Office lights in some corners of Westminster were on much later than usual last night.

Why? Because ministers and officials, just like so many others, were watching the telly to see what President Trump would have to say, the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds among them.

The president, brandishing a giant rectangular piece of card packed with the new tariff increases, unleashing waves of anxiety across factory floors, boardrooms and government ministries the world over.

Folk in government in the UK had picked up a sense of the mood music – a sense that the UK was "in the good camp rather than the bad camp" as one figure put it to me – but they had no idea in advance precisely what that would mean.

We now do know what it means.

I detect a sense of relief among ministers, but make no mistake they are not delighted – the tariffs imposed on the UK will have significant effects, and the tariffs on the UK's trading partners will have a profound impact on jobs, industries and global trading flows in the weeks, months and years to come.

It will be "hugely disruptive," as one government source put it.

There is an acute awareness in particular about the impact on the car industry.

• Trump's tariffs on China, EU and more, at a glance
• UK to keep pushing for deal after Trump imposes 10% tariff
• How Trump's tariffs might affect the UK and your money
• Trump to charge tariffs of up to 50% on 'worst offenders' globally

Negotiations with America over a trade deal continue.

I am told a team of four UK negotiators are in "pretty intensive" conversation with their American counterparts – talking remotely, but willing to head to Washington if signing a deal appears imminent.

Let's see.

Those on the UK side characterise the discussions as "more like a corporate conversation than a trade negotiation", putting that down to the personnel, outlook and biographies of plenty in the Trump administration.

The other point being seized upon at Westminster, in particular by the Conservatives, is the difference between how the UK is being treated compared to the European Union – with plenty pointing to it as a dividend of Brexit.

The Liberal Democrats, by contrast, think the UK should work with Commonwealth and European allies to stand up to President Trump and impose retaliatory tariffs "if necessary".

The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is meeting affected businesses on Thursday and the business secretary will address the Commons.

The next chapter of this economic revolution begins now, with how the world reacts, in rhetoric and retaliation.

This in itself will have a huge impact.

Whether, how and when some choose to respond will have economic and political consequences at home and abroad.

The global story of Donald Trump's tariffs is only just beginning.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.

It's 10am, and in a little over two hours, Wayne Hawkins will be dead.

The sun is shining on the bungalow where the 80-year-old lives in San Diego, California with his wife of more than five decades, Stella.

I knock on the door and meet his children - Emily, 48, and Ashley, 44 - who have spent the last two weeks at their father's side.

Wayne sits in a reclining chair where he spends most of his days. Terminally ill, he is too weak to leave the house.

He has invited BBC News to witness his death under California's assisted dying laws - because if MPs in London vote to legalise the practice in England and Wales, it will allow some terminally ill people here to die in a similar way.

Half an hour after arriving at Wayne's house, I watch him swallow three anti-nausea tablets, designed to minimise the risk of him vomiting the lethal medication he plans to take shortly.

Are you sure this day is your last, I ask him? "I'm all in," he replies. "I was determined and decided weeks ago - I've had no trepidation since then."

His family ask for one last photo, which I take. As usual, Stella and Wayne are holding hands.

Shortly after, Dr Donnie Moore arrives. He has got to know the family over the past few weeks, visiting them on several occasions alongside running his own end-of-life clinic. Under California law, he is what is known as the attending physician who must confirm, in addition to a second doctor, that Wayne is eligible for aid in dying.

Dr Moore's role is part physician, part counsellor in this situation, one he has been in for 150 assisted deaths before.

On a top shelf in Wayne's bedroom sits a brown glass bottle containing a fine white powder - a mixture of five drugs, sedatives and painkillers, delivered to the house the previous day. The dosage of drugs inside is hundreds of times higher than those used in regular healthcare and is "guaranteed" to be fatal, Dr Moore explains. Unlike California, the proposed law at Westminster would require a doctor to bring any such medication with them.

When Wayne signals he is ready, the doctor mixes the meds with cherry and pineapple juice to soften the bitter taste - and he hands this pink liquid to Wayne.

No one, not even the doctor, knows how long it will take him to die after taking the lethal drugs. Dr Moore explains to me that, in his experience, death usually occurs between 30 minutes and two hours of ingestion, but on one occasion it took 17 hours.

This is the story of how and why Wayne chose to die. And why others have decided not to follow the same course.

We first met the couple a few weeks earlier, when Wayne explained why he was going ahead with the decision to have an assisted death - a controversial measure in other parts of the world.

"Some days the pain is almost more than I can handle," he said. "I just don't see any merit to dying slow and painfully, hooked up with stuff - intubation, feeding tubes," he told me. "I want none of it."

Wayne said he had watched two relatives die "miserable", "heinous" deaths from heart failure.

"I hate hospitals, they are miserable. I will die in the street first."

Wayne met Stella in 1969; the couple married four years later. He told us it was something of an arranged marriage, as his mother kept inviting Stella for dinner until eventually the penny dropped that he should take her out.

They lived for many years in Arcata, northern California, surrounded by sweeping forests of redwood trees, where Wayne worked as a landscape architect, while Stella was a primary school teacher. They spent their holidays hiking and camping with their children.

Now Wayne is terminally ill with heart failure, which has already brought him close to death. He has myriad other health issues including prostate cancer, liver failure and sepsis which brings him serious spinal pain.

He has less than six months to live, qualifying him for an assisted death in California. His request to die has been approved by two doctors and the lethal medication is self-administered.

It was during our first meeting that he asked the BBC to return to observe his final day, saying he wanted terminally ill adults in the UK to have the same right to an assisted death as him.

"Britain is pretty good with freedoms and this is just another one," he said. "People should be able to choose the time of their death as long as they meet the rules like six months to live or less."

Stella, 78, supports his decision. "I've known him for over 50 years. He's a very independent man. He's always known what he wants to do and he's always fixed things. That's how he's operating now. If this is his choice, I definitely agree, and I've seen him really suffer with the illness he's got. I don't want that for him."

Wayne would also qualify under the proposed new assisted dying law in England and Wales. The measures return to the House of Commons later this month, when all MPs will have a chance to debate and vote on changes to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

The proposed legislation, tabled by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, says that anyone who wants to end their life must have the mental capacity to make the choice, that they must be expected to die within six months, and must make two separate declarations - witnessed and signed - about their wish to die. They must satisfy two independent doctors that they are eligible.

MPs in Westminster voted in favour of assisted dying in principle last November but remain bitterly divided on the issue. If they ultimately decide to approve the bill, it could become law within the next year and come into practice within the next four years.

