cate Blanchett and a team from Kew met The King to talk about the seed bank
The conservation project was opened by The King - then the Prince of Wales - in 2000. He's taken part in a special episode of a Kew podcast about the project called Unearthed: The Need For Seeds with Cate Blanchett.
In the recording he talks about his concerns that many plant species are being lost.
"I know how absolutely critical it all is, and the destruction of rainforests, the extinction of endless species, which have very likely remarkable properties," he tells the podcast.
When the seed bank first opened, it was seen as a doomsday vault - a back-up store of seeds to safeguard wild plants from extinction.
But 25 years on, the collection is being used for a different purpose: to restore environments that are under threat.
Tony Jolliffe/BBC News
The MSB has more than 2.5bn seeds - including these blue Ravenala agathea seeds
"We want those seeds to be back out in the landscape," explained Dr Elinor Breman from the MSB, who's been showing Cate Blanchett the team's work.
"We're just providing a safe space for them until we can get them back out into a habitat where they can thrive and survive."
This includes projects like one taking place on the South Downs. A special mix of seeds from the MSB are being sewn to help restore the rare chalk grasslands there.
And this restoration work is being repeated around the world.
"We've been to every kind of habitat, from sea level to about 5,000m, and from pole to pole - literally," explained Dr Breman.
"And we're involved in restoring tropical forest, dry deciduous forest, grassland, steppe - you name it - we're trying to help people put those plants back in place."
Kevin Church/BBC News
Seeds from the seedbank are being used on the South Downs in Sussex
The seed bank also helped to restore plants after intense wildfires swept across Australia in 2019. Cate Blanchett says this meant a lot to her.
"There are almost 9,000 species of Australian plant that are stored [at the MSB]. And we know that bushfires are getting increasingly more intense. And it's sad to say - but knowing that insurance policy exists, is of great solace to me."
Working as an ambassador for Wakehurst has meant that the actor has had a chance to get hands on with the seeds.
"Have I got dirt under my fingernails? Well, I'm trying to turn my brown thumbs green," she laughs.
"You know, living in Sussex, you can't not but become a passionate gardener. So I've had a lot of questions about how one stores seeds as a lay person, and I've learned a lot about that. My seed management has definitely, definitely improved."
And after spending so much time with the researchers at the MSB, is she at all tempted to swap the film set for the lab?
"I wish I had the skill - maybe I could play a scientist," she laughs.
Cate Blanchett describes the seed bank as the UK's best kept secret - and believes that over the next 25 years its work will continue to grow in importance.
"You often think, where are the good news stories? And we're actually sitting inside one," she tells us.
"You come here, you visit the seed bank, you walk through such a biodiverse landscape, and you leave uplifted. You know change is possible and it's happening."
Tel Aviv derby called off by police after 'violent riots'
Image source, Israel police
Image caption,
Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv was filled with smoke before the scheduled kick-off
Published
The Israeli Premier League derby between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv was cancelled before kick-off on Sunday, after what police described as "public disorder and violent riots".
"Dozens of smoke grenades and pyrotechnic devices were thrown," Israeli police posted on X, adding "this is not a football game, this is disorder and serious violence".
Twelve civilians and three officers were injured, police said, while nine people were arrested and 16 detained for questioning.
The unrest comes just days after officials in the UK said that Maccabi Tel Aviv fans should not be allowed to attend the Europa League match at Aston Villa in England next month because of safety concerns.
Hapoel Tel Aviv criticised the derby cancellation, accusing Israeli police of "preparing for a war, not a sporting event", including during discussions in the lead-up to the highly-anticipated match.
"The shocking events outside the stadium and following the reckless and scandalous decision not to hold the match only demonstrate that the Israel Police has taken control of the sport," Hapoel Tel Aviv said in a statement on X, external.
Maccabi Tel Aviv has not yet commented, except to confirm the match was cancelled.
The decision by Birmingham's Safety Advisory Group (SAG) to ban Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from the Aston Villa match on 6 November has sparked widespread criticism.
The UK government has since said it is working to overturn the ban and exploring what additional resources might be required to ensure the fixture can be hosted safely.
Villa told their matchday stewards that they did not have to work at the game, saying they understood that some "may have concerns".
On Thursday, West Midlands Police said it supported the ban and classified the fixture as "high risk" based on intelligence and previous incidents.
