An appeal for information has been sent to all MI5 staff over false evidence the service gave to three courts in a neo-Nazi spy case.

MI5's regulator is investigating how it came to make false claims about conversations with the BBC.

The Investigatory Powers Commissioner Sir Brian Leveson, who is overseeing the inquiry, said it was "surprising" that new material was being uncovered years after the case began.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer ordered the investigation in September after the BBC revealed that MI5 had lied to three courts.

The prime minister's demand followed requests from the High Court and Investigatory Powers Tribunal, which both rejected MI5's explanations about what happened.

MI5 also gave false evidence to its regulator, Sir Brian Leveson himself, whose office is conducting this new investigation.

The case centres on a neo-Nazi state informant known as Agent X, who used his MI5 role to coerce his girlfriend, whom he attacked with a machete.

Sir Brian has now sent a letter updating the prime minister, the attorney general and the home secretary on the investigation into the false evidence.

In the letter, he reveals the investigation team "asked that a message be disseminated to all current MI5 staff", inviting anyone who believes they have information which may assist, to make contact.

He adds: "I am grateful for MI5's prompt and constructive engagement to achieve this."

But he also notes that "relevant material" continues to be identified, adding that it is "surprising" four years after the case began and "over three years after my inspectors first considered the Agent X case."

Earlier this month, MI5 was heavily criticised by the police investigation into the state agent Stakeknife for only disclosing crucial documents years after that inquiry began.

The investigation into the false evidence in the Agent X case is being led by Sir John Goldring, the Deputy Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

In the update letter, it is revealed that Sir John and his investigators have interviewed 36 people over the past five weeks, including "current and former staff of the intelligence services", as well as BBC staff, government lawyers, and barristers representing MI5.

The new investigation is said to have identified "additional lines of inquiry" after obtaining material beyond that which was disclosed in the three court cases. The investigation report is not expected to be completed before March.

In February this year, the BBC revealed that MI5 had lied to three courts while defending its handling of the misogynistic MI5 agent, whom the BBC had sought to expose in a 2022 investigation.

Arguing for secrecy, the Security Service told judges it had stuck to its policy of not confirming or denying informants' identities.

In fact, MI5 had disclosed Agent X's status in phone calls to me, as it tried to persuade me not to investigate him. The service aggressively maintained its position until I produced evidence proving it was untrue, including a recording of one of the calls.

Following the BBC's revelations, MI5's Director General Sir Ken McCallum issued an "unreserved apology" for the false evidence.

Two official inquiries then took place which absolved MI5 and its officers of deliberate wrongdoing, claiming the false evidence was down to mistakes and poor memories.

But, in July, a panel of senior high court judges ruled that the "investigations carried out by MI5 to date suffer from serious procedural deficiencies" and that "we cannot rely on their conclusions".

They said it would be "premature" to decide whether to begin contempt of court proceedings against any MI5 officers before a new investigation took place.

Sir Ken previously said the service would co-operate fully with the new inquiry.

There can be a lot to think about at Christmas, from whether public transport is running to when shops and services are open.

With UK bank holidays on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, and a fourth holiday in Scotland on 2 January, here are some tips to help you win the festive period.

When are roads likely to be busiest?

Motoring organisations the RAC and AA predict that 2025 could see the busiest festive getaway on record.

The RAC expects 37.5 million trips to take place in the week running up to Christmas Day. It thinks roads are likely to be especially busy after lunchtime on Saturday 20 December, and during the afternoon and evening on Christmas Eve.

It suggests the following periods may be quieter:

• Saturday 20 December, before 12:00 GMT
• Sunday 21 December, before 10:00
• Monday 22 December, after 17:00
• Tuesday 23 December, before 11:00
• Wednesday 24 December, before 11:00

You can check for planned roadworks and closures in England on the National Highways website.

For instance, the M27 motorway will be closed in both directions between junctions nine (Whiteley) and 11 (Fareham), from 20:00 on 24 December until 04:00 on Sunday 4 January.

Details of planned roadworks are also available from Traffic Scotland, Traffic Wales and TrafficwatchNI.

You can also check local weather warnings before setting off.

Make sure you have plenty of fuel, that your tyres are properly inflated and your lights are working. Prepare for bad weather by carrying a charged phone, food, drinks and warm clothes. Top up your screen wash and de-icer supplies.

Many BP and Shell petrol stations will be open as usual, but some garages may have shorter hours. All Tesco petrol stations will be closed on Christmas Day. On other days, opening hours could be different to those of the linked store.

Are trains, buses and ferries running?

Trains

Some National Rail services will finish early on Christmas Eve, and no trains will run on Christmas Day.

