Wintry weather is forecast to tighten its grip in many parts of the UK this week with sub-zero temperatures plunging even lower than during the heavy snowfall of the past weekend.

Weather forecasters predict the coldest nights of the year so far on Wednesday and Thursday, and temperatures are expected to fall as low as -20 C in some areas.

A series of yellow weather warnings covering the next few days have already become active - with the latest warnng of the danger of ice in parts of northern Wales, as well as areas in central and northern England, until 12:00 GMT on Wednesday.

The cold weather comes after another day of flooding causing havoc in central England but, with no further rainfall expected in flood-hit areas in the coming days, flood waters are likely to begin subsiding.

Travel disruption continued on Tuesday, with flights delayed, roads closed and railways impacted by the poor weather.

People continued to grapple with the impact of the severe flooding that has affected homes and businesses across the Midlands in England and a man had to be rescued from a flooded caravan park in Leicestershire's Barrow upon Soar.

There were 114 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 205 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, in place across England on Tuesday afternoon.

One flood warning and six flood alerts were active in Wales.

Looking ahead, weather forecasters expect the flood waters and warnings to begin to subside, with no significant rain predicted in the areas currently experiencing flooding.

But by then the focus will have switched back to how far temperatures are likely to fall, particularly during the night.

The ice warning covering Tuesday night and Wednesday morning is accompanied by another, also up to 12:00 on Wednesday, which tells people to be aware of the likelihood of snow and ice in Northern Ireland and parts of northern and western Scotland.

A separate yellow warning for snow in some southern counties of England will come into force at 09:00 on Wednesday, and will last until midnight.

The wintry conditions have caused significant disruption across the UK since snow swept many parts of the country at the weekend.

Hundreds of schools were closed in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including schools in Yorkshire, Merseyside, the Midlands and Aberdeenshire.

Most flights are running again after they were temporarily halted at airports in Liverpool, Bristol, Aberdeen and Manchester – but operators have warned some delays are still likely.

Some major roads were shut because of poor weather conditions, including the A1 in Lincolnshire which was still closed on Tuesday afternoon due to extensive flooding.

Worst since 2021?

Bitter cold is expected in many parts of the UK in the coming days, with the likelihood of sharp overnight frosts.

Temperatures are expected to drop well below freezing on Wednesday and Thursday night, with forecasters expecting many parts of the UK to experience a hard frost and lows of between -3C and -10C.

In places that are still experiencing snow cover, it could be as cold as -14C to -16C on Wednesday night, and on Thursday the Pennines and snow fields of Scotland could register temperatures as low as -16C to -20C.

That would actually be far colder than was experienced at the weekend when a low of -13.3 C was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands.

It is also significantly lower than anything seen last winter when a particularly bitter night in Dalwhinnie in the Highlands saw a mark of -14C being recorded.

The last time the UK had any temperature that below -20C was in February 2021 when Braemar in Aberdeenshire was measured at -23C.

The Duchess of Sussex has said she is "devastated" following the death of her dog, Guy.

In a post on Instagram, Meghan said had "cried too many tears to count" over the dog's passing and thanked him for "so many years of unconditional love".

The duchess said she had adopted the beagle from an animal rescue in Canada in 2015 and that he had been "with me for everything" ever since.

She did not say when the dog had died or its cause of death.

The post was accompanied by a montage of photos and video showing the duchess and her family playing with Guy.

In one, she is seen boiling fruit on a stove to make jam and telling the dog, "We're jamming, Guy". In another her husband, the Duke of Sussex, is seen running along a beach with him.

At the end, Meghan can be heard with one of the couple's children singing: "We love you Guy, yes we do".

The duchess said staff at the shelter from where she had adopted the dog "referred to him as 'the little guy' because he was so small and frail".

"So I named him 'Guy'. And he was the best guy any girl could have asked for," she said.

"He was with me at Suits, when I got engaged, (and then married), when I became a mom….

"He was with me for everything: the quiet, the chaos, the calm, the comfort."

The duchess added that Guy would feature in her upcoming Netflix series, titled With Love, Meghan.

"I hope you'll come to understand why I am so devastated by his loss. I think you may fall a little bit in love too," she said.

"I have cried too many tears to count - the type of tears that make you get in the shower with the absurd hope that the running water on your face will somehow make you not feel them, or pretend they're not there. But they are. And that's okay too.

"Thank you for so many years of unconditional love, my sweet Guy. You filled my life in ways you'll never know."

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told BBC's Newsnight that "disinformation" spread by Elon Musk was "endangering" her but that it was "nothing" compared to the experiences of victims of abuse.

The tech billionaire and adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump labelled Phillips a "rape genocide apologist" and said she should be jailed.

Asked if the threat to her own safety had gone up since his social media posts and whether protections were in place for her safety, Phillips replied "yes".

She said the experience had been "very, very, very tiring" but that she was "resigned to the lot in life that you get as a woman who fights violence against women and girls".

She added: "I'm no stranger to people who don't know what they're talking about trying to silence women like me."

Musk's intervention came in response to Phillips rejecting a request for the government to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham - which sparked calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Her decision was taken in October but first reported by GB News at the start of the year and then picked up by Musk on his social media platform X.

Phillips defended the government's decision not to hold a national inquiry, arguing that local inquiries, such as one held in Telford, were more effective at leading to change.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has hit back at Donald Trump's threat to use "economic force" to absorb Canada into the US saying there isn't "a snowball's chance in hell" to join the two.

On Tuesday, President-elect Trump reiterated his threat to bring in a 25% tariff on Canadian goods unless the country took steps to increase security on the shared US border.

Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly needled Canada about it becoming the 51st US state.

"You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security," Trump said.

"Canada and the United States, that would really be something," he said at a press conference at his Florida residence of Mar-a Lago.

The ongoing tariff threat comes at a politically challenging time for Canada.

On Monday, an embattled Trudeau announced he was resigning, though he will stay on as prime minister until the governing Liberals elect a new leader, expected sometime by late March.

Canada's parliament has been prorogued - or suspended - until 24 March to allow time for the leadership race.

Economists warn that if Trump follows through on imposing the tariffs after he is inaugurated on 20 January, it would significantly hurt Canada's economy.

Almost C$3.6bn ($2.5bn) worth of goods and services crossed the border daily in 2023, according to Canadian government figures.

The Trudeau government has said it is considering imposing counter-tariffs if Trump follows through on the threat.

The prime minister also said on X that: "Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other's biggest trading and security partner."

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his concerns he has expressed about drugs crossing the borders of Mexico and Canada into the US.

Like Canada, Mexico faces a 25% tariff threat.

The amount of fentanyl seized at the US-Canada border is significantly lower than at the southern border, according to US data.

Canada has promised to implement a set of sweeping new security measures along the border, including strengthened surveillance and adding a joint "strike force" to target transnational organised crime.

Trump said on Tuesday he was not considering using military force to make Canada part of the United States, but raised concerns about its neighbour's military spending.

"They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It's all fine, but, you know, they got to pay for that. It's very unfair," he said.

Canada has been under pressure to increase its military spending as it continues to fall short of the target set out for Nato members.

Its defence budget currently stands at C$27bn ($19.8bn, £15.5bn), though the Trudeau government has promised that it will boost spending to almost C$50bn by 2030.

On Monday, Doug Ford, the leader of Canada's most populous province Ontario, said Trudeau must spend his remaining weeks in office working with the provinces to address Trump's threat.

"The premiers are leading the country right now," he said.

• What happens next for Canada?
• When will Donald Trump take office as US president?

Ontario has a deep reliance on trade with the US. The province is at the heart of the highly integrated auto industry in Canada, and trade between Ontario and the US totalled more than C$493bn ($350bn) in 2023.

"My message is let's work together, let's build a stronger trade relationship - not weaken it," he said.

The premier warned "we will retaliate hard" if the Trump administration follows through, and highlighted the close economic ties between the two nations, including on energy.

The US relies "on Ontario for their electricity. We keep the lights on to a million and a half homes and businesses in the US", he said.

At a press conference early this week, Ford also pushed back on Trump's 51st state comments.

"I'll make him a counter-offer. How about if we buy Alaska and we throw in Minneapolis and Minnesota at the same time?" Ford said.

Head teachers say they face "difficult choices" over what their schools can afford, as a new report says they could be forced into further cuts next year.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says costs will outpace funding for schools in 2025-26.

Schools say that means they will struggle to fund the government's proposed pay rise for teachers, as well as the support needed for children with special educational needs.

The Department for Education (DfE) said it would work with schools and local authorities to provide a "fair funding system that directs public money to where it is needed".

The IFS estimates that school funding will rise by 2.8% in the 2025-26 financial year. But Wednesday's report warns that costs are likely to rise by 3.6%, leaving schools facing tough choices.

Staff pay usually takes up the majority of a school budget. The government has suggested teachers' pay should go up by 2.8% for the school year beginning September 2025, in line with plans for school spending.

While spending on schools has grown in recent years - redressing previous cuts - the cost of supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) has also increased.

Marlborough St Mary's School in Wiltshire has had to find money from its existing budget to support pupils like six-year-old Thomas, who is waiting for an autism assessment.

His mum, Penny Reader, says Year One pupil Thomas loves everything about space and creatures who live under the sea.

He has one-to-one support at school, but was declined an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) - which sets out a child's legal right to support and additional funding - last year. A tribunal date to appeal that decision has been set for November.

Mrs Reader says it is "utterly insane" that the school does not get additional funding to support Thomas, who would previously hide in the classroom getting distressed and upset.

"He just couldn't cope with the other children," Mrs Reader says. "It was too noisy, too chaotic for him."

Now, Thomas loves being at school and can join in with all of his lessons, she says.

"It's just so reassuring," says Mrs Reader. "It's so lovely to see him thrive.

"Without that, Thomas wouldn't be here. That funding has made such a huge difference."

Head teacher Dan Crossman says the school is in an in-year deficit, spending more money than it has got coming in.

He says he faces a choice between meeting the needs of the children, or balancing the books.

Additional funding to support pupils with Send often takes a long time to materialise, he says.

So, Mr Crossman employs six teaching assistants to meet the needs of children awaiting additional support, such as through an EHCP.

"It means that they are safe. It means that they are happy, and it means that they have the opportunity to learn in a mainstream school," he says.

Mr Crossman says schools face "really hard" decisions, like staff redundancies and cutting counselling services.

The school has received financial support from a private donor to set up a forest school.

But Mr Crossman says such resources should come from "core budgets" rather than private investment.

The IFS says per-pupil spending in mainstream schools rose by about 11% between 2019 and 2024, when adjusted for inflation.

But much of that increase was absorbed by the rising cost of Send provision, meaning the actual increase was only about 5%.

The new analysis comes as the government considers its spending plans for 2026 onwards.

Steve Hitchcock, head teacher of St Peter's Primary School in Devon, and the region's National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) representative, says he has also had to come up with innovative ways to raise more money.

He says sourcing top-up funding is now a "really important part" of his role.

"Just in this last year I've managed to find £20,000 myself, which is just going out to our very generous community," he says.

