MPs will debate a bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for the first time since significant changes were made to it.
The bill passed the first stage of the Commons last November – but since then the details have been pored over and dozens of amendments added by both sides.
A vote to pass or reject the bill is not likely to take place on Friday, but rather in June.
Friday's debate comes as the government quietly made changes to its impact assessment on assisted dying, admitting errors in calculating how many people could take up the service if it becomes law.
It reduced its upper estimate for the number of assisted deaths in the first year from 787 to 647.
Several MPs opposed to the bill have described the process as "chaotic".
But Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the bill, said it was coming back to the Commons "even stronger".
She urged MPs to "grasp this opportunity with both hands".
"The law as it stands is not working for dying people or their loved ones; that much is clear," she said.
"A majority of MPs recognised this when they backed my bill in November. When they come to debate it once again today, they can be confident that it returns even stronger."
Another amendment would prevent doctors from discussing the option of an assisted death with under 18s, unless the patient has raised it first.
MPs have been given a free vote, meaning they can decide based on their conscience rather than having to follow a party line.
The issue has split Parliament, with strong opinions on both sides.
Those opposed to assisted dying say the mood has altered among MPs, but so far only a handful have said they've changed their minds since November and it would take dozens to block the bill.
The Commons is unlikely to vote to give the bill final approval until 13 June at the earliest.
On 2 May, the government published its long-awaited impact report on the bill - projecting NHS savings ranging from £919,000 to £10.3 million.
But on Wednesday, officials published a "correction notice" at the bottom of the 150-page document.
The change revises the upper estimate for the number of assisted deaths in the first year after the bill is published from up to 787 to 647.
Labour MP Melanie Ward, who previously voted against the bill, told the BBC: "This shows just how chaotic this whole process has been.
"With the bill being amended by supporters just days before it is debated and the impact assessment being quietly corrected, MPs on either side of the debate can't really know what they are being asked to vote on.
"It calls into question again whether this bill is fit for purpose and whether this private member's bill process is suited to deal with such significant and profound issues of life and death."
Independent peer Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who has campaigned against the bill and will get a vote if the bill goes to the Lords, said it had been "very disappointing to see this process".
The amended impact assessment "has come out the night before very important debates," she said.
"It might make the numbers look marginally better but it's a significant error - what else have they got wrong?"
Meanwhile, Sarah Pochin, Reform's newest MP after winning the Runcorn by-election earlier this month, confirmed she would support the bill, telling ITV she was "confident" there were enough checks and balances to ensure terminally ill people were protected.
Broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, who has been campaigning for assisted dying after revealing her terminal lung cancer diagnosis last year, accused opponents of having "undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy" their concerns.
Labour MP Jess Asato, who voted against the bill, described Dame Esther's comments as "particularly distasteful" and "disrespectful to those with faith and without".
If assisted dying does become legal in England and Wales, it would be a historic change for society.
Current laws prevent medics from helping any patient to carry out their wish to die.
The new bill in England and Wales would allow any doctor to be involved in assisted dying. GPs are often a large part of the practice in countries where it is legal.
Of the 1,000 GPs who responded to a survey conducted by the BBC, 500 said they were against an assisted dying law, with 400 saying they were in favour.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said it believed there were "concerning deficiencies" with the bill that would need addressing, including tougher safeguards such as using doctors known to the patient for prognosis, face-to-face checks to prevent coercion and no cuts to other care.
Millions more adults in England and Wales are believed to have experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16, after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) overhauled its crime survey.
They added new questions covering topics like controlling and coercive behaviour and the harm it causes.
This means that more than 12m people are thought to have suffered abusive behaviour from family members or partners, up from 10m in older figures.
The new data, for the year ending March 2024, gives the most detailed picture yet of how common different types of abusive behaviour are, suggesting 18% of adults have suffered emotional abuse and 12% economic abuse.
Not all abusive behaviours cross the line into criminal levels of domestic abuse, researchers warned.
Data on the severity of abuse was not published on Friday, but is expected in November.
The figures were published on the same day as a report from MPs calling for better data on violence against women and girls (VAWG).
The Public Accounts Committee highlighted the need for improved information on how much violence women and girls face, on the needs of support services, evidence on the interventions that reduce violence and co-ordination across government departments to halve VAWG.
The Home Office said the new data is "essential to help us better understand the scale of domestic abuse and how we halve violence against women and girls".
Domestic abuse charity Women's Aid, which helped the ONS and University of Bristol develop the new questions has welcomed the change.
"Women's Aid has for many years been concerned that the questions in the survey have failed to adequately capture the lived experience of victim-survivors of domestic abuse" said Sarika Seshadri, their Head of Research and Evaluation.
The definition of domestic abuse in law has changed a lot over the past decade. Coercive control was first made a crime in 2015, years before the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act explicitly defined some of its major forms, including economic abuse.
The ONS adapted its gold-standard crime survey to reflect the shift in understanding of abuse and better reflect the experiences of survivors.
Some of the new questions ask about manipulative behaviour, including whether a partner or family member had tried to convince the respondent's friends they were "crazy"; acted in an "overly jealous way"; or had threatened to hurt or kill themselves if the respondent did not do what they wanted.
The new survey also asks if a family member or partner had threatened to discredit the respondent using sensitive personal information, such as their sexuality or immigration status.
Answers were collected privately using tablets, unlike the spoken interviews used for other crimes.
According to the new data, about 12.6 million people in England and Wales - 26% of the population - had experienced abusive behaviours by family or partners since age of 16, including 30% of women and 22% of men.
These figures did not account for the number of incidents or harm suffered. Women are more often the target of repeated or more severe abuse.
More than three-quarters of the 108 domestic homicide victims in the year to March 2024 were women.
The American singer was arrested at a Manchester hotel following an incident in 2023
R&B singer Chris Brown has appeared in court accused of attacking a man in a nightclub.
The American singer was arrested at Manchester's Lowry Hotel on Thursday and later charged over the alleged assault, which is said to have happened at the Tape club in London's Mayfair in 2023.
Brown, 36, is alleged to have used a bottle to cause grievous bodily harm to music producer Abe Diaw.
The singer was in Manchester ahead of his planned tour of the UK in June and July, with dates at the city's Co-Op Live Arena in Manchester and the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
During the hearing, Brown, who was wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a plain t-shirt, spoke to confirm his full name as Christopher Maurice Brown and date of birth.
Fans outside court
When asked to confirm his address he said The Lowry Hotel.
District Judge Joanne Hirst told Brown the case will be moved to Southwark Crown Court in London with the next hearing to be held on 13 June.
She said the nature of the offence of grievous bodily harm was too serious to to be dealt with by a magistrates' court.
Brown did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody.
Fans gathered outside Manchester Magistrates' Court ahead of the hearing.
One fan, who lives in Manchester, told the BBC she had cancelled her plans so she could spend the day outside court.
Candy, 35, said she has followed the star since she was 14 and when she heard the news of his arrest she could not sleep.
"I'm just here to support him," she said.
"I love his music, his voice. I think he could have been the next MJ. Even my children are fans now."
The charges against Roman Lavrynovych relate to three incidents spanning a four-day period
A Ukrainian man has been remanded in custody after appearing in court charged in connection with fires at two properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Roman Lavrynovych, 21, is accused of three counts of arson with intent to endanger life following the fires at various locations across north London.
He spoke only to confirm his name, date of birth and address at a short hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.
He was arrested at an address in Sydenham, south-east London, in the early hours of Tuesday and charged on Thursday.
The force said officers from the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terror Command led the investigation because of the connections to a high-profile public figure.
In the early hours of Monday, the emergency services responded to a fire at the Kentish Town home where Sir Keir lived before becoming prime minister and moving into 10 Downing Street.
Police were alerted by the London Fire Brigade to reports of a fire at the residential address at 01:35.
Damage was caused to the property's entrance but nobody was hurt.
A car linked to Sir Keir was set alight in the early hours of Thursday, 8 May in the same street.
In the early hours of Sunday, firefighters dealt with a small fire at the front door of a house converted into flats in nearby Islington, which is also linked to the prime minister.
One person was assisted to safety via an internal staircase by crews wearing breathing apparatus, the fire brigade said.
How sports coaches are helping tackle toxic masculinity
Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,
Jordan Puente has gone from troubled teen to being a role model for youngsters
Published
Jordan Puente was 13 when he was first expelled from school. At 14 his anger and aggressive behaviour was so challenging, his mum feared he would end up in prison.
Then one day a sports coach and mentor called Roddy Slater began working with him through his school in Reading and set Jordan on a path that would transform his life.
"He started taking me down to the gym and he helped me use weightlifting as a tool to get away from that troubled life as a teenager, from being on the streets and getting in trouble with the law," he told BBC Sport.
"I'd come in there with all these problems. He'd listen to me. In my head I'm just training, but then I'd come out of that session with a weight off my shoulders, being like 'hang on a minute I know how to handle it now'. Suddenly you've just been mentored for an hour without even realising it."
A decade on from that first session in the gym Puente's life has come full circle, with the 25-year-old now working for Slater mentoring and coaching vulnerable young people at a time when the importance of positive role models is in the spotlight.
The release of the popular Netflix series Adolescence and former England manager Gareth Southgate's Richard Dimbleby lecture have sparked a nationwide discussion about the issue of toxic masculinity and online influencers shaping young boys' minds.
Sports coaches can play a "critical role" in addressing the issue, according to UK Coaching, which in a survey last year found that they were the most trusted profession among 18 to 24-year-olds, above teachers, nurses and social workers.
'Real life' influencers in a digital age
Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,
Roddy Slater is a former winner of UK Coaching's Community Coach of the Year
The Adolescence drama shone a light on the corrosive impact of social media and the dangerous stereotypes about masculinity some teenage boys see online.
In today's digital age, providing an interaction with "real life" influencers is more important than ever, according to Slater.
"I think we're giving them that space to actually see a role model face to face," the 52-year-old said. "They can talk about what they want to talk about, and they'll be listened to. A good coach listens first.
"I think so many of our young people today lack the ability to build those relationships. Their social interactions are limited. Everything is online, either on their phone or on the end of their PlayStation 5 or whatever."
Mark Gannon, chief executive of UK Coaching, said the face-to-face role of sports coaches was particularly important in "trying to get young people to understand the reality versus what they might see on social media, particularly with [online] misogyny".
Every day around 30 young people facing significant challenges in their lives come to the Raw Mentoring site in Reading, which Slater runs. They are given one-to-one coaching in different sports and activities, while at the same time being mentored.
Zeph, who is in year eight at school, has been supported here for three years, telling BBC Sport: "It makes me happy. When I come here, I don't want to leave. I used to get into fights nearly every day, I'm much calmer now."
It is something Puente can relate to, describing his weekly run-ins with the police and being "a silly teenager" who got into a lot of fights before turning his life around.
"When you're young, your brain's like a sponge," said Puente, who now helps youngsters alongside his job running a personal training business.
"You just reflect everything that you see. And I think if you don't have that strong role model growing up, you're kind of just going through those transitional periods as a teenager a little bit lost and unguided.
"I think it's underestimated how beneficial a structured role model and supportive person can be."
He says that even now Slater is "probably one of, if not the most, influential person" in his life.