There are also divisions here in California, where assisted dying was introduced in 2016. Michelle and Mike Carter, both 72 and married for 43 years, are each being treated for cancer - Mike has prostate cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes, and Michelle's advanced terminal ovarian cancer has spread throughout much of her body.

"I held my mother's hand when she passed; I held my father's hand when he passed," Michelle told me. "I believe there's freedom of choice however for me, I choose palliative care… I have God and I have good medicine."

Michelle's physician, palliative care specialist Dr Vincent Nguyen, argued that assisted dying laws in the US state lead to "silent coercion" whereby vulnerable people think their only option is to die. "Instead of ending people's lives, let's put programmes together to care for people," he said. "Let them know that they're loved, they're wanted and they're worthy."

He said the law meant that doctors have gone from being seen as healers to killers, while the message from the healthcare system was that "you are better off dead, because you're expensive and your death is cheaper for us".

Some disability campaigners say assisted dying makes them feel unsafe. Ingrid Tischer, who has muscular dystrophy and chronic respiratory failure, told me: "The message that it sends to people with disabilities in California is that you deserve suicide assistance rather than suicide prevention when you voice a desire to end your life.

"What does that say about who we are as a culture?"

Critics often say that once assisted dying is legalised, over time the safeguards around such laws get eroded as part of a "slippery slope" towards more relaxed criteria. In California, there was initially a mandatory 15-day cooling off period between patients making a first and second request for aid in dying. That has been reduced to 48 hours because many patients were dying during the waiting period. It's thought the approval process envisaged in Westminster would take around a month.

'Goodbye,' Wayne tells his family

Outside Wayne's house on the morning of his death, a solitary bird begins its loud and elaborate song. "There's that mockingbird out there," Wayne tells Stella, as smiles flicker across their faces.

Wayne hates the bird because it keeps him awake at night, Stella jokes, hand in hand with him to one side of his chair. Emily and Ashley are next to Stella.

Dr Moore, seated on Wayne's other side, hands him the pink liquid which he swallows without hesitation. "Goodnight," he says to his family - a typical touch of humour from a man who told us he was determined to die on his terms. It's 11.47am.

After two minutes, Wayne says he is getting sleepy. Dr Moore asks him to imagine he is walking in a vast sea of flowers with a soft breeze on his skin, which seems appropriate for a patient who has spent much of his life among nature.

After three minutes Wayne enters a deep sleep from which he will never wake. On a few occasions he lifts his head to take a deep breath without opening his eyes, at one point beginning to snore softly.

Dr Moore tells the family this is "the deepest sleep imaginable" and reassures Emily there is no chance her dad will wake up and ask, "did it work?"

"Oh that would be just like him," Stella says with a laugh.

The family start to reminisce about hiking holidays and driving around in a large van they converted to become a camper. "Me and dad insulated it and put a bed in the back," says Ashley.

On the walls are photos of Emily and Ashley as small children next to huge carved Halloween pumpkins.

Dr Moore is still stroking Wayne's hand and occasionally checking his pulse. For a man who Emily says was "always walking, always outdoors, always active", these are the final moments of life's journey, spent surrounded by those who mean most to him.

At 12.22pm Dr Moore says, "I think he's passed… He's at peace now."

Outside, the mockingbird has fallen silent. "No more pain," says Stella, embracing her children in her arms.

I step outside to give the family some space, and reflect on what we have just seen and filmed.

I have been covering medical ethics for the BBC for more than 20 years. In 2006, I was present just outside an apartment in Zurich where Dr Anne Turner, a retired doctor, died with the help of the group Dignitas - but California was the first time I had been an eyewitness to an assisted death.

This isn't just a story about one man's death in California - it's about what could become a reality here in England and Wales for those who qualify for an assisted death and choose to die this way.

Whether you're for or against the proposed new Westminster law, the death of a loved one is a deeply personal and emotional time for a family. Each death leaves an imprint, as will Wayne's.

Additional reporting by Josh Falcon

Outrage is a precious political currency and France's far right has spent this week attempting, furiously and predictably, to capitalise on the perceived injustice of a court's decision to block its totemic leader, Marine Le Pen, from standing in the 2027 presidential election.

The airwaves have been throbbing with indignation.

"Be outraged," said one of Le Pen's key deputies, on French television, in case anyone was in doubt as to what their reaction should be.

But it remains unclear whether Le Pen's tough sentence will broaden support for her party, the National Rally (RN), or lead to greater fragmentation of the French far right. Either way, it has created a feverish mood among the nation's politicians.

Le Pen and her allies have boldly declared that France's institutions, and democracy itself, have been "executed", are "dead", or "violated". The country's justice system has been turned into a "political" hit squad, shamelessly intervening in a nation's right to choose its own leaders. And Marine Le Pen has been widely portrayed, with something close to certainty, as France's president-in-waiting, as the nation's most popular politician, cruelly robbed of her near-inevitable procession towards the Élysée Palace.

"The system has released a nuclear bomb, and if it is using such a powerful weapon against us, it is obviously because we are about to win the elections," Le Pen fumed at a news conference, comparing herself to the poisoned, imprisoned, and now dead Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny.

As France assesses its latest political tremors, an uneven pushback has begun.

No clear frontrunner for president

Nervous about the impact the judgement may have for the country's frail coalition government, the Prime Minister François Bayrou has admitted to feeling "troubled" by Le Pen's sentence and worried about a "shock" to public opinion.

But other centrist politicians have taken a firmer line, stressing the need for a clear gap between the justice system and politics.

An early opinion poll appears to show the French public taking a calm line, bursting – or at least deflating – the RN's bubble of outrage. The poll, produced within hours of the court's ruling, showed less than a third of the country – 31% - felt the decision to block Le Pen, immediately, from running for public office, was unjust.

Tellingly, that figure was less than the 37% of French people who recently expressed an interest in voting for her as president.

In other words, plenty of people who like her as a politician also think it reasonable that her crimes should disqualify her from running for office.

And remember, French presidential elections are still two years away – an eternity in the current political climate.

Emmanuel Macron is not entitled to stand for another term and no clear alternative to Le Pen, from the left or centre of French politics, has yet emerged. Le Pen's share of the vote has consistently risen during her previous three failed bids for the top job but it is premature, at best, to consider her a shoo-in for 2027.

Le Pen's crime and punishment

Anyone who followed the court case against her and her party colleagues in an impartial fashion would struggle to conclude that the verdicts in Le Pen's case were unreasonable.

The evidence of a massive and coordinated project to defraud the European Parliament and its associated taxpayers included jaw-droppingly incriminating emails suggesting officials knew exactly what they were doing, and the illegality of their actions.

That the corruption was for the party, not for personal gain, surely changes nothing. Corruption is corruption. Besides, other parties have also been found guilty of similar offences.