The "absolutely fantastic" parent-teacher association has also raised £20,000 in the last year through sponsored challenges, film nights and discos at the school.

In the past, this money would go to "cherry-on-top" activities like play equipment. But now, it has to fund basic curriculum resources like buying paper, Mr Hitchcock says.

Staff costs take up 85% of the school's budget. Mr Hitchcock says pay rises are "very important" to recruit and retain staff, and to make sure it's a competitive profession.

The government's recommended 2.8% pay rise for teachers next year is being considered by the independent teacher pay review body.

Education unions have already described the proposal as being disappointingly low, but Mr Hitchcock says he does not know where he will find the extra money, even without any further increases.

"A nearly 3% pay rise is going to mean I have to find £30,000, which just isn't possible," he says.

"We were hoping desperately that this government would have a different approach to funding schools. It's going to be enormously challenging for the whole profession."

Daniel Kebede, National Education Union general secretary, says schools have "no capacity to make savings without cutting educational provision".

Julie McCulloch, from the Association of School and College Leaders, says the financial pressures facing the sector are a "death by a thousand cuts".

"Schools and colleges have been expected to absorb relentless financial pressures over the past 15 years, and they have done an incredible job in minimising the impact on students," she added. "But we cannot go on like this."

The Department for Education said school funding will increase to almost £63.9bn in the next financial year, including £1bn for children and young people with high needs.

A spokesperson said the government is "determined to fix the foundations of the education system".

Additional reporting by Hope Rhodes.

A secret list of more than 300 people who belonged to a network that called publicly for the legalisation of sex with children has been handed to the BBC.

A small number of those named on the list may still have contact with children through paid work or volunteering, the BBC has discovered.

They were all members of a group called the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).

The Metropolitan Police had the list for about 20 years from the late 1970s, a BBC Radio 4 podcast team has been told.

Spread across several dozen pages, with a pink cover page added by police in the early 1980s, the typed list contains 316 names - all but a handful men, most with addresses alongside.

Most PIE members were based in the UK - but there are also details of people in other parts of western Europe, Australia and the US.

The BBC has established that a small number of the men are still alive and may currently be in contact with, or have care of, children through paid work or volunteering. The BBC has found no evidence any of them has carried out abuse.

The Met told us it was unable to provide specific information about its historical investigations into the Paedophile Information Exchange - but will still investigate crimes if sufficient evidence exists and alleged perpetrators are still alive.

PIE was formed in 1974 - when the country was going through rapid transformative social change. Its leaders sought to further their cause by attempting to align themselves with feminist, anti-racist and gay rights movements. It was not an illegal organisation and cost £4 a year to join, and to receive its members' magazine.

Over a decade, PIE spokesmen gave interviews to the media arguing that adults and children had a human right to have sex with each other. Four years old, they argued, was an age at which most children could give consent.

However, while PIE's leaders may have been happy to speak publicly, the names of rank-and-file members were very much kept secret.

The list - and dozens of other documents relating to PIE members - were given to the BBC team and journalist Alex Renton, who has written extensively about historical institutional child sexual abuse and presents the BBC podcast, In Dark Corners.

We then searched for the names in media archives, crime reports and death register listings from the past 50 years.

They found records or further information for 45% of the people on the list - with a reasonable degree of certainty - and discovered that half of them had been convicted or cautioned (or had been charged and died before trial) for sexual offences against children. Charges included distributing abuse images, kidnap and rape.

Of the small number of men who may still be in contact with children professionally, none has any criminal conviction that the BBC has been able to find - meaning they could have passed in-depth background checks when applying for jobs.

Those men are part of a wider group of nearly 70 on the list, who the BBC team has identified as having been in work likely to bring them into contact with minors.

Teachers make up half that group - work addresses are typed alongside some of the names on the list. The rest include social workers, sports coaches, youth workers, doctors, clergy, lay preachers and military officers involved in youth activities.

The podcast team tried to contact all those people still alive and working - most of whom are believed to be living in the UK.

One claimed his name was on the list because of PIE's links in the 1970s with a gay youth support group.

A second admitted he had been a member, but only because he had agreed with PIE that the disparity in the age of consent laws was unjust. Men in England and Wales had to be 21 to have sex with other men prior to 1994 - when the legal age was lowered to 18. Six years later it was reduced to 16, in line with straight sex. The man told the BBC he was not and never had been a paedophile.

A third man, currently teaching children in a private school outside of the UK, refused to speak any further after PIE was mentioned to him.

No-one else has so far responded to approaches by the BBC.

The BBC team obtained the PIE list from a former senior social worker - Peter McKelvie - who handed over a shopping bag full of historical documents, letters, internal memos and old newspaper cuttings spanning three decades.

Through his work, Mr McKelvie had started seeing connections between child abusers in the information he collected through his work - but gradually became frustrated about the abilities of police or social services to stop paedophile networks.

The PIE list came into his possession in 1998. Until then, for about 20 years, it had been in the hands of the Metropolitan Police's Obscene Publications Unit, known internally as "The Dirty Squad".

The former officer who handed it over, Dave Flanagan, told the BBC he believed the list may originally have been seized in a police raid in the late 1970s.

The document given to the BBC has scribbled notes in the margins - and Mr Flanagan, a detective constable at the time, says he wrote some of them.

He also attached and dated the pink cover page - as he and colleagues added more up-to-date PIE intelligence during the 1980s.

Police raided plenty of people on the list, he says - but, on its own, it was unusable as information for a search warrant.

"You couldn't go in front of a magistrate and say: 'Look, we believe he's a paedophile. We believe there'll be indecent photographs of children because he's on the PIE list.'"

Legally, being a member of a pro-paedophile group didn't make someone a sex offender.

Police did manage to close in on PIE in the early 1980s - focusing on three senior members who all had links to contact adverts in the members' magazine, Magpie.

The men were prosecuted under a 17th Century law of "conspiracy to corrupt public morals". Two received conditional discharges, while the third was jailed for two years.

Publicly, PIE ceased to exist in 1984.

Dave Flanagan says his team's detective work on the membership list also ground to a halt.

"Information was passed to other police forces and they did what they did with it - we had no control over any of that."

The BBC understands the PIE list was digitised in 1994 by a police team that no longer exists. The National Crime Agency, which was formed in 2013 and whose officers deal with child abuse cases, told us it has "no knowledge of receiving the [digitised] list".

Dave Flanagan kept the original in his briefcase until he retired in 1998, when he handed it to Peter McKelvie.

Mr McKelvie told the BBC that over the past 30 years he had pushed police, a Labour MP and a Conservative government minister to look at PIE members linked to social services and special schools, but without success.

He wrote to the Department of Health in 1993 outlining his concerns. His letter began: "The infiltration of the social work profession by paedophiles appears to be an extensive and serious problem..."

He suggested the formation of a specialist team of social workers and police to track down every member of PIE working in social care. The letter got no response, he says.

The Department for Health and Social Care told the BBC it could not comment on "individual historic cases".

On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said those who cover up or fail to report child sexual abuse could face professional or criminal sanctions under a new offence to be introduced this year.

The proposal was one of 20 recommendations made by Prof Alexis Jay following her seven-year inquiry into child sex abuse, which concluded in 2022. The Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was set up in response to concerns that some organisations had failed to protect children.

In a statement, Det Supt Nicola Franklin, from the Met's Central Specialist Command, said the force was "committed to tackling" paedophilia, "an abhorrent crime".

"If anyone has information that should be shared with police we would urge them to do so. Despite the passage of time, we will still investigate provided sufficient evidence exists to do so and the perpetrator is still alive."

Reporting team: Alex Renton, Caitlin Smith, Gillian Wheelan

The Duchess of Sussex has said she is "devastated" following the death of her dog, Guy.

In a post on Instagram, Meghan said had "cried too many tears to count" over the dog's passing and thanked him for "so many years of unconditional love".

The duchess said she had adopted the beagle from an animal rescue in Canada in 2015 and that he had been "with me for everything" ever since.

She did not say when the dog had died or its cause of death.

The post was accompanied by a montage of photos and video showing the duchess and her family playing with Guy.

In one, she is seen boiling fruit on a stove to make jam and telling the dog, "We're jamming, Guy". In another her husband, the Duke of Sussex, is seen running along a beach with him.

At the end, Meghan can be heard with one of the couple's children singing: "We love you Guy, yes we do".

The duchess said staff at the shelter from where she had adopted the dog "referred to him as 'the little guy' because he was so small and frail".

"So I named him 'Guy'. And he was the best guy any girl could have asked for," she said.

"He was with me at Suits, when I got engaged, (and then married), when I became a mom….

"He was with me for everything: the quiet, the chaos, the calm, the comfort."

The duchess added that Guy would feature in her upcoming Netflix series, titled With Love, Meghan.

"I hope you'll come to understand why I am so devastated by his loss. I think you may fall a little bit in love too," she said.

"I have cried too many tears to count - the type of tears that make you get in the shower with the absurd hope that the running water on your face will somehow make you not feel them, or pretend they're not there. But they are. And that's okay too.

"Thank you for so many years of unconditional love, my sweet Guy. You filled my life in ways you'll never know."

Immigration has long been a polarising issue in the West but Canada mostly avoided it - until now. With protests and campaign groups springing up in certain quarters, some argue that this - together with housing shortages and rising rents - contributed to Justin Trudeau's resignation. But could Donald Trump's arrival inflame it further?

At first glance, the single bedroom for rent in Brampton, Ontario looks like a bargain. True, there's barely any floor space, but the asking price is only C$550 (£300) a month in a Toronto suburb where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom flat is C$2,261. Inspect it more closely, however, and this is actually a small bathroom converted into sleeping quarters. A mattress is jammed up next to the sink, the toilet is nearby.

The ad, originally posted on Facebook Marketplace, has generated hundreds of comments online. "Disgusting," wrote one Reddit user. "Hey 20-somethings, you're looking at your future," says another.

But there are other listings like it - one room for rent, also in Brampton, shows a bed squashed near a staircase in what appears to be a laundry area. Another rental in Scarborough, a district in Ontario, offers a double bed in the corner of a kitchen.

While Canada might have a lot of space, there aren't enough homes and in the past three years, rents across the country have increased by almost 20%, according to property consultancy Urbanation.

In all, some 2.4 million Canadian families are crammed into homes that are too small, in urgent need of major repairs or are seriously unaffordable, a government watchdog report released in December has suggested.

This accommodation shortage has come to a head at the same time that inflation is hitting Canadians hard - and these issues have, in turn, moved another issue high up the agenda in the country: immigration.

For the first time a majority of Canadians, who have long been welcoming to newcomers, are questioning how their cities can manage.

Politics in other Western countries has long been wrapped up in polarised debates surrounding immigration but until recently Canada had mostly avoided that issue, perhaps because of its geography. Now, however, there appears to be a profound shift in attitude.

In 2022, 27% of Canadians said there were too many immigrants coming into the country, according to a survey by data and research firm Environics. By 2024, that number had increased to 58%.

Campaign groups have sprung up too and there have been marches protesting against immigration in Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary, and elsewhere around the country.

