Out of a single room, with no DNA testing facilities or cold storage units of its own, the forensics team at Gaza's Nasser hospital face the challenges brought by peace.

Over the past eleven days, 195 bodies have been returned to Gaza by Israeli authorities, in exchange for the bodies of 13 Israeli hostages, under the terms of Donald Trump's ceasefire deal.

Photographs released by Gaza's medical authorities show some of the bodies badly decomposed, and arriving in civilian clothes or naked except for underwear, some with multiple signs of injury. Many have their wrists tied behind their backs, and doctors say some bodies arrived blindfolded or with cloth roped around their necks.

The forensic team at Nasser hospital are working with almost no resources to answer vast questions about torture, mistreatment and identity.

The head of the unit, Dr Ahmed Dheir, said one of their biggest limitations is a lack of cold storage space. The bodies arrive in Gaza thoroughly frozen and can take several days to thaw out, ruling out even basic identification methods like dental history, let alone any deeper investigation or post-mortem (autopsy).

"The situation is extremely challenging," he said. "If we wait for the bodies to thaw, rapid decomposition begins almost immediately, putting us in an impossible position [because] we lose the ability to examine the remains properly. So the most viable method is to take samples and document the state of the bodies as they are."

The BBC has viewed dozens of photographs of the bodies, many of them shared by Gaza's health authorities, others taken by colleagues on the ground.

We spoke to several of those involved in examining the bodies in Gaza, as well as families of the missing, human rights groups, and Israeli military and prison authorities.

We also spoke to three forensic experts outside the region, including one specialising in torture, to educate ourselves about the medical processes involved in this kind of investigation – all agreed that there were questions that were difficult to answer without post-mortems.

Dr Alaa al-Astal, one of the forensic team at Nasser hospital, said some of the bodies arriving there showed "signs of torture", such as bruises and marks from binding on the wrists and ankles.

"There were extremely horrific cases, where the restraint was so tight that blood circulation to the hands was cut off, leading to tissue damage and clear signs of pressure around the wrists and ankles," he said.

"Even around the eyes, when the blindfolds were removed, you could see deep grooves - imagine how much force that took. The pressure left actual marks where the blindfold had been tied."

Dr Astal also mentioned the loose cloths tied around the necks of some bodies as needing further investigation.

"In one case, there was a groove around the neck," he said. "To determine whether the death was due to hanging or strangulation, we needed to perform a post-mortem, but because the body was frozen, it was not dissected."

Sameh Yassin Hamad, a member of the Hamas-run government committee responsible for receiving the bodies, said there were signs of bruising and blood infiltration indicating that the bodies had been severely beaten before death. He also said there were stab wounds on the chest of face of some of them.

Some of the images we saw from the unit clearly show deep indentations or tightly-fastened cable-ties on the wrists and arms and ankles. One photograph appears to show the bruising and abrasion that would confirm that ties had been used while the person was still alive.

Other bodies showed only deep indentation marks, meaning a post-mortem would be needed to determine whether the ties had been used before or after death. Cable-ties are sometimes used when transporting bodies in Israel.

When we asked Israel's military about the evidence we gathered, it said it operates strictly in accordance with international law.

We showed the photographs we were given to the outside forensic experts. The images represent a fraction of the bodies transferred to Gaza by the Red Cross.

All three experts said that some of the markings raised questions about what had happened, but that it was difficult to reach concrete conclusions about abuse or torture without post-mortems.

"What is happening in Gaza is an international forensic emergency," said Michael Pollanen, a forensic pathologist and professor at the University of Toronto. "Based upon images like this, there is an imperative for complete medical autopsies. We need to know the truth behind how deaths occurred, and the only way to know the truth is to do autopsies."

But even with limited forensic data, doctors at Nasser hospital say the routine cuffing of wrists behind the body rather than in front, along with the marks observed on the limbs, points to torture.

"When a person is naked, with their hands tied behind their back, and visible restraint marks on their wrists and ankles, it indicates that they died in that position," Dr Dheir told us. "This is a violation of international law."