Regarding the punishments handed out by the court, here it seems fair to argue that Le Pen and her party made a strategic blunder in their approach to the case.

Had they acknowledged the facts, and their errors, and cooperated in facilitating a swift trial rather than helping to drag the process out for almost a decade, the judges – as they've now made clear – might have taken their attitude towards the case into consideration when considering punishments.

"Neither during the investigation nor at the trial did [Le Pen] show any awareness of the need for probity as an elected official, nor of the ensuing responsibilities," wrote the judges in a document explaining, often indignantly, why they'd delivered such a tough sentence.

They berated Le Pen for seeking to delay or avoid justice with "a defence system that disregards the uncovering of the truth".

Hypocrisy among the elite

It is worth noting, here, the wider hypocrisy demonstrated by elites across France's political spectrum who have recently been muttering their sympathy for Le Pen. It is nine years since MPs voted to toughen up the laws on corruption, introducing the very sanctions - on immediately banning criminals from public office - that were used by the judges in this case.

That toughening was welcomed by the public as an antidote to a judicial system stymied by an indulgent culture of successive appeals that enabled – and sometimes still enables - politicians to dodge accountability for decades.

Le Pen is now being gleefully taunted by her critics online with the many past instances in which she has called for stricter laws on corruption.

"When are we going to learn the lessons and effectively introduce lifelong ineligibility for those who have been convicted of acts committed while in office or during their term of office?" she asked in 2013.

Reasonable people can reasonably disagree about the court's sentencing decisions in Le Pen's case. But the notion – enthusiastically endorsed by populist and hard-right politicians across Europe and the US – that she is a victim of a conspiratorial political plot has clearly not convinced most French people.

At least not yet.

Future of France's far right

So where does this verdict – clearly a seismic moment in French politics – leave the National Rally and the wider far-right movement?

The short answer is that no one knows. There are so many variables involved – from the fate of Le Pen's fast-tracked appeal, to the RN's succession strategy, to the state of France's precarious finances, to the broader political climate and the see-sawing appetite for populism both within France and globally – that predictions are an even more dubious game than usual.

The most immediate question – given the slow pace of the legal appeal that Le Pen has vowed to initiate – is whether the RN will seek prompt revenge in parliament by attempting to bring down the fragile coalition government of François Bayrou.

That could lead to new parliamentary elections this summer and the possibility that the RN could capitalise on its victim status to increase its lead in parliament and perhaps, even, to push the country towards a deadlock in which President Macron might – yet another "might" – feel obliged to step down.

One person who will now be facing extra scrutiny is Le Pen's almost but not quite anointed successor, 29-year-old Jordan Bardella, who could be drafted in as a replacement presidential candidate if Le Pen's own "narrow path" towards the Élysée remains blocked on appeal.

If social-media-savvy Bardella's popularity among French youth is any indication of his prospects, he could well sweep to victory in 2027. He has found a way to tap into the frustrations of people angry about falling living standards and concerns about immigration.

But turning youthful support into actual votes is not always straightforward, and other, more experienced and mainstream figures on the right may well be sensing an opportunity too.

The Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, is widely seen to be emerging as a potential contender. Some even wonder if the provocative television personality, Cyril Hanouna, might become a serious political force on the right of French politics.

Meanwhile, Bardella, like the RN in general, has been on a highly disciplined mission to detoxify the party's once overtly racist and antisemitic brand. In February, for instance, he abandoned plans to speak at America's far-right CPAC event after Donald Trump's former advisor Steve Bannon made a Nazi salute.

But this week's events have revealed that the RN is enthusiastically committed to the distinctly Trump-ian and populist strategy of blaming its misfortunes on a "swamp" of unelected officials. Bardella, meanwhile, complained about the recent closure of two right-wing media channels alongside his party's own legal struggles.

"There is an extremely serious drift today that does not reflect the idea we have of French democracy," he said.

It's the sort of language that goes down well with the RN's core constituency, but its broader appeal may be limited in a country that remains, in many ways, deeply attached to its institutions.

To frame it another way, will French voters be more motivated by the belief that Le Pen was unfairly punished, or by concern that the judges involved have since been the victims of death threats and other insults?

As for Marine Le Pen, she has vowed that she will not be sidelined. But her destiny is not entirely in her own hands now. At the age of 56 she has become a familiar figure, fiery at times, but personally approachable, warm and, in political terms, profoundly influential and disciplined. So what next for her?

France has had one Le Pen or other (Marine's father, Jean-Marie ran four times) on their presidential ballot paper since 1988. Always unsuccessfully.

History may well look back on this week as the moment Marine Le Pen's fate was sealed, in one of three ways: as France's first female and first far-right president, swept to power on a tide of outrage. As the four-time loser of a French presidential election, finally denied power by the taint of corruption. Or as someone whose soaring political career was brought to an early and shuddering halt by her own miscalculations over a serious embezzlement scandal.

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The UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is launching an appeal to help the thousands of people injured and displaced as a result of last week's powerful earthquake which struck Myanmar and the wider region.

Made up of 15 UK aid agencies, including the British Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children, the DEC is asking the British public for donations before the monsoon season arrives in two months.

More than 2,800 people have died and more than 4,500 have been injured, according to the leaders of Myanmar's military government, with figures expected to rise.

The charities say shelter, medicine, food, water and cash support is "urgently needed".

Baroness Chapman, minister for development, said public donations to the DEC appeal would be matched pound-for-pound by the government, up to the value of £5m.

DEC's chief executive Saleh Saeed said the situation was "ever more critical."

"Funds are urgently needed to help families access life-saving humanitarian aid following this catastrophe," he said.

Multiple international aid agencies and foreign governments have dispatched personnel and supplies to quake-hit regions.

• Inside Mandalay: BBC visits makeshift hospital treating earthquake victims in Myanmar

Myanmar was already facing a severe humanitarian crisis before the 7.7 magnitude earthquake due to the ongoing civil war there, with the DEC estimating a third of the population is in need of aid.

The country has been gripped by violence amid the conflict between the junta - which seized power in a 2021 coup - and ethnic militias and resistance forces across the country.

On Wednesday, Myanmar's military government announced a temporary ceasefire lasting until 22 April, saying it was aimed at expediting relief and reconstruction efforts.

Rebel groups had already unilaterally declared a ceasefire to support relief efforts earlier this week, but the military had refused to do the same until Wednesday's announcement.

Aid workers have come under attack in Myanmar. On Tuesday night, the army opened fire at a Chinese Red Cross convoy carrying earthquake relief supplies.

Nine of the charity's vehicles came under attack. The UN and some charities have accused the military junta of blocking access.