"I would say it was very much taboo, like no one would really talk about it," explains Peter Kratzar, a software engineer and the founder of Cost of Living Canada, a protest group that was formed in 2024. "[But] things have really unfrozen."

Stories like that of the bathroom for rent in Brampton have fuelled this, he suggests: "People might say, like, this is all anecdotal evidence. But the evidence keeps popping up. You see it over and over again."

"People became concerned about how the immigration system was being managed," adds Keith Neuman, executive director at Environics. "And we believe it's the first time the public really thought about the management of the system."

• Who might replace Trudeau as Liberal Party leader?
• Why the Trudeau era has come to an end now
• What happens next for Canada?

Once the golden boy of Canadian politics, prime minister Justin Trudeau, resigned on 6 January during a crucial election year, amid this widespread discontent over immigration levels.

His approval levels before his resignation were just 22% - a far cry from the first year of his premiership, when 65% of voters said they approved of him.

Though immigration is not the main reason for his low approval levels nor his resignation - he cited "having to fight internal battles" - he was accused of acting too late when dealing with rising anxiety over inflation and housing that many blamed, in part, on immigration.

"While immigration may not have been the immediate cause of the resignation, it may have been the icing on the cake," says Professor Jonathan Rose, head of the department of political studies at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

Under Trudeau's administration, the Canadian government deliberately chose to radically boost the numbers of people coming to the country after the pandemic, believing that boosting quotas for foreign students and temporary workers, in addition to skilled immigrants, would jumpstart the economy.

The population, which was 35 million 10 years ago, now tops 40 million.

Immigration was responsible for the vast majority of that increase - figures from Canada's national statistics agency show that in 2024, more than 90% of population growth came from immigration.

As well as overall migration levels, the number of refugees has risen too. In 2013, there were 10,365 refugee applicants in Canada - by 2023, that number had increased to 143,770.

Voter dissatisfaction with immigration was "more a symptom than a cause" of Trudeau's downfall, argues Prof Rose. "It reflects his perceived inability to read the room in terms of public opinion."

It's unclear who might replace Trudeau from within his own Liberal Party but ahead of the forthcoming election, polls currently favour the Conservative Party, whose leader Pierre Poilievre advocates keeping the number of new arrivals below the number of new homes being built.

Since Donald Trump won the US presidential election in November, Poilievre "has been speaking much more about immigration", claims Prof Rose - "so much that it has become primed in the minds of voters".

Certainly Trump's arrival for a second term is set to pour oil on an already inflamed issue in Canada, regardless of who the new prime minister is.

He won the US election in part on a pledge to carry out mass deportations of undocumented migrants - and since his victory, he has said that he will enlist the military and declare a national emergency to follow through on his promise.

He also announced plans to employ 25% tariffs on Canadian goods unless border security is tightened.

Drones, cameras and policing the border

Canada and the US share the world's longest undefended border. Stretching almost 9,000km (5,592 miles), much of it crosses heavily forested wilderness and is demarcated by "The Slash," a six-metre wide land clearing.

Unlike America's southern border, there are no walls. This has long been a point of pride between Ottawa and Washington - a sign of their close ties.

After Trump first entered office in 2017, the number of asylum claims skyrocketed, with thousands walking across the border to Canada. The number of claims went from just under 24,000 in 2016 to 55,000 a year by 2018, according to the Canadian government. Almost all crossed from New York state into the Canadian province of Quebec.

In 2023, Canada and the US agreed to a tightened border deal that stopped most migrants from crossing the land border from one country to another. Under the agreement, migrants that come into contact with the authorities within 14 days of crossing any part of the border into either the US or Canada must return to whichever country they entered first — in order to declare asylum there.

The deal, reworked by Trudeau and Joe Biden, is based on the idea that both the US and Canada are safe countries for asylum seekers.

This time around, Canada's national police force – the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) – says it began preparing a contingency plan for increased migrant crossings at the border well ahead of Trump being sworn in.

This includes a raft of new technology, from drones and night vision goggles, to surveillance cameras hidden in the forest.

"Worst-case scenario would be people crossing in large numbers everywhere on the territory," RCMP spokesperson Charles Poirier warned in November. "Let's say we had 100 people per day entering across the border, then it's going to be hard because our officers will basically have to cover huge distances in order to arrest everyone."

Now, the national government has committed a further C$1.3bn (£555m) to its border security plan.

'We want our future back!'

Not everyone blames the housing crisis on the recent rise in immigration. It was "30 years in the making" because politicians have failed to build affordable units, argues Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.

Certainly the country has a long history of welcoming newcomers. "Close to 50% of the population of Canada is first or second generation," explains Mr Neuman. "That means either they came from another country, or one or both of their parents came from another country. In Toronto, Vancouver, that's over 80%."

This makes Canada "a very different place than a place that has a homogeneous population," he argues.

He has been involved in a survey examining attitudes towards newcomers for 40 years. "If you ask Canadians: what's the most important or distinctive thing about Canada, or what makes the country unique? The number one response is 'multiculturalism' or 'diversity'," he says.

Nonetheless, he says the shift in public opinion - and the rise in concerns about immigration - has been "dramatic".

"Now there is not only broader public concern, but much more open discussion," he says. "There are more questions being asked about how is the system working? How come it isn't working?"

At one of the protests in Toronto, a crowd turned out with hand-painted signs, some proclaiming: "We want our future back!" and "End Mass Immigration".

"We do need to put a moratorium on immigration," argues Mr Kratzar, whose group has taken part in some of them. "We need to delay that so wages can catch up on the cost of rents."

Accusations against newcomers are spreading on social media too. Last summer, Natasha White, who describes herself as a resident of Wasaga Beach in Ontario, claimed on TikTok that some newcomers had been digging holes on the beach and defecating in them.

The post generated hundreds of thousands of views and a torrent of anti-foreigner hatred, with many arguing that newcomers should "go home".

Tent cities and full homeless shelters

People I interviewed who work closely with asylum seekers in Canada say that the heightened concerns around the need for more border security is making asylum seekers feel unsettled and afraid.

Abdulla Daoud, executive director at the Refugee Center in Montreal, believes that the vulnerable asylum seekers he works with feel singled out by the focus on migrant numbers since the US election. "They're definitely more anxious," he says. "I think they're coming in and they're feeling, 'Okay, am I going to be welcomed here? Am I in the right place or not?'"

Those hoping to stay in Canada as refugees can't access official immigration settlement services until it has been decided they truly need asylum. This process once took two weeks but it can now take as long as three years.

Tent cities to house newly-arrived refugees and food banks with empty shelves have sprung up in Toronto. The city's homeless shelters are often reported to be full. Last winter, two refugee applicants froze to death after sleeping on Toronto's streets.

Toronto mayor Olivia Chow, an immigrant herself having moved to Canada from Hong Kong at age 13, says: "People are seeing that, even with working two jobs or three jobs, they can't have enough money to pay the rent and feed the kids.

"I understand the hardship of having a life that is not affordable, and the fear of being evicted, absolutely, I get it. But to blame that on the immigration system is unfair."

Trudeau: 'We didn't get the balance quite right'

With frustrations growing, Trudeau announced a major change in October: a 20% reduction in immigration targets over three years. "As we emerged from the pandemic, between addressing labour needs and maintaining population growth, we didn't get the balance quite right," he conceded.

He added that he wanted to give all levels of government time to catch up – to accommodate more people. But, given that he has since resigned, is it enough? And does the Trump presidency and the increasing anti-immigrant sentiment on that side of the border risk spilling further into Canada?

Mr Daoud has his own view. "Unfortunately, I think the Trump presidency had its impact on Canadian politics," he says. "I think a lot of politicians are using this as a way to fear-monger."

Others are less convinced that it will have much of an impact. "Canadians are better than that," says Olivia Chow. "We remember that successive waves of refugees helped create Toronto and Canada."

Politicians wading into the debate around population growth ahead of the next election will be conscious of the fact that half of Canadians are first and second-generation immigrants themselves. "If the Conservatives win the next election, we can expect a reduction in immigration," says Prof Jonathan Rose. But he adds that Poilievre will have to walk "a bit of fine line".

Prof Rose says: "Since immigrant-heavy ridings [constituencies] in Toronto and Vancouver will be important to any electoral victory, he can't be seen as anti-immigration, merely recalibrating it to suit economic and housing policy."

And there are a large number of Canadians, including business leaders and academics, who believe that the country must continue to pursue an assertive growth policy to combat Canada's falling birth rate.

"I really have high hopes for Canadians," adds Lisa Lalande of the Century Initiative, which advocates for policies that would see Canada's population increase to 100 million by 2100. "I actually think we will rise above where we are now.

"I think we're just really concerned about affordability [and] cost of living - not about immigrants themselves. We recognise they're too important to our culture."

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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Captivated by major new releases from Taylor Swift, Coldplay and Billie Eilish, music fans in the UK spent more on recorded music in 2024 than ever before, new figures show.

Streaming subscriptions and vinyl sales shot up, with consumers spending a total of £2.4 bn over the last 12 months.

That overtakes the previous high of £2.2bn, achieved at the peak of CD sales in 2001.

The biggest-selling album of the year was Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department which sold 783,820 copies; while Noah Kahan had the year's biggest single with Stick Season, which generated the equivalent of 1.99 million sales.

The figures came from the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA), which said subscriptions to services like Spotify, Amazon Music and Apple Music accounted for almost 85% of the money spent on music last year.

The market for vinyl records grew by 10.5%, with 6.7 million discs sold last year, generating £196m.

CD sales remained flat at £126.2m - although the format still sells more than vinyl in terms of units, with 10.5 million albums bought.

The head of ERA, Kim Bayley, called 2024 a "banner year" for music, with sales at more than double the low point of 2013.

"We can now say definitively - music is back," she added in a statement.

However, music industry revenue still lags far behind the 2001 figures in real terms.

Adjusted for inflation, the industry made the equivalent of £4bn in 2001, when Dido's was the year's biggest album, with sales of 1.9 million.

There are also lingering questions over how artists get paid in the streaming economy. According to the Musicians Union, almost half of working musicians in the UK earn less than £14,000 a year.

Elsewhere, ERA said video was the most popular form of home entertainment, with cinephiles and telly addicts spending more than £5bn on streaming services, movie rentals and DVDs.

The biggest-selling title of the year was the comic book movie Deadpool & Wolverine, with sales of 561,917, more than 80% of which were digital.

Video games saw a drop in revenue, from £4.8bn in 2023 to £4.6bn last year.

The figures reflect a year of high-profile flops, with A-list games like Concord, Suicide Squad and Skull & Bones all failing to find an audience.

There was also a huge shift away from boxed physical games, whose sales fell by 35%.

The biggest-selling game of the year was once again EA Sports FC 25 – formerly known as FIFA – which sold 2.9m copies, 80% of them in digital formats.

However, only four of the games in the top 10 were new releases, and two of those were updates to existing franchises.

The power of Nintendo's Switch was also apparent, with half of the top 10 including games comprised of titles that are exclusive to the console.

