Thousands of sites potentially contaminated with toxic chemicals have never been checked by councils, a BBC investigation has found.

Nine out of 10 "high-risk" areas have not been tested by councils responding to a BBC Freedom of Information request, and scientists fear they could pose a health risk.

The sites are thought to contain substances such as lead or arsenic.

The BBC Shared Data Unit found of 13,093 potentially toxic sites that councils have identified as high risk, only 1,465 have been inspected.

The UK government has said that local unitary authorities have a statutory duty to inspect potentially contaminated sites but councils claim they do not have the money to do it.

The research comes after the release of new Netflix drama Toxic Town which tells the story of families fighting for justice following one of the UK's biggest environmental scandals.

The BBC's findings raise fresh questions about what exactly has been left beneath our feet from the UK's heavy industrial past.

"What we don't do in this country is do a full economic evaluation on the cost of things, including health and that feels almost criminal," said Dr Ian Mudway, a leading expert on the effect of pollution on human health.

"I'm not even certain we've achieved the point of scratching the surface."

Contaminated land is a site that might have been polluted from its previous use - it could have been a factory, power station, a railway line, landfill site, petrol station or dry cleaners.

If you live in a property constructed after 2000, any contamination issues should be covered by updated planning laws.

How much land is contaminated in the UK?

But if you live in a property built before 2000, the rules are less clear.

The Environmental Protection Act requires councils to list all potential contaminated sites, and inspect the high-risk ones to make sure people and property are not at risk.

But after contacting all 122 unitary authorities in Wales, Scotland and England about their contaminated land, 73 responded to the BBC's Shared Data Unit Freedom of Information request which revealed there were 430,000 potential sites identified in the early 2000s.

Of those, 13,093 were considered to be potentially high-risk, which experts said should have then been subject to physical testing. Yet, more than 11,000 of them remain unchecked to this day.

Half of Wales' 22 councils told the BBC they could not or would not give us figures - but those that did, identified 698 high-risk sites of which 586 have not been inspected.

Where Robin Morris lives is home to more than 400 of Wales' 1,300 abandoned metal mines and its three rivers, the Ystwyth, Rheidol and the Clarach, are some of the most heavily-polluted in the UK.

The Cwmystwyth mines in north Ceredigion date back to the Bronze Age and were abandoned in 1950, but spoils including a high level of zinc, cadmium and lead scatter the landscape and have polluted the River Ystwyth below.

Many Cwmystwyth locals, like Robin, have filtration systems installed if they receive their water from the hills where the old mines were.

"We installed an advance filtration system and were assured it would take absolutely everything," he said.

'Alarm bells'

The BBC took a soil sample from Robin's garden on the banks of the Ystwyth and it revealed a very high reading of lead - well above the recommended safe level for gardening.

"It causes alarm bells to ring," Robin told BBC Wales Investigates.

"In light of the figures from your soil sample, we should have stopped growing vegetables long ago."

It's just one sample, but other things that have happened in the past now seem to make more sense.

"We had ducks and chickens, a couple of the ducks went lame and we did consult the vet, he thought it was because of lead contamination," added Robin.

Ceredigion council said it was liaising with Wales' environmental body National Resources Wales to continually assess the health impact from the area's mining legacy.

Dr Mudway insists there was "no safe level" of lead and told the BBC it could impact children's development as well as kidney and cardiovascular disease in adults.

"Nothing is more of a forever chemical than lead," added the environmental toxicologist at Imperial College London.

"This is a hazard that has not gone away and is still a clear and present danger to the population.

"It's one of the few chemical entities for which we can calculate a global burden of disease - between half a million to just under a million premature deaths per year because of the release of lead into our environment.

"When you talk about the cost of ensuring that land is safe... that costs money up front.

"The costs of potential health effects, especially if they contribute to chronic diseases which people live with for 10 or 20 years, or the costs of remediating land, after when you realise that it's a high-level, dwarf the profits made at the other end of that cycle. That feels almost criminal.

"The health cost is hardly considered at all."

When Manon Chiswell was a toddler she suddenly stopped talking - doctors advised her family she was showing lots of autistic traits.

"I do have memories of being very closely monitored in Meithrin [nursery]... I always had an adult with me," said Manon, now 20.

"I couldn't speak... they had to use a traffic light system, and yes or no cards to redirect me and help me communicate."

But a blood test later found high levels of lead in Manon's blood.

She was not autistic, she had been poisoned.

Her father, Huw Chiswell, believed Manon was most likely poisoned at their home in Cardiff, which was near an old industrial site.

"She used to eat earth [as a toddler] in the garden," he said.

"There were railway sidings not far from where we lived at the time, so it's difficult to draw any other conclusions really, because once she'd stopped the eating, she got better."

But it is not just about lead - a government report suggests that sites posing the greatest health risks were also contaminated by chemicals such as arsenic, nickel, chromium, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in soil or water.

Campaigners want a new law forcing councils to keep a public register of all potential contaminated sites.

It is led by the parents of a seven-year-old boy who died from poisonous gas after the River Thames flooded their home in 2014, and they believe the fumes came from a nearby landfill.

Zane's law - named after Zane Gbangbola - also calls for measures such as more money for councils to identify and test possible sites.

"You have to know that it exists before you can protect yourself," said Zane's dad Kye Gbangbola, who was left paralysed after the gas poisoning.

"Until we have Zane's Law people will remain unprotected."

When tighter regulations on dealing with potentially contaminated land became law 25 years ago, the minister that pushed them through wanted just that.

Now John Selwyn Gummer feels UK government funding cuts has meant far fewer inspections.

"There is no way in which local authorities can do this job without having the resources," said Lord Deben.

"Successive governments have under-provided for the work that we need to do."

'There's a possibility some people's health is being threatened'

Several councils have told the BBC that funding is the reason they had stopped checking possible contaminated land.

Phil Hartley was one of hundreds of officers across the UK that used to check potential sites and Newcastle's former council contamination officer.

He said the central government grant removal had led to a "collapse" in checks.

"Since the money dried up very, very few councils proactively go out looking for contaminated land sites because the council doesn't want to take the risk of finding them," said Mr Hartley.

"There's a possibility that some people's health is being threatened, which is not great."

The UK government said local authorities had a statutory duty to inspect potentially contaminated sites, require remediation and maintain a public register of remediated land.

"Any risk to public health from contaminated land is a serious matter," a spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

They also asked the Environment Agency to produce a new state of contaminated land report to provide the "best possible baseline of data to measure future policies related to contaminated land against".

The bodies that represent councils in Wales and England both said a lack of cash meant they could not fulfil their duty.

The Welsh Local Government Association said while Wales' 22 councils took their responsibility to check sites "seriously", progress was "increasingly constrained by a lack of dedicated funding and specialist resources".

England's Local Government Association said: "Without adequate funding, councils will continue to struggle to provide crucial services - with devastating consequences for those who rely on them."

You can watch Britain's Toxic Secret on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Thursday 13 March at 20:30 GMT

A SpaceX mission that aimed to clear the way for two stranded astronauts to get back to earth has been postponed.

The launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was put back due to a hydraulic ground issue. There is another possible launch opportunity on Thursday.

The rocket aimed to fly four new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) and pave the way for the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The two NASA astronauts flew to space in June but were not able to return on a Boeing spacecraft after it was deemed unsafe. The pair would be able to return to earth within days of the SpaceX mission reaching the ISS.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

A SpaceX mission that aimed to clear the way for two stranded astronauts to get back to earth has been postponed.

The launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was put back due to a hydraulic ground issue. There is another possible launch opportunity on Thursday.

The rocket aimed to fly four new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) and pave the way for the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The two NASA astronauts flew to space in June but were not able to return on a Boeing spacecraft after it was deemed unsafe. The pair would be able to return to earth within days of the SpaceX mission reaching the ISS.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

Thousands of sites potentially contaminated with toxic chemicals have never been checked by councils, a BBC investigation has found.

Nine out of 10 "high-risk" areas have not been tested by councils responding to a BBC Freedom of Information request, and scientists fear they could pose a health risk.

The sites are thought to contain substances such as lead or arsenic.

The BBC Shared Data Unit found of 13,093 potentially toxic sites that councils have identified as high risk, only 1,465 have been inspected.

The UK government has said that local unitary authorities have a statutory duty to inspect potentially contaminated sites but councils claim they do not have the money to do it.

The research comes after the release of new Netflix drama Toxic Town which tells the story of families fighting for justice following one of the UK's biggest environmental scandals.

The BBC's findings raise fresh questions about what exactly has been left beneath our feet from the UK's heavy industrial past.

"What we don't do in this country is do a full economic evaluation on the cost of things, including health and that feels almost criminal," said Dr Ian Mudway, a leading expert on the effect of pollution on human health.

"I'm not even certain we've achieved the point of scratching the surface."

Contaminated land is a site that might have been polluted from its previous use - it could have been a factory, power station, a railway line, landfill site, petrol station or dry cleaners.

If you live in a property constructed after 2000, any contamination issues should be covered by updated planning laws.

How much land is contaminated in the UK?

But if you live in a property built before 2000, the rules are less clear.

The Environmental Protection Act requires councils to list all potential contaminated sites, and inspect the high-risk ones to make sure people and property are not at risk.

But after contacting all 122 unitary authorities in Wales, Scotland and England about their contaminated land, 73 responded to the BBC's Shared Data Unit Freedom of Information request which revealed there were 430,000 potential sites identified in the early 2000s.

Of those, 13,093 were considered to be potentially high-risk, which experts said should have then been subject to physical testing. Yet, more than 11,000 of them remain unchecked to this day.

Half of Wales' 22 councils told the BBC they could not or would not give us figures - but those that did, identified 698 high-risk sites of which 586 have not been inspected.

Where Robin Morris lives is home to more than 400 of Wales' 1,300 abandoned metal mines and its three rivers, the Ystwyth, Rheidol and the Clarach, are some of the most heavily-polluted in the UK.

The Cwmystwyth mines in north Ceredigion date back to the Bronze Age and were abandoned in 1950, but spoils including a high level of zinc, cadmium and lead scatter the landscape and have polluted the River Ystwyth below.

Many Cwmystwyth locals, like Robin, have filtration systems installed if they receive their water from the hills where the old mines were.

"We installed an advance filtration system and were assured it would take absolutely everything," he said.

'Alarm bells'

The BBC took a soil sample from Robin's garden on the banks of the Ystwyth and it revealed a very high reading of lead - well above the recommended safe level for gardening.

"It causes alarm bells to ring," Robin told BBC Wales Investigates.

"In light of the figures from your soil sample, we should have stopped growing vegetables long ago."

It's just one sample, but other things that have happened in the past now seem to make more sense.

"We had ducks and chickens, a couple of the ducks went lame and we did consult the vet, he thought it was because of lead contamination," added Robin.

Ceredigion council said it was liaising with Wales' environmental body National Resources Wales to continually assess the health impact from the area's mining legacy.

Dr Mudway insists there was "no safe level" of lead and told the BBC it could impact children's development as well as kidney and cardiovascular disease in adults.

"Nothing is more of a forever chemical than lead," added the environmental toxicologist at Imperial College London.

"This is a hazard that has not gone away and is still a clear and present danger to the population.

"It's one of the few chemical entities for which we can calculate a global burden of disease - between half a million to just under a million premature deaths per year because of the release of lead into our environment.