Most train operators won't run any services on Boxing Day either. However, a small number of firms (Chiltern Railways, London Overground, Merseyrail, ScotRail, Southern and Stansted Express) will have a very limited service.

The UK's busiest station, London's Liverpool Street, will be closed for eight days between Christmas Day and New Year's Day, for works on its roof.

No trains will call at London Waterloo on 27 and 28 December, with trains terminating at Clapham Junction and a reduced timetable between 29 December and 4 January.

Improvement works will also affect services into Cardiff Central station between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

You can check for other engineering works and timetable alterations on the National Rail website.

There are no Eurostar services on Christmas Day, but trains are running every other day.

Buses and coaches

Most local bus services will not run on Christmas Day, but check individual websites for detailed schedule information.

National Express is running extra coaches on a number of UK routes between 20 December and 4 January.

On Christmas Day itself, 355 services will operate from 96 locations. This includes routes between Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, as well as some to and from Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports.

Transport for London (Tfl)

Bus, tram, DLR, underground, overground and Elizabeth Line services will finish earlier than usual on Christmas Eve. No services will run on Christmas Day.

There is no Elizabeth line service on Boxing Day, and a number of overground lines are also shut. Some Tube lines have restricted service. No night Tube or night overground services will operate.

Tfl services will run through the night on New Year's Eve.

Some black taxis and private cab firms may operate throughout the period, including Christmas Day. Hire bikes and electric scooters will be available.

The congestion charge will not apply between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is suspended on Christmas Day only, but the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) remains active throughout the period.

Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels charges do not apply on Christmas Day.

Ferries

The Port of Dover will close at 15:30 GMT on Christmas Eve and reopen at 07:30 on Boxing Day.

The final departures on 24 December are:

• DFDS (Dunkerque route): 12:00
• DFDS (Calais route): 13:15
• Irish Ferries:14:25
• P&O: 16:05

There are no sailings to or from Holyhead or Portsmouth ports on Christmas Day either, but services will run on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

What if I'm flying over Christmas?

Most UK airports are open on Christmas Day, although they may have a reduced schedule. All Heathrow and Gatwick terminals will be open as normal.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) expects Friday 19 December to be the busiest travel day, with around 460,000 passengers. Around 160,000 people are due to fly on Christmas Day itself, a 13% increase on 2024.

Planned strike action at London Luton Airport could cause disruption, between 19 and 29 December. Some easyJet check-in and baggage handling staff employed by DHL Group are set to walk out over pay.

All air passengers are advised to check the status of their flights before setting off. Experts also recommend confirming any return journey.

As usual, passengers should arrive at the airport three hours before long-haul flights and two hours before short-haul flights.

You may need to make alternative travel arrangements to get to the airport if public transport is not running. If you plan to drive, consider booking parking in advance.

The CAA recommends that passengers:

• leave presents in hand luggage unwrapped, to allow security checks
• remember that party poppers are not allowed on UK aircraft
• remember that some airlines do not allow other festive items like crackers

What if I need a doctor or dentist?

GP surgeries are generally closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

Some practices offer out-of-hours services which you can access via the NHS 111 helpline, which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Calls are free from landlines and mobile phones.

If you run out of medication when your GP is closed, you can use the NHS 111 emergency prescription service.

A&E departments will be open as usual throughout the festive period. Urgent treatment centres are also operating, but may have reduced hours.

You should only call 999 for life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks, strokes, severe bleeding or difficulty breathing.

Most NHS dentists are closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Emergency services are available via NHS 111 for urgent issues.

When will pharmacies be open?

Most pharmacies will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

However, one or more should be open near you under out-of-hours arrangements. Your local pharmacy should display details of the rota, or you can find details online.

You can find open pharmacies near you via the relevant NHS website:

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

Boots will open more than 60 pharmacies on Christmas Day and more than 460 on New Year's Day.

All Superdrug pharmacies will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Most branches in Scotland will remain shut on 2 January.

What about supermarkets and food delivery services?

You should check your local store's opening hours, but in general you should assume:

• early closing on Christmas Eve
• almost all stores will be shut on Christmas Day
• Aldi, Lidl, M&S and most Waitrose shops will also close on Boxing Day. Other chains have reduced hours
• early closing on New Year's Eve
• Aldi, Lidl, M&S and most Waitrose shops are closed on New Year's Day

Smaller local shops are more likely to be open earlier and later than the large superstores. Many petrol station forecourt shops will be open too.

The Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats apps and websites will be running throughout the festive period, but restaurants will set their own operating hours.