Head teachers say they face "difficult choices" over what their schools can afford, as a new report says they could be forced into further cuts next year.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says costs will outpace funding for schools in 2025-26.

Schools say that means they will struggle to fund the government's proposed pay rise for teachers, as well as the support needed for children with special educational needs.

The Department for Education (DfE) said it would work with schools and local authorities to provide a "fair funding system that directs public money to where it is needed".

The IFS estimates that school funding will rise by 2.8% in the 2025-26 financial year. But Wednesday's report warns that costs are likely to rise by 3.6%, leaving schools facing tough choices.

Staff pay usually takes up the majority of a school budget. The government has suggested teachers' pay should go up by 2.8% for the school year beginning September 2025, in line with plans for school spending.

While spending on schools has grown in recent years - redressing previous cuts - the cost of supporting pupils with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) has also increased.

Marlborough St Mary's School in Wiltshire has had to find money from its existing budget to support pupils like six-year-old Thomas, who is waiting for an autism assessment.

His mum, Penny Reader, says Year One pupil Thomas loves everything about space and creatures who live under the sea.

He has one-to-one support at school, but was declined an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) - which sets out a child's legal right to support and additional funding - last year. A tribunal date to appeal that decision has been set for November.

Mrs Reader says it is "utterly insane" that the school does not get additional funding to support Thomas, who would previously hide in the classroom getting distressed and upset.

"He just couldn't cope with the other children," Mrs Reader says. "It was too noisy, too chaotic for him."

Now, Thomas loves being at school and can join in with all of his lessons, she says.

"It's just so reassuring," says Mrs Reader. "It's so lovely to see him thrive.

"Without that, Thomas wouldn't be here. That funding has made such a huge difference."

Head teacher Dan Crossman says the school is in an in-year deficit, spending more money than it has got coming in.

He says he faces a choice between meeting the needs of the children, or balancing the books.

Additional funding to support pupils with Send often takes a long time to materialise, he says.

So, Mr Crossman employs six teaching assistants to meet the needs of children awaiting additional support, such as through an EHCP.

"It means that they are safe. It means that they are happy, and it means that they have the opportunity to learn in a mainstream school," he says.

Mr Crossman says schools face "really hard" decisions, like staff redundancies and cutting counselling services.

The school has received financial support from a private donor to set up a forest school.

But Mr Crossman says such resources should come from "core budgets" rather than private investment.

The IFS says per-pupil spending in mainstream schools rose by about 11% between 2019 and 2024, when adjusted for inflation.

But much of that increase was absorbed by the rising cost of Send provision, meaning the actual increase was only about 5%.

The new analysis comes as the government considers its spending plans for 2026 onwards.

Steve Hitchcock, head teacher of St Peter's Primary School in Devon, and the region's National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) representative, says he has also had to come up with innovative ways to raise more money.

He says sourcing top-up funding is now a "really important part" of his role.

"Just in this last year I've managed to find £20,000 myself, which is just going out to our very generous community," he says.

The "absolutely fantastic" parent-teacher association has also raised £20,000 in the last year through sponsored challenges, film nights and discos at the school.

In the past, this money would go to "cherry-on-top" activities like play equipment. But now, it has to fund basic curriculum resources like buying paper, Mr Hitchcock says.

Staff costs take up 85% of the school's budget. Mr Hitchcock says pay rises are "very important" to recruit and retain staff, and to make sure it's a competitive profession.

The government's recommended 2.8% pay rise for teachers next year is being considered by the independent teacher pay review body.

Education unions have already described the proposal as being disappointingly low, but Mr Hitchcock says he does not know where he will find the extra money, even without any further increases.

"A nearly 3% pay rise is going to mean I have to find £30,000, which just isn't possible," he says.

"We were hoping desperately that this government would have a different approach to funding schools. It's going to be enormously challenging for the whole profession."

Daniel Kebede, National Education Union general secretary, says schools have "no capacity to make savings without cutting educational provision".

Julie McCulloch, from the Association of School and College Leaders, says the financial pressures facing the sector are a "death by a thousand cuts".

"Schools and colleges have been expected to absorb relentless financial pressures over the past 15 years, and they have done an incredible job in minimising the impact on students," she added. "But we cannot go on like this."

The Department for Education said school funding will increase to almost £63.9bn in the next financial year, including £1bn for children and young people with high needs.

A spokesperson said the government is "determined to fix the foundations of the education system".

Additional reporting by Hope Rhodes.

Luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce will expand its Goodwood factory and global headquarters to meet the growing demand for bespoke models.

It will invest more than £300 million so it can build more highly-customised versions of its cars for its super-rich clientele.

The 120-year old British brand came under full control of German carmaker BMW in 2003 and officially opened the site in West Sussex the same year. Rolls Royce says this expansion secures its future in the UK.

Rolls-Royce sold 5,712 cars in 2024, the third highest total in its history.

While that number may seem tiny compared with the millions of cars delivered each year by mainstream manufacturers, Rolls-Royce operates in a highly rarefied market.

The brand said it "does not disclose prices" but it is understood its cheapest model, the Ghost saloon, sells from about £250,000 upwards. Its Cullinan sports utility vehicle and electric Spectre models are thought to start at around £340,000.

In comparison, the average UK house price was £297,000 last year, according to Halifax.

The price of bespoke models can vary widely. When it comes to the most elaborate creations, the final product can cost several times the base price of the car.

There are relatively few buyers who can afford to pay so much for a car. Among those who can are celebrities, who often do not mind flaunting their wealth.

Among them are US stars Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj, as well as British rapper Stormzy who was banned from driving after being caught using a mobile phone behind the wheel of his Wraith in London.

'Holographic paint and one-off artworks'

For some customers, simply owning a Rolls-Royce isn't exclusive enough. In recent years, the company has increasingly focused on building highly-customised versions of its cars, which can then be sold at even higher prices.

Rolls-Royce describes this strategy as "creating value for clients through individualised products and experiences and providing opportunities for meaningful personal expression".

In practice, this has included cars with holographic paint, containing one-off artworks, or featuring intricate hand-stitched embroidery. One model, designed as a homage to the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, includes features made out of solid 18-carat gold.

Rolls-Royce is not alone in this. Other high-end manufacturers such as Bentley, McLaren and Ferrari also offer detailed customisation.

But making individually tailored cars, while profitable, is a labour-intensive process that requires time and space. At the same time, like other manufacturers the company is preparing for a future in which conventional cars will be phased out and replaced by electric models.

Rolls-Royce said the extension of its factory would "create additional space for the increasingly complex and high value bespoke and coachbuild projects sought by clients who define luxury as something deeply personal to them".

It added that the plan would "also ready the manufacturing facility for the marque's transition to an all-battery electric vehicle future".

The carmaker has already been granted planning permission for the expansion of the Goodwood plant, which was built in 2003 and initially housed 300 workers. There are currently more than 2,500 people working on the site.

"This represents our most substantial financial commitment to Goodwood since its opening," said the Rolls Royce chief executive, Chris Brownridge.

"It is a significant vote of confidence in the Rolls-Royce marque, securing our future in the UK," he added.

As a luxury carmaker focused on export markets, Rolls-Royce is insulated from many of the challenges currently facing the wider European motor industry. However, it has been affected by a fall in demand in China, one of its most important markets.

Earlier this year, Mr Brownridge said rising demand for personalised vehicles was helping to offset that decline.

The announcement comes weeks after another famous British brand generated controversy while setting out its own plans for the future.

Jaguar – a part of Jaguar Land Rover – is to be relaunched as an all-electric marque and moved sharply upmarket as part of a major restructuring at the company.

In December, it unveiled a dramatically styled concept car, which together with a new logo and a divisive online advert sparked a social media storm – and generated plenty of column inches.

Scottish producer Barry Can't Swim is one of the new superstars of dance music, his colourful and woozy grooves winning over packed crowds from Glastonbury to Coachella, and earning Brit Award and Mercury Prize nominations in 2024.

Now, he has started the new year with another accolade - after coming third on the BBC's Sound of 2025 list.

It confirms him as one of pop's breakout names, after five years on a steady upward trajectory, gaining more fans, exposure and acclaim with each release.

When Barry Can't Swim put out his first single in December 2019, it was the latest in a string of projects from Edinburgh-born musician Joshua Mainnie.

He didn't know this was the one that would take off. If he had, he might have thought a bit harder about the name.

"I've just got a mate who's called Barry and he can't swim," he told BBC Radio 6 Music in 2023.

"And when I chose the name, I really wasn't anticipating it was going to become my full-fledged career and everyone was going to think my name's Barry.

"There was really no more thought to it than that. And now I'm sort of stuck with it."

Barry/Joshua has his eagle-eyed, cash-conscious grandfather to thank for setting him on the path to a music career.

"I started playing piano when I was about 10," he told BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders in an interview revealing his place on the Sound of list.

"My granddad actually saw an advert in a paper for a piano that was going for free, and he picked it up and left it with my mum and dad, and they were like 'we don't have space for this'.

"And that was it. I just started learning how to play."

After catching the music bug, he formed bands in his teens inspired by groups like the Happy Mondays and Stone Roses, who fused indie and dance in the Madchester scene of the late 1980s and early 90s.

Sound of 2025 - The Top Five

• 5) English Teacher
• 4) Myles Smith
• 3) Barry Can't Swim
• 2) Revealed on Thursday
• 1) Revealed on Friday

Those acts were "some of the first people to really try and create a hybrid of the music that I loved, which was 60s psychedelic rock with more modern electronic music", he says.

"And that's exactly what I was trying to do - incorporate the more traditional form of songwriting and melody of 60s music with electronic production.

"That makes it sound a lot better than it was, by the way. But that's what I was trying to do, at least for a bit."

Mainnie decided to dedicate himself to dance music after discovering the nightclubs around Edinburgh's Cowgate as a student, while studying music at Edinburgh Napier University.

"My earliest producing really came from clubbing, really, and going out and just falling in love with dance music that way. So it was a natural progression from bands to electronic music."

Barry Can't Swim's sound is bright, euphoric and highly danceable, with hazy house rhythms, trance pianos and infectious vocal snippets combining in songs that are intoxicating shots of sonic sunshine.

His debut album When Will We Land? includes exotic-sounding samples of Galician folk and Brazilian funk, as well as a recording of his friend Jack Loughrey aka SomeDeadBeat reciting a poem at 4am.

It was one of 12 albums shortlisted for the prestigious Mercury Prize, and Mainnie was nominated for best dance act at the 2024 Brit Awards.

Live, his sound is beefed out by a drummer, second synth player and guest vocalists, while 32-year-old Mainnie dances behind his keyboard in colourful shirts - occasionally emerging to throw shapes at the front of the stage.

He drew a huge crowd to the Park Stage at Glastonbury last summer, sold out three nights at Brixton Academy in November, and will headline a night of the All Points East Festival in east London in August.

He also does DJ sets - but says it "kind of annoys" him when people just refer to him as a DJ.

"I've been playing instruments for decades and was producing for five years before I even touched a set of decks," he told Rolling Stone.