There have been protests at various sporting events over the war in Gaza, including when Israel played Norway and Italy in recent football World Cup qualifiers.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is investigating claims Russian hackers stole hundreds of sensitive military documents and published them on the dark web.
The Mail on Sunday first reported the files on the dark web - an area of internet that can only be accessed through particular software - hold details of eight RAF and Royal Navy bases as well as MoD staff names and emails.
Maintenance and construction contractor Dodd Group confirmed it suffered a ransomware incident and it was taking the claims "extremely seriously".
The MoD said in a statement it was "actively investigating the claims that information relating to the MoD has been published on the dark web".
"To safeguard sensitive operational information, we will not comment any further on the details," it added in a statement.
The Mail on Sunday reported the documents hold information about a number of sensitive RAF and Navy bases, including RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk, where the US Air Force's F-35 jets are based.
A Dodd Group spokesperson said: "We can confirm that the Dodd Group recently experienced a ransomware incident whereby an unauthorised third-party gained temporary access to part of our internal systems.
"We took immediate steps to contain the incident, swiftly secure our systems and engaged a specialist IT forensic firm to investigate what happened.
"We are taking these claims extremely seriously and are working hard to validate this."
The hacks follow a series of high-profile data breaches at the MoD.
Several papers lead with the Metropolitan Police's investigation into media reports that Prince Andrew allegedly used his police protection to try to obtain personal information about his accuser Virginia Giuffre. It allegedly occurred just before the Mail published a photo of the pair's first meeting in February 2011, in what the Sun describes as an order to "dig dirt". Prince Andrew has not commented on the reports, but consistently denies all allegations against him. On Friday, he announced he would give up his royal titles, including the Duke of York.
The Daily Mail leads with details on King Charles III's "threat" to strip Prince Andrew of his royal titles. The paper cites anonymous sources who say the prince tried to "dig his heels in", despite "the growing tsunami of evidence" about his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. It prompted the King to threaten "further action" unless his brother "saw sense", the paper reports.
The Daily Mirror also leads on the claims that Andrew tried to "dig up dirt" on Giuffre, declaring it the "scandal with no end". The paper also contains details about the King's intervention, quoting a source who said: "The scandal has engulfed the family for too long, forcing the King to banish him."
Calls for Prince Andrew to lose his title lead the Metro, including "by the family of Virginia Giuffre". The paper's headline, "And when he was down, he was down", alludes to the nursery rhyme "The Grand Old Duke of York".
The Times also leads with the Metropolitan Police investigation into Prince Andrew's "bid for police to investigate his accuser". The newspaper also reports that "Russian spies and hard-left humanitarian groups are working with people smugglers to flood Europe with illegal migrants", citing remarks from Bulgaria's interior minister.
The i Paper leads with reports on the tensions in Gaza, saying the ceasefire is "in peril". It reports the "fragile sense of calm" was disrupted by a "wave of air strikes" by Israel's military. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) "claims it bombed "terror targets" in response to an alleged attack on Israeli soldiers in Rafah", in southern Gaza, the paper says. The IDF and Hamas "blame each other for breaching ceasefires", according to the paper.
"Scramble to shore up ceasefire as Israel hits Gaza with deadly raids", reads the headline on the front page of the Guardian. Two IDF soldiers were killed in a Hamas attack and dozens of Palestinians were killed in "retaliatory strikes", the paper reports. The heist at the Louvre in Paris also features on the front page. It reports on the French police's investigation into the brazen seven-minute theft at the museum, which closed on Sunday. The paper says one of the pieces of jewellery stolen was a necklace Napoleon had given to his wife.
A "fractious" White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky leads the Financial Times. The paper reports the meeting between the two leaders "descended many times into a "shouting match", citing "people familiar with the matter". The paper says Trump urged Zelensky to "surrender the entire Donbas region" to Russia.
The Daily Telegraph also leads with the Trump-Zelensky White House meeting. It says Trump had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly before hosting Zelensky. It describes "shouting and swearing" during the Trump-Zelensky meeting, adding: "Mr Trump threw aside Ukrainian maps of the battlefield."
The Daily Express leads with an exclusive story, reporting the mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan "read reports of young girls being raped in hotels by groups of men while publicly denying there were any grooming gangs in the capital". It quotes whistleblower Maggie Oliver, who told the paper "the cases followed 'the same pattern' she had seen with Greater Manchester Police's cover-up of the Rochdale scandal", where a group of seven men were found guilty of sexually exploiting two teenage girls over five years. "The mayor and the Metropolitan Police have consistently claimed to have 'no reports' of Rochdale or Rotherham-style rape gangs in the capital", the paper reports.