"When you talk about the cost of ensuring that land is safe... that costs money up front.

"The costs of potential health effects, especially if they contribute to chronic diseases which people live with for 10 or 20 years, or the costs of remediating land, after when you realise that it's a high-level, dwarf the profits made at the other end of that cycle. That feels almost criminal.

"The health cost is hardly considered at all."

When Manon Chiswell was a toddler she suddenly stopped talking - doctors advised her family she was showing lots of autistic traits.

"I do have memories of being very closely monitored in Meithrin [nursery]... I always had an adult with me," said Manon, now 20.

"I couldn't speak... they had to use a traffic light system, and yes or no cards to redirect me and help me communicate."

But a blood test later found high levels of lead in Manon's blood.

She was not autistic, she had been poisoned.

Her father, Huw Chiswell, believed Manon was most likely poisoned at their home in Cardiff, which was near an old industrial site.

"She used to eat earth [as a toddler] in the garden," he said.

"There were railway sidings not far from where we lived at the time, so it's difficult to draw any other conclusions really, because once she'd stopped the eating, she got better."

But it is not just about lead - a government report suggests that sites posing the greatest health risks were also contaminated by chemicals such as arsenic, nickel, chromium, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) found in soil or water.

Campaigners want a new law forcing councils to keep a public register of all potential contaminated sites.

It is led by the parents of a seven-year-old boy who died from poisonous gas after the River Thames flooded their home in 2014, and they believe the fumes came from a nearby landfill.

Zane's law - named after Zane Gbangbola - also calls for measures such as more money for councils to identify and test possible sites.

"You have to know that it exists before you can protect yourself," said Zane's dad Kye Gbangbola, who was left paralysed after the gas poisoning.

"Until we have Zane's Law people will remain unprotected."

When tighter regulations on dealing with potentially contaminated land became law 25 years ago, the minister that pushed them through wanted just that.

Now John Selwyn Gummer feels UK government funding cuts has meant far fewer inspections.

"There is no way in which local authorities can do this job without having the resources," said Lord Deben.

"Successive governments have under-provided for the work that we need to do."

'There's a possibility some people's health is being threatened'

Several councils have told the BBC that funding is the reason they had stopped checking possible contaminated land.

Phil Hartley was one of hundreds of officers across the UK that used to check potential sites and Newcastle's former council contamination officer.

He said the central government grant removal had led to a "collapse" in checks.

"Since the money dried up very, very few councils proactively go out looking for contaminated land sites because the council doesn't want to take the risk of finding them," said Mr Hartley.

"There's a possibility that some people's health is being threatened, which is not great."

The UK government said local authorities had a statutory duty to inspect potentially contaminated sites, require remediation and maintain a public register of remediated land.

"Any risk to public health from contaminated land is a serious matter," a spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said.

They also asked the Environment Agency to produce a new state of contaminated land report to provide the "best possible baseline of data to measure future policies related to contaminated land against".

The bodies that represent councils in Wales and England both said a lack of cash meant they could not fulfil their duty.

The Welsh Local Government Association said while Wales' 22 councils took their responsibility to check sites "seriously", progress was "increasingly constrained by a lack of dedicated funding and specialist resources".

England's Local Government Association said: "Without adequate funding, councils will continue to struggle to provide crucial services - with devastating consequences for those who rely on them."

You can watch Britain's Toxic Secret on BBC iPlayer and BBC One on Thursday 13 March at 20:30 GMT

The first daily pill for treating endometriosis symptoms has been approved for use on the NHS in England - but only for patients who have tried all other options.

Endometriosis affects 1.5 million women in the UK, causing pain and extreme tiredness as a result of tissue similar to the womb lining growing elsewhere in the body.

The new tablet, known as relugolix combination therapy, has been approved by drug assessment body the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and, unlike current injectable treatments, it can be taken at home.

The charity Endometriosis UK said the pill gives patients more choice, but will help only a relatively small number of people.

What are the symptoms of endometriosis?

• severe period pain that stops you from doing normal activities
• very heavy periods
• pain when you poo or pee
• other symptoms can include pain in your lower tummy, pain after sex, fatigue, shortness of breath, low mood, anxiety
• difficulty getting pregnant

The new combination therapy pill works by blocking specific hormones that contribute to the condition, while also providing replacement hormones that are needed.

It will only be available on the NHS for people who have already tried all other medical and surgical treatments and found they did not help, NICE said - equivalent to 1,000 women a year.

This includes treatments such as hormonal contraceptives and intrauterine delivery systems.

Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE, said it marked "a potential step-change in how we manage endometriosis, putting control back in patients' hands while ensuring value for the taxpayer".

She said the treatment could be stopped and started more easily than other treatments, which is important for those planning to have children and for managing side effects.

That could also reduce pressure on NHS services, she added.

NICE initially rejected the drug, but new evidence was provided by the manufacturer on its effectiveness and value for money.

'Collapsing in pain'

Ami Clarke, 27, from St. Albans, started experiencing endometriosis symptoms after her very first period, aged 13.

She was not diagnosed until 10 years later - by then she had tried six different contraceptive pills to find a way of helping her pain, but nothing seemed to work.

"I came off the pill and that's when my periods became absolutely, completely unmanageable. They took over my life. I wasn't going to university, I wasn't going to work," Ami says.

"If I was going to work, I was collapsing in pain consistently every single month."

Ami kept going back to her GP because the pain was "completely unbearable".

"I was just so desperate, my mental health was on the floor. I don't even know how I survived. It was like 20 to 25 days out of the month where I was just completely bed-bound," she told the BBC.

Ami had her first surgery in October 2021, which reduced the pain for seven or eight months, but then it gradually came back. A second operation in April 2024 was not as successful. She is now trying to raise enough money to have a third surgery, privately.

Ami says it is good to hear that further treatment is being developed for endometriosis because "a lot of the time it feels like you're being left in the dark".

Usually, the first treatments for endometriosis, after pain relievers, are hormone injections which temporarily shut down the body's production of estrogen. This is the hormone that causes endometriosis tissue to grow and cause pain.

However, patients often need to travel to hospitals to have the injections, which last for up to three months.

With the new all-in-one tablet, there is no need for patients to remember to take hormone replacement therapy as a separate tablet.

It can be stopped quickly if side effects are difficult and taken up until the menopause.

"It's a step forward and will give patients more choice, but it will impact a relatively small number of people," says Emma Cox, chief executive of Endometriosis UK.

"We need to see more investment in other research and treatments," she added.

The treatment will cost £72 for a 28-day supply, NICE said.

A SpaceX mission that aimed to clear the way for two stranded astronauts to get back to earth has been postponed.

The launch from Florida's Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was put back due to a hydraulic ground issue. There is another possible launch opportunity on Thursday.

The rocket aimed to fly four new crew members to the International Space Station (ISS) and pave the way for the return of Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore.

The two NASA astronauts flew to space in June but were not able to return on a Boeing spacecraft after it was deemed unsafe. The pair would be able to return to earth within days of the SpaceX mission reaching the ISS.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

In January, Simon Vickers was found guilty of murdering his 14-year-old daughter Scarlett after a jury rejected his claim he had killed her in a play-fight. His partner, Scarlett's mother, is adamant it was an accident.

It's the question Sarah Hall will hear for the rest of her life - how can she possibly support the man who was convicted of murdering her daughter?

"I know he'd never harm Scarlett," she insists.

Ms Hall claims 5 July had been a normal Friday night at the family's Darlington home.

She says the close-knit trio, who dubbed themselves the Three S's, called them "happy Fridays" as it meant another week of work and school was over.

Scarlett ate her dinner and spent the evening in her bedroom, chatting with friends and playing games online.

Her parents drank wine and watched the men's European Football Championships on TV in the living room.

Vickers also smoked some cannabis, something he regularly did to ease backache caused by his manual job in a factory, Ms Hall says.

At about 22:00 BST, the teenager joined her parents in their small kitchen where her mother was putting the finishing touches to the adults' tea, spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread.

Ms Hall becomes very emotional when she describes what happened next.

She and her daughter were throwing grapes into each other's mouths, she says, having "just a fun fight".

Vickers also joined in. As Ms Hall was busy draining off the pasta in the sink, her partner of 27 years and their daughter were "mucking about by the back door".

Precisely what happened next is still the source of much confusion for her, but she is certain it was not criminal.

During the play-fight, Ms Hall says she accidentally nipped Vickers with the kitchen tongs.

He reacted and Scarlett "jokingly" called him a wimp, Ms Hall says.

Vickers replied "how would you like it" and swiped the tongs across the worktop towards his daughter, Ms Hall says.

A kitchen knife had been placed next to the tongs, ready to cut the garlic bread, and Ms Hall believes the utensil caught the knife and wedged it against a granite chopping board, leaving the blade protruding out from the bench.

At that same moment, Scarlett moved towards her dad, perhaps in a bid to grab the tongs, and ran on to the blade, Ms Hall says.

'Something seriously wrong'

During Vickers' trial, he also claimed the injury was inflicted accidentally, but a pathologist said it was "practically impossible" for it to have been caused by anything other than a knife being held firmly in a hand.

Vickers initially said he hurled a knife instead of what he thought was a spatula, but also told paramedics and police at the scene Scarlett had "lunged" towards him and the blade "just went in".

Sentencing Vickers, judge Mr Justice Cotter said he had "no doubt" Scarlett's father had been holding the knife.

What Ms Hall knows for sure is her daughter cried "ow", then blood started to pour from her side.

"I just thought 'that's not right, there's something seriously wrong'," Ms Hall says.

Ms Hall grabbed a tea towel to try and stem the bleeding, her daughter collapsing to the floor.

Vickers took over from her and shouted at Ms Hall to call 999.

It took the ambulance what "felt like forever" to come, but paramedics were actually there within minutes and immediately started trying to save Scarlett's life.

Their efforts were in vain.

Scarlett died from a single 4in-deep (11cm) stab wound to her chest.

The blade needed only mild force to pass between her ribs and into her heart, causing catastrophic bleeding, a pathologist would later say.

'Becoming an incredible woman'

The police arrived and Ms Hall and Vickers were arrested for attempted murder and taken to separate police stations.

When Ms Hall was given the news her daughter had died, she cried: "No, no, please no. My little girl."

She was given a sedative and put into a cell where she remembers waking up intermittently, crying, before lapsing back into her medicated sleep.

Scarlett was the girl who had always made her parents laugh.

She was bursting with energy, beautiful, boisterous and sassy, her mother says.

"She was an incredible girl and she was becoming an incredible young woman."

Both Ms Hall and Vickers were initially charged with murdering their daughter, but the case against her was quickly dropped and Vickers alone stood trial at Teesside Crown Court in January.

The strongest evidence against him was from pathologist Dr Jennifer Bolton, who concluded the knife must have been being firmly held in a hand to cause the injuries it did.

After a 10-day trial, during which Ms Hall gave evidence in support of Vickers, and about 13 hours of deliberation, jurors found him guilty of murder with a 10 to two majority.

Vickers could have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter but Ms Hall says he said he needed "to stand up in court and tell them that he would never, ever harm" Scarlett.

Jailing him for life with a minimum prison term of 15 years, Mr Justice Cotter said a "momentary but devastating act of anger" had robbed Scarlett of her life, adding Vickers' account of it being a "freak accident" was "unconvincing and wholly implausible".