Now, the two sides of his live performance feed off each other, he told Radio 1's Saunders.

"When I'm DJ-ing a lot, I really miss playing live. And when I'm playing live, I miss DJ-ing.

"Weirdly, it informs what I've been writing in the reverse. Like, when I spend a lot of time playing live with the band, I end up writing clubby music because I long for it.

"And then vice versa - when I'm out DJ-ing, I just miss the more live elements of making music.

"So I feel like I have a passion for both equally and mutually, and I think that's why it's been so easy to transition from DJ-ing into - not just a band, but the music that I make lends itself well to live performance of electronic music. It still holds the basic principles of traditional songwriting, but with electronic production."

Thriving scene

Barry Can't Swim is part of a new wave of intelligently feelgood dance music heroes alongside the likes of Sound of 2023 runner-up Fred Again, Sound of 2024 listee Peggy Gou and Sound of 2025 nominees Confidence Man.

Mainnie says "more leftfield" electronic music like his "definitely feels like it's got a bigger audience than it's ever had".

"I don't really know what's happened in the past few years, but the music I was listening to, and some of the artists that I was listening to a few years ago when I was going clubbing that were quite niche - now they're almost pop stars.

"And you're like, what's happened? But it's amazing. It's such an amazing thing for the scene."

Almost pop stars?

If Barry/Joshua hasn't reached that status already, he surely will in 2025.

One act from the BBC Sound of 2025 top five will be announced on Radio 1 and BBC News every day this week, culminating with the winner on Friday.

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"I thought I was done crying," says teacher Amy Goldsmith.

"I'm two and a half years into my world having been turned upside down and I would very much like that to be over."

Like hundreds of other teachers, Amy is stuck, unable to go ahead with her divorce because of long delays working out the value of her pension.

This is needed by the courts to decide whether it should be shared with her ex-partner, and without which it is almost impossible to reach a financial settlement.

"I was in limbo over my relationship and naively thought I could get the paperwork and move on," she said.

"I'm now in another limbo and just feel totally impotent."

Amy, 43, is waiting for the valuation from Teachers' Pensions - which runs the teachers' pensions scheme (TPS) on behalf of the Department for Education.

But it has been struggling to meet demand.

The government, which described the calculations as "extremely complex" and requiring a specialised role to complete, said it aims to clear most of the current backlog by the end of February.

A Freedom of Information request - submitted by a member of a teachers' pensions CETV support group and seen by the BBC - suggests just under 2,000 teachers were waiting for CETV valuations at the start of December 2024.

The Department for Education said that number dropped to 1,344 as of 6 January 2025, but that new cases are always coming in.

Amy, from Bristol, teaches history, geography and psychology at a secondary school in Wiltshire.

She has been waiting since July 2024 for a document known as a Cash Equivalent Transfer Valuation, or CETV and can not get divorced without it.

'Hugely stressful'

Both parties in a divorce need to provide accurate information about their finances - including any property, savings, and pensions - even if the split in assets is otherwise straightforward.

"I was initially told [the Teachers' Pension Scheme] would be in touch within 10 working days," she said.

"But then the person I spoke to said they had no timescale for the calculations to be completed. So holding my breath was not recommended."

Amy feels that the delay is making a highly emotional situation much worse.

"I can't have closure and get on with my life," she said.

"You don't wake up one morning and say, 'Oh, we'll get divorced'. I've been through the wringer. It's been hugely stressful."

David Quinton, from Gloucestershire, lectures in construction skills at a further education college. He first applied for his CETV in October 2023 and is still waiting, unable to get divorced without one.

He said: "This is the first time I've ever been divorced, so I hadn't heard of [a CETV] before.

"It's exhausting. It's taken a toll on me mentally because I want to move on with my life and I'm sure my ex-wife wants to do the same. It's financially taking a toll as well. I'm still paying a mortgage on a house."

David has also racked up hundreds of pounds in solicitors' fees because of the protracted divorce process.

He has written a series of complaints to the Teachers' Pension Scheme and his MP, Simon Opher, has raised his case in parliament.

The Teachers' Pension Scheme is one of the biggest in the country, with about two million members.

David said: "There are people mentally on the edge. They see no light at the end of the tunnel.

"The Department for Education have given us stock answers... and there's been no offer of compensation."

Complicated calculations

Steve Webb, former MP for Thornbury and Yate and pensions minister from 2010 until 2015, works at an independent pensions consultancy.

He said: "When a pension scheme works out what your pension is worth, it has to do some complicated calculations.

"But a court judgement means all these public sector schemes have to do some extra complicated calculations. They all need to agree so the teachers and the nurses and the civil service schemes all do it the same way.

"So that's taken time to agree and then they need expert staff to actually do all of these calculations. All of that is just taking time."

The judgement, also known as the McCloud pension remedy, found in 2018 that the government discriminated against younger members of public service pension schemes.

It resulted in the government making changes to public service pension schemes, and calculating valuations in a new way.

Backlog to be cleared

In an update issued on the Teachers' Pensions website in December, the service apologised for the inconvenience caused by the delays.

It said they were due firstly to an embargo on new CETVs between March and July 2023 in order to take account of a change in the way valuations are made.

And once the backlog had built up, new rules came into force after the McCloud judgment meaning that in many cases two calculations were necessary rather than one.

The Department for Education said the delays are not a result of having too few staff and that it is working through cases in date order wherever possible.

It said it aims to clear the "majority" of the current backlog by the end of February 2025, apart from some "small groups".

'No support'

Music teacher Steph Collishaw, 53, from Frome, in Somerset, has been waiting for her CETV since May 2024.

"It's made me feel really angry because I've worked for 29 years and have paid into the pension scheme all that time," she said.

"But when I need to depend on information that is rightfully mine, it's simply not there."

She said her divorce proceedings have become drawn out and she is currently unable to remortgage as her husband's name is still on the title deeds of her house.

And like many caught up in this delay, she has become sceptical of promises that things will improve quickly.

"I could be sitting here in another six months' time, still waiting on my CETV and I have no idea if that's going to happen or not.

"You're just trying to live in a vacuum of information and there is nothing there to support you."

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A former senior UK Special Forces officer has told a public inquiry into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan that the SAS had a "golden pass allowing them to get away with murder".

The accusation was published by the Afghanistan Inquiry on Wednesday as part of a release of material summarising seven closed hearings with members of UK Special Forces.

The officer, a former operations chief of staff for the Special Boat Service (SBS) - the UK's naval special forces - was one of several senior officers who registered concerns back in 2011 that the SAS appeared to be carrying out executions and covering them up.

In one email from the time, the officer wrote that the SAS and murder were "regular bedfellows" and described the regiment's official descriptions of operational killings as "quite incredible".

Asked by the inquiry during the closed hearings whether he stood by his assertion that the SAS's actions amounted to murder, the officer replied: "Indeed."

Pressed by the inquiry counsel about his decision not to report his concerns further up the chain of command in 2011, he said he regretted his lack of action at the time. He agreed that there had been a "massive failure of leadership" by UK Special Forces.

The former SBS operations chief of staff was one of several senior officers from the Royal Navy's special forces regiment who gave evidence to the inquiry behind closed doors in 2024.

The inquiry, which is examining night raids by UKSF between 2010 and 2013, follows years of reporting by BBC Panorama into allegations of murder and cover up by the SAS.

• SAS war crimes inquiry obtains huge cache of new evidence, BBC reveals
• How a British special forces raid went wrong, and a young family paid the price
• SAS unit repeatedly killed Afghan detainees, BBC finds

Only the inquiry team and representatives from the Ministry of Defence have been allowed to attend the closed hearings. The public, members of the media, and lawyers for the bereaved families are not allowed to be present.

The material released on Wednesday summarises the testimony from these hearings. Taken together, the documents – totalling hundreds of pages – paint a picture of the SAS's arrival in Afghanistan in 2009 and the way in which it took over hunting the Taliban from the SBS.

Senior SBS officers told the inquiry of deep concerns that the SAS, fresh from aggressive, high-tempo operations in Iraq, was being driven by kill counts – the number of dead they could achieve in each operation.

Another senior SBS officer who gave evidence was asked whether he stood by his concerns in 2011 that the SAS was carrying out extra-judicial killings.

"I thought and think that on at least some operations [the SAS] was carrying out murders," he said.

A junior SBS officer who also gave evidence to the inquiry behind closed doors described a conversation in which a member of the SAS who had recently returned from Afghanistan told him about a pillow being put over the head of someone before they were killed with a pistol.

"I suppose what shocked me most wasn't the execution of potential members of the Taliban, which was of course wrong and illegal, but it was more the age and the methods and, you know, the details of things like pillows," the junior officer said.

He clarified that some of those killed by the SAS had been children, according to the conversation he relayed. Asked by the inquiry counsel if he meant some of those killed would be as young as 16, he replied: "Or younger 100%".

The junior officer told the inquiry that he feared for his safety should his name be linked to testimony that the SAS had been allegedly murdering civilians.

These SBS officers were part of a small group that was privately raising doubts back in 2011 about the veracity of SAS operational reports coming back from Afghanistan.

In one email, one of the senior officers, who held a post at the SBS headquarters in Poole at the time, wrote to a senior colleague: "If we don't believe this, then no one else will and when the next WikiLeaks occurs then we will be dragged down with them."

The two senior officers were in a position to interpret the language in the regiment's reports, having served with SBS operational units in Afghanistan prior to the arrival of the SAS, when the naval unit was forced to take what it saw as a back seat, pursuing anti-narcotics operations rather than hunting the Taliban.

As well as believing that the SAS may have committed murders, they described in their emails what they viewed as a cover-up in Afghanistan. The second officer told the inquiry chair: "Basically, there appears to be a culture there of 'shut up, don't question'."

At the time, support staff in Afghanistan were sceptical about the SAS's accounts of their operations, judging them not credible.

But rather than taking the concerns seriously, a reprimand had been issued "to ensure that the staff officers support the guys on the ground", another senior SBS officer wrote.

He told the inquiry that in the eyes of the Special Forces' commanding officer in Afghanistan, the SAS could do no wrong, and described the lack of accountability for the regiment as "astonishing".

The documents released on Wednesday also reveal new details about an explosive meeting in Afghanistan in February 2011, during which the Afghan special forces that partnered the SAS angrily withdrew their support.

The meeting followed a growing rift between the SAS and the Afghan special forces over what the Afghans saw as unlawful killings by members of the SAS.

One Afghan officer present at the meeting was so incensed that he reportedly reached for his pistol.

Describing the meeting in a newly released email, the SBS officer wrote: "I've never had such a hostile meeting before – genuine shouting, arm waving and with me staring down a 9mm barrel at one stage – all pretty unpleasant."

After intervention from senior members of UKSF, the Afghan units agreed to continue to working alongside the SAS. But it would not be the last time they withdrew their support in protest.

"This is all very damaging," the SBS officer concluded his email.