'The difference between getting GCSEs and joining local gang'
Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,
Like many coaches, Ryan Evans' job involves much more than just talking tactics
Basketball coach Ryan Evans speaks about showing youngsters "the flip side" when trying to move them away from the influences of toxic masculinity.
"You can see [issues with toxic masculinity] from time to time, and it's upsetting at first because we kind of look back at when we were younger - those trappings weren't necessarily there or they weren't the same as what they used to be," said Evans, who works for Greenhouse Sports, a charity which partners with schools in disadvantaged areas to inspire young people through sport.
"So for me it's, once I recognise them, not berating them for it, because at times it's not their fault. It's actually just the way that the world is constructed through their phones, social media, the influences of younger and older here at the school."
"I think when we talk about toxic masculinity, the other side of it is allowing boys to express themselves and be themselves, and we need to give them that room to do so. Sometimes the solution doesn't come from me. It actually comes from them, or it's driven by something in their environment."
Fellow coach Kiran Wiltshire, who has coached thousands of children in the Leicester area over 20 years, says people like her are "an important lifeline" for the youngsters.
"We're a little piece of the puzzle in their big world," she said. "But that little piece of the puzzle is the difference between them completing school and going to college and getting their GCSEs or joining the local gang."
MPs will debate a bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for the first time since significant changes were made to it.
The bill passed the first stage of the Commons last November – but since then the details have been pored over and dozens of amendments added by both sides.
A vote to pass or reject the bill is not likely to take place on Friday, but rather in June.
Friday's debate comes as the government quietly made changes to its impact assessment on assisted dying, admitting errors in calculating how many people could take up the service if it becomes law.
It reduced its upper estimate for the number of assisted deaths in the first year from 787 to 647.
Several MPs opposed to the bill have described the process as "chaotic".
But Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the bill, said it was coming back to the Commons "even stronger".
She urged MPs to "grasp this opportunity with both hands".
"The law as it stands is not working for dying people or their loved ones; that much is clear," she said.
"A majority of MPs recognised this when they backed my bill in November. When they come to debate it once again today, they can be confident that it returns even stronger."
Another amendment would prevent doctors from discussing the option of an assisted death with under 18s, unless the patient has raised it first.
MPs have been given a free vote, meaning they can decide based on their conscience rather than having to follow a party line.
The issue has split Parliament, with strong opinions on both sides.
Those opposed to assisted dying say the mood has altered among MPs, but so far only a handful have said they've changed their minds since November and it would take dozens to block the bill.
The Commons is unlikely to vote to give the bill final approval until 13 June at the earliest.
On 2 May, the government published its long-awaited impact report on the bill - projecting NHS savings ranging from £919,000 to £10.3 million.
But on Wednesday, officials published a "correction notice" at the bottom of the 150-page document.
The change revises the upper estimate for the number of assisted deaths in the first year after the bill is published from up to 787 to 647.
Labour MP Melanie Ward, who previously voted against the bill, told the BBC: "This shows just how chaotic this whole process has been.
"With the bill being amended by supporters just days before it is debated and the impact assessment being quietly corrected, MPs on either side of the debate can't really know what they are being asked to vote on.
"It calls into question again whether this bill is fit for purpose and whether this private member's bill process is suited to deal with such significant and profound issues of life and death."
Independent peer Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who has campaigned against the bill and will get a vote if the bill goes to the Lords, said it had been "very disappointing to see this process".
The amended impact assessment "has come out the night before very important debates," she said.
"It might make the numbers look marginally better but it's a significant error - what else have they got wrong?"
Meanwhile, Sarah Pochin, Reform's newest MP after winning the Runcorn by-election earlier this month, confirmed she would support the bill, telling ITV she was "confident" there were enough checks and balances to ensure terminally ill people were protected.
Broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, who has been campaigning for assisted dying after revealing her terminal lung cancer diagnosis last year, accused opponents of having "undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy" their concerns.
Labour MP Jess Asato, who voted against the bill, described Dame Esther's comments as "particularly distasteful" and "disrespectful to those with faith and without".
If assisted dying does become legal in England and Wales, it would be a historic change for society.
Current laws prevent medics from helping any patient to carry out their wish to die.
The new bill in England and Wales would allow any doctor to be involved in assisted dying. GPs are often a large part of the practice in countries where it is legal.
Of the 1,000 GPs who responded to a survey conducted by the BBC, 500 said they were against an assisted dying law, with 400 saying they were in favour.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said it believed there were "concerning deficiencies" with the bill that would need addressing, including tougher safeguards such as using doctors known to the patient for prognosis, face-to-face checks to prevent coercion and no cuts to other care.
Millions of people are walking a financial tightrope, with one in 10 UK adults saving no money at all, a major report has concluded.
This leaves many exposed to economic shocks and vulnerable to rising bills, according to the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Financial Lives survey.
Moreover, anxiety and stress levels were relatively high, particularly among those burdened by debt.
But the regulator said the situation had not worsened since the start of the cost of living squeeze and free help was available for those facing trouble.
Snapshot of our money
The FCA's Financial Lives survey is a benchmark for the state of the nation's finances, with nearly 18,000 people questioned about how they deal with money.
The findings suggest that 13 million people - a quarter of the UK adult population - have low financial resilience. That means they have debts that are hard to manage, low savings, and have missed a series of bill payments.
This was unchanged when compared with the previous Financial Lives survey, published in 2022, despite the pressure caused by inflation and rising essential bills on personal finances.
Some 10% of those asked had no cash saved at all. Another 21% had less than £1,000 tucked away.
Other key findings in the wide-ranging report include
A total of 2.8 million people have persistent credit card debt
Nearly 12 million people feel overwhelmed or stressed dealing with financial matters, including 40% of adults with credit or loans saying they suffer anxiety and stress
Some 3.8 million retirees are worried they don't have enough money to last their retirement
Difficulties getting to a bank branch face nearly 10 million people
"Our data shows that finances are stretched for many - with some unable to save for a rainy day," said Sarah Pritchard, from the FCA.
Buy now, pay later surges
The report also suggests that the use of buy now, pay later has risen significantly in recent years.
Some 40% of lone parents and 35% of women aged between 25 and 34 use these deferred credit products, which remain unregulated.
Overall, nearly half of adults have outstanding unsecured debt, where the money borrowed is not backed up by assets.
The FCA said the median average amount of debt outstanding among those with debt was £6,300.
Among 18 to 34-year-olds with debt, the median average amount of debt outstanding was £12,500. But, after excluding student loans, that dropped to £1,300.
Sarah Pritchard and Matt Dronfield say people should ask for help
Debt advisers say they routinely speak to people with mental health issues, which either result in financial difficulties or are caused by money worries.
They say it takes courage to pick up the phone to ask for help, but free debt advice is available and has no impact on someone's credit score.
How to deal with money worries
Matt Dronfield, managing director of Debt Free Advice - a coalition of charities which can negotiate with creditors on behalf of borrowers - said rent or mortgage arrears, council tax and falling behind on utility bills were the three most common forms of debt.
He said many callers were juggling multiple jobs, but unable to cover their essential expenses.
"It is so common. If you're not worried, then a friend or family member is definitely going to be," he said.
"We know you are more likely to tell your pet than your partner or loved one about your financial situation. So, speak to an expert debt adviser about the situation that you are in.
"If you were worried about your health, you'd see a doctor. If you're car wasn't working, you'd go to a mechanic. So, if you are worried about your finances, speak to an independent debt adviser, for free."
He also said that people with no savings should consider "paying yourself first", by putting a few pounds into a savings account when their receive their income.
This could help get them into a savings habit, while still being able to cover the priority bills.
The average amount people have saved is £5,000 to £6,000, the FCA's report suggests.
The King is now estimated to be worth £270m more than his late mother the Queen
The number of UK billionaires has fallen while King Charles' personal wealth has jumped to equal former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty, according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List.
The annual list of the UK's 350 richest people revealed the biggest decline in billionaires in the paper's history.
Meanwhile in the past year, the King's wealth has grown by £30m to £640m, increasing his rank 20 places to 258 with Sunak and Murty.
Topping the list for the fourth consecutive year is the Hinduja family behind the Indian corporation Hinduja Group, which, despite a decline in fortune, is recorded to be worth more than £35bn.
The continued slump of the number of billionaires for the third year running, from 165 to 156, comes after criticism on tax changes by the new Labour government.
The number of billionaires slid to 156 this year from 165 in 2024, representing the sharpest decline in the Sunday Times Rich List's 37-year-history.
"Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling," Robert Watts, compiler of the Rich List told PA Media.
"We are also finding fewer of the world's super rich are coming to live in the UK."
He said he was "struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves's Treasury" when speaking to wealthy individuals for the publication.
Mr Watts said: "We expected the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas.
"But homegrown young tech entrepreneurs and those running centuries-old family firms are also warning of serious consequences to a range of tax changes unveiled in last October's budget."
The Labour government abolished the non-dom tax status in April, which is where UK residents whose permanent home or domicile for tax purposes is outside the UK.
Last year, former Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt revealed plans to scrap the tax status before successor Rachel Reeves sped up the process.
Who are the richest people in the UK?
1. Gopi Hinduja and family (£35.3bn, down £37.2bn)
2. David and Simon Reuben and family (£26.87bn)
3. Sir Leonard Blavatnik (£25.73bn)
4. Sir James Dyson and family (£20.8bn)
5. Idan Ofer (£20.12bn)
The King's rise in wealth has also made him richer than his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The new figures estimate Charles to be worth £270m more than his mother, with the majority of his fortune benefiting from the investment portfolio he inherited from her.
The late Queen was said to be worth £370m in 2022 compared to Charles' current fortune of £640m.
Coming in second after the Hinduja family, at almost £27bn, were the Reuben brothers, who made their fortune through property and technology.
A close third was Sir Leonard Blavatnik, a Ukrainian born British-American businessman who built up a sizeable net worth of almost £26bn.
Among other notable figures to make the list were Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, David and Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John and Manchester United part-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe.
And pop star Dua Lipa, 29, is the youngest person to feature on this year's list. She comes in at 34 on the list with an estimated wealth of £115m.
The Doctor Who star was due to read out the UK jury votes at Saturday's grand final
Doctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has been replaced as the Eurovision 2025 spokesperson due to "unforeseen circumstances".
The 32-year-old actor was due to read out the UK jury votes at the grand final on Saturday but has now been replaced by singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
A BBC statement from Thursday evening said: "Due to unforeseen circumstances, unfortunately Ncuti Gatwa is no longer able to participate as Spokesperson during the Grand Final this weekend."
It continued: "However, we are delighted to confirm that BBC Radio 2's very own Friday night Kitchen Disco Diva Sophie Ellis-Bextor will be presenting the jury result live from the UK."
EPA
Singer and Radio 2 presenter Sophie Ellis-Bextor says it is "a privilege" to be part of the Eurovision grand final
The BBC has not given any more information on the reason for Gatwa's withdrawal.
In previous years the UK spokesperson role has been taken on by Catherine Tate, Amanda Holden and AJ Odudu.
Sophie Ellis-Bextor said: "I love Eurovision and it's a privilege to be part of 2025's grand final.