Ms Hall says that is "absurd", adding her partner "never had a flash of anger".

"I was there that night," she says. "There were no arguments. There was no temper, no shouting."

She says she was shocked when the verdict was announced, adding: "I thought I'd misheard.

"It's just been a never-ending nightmare."

Responding to social media speculation in the aftermath of the trial that Vickers must have been a controlling and abusive partner, Ms Hall said: "No, never.

"He was understanding, comforting.

"[Our relationship] was very supportive, never controlling."

Ms Hall says her family was a happy one and they "did everything together".

Vickers and Scarlett had a very loving relationship, Ms Hall says, adding they were "as daft as each other".

When challenged about how she can stay with Vickers, Ms Hall says she is still resolutely supporting him.

"How can I blame him for an accident when I know he's in as much pain as I am?" she says.

"If I thought he'd done it deliberately then no, I wouldn't have been here [doing this interview].

"I would have protected her with my life, as would he."

At Vickers' sentencing, the court heard Ms Hall's and Vickers' parents remained "resolute in their belief" he "did not intend Scarlett any harm".

'It was a happy house'

Ms Hall dreams about her daughter every night, remembering with horror each morning that she's really gone.

"I just want her back so much," she says. "I'm not sleeping well, I'm not eating well. I'm just existing."

She has only been back to their home on Geneva Road three times since Scarlett's death.

The semi-detached house is now just a "shell" because "they're not here", she says.

"It was a happy house," she says. "I see the memories everywhere.

"Even going back into [Scarlett's] bedroom, she left a blazer there with all her school stuff still in.

"Everything was just left how it was."

Vickers' sentence is set to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal, after Solicitor General Lucy Rigby KC said she thought it was too lenient.

A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line

Follow BBC North East on X and Facebook and BBC Cumbria on X and Facebook and both on Nextdoor and Instagram.

A new offence to cover lone individuals planning non-terrorist mass killings should be considered in the wake of the Southport attacks, the UK's terror watchdog has said.

However the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Jonathan Hall KC, says the definition of terrorism should not be expanded or changed.

Last summer, Axel Rudakubana stabbed six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice Aguiar to death at a Taylor Swift-themed holiday class.

He also tried to murder eight other young girls, and two adults who tried to save them, including the class organiser Leanne Lucas.

Police officers discovered ricin pulp and a copy of an al-Qaeda manual at Rudakubana's house, but did not find any clear ideological reason for his attack, so did not classify it as terrorism.

Other evidence suggested he was interested in Adolf Hitler, Genghis Khan, the Rwandan genocide and school massacres.

Following the attacks, Sir Keir Starmer said Britain faced a new threat from "extreme violence carried out by loners, misfits, young men in their bedrooms".

In January he asked Mr Hall to identify any changes needed to the law as a result of the Southport murders.

Mr Hall considered whether the definition of terrorism itself should be changed to include mass violence without a political, religious, racial or other ideological motivation, but concluded it should not.

"Redefinition would alter the landscape. It would risk major false positives – the prosecution of people who by no stretch of the imagination are terrorists – and extend terrorism liability into novel terrain," Mr Hall said.

"People swapping violent war footage would be at risk of encouraging terrorism, resulting in unacceptable restrictions on freedom of expression."

However, Mr Hall said there was a clear risk to the public of people who are interested in carrying out acts of mass violence, including school massacres.

Currently there is no law against preparing for such an attack which "means that no prosecution would be available if the police raided an address and found careful handwritten but uncommunicated plans for carrying out a massacre".

As a result, he is recommending the government considers creating a new offence, similar to the offence of preparing an act of terrorism.

The offence would make it illegal to "engage in any conduct" in preparation of the killing of two or more people, what he calls "non-terrorist mass casualty attack-planning".

He suggests that the maximum sentence should be life imprisonment.

A government spokesperson said legislation would now be amended to incorporate Mr Hall's recommendations, adding today's report was "an important step" towards preventing an attack like this from happening again.

Downing Street also said police were looking into how misinformation spreads online after false information about the killings sparked riots across England and Northern Ireland.

The spokesperson added: "We have asked the Law Commission to conclude its own review into the rules around contempt of court as soon as possible."

As part of his report Jonathan Hall KC considered what should happen with young people like Axel Rudakubana, who are referred to the counter-terrorism Prevent programme, but are not taken on because they do not have a clear ideology.

"If they are not to be managed by counter-terrorism police, who will 'own' the risk?", he asked.

He said lessons should be learned from counter-terrorism, and generally it should be the police that take responsibility for public protection, rather than leaving it to other agencies like mental health services.

Mr Hall added that police should have been able to give more information to the media about the suspected attacker in the aftermath of the Southport murders.

"In the digital era, if the police do not take the lead in providing clear, accurate and sober details about an attack like Southport, others will."

"Following Southport, the disinformation generated on social media, combined with widespread allegations of a 'cover-up', risked far more prejudice to any trial than the placement of undisputed facts about the attacker in the public domain," he said.

In Brussels, it was just after 06:00 on Wednesday. But it was midnight in Washington DC when President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium took effect on major US trading partners.

It took less than 10 minutes for the European Union to respond.

"Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and worse for consumers," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU's initial countermeasures will take effect on US products on 1 April, ranging from jeans and motorbikes to peanut butter and bourbon, just as they were with the Trump administration's first tariffs in 2018 and 2020.

But there will be more to come in mid-April. A whole swathe of textiles, home appliances, food and agricultural products could be included, depending on a two-week consultation with stakeholders.

A list of items almost 100 pages long is being circulated that features meat, dairy, fruit, wine and spirits, toilet seats, wood, coats, swimwear, nightdresses, shoes, chandeliers and lawnmowers.

For consumers, higher prices loom on Europe's supermarket shelves, especially for American products. But for businesses and some industries, especially steel, there is real danger.

The head of Germany's BGA federation of wholesale, foreign trade and service, Dirk Jandura, warned that Germans might have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for American products in the supermarkets.

Orange juice, bourbon and peanut butter were the most likely products to be hit. "Margins in trade are so low that this cannot be absorbed by the companies," he said.

In total, the EU will target €26bn (£22bn) of US exports.

"We're not going to go into hypotheticals other than to say we've been preparing assiduously for all these outcomes," said EU spokesman Olof Gill.

• How will latest Trump tariffs affect UK?
• Trump complains of 'massive' trade imbalance with Irish PM

António Costa, the EU's Council President, called on the US to de-escalate, although there was little sign of that on Wednesday, as Trump vowed to hit back at the EU's countermeasures.

"We've been abused for a long time and we will be abused no longer," he said.

In Austria too, there was concern about the escalation.

"The US is the second most important export market for Austrian products after Germany - and the most important for Germany," said Christoph Neumayer, who is head of the Federation of Austrian Industries. It was "essential that Europe acts together and decisively", he added.

One EU official pointed out that products such as soybeans and orange juice could easily be sourced from Brazil or Argentina, so consumers would not be hit too hard.

And there was a suggestion that some of the US exports targeted were also from US states under Republican control: soybeans from Louisiana or meat from Nebraska and Kansas.

A relatively large number of US exports enter the EU via the Dutch port of Rotterdam or Antwerp in Belgium.

Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Dirk Beljaarts said nobody stood to benefit from a "tariffs war", but he was hopeful it would not hit his own country's economy too hard: "It has an impact on companies and consumers - particularly consumers in the US."

One area that will be hit especially hard on both sides of the Atlantic is in the drinks sector.

Pauline Bastidon of Spirits Europe said producers in the EU and US stood united, with risks facing European companies that produced US spirits and US companies that were heavily invested in Europe.

Chris Swonger, of the US Distilled Spirits Council, said that in the three years since the suspension of the EU's earlier 25% tariff on American whiskey, US distillers had "worked hard to regain solid footing in our largest export market".

Reimposing tariffs from 1 April was "deeply disappointing" and he called for a return to "zero-for-zero" tariffs.

For cognac producers in France, the prospect of a 25% US import tax is also a major problem as most of their produce is for export, either to the US or China.

French producers have already been hit by Chinese measures that have slapped heavy taxes on cognac.

"Morale is down in the dumps," Bastien Brusaferro of the general winegrowers' union told France Info.

Thousands of jobs are at stake in the Charente region alone, he says: "Cognac is a product that's made for export."

There was a dire warning too from the head of the European Steel Association, Henrik Adam.

"President Trump's 'America First' policy threatens to be a final nail in the coffin of the European steel industry," he warned.

Trump's initial tariffs on European steel in 2018 saw EU steel exports to the US fall by more than a million tonnes, and for every three tonnes of steel that did not enter the US, two-thirds of it entered the EU instead.

"These new measures imposed by Trump are more extensive, therefore the impact of the US tariffs is likely to be far greater."

US officials are headed to Russia to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, according to President Donald Trump.

The news comes after Ukrainian officials agreed to a 30-day ceasefire following a highly anticipated meeting with American officials in Saudi Arabia.

Earlier, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the "ball is truly in their [Russia's] court" and that the US believes the only way to end the fighting is through peace negotiations.

The Kremlin has said it is studying the ceasefire proposal, and that a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is possible.

Following the meeting in Jeddah on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky said it was now up to the US to convince Russia to agree to the "positive" proposal.

Speaking alongside Ireland's Taoiseach - or Prime Minister - Micheál Martin in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump said he had received "positive messages" about the possibility of a ceasefire.

• UK helped Ukraine and US reach ceasefire deal - government sources
• US set to present 30-day ceasefire offer to Russia

"But a positive message means nothing," he said. "This is a very serious situation."

Trump did not specify what officials he was referring to.

However, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House that National Security Secretary Mike Waltz spoke to his Russian counterpart.

Earlier this week, a source familiar told the BBC that Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff would head to Moscow for negotiations following the talks in Jeddah.

The White House confirmed the plans on Wednesday.

"We urge the Russians to sign on to this plan. This is the closest we have been to peace in this war," Leavitt said.

The Kremlin has said it is studying the proposed ceasefire and further details, which spokesman Dmitry Peskov said will come "via various channels" over the course of the next several days.

In the Oval Office, Trump said that he believes a ceasefire would make sense for Russia, adding - without further details - that there is a "lot of downside to Russia" as well.

"We have a very complex situation solved on one side. Pretty much solved. We've also discussed land and other things that go with it," Trump added. "We know the areas of land we're talking about, whether it's pull back or not pull back."

To pressure Russia, Trump said that he "can do things financially".

"That would be very bad for Russia," he said. "I don't want to do that because I want to get peace."

The meeting in Jeddah was the first between US and Ukrainian officials since a 28 February meeting between Zelensky, Trump and Vice President JD Vance descended into a shouting match and, ultimately, a pause in US military assistance and intelligence sharing.

The pause was lifted following the meeting in Jeddah, and Trump said that he believes that the "difficult" Ukrainian side and Zelensky now want peace.

Even as negotiations over a potential ceasefire are ongoing, fighting has raged in Ukraine.

Russian drones and missiles reportedly struck targets in Kryvyy Rih - Zelensky's hometown - overnight, as well as in the port city of Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv.

Clashes also continued in Russia's Kursk region, where Peskov said Russian troops were "successfully advancing" and recapturing areas held by Ukrainian forces.