And there is strong evidence to suggest widespread abuse of detainees - including civilians - in Israeli custody in the months after the war began in October 2023, particularly in the military facility of Sde Teiman.

"At least in the first eight months of the war, the detainees from Gaza were cuffed behind their backs, and had their eyes covered, 24 hrs, 7 days a week, for months," said Naji Abbas, head of the Prisoners and Detainees Programme at the Israeli human rights organisation, Physicians for Human Rights (PHRI).

"We know that people developed serious infections on their skin, hands and legs because of the cuffs."

We have spoken to several people who worked at Sde Teiman over the past two years, who confirm that detainees were cuffed hand and foot – even while undergoing medical treatments, including surgery.

One medic who worked there said he had campaigned to loosen the cuffs, and that the treatment of detainees there was "dehumanisation".

But many of those detained during the Gaza war are held as unlawful combatants, without charge.

One complication for doctors at Nasser Hospital now is determining which of the returned bodies are Hamas fighters killed in combat, which are civilians and which are detainees who died in Israeli custody.

Some of the bodies returned by Israel are still wearing Hamas headbands or military boots, but doctors say most are either naked or in civilian clothing, making it difficult to distinguish their role, interpret their injuries, and assess human rights violations.

Photographs seen by the BBC show mostly naked or decomposed bodies. One dressed in civilian clothing and trainers has what officials say are two small bullet wounds in his back.

Sameh Yassin Hamad, from Gaza's Forensics Committee, said that Israel had sent back identification with only six of the 195 bodies it had returned – and that five of those names turned out to be wrong.

"Since these bodies were held by the Israeli authorities, they will have full data about them," said Dr Dheir. "But they haven't shared that information with us through the Red Cross. We were sent DNA profiles for around half the total number of dead, but have not received any details about the dates or circumstances of death, or the time or place of detention."

We asked Israel's army about the details in this report, including striking allegations by Gaza's forensic team that Israel had removed single fingers and toes from the bodies for DNA testing.

Israel's military said "all bodies returned so far are combatants within the Gaza Strip." It denied tying any bodies prior to their release.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Shosh Bedrosian, on Wednesday described the reports from Gaza as "just more efforts to demonise Israel" and suggested the media focus instead on the experience of Israeli hostages.

As families of those missing gather at the hospital gates, Dr Dheir and his staff are under intense pressure to identify the dead and provide answers about what happened to them.

So far, only some 50 bodies have been positively identified – mostly through basic details like height, age and obvious previous injuries. Another 54 have been buried, unidentified and unclaimed, because of intense pressure on space at the unit.

Many families of the missing attended the burial of the unnamed dead this week, just in case one of them was theirs.

"Honestly, it's hard to bury a body when you don't know whether it's the right one or not," said Rami al-Faraa, still searching for his cousin.

"If there was [DNA] testing, we'd know where he is – yes or no," said Houwaida Hamad, searching for her nephew. "My sister would know if the one we're burying is really her son or not."

Donald Trump's ceasefire deal has brought some relief for Gaza, but little closure for the families of most of those missing, left burying a body in place of a brother, husband or son.

Four servicewomen have launched a landmark class action lawsuit against the Australian military alleging sexual abuse, harassment and discrimination.

Lawyers said they expected thousands of women to join the case against the Australian Defence Force (ADF), which was filed in the Federal Court on Friday.

Claims by the four women leading the lawsuit - whose names are withheld for legal reasons - include being forcibly pinned to a wall before being groped, and waking up naked and bruised after a party with male officers.

An ADF spokesperson said it was developing a sexual misconduct prevention strategy and there was "no place for sexual violence" in the army.

All women who served between 12 November 2003 and 25 May 2025 are eligible to join the suit, lodged by law firm JGA Saddler.

One of the lead applicants was a member of the air force who was one of two women in a building of about 200 people.

She alleged she was subject to hostile and sexist comments, inappropriate conversations, as well as being shown unsolicited pornographic photos.

She also alleged her sergeant told her "women shouldn't be paid as much as men because they are not as strong".