The Daily Star leads with the British Film Institute (BFI) adding the "lettuce livestream" to its national archive, marking three years since Liz Truss resigned as prime minister. The livestream featured a "plucky 60p Tesco iceberg", which was "livestreamed to see if it would outlast Truss's time in No 10 in 2022".
There is an eerie emptiness at the seat of US economic power.
The US Treasury is in shutdown like much of the federal government.
Most staff are furloughed as the world's finance ministers and bankers jet in for the International Monetary Fund annual meetings a few blocks away, their delayed flights handled by a small number of unpaid air traffic controllers.
There is, however, one clear message the Trump administration is notably keen to get out, not so much for its domestic audience but for the bewildered world outside.
And they delivered it in the middle of last week to a small number of people ushered into the Treasury and what is said to be the finest room in Washington DC, the ornate and marbled Cash Room, which hosted the inaugural reception for post-civil war president, Ulysses Grant.
"Make no mistake," said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent alongside Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer, as they fired the latest salvo in the ongoing 2025 global trade war. "This is China versus the world."
This simple message connects several extraordinary economic currents swirling around the world right now.
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Scott Bessent and Jamieson Greer deliver their message to reporters in US Treasury Cash Room
They include China's new export controls on critical minerals, fears of an AI bubble bursting, the tariff chaos and even the development of an erotic chatbot by OpenAI.
The world always seems to tilt a little on its axis in the two weeks a year that top bankers and finance ministers mass in Washington DC for their meetings at the IMF.
It is rare that the host itself is the main source of upheaval. Normally it would be a developing country, or perhaps the eurozone in the 2010s and infamously the UK in 2022.
The decisions and uncertainty arising from US trade policy, dizzying markets and decisions over its interest rates, loom large.
The inescapable signal being sent by the two most powerful US trade negotiators as they spoke to a small group of media in the Treasury's Cash Room was that China last week fired perhaps its most potent weapon yet by dramatically increasing restrictions on the trade of rare earth components.
These are critical to the production of high-tech goods ranging from electric cars to military hardware.
Bessent called the move a "Chinese chokehold" on the world.
China's "sweeping expansion" of export controls on rare earth elements and equipment, as well as electric vehicle battery tech, industrial diamonds and super hard materials is "an exercise in economic coercion on every country in the world", said Greer.
This accusation is being made as his own boss, President Donald Trump, attempts to redraw global trade relations by using tariffs to eliminate US trade deficits.
He may have produced what is the toughest tariffs system the world has seen since 1933 but the disruption it has caused has been surprisingly muted so far.
The biggest economy on the planet is now behind a significant tariff wall but it's yet to feel the impact, partly thanks to a wealth boom built on some rather frothy tech valuations.
The conclusion to take from that is either the world economy is more shock absorbent than thought or it is just a matter of timing, with the real pain ahead.
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A cargo ship sails into the port of Qingdao in China
Companies exporting to the US have swallowed the cost of tariffs, which are effectively import taxes, in their profit margins. But is that only for the time being?
The wall of tariffs that the US has built around its economy has led to more trade, for example, from China to Europe and Africa.
The US itself has been protected, for now, from the profound uncertainties, higher prices and domestic living standards impacts of the tariffs and the 10% fall in the value of the dollar.
Some insulation has come from booming AI tech sector share valuations, creating a profound wealth effect in certain households across the US, calculated by JP Morgan economists as worth $180bn per year.
The thin line between boom and bubble is impossible to calculate. Sometimes, it can be felt.
I was standing outside the Nasdaq in New York's Times Square, where the high tech market which symbolises US private sector tech ascendancy publicises its latest IPOs (stock launches) to the world.
One of the dozens of funds which raises real cash to plough into crypto, joyously "rang the opening bell", despite their share price already having slumped.
The executives then filed out into the Square to watch a giant video of themselves ringing the bell, among confused tourists. In fact, inside the Nasdaq, there is no bell, or trading floor either, just a bank of futuristic screens. Is it just hubris?
Another screen reminds us it is the 20th anniversary of the Nasdaq flotation of another tech company which went public here, now worth $3tn, Google.
This week, OpenAI's Sam Altman revealed that ChatGPT was developing chatbot erotica options.