And later on Wednesday, the Kremlin said President Putin had visited a command post in the region. He was shown in footage released by the Kremlin walking alongside his military chief Valery Gerasimov, with both men wearing combat gear.

It marked the Russian president's first visit to the region since Ukraine's incursion across the border in August last year.

Russian media report that President Putin ordered the military to "fully liberate" the region during the visit. He is yet to comment on the ceasefire proposal agreed by Ukraine and the US on Tuesday.

The head of Ukraine's military, Oleksandr Syrsky, also indicated on Wednesday that some of its troops were withdrawing from Kursk. In a post on the Telegram messaging app, he said: "In the most difficult situation, my priority has been and remains saving the lives of Ukrainian soldiers."

The requirement for a High Court judge to approve assisted dying applications has been dropped by the committee considering the bill.

The clause had been heralded by the bill's supporters as a safeguard that made it the strictest such legislation in the world.

But the Ministry of Justice and senior judges raised concerns about the impact on the courts.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who is bringing the bill, suggested replacing the role of High Court judges with a three-person panel featuring a senior legal figure, a psychiatrist and a social worker to review applications.

The committee is expected to insert those details at a later stage.

After the bill committee voted 15 to seven in favour of dropping the High Court judge's role, Leadbeater said the change would make the law "even more robust".

"And it is much safer than the current ban on assisted dying, which leaves terminally ill people and their families without any such protections at all," she said.

"I have been encouraged that in the course of this debate there have been positive responses to the proposal for a commissioner and a multi-disciplinary panel from colleagues across the committee, regardless of how they voted at [its] second reading.

"That tells me that whatever our views on the Bill itself, there is a shared commitment to getting protections for terminally ill adults right. That means we are doing our job."

However a group of 26 of her fellow Labour MPs warned that scrapping the High Court's oversight "breaks the promises made by proponents of the bill, fundamentally weakens the protections for the vulnerable and shows just how haphazard this whole process has become".

In a statement, the group - made up almost entirely of MPs who voted against the bill at second reading - said: "It does not increase judicial safeguards but instead creates an unaccountable quango and to claim otherwise misrepresents what is being proposed."

US President Donald Trump has pledged to impose more tariffs after his latest move to introduce import taxes on steel and aluminium entering the US prompted retaliation from the European Union (EU) and Canada.

Trump said "of course" he would respond to the countermeasures, repeating his warning to reveal "reciprocal" tariffs next month on countries around the world.

"Whatever they charge us with, we're charging them," he said.

The threat marked a further escalation of a trade war which has rattled financial markets amid concerns over the impact on the economies and consumers in many countries around the world, including the US.

On Wednesday, Trump moved forward with a plan to widen US tariffs on steel and aluminium, imposing a blanket duty of 25% and ending exemptions that the US had previously granted for shipments from some countries.

That followed an order earlier this month that raised levies on Chinese imports into the US to at least 20%.

Trump has also threatened tariffs - which are taxes applied to goods as they enter a country - on a range of more specific items, including copper, lumber and cars.

Leaders in Canada and Europe called the new metals taxes unjustified and struck back with their own tariffs on a range of US products.

Other countries that are key US suppliers of metals, including the UK, Australia, Mexico and Brazil, held off on any immediate retaliation.

"Like everybody else, I'm disappointed to see global tariffs in relation to steel and aluminium but we will take a pragmatic approach," said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

"We are...negotiating a deal which covers and includes tariffs if we succeed. But we will keep all options on the table."

Canada said from Thursday it would start charging a 25% tax on nearly C$30bn ($20bn; £16bn) worth of US products, including steel, computers and sports equipment.

The EU said it would raise its levies on up to €26bn ($28bn; £22bn) worth of US goods, including boats, bourbon and motorbikes, from 1 April.

EU President Ursula von der Leyen said the response was intended to be "strong but proportionate" and added that the EU stood "ready to engage in a meaningful dialogue".

"Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business and worse for consumers," she said, warning the economic disruption put jobs at stake and would send prices higher.

"Nobody needs that – on both sides, neither in the European Union nor in the United States."

Trump had said he wants to boost US steel and aluminium production in the longer run, but critics say in the immediate term the taxes on imports of the metals will raise prices for US consumers and dent economic growth.

Major packaged food makers including Quaker Oats and Folgers coffee asked Trump for targeted exemptions from tariffs on imports such as cocoa and fruit, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

PepsiCo, Conagra and J M Smucker, also requested the president exempt ingredients not available from US sources in the letter, which was sent by the trade group the Consumer Brands Association.

Coffee, oats, cocoa, spices, tropical fruit and tin mill steel, used for some food and household goods, are among the imports listed as unavailable domestically, Reuters reported.

The import taxes are also expected to reduce demand for steel and aluminium that is not made in the US - a blow to makers of the metals elsewhere.

The EU estimated that the latest US tariffs affect about 5% of its total exports to the US, while the US is the destination for roughly 90% of Canada's steel and aluminium exports.

Shares in the US were mixed on Wednesday, after two days of sharp decline. The Dow closed down 0.2%, while the S&P 500 ended nearly 0.5% higher and the Nasdaq jumped 1.2%.

In an appearance at the White House with the Irish prime minister, Taoiseach Micheál Martin, Trump said he did not plan to back down from his trade fight, saying he was "not happy" with EU trade policies.

He cited concerns about legal penalties it has imposed on Apple and rules he claimed put US farm products and cars at a disadvantage.

"They're doing what they should be doing perhaps for the European Union but it does create ill will," he said.

Repeating his threat to hit European cars with tariffs, he added later: "We're going to win that financial battle."

The UK has revoked accreditation for a Russian diplomat and a diplomatic spouse after two British officials were ordered to leave Russia on Monday.

In the latest in a series of tit-for-tat expulsions, the UK Foreign Office said it was taking "immediate reciprocal action" after Moscow accused a British diplomat and the spouse of another diplomat of spying

The Foreign Office in a statement accused Russia of fabricating the accusations "to justify their increasing harassment of UK diplomats" and "actively seeking to drive the British Embassy in Moscow towards closure".

Russia's embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Russia's ambassador to the UK Andrei Kelin was summoned by a senior Foreign Office official on Wednesday, the statement read.

The official "made clear that the UK will not stand for intimidation of British embassy staff and their families," and that the accreditation of the Russian diplomat and diplomatic spouse was being revoked as a result.

An accreditation is a recognition by a government of a diplomat's status.

The Foreign Office accused Moscow of pursuing "an increasingly aggressive and coordinated campaign of harassment against British diplomats" and "pumping out malicious and completely baseless accusations about their work" for 12 months.

The statement alleged Russia was seeking to drive the UK embassy in Moscow to close and Russia had "no regard for the dangerous escalatory impact of this".

The UK government believes in "maintaining diplomatic channels of communication" with Russia, "despite the extremely difficult bilateral relations caused by Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine and long-running campaign of hostile action against the UK", the statement continued.

• Russia expels two more British diplomats

The UK's move follows Russia ordering two British officials to leave within two weeks, after the country's domestic security service accused the men of "intelligence and subversive work".

The Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed they had declared false information about themselves when receiving permission to enter Russia.

Multiple expulsions of diplomats have taken place amid worsening Russia-UK relations since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In the past year alone, there have been seven British diplomats expelled from Russia, with Moscow accusing them of espionage - allegations denied by the UK.

In February, a Russian diplomat was expelled from the UK after Moscow ordered a British official to leave in November 2024.

In September 2024, Russia announced that the accreditation of six British diplomats in Moscow had been revoked, requiring them to leave the country.

In May 2024, British diplomat Capt Adrian Coghill was given a week to leave Russia.

It came days after the Russian defence attaché was expelled from London for alleged espionage as an "undeclared military intelligence officer".

A number of British politicians and journalists have also been barred from entering Russia since the war began.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was added to Russia's "stop list" in 2022, barring his entry to the country.

Big swings in spring

What's causing the cold weather?

The prime minister's policy team has been meeting Labour MPs behind closed doors in Downing Street ahead of significant cuts to the welfare budget.

These could be twice as deep as the savings that were signalled at last autumn's Budget - somewhere between £5bn and £6bn.

The meetings are focussing on the principles of reform – not the detail.

The escalating costs and numbers of people designated as unfit for work were set out in a slideshow presentation.

And the prime minister himself told MPs in the Commons that the current system was "indefensible, economically and morally" and "must be reformed".

But his team has had to listen to serious concerns from MPs who are usually loyal.

The full scale of the cuts won't be set out until the Spring Statement, while Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall will give a major speech next week and publish a "Green Paper".

Despite the name, that's a blueprint for reform.

There are those on the Left of the party who don't believe any cuts should be made.

At Prime Minister's Questions Richard Burgon – a frontbencher under Jeremy Corbyn – urged Sir Keir Starmer to consider a wealth tax rather than a welfare cut.

Unsustainable welfare

Broadly speaking, though, the parliamentary party has accepted the argument that – without reform – the welfare bill is going to become unsustainable in years to come.

And Labour strategists believe that appearing to get a handle on welfare is an essential weapon in the anti-Reform UK armoury.

The strongest argument the government can muster in favour of reform is that too many people who are regarded as long-term sick are in effect thrown on the unemployment scrapheap when, with the right help, they could engage in the world of work.

And it's understood that the Treasury won't swallow up all of the welfare savings.

Kendall will be able to redirect a significant sum – perhaps as much as £1bn – into the kind of intensive support which some claimants would need to get off benefits.

This, of course, would be expected to lead to savings in due course but won't bring instant rewards.

Another argument being made is that the system currently provides a perverse incentive which encourages sickness over work.

If you were to be assessed as having a limited capacity to work or work-related activity you could be paid around £400 more a month than someone who is unemployed actively looking for work.

That gap is likely to be narrowed.

Where the government has a bigger challenge is to convince its own MPs that the level of Personal Independence Payments (PIP) - which are not means tested and are made to people who have a long-term physical or mental health condition - ought to change, and future eligibility restricted.

At PMQs Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey asked Sir Keir to "calm anxieties" by giving an assurance that disability benefits for those who can't work wouldn't be cut.

He didn't receive it.

Here, the politics are tricky.

PIP cuts don't fit in to the narrative of providing opportunities to people who are languishing on the dole.

Some of those who receive PIP payments are in work and would argue that these provide essential support which enables them to remain in employment.

The Department for Work and Pensions has consulted with charities, but even before the Green Paper has seen the light of day some of those organisations have been firing off denunciatory press releases.

The state of the public finances means the Treasury needs to rein in spending if the chancellor is to meet her own fiscal rules, including having debt fall as a share of national income on a five-year horizon.

The expectation is that PIP payments will be frozen next year – so their value will erode - and that some of those in receipt of PIP are likely to face re-assessment and may lose their payments entirely.

Loyalty tested to the limit?

It's here in particular that some the usually loyal MPs - not associated with the party's Left - are expressing concerns.

We have spoken to some of them who listened to the PM make the case for welfare reform at a private meeting on Monday, or who attended the private meetings on Wednesday.

An attendee said there was too little detail to reach a definitive view but cutting disabled benefits was likely to be a red line. Others were more outspoken.

One told us: "People won't wear it. The costs of being disabled aren't going down.

"They cant just force this through like the winter fuel cut."

Another said: "If we're freezing PIP that is unforgivable. These are people who can never ever work.

"Some people have very complex disabilities. Part of the social contract is they are supported."