"What an honour it is to announce the UK's jury score on such a special show which always puts music front and centre. I am very much looking forward to delivering the iconic douze points from the United Kingdom!"
The announcement from the BBC about Gatwa came during the second Eurovision semi-final, in which UK entry Remember Monday performed.
Lauren Byrne, Charlotte Steele and Holly-Anne Hull performed What The Hell Just Happened, but were safe from elimination due to the UK's automatic qualification in the competition.
The countries that qualified on Thursday for Saturday's final Luxembourg, Finland, Latvia, Malta, and Greece.
They join the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland alongside the countries that qualified at Tuesday's semi final - Spain, Italy, Norway, Albania, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Poland, San Marino, Estonia, Portugal, and Ukraine.
Ireland, which is currrently the joint-record holder with Sweden for the most Eurovision wins, after taking the tropy seven times, failed to qualify on Thursday evening.
Norwegian singer Emmy, who represented the country, did not get enough votes with Laika Party, about a Russian space dog.
She hoped to replicate the success of last year's entrant, Bambie Thug, who became the first Irish competitor to reach the grand final since Ryan O'Shaughnessy in 2018.
Millions more adults in England and Wales are believed to have experienced domestic abuse since the age of 16, after the Office for National Statistics (ONS) overhauled its crime survey.
They added new questions covering topics like controlling and coercive behaviour and the harm it causes.
This means that more than 12m people are thought to have suffered abusive behaviour from family members or partners, up from 10m in older figures.
The new data, for the year ending March 2024, gives the most detailed picture yet of how common different types of abusive behaviour are, suggesting 18% of adults have suffered emotional abuse and 12% economic abuse.
Not all abusive behaviours cross the line into criminal levels of domestic abuse, researchers warned.
Data on the severity of abuse was not published on Friday, but is expected in November.
The figures were published on the same day as a report from MPs calling for better data on violence against women and girls (VAWG).
The Public Accounts Committee highlighted the need for improved information on how much violence women and girls face, on the needs of support services, evidence on the interventions that reduce violence and co-ordination across government departments to halve VAWG.
The Home Office said the new data is "essential to help us better understand the scale of domestic abuse and how we halve violence against women and girls".
Domestic abuse charity Women's Aid, which helped the ONS and University of Bristol develop the new questions has welcomed the change.
"Women's Aid has for many years been concerned that the questions in the survey have failed to adequately capture the lived experience of victim-survivors of domestic abuse" said Sarika Seshadri, their Head of Research and Evaluation.
The definition of domestic abuse in law has changed a lot over the past decade. Coercive control was first made a crime in 2015, years before the 2021 Domestic Abuse Act explicitly defined some of its major forms, including economic abuse.
The ONS adapted its gold-standard crime survey to reflect the shift in understanding of abuse and better reflect the experiences of survivors.
Some of the new questions ask about manipulative behaviour, including whether a partner or family member had tried to convince the respondent's friends they were "crazy"; acted in an "overly jealous way"; or had threatened to hurt or kill themselves if the respondent did not do what they wanted.
The new survey also asks if a family member or partner had threatened to discredit the respondent using sensitive personal information, such as their sexuality or immigration status.
Answers were collected privately using tablets, unlike the spoken interviews used for other crimes.
According to the new data, about 12.6 million people in England and Wales - 26% of the population - had experienced abusive behaviours by family or partners since age of 16, including 30% of women and 22% of men.
These figures did not account for the number of incidents or harm suffered. Women are more often the target of repeated or more severe abuse.
More than three-quarters of the 108 domestic homicide victims in the year to March 2024 were women.
James Comey had a tumultuous tenure as FBI director, and has clashed with Donald Trump.
Former FBI director James Comey is being investigated by the Secret Service after he shared then deleted a social media post, which Republicans alleged was an incitement to violence against President Donald Trump.
Comey posted on Instagram a photo of seashells that spelled the numbers "8647", which he captioned: "Cool shell formation on my beach walk."
The number 86 is a slang term whose definitions include 'to reject' or 'to get rid of', according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, which also notes that it has more recently been used as a term meaning 'to kill'.
Trump is the 47th US president. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem alleged the message was a call for the assassination of Trump, but Comey said he opposed violence.
In a post in X, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said: "We vigorously investigate anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees.
"We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director & we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters."
Comey deleted the Instagram post, saying in a follow-up that he "assumed [the sea shells] were a political message".
"I didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence," he added. "It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down."
"Cool shell formation," Comey commented before deleting the post
Trump survived two assassination attempts last year.
Current FBI Director Kash Patel responded on social media, saying that the bureau was "aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump".
"We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS [Secret Service] on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support."
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said on X: "Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of Trump."
She said her department and the Secret Service would investigate the matter.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino posted on X, accusing Comey of "a plea to bad actors/terrorists to assassinate the POTUS' while traveling internationally", referring to Trump's current tour of the Middle East.
The president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, also responded on X, commenting: "James Comey causally [sic] calling for my dad to be murdered."
Comey served as the FBI's director between 2013-17.
He had a tumultuous tenure that included overseeing the high-profile inquiry into Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's email just weeks before the 2016 election that she ended up losing to Trump.
He was fired by Trump amid an investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The skeleton's right arm rests on its lap and its left arm lies suspended in the air, as if resting on a stick
A 1,000 year-old human skeleton which was buried sitting cross-legged in India has been moved to a museum six years after it was excavated.
The BBC had reported earlier this month that the skeleton had been left inside an unprotected tarpaulin shelter close to the excavation site in western Gujarat state since 2019 because of bureaucratic wrangling.
On Thursday, the skeleton was shifted to a local museum, just a few miles away from where it was unearthed.
Authorities say that it will be placed on display for the public after administrative procedures are completed.
The skeleton being transported from the shed to the museum
Mahendra Surela, curator of the Archaeological Experiential Museum in Vadnagar where the skeleton has now been shifted, told the BBC that the skeleton was transported with "utmost care" and under the supervision of several experts.
He added that officials of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) - the agency responsible for preservation of archaeological research - will examine the skeleton before taking a decision on where and how the skeleton should be displayed in the museum.
It is currently placed next to the reception and is fenced in by a protective barrier.
"It is likely that we may shift it to the second floor, where a photograph of the skeleton is already placed," Mr Surela said.
Archaeologist Abhijit Ambekar, who discovered the skeleton, said that he was happy that the significant find was getting the attention it deserved.
Ambekar had earlier told the BBC that the skeleton was a rare discovery as similar remains had been found at only three other sites in India.
Roxy Gagdekar Chhara/BBC
Officials stand next to the skeleton in the museum
But as officials argued over who should take charge of the skeleton, it remained in a make-shift tent close to the excavation site, unprotected by security guards and exposed to natural elements.
Experts say that the skeleton likely belongs to the Solanki period. The Solanki dynasty, also known as the Chaulukya dynasty, ruled over parts of modern-day Gujarat between 940 to 1300 CE.
The skeleton had managed to survive the passage of time because the soil around it had remained undisturbed and displayed characteristics that aided preservation.
Mr Ambekar said that the remains could shed light on the phenomenon of "samadhi burials" - an ancient burial practice among Hindus where revered figures were buried rather than cremated.
The "stage one vote" on Tuesday is on the general principles of the bill. It is a free vote which means MSPs will not be told how to vote by their parties or the government.
If there are more "yes" votes than "noes", the bill will progress to stage two, where MSPs can propose changes.
Another vote on the final draft of the bill would be held before it could become law.
If MSPs do not back the bill at stage one, it will fall.
First Minister John Swinney and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes have said they will not support the bill, as have former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf and current Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy - the first permanent wheelchair user to be elected to Holyrood - is also opposed.
Supporters include Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton, ex-Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw and Scottish Greens co-leaders Lorna Slater and Patrick Harvie.
Scottish Health Secretary Neil Gray, who will speak for the government during the debate, said he would abstain from the vote.
It proposes giving terminally ill people the right to choose to end their life if they:
are over 18 and live in England and Wales, and have been registered with a GP for at least 12 months
have the mental capacity to make the choice and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish, free from coercion or pressure
be expected to die within six months
make two separate declarations, witnessed and signed, about their wish to die
satisfy two independent doctors that they are eligible - with at least seven days between each assessment
Once a patient's application has been approved, they would have to wait 14 days before proceeding.
A doctor would prepare the substance being used to end the patient's life, but the person would take it themselves.
The bill defines the co-ordinating doctor as a registered medical practitioner with "training, qualifications and experience" at a level to be specified by the health secretary. It does not say which drug would be used.
It would be illegal to use dishonesty, pressure, or to coerce someone into declaring they want to end their life, with a possible 14-year prison sentence.
A committee of 23 MPs - including 14 supporters and nine opponents - has gone through the legislation line by line. It held a series of public hearings and took evidence from experts.
Under the original proposals, a High Court judge would have to approve each request to end a life.
There were concerns the High Court would not have capacity to rule on each individual case. However, opponents say the change undermines the bill's safeguards.
Other changes agreed by the committee include:
extending the maximum time between the bill being passed by Parliament and the law coming fully into effect from two years to four years
When could assisted dying become law in England and Wales?
Many months of activity still lie ahead in the Commons and the Lords.
It is still possible that the bill could fall and not become law at all.
The bill returns to the House of Commons on Friday 16 May, when all MPs will have the chance to debate and vote on the changes proposed by the committee.
There would then be further scrutiny in the Commons and the Lords, and more voting.
Leadbeater proposed doubling the maximum period before any new law would be implemented to allow more time to set up training and systems for what would be an entirely new service.
If everything was ready more quickly, assisted dying could be in place ahead of the deadline, but the BBC understands that some ministers have expressed concern about the possible delay.
How did MPs vote on assisted dying?
The historic vote saw 330 MPs support the assisted dying bill, and 275 reject it.
MPs were given a free vote, meaning they could make their own decision rather than follow party instructions. The government is impartial.
Getty Images
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer voted in favour of the bill, as did Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
However, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood all voted against.
Most Conservative MPs rejected the bill, including party leader Kemi Badenoch. Former PM Rishi Sunak and former deputy PM Oliver Dowden were among Tory MPs who supported it.
When MPs last voted on the issue in 2015, they rejected different proposals by 330 votes to 118.
Opponents warn that people could be put under pressure to end their lives and want improvements to palliative care instead.
Paralympian and House of Lords crossbencher Baroness Grey-Thompson is a vocal critic.
She told the BBC she is worried about "the impact on vulnerable people, on disabled people, [the risk of] coercive control, and the ability of doctors to make a six-month diagnosis".
EPA
Baroness Grey-Thompson (C) is a long-standing critic of legalising assisted dying.
"Some of us have very real fears based on our lived experience and based on what has happened in other countries where it's legal," she wrote on X.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, from campaign group Care Not Killing, said: "This bill is being rushed with indecent haste and ignores the deep-seated problems in the UK's broken and patchy palliative care system."
Why do supporters want the law on assisted dying to change?
Leadbeater argues the law needs changing because some people "have a horrible, harrowing death", however good their end-of-life or palliative care is.
Cancer patient Nathaniel Dye worked on the bill with Leadbeater. He said it would allow people a death which was "as kind and compassionate as possible".