Another of the four applicants, who joined the navy, said she was subject to lewd comments throughout her training and unwanted touching.

She also alleged that while on duty abroad she was grabbed and kissed by her a colleague who resisted her attempts to get away.

A major report into suicide among Australian veterans last year found that about 800 reports of sexual assault were made within the ADF between 2019 and 2024.

It noted that there was an estimated under-reporting rate for sexual assault of 60% in the ADF and that that was "only a subset of all forms of sexual misconduct that occur".

"The threat of war often isn't the biggest safety fear for female ADF personnel, it is the threat of sexual violence in their workplace," said lawyer Josh Aylward from JGA Saddler.

"They have signed up to defend their country, not to fight off fellow ADF personnel on a daily basis, all while simply trying to do their job."

An ADF spokesperson acknowledged there was "work to be done" and added that "all defence personnel have a right to be respected and deserve to have a positive workplace experience in the ADF".

Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance, has been pardoned by US President Donald Trump.

Mr Zhao, also known as "CZ", was sentenced to four months in prison in April 2024 after pleading guilty to violating US money laundering laws.

Binance was ordered to pay $4.3bn (£3.4bn) after a US investigation found it helped users bypass sanctions.

A White House official confirmed to the BBC Mr Zhao has been pardoned, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Binance has been approached for comment.

The exchange, which is registered in the Cayman Islands, remains the world's most popular platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

According to the WSJ, the company has spent nearly a year pursuing a pardon for its former boss, who completed his four month prison sentence in September 2024.

The move comes amid the Trump administration's adoption of a more friendly stance towards cryptocurrency.

The President has vowed to make the US the "crypto capital" of the world and made his own mark in the digital currency landscape by releasing his own coin shortly ahead of his inauguration in January.

Since then, he has sought to establish a national cryptocurrency reserve and pushed for making it easier for Americans to use retirement savings to invest in them.

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Hong Suk-hui was waiting on the shore of South Korea's Jeju Island when the call came. His fishing boat had capsized.

Just two days earlier, the vessel had ventured out on what he had hoped would be a long and fruitful voyage. But as the winds grew stronger, its captain was ordered to turn back. On the way to port, a powerful wave struck from two directions creating a whirlpool, and the boat flipped. Five of the 10 crew members, who had been asleep in their cabins below deck, drowned.

"When I heard the news, I felt like the sky was falling," said Mr Hong.

Last year, 164 people were killed or went missing in accidents in the seas around South Korea – a 75% jump from the year before. Most were fishermen whose boats sunk or capsized.

"The weather has changed, it's getting windier every year," said Mr Hong, who also chairs the Jeju Fishing Boat Owners Association.

"Whirlwinds pop up suddenly. We fisherman are convinced it is down to climate change."

Alarmed by the spike in deaths, the South Korean government launched an investigation into the accidents.

This year, the head of the taskforce pinpointed climate change as one of the major causes, as well as highlighting other problems — the country's aging fishing workforce, a growing reliance on migrant workers, and poor safety training.

The seas around Korea are warming more rapidly than the global average, in part because they tend to be shallower. Between 1968 and 2024, the average surface temperature of the country's seas increased by 1.58C, more than double the global rise of 0.74C.

Warming waters are contributing to extreme weather at sea, creating the conditions for tropical storms, like typhoons, to become more intense.

They are also causing some fish species around South Korea to migrate, according to the country's National Institute of Fisheries Science, forcing fisherman to travel further and take greater risks to catch enough to make a living.

Environmental campaigners say urgent action is needed to "stop the tragedy occurring in Korean waters".

On a rainy June morning, Jeju Island's main harbour was crammed with fishing boats. The crews hurried back and forth between sea and land, refuelling and stocking up for their next voyage, while the boats' owners paced anxiously along the dock watching the final preparations.

"I'm always afraid something might happen to the boat, the risks have increased so much," said 54-year-old owner, Kim Seung-hwan. "The winds have become more unpredictable and extremely dangerous."