And a usual supporter of Sir Keir said: "Most of us broadly agree that there are lots of people who don't work but should, and have no problem with getting them into work.

"But punishing those who are especially vulnerable and have severe disabilities is unacceptable."

Another added: "The government needs to stop talking about everyone who is on disability benefits as if they are all the same because they are not."

We were told some "heartfelt conversations" were had with the No 10 team on Wednesday and there is a hope that the potential PIP freeze can be thawed.

"This is still a live conversation," one MP said.

Some MPs also felt that the timing of the welfare cuts was wrong.

For example, they said NHS waiting lists needed to come down first – which should also bring savings in PIP and incapacity benefits - and should be done against the backdrop of a growing, not stagnant, economy.

It is worth remembering, though, that the government has a large majority and the prime minister himself is hugely determined not to duck difficult decisions on welfare.

And that recently-formed Get Britain Working Group of Labour MPs – most of who are from the 2024 intake - will vocally support the need for radical welfare reform.

However one of the 36 signatories to the group's supportive letter to Kendall has withdrawn her name.

Stoke South MP Allison Gardner said on social media that her name should not have been included, because the letter didn't do enough to reflect the needs of those with severe disabilities who simply can't work.

It seems it easier to get agreement in principle to welfare reform than to put it in to practice.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Despite the government's hopes, the UK has not, in the end, been exempted from President Trump's 25% steel and aluminium tariffs.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the UK will "keep all options on the table", but has not announced immediate retaliation.

BBC Verify looks at how big the impact on the UK could be and what might happen next.

Metal products

The value of the UK's raw steel and aluminium exports to the US in 2024 was around £470m.

But it's important to note that these latest US tariffs - taxes on imports - also cover products made with steel and aluminium, which covers everything from gym equipment, to furniture, to machinery.

It's estimated by the Global Trade Alert think tank that the UK's exports of these products to the US in 2024 was around £2.2bn.

So the total annual value of UK exports affected would be around £2.7bn.

For context, the UK exported around £58bn of goods to the US on an annual basis in 2024 - so the share of goods hit by these new Trump tariffs represents just under 5%.

The UK hopes to conclude a free trade deal with the Trump administration, which could mean these tariffs being removed.

But we have no way of knowing if - or how soon - such an agreement could be concluded.

Trump has also threatened to impose reciprocal tariffs on all the United States' trading partners, including the UK, from next month.

These are taxes on imports to the US which are set at a similar rate to taxes other countries put on goods they import from the US.

And the White House has said that, in deciding what level to set them, it will take into account countries' Value Added Tax rates.

The US government regards VAT as a tax that discriminates against US imports - even though it applies equally to imports and domestically-produced goods.

The UK has a 20% standard VAT rate, which could potentially mean the UK being hit by a substantial reciprocal tariff from the US.

While the UK is not yet retaliating, the European Union has already confirmed it plans to impose tariffs on 26bn euros (£22bn) a year worth of goods imported from America.

And the EU is targeting US goods including Bourbon whiskey, jeans and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which are considered to be politically sensitive in America because of their iconic status and because of which US states some of them are produced in.

Notwithstanding the hope for a free trade deal, in the wake of any reciprocal tariffs imposed by the US, which are perceived to be unfair and punitive, the UK government could find itself under growing pressure to retaliate in a similar way to the EU.

Why is Trump imposing tariffs?

The US President has a long - and often shifting - list of justifications for imposing these import taxes.

One is that he claims to want to restore fairness to America's trading relations with the rest of the world.

Trump complains that some other countries have higher tariffs on the goods they import from the US, than the other way round.

The US had an average external tariff of 3.3% in 2023.

That was slightly lower than the UK's average tariff of 3.8%.

It was also below the European Union's average tariff of 5% and China's average tariff of 7.5%.

However, America's average tariff was considerably lower than those of some of its other trading partners such as India (17%) and South Korea (13.4%).

Broadly speaking, it is legitimate for Trump to point out that some countries have a higher average tariff on imports than America does.

Replacing income tax?

Another justification for tariffs from the president is raising more tax revenue for the US government. At one stage during the presidential election campaign in 2024, he suggested that tariff revenue could entirely replace the federal income tax.

This is not only implausible given the $3 trillion a year value of US imports and the $2 trillion a year raised by income tax - but it needs to be seen in the context of the fact that tariffs would push up US consumer prices.

Trump also wants to put pressure on other countries to change some of their policies. This has been the explicit rationale for US tariffs on Canada and Mexico, with the White House saying it wants to pressure those countries to stamp out cross-border Fentanyl smuggling.

Another key goal articulated by the president is wanting to encourage multinational manufacturing companies to invest and produce more in America to create domestic jobs.

Some of these justifications are inconsistent.

Tariffs cannot be a both a major permanent tax revenue raiser as well as a way to bring manufacturing back to America on a large scale as the latter implies imports - and therefore tariff revenues - slumping.

Moreover, the vast majority of economists are also extremely sceptical about the likelihood of tariffs achieving many of these goals.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

In Brussels, it was just after 06:00 on Wednesday. But it was midnight in Washington DC when President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium took effect on major US trading partners.

It took less than 10 minutes for the European Union to respond.

"Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and worse for consumers," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

The EU's initial countermeasures will take effect on US products on 1 April, ranging from jeans and motorbikes to peanut butter and bourbon, just as they were with the Trump administration's first tariffs in 2018 and 2020.

But there will be more to come in mid-April. A whole swathe of textiles, home appliances, food and agricultural products could be included, depending on a two-week consultation with stakeholders.

A list of items almost 100 pages long is being circulated that features meat, dairy, fruit, wine and spirits, toilet seats, wood, coats, swimwear, nightdresses, shoes, chandeliers and lawnmowers.

For consumers, higher prices loom on Europe's supermarket shelves, especially for American products. But for businesses and some industries, especially steel, there is real danger.

The head of Germany's BGA federation of wholesale, foreign trade and service, Dirk Jandura, warned that Germans might have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay for American products in the supermarkets.

Orange juice, bourbon and peanut butter were the most likely products to be hit. "Margins in trade are so low that this cannot be absorbed by the companies," he said.

In total, the EU will target €26bn (£22bn) of US exports.

"We're not going to go into hypotheticals other than to say we've been preparing assiduously for all these outcomes," said EU spokesman Olof Gill.

• How will latest Trump tariffs affect UK?
• Trump complains of 'massive' trade imbalance with Irish PM

António Costa, the EU's Council President, called on the US to de-escalate, although there was little sign of that on Wednesday, as Trump vowed to hit back at the EU's countermeasures.

"We've been abused for a long time and we will be abused no longer," he said.

In Austria too, there was concern about the escalation.

"The US is the second most important export market for Austrian products after Germany - and the most important for Germany," said Christoph Neumayer, who is head of the Federation of Austrian Industries. It was "essential that Europe acts together and decisively", he added.

One EU official pointed out that products such as soybeans and orange juice could easily be sourced from Brazil or Argentina, so consumers would not be hit too hard.

And there was a suggestion that some of the US exports targeted were also from US states under Republican control: soybeans from Louisiana or meat from Nebraska and Kansas.

A relatively large number of US exports enter the EU via the Dutch port of Rotterdam or Antwerp in Belgium.

Dutch Economic Affairs Minister Dirk Beljaarts said nobody stood to benefit from a "tariffs war", but he was hopeful it would not hit his own country's economy too hard: "It has an impact on companies and consumers - particularly consumers in the US."

One area that will be hit especially hard on both sides of the Atlantic is in the drinks sector.

Pauline Bastidon of Spirits Europe said producers in the EU and US stood united, with risks facing European companies that produced US spirits and US companies that were heavily invested in Europe.

Chris Swonger, of the US Distilled Spirits Council, said that in the three years since the suspension of the EU's earlier 25% tariff on American whiskey, US distillers had "worked hard to regain solid footing in our largest export market".

Reimposing tariffs from 1 April was "deeply disappointing" and he called for a return to "zero-for-zero" tariffs.

For cognac producers in France, the prospect of a 25% US import tax is also a major problem as most of their produce is for export, either to the US or China.

French producers have already been hit by Chinese measures that have slapped heavy taxes on cognac.

"Morale is down in the dumps," Bastien Brusaferro of the general winegrowers' union told France Info.

Thousands of jobs are at stake in the Charente region alone, he says: "Cognac is a product that's made for export."

There was a dire warning too from the head of the European Steel Association, Henrik Adam.

"President Trump's 'America First' policy threatens to be a final nail in the coffin of the European steel industry," he warned.

Trump's initial tariffs on European steel in 2018 saw EU steel exports to the US fall by more than a million tonnes, and for every three tonnes of steel that did not enter the US, two-thirds of it entered the EU instead.

"These new measures imposed by Trump are more extensive, therefore the impact of the US tariffs is likely to be far greater."

The fentanyl dealer from Los Angeles stands to the side watching carefully as a Mexican drugs cartel operative prepares his latest shipment. The synthetic opioid drug is wrapped in foil, sealed in plastic, then dropped with an oily splash into the petrol tank of the trafficker's nondescript car.

Jay, not his real name, had crossed earlier from the US to this cartel-run safe house on the Mexican side of the border. The house looks like any other in this neighbourhood. We are told to drive in quickly and an iron gate closes firmly behind us. They don't cook the drug here, but still they are wary of attracting attention. The men all speak in hushed voices and work quickly.

Their lethal business has become the centre of a dispute causing shockwaves in the global economy after the White House used fentanyl smuggling through US borders as a key justification for raising tariffs. US President Donald Trump has also vowed to "wage war" on the drug cartels.

The BBC gained rare access to a cartel's operation along the border and travelled to the US to meet their ultimate customers, to see if the international row was doing anything to halt the illegal flow of narcotics.

The men we meet at the safe house are foot-soldiers of a well-known cartel. Two of them loading the car admit to fleeting moments of remorse. But when I ask the man packing the drugs into the fuel tank if he feels guilty about the deaths the pills cause, he sniggers. "We have family too, of course we feel guilty. But if I stop, it's going to continue. It's not my problem," he tells me with a shrug.

The men keep their faces covered while they remove the back seat of the car to gain access to the tank, taking care not to spill petrol. The smell inside the car could alert customs officers on the other side of the border that the fuel tank has been tampered with.

The light green pills, 5,000 in total and marked with an M, are packed tightly - a fraction of what Jay says he sells every week in LA and across the American northwest.

"I try to get 100,000 pills a week, every week," the softly spoken dealer tells me. "I don't send them in one vehicle. I try to spread it in different cars. That way I minimise my risk of losing all my pills."

A 25% tariff on all goods from Mexico was introduced in response to what President Donald Trump said was the unacceptable flow of illegal drugs and illegal immigrants into the US. Some of those tariffs have since been delayed until 2 April.

Defeating the fentanyl trade is one of President Trump's top policy goals, but Jay doesn't rate his chances.

"Last time he was in office, he tried to do the same thing, and it never happened. There's always going to be a demand. And where's the biggest demand? United States, lucky for us. We're here in the border," says Jay with a smile.

There is so much of the drug flowing into the US, most of it coming from Mexico, that according to Jay the price he sells for in LA has fallen from about $5 or $6 per pill a year ago, to $1.50 now (£1.16).

Mexican police say cartels switched in a big way to fentanyl, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, because unlike other opiates - which are made from the opium poppy - it is completely synthetic and much easier to make and transport.