The US Geological Survey's modelling estimates Myanmar's death toll could exceed 10,000, while the cost in damages to infrastructure could surpass the country's annual economic output.

Roads, water services and buildings including hospitals have been destroyed, especially in Mandalay, the hard-hit city near the epicentre.

In Thailand, at least 21 people have died.

The Red Cross has also issued an urgent appeal for $100m (£77m), while the UN is seeking $8m in donations for its response.

"People urgently require medical care, clean drinking water, tents, food, and other basic necessities," the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said on Monday.

The DEC brings together 15 leading UK aid charities to provide and deliver aid to ensure successful appeals.

The appeal will be broadcast on the BBC and other media outlets throughout Thursday.

Councils are exposing homeless children to serious health and safeguarding risks by housing them in unsuitable temporary accommodation, an inquiry by MPs has found.

MPs said a "crisis in temporary accommodation" in England had left a record 164,000 children without a permanent home.

The inquiry concluded many children were living in "appalling conditions" and suffering significant impacts to their health and education as a result.

In a report, the MPs urged ministers to deliver more affordable homes and take urgent action to support families living in temporary accommodation.

In England, some local authorities have a legal duty to support the homeless, including providing temporary accommodation.

Temporary accommodation is meant as a short-term solution for those experiencing or at risk of homelessness and can include hostels and rooms in shared houses.

The inquiry was launched last year by MPs on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, which condemned the state of some temporary accommodation as "utterly shameful".

The inquiry heard evidence of "egregious hazards" to children, including serious damp, mould, and mice infestations, and families living in temporary housing for years.

Florence Eshalomi, the Labour MP who leads the committee, told the BBC evidence showing the deaths of 74 children had been linked to temporary housing "should shock all of us".

"That should send alarm bells ringing," she said. "What was most shocking as well was the fact that over 58 of those young children were under the age of one. Where have we gone wrong?"

Eshalomi said when she was a child, she once lived in temporary accommodation filled with damp.

She said: "I think about what I went through as a young person and it pains me to think that many years later now as an MP, I see that still happening in the constituency I represent."

In its report, the committee set out recommendations, including requiring councils to check housing is safe to be used as temporary accommodation.

Another key recommendation was the proposal to give more powers to the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, which investigates complaints about the treatment of people placed in temporary housing.

In response to the inquiry, a government spokesperson said the findings were shocking, adding that the government was taking "urgent action to fix the broken system we inherited, investing nearly £1bn in homelessness services this year to help families trapped in temporary accommodation".

They said: "Alongside this, we are developing a long-term strategy to tackle homelessness, driving up housing standards and delivering the biggest boost in social and affordable homes in a generation."

In extreme cases, the ombudsman can ask councils to compensate people whose complaints are upheld - and data shared with the BBC shows a marked rise in those payouts.

Last year, the ombudsman upheld 176 complaints against councils and recommended 144 payouts in those cases.

The number of payouts last year - some worth thousands of pounds - was greater than the 121 in 2022-23 and the 73 in 2021-22.

Sam Revell, a mum of three, received a payout of about £2,000 in 2023.

The ombudsman found multiple faults in the way Bromley Council in London handled her request for temporary accommodation in 2022.

Sam said she ended up homeless after separating from her partner and approached the council for help.

"I couldn't get hold of an actual person to speak to," Sam said. "All my emails just went unanswered."

At one stage, she and her children slept overnight in her car when they had nowhere else to go.

"I think the one thing as a parent, you just put a roof over your children's head," Sam said.

"That for me, is just basic, and I couldn't even do that. I got a good job. I was in full-time employment, and the kids were in school and everything."

The ombudsman said the council eventually placed them in unsuitable interim accommodation, which was too far from her children's school and her workplace.

"It was like 33 miles in total and it took us sort of an hour each way," Sam said.

Sam said the council did not take account of her child's need to continue attending the primary school where she received specialist support.

She said the flat itself was "horrendous" and claimed neighbours were regularly taking drugs near her front door.

The ombudsman said the council did not respond properly to Sam's reports about delays in getting repairs done in this accommodation and incidents when she was threatened and physically assaulted by neighbours.

Sam and her children were allocated alternative accommodation in September 2022 but she had to wait three months before she could move in.

She accused the council of leaving her "in such a vulnerable situation that it was just so dangerous" and said the experience still affects her children to this day.

A council spokesperson said a national housing shortage meant offering homeless residents temporary accommodation they "would have chosen for themselves".

The spokesperson said: "We accept that mistakes were made in this case and extend our apology to this resident, recognising the continued understandable disquiet this experience has had.

"It is important to note Bromley Council co-operated fully with the ombudsman's investigation, which was two years ago, and agreed with the proposed remedial action, which has been fully implemented and lessons have been learnt."

Cameron Black, a spokesman for the ombudsman, said the payouts recognise "the gravity of the injustice that's caused to the individuals in these cases".

He said there was a growing but small number of councils who are resistant to the ombudsman's findings and recommendations.

He said the ombudsman is calling for more powers to monitor whether councils are meeting their legal duties to support homeless people.

The rise in payouts comes as councils struggle to cover the costs of their legal duty to support the growing number of homeless families.

Local authorities spent around £2.29bn on temporary accommodation in 2023/24.

The Local Government Association said the scale of the challenge facing councils on temporary accommodation and homelessness "are immense".

"Government needs to use the upcoming Spending Review to ensure that councils are sufficiently resourced, including by urgently increasing the temporary accommodation subsidy," said Adam Hug, housing spokesperson for the LGA.

Donald Trump announced a sweeping new set of reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, arguing that they would allow the United States to succeed.

Trump's tariffs, which he will impose via executive order, are expected to send economic shockwaves around the world. The White House released a list of roughly 100 countries and the tariff rates that the US would impose in kind.

Here are the basic elements of the plan.

10% baseline tariff

In a background call before Trump's speech, a senior White House official told reporters that the president would impose "baseline tariffs" on all countries.

That rate is set at 10% and will go into effect on 5 April.

Trump argued that Americans were being "ripped off," and that raising tariffs on foreign imports would help restore US manufacturing, reduce taxes, and pay down the national debt.

Trump and White House staffers portrayed the current tariff rates as lenient, compared to the maximum the administration could impose.

Some countries will only face the base rate. These include:

• United Kingdom
• Singapore
• Brazil
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Turkey
• Colombia
• Argentina
• El Salvador
• United Arab Emirates
• Saudi Arabia

Custom tariffs for 'worst offenders'

White House officials also said that they would impose specific reciprocal tariffs on roughly 60 "worst offenders", to go into effect on 9 April.

These countries impose higher tariffs on US goods, impose "non-tariff" barriers to US trade or have otherwise acted in ways the government feels undermine American economic goals.