Additional reporting by Conor McCann

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Few European leaders have felt the lash of Elon Musk's social media outbursts more than Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The tech-billionaire owner of X has called him an "incompetent fool" and urged him to resign. On Thursday Musk will use his platform to host Alice Weidel, the head of Germany's far-right, anti-immigrant AfD for a lengthy chat.

For many German politicians it smacks of political interference, with the AfD running second in the polls ahead of federal elections on 23 February.

"You have to stay cool," says Scholz. "Don't feed the troll."

Although some of Europe's leaders, notably Italy's Giorgia Meloni, have found favour with Musk, others are finding it hard to ignore him, as he ventures into their domestic politics ahead of a new role an adviser to the incoming US President Donald Trump.

In the space of 24 hours, four European governments have objected to Musk's posts.

France's Emmanuel Macron was among the first to expressed incredulity on Monday.

"Ten years ago, who would have believed it, if we had been told that the owner of one of the biggest social networks in the world would support a new, international reactionary movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany?" he said.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store weighed in, too, saying he found it "worrying that a man with considerable access to social networks and significant economic resources is so directly involved in the internal affairs of other countries".

Spain's government spokeswoman, Pilar Alegría, said digital platforms such as X should act with "absolute neutrality and above all without any kind of interference".

Musk has highlighted crime statistics in Norway and Spain, and blamed a deadly Christmas market attack in Germany on "mass unchecked immigration".

In the past few days, Musk has written numerous posts attacking the UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his administration over grooming gangs and child sexual exploitation.

"Those who are spreading lies and misinformation as far and as wide as possible are not interested in victims, they're interested in themselves," said the UK prime minister, without mentioning Musk personally.

Two notable exceptions in Europe are Italy and Hungary.

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cultivated close ties with Elon Musk and calls him a "genius" and an "extraordinary innovator".

And Hungary's Viktor Orban, who met Musk while visiting Trump at Mar-a-Lago last month, shares Musk's dislike of Hungarian-born liberal philanthropist George Soros.

But it is the tech-billionaire's intervention in German politics that is most contentious, because of imminent elections.

He has spoken out several times in favour of the AfD in recent weeks, and wrote a highly controversial article for Welt am Sonntag in which he called the AfD the "last spark of hope" for Germany.

Musk justified his intervention at the time because of his company Tesla's financial investment in Germany. He said portraying the AfD as right-wing, extremist was "clearly false", because Alice Weidel had a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka.

German security services have labelled the AfD either as right-wing extremist or suspected extremist and the courts have ruled it pursues goals against democracy.

While Olaf Scholz has sought to stay calm, the Greens' candidate for chancellor, Robert Habeck, was more blunt: "Hands off our democracy, Mr Musk."

Liberal FDP leader Christian Lindner has suggested that Musk's aim might perhaps be to weaken Germany in the US interest, "by recommending voting for a party that would harm us economically and isolate us politically".

The former head of the European Commission's digital agenda, Thierry Breton, took to X last weekend to warn Alice Weidel, the AfD's candidate for chancellor, that Thursday's live chat with Musk would give her "a significant and valuable advantage over your competitors".

The European Commission has said there is nothing in the EU's Digital Services rules that bans a live stream, or anyone expressing personal views.

However, a spokesman warned that platform owners should not provide "preferential treatment". Musk's X is already under investigation and the EU says the live stream will come under that inquiry.

While Musk has been outspoken on German politics, he has also been extending his business interests in Italy.

Giorgia Meloni had just been on a whirlwind trip to have dinner with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago when reports emerged that Italy was in talks with Musk's SpaceX to sign a $1.6bn (£1.3bn) deal, under which Starlink satellites would provide encrypted internet and telecommunications services for the Italian government.

The deal does not yet appear to have been concluded and Rome has swiftly denied any contracts have been signed.

Musk said on Monday that he was "ready to provide Italy [with] the most secure and advanced connectivity" – without confirming a deal had been reached.

But the suggestion that Starlink could be entrusted with safeguarding the Italian government's communications was enough to cause alarm among some opposition politicians in Rome.

"Handing over such a delicate service to Musk while he is sponsoring the European far right, spreading fake news and meddling in the internal politics of European countries cannot be an option," said centrist leader Carlo Calenda.

US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened "very-high" tariffs on Denmark if it resists his effort to take control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

Asked on Tuesday if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take control of the strategically-important island, he said: "No, I can't assure you on either of those two."

"I can say this, we need them for economic security," he said.

Trump's remarks came as his son, Donald Trump Jr, visited Greenland on the same day.

Before arriving in the capital Nuuk, Trump Jr said he was going on a "personal day-trip" to talk to people, and had no meetings planned with government officials.

When asked about Trump Jr's visit to Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders" and that only the local population could determine their future.

She agreed that "Greenland is not for sale", but stressed Denmark needed very close co-operation with the US, a close Nato ally.

This is a developing story. More updates to follow.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has hit back at Donald Trump's threat to use "economic force" to absorb Canada into the US saying there isn't "a snowball's chance in hell" to join the two.

On Tuesday, President-elect Trump reiterated his threat to bring in a 25% tariff on Canadian goods unless the country took steps to increase security on the shared US border.

Trump has in recent weeks repeatedly needled Canada about it becoming the 51st US state.

"You get rid of that artificially drawn line, and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security," Trump said.

"Canada and the United States, that would really be something," he said at a press conference at his Florida residence of Mar-a Lago.

The ongoing tariff threat comes at a politically challenging time for Canada.

On Monday, an embattled Trudeau announced he was resigning, though he will stay on as prime minister until the governing Liberals elect a new leader, expected sometime by late March.

Canada's parliament has been prorogued - or suspended - until 24 March to allow time for the leadership race.

Economists warn that if Trump follows through on imposing the tariffs after he is inaugurated on 20 January, it would significantly hurt Canada's economy.

Almost C$3.6bn ($2.5bn) worth of goods and services crossed the border daily in 2023, according to Canadian government figures.

The Trudeau government has said it is considering imposing counter-tariffs if Trump follows through on the threat.

The prime minister also said on X that: "Workers and communities in both our countries benefit from being each other's biggest trading and security partner."

On Tuesday, Trump reiterated his concerns he has expressed about drugs crossing the borders of Mexico and Canada into the US.

Like Canada, Mexico faces a 25% tariff threat.

The amount of fentanyl seized at the US-Canada border is significantly lower than at the southern border, according to US data.

Canada has promised to implement a set of sweeping new security measures along the border, including strengthened surveillance and adding a joint "strike force" to target transnational organised crime.

Trump said on Tuesday he was not considering using military force to make Canada part of the United States, but raised concerns about its neighbour's military spending.

"They have a very small military. They rely on our military. It's all fine, but, you know, they got to pay for that. It's very unfair," he said.

Canada has been under pressure to increase its military spending as it continues to fall short of the target set out for Nato members.

Its defence budget currently stands at C$27bn ($19.8bn, £15.5bn), though the Trudeau government has promised that it will boost spending to almost C$50bn by 2030.

On Monday, Doug Ford, the leader of Canada's most populous province Ontario, said Trudeau must spend his remaining weeks in office working with the provinces to address Trump's threat.

"The premiers are leading the country right now," he said.

• What happens next for Canada?
• When will Donald Trump take office as US president?

Ontario has a deep reliance on trade with the US. The province is at the heart of the highly integrated auto industry in Canada, and trade between Ontario and the US totalled more than C$493bn ($350bn) in 2023.

"My message is let's work together, let's build a stronger trade relationship - not weaken it," he said.

The premier warned "we will retaliate hard" if the Trump administration follows through, and highlighted the close economic ties between the two nations, including on energy.

The US relies "on Ontario for their electricity. We keep the lights on to a million and a half homes and businesses in the US", he said.

At a press conference early this week, Ford also pushed back on Trump's 51st state comments.

"I'll make him a counter-offer. How about if we buy Alaska and we throw in Minneapolis and Minnesota at the same time?" Ford said.

The government is "on course" to miss its own Budget borrowing targets, say some economists after interest rates for UK long-term borrowing rose to their highest levels this century.

The official forecaster, the Office for Budget Responsibility will start the process of updating its forecast next month, to be presented to parliament in late March.

The rising cost of borrowing means, "there is a significant chance that the OBR will judge that the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, is on course to miss her main fiscal rule" according to Ruth Gregory from Capital Economics.

Servicing the national debt is currently forecast to take up 7% of total public spending, but that forecast was based on lower government borrowing rates.

Number 10 said there was "no doubt about the government's commitment to economic stability" and "meeting our fiscal rules is non-negotiable" saying that only the OBR's forecast is an accurate predication of the government's room for manoeuvre.

The clear indication from the government is that although they will not hold another Budget in March, any necessary adjustment would have to come in terms of some new spending cuts.

This morning, a £2bn auction of 30 year UK government debt, sold at an effective interest rate of 5.18%.

The Debt Management Office, a part of Treasury, effectively paid the highest interest rates for these very long term loans since 1998.

Eyebrows raised over issuance

The markets are raising their eyebrows about debts around the world, and in particular, the level of issuance of bonds from countries such as the UK and the US, and additionally, the likelihood of sticky, above target inflation.

Thirty-year debt such as this does not have a direct pass through into borrowing rates for households and companies. This type of debt is more of a specialist instrument used by pension funds. But today's auction shines a light on an uptick of borrowing rates over the past month.

The more general gilt market move, has not yet significantly changed fixed mortgage rates, for example. But if it continues, as is plausible, for the next month or so, it will impact the Office for Budget Responsibility's new forecast.

The rise in rates has affected the US and the UK more, and less so continental Europe. The tick-up in UK market rates after the Budget, initially faded by early December. But now British borrowing rates are moving up alongside US ones.

Stagnant growth and sticky inflation have raised concerns about so-called "stagflation". Markets are starting to question the inflationary impacts of incoming President Trump's trade and tax policies.

So while this is not a crisis, it is a new reality. Markets are questioning if the UK really can sustain higher growth and restrained inflation. And those questions are now occurring against the backdrop of the Trump trade tumult affecting global markets for borrowing. It's a bumpy start to 2025.

In recent weeks, scenes of hospitals in China overrun with masked people have made their rounds on social media, sparking worries of another pandemic.

Beijing has since acknowledged a surge in cases of the flu-like human metapneumovirus (HMPV), especially among children, and it attributed this to a seasonal spike.

But HMPV is not like Covid-19, public health experts have said, noting that the virus has been around for decades, with almost every child being infected by their fifth birthday.

However, in some very young children and people with weakened immune systems, it can cause more serious illness. Here is what you need to know.

What is HMPV and how does it spread?

HMPV is a virus that will lead to a mild upper respiratory tract infection - practically indistinguishable from flu - for most people.

First identified in the Netherlands in 2001, the virus spreads through direct contact between people or when someone touches surfaces contaminated with it.

Symptoms for most people include cough, fever and nasal congestion.

The very young, including children under two, are most vulnerable to the virus, along with those with weakened immune systems, including the elderly and those with advanced cancer, says Hsu Li Yang, an infectious diseases physician in Singapore.

If infected, a "small but significant proportion" among the immunocompromised will develop more severe disease where the lungs are affected, with wheezing, breathlessness and symptoms of croup.