Fentanyl's strength and addictiveness have left a deep scar on American society: drug overdoses kill more people in the US than guns or car crashes. Fatalities have started to decline, perhaps in part to the greater availability of Naloxone, a drug that reverses the effects of overdoses of opioids. But the latest figures are still stark: 87,000 overdose deaths (mostly from opioids) from October 2023 to September 2024, down from 114,000 the year before.

In an attempt to stave off punitive tariffs from the White House, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has pledged to send 10,000 National Guard troops to the border. The government has made more than 900 arrests since October in Sinola, a major drug trafficking hub. Back in December, Mexico announced its biggest ever fentanyl seizure in the state: more than a tonne of pills. In fact, the country has seized more fentanyl in the past five months than it did in the previous year.

Mexico has also made it harder to import a key ingredient of fentanyl from China, prompting cartels to reduce the strength of each pill - and, in the process, making them less deadly.

And at the end of February, 29 senior drug cartel figures were handed over to the United States, including members of five of the six Mexican crime syndicates that President Trump's administration recently designated as terrorist organisations.

President Sheinbaum also said she had agreed to the CIA increasing surveillance drone operations over Mexican territory in search of fentanyl drugs labs, after the media revealed the covert missions.

Jay acknowledges the dangers of his trade to himself and his customers, but is untroubled.

"They always try to blame us, that we are the ones that are poisoning American citizens. But they're the biggest users.

He coolly insulates himself from responsibility and guilt for the deaths his drugs cause. He claims not to know anyone who has died using his product. "I only deal with other suppliers," he tells me.

The cartels mostly use American citizens to courier their drugs across the border, as they are less likely to be stopped by US Customs and Border Protection. The driver, who goes by the name Charlie, has a US passport. He, too, is mostly indifferent to the suffering the fentanyl epidemic has caused.

"I need the money," he says. When I ask him how many times he has made the drugs run, he replies: "Too many." (I later learn that the 5,000 pills in the fuel tank made it across the border without incident.)

President Sheinbaum has also recently emphasised the demand side of the crisis, saying the US fentanyl crisis began with the legal but "irresponsible approval" of painkillers, such as OxyContin, starting in the late 1990s. "The US government should take responsibility for the opioid-consumption crisis that has caused so many deaths," she said at a daily news conference.

In Philadelphia's Kensington neighbourhood - dubbed the largest open-air drugs market on the US east coast - Rosalind Pichardo of Operation Save Our City is on to her second Bible. She records in the book's back pages the number of times she has reversed an opioid overdose using the quick-acting drug Naloxone.

For the past six years, the figure totals 2,931. She flicks through the pages and that number written in red comes alive with the memories of the individuals she saved, and the ones she lost.

She begins to list: "Male in his 60s… male 30s… female in her 30s, very thin, no hair." Beside each name in this roll-call of fentanyl victims, is the number of doses of Naloxone - sold under the name Narcan - she used to attempt to revive people.

Ms Pichardo, who runs a drop-in centre called Sunshine House, operates what she calls a "no-judgement zone". She bristles at the terms like "addict", "junkie" or "zombie", which have been used to describe the people of her neighbourhood. Instead, she calls everyone "sunshine".

Some she doesn't remember; others she will never forget.

"Look at this one, seven years old, two Narcans," she points out. Ms Pichardo had been called to a neighbour's house where a woman was holding in her arms a child who had turned blue. Ms Pichardo went inside and the girl was placed on the floor, but as she entered the child's father ran upstairs carrying a bag. "I'm thinking if that was my child, I'd be running to help the child," she recalls.

At first, she thought it might be epilepsy, but she spotted drug scales and plastic baggies on a nearby table. The kid's dad was a drug dealer; the seven-year-old had been poisoned by his stash and overdosed. "I was livid," she says.

Those two doses of Narcan were enough to save the child's life.

On another page, a woman, six months pregnant, two doses of Narcan. She also survived.

In Kensington, drugs are cheap and plentiful, and people shoot up in the open. As she walks the neighbourhood, Ms Pichardo finds people passed out on the pavement, a woman in a stupor with her trousers down, a man lying prone next to a metro turnstile, another man in a wheelchair, his eyes closed and money in his hands.

He, like a growing number of opioid users, has had a limb amputated. A new drug on the street, the animal tranquilliser Xylazine, is being mixed with fentanyl. It leads to open wounds which become infected. The air is rank in places.

John White is 56 years old, and for 40 of those years he has struggled with addiction. At Sunshine House, Ms Pichardo serves him a bowl of homemade soup.

"I've been in this city all my life," he says. "The fentanyl and opioid epidemic is the worst I've ever seen. Fentanyl will get you so hooked that you have to get more. So they put it in everything."

Mr White had a fentanyl overdose after smoking a joint laced with the drug: it is being added to all kinds of illicit drugs, including heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

Ms Pichardo holds out little hope that even if the fentanyl trade is cut off from Mexico that it will improve people's lives in Kensington.

"The problem that we have with the war on drugs is - it didn't work then [and] I don't believe it's going to work now," she explains.

When the supply of one drug is cut off, another replaces it, she says. "Once there was heroin, now there's no more. Now there's fentanyl. When there's no fentanyl, now it's going to be Xylazine. So it's like they'll find a way to keep people addicted so that people can make money off of people, off the suffering of people," says Ms Pichardo.

Directly across from Sunshine House, a young woman is found collapsed on the pavement, her body splayed across the concrete: she's unresponsive. Ms Pichardo is quickly on the scene, her medical kit by her side, yet again administering Naloxone. The woman is eventually revived - she will survive.

Roz Pichardo returns to Sunshine House, another life saved and another digit to be added to the back pages of her tattered Bible.

Top picture: Darren Conway, BBC

The captain of a cargo ship arrested after a collision with a tanker in the North Sea is a Russian national, the ship's owner has confirmed.

Humberside Police said the 59-year-old man remained in custody after being arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter on Tuesday.

The Portuguese-flagged Solong and the US-registered tanker Stena Immaculate crashed off the East Yorkshire coast at about 10:00 GMT on Monday.

A missing crew member from the cargo ship is presumed dead after a search and rescue operation was called off late on Monday.

Police said they had begun a criminal investigation into the cause of the collision and was working with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.

On Tuesday, Det Ch Supt Craig Nicholson said: "Humberside Police have taken primacy for the investigation of any potential criminal offences which arise from the collision between the two vessels.

"Extensive work has already been carried out, and we are working closely with our partners to understand what happened, and to provide support to all of those affected."

HM Coastguard said 36 people had been rescued and taken safely to shore.

The Stena Immaculate was carrying 220,000 barrels of aviation fuel to be used by the US military.

Both ships caught fire after the collision triggering a major response from emergency services.

Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.

As the US government plane took off from Jeddah at sunrise, you could see the sense of achievement felt among President Donald Trump's officials.

After two weeks of an acrimonious fallout with Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had delivered on what President Trump wanted. Or at least half of it. He had a spring in his step as he came onboard.

Hours of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ended with a joint US-Ukraine statement agreeing to an American-proposed "immediate" 30-day ceasefire with Russia. In return for it signing up to the idea, Washington is reinstating weapons supplies and intelligence sharing to Kyiv.

Trump administration officials are seeing it as a major breakthrough towards the foreign policy goals of a leader who campaigned to end the war.

"He wants to be a president of peace," said Rubio.

On his way back to North America on Wednesday, Rubio spoke with reporters about the deal: "Here's what we'd like the world to look like in a few days. Neither side is shooting at each other, not rockets, not missiles, not bullets, nothing, not artillery. The shooting stops, the fighting stops, and the talking starts. "

• Ukraine ceasefire plan live updates
• US set to present 30-day ceasefire offer to Russia

For Ukraine, the announcement amounts to a critical reprieve for President Volodymyr Zelensky, after a humiliating attack in the Oval Office a fortnight ago by Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, having pleaded for a future US security guarantee. That move was followed by the suspension of American arms supplies, which are now restored.

For Moscow, it shifts the onus for a response to them, while the war itself intensifies.

But so far this is a US ceasefire proposal which sees only one side - the one dependent on the Americans - signing up.

The US is set to introduce the plan to Russia in the coming days.

The proposal is only eight paragraphs long and contains meagre details beyond the desire to rapidly press ahead with Trump's idea.

Rubio said "we'll take this offer now to the Russians… the ball is now in their court."

So does it make a ceasefire plausible? And if so, can it end the war after Russia's full-scale invasion three years ago in a just and sustainable way, and on terms that keep the region and the world safe?

It's worth breaking down some of what's in the statement to try to analyse it.

An 'immediate' 30-day ceasefire

"Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation. The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace," the statement says.

The key word here is "immediate," which doesn't leave any doubt: Trump wants the guns to fall silent now. His sense of urgency, however, has often led to concerns in Europe.

Many fear that rushing the desired outcome without first working out the terms takes the military pressure off Moscow as the invading power and could lead to a truce being exploited.

They argue it empowers the occupying force.

The fear is of ultimately leading Ukraine into an effective surrender. The theory is that Russia - the bigger, more populous and militarily more self-sufficient power - could use a truce without first establishing concessions to consolidate its forces, string out a negotiation process and wait to see what happens politically for Trump during his term while it holds on to everything it seized; and even then try to take more ground, building on its current occupation and potentially using a fracture in the Western alliance to threaten more of Europe.

The process of negotiating terms before a ceasefire in conflicts can be important to ensure the sides convert current military threats into meaningful strategic gains.

Zelensky has previously tried to persuade the Americans that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, evidenced by the fact he broke the European-backed Minsk agreements after seizing Ukrainian territory in 2014.

Trump dismisses these concerns, saying there will be security for Ukraine, but without saying how this will be assured. He has said Putin will be deterred and is in a difficult position with "no choice" but to make a deal for reasons that "only I know".

Rubio said on Tuesday the US delegation had substantive discussions with the Ukrainians on a permanent end to the war, including "what type of guarantees they're going to have for their long-term security and prosperity", but again didn't elaborate.

Intelligence sharing pause lifted

"The United States will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine," says the ceasefire proposal.

This is the big win for Zelensky in this agreement and sees US weapons supplies being delivered at a rate of around $2bn (£1.5bn)-worth a month, restored.

Critically, it also means Washington will once again share its intelligence data and satellite pictures with Kyiv, which helps it target Russian positions. The White House said it suspended this aid because it felt Zelensky wasn't "committed" to Trump's peace plan.

The Ukrainian leader had tried to voice his concerns based on some of the reasons above when he was ejected from the Oval Office. His reservations are likely being set aside while he welcomes the agreement in this form - a necessary price to pay to restore US security assistance.

Security guarantees for Ukraine unclear

"Both delegations agreed to name their negotiating teams and immediately begin negotiations toward an enduring peace that provides for Ukraine's long-term security. The United States committed to discussing these specific proposals with representatives from Russia. The Ukrainian delegation reiterated that European partners shall be involved in the peace process," says the plan.

This paragraph is confusing because it's unclear whether it refers to negotiations between Ukraine and the US on establishing any security guarantees for Ukraine, or if it refers to negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to permanently end the war once a ceasefire is under way.

If it is the former, it appears to suggest that Washington and Kyiv will hammer out any decisions on how to back up Ukraine's security and deter Russian breaches of a truce, and the US will then discuss these with Moscow.