The Dignity in Dying campaign group said the bill provides the "most detailed, robust proposals" on the issue that "Westminster has ever considered".
According to chief executive Sarah Wootton, the fact that every year "up to 650 terminally ill people end their own lives, often in lonely and traumatic ways," shows that the status quo is not working.
PA Media
Dame Esther Rantzen, who has stage four lung cancer, has joined Dignitas in Switzerland
How might the law change in the Isle of Man and Jersey?
The Isle of Man and Jersey are both part of the British Isles but are able to set their own laws. They have both been considering proposals to allow assisted dying.
The Isle of Man parliament passed its Assisted Dying Bill on 25 March. It will now be sent for Royal Assent, where King Charles will give formal approval for it to become law.
Covering adults who have lived on the island for five years and are expected to die within 12 months, the measures could be in place by 2027.
Final legislation is being written, and if approved, an 18-month implementation period would begin. New rules would take effect in summer 2027 at the earliest.
However, assisted dying generally refers to a person who is terminally ill receiving lethal drugs from a medical practitioner, which they administer themselves.
Assisted suicide is intentionally helping another person to end their life, including someone who is not terminally ill. That could involve providing lethal medication or helping them travel to another jurisdiction to die.
Euthanasia is the act of deliberately ending a person's life to relieve suffering in which a lethal drug is administered by a physician. Patients may not be terminally ill.
There are two types: voluntary euthanasia, where a patient consents; and non-voluntary, where they cannot because, for example, they are in a coma.
Where is euthanasia or assisted dying legal around the world?
Switzerland has allowed assisted suicide since 1942. Its Dignitas facility accepts foreign patients as well as Swiss nationals, and between 1998 and 2023 it helped 571 Britons to die.
Assisted suicide is also legal in Austria.
In the US, 10 states - Oregon, California, New Mexico, Colorado, Washington, Hawaii, New Jersey, Vermont, Maine and Washington DC - allow "physician-assisted dying". It permits doctors to prescribe lethal drugs for self-administration.
Voluntary euthanasia is legal in Canada, where it is called medical assistance in dying. It can be provided by a doctor or nurse practitioner, either in person or through the prescription of drugs for self-administration. Medically assisted dying accounted for 4.7% of deaths in Canada in 2023.
It is also legal in Spain and Colombia, both of which also permit assisted suicide.
Assisted dying is legal in some parts of Australia, but the law differs across states.
New Zealand's End of Life Choice Act legalises assisted dying and allows adults in their final months of life to request assistance from a medical professional.
Three countries have laws that allow people who are not terminally ill to receive assistance to die: The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
The BBC's Nomia Iqbal asks Charl Kleinhaus about his refugee status in the US and about being called a "coward"
Last week, 46-year-old Charl Kleinhaus was living on his family farm in Mpumalanga province, South Africa. With its scenic beauty, wildlife and deep canyons, it's known as "the place where the sun rises".
His new home - for now - is a budget hotel near an American highway.
He and dozens of other white South Africans were moved to the US under President Donald Trump's controversial policy to protect them from the discrimination he alleges they are facing - an accusation that South Africa rejects.
Mr Kleinhaus defends the US president, telling the BBC he left his homeland after receiving death threats in WhatsApp messages.
"I had to leave a five-bedroom house, which I will lose now," Mr Kleinhaus tells the BBC, adding that he also left behind his car, his dogs and even his mother. "I didn't come here for fun," he adds.
The contrast in homes couldn't be more stark. But for Mr Kleinhaus, his situation in Buffalo, New York, is already a better one. "My children are safe," says Mr Kleinhaus, whose wife died in a road accident in 2006.
The status of white South African farmers has long been a rallying cry on the right and far-right of American politics.
Trump and his close ally, South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk, have even argued that there has been a "genocide" of white farmers in South Africa - a claim that has been widely discredited.
In February, Trump signed an executive order granting refugee status to Afrikaners, such as Mr Kleinhaus, who he said were being persecuted.
Mr Kleinhaus is one of a group of 59 who arrived on Tuesday at Dulles airport, near Washington DC, after Trump's administration fast-tracked their applications.
He admits he was surprised at how quickly he got to the US, and that he is grateful to Trump. "I felt finally somebody in this world is seeing what's going on," he says.
As he and his family arrived with others at the airport they were greeted with red, white and blue balloons. He describes the pomp and ceremony as "overwhelming".
Watch: Charl Kleinhaus questioned over antisemitic posts on social media
Afrikaners are a white ethnic minority who ran South Africa during the apartheid era, implementing racist policies of segregation in the country until the regime was officially abolished in 1994.
But more than 30 years on, black farmers own only a small fraction of the country's best farmland, with the majority still in white hands.
That has led to anger over the slow pace of change. Mr Kleinhaus acknowledges that black South Africans have suffered as well as him.
But he says: "I had nothing to do with apartheid. Nothing, nothing, nothing."
In January, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a controversial law allowing the government to seize privately owned land without compensation - in certain circumstances, when it is deemed "equitable and in the public interest".
The South African government says no land has yet been seized. But Mr Kleinhaus says once there is a government claim on your land - as he says is the case with his - it becomes impossible to function.
"Your land becomes worthless - the land expropriation has gone too far," he says. "People are scared of that. Other Afrikaners who criticise us live in a bubble."
Some fellow Afrikaners have described Mr Kleinhaus and the group as opportunists, and that being a victim of crime is not equivalent to the type of persecution that deserves refugee status.
Mr Kleinhaus acknowledges that the murder rate of farmers is low in South Africa, but says he does not want to be a victim. "There are people in my area who were shot and killed," he says.
He says he received threats from members of the local community: "I'd regularly get messages on WhatsApp saying, 'we'll get rid of you, you're on my land'."
Mr Kleinhaus says he received one message before he left for the US which read: "We are coming for you, you better be awake."
He also says his farming machinery was damaged, and that local police failed to act on his reports.
Ramaphosa has called the group who travelled to the US "cowards", saying they do not want to address the inequities of the apartheid era.
"As South Africans, we are resilient," he said earlier this week. "We don't run away from our problems. We must stay here and solve our problems."
What makes the resettlement of the Afrikaners to the US particularly controversial is that other refugees have been banned, including Afghans who earlier this week had their Temporary Protected Status removed.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that move was justified because the security and economic situation in Afghanistan had improved - despite criticism from opposition lawmakers and rights groups.
Mr Kleinhaus says he is sympathetic: "I mean, I feel sorry for the Afghans that they can't get here. But I know there's a process there. And I know when and if you are approved for the process, they take care of you."
Does he worry he's being used as a political pawn by Trump? And that another president could potentially reverse this decision in four years' time?
Mr Kleinhaus pauses, and says: "Yeah, it is scary, but I am a religious person. Just to be in this first group is an act of God, I believe, because there was a 0.0 something percent chance that you were selected for the first call."
Watch: Why US is granting white South Africans refugee status
Questions over refugees' vetting
Mr Kleinhaus has come under scrutiny for antisemitic posts on social media, which have since been deleted.
Discussing one of these, he says he copied and pasted someone else's thoughts, and that he was being administered morphine as part of medical treatment at the time - though he admits this was not an excuse.
The 2023 post was made in a moment of anger, he adds, after he saw a video - not verified by the BBC - which purported to show some Jews spitting at Christians in Israel.
Mr Kleinhaus insists the comments were specific to one moment, and not a wider comment about Jewish people. "Even now, if I see any person going against my religion, I will speak up against it," he said.
The US government is facing questions about the vetting process for those being resettled. The UN's refugee agency told the BBC it was not involved in the screening process for the Afrikaners as it normally would be for refugees heading to the US.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has previously stated it is screening immigrants' social media activity for antisemitism, and using it as a reason for denying applicants.
The Trump administration has been citing allegations of antisemitism as its officials have in recent months arrested and tried to deport pro-Palestinian activists.
In a statement to the BBC, a senior DHS official said: "The Department of Homeland Security vets all refugee applicants. Any claims of misconduct are thoroughly investigated, and appropriate action will be taken as necessary. DHS does not comment on individual application status."
Since returning to office, Trump has launched a crackdown to reduce immigration more broadly. So, is Mr Kleinhaus concerned about any backlash to his group being offered entry to the US?
"People must not think we are just taking advantage of this," he says. "We come here to make a contribution to the country.
"I'm not worried it'll fall apart because I believe this is God's plan for me.
"My life is in his hands. And if if he didn't want me to come, I wouldn't be here."
23-year-old Valeria Márquez was killed while streaming on TikTok
When a 23-year-old Mexican influencer was shot dead while live streaming on TikTok, rumours began to swirl. Was it a cartel hit? Or another tragic example of violence against women?
On Tuesday, Valeria Marquez was shot dead at Blossom The Beauty Lounge, a beauty salon owned by the victim in Zapopan, a town in the central-eastern state of Jalisco.
The state prosecutor's office said it is investigating the crime as a femicide, meaning that it believes the crime was motivated by the fact the victim was a woman.
The president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, said an investigation is under way: "We're working to catch those responsible and find out why this happened."
But the fact that the crime took place in Jalisco, the state where the feared Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) emerged, led to speculation by some that the cartel may somehow be involved.
Reuters
Friends and family of Márquez gather after her funeral mass
A rising star
Ms Marquez was a Mexican model who began to make a name for herself in 2021 after winning the Miss Rostro (Miss Face) beauty pageant, according to Mexican media reports.
Shortly thereafter, she began creating content on social media. She would share makeup tips and personal care routines, talk about fashion and show off her travels.
Photos of her on private jets and yachts can be seen on her Instagram account, which had more than 223,000 followers at the time of her death.
Ms Marquez also had another 100,000 followers on TikTok.
Although it is unclear exactly what happened, during her final livestream, Ms Marquez said she was waiting for a courier she knew to deliver a gift.
She added that she was a bit worried, because her friend could not see the courier's face when he arrived.
"Why didn't he just drop it off (the gift)? Were they going to pick me up (kidnap me) or what?" she wondered aloud to her followers.
While holding a pink stuffed animal, Ms Marquez looked away from the camera and immediately grabbed her chest and belly before collapsing into her chair.
Another woman then took the phone and ended the livestream.
Police arrived at the scene around 18:30 local time (12:30 GMT) and confirmed Ms Marquez's death, according to the state prosecutor.
Authorities say that at least two men on motorcycles arrived at the salon and one of them asked the victim if she was Valeria. When she replied "yes," he pulled out a gun and shot her at least twice before fleeing.
Investigators say they are checking CCTV footage and tracking Ms Marquez's social media accounts for clues as to who the attackers might be.
A few days before Márquez was killed, a candidate for mayor was also killed
Motive still unknown
But the salon's location in the wealthy Zapopan area of Guadalajara has raised questions about the motive for the crime. While the presence of private security and the tidyness of its streets give the impression that Zapopan is a safe area, in reality it is one of the most violent municipalities in Jalisco. In fact, shootings regularly occur in the area's luxurious shopping centres.
More than half of the real estate and commercial development in the area is connected to the laundering of drug trafficking money, according to the US Department of Justice.
Jalisco ranks sixth among Mexico's 32 states, including Mexico City, in terms of homicides, with 906 murders registered since the beginning of President Claudia Sheinbaum's term in October 2024, according to data consulting firm TResearch.