A few years ago, Mr Kim began to notice that the popular silvery hairtail fish he relied on were disappearing from local waters, and his earnings plunged by half.

Now his crews have to journey into deeper, more perilous waters to find them, sometimes sailing as far south as Taiwan.

"Since we're operating farther away, it's not always possible to return quickly when there's a storm warning," he said. "If we stayed closer to shore it would be safer, but to make a living we have to go farther out."

Professor Gug Seung-gi led the investigation into the recent accidents, which found that South Korea's seas appear to have become more dangerous. It noted the number of marine weather warnings around the Korean Peninsula - alerting fishermen to gales, storm surges, and typhoons - increased by 65% between 2020 and 2024.

"Unpredictable weather is leading to more boats capsizing, especially small fishing vessels that are going further out and are not built for such long, rough trips," he told the BBC.

Professor Kim Baek-min, a climate scientist at South Korea's Pukyong National University, said that although climate change was creating the conditions to make strong, sudden wind gusts more likely, a clear trend had not yet been established – for that, more research and long-term data is needed.

One foggy morning, we left shore in the dark on a small trawler with Captain Park Hyung-il, who has been fishing anchovies off Korea's south coast for more than 25 years. He sang sea shanties, determined to stay upbeat. But when we reached the nets he had left out overnight, his mood crumpled.

As he wound them in, the anchovies could barely be seen among the hordes of jellyfish and other fodder. Once the anchovies had been separated out, they filled just two boxes.

"In the past, we'd fill 50 to 100 of these baskets in a single day," he said. "But this year the anchovies have vanished and we're catching more jellyfish than fish."

This is the predicament facing tens of thousands of fishermen along South Korea's coastlines. Over the past 10 years, the amount of squid caught in South Korean waters each year has plummeted 92%, while anchovy catches have fallen by 46%.

Even the anchovies Park had caught were not fit for market, he said, and would need to be sold as animal-feed.

"The haul is basically worthless," he sighed, explaining it would barely cover the day's fuel costs, let alone his crew's wages.

"The sea is a mess, nothing makes sense anymore," Park continued. "I used to love this job. There was joy knowing that someone, somewhere in the country was eating the fish I caught. But now, with barely anything to catch, that sense of pride is fading."

And, with livelihoods disappearing, young people no longer want to join the industry. In 2023 almost half of South Korea's fishermen were over the age of 65, up from less than a third a decade earlier.

Increasingly, elderly captains must rely on help from migrant workers from Vietnam and Indonesia. Often these workers do not receive sufficient safety training, and language barriers mean they cannot communicate with the captains – further compounding the dangers.

Woojin Chung, a researcher at the Environmental Justice Foundation, a UK-based charity, described it as "a vicious and tragic cycle".

When you combine more extreme weather with the pressure to travel further, the increased fuel costs this brings, and the need to rely on cheap, untrained foreign labour, "you have a higher chance of meeting disaster", she explained.

On 9 February this year, a large shipping trawler sank suddenly near the coastal city of Yeosu, killing 10 of the crew. It was a bitterly cold, windy day, and smaller boats had been banned from going out, but this trawler was deemed sturdy enough to withstand the gales. The reason it went down is still a mystery.

One of those killed was 63-year-old Young-mook. A fisherman for 40 years, he had been planning to retire, but that morning someone called and asked him to fill a last-minute opening on the boat.

"It was so cold that once you fell in you wouldn't survive the hypothermia, especially at his age," said his daughter Ean, still distraught over his death.

Ean thinks it has become too easy for boat owners to blame climate change for accidents. Even in cases where bad weather plays a role, she believes it is still the owners' responsibility to assess the risks and keep their crew safe. "Ultimately it is their call when to go out," she said.

As a child, she remembers her father's fridge would be filled with crabs and squid. "Now the stocks are gone, but the companies still force them to go out, and because these men have worked as fishermen their whole lives, they don't have alternative job options, so they keep fishing even when they're too frail to do so," she said.

Ean also wants owners to better maintain their boats, which are aging too. "Companies have insurance, so they get compensated after a boat sinks, but our loved ones can't be replaced."