But it is all a far cry from the kind of security guarantee Zelensky ultimately wanted, which was membership of Nato, which Trump has said won't happen - a major long-term concession to Moscow's demands.

The paragraph also contains a vague and lukewarm reference to the idea of European peacekeepers, which have been pitched by the UK and France, with the line attributed only to the Ukrainian delegation.

It's notable that the US appears not to be putting its name to this part after Moscow categorically rejected the idea.

Ukraine's minerals deal

"…both countries' presidents agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine's critical mineral resources to expand Ukraine's economy and guarantee Ukraine's long-term prosperity and security."

This was the agreement that never got signed after Zelensky was told to leave the White House last month.

It would give the US a future stake in some of Ukraine's state-owned mineral deposits, as well as oil and gas revenues.

Trump sees it as an effective security guarantee for Ukraine, arguing it would deter Russian re-invasion because American companies would be on the ground.

Opponents point out this is meaningless because US economic presence in Ukraine didn't deter Putin in 2014 or 2022.

"The Ukrainian delegation reiterated the Ukrainian people's strong gratitude to President Trump…"

This is a key line that might help explain Zelenky's rehabilitation in the eyes of the White House.

Vance had castigated him in the Oval Office for not thanking Trump, even though the Ukrainian leader has thanked the US dozens of times for its military support.

Now Trump has an official Ukrainian thank you, on a piece of paper meant to make peace.

Scenes from Gavin and Stacey, The Traitors and Mr Bates vs The Post Office are among the TV highlights to be nominated for the memorable moment prize at this year's Bafta Awards.

Bridgerton, Strictly Come Dancing, Rivals also have scenes shortlisted for the accolade, which is the only prize at the Bafta TV Awards to be voted for by members of the public.

Nominees in all the other categories will be announced later this month. The ceremony will take place on 11 May.

Hilary Rosen, chair of Bafta's television committee, said: "The list includes heart-warming and heart-stopping surprises that got us all talking, and speaks to the power of great television to have real and lasting impact."

Some of the nominees may feel old to voters, because the eligibility period spans the 2024 calendar year.

Both The Traitors and Mr Bates vs The Post Office were broadcast last January, 14 months ago. Since then, a subsequent series of The Traitors has been broadcast.

The six memorable moment nominees are:

• Gavin and Stacey: The Finale (BBC One) - Neil "Smithy" Smith (James Corden) asks for Mick Shipman's (Larry Lamb) opinion before deciding not to marry Sonia at the alter
• The Traitors (BBC One) - Contestant Diane Carson reveals fellow player Ross is her son, after she was suspected of being the mother of another contestant
• Strictly Come Dancing (BBC One) - Chris McCausland and Dianne Buswell dance to You'll Never Walk Alone
• Mr Bates vs The Post Office (ITV1) - Subpostmistress Jo Hamilton (Monica Dolan) calls the Horizon helpline after being accused of owing money, only to find the amount she is due to pay doubles
• Bridgerton (Netflix) - Colin (Luke Newton) admits his true feelings for Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) while in the carriage
• Rivals (Disney+) - Rupert Campbell Black (Alex Hassell) and Sarah Stratton (Emily Atack) are caught playing tennis naked

Members of the public can vote for the prize until 25 April, with the winner announced during the Bafta TV Awards, which will air on BBC One and iPlayer.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called for his former assistant to stand down as an east London councillor after the aide admitted indecent exposure.

Sam Gould, 33, a Redbridge representative, pleaded guilty to two separate counts at Barkingside Magistrates' Court in Ilford on Monday.

The Labour councillor has been suspended from the party but "there is no process for his suspension" from Redbridge Council, the local authority says.

Mr Streeting, who said Gould had exposed himself to a mother and her daughter, said there were "no words to express his horror" at their ordeal, the trauma of which they would have to deal with for some time to come.

'Despicable behaviour'

He added: "As soon as I was made aware of his arrest he was suspended, and as soon as the guilty plea was entered, I took immediate steps to sack him through official HR processes.

"There are no excuses for his appalling behaviour. I am calling for him, again, to resign as a Redbridge councillor immediately."

Kam Rai, leader of Redbridge Council, said he was "shocked and appalled" by the "inexcusable betrayal of his residents".

He said: "As soon as Mr Gould's arrest was communicated over the weekend, he was rightly suspended by the party.

"Unfortunately, there is no process for his suspension from the council. My heart goes out to the victims who have had to endure his despicable behaviour."

Gould, of Hornchurch, east London, was bailed until sentencing on 7 April.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Apple's appeal against a UK government demand to be able to access its customers' most highly encrypted data is set to be considered at a secret hearing at the High Court on Friday, the BBC understands.

It is due to be considered by the Investigatory Powers Tribunal - an independent court which has the power to investigate claims against the UK intelligence services.

The US tech giant took legal action earlier this month in response to the Home Office's demand for the right to access customer information protected by Apple's Advanced Data Protection (ADP) programme.

Currently Apple cannot access data stored in this way and therefore is unable to share it with law enforcement if issued with a warrant.

The government says it needs to be able to see it if there is a national security risk.

The US tech giant took legal action earlier this month in response to the Home Office's demand for the right to access customer information protected by Apple's Advanced Data Protection (ADP) programme.

Apple declined to comment. The Home Office and the Tribunal have been approached by the BBC.

The hearing is due to be held in private because it relates to the security services, but campaigners say the public has a right to hear it.

"This hearing should not be held in secret," Caroline Wilson Palow, legal director at Privacy International told the BBC.

"The public has a right to know whether or not the security of a service that could be used by millions or perhaps billions of people worldwide is being undermined."

The row began in February when it first emerged the government was seeking the right to be able to access data protected by ADP, using powers granted to it under the Investigatory Powers Act.

The Act allows it to covertly compel firms to provide information to law enforcement agencies.

ADP allows users with iCloud accounts and storage to secure photos, notes, voice memos and other data with end to end encryption, meaning no-one but the user - not even Apple - can access it.

Getting round that would involve the creation of a so-called "backdoor" - a capability some fear bad actors would ultimately be able to exploit.

At the time Apple reiterated its long-standing commitment not to weaken the privacy or security of its systems.

"As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products, and we never will," a spokesperson told the BBC.

Later in February the row escalated, as Apple announced it was pulling ADP in the UK.

Shortly after that, the BBC learnt Apple was taking legal action by appealing to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal to try to overturn the government's demand.

On its website, the Tribunal lists a hearing to be held before its president Lord Rabinder Singh on Friday afternoon.

The listing makes no mention of Apple or the government, nor has the Tribunal confirmed if they are the parties involved however a source familiar with the matter has indicated that is the case.

In the statement it issued in February, Apple said it regretted the action it felt it had been forced to take.

"Enhancing the security of cloud storage with end-to-end-encryption is more urgent than ever before," it said.

"Apple remains committed to offering our users the highest level of security for their personal data and are hopeful that we will be able to do so in future in the UK."

In a previous statement, a Home Office spokesperson said: "The UK has a longstanding position of protecting our citizens from the very worst crimes, such as child sex abuse and terrorism, at the same time as protecting people's privacy.

"The UK has robust safeguards and independent oversight to protect privacy and privacy is only impacted on an exceptional basis, in relation to the most serious crimes and only when it is necessary and proportionate to do so."

A plane carrying former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte has arrived in the Netherlands where he is to face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over his deadly "war on drugs".

Duterte was arrested at Manila airport on Tuesday and within hours was on a chartered jet which flew via Dubai to The Hague, where the ICC sits.

The 79-year-old could become the first Asian former head of state to go on trial at the ICC.

Duterte, who contested his extradition, led the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 and presided over a violent "war on drugs" that saw thousands of small-time drug dealers, users and others killed without trial.

The Gulfstream G550 landed in Dubai for a stopover early on Wednesday and its expected departure was delayed for several hours while Duterte received medical checks, Reuters news agency reports.

Once it had landed in Rotterdam, the ICC confirmed that Duterte was on board.

Earlier, the ICC said it would take custody of Duterte and schedule a hearing for his initial appearance before the court.

Duterte's main political rival, current President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, was instrumental in handing him over. Minutes after Duterte left Philippines airspace, Marcos gave a televised address saying the country was fulfilling its legal obligation.

"This is what the international community expects of us," Marcos said.

The Duterte and Marcos families are the Philippines' most powerful political dynasties. They joined forces to sweep the country's last national election in 2022, but have fallen out in recent months as they pursued separate agendas.

Duterte being handed to the ICC is the latest twist in a political feud that has unfolded spectacularly in the public view.

The Duterte and Marcos families formed a formidable alliance in the 2022 elections. Against the elder Duterte's wishes, his daughter Sara ran as Marcos Jr's vice-president instead of seeking her father's post.

Marcos initially refused to co-operate with the ICC investigation, but as his relationship with the Duterte family deteriorated, he changed his stance.

Vice-President Duterte said her father's arrest amounted to "kidnapping", claiming it violated Philippine sovereignty. She left Manila for the Netherlands on Wednesday, according to her office.

A 'death squad' of bounty hunters

Rodrigo Duterte previously insisted that the ICC has no jurisdiction over the Philippines, since he pulled the country out of the tribunal in 2019, three years after it took note of the drug war's rising death toll.

But according to the Rome Statute that is the basis for the ICC, the court maintains jurisdiction over alleged crimes committed before a nation leaves the tribunal.

The ICC investigation covers 2011-2019, which includes the period when Duterte was mayor of Davao, a sprawling metropolis in the country's south, where his family has held power for decades.

Complaints filed against Duterte at the ICC allege that he kept a "death squad" of bounty hunters to go after drug suspects in Davao, and later replicated this model on a national scale when he was elected president.

Human Rights Watch called Duterte's arrest a "critical step for accountability in the Philippines".

Duterte built a reputation for Davao as one of the Philippines' safest cities, and cultivated the image of a tough-talking, anti-establishment man of the masses to pull off a dark horse win in the 2016 presidential elections.

Polls show he is the most popular Philippines president since the restoration of democracy in 1986.

His supporters have threatened to hold large rallies to protest against his arrest. They had asked the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order against the ICC warrant - but the court did not act before the former president was flown out on Tuesday.

On social media, where the Dutertes maintain a strong following, the reaction was mixed.

Many praised the ICC for delivering justice for those who died in the drug war, while others defended Duterte's legacy, with some calling for widespread rallies.

"Justice served," read a top-liked comment on TikTok.

"Philippines was safe during Duterte's time," another TikTok user wrote, saying the former leader built bridges, roads and other infrastructure. "He was the best president."

Additional reporting by Fan Wang

Pakistan's army says it has freed more than 300 hostages from a passenger train seized by militants in Balochistan province on Tuesday.

The military spokesperson said 33 militants were killed during the operation.

Twenty-one civilian hostages and four military personnel were killed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) before the operation began, the military spokesperson said.

The military continues its search operation in the area to rule out any remaining threats.

The Pakistani authorities - as well as several Western countries, including the UK and US - have designated the BLA as a terrorist organisation.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

As the US government plane took off from Jeddah at sunrise, you could see the sense of achievement felt among President Donald Trump's officials.

After two weeks of an acrimonious fallout with Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio had delivered on what President Trump wanted. Or at least half of it. He had a spring in his step as he came onboard.