The White House official said each tariff would be tailored to the specific targeted country.

"We're being very kind," Trump said at his White House event. The tariffs were not fully reciprocal he said, because he would impose a "discounted" reciprocal rate less than what his staff had determined to fully match the trade impact of a given country's trade policies.

The key trading partners subject to these customised tariff rates include:

• European Union: 20%
• China: 34%
• Vietnam: 46%
• Thailand: 36%
• Japan: 24%
• Cambodia: 49%
• South Africa: 30%
• Taiwan: 32%

No additional tariffs on Canada and Mexico

Canada and Mexico are not mentioned in these new tariff announcements.

The White House says that they would deal with both countries using a framework set out in previous executive orders, which imposed tariffs on Canda and Mexico as part of the administration's efforts to address fentanyl and border issues.

He previously set those tariffs at 25%, before announcing some exemptions and delays to their implementation.

• Trump agrees to pause tariffs on Canada and Mexico

25% tariffs on auto imports

In addition, the president announced the US would impose a "25% tariff on all foreign made-automobiles".

Those tariffs would go into affect almost immediately, at midnight on 3 April.

US President Donald Trump has unveiled a list of tariffs on countries across the world that send their products to America.

The UK will be subject to 10% tariffs on imports from the UK and 20% on European Union imports.

We've spoken to firms which export to the US from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland about what they think the impact on their businesses will be.

'We will try to keep the shelf price as it was'

For Scotch whisky makers, the US is its most important overseas market - worth £971 million a year.

Anthony Wills runs the Kilchoman distillery on the island of Islay and says he feels "deflated" at the prospect of tariffs. "It's a huge blow for the industry," he says.

"For us personally, it represents 10% of our sales. So it's clearly going to be a big blow, especially with the current economic headwinds that we're all experiencing, we're all going to find this very difficult and very challenging."

The industry has been hit with US tariffs before, with a 25% levy on single malts back in 2019. The Scottish Whisky Association estimates that for the 18 months the tariffs were in place, the industry lost £600m in sales.

Mr Wills says he split the cost of the tariff with his US importer so the price would stay the same for their American customers.

"I imagine we'll be doing what we did last time, and trying to keep the shelf price as it was before," he says.

"We have to react and we will be discussing this with our importer and deciding what the best way forward is."

'I'm not panicking - they don't make our products in the US'

Wales sold £2.2bn of goods to the US last year - most of it was machinery and equipment manufactured by small companies.

Newport-based company, Tomoe Valve, makes high performance butterfly valves that are used in a wide variety of projects all over the world.

The firm hit £6m in sales in 2024/25 and its biggest order worth £1.2m ($1.6m) came from the US - a huge valve for a battery plant.

Financial director Denise Cole says she does not want tariffs on her products but understands why President Trump has brought them in.

"I've seen UK manufacturing decimated and the same has happened in America so he's looking after his own which is exactly what it says on the tin with Trump."

She says there was a lot of panic over tariffs and any changes could be "short-lived".

"I really don't think it's going to impact us in a negative way," she says. "The specialist products we sell, they don't manufacture in the US anyway, they would struggle to get them elsewhere.

"Our own government has done me more damage by increasing employer National Insurance Contributions," she says. "That's added £35,000 to my costs - that's a whole person's wages. I would have taken on a new member of staff this year as we have some big orders but I won't be able to now."

The Treasury has previously said it was delivering the stability businesses need to invest and grow.

'This could put car industry jobs at risk'

A new import tax of 25% on cars entering the US came into effect today, and car parts will face the same tax at some point in the next few months.

Some 17% of UK car exports went to the US last year, making it the second largest export market after the EU.

Barkley Plastics in Sutton Coldfield supplies parts to carmakers including Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and Mini.

Managing director Matt Harwood says: "The new tariffs will affect [car manufacturers] greatly, which in turn affects businesses like us in their supply chain."

He says the UK's automotive industry was already under pressure before the tariffs were announced. The UK produced more than 1.5 million cars a year before the pandemic - that's now down to 800,000 a year.

Mr Harwood says: "Covid-19, chip shortages, and broader supply chain disruptions have made volumes unpredictable in recent years. These new US tariffs threaten to push that number even lower, which would be particularly damaging for smaller suppliers like us, who operate on tight margins.

"A further downturn in demand could quickly translate into job losses or even business closures," he says. "So our main concern is how the US tariffs put tens of thousands of jobs at risk within the UK automotive supply chain."

'This could affect my sales in the US'

In 2022, Northern Ireland exported goods worth £1.9bn to the US, making it the third biggest external market for goods behind Great Britain (£11bn) and Ireland (£4.6bn).

Belfast watchmaker Nomadic makes 22% of its sales in the US.

Its founder Peter McAuley says there was huge potential for his business to grow in the US, but that's now in doubt.

He says America is a strong market with a good trading environment, but he believes tariffs will have an impact on his sales - although he remains confident about the future of the trading relationship between Northern Ireland and the US.

Additional reporting by Oliver Smith and Jennifer Meierhans.

US President Donald Trump has announced fresh import taxes on goods being imported to America in the latest escalation of the global trade war.

The UK has been hit with a 10% tariff on all of its goods being brought into the US, which Trump says is a retaliation to UK tariffs on American goods, but uncertainty remains over the potential impact on British consumers.

Here's how you and your money could be affected.

1. Prices could go up, but could also go down

The tariffs Trump has just announced will be paid for by the businesses which import goods into the US.

Clarissa Hahn, economist at Oxford Economics, says this means that the initial impact of price rises will be on US consumers, as American firms are likely to pass on the extra costs to their customers.

However, she adds people in the UK could subsequently be affected by the measures, which come into effect on 5 April.

One way is via the value of the pound and exchange rates, which dictate the cost to UK businesses importing goods and raw materials from abroad. If import costs go up, these extra costs could be passed on to consumers through higher prices.

Following Trump's speech on Wednesday, exchange rates between the dollar and pound fluctuated. If the value of the dollar strengthens as some economists have predicted, import costs could rise for UK firms importing goods.

Higher prices in the UK could also "prompt workers to demand higher wages", which would further raise costs for businesses, according to Ahmet Ihsan Kaya, principal economist, at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research.

Ms Hahn adds if the UK government decides to retaliate with tariffs of its own on US goods entering the UK, there is a risk UK prices could rise if British businesses pass on extra costs to customers.

However, some economists have suggested prices could also initially fall as a result of Trump's decision to impose tariffs.

Swati Dhingra, economist and member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, which sets interest rates, has suggested that firms which normally send their goods to the US, may instead send them to counties such as the UK which don't have such steep tariffs, potentially leading to a flood of cheaper goods in the UK.