The authorities, aware they cannot control the weather, are now working with fishermen to make their boats safer. As we were with Mr Hong, whose boat capsized earlier this year, a team of government inspectors arrived to carry out a series of on-the-spot checks on two of his other vessels.

The government's taskforce is recommending that boats be fitted with safety ladders, fisherman be required to wear life jackets, and that safety training be mandatory for all foreign crew. It also wants to improve search and rescue operations, and for fisherman to have access to more localised and real-time weather updates.

Some regions are even offering to pay fishermen for the jellyfish they catch, to try to clean up the seas, while squid fishermen are being given loans to protect them from bankruptcy, and encourage them to retire.

Because the problem will likely worsen. The UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation forecasts that total fish catches in South Korea will decline by almost a third by the end of this century, if carbon emissions and global warming continue on their current trajectories.

"The future looks very bleak," said the anchovy fisherman Captain Park, now in his late 40s. He recently started a YouTube channel documenting his catches in the hope of earning some extra money. Park is the third generation of his family to do this work and likely the last.

"Back then it felt romantic getting up early and heading out to sea. There was a sense of adventure and reward."

"These days it's just really tough."

Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi

Amid the blizzard of nocturnal numbers any by-election generates, three stand out in Caerphilly this morning.

Labour, so long the victor of so many a south Wales political contest, humbled, pummelled, crushed - attracting just 11% of voters.

The Conservatives, so often the victor of many a UK-wide election - 2%.

Yes, you read that right - the two big beasts of Westminster politics managed just 13% of the vote between them.

Just one in seven voters backed either Labour or the Conservatives, which is extraordinary.

This contest, for weeks, was instead a race between an outfit, Reform UK, which barely existed a few years back and another, Plaid Cymru - until now the perpetual bridesmaid in contests in Caerphilly.

Between them, Plaid and Reform attracted 83% of the vote – and Plaid beat Nigel Farage's party easily.

• Follow our live updates

As so often in election contests, there is a striking human story that illustrates the wider picture.

Today's victor, Lindsay Whittle, a Plaid Cymru councillor for nearly half a century, told me he remembers standing in the crowds in Caerphilly in 1968 as a 15-year-old new recruit to the party.

The party, then, came pretty close to toppling Labour in a Westminster by election.

But here is the thing: they didn't, they were second.

Defeat at Labour's hands was something Whittle was to get very used to - he has stood for election to Westminster ten times, and stood repeatedly for election to Cardiff Bay too. He had always lost - until now.

Now in his 70s, he tastes victory for the first time.

Speaking to senior Plaid figures, they detect - and have for some time - a sense that the tide may finally be going out for Labour in Wales.

They are determined to capitalise and allow themselves to dream of governing Wales, at least as the main party, after next May's Senedd elections across the nation.

So, what next for Reform? A solid second place with 36% of the vote, is a solid performance for an upstart, but insurgencies remain insurgent by winning – and they were easily beaten.

It is clearly not easy for them to be the first choice "none of the above" alternative to Labour and the Conservatives when there is another party also claiming that mantle.

That is a challenge for them in Wales, as it is in Scotland with the SNP, in a way that it isn't in England.

And then there are the consequences for Labour.

Labour's heritage in these parts includes some of the most consequential names in its long history: founding father Keir Hardie, NHS founder Nye Bevan, former leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock.

This morning, the prospect for Labour of heavy defeat across Wales next May - ending 27 years of continuous devolved power - looks more likely than ever.

And the questions for the Prime Minister pile up higher.

The number of 16-24 year olds in England reporting symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, has more than tripled in a decade, BBC analysis of NHS data has found.

The condition is now the second-most widespread mental health disorder for young adults, according to statistics from a major NHS England survey.

"OCD, I like to think of it as a bully, it attacks everything, everything you care about, everything you love," says Sophie Ashcroft.

"A lot of people do associate OCD with cleanliness, and being clean, and getting all your socks in a certain order. It's so much more than that."