It is also one of the Mexican states most affected by the cartels. It was here, 50 kilometres from Zapopan, that a cartel training centre was found in March, and it is here that 15,000 people have disappeared since 2018.
The same day that Márquez was killed, a former congressman named Luis Armando Córdoba Díaz was murdered just two kilometres away, according to the newspaper Reforma.
According to the state of Jalisco, as many as 90% of crimes are never reported or investigated. The state attorney's office has also long been accused of having links to cartels, which it denies.
The prosecutor's office said that so far they have no reason to suspect that Ms Marquez's murder was ordered or carried out by any of the organised criminal groups operating in the area.
Instead, the office suggested the murderer may have been motivated to kill her because of her gender.
Mexican media outlets had previously published messages in which Ms Marquez blamed her ex-partner if anything happened to her.
Mayor of Zapopan Juan José Frangie said his office had no record of Ms Marquez requesting help from the authorities due to threats against her, adding "a femicide is the worst thing", according to news agency AFP.
"In response to claims pointing to alleged perpetrators of the femicide in Zapopan, we clarify that there are no direct accusations against any individual in the investigation file," the Jalisco prosecutor's office said in a statement.
"All statements and clues, including videos and social media posts, are being analysed. The investigation is being conducted under the femicide protocol, with a gender perspective, without revictimisation and in accordance with the principles of legality, impartiality and respect for human rights," it added.
Gender-based violence is a serious problem in Mexico, a country that ranks fourth in Latin America and the Caribbean for rates of femicide, behind Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia.
According to the latest data from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), there were 1.3 deaths per every 100,000 women in Mexico in 2023, Reuters reported.
Less than 48 hours before Ms Marquez's murder, Yesenia Lara Gutiérrez, a mayoral candidate for Morena (the ruling party) in the city of Texistepec, Veracruz, was killed while participating in a political motorcade. Like the influencer's case, the politician's murder was recorded by cameras because the event was being live-streamed on Facebook.
Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed Ukraine will send a delegation led by the defence minister to meet Russian officials in Istanbul for peace talks, but accused Russia of not treating them seriously.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, he criticised the "low-level" Moscow delegation. Its head, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, insisted the Kremlin team had "all the necessary competencies".
Later on Thursday the top US top diplomat Marco Rubio asserted that Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to meet.
"It's my assessment that I don't think we're going to have a breakthrough here until President Trump and President Putin interact directly on this topic," he said.
Rubio is also in Turkey after attending a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in the south of the country.
Earlier in the day Trump - who is visiting the Middle East - also suggested that significant progress in peace talks was unlikely until he and Putin met in person.
Asked by the BBC on board Air Force One if he was disappointed by the level of the Russian delegation, he said: "Look, nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together".
"He wasn't going if I wasn't there and I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying," he added.
Trump said he would attend talks in Turkey on Friday if it was "appropriate" and later said he would probably return to Washington on Friday but his destination was unknown as of yet.
The talks had initially been due to take place on Thursday but as of the evening no time for them to take place had been set. Some reports suggest they may now happen on Friday.
Reuters
Trump, who is in the UAE, said his destination on Friday was not yet known
Delegations from Turkey, the US, Ukraine and Russia had been due to meet in Istanbul on Thursday for the first face-to-face Ukraine-Russia talks since 2022.
Zelensky then challenged Putin to meet him in person, but on Thursday the Kremlin said that the Russian president was not among officials due to travel.
In Ankara, Zelensky accused Moscow of "disrespect" towards Trump and Erdogan because of the Russian delegation's lack of seniority and reiterated his challenge to the Russian leader to meet him personally.
"No time of the meeting, no agenda, no high-level of delegation - this is personal disrespect to Erdogan, to Trump," he said.
Meanwhile Medinsky told reporters in Istanbul that Russia saw the talks as a "continuation" of failed negotiations in 2022 shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
"The task of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is to sooner or later reach the establishment of long-term peace by eliminating the basic root causes of the conflict," Medinsky said.
The head of Moscow's delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, insisted the Kremlin team had "all the necessary competencies"
The Istanbul talks mark the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine since the unsuccessful effort in 2022.
Members of Moscow's Turkey delegation were involved in those talks and Russia has indicated it wants to pick up where they left off.
The terms under discussion included demands for Ukraine to become a neutral country, cut the size of its military and abandon Nato membership ambitions - conditions that Ukraine has repeatedly rejected as tantamount to capitulation.
Fighting in Ukraine rages on, with Russia saying its forces had captured two more villages in the eastern Dontesk region on Thursday.
Moscow now controls approximately 20% of Ukraine's territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula it illegally annexed in 2014.
Meanwhile UK Defence Minister John Healey called on Ukraine's allies to "put pressure on Putin". Speaking after a meeting with German counterpart Boris Pistorius in Berlin on Thursday, Healey urged further sanctions on Russia "to bring him to the negotiating table".
The UK needs more nuclear energy to power the data centres needed for artificial intelligence (AI), the boss of the world's largest cloud computing company has said.
Amazon Web Services (AWS), which is part of the retail giant Amazon, plans to spend £8bn on new data centres in the UK over the next four years.
A data centre is a warehouse filled with computers that remotely power services such as AI, data processing, and streaming, but a single one can use the same amount of energy as a small town.
Matt Garman, chief executive of AWS, told the BBC nuclear is a "great solution" to data centres' energy needs as "an excellent source of zero carbon, 24/7 power".
AWS is the single largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the world and has funded more than 40 renewable solar and wind farm projects in the UK.
The UK's 500 data centres currently consume 2.5% of all electricity in the UK, while Ireland's 80 hoover up 21% of the country's total power, with those numbers projected to hit 6% and 30% respectively by 2030.
The body that runs the UK's power grid estimates that by 2050 data centres alone will use nearly as much energy as all industrial users consume today.
In an exclusive interview with the BBC, Matt Garman said that future energy needs were central to AWS planning process.
"It's something we plan many years out," he said.
"We invest ahead. I think the world is going to have to build new technologies. I believe nuclear is a big part of that particularly as we look 10 years out."
French company EDF is currently building a giant new nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset and a decision to build another one at Sizewell in Suffolk is pending. EDF's UK Chair Alex Chisholm unsurprisingly agrees with Mr Garman.
"Why are data centre providers turning to nuclear? They will need a lot of energy, reliably," Mr Chisholm told the BBC.
"Replication of Hinkley Point C, alongside the roll out of SMRs, can power Britain's digital economy."
SMRs refers to small modular reactors which are the size of a football stadium as opposed to the size of a whole town, like Sizewell or Hinkley.
Amazon is already partnering with SMR firms in Washington and Virginia to develop SMRs and would be a natural customer for Rolls Royce which is developing its own SMR designs here.
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero told the BBC that modular reactors "will play a particularly important roles in growing energy-hungry sectors like AI and we're shaking up the planning rules to make it easier to build nuclear power stations across the country"
But this technology is many years away and new grid connections already take years to establish.
Jess Ralston at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit said: "Investors can be waiting years for grid connections holding back growth."
"Nuclear could be a way of supply data centre's power needs, but hardly any SMRs have been built anywhere in the world and traditional nuclear remains very expensive and takes a long time to build. So, it may be a while, if ever, for this to be a viable solution".
AI regulation
AWS estimates that 52% of businesses are using AI in some way – with a new business adopting it at a rate of one a minute. Mr Garman said this is a good thing.
"AI is one of the most transformative technologies since the internet. It's going to have a significant effect on almost every part of our lives."
He said he understands why many are nervous.
"With any technology that is sufficiently new or hard to understand, people are probably appropriately scared of it initially, until they better understand it so that initial response is not particularly surprising."
He added that he "would caution against" international regulation.
"The technology is moving at such a rate that I don't believe there's the knowledge of the folks that are building those regulations are going to be able to keep up.
"I think the most likely case is that those regulations would accomplish the exact inverse thing they are trying to do."
However, he admitted he thinks a lot about the responsibility of releasing AI into the world.
"Anytime you're building that much of a transformational technology, its important to think about those controls and guardrails so that it can go towards the betterment of society not the detriment.
"So absolutely. I think a ton about that, for sure."
Ben Roberts-Smith's defamation case has been called the "trial of the century"
Australia's most-decorated living soldier Ben Roberts-Smith, has lost an appeal against a landmark defamation judgement which found he committed war crimes.
A judge in 2023 ruled that news articles alleging the Victoria Cross recipient had murdered four unarmed Afghans were true, but Mr Roberts-Smith had argued the judge made legal errors.
The civil trial was the first time in history any court has assessed claims of war crimes by Australian forces.
A panel of three Federal Court judges on Friday upheld the original verdict.
Mr Roberts-Smith, who left the defence force in 2013, maintains his innocence and has not been charged over any of the claims in a criminal court, where there is a higher burden of proof.
The former special forces corporal sued three Australian newspapers over a series of articles alleging serious misconduct while he was deployed in Afghanistan between 2009 and 2012 as part of a US-led military coalition.
At the time the articles were published in 2018, Mr Roberts-Smith was considered a national hero, having been awarded Australia's highest military honour for single-handedly overpowering Taliban fighters attacking his Special Air Service (SAS) platoon.
The 46-year-old argued the alleged killings occurred legally during combat or did not happen at all, claiming the papers ruined his life with their reports.
His defamation case - which some have dubbed "the trial of the century" in Australia - lasted over 120 days and is now rumoured to have cost up to A$35m ($22.5m; £16.9m).
In June 2023 Federal Court Justice Antony Besanko threw out the case against The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Canberra Times, ruling it was "substantially true" that Mr Roberts-Smith had murdered unarmed Afghan prisoners and civilians and bullied fellow soldiers.
He also found that Mr Roberts-Smith lied to cover up his misconduct and threatened witnesses.
Additional allegations that he had punched his lover, threatened a peer, and committed two other murders were not proven to the "balance of probabilities" standard required in civil cases.
The "heart" of the appeal case was that Justice Besanko didn't given enough weight to Mr Roberts-Smith's presumption of innocence, his barrister Bret Walker, SC said.
There is a legal principle requiring judges to proceed carefully when dealing with civil cases that involve serious allegations and in making findings which carry grave consequences.
Mr Walker argued that meant the evidence presented by the newspapers fell short of the standard required.
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MPs will debate a bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for the first time since significant changes were made to it.
The bill passed the first stage of the Commons last November – but since then the details have been pored over and dozens of amendments added by both sides.
A vote to pass or reject the bill is not likely to take place on Friday, but rather in June.
Friday's debate comes as the government quietly made changes to its impact assessment on assisted dying, admitting errors in calculating how many people could take up the service if it becomes law.
It reduced its upper estimate for the number of assisted deaths in the first year from 787 to 647.
Several MPs opposed to the bill have described the process as "chaotic".
But Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the bill, said it was coming back to the Commons "even stronger".
She urged MPs to "grasp this opportunity with both hands".
"The law as it stands is not working for dying people or their loved ones; that much is clear," she said.
"A majority of MPs recognised this when they backed my bill in November. When they come to debate it once again today, they can be confident that it returns even stronger."
Another amendment would prevent doctors from discussing the option of an assisted death with under 18s, unless the patient has raised it first.