When will universal credit and other benefits be paid over Christmas?

Some payments will be made earlier if they're due between 24 December 2025 and 2 January 2026:

• universal credit payments due on 24, 25, or 26 December will be made on 24 December
• other payments due on 24, 25, 26 December will be paid on 23 December
• all payments due on 1 January including Universal Credit will be paid on 31 December
• in Scotland, payments due on 2 January will be made on 31 December

Child benefit payments due on bank holidays will also be paid on a different date:

• in Northern Ireland, payments due on 29 or 30 December will be paid on 30 and 31 December
• in Scotland, payments due on 5 January will be made on 6 January

The Department for Work and Pensions says that you should tell the office that pays your benefit if you do not get your payment.

What was the last thing you asked an AI chatbot to do for you?

Maybe you asked it for an essay structure to help answer a tricky question, provide an insightful analysis of a chunky data set, or to check if your cover letter matches the job description.

Some experts worry that outsourcing these kinds of tasks means your brain is working less - and could even be harming your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a study showing that people who used ChatGPT to write essays showed less activity in brain networks associated with cognitive processing while undertaking the exercise.

These people also couldn't quote from their essays as easily as those in the study who didn't use an AI chatbot.

The researchers said their study demonstrated "the pressing matter of exploring a possible decrease in learning skills".

All 54 participants were recruited from MIT and nearby universities. Their brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG), which involves electrodes being placed on the scalp.

Some of the prompts used by the participants included asking AI to summarise essay questions, track down sources as well as refine grammar and style.

It was also used to generate and articulate ideas - but some users felt AI wasn't very good at this.

'AI makes it too easy to find answers'

Separately, Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft, which operates Copilot, found people's problem-solving skills could diminish if they became too reliant on AI.

They surveyed 319 white-collar workers who used AI tools for their jobs at least once per week about how they apply critical thinking when using them.

They looked at 900 examples of tasks given to AI, ranging from analysing data for new insights to checking whether a piece of work satisfies particular rules.

The study found that higher confidence in the tool's ability to perform a task was related to "less critical thinking effort".

"While GenAI can improve worker efficiency, it can inhibit critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving."

Schoolchildren in the UK were similarly surveyed for a study published in October by Oxford University Press (OUP).

It found six in 10 felt AI had negatively impacted their skills in relation to schoolwork.

So, with the massive explosion of AI use, are our cognitive skills at risk of decline?

Not necessarily, says Dr Alexandra Tomescu, a generative AI specialist at OUP who worked on the school survey.

"Our research tells us that nine in 10 students say AI has helped them develop at least one skill related to schoolwork - be it problem-solving, creativity or revision.

"But at the same time, about a quarter state that AI use made it too easy to do work for them… So [it's] quite a nuanced picture."

She adds that many pupils want more guidance on how to use AI.

ChatGPT, which has more than 800 million weekly active users according to boss Sam Altman, has published a set of 100 prompts for students designed to help them get the most out of the technology.

But Prof Wayne Holmes, who researches critical studies of artificial intelligence and education at University College London (UCL), says this isn't enough.

He wants much more academic research to be done about the effects of AI tools on learning before pupils and students are encouraged to use them.

He tells us: "Today there is no independent evidence at scale for the effectiveness of these tools in education, or for their safety, or even for the idea they have a positive impact."

Better results but worse learning?

Prof Holmes points to research about cognitive atrophy, where someone's abilities and skills become worse after using AI.

He says this has been a problem for radiologists who use AI tools to help them interpret X-rays before they diagnose patients.

A study by Harvard Medical School published last year found AI assistance did improve the performance of some clinicians but damaged others for reasons researchers don't fully understand.

The authors called for more work to be done on how humans interact with AI so we can figure out ways of using AI tools that "boost human performance rather than hurt it".

Prof Holmes fears that students, whether in school or university, could become too reliant on AI to do their work for them and not develop the fundamental skills an education provides.

A student's essay might receive better marks thanks to help from AI but the issue is whether they end up understanding less.

As Prof Holmes puts it: "Their outputs are better but actually their learning is worse."

Jayna Devani, who leads international education at OpenAI - the company that owns ChatGPT - and helped secure a deal with the University of Oxford, says the firm are "very aware of this debate right now".

She tells the BBC: "We definitely don't think students should be using ChatGPT to outsource work".

In her view, it's best used as a tutor rather than just a provider of answers.

The example she gives is of a student having a back and forth with ChatGPT using the study mode setting.

You enter the question you're having difficulty answering and the chatbot can break down its components and help you understand it.

The example she gives is of a student doing an assignment late at night about a topic they don't quite understand.