The 22-year-old is one of a number of young people and their families to have contacted us through Your Voice, Your BBC News explaining how they can't access NHS treatment for their symptoms.

Those who could get seen spoke of a shortage of expert staff and effective treatments.

The average referral time figure for young people to be seen at a national OCD centre in London was 41 weeks last year, nearly three times as long as it was five years previously.

The government told us it was "turning services around", hiring 8,500 extra mental health workers, delivering more talking therapies and providing better access to help through the NHS App. It also said it was expanding the rollout of mental health support teams in schools.

Sophie sometimes struggles to leave her home because she feels compelled to repeat small tasks - such as getting into the shower or cleaning her teeth - to dispel intrusive or distressing thoughts.

"If I had a bad thought during the day, it would ruin the rest of my day. I'd think something bad was gonna happen," she tells us.

'Behind closed doors it's sheer panic'

The people who have contacted BBC News say lives have been devastated, with some families who haven't been able to get NHS help telling us they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on private care.

Charities insist there is an OCD crisis and say the figures should be a wake-up call for the government.

OCD symptoms can affect adults and children, and can begin as early as six years old - but they are often triggered during puberty and early adulthood.

Sophie's symptoms first appeared when she was aged nine, she says, but it was a decade later, when a close friend died, that things became a lot worse.

To dispel troubling thoughts, she says it led her to repeat actions again and again - things most people would consider mundane and would do without a second thought.

"It's something telling me you have to do that again, you have to hug that person again, and it just takes over," says Sophie. "It's such an awful, awful feeling."

Despite all this, Sophie has just finished drama school. "I'm really, really good at hiding it, but behind closed doors it's sheer panic," she explains.

About 370,000 young people in England reported OCD symptoms in the financial year 2023/24, our analysis of the latest NHS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (June 2025) has found.

That is more than three times the number from 2014, when the figure stood at around 113,000.

It means OCD is now second in the list of named mental health disorders - placing it and other anxiety disorders well ahead of depression:

• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 7.6%

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) 5.7%

• Phobias 4.8%

• Depressive episodes 3.8 %

Why is OCD on the rise among young people?

Improved awareness of the condition has likely contributed to people seeking help, say experts - but, according to charities and many of those with OCD, societal problems, combined with the pressure of social media, are the main driver for the reported rise.

Leigh Wallbank, chief executive of charity OCD Action, describes many young people's lives as a "pressure pot".

"They're facing financial issues, educational issues, global issues - the environment is such a big issue," she tells us. "I think of them living in this pressure pot, and then underneath that, giving heat to this pressure pot, is social media."

The Covid-19 pandemic also played a part, says Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and influencing at the mental health charity, Mind.

The pandemic put a "particular and unique strain" on people with OCD, with disruption to routine, an inversion of social norms and a hyperfocus on hygiene, he says.

"Barriers to social interaction, including treatment and support services, meant that many coping mechanisms were disrupted or unavailable for an extended period of time," he adds.

NHS help for OCD patients includes specialist talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - which can include Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

Through ERP patients are helped to manage their anxiety by gradually being exposed to their fears, while preventing them from performing their usual compulsive behaviours.

Medication is also offered - usually a type of antidepressant.

But not everyone can access these treatments.

Sophie was told by her GP that it is likely she does have OCD - but, two years on, she still hasn't received an appointment to see a specialist for a formal diagnosis.

In the meantime, her GP has referred her for a limited course of CBT which comes to an end soon. Sophie says she is "absolutely petrified" of what the future holds.

Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action is critical of the government for failing to collect regular quarterly data on obsessive compulsive disorder, and outcomes for patients who have it, as it does for many other conditions.

Without data, says the charity, the NHS is blind to the real scale of OCD, the success of treatments and who is being left behind.

We asked health officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland if they knew the number of young people with OCD symptoms, but they all said they do not collect that information.

'The system could not, or would not, provide help'

A mum from the south of England, who wants to remain anonymous, told us her autistic daughter first showed signs of OCD when she was 10 years old. Her daughter is now 17 and the OCD is severe, she says.