MPs have been given a free vote, meaning they can decide based on their conscience rather than having to follow a party line.
The issue has split Parliament, with strong opinions on both sides.
Those opposed to assisted dying say the mood has altered among MPs, but so far only a handful have said they've changed their minds since November and it would take dozens to block the bill.
The Commons is unlikely to vote to give the bill final approval until 13 June at the earliest.
On 2 May, the government published its long-awaited impact report on the bill - projecting NHS savings ranging from £919,000 to £10.3 million.
But on Wednesday, officials published a "correction notice" at the bottom of the 150-page document.
The change revises the upper estimate for the number of assisted deaths in the first year after the bill is published from up to 787 to 647.
Labour MP Melanie Ward, who previously voted against the bill, told the BBC: "This shows just how chaotic this whole process has been.
"With the bill being amended by supporters just days before it is debated and the impact assessment being quietly corrected, MPs on either side of the debate can't really know what they are being asked to vote on.
"It calls into question again whether this bill is fit for purpose and whether this private member's bill process is suited to deal with such significant and profound issues of life and death."
Independent peer Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, who has campaigned against the bill and will get a vote if the bill goes to the Lords, said it had been "very disappointing to see this process".
The amended impact assessment "has come out the night before very important debates," she said.
"It might make the numbers look marginally better but it's a significant error - what else have they got wrong?"
Meanwhile, Sarah Pochin, Reform's newest MP after winning the Runcorn by-election earlier this month, confirmed she would support the bill, telling ITV she was "confident" there were enough checks and balances to ensure terminally ill people were protected.
Broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, who has been campaigning for assisted dying after revealing her terminal lung cancer diagnosis last year, accused opponents of having "undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy" their concerns.
Labour MP Jess Asato, who voted against the bill, described Dame Esther's comments as "particularly distasteful" and "disrespectful to those with faith and without".
If assisted dying does become legal in England and Wales, it would be a historic change for society.
Current laws prevent medics from helping any patient to carry out their wish to die.
The new bill in England and Wales would allow any doctor to be involved in assisted dying. GPs are often a large part of the practice in countries where it is legal.
Of the 1,000 GPs who responded to a survey conducted by the BBC, 500 said they were against an assisted dying law, with 400 saying they were in favour.
The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) said it believed there were "concerning deficiencies" with the bill that would need addressing, including tougher safeguards such as using doctors known to the patient for prognosis, face-to-face checks to prevent coercion and no cuts to other care.
On a warm morning earlier this month, a group of Metropolitan Police diplomatic protection officers sat in an anteroom off the ornate entrance hall in London's Lancaster House, sipping tea and nibbling chocolate biscuits, while upstairs a core group of European politicians discussed the future of European cooperation.
It was an apt setting: everywhere you look in Lancaster House, there is evidence of the long, entangled histories of the UK and Europe. The double sweep of its grand staircase deliberately echoes the Palace of Versailles. Queen Victoria sat in these rooms listening to Frederic Chopin play the piano in 1848. Tony Blair hosted Russian President Putin here for an energy summit in 2003.
The important issues on the agenda at the Lancaster House meeting, which was hosted by the Foreign Secretary David Lammy, included the latest developments in the war in Ukraine, Europe's response to ensure the continent's security, and – for the first time since Brexit – a summit between the UK and the European Union, which will take place on 19 May.
The British government believes it's a significant moment.
Reuters
Before Brexit, UK prime ministers regularly visited Brussels for EU meetings
Before Brexit, British prime ministers would travel to Brussels four times a year or more for summits with the heads of the EU's institutions and its 27 member states. The haggling would go on late into the night. After Brexit those large summits stopped.
Now, the Labour government, elected last year on a manifesto that promised "an improved and ambitious relationship with our European partners", envisages new and regular interactions with the EU. Monday's marks the first.
Sir Keir Starmer will host the most senior EU leaders to launch a new "partnership".
Pedro Serrano, the EU ambassador to London, has described it as the "culmination of enhanced contacts at the highest levels since the July 2024 [UK] elections". But what will it amount to?
Is what's coming a "surrender summit" as the Conservatives warn; "the great British sellout" undoing bits of Brexit that Reform UK fear; or "a huge opportunity" the UK may be about to squander, as Liberal Democrats say? Or could it be an example of how, in Sir Keir Starmer's words, "serious pragmatism defeats performative politics" by delivering practical things that will improve people's lives?
Questions around a security pact
In those long, drama-filled nights of 2020, when the then-prime minister Boris Johnson was negotiating Brexit, the possibility of a Security and Defence Partnership was discussed. But the UK's main priority was diverging from Brussels. So nothing was agreed – a notable omission, some think.
Now a new UK-EU security pact has been worked on for months, the plan is for it to be the centrepiece of what's agreed.
EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said despite past tensions, 'we need to move forward with this partnership'
Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, who is overseeing negotiations, was at the early talks at Lancaster House. "Our relationship has had some difficulties," she told me, but "considering what is going on in the world […] we need to move forward with this partnership."
Yet some think the UK should not seize this outstretched hand.
"The cornerstone of our defence is Nato," Alex Burghart, a Conservative frontbencher, told the Commons this week. "We know of no reason why Nato is insufficient."
Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice has his own view. "There's no value at all," he argues. "We do not want to be constrained by a bungling top-down bureaucratic military structure. Our defence is guaranteed by Nato."
The government fires back on that point, arguing that a partnership will in no way undermine Nato; rather it will complement it, they say, because it will stretch to areas beyond defence, like the security of our economies, infrastructure, energy supplies, even migration and transnational crime.
Some industry experts also believe that a security pact could boost the UK economy. Kevin Craven, chief executive of ADS Group, a UK trade association that represents aerospace, defence and security firms, is among them.
Take, for example, the SAFE (Security Action For Europe) programme that is being set up by the EU, aiming to provide up to €150bn (£126bn) in loans for new projects. If the UK strikes a security partnership with the EU, then British weapons manufacturers could potentially access some of that cash.
"There is a huge amount of interest from European partners," says Mr Craven. "One of the challenges for defence companies in the last couple of years, since the advent of Ukraine, is being able to scale up their own capacity to meet demand." He estimates the UK could boost the EU's defence output by a fifth.
The Liberal Democrat's Foreign Affairs spokesperson, Calum Miller, similarly believes that a security pact is a huge opportunity for the British defence industry - but, he adds, "as importantly, it's a new strategic opportunity for the UK to be part of that ongoing conversation about how we arm as a continent".
Others point out that the UK has already been working with the EU on defence ever since Russia's invasion of Ukraine – at Nato, and most recently via the so-called Coalition of the Willing.
So, in practice, does it make huge amounts of difference to the UK's place in Europe?
No, argues Jill Rutter, a former senior civil servant who is now a senior fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe think tank. "Because relations [on defence] have already been improving quite a long way."
Some of those working on the partnership, however, argue that it will set in train new ways for the UK to engage and cooperate with its neighbours.
Delays at the border
More contentious is the UK's desire to sign what's called a 'veterinary' deal to remove some border checks on food and drink. Nick Thomas-Symonds, the Cabinet Office minister leading these negotiations, told the Commons this week that the objective to lower food and drink costs is in the manifesto, so there is a mandate for it.
Inside the food industry, calls for reform have been growing. Julianne Ponan, whose firm Creative Nature makes vegan snack bars, exports to 18 countries but only a small proportion goes to the EU. She says this is because of the paperwork and inspections since Brexit.
One of her employees had to carry samples in her luggage on a passenger flight to Spain for a meeting to make sure the food wasn't held up at the border, she says.
"I think this will open up huge opportunities for businesses like mine."
European Photopress Agency
A 'veterinary' deal to remove some border checks on food and drink has divided
But a veterinary deal may carry political danger. It would require the UK to align some of its rules on food and drink with EU ones, and move in-step with Brussels over time. And those rules are subject to oversight by EU courts.
"I call it the surrender summit," says Andrew Griffith, the Conservative Shadow Business and Trade Secretary. Under this deal the UK would lose "our freedom to set our own rules", he adds.
The Conservatives say they "fought long and hard" to "take back control of our laws, our borders, our money" – and that this should not now be reversed.
Step change or 'sell out'?
Reform UK has not held back in its language: "We think prepare for the Great British sell out. That's the bottom line, and it will be dressed up as a reset," Richard Tice says.
"Why would you want to reset and get closer to a patently failing economic model? The EU is struggling even more than we are. We should be diverging as fast as we can away from that."
But Labour's Thomas-Symonds dismisses these views as a "rehash of the arguments of the past".
On the other end of the spectrum is the accusation that Sir Keir is far too cautious. Calum Miller of the Liberal Democrats says he knows of businesses "gnashing their teeth in frustration that they just can't exploit opportunities to work with and trade with Europe".
PA Media
Some have accused Sir Keir Starmer of being too cautious
His party wants the UK to explore a Customs Union with the EU. It would make moving goods easier, but mean we couldn't sign our own trade deals.
David Henig, a former senior trade negotiator, has been talking to both sides "hoping to help, to sort of navigate them in".
"The summit is a step forward, not a step change," he says, "A slight deepening of the trade ties, rather than something dramatically new."
A deal on food and drink checks would deliver very little, he believes, because food and drink is such a limited part of trade. "If you were, for example, aligning UK and EU rules on industrial products, you'd get a much bigger economic impact".
Jill Rutter thinks that a veterinary deal would not prove "economically earth shattering" – but if it goes well, she argues that it could provide "early proof of concept" for further UK-EU cooperation.
'Tough it out' on fishing?
After Brexit, many British fishermen were disappointed when Boris Johnson's government agreed to let EU boats continue much as before, taking significant catches from UK waters. Those arrangements expire next year. The EU wants them extended.
David Davis who, as Brexit minister, led some of the original negotiations for the UK, told me fishing was "totemic" for Brussels. London conceded too easily, he thinks.
"Europeans got what they wanted first, and then we had a haggle from a weak position."
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Many British fishermen were disappointed when Johnson's government agreed to let EU boats continue much as before
So he adds, "If I was giving advice to the government, I would say, tough it out" and use fishing as a lever to seek concessions.
But, as the UK found before, Brussels has cards to play. Much of the fish caught by British fishermen is sold to buyers on the Continent and the UK needs access to that market.
Some EU coastal states, like France and Denmark, are prepared to drive a hard bargain, demanding that London concedes on fishing rights in return for things it wants. Early on, even signing the Security Partnership was being linked to agreement on a fishing deal. The haggling will be tough.
Immigration and youth mobility
And finally, there's an idea that has prompted much interest in recent months: a youth mobility deal, through which under-30s from the UK and EU could live and work in each other's countries.
For a long time the government said there were "no plans" for such a deal – but earlier this month they changed course, with Labour's Thomas-Symonds saying that "A smart, controlled youth mobility scheme would of course have benefits for our young people".
It's likely that would mean very limited numbers allowed to enter the UK, and only with a visa, for a limited time.
Under those conditions, ministers hope it would not inflate net migration numbers. It's far from what the EU would like.
The UK already has similar schemes with 13 countries, including Australia, New Zealand and Japan.