"Tariffs of the proposed magnitude are likely to prompt firms that export to the US to lower their prices to retain demand for their products," she suggests.

2. It could affect your job

British companies which export goods to the US are set be the hardest hit from the latest measures.

The UK exported almost £60bn worth of goods to the US last year, mainly machinery, cars and pharmaceuticals. Other industries, which are big exporters to the US, include fishing and electronics.

If US demand for UK products dwindles due to the extra charges importers face, this could hit profit margins and ultimately lead to UK job cuts unless British firms find new customers outside the US.

According to the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank, Jaguar Land Rover and the Mini factory in Cowley, Oxford, appear to be the most exposed to US tariffs on cars.

It says more than 25,000 jobs in the UK car manufacturing industry "could be at risk" with a 25% tariff coming into effect on Thursday, with one in eight UK-built cars exported to the US.

The pharmaceutical industry is also heavily reliant on trade with the US, says Ms Hahn, of Oxford Economics.

The US makes up 40% of AstraZeneca's sales and 50% of GSK's. Although both British-headquartered firms have manufacturing facilities in America, raw ingredients for life-saving medicines and vaccines travel between the UK, EU and US. Under tariffs the firms could be hit with multiple tax charges as they cross borders to be developed.

There is also the issue of how tariffs work when they collide with pricing caps that both the NHS and other health organisations set for buying drugs in bulk.

3. Interest rates may stay higher for longer

UK interest rates dictate the costs households have to pay to borrow money for things such as mortgages, credit cards and loans. Higher rates also boost returns for savers.

They are currently at 4.5%, but economists are predicting two more rate cuts by the end of the year.

However, the Bank of England highlighted US tariffs as a reason why it avoided cutting rates further last month, saying economic and global trade uncertainty had "intensified".

If prices are pushed up for long enough to affect the rate of inflation - this could mean interest rates stay higher for longer.

Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England governor, said it was Bank's job "to make sure that inflation stays low and stable" and that would be "looking very closely" at the impact of tariffs.

President Donald Trump has unveiled plans for sweeping new import taxes on all goods entering the US, in a watershed moment for global trade.

The plan sets a baseline tariff on all imports of at least 10%, consistent with a proposal Trump made on the campaign last year.

Items from countries that the White House described as the "worst offenders", including the European Union, China, Vietnam and Lesotho, would face far higher rates for what Trump said was payback for unfair trade policies.

Trump's move breaks with decades of American policy embracing free trade, and analysts said it was likely to lead to higher prices in the US and slower growth in the US and around the world.

The White House said officials would start charging the 10% tariffs on 5 April, with the higher duties starting on 9 April.

"It's our declaration of economic independence," Trump said in the White House Rose Garden against a backdrop of US flags.

• Live updates and reaction to Trump tariffs

The Republican president said the US had for years been "looted, pillaged, raped and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike".

"Today we are standing up for the American worker and we are finally putting America first," he said, calling it "one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history."

On the campaign trail last year, Trump called for new tariffs that he said would raise money for the government and boost manufacturing, promising a new age of American prosperity.

He has spent weeks previewing Wednesday's announcement, which follows other orders raising tariffs on imports from China, foreign cars, steel and aluminium and some goods from Mexico and Canada.

The White House said the latest changes would not apply to Mexico and Canada, two of America's closest trading partners.

Goods from the UK are set to face a new 10% tariff, while import taxes on items from the European Union would go to 20%.

The charge for goods imported from China will be 34%, while it will be 24% for Japan, and 26% on India.

Some of the highest rates will be levied on smaller countries, with goods from the southern African nation of Lesotho facing 50%, while Vietnam and Cambodia will be hit with 46% and 49% respectively.

The latter two have both seen a rush of investment in recent years, as firms shifted supply chains away from China following Trump's first term.

Together the moves will bring effective tariff rates in the US to levels not seen in decades.

Trump also confirmed that a 25% tax on imports of all foreign-made cars, which he announced last week, would begin from midnight.

The barrister representing convicted child serial killer Lucy Letby has said he will hand over "fresh" medical evidence to the body responsible for investigating alleged miscarriages of justice.

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is reviewing an application by Letby's legal team.

Mark McDonald said he would travel to the CCRC's offices to hand over the full findings of a panel of neonatologists and paediatric specialists who said their analysis found no evidence that Letby harmed any babies.

Mr McDonald will also deliver a separate report from seven medical experts claiming the results of insulin tests on Baby F and Baby L, who a jury concluded Letby had poisoned, were unreliable.

The former nurse's legal team are asking for her case to be referred to the Court of Appeal for a full hearing.

Letby, 35, from Hereford, is serving 15 whole-life orders after she was convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven others, with two attempts on one of her victims, between June 2015 and June 2016 at the Countess of Chester Hospital.

At a press conference earlier this year, Dr Shoo Lee, a Canadian neonatal care expert, said there were alternative explanations for each of Letby's convictions for murder or attempted murder.

He said at the time: "In all cases death or injury were due to natural causes or just bad medical care".

But lawyers for the families of Letby's victims rubbished findings of the 14-strong international panel as "full of analytical holes" and "a rehash" of the defence case heard at trial.

Mr McDonald said a separate insulin report stated the jury in Letby's trial were misled in a number of "important areas" including medical and evidential facts, and that key information on the insulin testing procedure was not submitted.

It added the biomechanical test used in both cases "can give rise to falsely high insulin results" due to the presence of antibodies which can interfere with the outcome.

The report's authors, made up of seven experts including two consultant neonatalogists, a retired professor in forensic toxicology and a paediatric endocrinologist, said: "Our inescapable conclusion is that this evidence significantly undermines the validity of the assertions made about the insulin and C-peptide testing presented in court."

Speaking of both reports, Mr McDonald claimed they represented "fresh evidence" that "totally undermined" the prosecution case.

"This is the largest international review of neonatal medicine ever undertaken, the results of which show Lucy Letby's convictions are no longer safe," he said.

"The conclusions of the report on Babies F and L clearly demonstrate that the case must go back to the Court of Appeal as a matter of urgency.

"I hope the CCRC will realise this and refer the case without undue delay."

Letby lost two bids last year to challenge her convictions at the Court of Appeal, in May for seven murders and seven attempted murders, and in October for the attempted murder of a baby girl which she was convicted of by a different jury at a retrial.

Lady Justice Thirlwall is due to publish in November the findings from the public inquiry into how the former nurse was able to commit her crimes.

In written submissions to the inquiry, Richard Baker KC, said families of Letby's victims were concerned that Letby's legal team was trying to "generate maximum publicity".