"My daughter has gone from being a scholarship-winning student, to being sectioned multiple times."

Some specialist treatment has been offered to the teenager, but her mum tells us her daughter is often too unwell to leave the house to attend appointments, or even take her medication.

"The impact on [all] our children, and us, is devastating. Our lives have been decimated not just by the illness, but by a system that could not, or would not, provide the help she needed, when she needed it."

The mother says the UK is failing in its treatment of young people with severe OCD. There are not enough specialists, beds or treatment options, she believes.

Children and adolescents with OCD across England can receive treatment at a national centre at the Maudsley Hospital in London.

However, the average wait time for a referral to the service rose from 15 weeks in 2020, to 41 weeks in 2024, according to a response to the BBC's Freedom of Information Act request.

But the hospital trust says that wait time is being cut.

Ade Odunlade, chief operating officer for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said: "We have worked incredibly hard to reduce delays and have lowered the average wait for assessments to around 20 weeks.

"We empathise with anyone who has had to wait for their assessment as we know how difficult that is."

The trust says it has now been able to secure additional funding which will allow them to employ further staff and drive down the waiting list even further.

It expects an approximate wait for assessment of about 12-16 weeks by early Spring 2026, it told us.

But even when people can access all the available help, it is sometimes not enough.

Graham and Marie Fuller, from Norwich, contacted the BBC to say their daughter had been hospitalised with OCD aged 12.

They described a revolving-door pattern of going backwards and forwards between NHS services for different treatments, with their daughter improving and then repeatedly relapsing.

After years of their daughter struggling with the condition, the family then decided to go to Texas to try a rare and radical procedure.

Their daughter, who is now 20, underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery - where electrodes are implanted in the brain to deliver electrical impulses to help manage OCD symptoms.

The treatment is approved by US regulators, but in the UK the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says DBS can only be used for research studies, because there is not enough evidence on how safe or effective the practice is for OCD.

Having a loved one with OCD "has taken its toll on all of us, but we had to do all we could to help", says Marie, explaining how, before undergoing DBS, her daughter had discussed going to Switzerland to end her life.

Marie says her daughter is now back at university, though she concedes it is still early days in terms of the success of the treatment.

• OCD information and support from BBC Action Line

The UK's health guidelines for obsessive compulsive disorder are 20 years old - they are currently being reviewed by NICE. In 2019, it was agreed that policy around OCD treatment needed to reflect updated technologies and possible new drugs.

But for Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action she says better funding is imperative if young people are to get the help they need.

"Policymakers and the government need to invest in OCD services. [OCD] is preventable and it is a crisis that can be changed."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the government had inherited a broken NHS with mental health services suffering following years of neglect - adding that funding was now being boosted by £688m.

But people with OCD such as Sophie are scared about what the future holds.

The limited course of CBT that she's been prescribed is coming to an end and she fears a return of her symptoms.

"What am I going to do? What if it happens again?"

Retail sales hit their highest level since 2022 in September, with good weather giving a boost clothes shopping, according to new data.

Retail sales between July and September were 0.9% higher than the previous three months, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.

Retail sales rose by 0.5% on the month in September 2025, following a similar increase in August 2025.

Computer and telecoms retailers grew strongly, while within non-store retailing, online jewellers reported strong demand for gold.

ONS statistics are used in deciding government policy, which affects millions, and are also used by the Bank of England to make key financial decisions, such as setting interest rates.

A German company inadvertently embroiled in the Louvre Museum heist after one of its lifts was used in the theft is making the most of its free publicity - by launching a new advertising campaign.

Werne-based firm Böcker this week published a social media post featuring the now famous image of its furniture ladder extending up to a balcony outside the Gallery of Apollo.

"When you need to move fast," reads a banner under the image. "The Böcker Agilo transports your treasures weighing up to 400kg at 42m/min - quiet as a whisper."

Video has emerged of the alleged thieves escaping on the mechanical ladder after stealing €88m worth (£76m; $102m) of France's crown jewels on Sunday.