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Onlookers outside Nasdaq in Times Square watch the "opening bell"
This comes at a time when analysts are taking a hard look at firms like Altman's which have emerged at the front of the pack in the AI race.
A raft of convoluted deals where major US firms including chipmakers are investing in their own suppliers and vice versa has raised eyebrows further about the potential that the billions being poured into data centres, AI start-ups and cutting-edge manufacturing plants could be fuelling an ever-growing bubble.
So are the Chinese trying to weaponise these fears that it's all about to burst?
This is what Jamieson Greer seemed to suggest when he said the Chinese export controls on minerals critical to many important semiconductors gives Beijing control over the entire global economy and the technology supply chain which powers the very firms that could be keeping the US economy afloat.
"This will impact artificial intelligence systems and high tech products," he said.
Bessent also joined in, saying US media reports that China was playing hardball and was prepared to use financial markets to hurt the US was like "taking dictation" from the Chinese communist party. He went on, unusually, to accuse a named Chinese negotiator of going rogue.
None of this seems like a game of chess.
This is not carefully considered maestros thinking out their strategies, six moves ahead of time. This is more like playing pool by smashing the balls indiscriminately around the table, and then attempting to break the cue, or the table, or both.
Tariffs, counter-tariffs and export controls amount to mutually assured destruction manoeuvres which are cloaked behind the general assumption that President Trump will always pull back from the brink. The more that is baked in, the higher the risk of a shock.
In this situation, it is sensible game theory to look for allies.
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A meeting at the US Treasury Cash Room in 2023
The China moves would affect the whole world, including Europe. UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves and other leading European finance ministers told me they would work with global partners to ensure the supply of these rare earth materials.
Reeves pointed to work with Canada especially on developing alternative supply chains. The US is now reopening mines, and refining facilities. Chinese dominance here is decades in the making, however.
At times like this, it is also fair to say there is some divergence between the public words of diplomacy and what is being said in private.
There was frustration and bafflement behind the scenes directed at the US for having liberally sprayed tariffs in all directions while asking the world to focus on China's trade distortions.
"It's hard to tell friend from foe," said one G20 finance minister.
"The Americans are basically trying to corral the rest of the world against China, using everything as leverage against China," one senior G7 official told me.
This climate of suspicion breeds uncertainty and the world's smaller central banks are ploughing their money into the so-called safe haven of gold for a reason, sending it to new records.
Back at the US Treasury Cash Room, where there is a lot of gold detail in the seven types of marble, there is another telling statement from US Treasury Secretary Bessent.
He sees the US going through a 1990s-style high-tech productivity boom. "That's the most analogous period to what we're seeing now."
In the coming weeks he will help choose the new chair of the US Federal Reserve in the mould of 1990s Alan Greenspan, who famously accommodated the run-up of the dotcom boom with low interest rates, considered by some to have contributed to the financial crash. Bessent has been rereading Greenspan's biography Maestro.
But in the 1990s the world's second biggest economy was not taking steps to interrupt the new tech supply chain and there was not a constantly rolling threat of more tariffs from China and the US.
These are centrifugal forces shaping the uneasy calm in the world economy.
The Road Runner moment has happened. Like the cartoon character, having headed off the edge of a cliff, global trade is defying gravity momentarily but the running has kept going, and even sped up.
The world's finance ministers on their field trip to Washington have had to assume the world economy will muddle through this.
China's top leaders are gathering in Beijing this week to decide on the country's key goals and aspirations for the rest of the decade.
Every year or so, the country's highest political body, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, convenes for a week of meetings, also known as a Plenum.
What it decides at this one will eventually form the basis of China's next Five Year Plan - the blueprint that the world's second largest economy will follow between 2026 and 2030.
The full plan won't come until next year, but officials are likely to hint at its contents on Wednesday and have previously given more details within a week of that.
"Western policy works on election cycles, but Chinese policy making operates on planning cycles," says Neil Thomas, a fellow in Chinese politics at the Asia Society Policy Institute.
"Five Year Plans spell out what China wants to achieve, signal the direction the leadership wants to go in and move the resources of the state towards these predefined conclusions," he adds.
On the surface, the idea of hundreds of suited bureaucrats shaking hands and drawing up plans may appear drab - but history tells us that what they decide often has huge repercussions for the world.
Here are three times China's Five Year Plan reshaped the global economy.