"[If] you have an upcoming presentation to give and… it's midnight, you're not going to email your [university] tutor and ask for help," she says.

"I think the potential is truly there for ChatGPT to accelerate learning when it's used in a targeted way."

But Prof Holmes insists that any student who uses AI tools should be aware of how its reasoning works and how the companies providing them handle data. He stresses that results should always be checked.

"It is not just the latest iteration of the calculator," he says, describing AI's far-reaching capabilities and implications.

"I never say to my students, you shouldn't use AI… But what I do try to say is look, we need to understand all these different things about it so that you can make informed decisions."

Long queues of travellers have formed at the Port of Dover, which are being blamed on IT issues at French border controls.

The situation has been described as "absolute chaos" by one traveller, and images of the port show a long line of vehicles queuing at a standstill.

Around 30,000 cars are expected to pass through Dover this weekend as the Christmas getaway reaches its peak.

Doug Bannister, the port's chief executive, said: "There are still some ongoing (IT) issues, which are causing increased wait times whilst traffic is being processed."

He added: "We are working with our partner agencies whilst they try to resolve these issues."

The port says travellers face a processing time of one hour once vehicles arrive.

One traveller posted on X: "Horrible experience at Port of Dover this morning. Absolute chaos.

"Traffic at a standstill for an hour. Worst start to holiday imaginable. Just missed our boat. Still stuck. Kids in car."

One local resident told the BBC the town was "proper rammed".

'Christmas shopping'

The port advised passengers not to arrive more than two hours before their sailing.

It said if customers do miss their scheduled sailing due to the wait times, their ferry operator will place them on the next available crossing.

Long queues have been seen on the roads leading into Dover.

A port spokesperson asked all port-bound traffic to remain on main roads "to allow the Dover community to travel to festive events and finish their Christmas shopping in the town".

Meanwhile, public transport operators are experiencing problems reaching the port.

Bus company Stagecoach said in a statement: "Due to heavy traffic at the docks the service will be unable to serve Eastern Docks at the moment."

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Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to further jail terms following a fraud case involving state gifts.

They were convicted of breaking Pakistan's rules on gifts after Bibi was given a luxury jewellery set by Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman during a 2021 state visit.

The pair are already serving time in prison for earlier convictions, and the new sentences - 10 years for criminal breach of trust and seven years for criminal misconduct, and a fine - will reportedly run concurrently to their earlier terms.

Khan has described the charges as politically motivated and his lawyer told BBC News his team plan to challenge the verdict.

Speaking to the BBC after the sentencing, the former prime minister's lawyer, Salman Safdar, said Khan and his wife had not been present for the hearing.

Mr Safdar said their legal team had only been informed about the sentencing late on Friday night, after normal court hours.

They planned to mount a challenge to the verdict in the high court, Mr Safdar said.

This case is the latest in a series of charges laid against the cricket star-turned-politician, who has been detained since August 2023. In January, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison over a separate corruption case.

He has faced charges in more than 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts. The BBC has been unable to confirm the exact number brought against him.

The jewellery case, referred to as Toshakhana 2 in Pakistan, concerns a Bulgari jewellery set given to Bushra Bibi by Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a state visit in 2021, according to court documents.

Under Pakistan's rules on state gifts, these items go to Pakistan's Toshakana department (state treasury), but politicians are able to purchase the items back.

Khan is alleged to have asked a private firm to undervalue the jewellery set, before purchasing it back at a significantly reduced price.

In addition to their jail terms, the pair were handed a fine of over 16 million Pakistani rupees (£42,600).

Khan has previously been acquitted in a separate Toshakhana case.

The former leader still has other cases outstanding against him.

These include terrorism charges relating to violent protests that took place on 9 May 2023, when he was previously arrested.

Khan was Pakistan's prime minister until April 2022 when he was ousted in a vote of no confidence.

Although he has not been seen in public, his social media accounts have continued to operate with messages attributed to him on X often appearing after jail visits.

These have been highly critical of Pakistan's current government and its politically powerful army Chief Field Marshall Asim Munir, including posts calling him a tyrannical dictator.

In November, he was denied any visitors for nearly a month.

After campaigning by his family and party, his sister was allowed to visit in early December; a few hours after she saw him, his account posted a comment credited to Khan calling the Field Marshall Asim Munir a "mentally unstable person".

Khan has not been allowed any family visits since.

According to an official at the jail, Khan and his wife were present when the verdict was announced but no journalists were allowed to observe.

The judgement states the judge was lenient in sentencing because of Khan's "old age".

Additional reporting by Usman Zahid