Speaking to the AFP news agency on Wednesday, the company's managing director, Alexander Böcker, said when it became clear no one was injured in the heist they used "a touch of humour" to draw attention to the family-run business.

"The crime is, of course, absolutely reprehensible, that's completely clear to us," Mr Böcker said.

"It was... an opportunity for us to use the most famous and most visited museum in the world to get a little attention for our company."

• How Louvre gang carried out France's most shocking theft
• Stolen Louvre jewellery worth €88m, prosecutor says
• Can France retrieve its priceless crown jewels - or is it too late?

Reaction to Böcker's new campaign have been enthusiastic, with responses on social media including "marketing genius" and "excellent, that is German quality".

"Your messaging takes the crown," one commenter quipped.

Mr Böcker told AFP he recognised his company's device from news reports, saying the machine was sold "a few years ago to a French customer who rents this type of equipment in Paris and the surrounding area".

The alleged jewel thieves had arranged to have the machine demonstrated to them last week and had stolen it during the demonstration, he added.

The thieves arrived at the Louvre on Sunday shortly after the museum opened its doors and visitors had started to file through its corridors.

Within eight minutes, they made off with some of France's most valuable treasure belonging to former royalty or imperial rulers.

Among the eight items stolen were diadems, necklaces, ear-rings and brooches adorned with thousands of diamonds and other precious gemstones.

The Louvre reopened on Wednesday, a few days after what has been called France's most shocking theft.

The museum's director admitted on Wednesday that the Louvre failed to spot the gang early enough to stop the theft and that CCTV around its perimeter was weak and "aging".

"We failed these jewels," Laurence des Cars said, adding that no-one was protected from "brutal criminals - not even the Louvre".

"We've had a terrible failure at the Louvre. I've taken responsibility for it," she added.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told France's Europe1 radio that he had "every confidence" the thieves would be caught.

Prosecutors said they believed the robbers acted under orders from a criminal organisation.

In a matter of moments, more than 100 years of history came crashing down for Labour as the results were read out.

For Plaid Cymru's Lindsay Whittle, his victory - at the 14th time of asking - must feel like it has been a long time coming.

This could be the sign that voters see his party as a viable alternative to Labour, with next May's Welsh Parliament election on the horizon.

The Labour stronghold has been breached and Plaid has stormed it.

• Watch: The moment Plaid wins the Caerphilly by-election
• What's your Senedd constituency?
• As it happened: Historic by-election victory for Plaid Cymru

For Reform, who had such high expectations, there are lessons to be learned.

Despite surging across the UK, they fell short in this big test.

Their ambition to be the biggest party after next year's Welsh Parliament election has taken a knock.

There will be questions about how effective the party is at getting their supporters out to vote, as the party had been banking on a high turnout being good for them.

The turnout was 50.43% - higher than any previous Senedd election.

For Labour, this was an awful result.

If their 11% vote share is mirrored across Wales next May, under the new proportional voting system, they could be facing a wipeout.

Before the vote, one source told me about the concept of a good defeat - something the party could work off.

This was not it.

The party's Members of the Senedd meet on Friday to start the difficult conversation of how to turn this round.

One Labour source suggested to me that the party will need a "retail offer" - something stand-out - that will grab voters' attention.

"People are desperate for material improvement to their lives," the source said.

"We can talk about improvements and we can talk about legacy issues like free prescriptions but there needs to be a big sell on something new."

The deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies said the party needed a "compelling story".

Another source said that First Minister Eluned Morgan needs to try to differentiate herself even further from her UK colleagues.

She has tried this with her concept of the Red Welsh Way, but has also spoken of a partnership in power.

Welsh Labour and UK Labour working together has its benefits, but it was never going to be easy.

Voters in Caerphilly have not bought the idea that two Labour governments working together is better for Wales.

Next May, the entire Welsh electorate could deliver the same verdict.

For now, whatever happens, Caerphilly has written itself into the pages of Welsh political history.

We are about to find out if this result is an eye-opening anomaly or a genuinely new chapter.