1981-84: "Reform and Opening Up"
Pinpointing exactly when China began its journey to become an economic powerhouse is difficult, but many in the Party like to say it was on 18 December 1978.
For nearly three decades, China's economy had been rigidly controlled by the state. But Soviet-style central planning had failed to lift prosperity and many were still struggling in poverty.
The country was still recovering from Mao Zedong'sdevastating rule. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution - campaigns led by Communist China's founder to reshape the nation's economy and society - resulted in millions of deaths.
Speaking at the 11th Committee's Third Plenum in Beijing, the country's new leader Deng Xiaoping declared that it was time to embrace some elements of the free market.
His policy of "reform and opening up" became integral to the next Five Year Plan, which began in 1981.
The creation of free trading Special Economic Zones - and the foreign investment they attracted - transformed the lives of people in China.
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Deng Xiaoping's opening up of China's economy included a landmark agreement with US President Jimmy Carter in 1979
According to Mr Thomas, the aims of that Five Year Plan could not have been achieved more emphatically.
"China today is beyond the wildest dreams of people in the 1970s," he says. "In terms of restoring national pride as well as establishing its place amongst the great powers of the world," he says.
But it also fundamentally reshaped the global economy. By the 21st Century, millions of western manufacturing jobs had been outsourced to new factories in China's coastal regions.
Economists have called this "the China shock" and it's been one of the driving forces behind the rise of populist parties in former industrial parts of Europe and the United States.
For example, Donald Trump's economic policies - his tariffs and trade wars - are designed to bring back the American manufacturing jobs lost to China over the previous few decades.
2011-15: "Strategic emerging industries"
China's status as the workshop of the world was cemented once it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. But at the turn of the century, the Communist Party leadership was already planning its next move.
It was wary of China falling into the so-called "middle income trap". This happens when an upwardly mobile country can't offer ultra-low wages anymore, but at the same time doesn't have the innovative capacity to create the high-end goods and services of an advanced economy.
So instead of just cheap manufacturing, China needed to find what it called "strategic emerging industries" - a term first officially used in 2010. For China's leaders, this meant green technology, such as electric vehicles (EVs) and solar panels.
As climate change became increasingly important in Western politics, China mobilised an unprecedented amount of resources into these new industries.
Today, China is not only the undisputed world leader in renewables and EVs, it also has a near monopoly over the rare earth supply chains needed to build them.
China's stranglehold on these key resources - which are also crucial to chip-making and artificial intelligence (AI) - now puts it in a powerful position globally.
So much so that Beijing's recent move to tighten export controls on rare earths was labelled by Trump as an attempt to "hold the world captive".
Although "strategic emerging forces" was enshrined in the next Five Year Plan in 2011, green technology had been identified as a potential engine of growth and geopolitical power by China's then leader Hu Jintao in the early 2000s.
"This desire for China to be more self-reliant in its economy, in its technology, in its freedom of action, goes back a long way - it is part of the fibre of Chinese Communist Party ideology," explains Neil Thomas.
2021-2025: "High quality development"
This may explain why China's Five Year Plans more recently have turned their attention to "high quality development", formally introduced by Xi Jinping in 2017.
This means challenging American dominance in technology and putting China at the forefront of the sector.
Domestic success stories such as the video sharing app TikTok, telecommunications giant Huawei and even DeepSeek, the AI model, are all testament to China's technological boom this century.
But western countries increasingly see this as a threat to their national security. The subsequent bans or attempted bans on popular Chinese technology have affected millions of internet users around the world and have sparked bitter diplomatic rows.
Grigory Sysoev/RIA Novosti/Pool/Anadolu via Getty Images
Under Xi, China's Five Year Plans have focused on "high quality development"
Until now, China has powered its tech success using American innovation, such as Nvidia's advanced semiconductors.
Given their sale to China has now been blocked by Washington, expect "high quality development" to morph into "new quality productive forces" - a fresh slogan introduced by Xi in 2023, which tilts the focus more towards domestic pride and national security.
This means putting China at the cutting edge of chip-making, computing and AI - not reliant on Western technology and immune to embargoes.
Self-sufficiency in all areas, especially at the very top end of innovation, is likely to be one of the central tenets of the next Five Year Plan.
"National security and technological independence are now the defining mission of China's economic policy," Mr Thomas explains.
"Again, it goes back to that nationalist project that underpins communism in China, to ensure it never again is dominated by foreign countries".
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