"When we are comfortable having those relationships, why are we so averse to having it with our nearest neighbours?" Calum Miller asks, "It just doesn't really make sense".
Reuters
Voters care most about what they perceive as illegal migration and people coming here to study or to work are not a particular cause for concern, says one expert
Paula Surridge, a professor of political sociology at Bristol University, argues that public views on immigration are more nuanced than many people think. "Voters care most about what they perceive as illegal migration – small boat crossings and so on," she says, "People coming here to study or to work, particularly young people, are not a particular cause for concern" for most.
"There will definitely be a group of voters that are upset [about potential deals], but they were never going to vote Labour."
Of those who backed Labour in 2024, she adds, about three quarters previously voted Remain in the Brexit referendum. The political risk to the government of signing pacts with the EU is "smaller than it appears", she adds.
Conservative pollster Lord Hayward is more cautious – and is concerned that a deal may pose a "bear trap" for the government if it's seen as providing free movement to young Europeans. "It will provide serious difficulties for them to come to an agreement on something which could easily be portrayed as EU membership 2.0."
'Making Brexit work'
Even before Sir Keir's upcoming summit on Monday, his opponents are raising that spectre.
"All of his muscle memory has been to get closer to the European political union," says Mr Griffith. "I am worried about our prime minister, with that baggage, with those preconceived ideas, […] trying to negotiate a better deal with the EU."
Richard Tice says his party could simply undo any deals with the EU. "If I'm right about our fears, and we win the next general election, we will just reverse the lot. The whole lot."
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"All of [the prime minister's] muscle memory has been to get closer to the European political union," argues one commentator
But Mr Thomas-Symonds is of the view that Monday will show the government is "not returning to the Customs Union, Single Market, or Freedom of Movement", all red lines it has pledged not to cross.
Instead it will be about "making Brexit work in the interests of the British people".
Back at Lancaster House, the politicians have moved on, heading to more meetings in Albania and Turkey to grapple with the issues facing the continent. But in a quiet hallway in the house is a painting from the 1850s of the Duke of Wellington inspecting troops in London's Hyde Park.
In it, he sits on a black stallion, raising his white-feathered hat to salute the cavalry - a tribute to the prime minister and military hero who defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.
The upcoming summit won't be as momentous an event in the UK's complicated history with Europe. But a modern British leader about to plunge into the fray of European politics might pause for thought here – perhaps, for just a moment.
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The policy to tax inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m from April 2026 saw farmers hold tractor protests across the UK
Farm inheritance tax changes should be delayed by a year and alternative schemes that will not harm small family businesses need to be properly considered, a committee of MPs has warned.
Government plans to tax inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1m at a rate of 20% – half the usual rate – saw protests across the UK after they were announced in the Autumn Budget.
In a report released on Friday, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Efra) Committee said the changes were made without "adequate consultation, impact assessment or affordability assessment".
The government said its inheritance tax reforms were "vital" and its commitment to farmers was "steadfast".
Efra's report said the tax reforms "threaten to affect the most vulnerable" but delaying the implementation of the policy until April 2027 would give those farmers more time to seek "appropriate professional advice".
National Farmers' Union (NFU) president Tom Bradshaw said a delay "doesn't take the terrible pressure off older farmers".
He said the policy remained "fundamentally unfit, destructive, badly constructed and must be changed".
The government says the changes will only affect the wealthiest 500 farms each year, but the NFU and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) estimate that up to 70,000 farms could be affected overall.
The committee also warned that the government's sudden closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) environmental payments scheme "affected trust in the government" and left many farmers "at risk of becoming unviable".
When the SFI scheme, which more than 50,000 farm businesses are signed up to, was closed in March, the NFU described it as another "shattering blow" to farmers.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has since announced it will allow SFI applications that were in progress within two months of its closure.
But the committee said that lessons should be learned and that "a restoration of trust is urgently required".
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The closure of the Sustainable Farming Incentive was said to be a "shattering blow" to farmers
Efra committee chairman Alistair Carmichael said the confidence and wellbeing of farmers had been affected negatively.
"The government, however, seems to be dismissing farmers' concerns and ignoring the strength of feeling evidenced in the months of protests that saw tractors converge on Westminster and up and down the country," he added.
The CLA, which represents 28,000 farmers and rural businesses, urged the government to rethink its "current disastrous policy" on inheritance tax.
It said the government should consider an alternative "clawback" scheme, under which 100% agricultural and business property reliefs would remain but inheritance tax would be applied to assets if sold within a certain period of time post-death, payable out of the proceeds of the sale.
CLA president Victoria Vyvyan said the "clawback" proposal would limit the damage to family businesses while targeting "those who have bought land to shelter wealth for short-term gain".
"The government has dug itself into a deep hole by targeting family farms and businesses, and must now pause, listen and consult," she said.
But a government spokesman said that under its changes three quarters of estates would continue to pay no inheritance tax at all, while the remaining quarter would "pay half the inheritance tax that most people pay".
He added that payments could be spread over 10 years, interest-free.
Details of a new SFI scheme will be announced after the upcoming spending review.
Millions of people are walking a financial tightrope, with one in 10 UK adults saving no money at all, a major report has concluded.
This leaves many exposed to economic shocks and vulnerable to rising bills, according to the Financial Conduct Authority's (FCA) Financial Lives survey.
Moreover, anxiety and stress levels were relatively high, particularly among those burdened by debt.
But the regulator said the situation had not worsened since the start of the cost of living squeeze and free help was available for those facing trouble.
Snapshot of our money
The FCA's Financial Lives survey is a benchmark for the state of the nation's finances, with nearly 18,000 people questioned about how they deal with money.
The findings suggest that 13 million people - a quarter of the UK adult population - have low financial resilience. That means they have debts that are hard to manage, low savings, and have missed a series of bill payments.
This was unchanged when compared with the previous Financial Lives survey, published in 2022, despite the pressure caused by inflation and rising essential bills on personal finances.
Some 10% of those asked had no cash saved at all. Another 21% had less than £1,000 tucked away.
Other key findings in the wide-ranging report include
A total of 2.8 million people have persistent credit card debt
Nearly 12 million people feel overwhelmed or stressed dealing with financial matters, including 40% of adults with credit or loans saying they suffer anxiety and stress
Some 3.8 million retirees are worried they don't have enough money to last their retirement
Difficulties getting to a bank branch face nearly 10 million people
"Our data shows that finances are stretched for many - with some unable to save for a rainy day," said Sarah Pritchard, from the FCA.
Buy now, pay later surges
The report also suggests that the use of buy now, pay later has risen significantly in recent years.
Some 40% of lone parents and 35% of women aged between 25 and 34 use these deferred credit products, which remain unregulated.
Overall, nearly half of adults have outstanding unsecured debt, where the money borrowed is not backed up by assets.
The FCA said the median average amount of debt outstanding among those with debt was £6,300.
Among 18 to 34-year-olds with debt, the median average amount of debt outstanding was £12,500. But, after excluding student loans, that dropped to £1,300.
Sarah Pritchard and Matt Dronfield say people should ask for help
Debt advisers say they routinely speak to people with mental health issues, which either result in financial difficulties or are caused by money worries.
They say it takes courage to pick up the phone to ask for help, but free debt advice is available and has no impact on someone's credit score.
How to deal with money worries
Matt Dronfield, managing director of Debt Free Advice - a coalition of charities which can negotiate with creditors on behalf of borrowers - said rent or mortgage arrears, council tax and falling behind on utility bills were the three most common forms of debt.
He said many callers were juggling multiple jobs, but unable to cover their essential expenses.
"It is so common. If you're not worried, then a friend or family member is definitely going to be," he said.
"We know you are more likely to tell your pet than your partner or loved one about your financial situation. So, speak to an expert debt adviser about the situation that you are in.
"If you were worried about your health, you'd see a doctor. If you're car wasn't working, you'd go to a mechanic. So, if you are worried about your finances, speak to an independent debt adviser, for free."
He also said that people with no savings should consider "paying yourself first", by putting a few pounds into a savings account when their receive their income.
This could help get them into a savings habit, while still being able to cover the priority bills.
The average amount people have saved is £5,000 to £6,000, the FCA's report suggests.
Yuval Raphael told the BBC she had practiced singing to the sound of people booing to prepare for Eurovision
Israel has qualified for Eurovision's grand final on Saturday, hours after protesters tried to disrupt the country's dress rehearsal.
Yuval Raphael, 24, was performing New Day Will Rise during a preview show on Thursday afternoon when six people with whistles and "oversized" Palestinian flags obstructed her act. Under the arena rules, all flags are allowed but there are limits on size.
Swiss broadcaster SRG SSR, which is organising the event, said the audience members were quickly ejected from the St Jakobshalle arena.
Israel's participation in Eurovision has been a source of controversy, as its military intensifies its bombardment of Gaza, and enforces blockades of all food and other humanitarian supplies.
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Protesters unfurled a large Palestinian flag during dress rehearsals on Thursday
In recent weeks, broadcasters in Spain, Ireland and Slovenia have called for a debate on Israel's involvement, and there have been small protests in the streets of Basel, Switzerland where this year's contest is taking place.
The incident during Thursday's dress rehearsal did not disrupt Raphael's performance, and her appearance in the televised semi-final passed without further demonstrations.
Speaking to the BBC earlier this week, Raphael said her team had played audience noises over her rehearsals, "so I can practice when there is distractions in the background."
The singer clasped her hands together, then blew a kiss towards the sky when it was announced she would progress to the final.
Despite the ongoing tension, her song is currently among the favourites to win, according to bookmakers.
Who qualified from the second semi-final?
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The 10 acts who succeeded in Thursday's public vote were:
Armenia: PARG – SURVIVOR
Austria: JJ – Wasted Love
Denmark: Sissal – Hallucination
Finland: Erika Vikman – ICH KOMME
Greece: Klavdia – Asteromáta
Israel: Yuval Raphael – New Day Will Rise
Latvia: Tautumeitas – Bur Man Laimi
Lithuania: Katarsis – Tavo Akys
Luxembourg: Laura Thorn – La Poupée Monte Le Son (pictured)
Malta: Miriana Conte – SERVING
Which means the six countries eliminated were Australia, Czechia, Georgia, Ireland, Montenegro and Serbia.
Australia's elimination was the biggest shock. Their innuendo-laden pop anthem Milkshake Man had received a warm reception ahead of the contest but, on the night, viewers proved to be lactose intolerant.
Ireland also crashed out, a year after Bambie Thug earned the country a sixth-place finish.
The country has now failed to qualify on eight of their last 10 attempts. The continuation of that losing streak will cause much soul-searching in the nation that's tied with Sweden for the most Eurovision victories of all time: Seven in total.
The second semi-final also gave viewers their first chance to see the UK's act, Remember Monday.
The girl band delivered a whimsical staging of their song, What The Hell Just Happened? - dancing around a fallen chandelier in Bridgerton-inspired outfits, as they sang about a messy night on the tiles.
With effortless three-part harmonies, they put to rest the dodgy vocal performances that plagued Olly Alexander and Mae Muller in 2024 and 2023.
And they were spared the public vote, for now. The UK automatically qualifies for the final as one of the "Big Five" countries who make outsized financial contributions to Eurovision.