The mother of one of Letby's victims, Child C, told the inquiry the "media circus" around the case was causing their families "distress".

Cheshire Constabulary is continuing a review of deaths and non-fatal collapses of babies at the neonatal units of the Countess of Chester Hospital and the Liverpool Women's Hospital during Letby's time as a nurse from 2012 to 2016.

Senior investigating officer Det Supt Paul Hughes said much criticism of Letby's convictions was "ill-informed" and based on a "very partial knowledge of the facts".

He went on: "It is out of a deep sense of respect for the parents of the babies that we have not and will not get drawn into the widespread commentary and speculation online and in the media.

"They have suffered greatly and continue to do so as this case plays out in a very public forum."

He said the force would assist the CCRC if needed.

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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US President Donald Trump has unveiled a list of tariffs on countries across the world that send their products to America.

The UK will be subject to 10% tariffs on imports from the UK and 20% on European Union imports.

We've spoken to firms which export to the US from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland about what they think the impact on their businesses will be.

'We will try to keep the shelf price as it was'

For Scotch whisky makers, the US is its most important overseas market - worth £971 million a year.

Anthony Wills runs the Kilchoman distillery on the island of Islay and says he feels "deflated" at the prospect of tariffs. "It's a huge blow for the industry," he says.

"For us personally, it represents 10% of our sales. So it's clearly going to be a big blow, especially with the current economic headwinds that we're all experiencing, we're all going to find this very difficult and very challenging."

The industry has been hit with US tariffs before, with a 25% levy on single malts back in 2019. The Scottish Whisky Association estimates that for the 18 months the tariffs were in place, the industry lost £600m in sales.

Mr Wills says he split the cost of the tariff with his US importer so the price would stay the same for their American customers.

"I imagine we'll be doing what we did last time, and trying to keep the shelf price as it was before," he says.

"We have to react and we will be discussing this with our importer and deciding what the best way forward is."

'I'm not panicking - they don't make our products in the US'

Wales sold £2.2bn of goods to the US last year - most of it was machinery and equipment manufactured by small companies.

Newport-based company, Tomoe Valve, makes high performance butterfly valves that are used in a wide variety of projects all over the world.

The firm hit £6m in sales in 2024/25 and its biggest order worth £1.2m ($1.6m) came from the US - a huge valve for a battery plant.

Financial director Denise Cole says she does not want tariffs on her products but understands why President Trump has brought them in.

"I've seen UK manufacturing decimated and the same has happened in America so he's looking after his own which is exactly what it says on the tin with Trump."

She says there was a lot of panic over tariffs and any changes could be "short-lived".

"I really don't think it's going to impact us in a negative way," she says. "The specialist products we sell, they don't manufacture in the US anyway, they would struggle to get them elsewhere.

"Our own government has done me more damage by increasing employer National Insurance Contributions," she says. "That's added £35,000 to my costs - that's a whole person's wages. I would have taken on a new member of staff this year as we have some big orders but I won't be able to now."

The Treasury has previously said it was delivering the stability businesses need to invest and grow.

'This could put car industry jobs at risk'

A new import tax of 25% on cars entering the US came into effect today, and car parts will face the same tax at some point in the next few months.

Some 17% of UK car exports went to the US last year, making it the second largest export market after the EU.

Barkley Plastics in Sutton Coldfield supplies parts to carmakers including Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and Mini.

Managing director Matt Harwood says: "The new tariffs will affect [car manufacturers] greatly, which in turn affects businesses like us in their supply chain."

He says the UK's automotive industry was already under pressure before the tariffs were announced. The UK produced more than 1.5 million cars a year before the pandemic - that's now down to 800,000 a year.

Mr Harwood says: "Covid-19, chip shortages, and broader supply chain disruptions have made volumes unpredictable in recent years. These new US tariffs threaten to push that number even lower, which would be particularly damaging for smaller suppliers like us, who operate on tight margins.

"A further downturn in demand could quickly translate into job losses or even business closures," he says. "So our main concern is how the US tariffs put tens of thousands of jobs at risk within the UK automotive supply chain."

'This could affect my sales in the US'

In 2022, Northern Ireland exported goods worth £1.9bn to the US, making it the third biggest external market for goods behind Great Britain (£11bn) and Ireland (£4.6bn).

Belfast watchmaker Nomadic makes 22% of its sales in the US.

Its founder Peter McAuley says there was huge potential for his business to grow in the US, but that's now in doubt.

He says America is a strong market with a good trading environment, but he believes tariffs will have an impact on his sales - although he remains confident about the future of the trading relationship between Northern Ireland and the US.

Additional reporting by Oliver Smith and Jennifer Meierhans.

The Slovak cabinet has approved a plan to shoot around a quarter of the country's brown bears, after a man was mauled to death while walking in a forest in Central Slovakia.

Prime Minister Robert Fico's populist-nationalist government announced after a cabinet meeting that 350 out of an estimated population of 1,300 brown bears would be culled, citing the danger to humans after a spate of attacks.

"We can't live in a country where people are afraid to go into the woods," the prime minister told reporters afterwards.

A special state of emergency allowing bears to be shot has now been widened to 55 of Slovakia's 79 districts, an area that now covers most of the country.

The government in Bratislava has already loosened legal protections allowing bears to be killed if they stray too close to human habitation. Some 93 had been shot by the end of 2024.

The plans to shoot even more were condemned by conservationists, who said the decision was in violation of international obligations and could be illegal.

"It's absurd," said Michal Wiezek, an ecologist and MEP for opposition party Progressive Slovakia.

"The Environment Ministry failed desperately to limit the number of bear attacks by the unprecedented culling of this protected species," he told the BBC.

"To cover up their failure, the government has decided to cull even more bears," he continued.

Wiezek argued that thousands of encounters a year passed without incident, and he hoped the European Commission would intervene.

Slovak police confirmed on Wednesday that a man found dead in forest near the town of Detva in Central Slovakia on Sunday night was killed by a bear. His wounds were consistent with an attack.

The 59-year-old man had been reported missing on Saturday after failing to return from a walk in the woods.

He was found with what authorities described as "devastating injuries to the head". Evidence of a bear's den was found nearby, a local NGO told Slovak newspaper Novy Cas.

Bears have become a political issue in Slovakia after a rising number of encounters, including fatal attacks.

In March 2024, a 31-year-old Belarusian woman fell into a ravine and died while being chased by a bear in northern Slovakia.

Several weeks later a large brown bear was captured on video running through the centre of the nearby town of Liptovsky Mikolas in broad daylight, bounding past cars and lunging at people on the pavement.

The authorities later claimed to have hunted down and killed the animal, although conservationists said later there was clear evidence they had shot a different bear.