Hours of talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday ended with a joint US-Ukraine statement agreeing to an American-proposed "immediate" 30-day ceasefire with Russia. In return for it signing up to the idea, Washington is reinstating weapons supplies and intelligence sharing to Kyiv.

Trump administration officials are seeing it as a major breakthrough towards the foreign policy goals of a leader who campaigned to end the war.

"He wants to be a president of peace," said Rubio.

On his way back to North America on Wednesday, Rubio spoke with reporters about the deal: "Here's what we'd like the world to look like in a few days. Neither side is shooting at each other, not rockets, not missiles, not bullets, nothing, not artillery. The shooting stops, the fighting stops, and the talking starts. "

• Ukraine ceasefire plan live updates
• US set to present 30-day ceasefire offer to Russia

For Ukraine, the announcement amounts to a critical reprieve for President Volodymyr Zelensky, after a humiliating attack in the Oval Office a fortnight ago by Trump and Vice-President JD Vance, having pleaded for a future US security guarantee. That move was followed by the suspension of American arms supplies, which are now restored.

For Moscow, it shifts the onus for a response to them, while the war itself intensifies.

But so far this is a US ceasefire proposal which sees only one side - the one dependent on the Americans - signing up.

The US is set to introduce the plan to Russia in the coming days.

The proposal is only eight paragraphs long and contains meagre details beyond the desire to rapidly press ahead with Trump's idea.

Rubio said "we'll take this offer now to the Russians… the ball is now in their court."

So does it make a ceasefire plausible? And if so, can it end the war after Russia's full-scale invasion three years ago in a just and sustainable way, and on terms that keep the region and the world safe?

It's worth breaking down some of what's in the statement to try to analyse it.

An 'immediate' 30-day ceasefire

"Ukraine expressed readiness to accept the U.S. proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation. The United States will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace," the statement says.

The key word here is "immediate," which doesn't leave any doubt: Trump wants the guns to fall silent now. His sense of urgency, however, has often led to concerns in Europe.

Many fear that rushing the desired outcome without first working out the terms takes the military pressure off Moscow as the invading power and could lead to a truce being exploited.

They argue it empowers the occupying force.

The fear is of ultimately leading Ukraine into an effective surrender. The theory is that Russia - the bigger, more populous and militarily more self-sufficient power - could use a truce without first establishing concessions to consolidate its forces, string out a negotiation process and wait to see what happens politically for Trump during his term while it holds on to everything it seized; and even then try to take more ground, building on its current occupation and potentially using a fracture in the Western alliance to threaten more of Europe.

The process of negotiating terms before a ceasefire in conflicts can be important to ensure the sides convert current military threats into meaningful strategic gains.

Zelensky has previously tried to persuade the Americans that Russian President Vladimir Putin cannot be trusted, evidenced by the fact he broke the European-backed Minsk agreements after seizing Ukrainian territory in 2014.

Trump dismisses these concerns, saying there will be security for Ukraine, but without saying how this will be assured. He has said Putin will be deterred and is in a difficult position with "no choice" but to make a deal for reasons that "only I know".

Rubio said on Tuesday the US delegation had substantive discussions with the Ukrainians on a permanent end to the war, including "what type of guarantees they're going to have for their long-term security and prosperity", but again didn't elaborate.

Intelligence sharing pause lifted

"The United States will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine," says the ceasefire proposal.

This is the big win for Zelensky in this agreement and sees US weapons supplies being delivered at a rate of around $2bn (£1.5bn)-worth a month, restored.

Critically, it also means Washington will once again share its intelligence data and satellite pictures with Kyiv, which helps it target Russian positions. The White House said it suspended this aid because it felt Zelensky wasn't "committed" to Trump's peace plan.

The Ukrainian leader had tried to voice his concerns based on some of the reasons above when he was ejected from the Oval Office. His reservations are likely being set aside while he welcomes the agreement in this form - a necessary price to pay to restore US security assistance.

Security guarantees for Ukraine unclear

"Both delegations agreed to name their negotiating teams and immediately begin negotiations toward an enduring peace that provides for Ukraine's long-term security. The United States committed to discussing these specific proposals with representatives from Russia. The Ukrainian delegation reiterated that European partners shall be involved in the peace process," says the plan.

This paragraph is confusing because it's unclear whether it refers to negotiations between Ukraine and the US on establishing any security guarantees for Ukraine, or if it refers to negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to permanently end the war once a ceasefire is under way.

If it is the former, it appears to suggest that Washington and Kyiv will hammer out any decisions on how to back up Ukraine's security and deter Russian breaches of a truce, and the US will then discuss these with Moscow.

But it is all a far cry from the kind of security guarantee Zelensky ultimately wanted, which was membership of Nato, which Trump has said won't happen - a major long-term concession to Moscow's demands.

The paragraph also contains a vague and lukewarm reference to the idea of European peacekeepers, which have been pitched by the UK and France, with the line attributed only to the Ukrainian delegation.

It's notable that the US appears not to be putting its name to this part after Moscow categorically rejected the idea.

Ukraine's minerals deal

"…both countries' presidents agreed to conclude as soon as possible a comprehensive agreement for developing Ukraine's critical mineral resources to expand Ukraine's economy and guarantee Ukraine's long-term prosperity and security."

This was the agreement that never got signed after Zelensky was told to leave the White House last month.

It would give the US a future stake in some of Ukraine's state-owned mineral deposits, as well as oil and gas revenues.

Trump sees it as an effective security guarantee for Ukraine, arguing it would deter Russian re-invasion because American companies would be on the ground.

Opponents point out this is meaningless because US economic presence in Ukraine didn't deter Putin in 2014 or 2022.

"The Ukrainian delegation reiterated the Ukrainian people's strong gratitude to President Trump…"

This is a key line that might help explain Zelenky's rehabilitation in the eyes of the White House.

Vance had castigated him in the Oval Office for not thanking Trump, even though the Ukrainian leader has thanked the US dozens of times for its military support.

Now Trump has an official Ukrainian thank you, on a piece of paper meant to make peace.

Spotify paid the music industry $10bn (£7.7bn) in 2024, which the streaming service said was the highest annual payment from any single retailer in history.

But the figures come as a heated debate continues about how much money artists and songwriters receive in royalties.

Earlier this year, several Grammy-nominated songwriters boycotted an awards event hosted by Spotify in a row about their streaming earnings.

As the new figures were published, a spokesperson for Spotify said the responsibility for distributing the money it pays lay with record labels and publishers.

The company said it pays royalties to rights holders, adding that it does not have "visibility" on where the money ultimately goes because earnings are based on artists' individual contracts with their labels.

A spokesperson said: "Spotify does not pay artists or songwriters directly. We pay rights-holders, these are typically record labels, music publishers, collection societies.

"These rights-holders then pay artists and songwriters based on their individual agreements."

The amount of money earned by artists will vary, but a committee of MPs heard in 2021 that the performer's share of royalties is often about 16%.

That would mean an artist whose music generated £100,000 on Spotify might only receive £16,000 in royalty payments, before tax.

However, Spotify is not the only streaming service to generate revenue for artists, and many pop stars make more money from other income streams such as live tours.

Spotify said more than two-thirds of all music revenue goes "straight to the recording and publishing rights-holders", and added that, like other streamers, Spotify does not pay on a per-stream basis.

The annual figures were published in Spotify's Loud and Clear report - part of the company's aim to provide transparency on how it pays the music industry.

The amount Spotify paid this year was an increase on the more than $9bn (£7bn) it handed over in 2023.

The report highlighted that the number of artists generating annual royalties between $1,000 (£770) and $10m had tripled since 2017.

Taylor Swift was named Spotify's top artist globally with more than 26 billion streams, in the year she released her double-length album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.

Swift herself was part of the debate about streaming royalties in 2014, when she removed her music from Spotify as part of a boycott, eventually re-joining the platform in 2017.

More recent artist boycotts have generally been prompted by other factors, such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removing their music over the streamer's employment of podcast host Joe Rogan. Both artists returned to the platform last year.

But dissatisfaction over streaming royalties continues.

A large-scale survey of musicians in Europe carried out last year found that about 70% were unhappy with the amount they were paid in streaming revenue.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting has called for his former assistant to stand down as an east London councillor after the aide admitted indecent exposure.

Sam Gould, 33, a Redbridge representative, pleaded guilty to two separate counts at Barkingside Magistrates' Court in Ilford on Monday.

The Labour councillor has been suspended from the party but "there is no process for his suspension" from Redbridge Council, the local authority says.

Mr Streeting, who said Gould had exposed himself to a mother and her daughter, said there were "no words to express his horror" at their ordeal, the trauma of which they would have to deal with for some time to come.

'Despicable behaviour'

He added: "As soon as I was made aware of his arrest he was suspended, and as soon as the guilty plea was entered, I took immediate steps to sack him through official HR processes.

"There are no excuses for his appalling behaviour. I am calling for him, again, to resign as a Redbridge councillor immediately."

Kam Rai, leader of Redbridge Council, said he was "shocked and appalled" by the "inexcusable betrayal of his residents".

He said: "As soon as Mr Gould's arrest was communicated over the weekend, he was rightly suspended by the party.

"Unfortunately, there is no process for his suspension from the council. My heart goes out to the victims who have had to endure his despicable behaviour."

Gould, of Hornchurch, east London, was bailed until sentencing on 7 April.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Tom Grennan will headline Radio 1's Big Weekend on the Friday of this year's festival.

He will play the main stage in Sefton Park, Liverpool.

The Little Bit Of Love hitmaker joins Sam Fender as one of the headliners across the three-day event.

About 100 acts will be performing across four stages, with over 100,000 fans expected to attend from Friday 23 May - Sunday 25 May.

Artists including Biffy Clyro, James Hype and The Wombats will also be hitting the Friday main stage.

The new music stage will see Barry Can't Swim, Confidence Man, D.O.D, Jazzy, Katy B, Nia Archives and Prospa performing.

Tom Grennan says being asked to top the bill is an "incredible honour", calling it "another crowning moment for me and my career so far".

The Little Bit Of Love hitmaker has previously performed at Big Weekend in Coventry and Luton.

And he describes Liverpool as "a city that has given so much to the rich musical tapestry of this country".

Liverpool has had a huge influence on music, producing acts including The Beatles, The Wombats, The Zutons and Atomic Kitten.

Sefton Park is located in south Liverpool, about a 20-minute drive from football stadium Anfield.

The team are scheduled to play the final match of their Premier League season on the Sunday of the festival - and are currently favourites to win the title.

Acts previously announced to be performing during the weekend include Myles Smith, Wet Leg, Blossoms and Lola Young.

Last year, Coldplay, Raye and Chase & Status topped the bill for the event held in Luton.

And previous Big Weekends have seen the likes of Taylor Swift perform in Norwich, Miley Cyrus in Middlesbrough and Ed Sheeran in Coventry.

When can you get tickets for Big Weekend?

The festival will be broadcast live through the weekend on BBC Radio 1, with performances available to watch on iPlayer and BBC Sounds.

Tickets will be available from 17:00 on Thursday 13 March and will cost £33 (plus a £4.50 booking fee per ticket).

As with previous Big Weekends, tickets are geographically weighted, with 50% of tickets reserved for those living in Liverpool, 40% for those living in the surrounding areas, and the remaining 10% available for the rest of the UK.

More acts will be announced in the coming weeks.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.