Corinne Cumming / EBU
Remember Monday's routine traded on their experience in West End musicals
Swedish entry KAJ are currently favourites to win the 2025 contest, with their sweaty sauna anthem Bara Bada Bastu.
Austrian counter-tenor JJ, whose operatic pop song Wasted Love is the second favourite, was one of the 10 acts voted through after Thursday's show.
In an eye-catching performance, the 24-year-old was tossed around the stage in a rickety sailing boat, reflecting the turbulent emotional waters of his lyrics.
Elsewhere, the contest had all the traditional Eurovision trappings: Spandex, sequins, gale-force wind machines, and no fewer than 10 on-stage costume changes.
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French singer Louane showered the stage in sand, in a performance the ruminated on the passage of time and how grief mutates
Among the more novel elements were a "sand tornado" during France's performance, and Maltese contestant Miriana Conte bouncing on a bright red medicine ball for her self-empowerment anthem, Serving.
Latvian folk band Tautumeitas took a more ethereal approach with their close-harmony incantation Bur Man Laimi, which literally translates as "a chant for happiness".
Dressed in gold bodysuits with branch and vine detailing, they transported the audience to an enchanted forest for a song that emphasised the connection between humanity and nature.
The band were considered an outlier for the final, but leapfrogged over higher profile songs from Ireland and Czechia - precisely because they stood out.
Also making a mark was Finnish singer Erika Vikman, who ended the show with a bang.
Her track Ich Komme is a sex-positive club anthem that saw with the singer rising above the audience astride a giant, fire-spouting golden microphone.
Like her, it soared into Saturday's grand final - where the song's predicted to land in the top 10.
Sarah Louise Bennett / EBU
Erika Vikman's death-defying performance was a highlight of the show
Saturday's show will take place in Basel's St Jackobshalle from 20:00 BST / 21:00 Swiss time.
The ceremony will be broadcast live on BBC One and BBC Radio 2, with full live commentary on the BBC News website.
Chris Brown performing at Tycoon Music Festival in Detroit, Michigan last month.
US singer Chris Brown has been charged with grievous bodily harm with intent, says the Metropolitan Police.
The force says the charge relates to an alleged assault, which reportedly took place at a nightclub in central London on 19 February 2023.
The 36-year-old was arrested at a hotel in Manchester in the early hours of Thursday.
He remains in custody and is due to appear before Manchester Magistrates' Court on Friday.
"We have authorised the Metropolitan Police to charge Chris Brown with one count of grievous bodily harm, contrary to section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861", said Adele Kelly, the deputy chief crown prosecutor for CPS London North.
She added "criminal proceedings against this defendant are active" and "he has the right to a fair trial".
The R&B singer is currently on tour and is scheduled to play several shows across the UK in June and July.
Air strikes reportedly hit homes and tents sheltering displaced families
At least 103 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli air strikes across the Gaza Strip since dawn, according to the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency.
Fifty-six people, including women and children, were killed when homes and tents sheltering displaced families were bombed overnight in the southern city of Khan Younis, the local Nasser hospital said. Local journalists said its corridors were crowded with casualties and that its mortuary was full.
A spokesman for the Civil Defence later reported deadly strikes in the northern town of Jabalia, including an attack on a health clinic and prayer hall in Jabalia refugee camp that he said killed 13 people.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
But it has been intensifying its bombing of what it has said are Hamas fighters and infrastructure ahead of a planned expansion of its ground offensive in Gaza.
It comes as US President Donald Trump visits the region and indirect negotiations on a new ceasefire and hostage release deal between Hamas and Israel continue.
The streets of Khan Younis were filled with funeral processions and grieving families on Thursday morning, following what residents said were the deadliest set of air strikes in the city since Israel resumed its offensive almost two months ago.
One video shared by a local activist showed medics laying dozens of bodies on the ground at a local cemetery. An imam stood nearby leading prayers for hundreds of mourners gathered behind him in orderly rows.
Other footage showed men carrying the bodies of two small children wrapped in blood-stained shrouds outside Nasser hospital, which published a list of the names of the 56 people who medics said were killed.
Safaa al-Bayouk, a 42-year-old mother of six, said the children were her sons Muath, who was only six weeks old, and Moataz, who was one year and four months.
"I gave them dinner and they went to sleep. It was a normal day... [then] the world turned upside down," she told Reuters news agency.
Reem al-Zanaty, 13, said her uncle's family, including her 12-year-old cousin Menna, were killed when their two homes were bombed.
"We didn't feel or hear anything until we woke up with rubble on us," she said. "The Civil Defence did not come. I will tell you honestly we pulled ourselves [out]. My father helped us."
Medics also said local journalist Hassan Samour, who worked for Hamas-run al-Aqsa Radio, was killed along with 11 members of his family when their home in the eastern Bani Suheila neighbourhood was struck.
Reuters
Reem al-Zanaty said she woke up covered in rubble after an overnight strike on her home and had to be rescued by her father
The Civil Defence agency also said on Thursday morning that its first responders had recovered the bodies of four people following Israeli strikes in the northern town of Beit Lahia and two others in the central town of Deir al-Balah.
Later, spokesman Mahmoud Bassal reported that an Israeli strike on a home in Jabalia town had killed all five members of the Shihab family.
Another 13 people were killed when the al-Tawbah health clinic and prayer hall in the al-Fakhouri area of Jabalia refugee camp was bombed, he said.
Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that 15 people were killed, including 11 children.
A graphic video posted online purportedly from the scene showed two bodies covered in debris on a street next to a badly damaged building.
Amir Selha, a 43-year-old resident of northern Gaza, told AFP news agency: "Tank shells are striking around the clock, and the area is packed with people and tents."
On Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed at least 80 people across the territory, including 59 in Jabalia town and refugee camp, according to hospitals and the Civil Defence.
The Israeli military said it struck Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fighters in the north of the territory on Tuesday night. It had warned residents of Jabalia and neighbouring areas to evacuate on Tuesday after rockets were launched into Israel.
Israeli evacuation orders issued on Wednesday afternoon also caused panic among residents of a crowded area of Gaza City, in the north.
The Israeli military said a hospital, a university and several schools sheltering displaced people in the Rimal neighbourhood had become "terrorist strongholds" and that it would soon attack them with "intense force".
Separately, a US-backed organisation said it would start work in Gaza within two weeks as part of a new heavily criticised US-Israeli aid distribution plan.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said it had asked Israel to let the UN and others resume deliveries until it was set up.
Israel has not allowed any aid or other supplies into Gaza for 10 weeks, and aid agencies have warned of mass starvation among the 2.1 million population.
Israel imposed the blockade on 2 March and resumed its offensive against Hamas two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire. It said it wanted to put pressure on Hamas to release its remaining 58 hostages, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.
Israel launched a military campaign to destroy Hamas in response to the group's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 53,010 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 2,876 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
This week saw US President Donald Trump take a tour of the Middle East, Kim Kardashian give evidence in a Paris courtroom, and the world's most glamorous film festival kick off in Cannes.
But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world?
Police investigate the scene of the fire in Kentish Town
A 21-year-old man has been charged after fires at two properties and a car linked to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, the Metropolitan Police has said.
Roman Lavrynovch, a Ukrainian national, was charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life on Thursday.
He was arrested at an address in Sydenham, south-east London, in the early hours of Tuesday. He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.
The charges relate to three incidents over a four-day period - a vehicle fire in Kentish Town, north London, a fire at the prime minister's private home on the same street and a fire at an address that he previously lived at in north-west London.
The investigation has been led by the Met's Counter Terrorism Command due to its links to a high-profile figure.
In the early hours of Monday 12 May, emergency services responded to a fire at the Kentish Town home where Sir Keir Starmer lived before becoming prime minister and moving into 10 Downing Street.
Police were alerted by the London Fire Brigade (LFB) to reports of a fire at the residential address at 1.35am.
Damage was caused to the property's entrance but nobody was hurt.
It is understood the property has been rented out.
A car linked to Sir Keir was set alight four days earlier on Thursday May 8 on the same street.
In the early hours of Sunday 11 May, firefighters dealt with a small fire at the front door of a house converted into flats in nearby Islington.
The BBC understands that the prime minister lived there in the 1990s.
Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed Ukraine will send a delegation led by the defence minister to meet Russian officials in Istanbul for peace talks, but accused Russia of not treating them seriously.
Speaking to reporters in Ankara, he criticised the "low-level" Moscow delegation. Its head, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, insisted the Kremlin team had "all the necessary competencies".
Later on Thursday the top US top diplomat Marco Rubio asserted that Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to meet.
"It's my assessment that I don't think we're going to have a breakthrough here until President Trump and President Putin interact directly on this topic," he said.
Rubio is also in Turkey after attending a meeting of Nato foreign ministers in the south of the country.
Earlier in the day Trump - who is visiting the Middle East - also suggested that significant progress in peace talks was unlikely until he and Putin met in person.
Asked by the BBC on board Air Force One if he was disappointed by the level of the Russian delegation, he said: "Look, nothing's going to happen until Putin and I get together".
"He wasn't going if I wasn't there and I don't believe anything's going to happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together, but we're going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying," he added.
Trump said he would attend talks in Turkey on Friday if it was "appropriate" and later said he would probably return to Washington on Friday but his destination was unknown as of yet.
The talks had initially been due to take place on Thursday but as of the evening no time for them to take place had been set. Some reports suggest they may now happen on Friday.
Reuters
Trump, who is in the UAE, said his destination on Friday was not yet known
Delegations from Turkey, the US, Ukraine and Russia had been due to meet in Istanbul on Thursday for the first face-to-face Ukraine-Russia talks since 2022.
Zelensky then challenged Putin to meet him in person, but on Thursday the Kremlin said that the Russian president was not among officials due to travel.
In Ankara, Zelensky accused Moscow of "disrespect" towards Trump and Erdogan because of the Russian delegation's lack of seniority and reiterated his challenge to the Russian leader to meet him personally.
"No time of the meeting, no agenda, no high-level of delegation - this is personal disrespect to Erdogan, to Trump," he said.
Meanwhile Medinsky told reporters in Istanbul that Russia saw the talks as a "continuation" of failed negotiations in 2022 shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
"The task of direct negotiations with the Ukrainian side is to sooner or later reach the establishment of long-term peace by eliminating the basic root causes of the conflict," Medinsky said.
The head of Moscow's delegation, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, insisted the Kremlin team had "all the necessary competencies"
The Istanbul talks mark the first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine since the unsuccessful effort in 2022.
Members of Moscow's Turkey delegation were involved in those talks and Russia has indicated it wants to pick up where they left off.
The terms under discussion included demands for Ukraine to become a neutral country, cut the size of its military and abandon Nato membership ambitions - conditions that Ukraine has repeatedly rejected as tantamount to capitulation.
Fighting in Ukraine rages on, with Russia saying its forces had captured two more villages in the eastern Dontesk region on Thursday.
Moscow now controls approximately 20% of Ukraine's territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula it illegally annexed in 2014.
Meanwhile UK Defence Minister John Healey called on Ukraine's allies to "put pressure on Putin". Speaking after a meeting with German counterpart Boris Pistorius in Berlin on Thursday, Healey urged further sanctions on Russia "to bring him to the negotiating table".
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