"Many will require hospital care, with a smaller proportion at risk of dying from the infection," Dr Hsu said.

Why are cases rising in China?

Like many respiratory infections, HMPV is most active during late winter and spring - some experts say this is because the viruses survive better in the cold and they pass more easily from one person to another as people stay indoors more often.

In northern China, the current HMPV spike coincides with low temperatures that are expected to last until March.

In fact many countries in the northern hemisphere, including but not limited to China, are experiencing an increased prevalence of HMPV, said Jacqueline Stephens, an epidemiologist at Flinders University in Australia.

"While this is concerning, the increased prevalence is likely the normal seasonal increase seen in winter," she said.

Data from health authorities in the US and UK shows that these countries, too, have been experiencing a spike in HMPV cases since October last year.

Is HMPV like Covid-19? How worried should we be?

Fears of a Covid-19 style pandemic are overblown, the experts said, noting that pandemics are typically caused by novel pathogens, which is not the case for HMPV.

HMPV is globally present and has been around for decades. This means people across the world have "some degree of existing immunity due to previous exposure", Dr Hsu said.

"Almost every child will have at least one infection with HMPV by their fifth birthday and we can expect to go onto to have multiple reinfections throughout life," says Paul Hunter, a medical professor at University of East Anglia in England.

"So overall, I don't think there is currently any signs of a more serious global issue."

Still, Dr Hsu advises standard general precautions such as wearing a mask in crowded places, avoiding crowds where possible if one is at higher risk of more severe illness from respiratory virus infections, practising good hand hygiene, and getting the flu vaccine.

Jean-Marie Le Pen founded France's far right in the 1970s and mounted a strong challenge for the presidency. But it was only when he handed the reins on to his daughter that his rebranded party caught sight of power.

He has died aged 96, his family has said.

Le Pen's supporters saw him as a charismatic champion of the every man, unafraid to speak out on hard topics.

And for several decades he was seen as France's most controversial political figure.

His critics denounced him as a far-right bigot and the courts convicted him several times for his radical remarks.

A Holocaust denier and an unrepentant extremist on race, gender and immigration, he devoted his political career to pushing himself and his views into the French political mainstream.

The so-called Devil of the Republic came runner-up in the 2002 French presidential election, but he was resoundingly defeated. That devil had to be taken out of the National Front if it was going to progress further - a process that became known as "de-demonisation".

For his part, the five-time presidential candidate - who started his political life fighting Communists and conservatives alike - described himself as "ni droite, ni gauche, français" - not right, not left, but French.

And all the French had their opinions about Le Pen. In 2015, Marine Le Pen expelled her father from the National Front he had founded four decades previously.

"Maybe by getting rid of me she wanted to make some kind of gesture to the establishment," he would later tell the BBC's Hugh Schofield.

"But think how much better she would be doing if she had not excluded me from the party!"

Pupil of the Nation

Jean-Marie Le Pen was born in the small Breton village of La Trinité-sur-Mer on 20 June 1928.

He lost his father at 14 when his fishing boat hit a German mine. Le Pen became a Pupille de la Nation - the term French authorities use for those who had a parent wounded or killed in war - entitling him to state funding and support.

Two years later he tried to join the French Resistance, but was turned down. He wrote in an autobiography that his first "war decoration" was a "magisterial slap" from his mother, when he came home and told her what he had tried to do.

In 1954, Le Pen joined the French Foreign Legion. He was posted to Indochina - modern-day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, at that time controlled by France - then two years later to Egypt, when France, the UK and Israel invaded the country in a bid to take control of the Suez Canal. Both conflicts ended in French defeat.

But it was his time in Algeria that would define so much of his politics, and his career.

He was posted there as an intelligence officer, when Algerians were fighting a brutal but ultimately successful war of independence against Paris.

Le Pen saw the loss of Algeria as one of the great betrayals in French history, fuelling his loathing of World War Two hero and then-President Charles de Gaulle, who ended the war for the colony.

During that independence war, he allegedly took part in the torture of Algerian prisoners, something he always denied.

Decades later he would unsuccessfully sue two French newspapers, Le Canard enchaîné and Libération, for reporting the allegations.

Political rise

Le Pen was first elected to the French parliament in 1956 in a party led by militant right-wing shopkeepers' leader Pierre Poujade. But they fell out and Le Pen briefly returned to the army in Algeria. By 1962 he had lost his seat in the National Assembly and was to spend the next decade in the political wilderness.

During a spell in 1965 as campaign manager for far-right presidential candidate Jean-Louis Tixier-Vignancour, Le Pen defended the war-time government of Marshal Pétain, who supported the occupying Nazi German forces.

"Was General de Gaulle more brave than Marshal Pétain in the occupied zone? This isn't sure. It was much easier to resist in London than to resist in France," he said.

It was during that election campaign that he lost the sight in his left eye. For several years he wore an eye patch - giving rise to stories of a political punch-up. In reality, he had lost it while putting up a tent.

"While wielding the mallet... a shock in my eye, I have to be hospitalised. Retinal detachment," he would write in a memoir years later.

It was not until 1972 that Le Pen's political ascent truly began. That year he set up the Front National (FN), a far-right party created to unify the nationalist movement in France.

At first, the party had little support. Le Pen ran for the presidency in 1974 for the FN, but won less than 1% of the vote. In 1981 he failed to even get enough signatures on his nomination form to stand.

But the party gradually attracted voters with its increasingly strident anti-immigration policy.

The south of France in particular - where large numbers of North African immigrants had come to settle - began to swing behind the FN. In the 1984 European elections, it gained 10% of the vote.

Le Pen himself won a seat in the European Parliament, which he would hold for more than 30 years.

As an MEP he voiced his hatred of the European Union and what he saw as its interference in French affairs. He would later call the euro "the currency of occupation".

But his rising political fortunes did not stop him giving voice to shocking views.

In a notorious interview in 1987, he played down the Holocaust - Nazi Germany's murder of six million Jews. "I do not say that the gas chambers did not exist. I never personally saw them," he told an interviewer. "I have never particularly studied the issue, but I believe they are a point of detail in the history of World War Two."

His comments about le détail would dog the rest of his career.

Regardless of the controversy, his popularity grew. In the 1988 presidential election, he took 14% of the vote. That figure rose to 15% in 1995.

Then came 2002. With many mainstream candidates dividing opposition support, Jean-Marie Le Pen squeezed into the second and final round of the presidential election.

The result sent shockwaves through French society. More than a million protesters took to the streets to oppose Le Pen's ideas.

The far-right politician inspired such revulsion from the majority that parties across the political spectrum called on their supporters to back President Jacques Chirac for a second term. Chirac took 82% of the vote, the biggest victory in French political history.

Split with his daughter

Le Pen would run again for the presidency, in 2007, but by then his political star had waned. Le Pen, then the oldest candidate to ever contest the presidency, came fourth.

Within months of that vote, newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy - who Le Pen had attacked as being "foreign", because of his Greek, Jewish and Hungarian ancestors - seized on the FN's main campaign themes of national security and immigration in legislative elections, and stated openly that he intended to go after FN votes.

It swept the rug out from under the FN. Le Pen's party failed to pick up a single seat in the National Assembly and, dogged by financial problems, he announced plans to sell his party headquarters outside Paris.

In 2011, he resigned as party leader and was replaced by his daughter, Marine.

Father and daughter fell out almost immediately. Marine le Pen consciously moved the party away from her father's more extreme policies, to make it more attractive to Eurosceptic mainstream voters.

Then the relationship shattered irreparably.

In 2015, Jean-Marie Le Pen repeated le détail, his Holocaust denial, in a radio interview. After months of bitter legal wrangling, FN party members eventually voted to expel their own founder.

Two years later, during her own presidential campaign, Marine changed the party name to Rassemblement National, or National Rally.

Her father condemned the move as suicidal.

But Jean-Marie Le Pen remained unrepentant.

"The détail was in 1987. Then it came back in 2015. That's not exactly every day!" he told the BBC in an interview in 2017.

He even proved sanguine about the rifts with his family - at least publicly.

"It is life! Life is not a smooth tranquil stream," he said.

"I am accustomed to adversity. For 60 years I have rowed against the current. Never once have we had the wind at our backs! No indeed, one thing we never got used to was the easy life!"

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told BBC's Newsnight that "disinformation" spread by Elon Musk was "endangering" her but that it was "nothing" compared to the experiences of victims of abuse.

The tech billionaire and adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump labelled Phillips a "rape genocide apologist" and said she should be jailed.

Asked if the threat to her own safety had gone up since his social media posts and whether protections were in place for her safety, Phillips replied "yes".

She said the experience had been "very, very, very tiring" but that she was "resigned to the lot in life that you get as a woman who fights violence against women and girls".

She added: "I'm no stranger to people who don't know what they're talking about trying to silence women like me."

Musk's intervention came in response to Phillips rejecting a request for the government to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham - which sparked calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Her decision was taken in October but first reported by GB News at the start of the year and then picked up by Musk on his social media platform X.

Phillips defended the government's decision not to hold a national inquiry, arguing that local inquiries, such as one held in Telford, were more effective at leading to change.

A 14-year-old boy has been stabbed to death on a double-decker bus, police have said.

The victim was killed on the 472 bus on Woolwich Church Road in Woolwich, south-east London at about 14:30 GMT.

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

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A senior lawyer representing Shein repeatedly refused to say whether the company sells products containing cotton from China, prompting one MP to brand her evidence "ridiculous".

Yinan Zhu, general counsel for the fast-fashion giant, confirmed its suppliers did manufacture products in the country but did not say whether they used Chinese cotton.

Firms that source clothing, cotton, and other products from the Xinjiang region in the north west of China have come under pressure following allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses.

Charlie Maynard, an MP on the Business and Trade Committee, accused Ms Zhu of "obfuscating".

Shein has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2008, and was one of many online businesses to boom during the pandemic lockdowns.

Its rapid rise has meant the company has gone from a little-known brand to one of the biggest fast fashion retailers globally, shipping to customers in 150 countries, and it is a now exploring plans to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange.

But the company, which was founded in China but is now headquartered in Singapore, has come under fire over working practices, which include allegations of forced labour in supply chains. Shein has denied this.

Fashion retailers across the world have faced pressure following allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses against people from the Muslim Uyghur minority in China. The authorities in Beijing have consistently denied the claims.

Some big brands, including H&M, Nike, Burberry and Adidas have removed products using Xinjiang cotton, which has led to a backlash in China, and boycotts of the companies.

Ms Zhu, Shein's general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) told MPs that the company does not own any factories or manufacturing facilities, but works with a large network of suppliers, mostly in China, but also in Turkey and Brazil.

When pressed repeatedly over whether products contained Chinese cotton, she declined to answer, and asked if she could write to the committee following the hearing.

She added that Shein complied with "laws and regulations in the countries we operate in".

But Liberal Democrat MP Maynard hit out at Ms Zhu's comments, and accused her for "obfuscating willfully".

"I don't think you're respecting the committee at all. I am on your website and I can see about 20 products which are all cotton.... and yet you say to our chair that you can't state whether Shein is selling any products which are made in China, which are made of cotton - I find that completely ridiculous," he said.

"You mention every other spot of the compass, but you don't mention west China, you don't mention Xinjiang at all. It's wilful ignorance."

Ms Zhu responded saying she was "doing the best I can", and was "giving answers to the best of my ability", which prompted Maynard to reply: "That is simply not true."

Liam Byrne, chair of the committee, said for a company that sells £1bn worth of goods to consumers, and was looking to list in the UK, the committee had been "pretty horrified by the lack of evidence" Ms Zhu had provided.

"You have given us almost zero confidence in the integrity of your supply chains, you can't even tell us what your products are made from, you can't even tell us the much about the conditions which workers have to work in, and the reluctance to answer basic questions has frankly bordered on contempt of the committee," he said.

US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened "very-high" tariffs on Denmark if it resists his effort to take control of Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory.

Asked on Tuesday if he would rule out using military or economic force in order to take control of the strategically-important island, he said: "No, I can't assure you on either of those two."

"I can say this, we need them for economic security," he said.

Trump's remarks came as his son, Donald Trump Jr, visited Greenland on the same day.

Before arriving in the capital Nuuk, Trump Jr said he was going on a "personal day-trip" to talk to people, and had no meetings planned with government officials.

When asked about Trump Jr's visit to Greenland, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told Danish TV that "Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders" and that only the local population could determine their future.

She agreed that "Greenland is not for sale", but stressed Denmark needed very close co-operation with the US, a close Nato ally.

This is a developing story. More updates to follow.

Wintry weather is forecast to tighten its grip in many parts of the UK this week with sub-zero temperatures plunging even lower than during the heavy snowfall of the past weekend.

Weather forecasters predict the coldest nights of the year so far on Wednesday and Thursday, and temperatures are expected to fall as low as -20 C in some areas.

A series of yellow weather warnings covering the next few days have already become active - with the latest warnng of the danger of ice in parts of northern Wales, as well as areas in central and northern England, until 12:00 GMT on Wednesday.

The cold weather comes after another day of flooding causing havoc in central England but, with no further rainfall expected in flood-hit areas in the coming days, flood waters are likely to begin subsiding.

Travel disruption continued on Tuesday, with flights delayed, roads closed and railways impacted by the poor weather.

People continued to grapple with the impact of the severe flooding that has affected homes and businesses across the Midlands in England and a man had to be rescued from a flooded caravan park in Leicestershire's Barrow upon Soar.

There were 114 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 205 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, in place across England on Tuesday afternoon.

One flood warning and six flood alerts were active in Wales.

Looking ahead, weather forecasters expect the flood waters and warnings to begin to subside, with no significant rain predicted in the areas currently experiencing flooding.

But by then the focus will have switched back to how far temperatures are likely to fall, particularly during the night.

The ice warning covering Tuesday night and Wednesday morning is accompanied by another, also up to 12:00 on Wednesday, which tells people to be aware of the likelihood of snow and ice in Northern Ireland and parts of northern and western Scotland.

A separate yellow warning for snow in some southern counties of England will come into force at 09:00 on Wednesday, and will last until midnight.

The wintry conditions have caused significant disruption across the UK since snow swept many parts of the country at the weekend.

Hundreds of schools were closed in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including schools in Yorkshire, Merseyside, the Midlands and Aberdeenshire.

Most flights are running again after they were temporarily halted at airports in Liverpool, Bristol, Aberdeen and Manchester – but operators have warned some delays are still likely.

Some major roads were shut because of poor weather conditions, including the A1 in Lincolnshire which was still closed on Tuesday afternoon due to extensive flooding.

Worst since 2021?

Bitter cold is expected in many parts of the UK in the coming days, with the likelihood of sharp overnight frosts.

Temperatures are expected to drop well below freezing on Wednesday and Thursday night, with forecasters expecting many parts of the UK to experience a hard frost and lows of between -3C and -10C.

In places that are still experiencing snow cover, it could be as cold as -14C to -16C on Wednesday night, and on Thursday the Pennines and snow fields of Scotland could register temperatures as low as -16C to -20C.

That would actually be far colder than was experienced at the weekend when a low of -13.3 C was recorded at Loch Glascarnoch in the Highlands.

It is also significantly lower than anything seen last winter when a particularly bitter night in Dalwhinnie in the Highlands saw a mark of -14C being recorded.

The last time the UK had any temperature that below -20C was in February 2021 when Braemar in Aberdeenshire was measured at -23C.

The health secretary has said some patients' experience of the NHS this winter makes him feel "ashamed".

Wes Streeting said he had seen patients left crying and distressed and stuck in corridors, as hospitals struggle to cope.

It comes as a number of NHS trusts declare critical incidents due to exceptionally high demand in A&E.

NHS sources told BBC News about a dozen hospitals in England had declared major incidents, at one point on Tuesday.

Patients at one, Royal Liverpool University Hospital, were facing waits of up to 50 hours in the accident and emergency unit, as bosses warned rising numbers of flu cases and other respiratory illnesses had left them "extremely busy".

'Very distressing'

Streeting told LBC he had seen A&E patients confused and crying out in distress, while others had been being treated in corridors, during a recent hospital visit.

"When I went in, they said, 'You are here on a fairly good day - it's not too bad today,'" he said.

"And as I walked around these conditions, I was looking around thinking, 'This is a good day?"'

Streeting promised to do "everything I can" to "make sure that year-on-year, we see consistent improvement".

It would "take time" - but the government would publish an urgent and emergency reform plan "shortly".

"In the meantime, I feel genuinely distressed and ashamed, actually, of some of the things that patients are experiencing and I know that the staff of the NHS and social-care services feel the same - they go to work, they slog their guts out, and it's very distressing for them, seeing people in this condition, as well," Streeting said.

'Unsafe care'

He said he had also seen ambulance crews taking dying patients into hospital because there was no end-of-life care available for them in the community.

"It breaks my heart," Streeting added.

Critical incidents were also declared in the East Midlands, Birmingham, Devon, Cornwall, Northamptonshire and Hampshire.

• The East Midlands Ambulance Service - which covers Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire - declared the first critical incident in its history due to a combination of "significant patient demand, pressure within hospitals and flooding"
• Health bosses have asked people suffering from flu, Covid, norovirus or respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) to stay away from the Royal Cornwall Hospital's A&E department in Truro
• An influx of patients at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth has also prompted a critical incident
• Hampshire Hospitals said, due to "sustained pressures" at its Basingstoke and Winchester hospitals, it has also declared a critical incident
• University Hospitals Birmingham is another trust to have declared a critical incident with an "exceptional number" of patients with flu requiring hospital admission
• NHS services in Northamptonshire have also escalated their status to critical, due to what they say is ongoing demand, particularly at Northampton and Kettering general hospitals

Critical incidents, which can last for a few hours or several days, allow services to:

• recall staff from leave
• suspend non-urgent services
• receive support from nearby hospitals

They are not unusual at this time of year – about 30 hospitals declared them at one point at the start of 2023.

But NHS bosses have said the first week of 2025 has been very difficult, as high rates of flu, combined with cold weather and flooding, have caused a surge in demand.

In Scotland, doctors said hospitals had become gridlocked and were in the middle of a "winter crisis" too.

Dr Fiona Hunter, from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: "We are running on hard work and goodwill, and our patients are receiving unacceptable, undignified and unsafe care in corridors and in the back of ambulances."

Safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has told BBC's Newsnight that "disinformation" spread by Elon Musk was "endangering" her but that it was "nothing" compared to the experiences of victims of abuse.

The tech billionaire and adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump labelled Phillips a "rape genocide apologist" and said she should be jailed.

Asked if the threat to her own safety had gone up since his social media posts and whether protections were in place for her safety, Phillips replied "yes".

She said the experience had been "very, very, very tiring" but that she was "resigned to the lot in life that you get as a woman who fights violence against women and girls".

She added: "I'm no stranger to people who don't know what they're talking about trying to silence women like me."

Musk's intervention came in response to Phillips rejecting a request for the government to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in Oldham - which sparked calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for a national inquiry into grooming gangs.

Her decision was taken in October but first reported by GB News at the start of the year and then picked up by Musk on his social media platform X.

Phillips defended the government's decision not to hold a national inquiry, arguing that local inquiries, such as one held in Telford, were more effective at leading to change.

A senior lawyer representing Shein repeatedly refused to say whether the company sells products containing cotton from China, prompting one MP to brand her evidence "ridiculous".

Yinan Zhu, general counsel for the fast-fashion giant, confirmed its suppliers did manufacture products in the country but did not say whether they used Chinese cotton.

Firms that source clothing, cotton, and other products from the Xinjiang region in the north west of China have come under pressure following allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses.

Charlie Maynard, an MP on the Business and Trade Committee, accused Ms Zhu of "obfuscating".

Shein has grown rapidly since it was founded in 2008, and was one of many online businesses to boom during the pandemic lockdowns.

Its rapid rise has meant the company has gone from a little-known brand to one of the biggest fast fashion retailers globally, shipping to customers in 150 countries, and it is a now exploring plans to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange.

But the company, which was founded in China but is now headquartered in Singapore, has come under fire over working practices, which include allegations of forced labour in supply chains. Shein has denied this.

Fashion retailers across the world have faced pressure following allegations of forced labour and human rights abuses against people from the Muslim Uyghur minority in China. The authorities in Beijing have consistently denied the claims.

Some big brands, including H&M, Nike, Burberry and Adidas have removed products using Xinjiang cotton, which has led to a backlash in China, and boycotts of the companies.

Ms Zhu, Shein's general counsel for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) told MPs that the company does not own any factories or manufacturing facilities, but works with a large network of suppliers, mostly in China, but also in Turkey and Brazil.

When pressed repeatedly over whether products contained Chinese cotton, she declined to answer, and asked if she could write to the committee following the hearing.

She added that Shein complied with "laws and regulations in the countries we operate in".

But Liberal Democrat MP Maynard hit out at Ms Zhu's comments, and accused her for "obfuscating willfully".

"I don't think you're respecting the committee at all. I am on your website and I can see about 20 products which are all cotton.... and yet you say to our chair that you can't state whether Shein is selling any products which are made in China, which are made of cotton - I find that completely ridiculous," he said.

"You mention every other spot of the compass, but you don't mention west China, you don't mention Xinjiang at all. It's wilful ignorance."

Ms Zhu responded saying she was "doing the best I can", and was "giving answers to the best of my ability", which prompted Maynard to reply: "That is simply not true."

Liam Byrne, chair of the committee, said for a company that sells £1bn worth of goods to consumers, and was looking to list in the UK, the committee had been "pretty horrified by the lack of evidence" Ms Zhu had provided.

"You have given us almost zero confidence in the integrity of your supply chains, you can't even tell us what your products are made from, you can't even tell us the much about the conditions which workers have to work in, and the reluctance to answer basic questions has frankly bordered on contempt of the committee," he said.