Environment Minister Tomas Taraba said on Wednesday there were more than 1,300 bears in Slovakia, and that 800 was a "sufficient number", as the population was growing.

However, experts say the population remains more or less stable at around 1,270 animals.

Bears are common across the Carpathian mountain range, which stretches in an arc from Romania through western Ukraine and on to Slovakia and Poland.

One month since Israel closed all crossings to Gaza for goods, all UN-supported bakeries have closed, markets are empty of most fresh vegetables and hospitals are rationing painkillers and antibiotics.

It is the longest blockade yet of Israel's nearly 18-month-long war against Hamas. This week, during the normally festive Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, many Gazans say they have gone hungry.

"This was the worst ever Eid for us," Um Ali Hamad, a displaced woman from Beit Lahia, told the BBC as she searched for food in Gaza City. "We can't eat or drink. We couldn't enjoy it. We're exhausted."

"We can no longer find things to eat like tomatoes, sugar or oil. They're not available. I can barely find one meal a day. Now, there are no charity food handouts."

"I only have one grandchild; he was born during the war. He's three months old and we can't find milk or nappies for him."

Israel said it was imposing a ban on goods entering Gaza on 2 March due to Hamas's refusal to extend the first phase of the January ceasefire deal and release more hostages.

Hamas has continued to demand a move to the second phase of the original agreement, which would see the remaining living hostages it holds being released and a full end to the war.

A two-month long truce, which started on 19 January, saw the return of 33 Israeli hostages - eight of them dead - in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and a big surge in humanitarian aid entering the devastated territory.

Aid agencies are now calling for world powers to force Israel to allow essential goods into Gaza - including food, medicines, hygiene products and fuel - pointing to the country's obligations under international humanitarian law.

They say they are making tough decisions about how to manage their dwindling stocks in the territory. Fuel, for example, is needed for vehicles to move aid, bakeries, hospital generators, wells and water desalination plants.

The NGO ActionAid called the month-long Israeli ban on aid entering Gaza "appalling" and warned a "new cycle of starvation and thirst" loomed.

On Tuesday, the UN dismissed as "ridiculous", an Israeli assertion that there was enough food in Gaza to last its roughly two million residents for a long time.

"We are at the tail end of our supplies," UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Cogat, the Israeli military body that controls crossings, says that during the recent ceasefire some 25,200 lorries entered Gaza carrying nearly 450,000 tonnes of aid.

"That's nearly a third of the total trucks that entered Gaza during the entire war, in just over a month," Cogat wrote in a post on X. "There is enough food for a long period of time, if Hamas lets the civilians have it."

Israeli officials accuse Hamas of hoarding supplies for itself. However, Dujarric said the UN had kept "a very good chain of custody on all the aid it's delivered".

Shutters are down, ovens off and the shelves empty at a bakery in Gaza City - one of 25 that worked with the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) across the strip. With shortages of fuel and flour, a sign says it is closed "until further notice".

"Closing the bakery is a catastrophe because bread is the most important staple for us," said a grandfather, Abu Alaa Jaffar, looking on despairingly.

"Without it, people don't know how to deal with the situation. There will be starvation much worse than we saw before."

He and other passersby told the BBC that a 25kg (55lb) bag of flour had gone up as much as 10-fold and could now fetch 500 shekels ($135; £104) on the black market.

For months, Israel has prevented commercial goods from entering Gaza - saying that this trade benefited Hamas - and local food production has stopped almost completely because of the war.

While many food kitchens supported by international NGOs have recently stopped working as their supplies have run out, the WFP expects to continue distributing hot meals for a maximum of two weeks.

It says it will hand out its last food parcels within two days. As a "last resort" once all other food is exhausted, it has emergency stocks of fortified nutritional biscuits for 415,000 people.

Meanwhile, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), the biggest aid agency operating in Gaza, says it has only a few days' worth of food left to give out.

"We're seeing a very quick depletion of what we have in our warehouses," said communications director Tamara al-Rifai. "Everyone is rationing everything because it's not clear whether and when there is an end in sight."

"What's extremely striking to us is how fast the positive impact of the ceasefire - if I can use the word 'positive', namely being able to bring food and other supplies - is how fast that impact has evaporated in four weeks."

Israel resumed the war in Gaza on 18 March. Its renewed air and ground operations have once again made it difficult for aid workers to move around and have led to hundreds of casualties, overwhelming hospitals.

The UN's World Health Organisation (WHO) says over half of the hospitals receiving trauma cases are now virtually full.

Devices to stabilise broken bones have run out, while anaesthesia, antibiotics and fluids for wounded patients are dwindling. The WHO warns that vital supplies for pregnant mothers will run out imminently.

Dr Mark Perlmutter, an American surgeon who was recently working in Gaza, told the BBC that he was forced to use drill bits to fix a fracture in a child's leg and that there was no working X-ray machine in the two hospitals where he was based.

He added that he was unable to clean wounds before operating or even wash his hands as soap had run out.

Another mass casualty event would mean "people are going to die from wounds that could have been corrected", Dr Perlmutter said.

So far, at least 1,066 Palestinians have been killed - about one third of whom are children - since Israel began its renewed military offensive in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The WHO also warns of serious public health concerns after the facilities for diagnosing infectious diseases were forced to close.

The international health charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is calling on Israel to halt what it calls the "collective punishment of Palestinians".

It says some patients are being treated without pain relief and that those with conditions requiring regular medication, such as epilepsy or diabetes are having to ration their supplies.

Last year, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to "take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip".

South Africa has brought an ongoing case before the UN's top court, alleging that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel rejects the claim as "baseless."

The war in Gaza was triggered by the deadly Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed some 1,200 people and led to 251 hostages being taken to Gaza. Since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed, Palestinian health authorities say.

Arab mediators are continuing to try to resurrect the ceasefire.

Hamas said on Saturday that it had accepted a new proposal from Egypt. Israel said it had made a counterproposal in coordination with the US, which has also been mediating.

There have been no signs of an imminent breakthrough or an end to the Israel closure of crossings into Gaza.

Nintendo has revealed the Switch 2, the long awaited successor to one of the best-selling consoles in history, will be released on June 5.

Fans have been impatiently waiting to find out more since January, when the Japanese gaming giant ended months of speculation by confirming basic information about the new device.

In a Nintendo Direct online presentation, watched by more than a million people, it gave further details of the hardware, as well as confirming it would be accompanied by Mario Kart World, a new edition of Nintendo's most famous game.

It also announced a series of other new titles for the console, including Elden Ring and Street Fighter 6.

The company said the new device would have better graphics and audio than its predecessor, and a chat button allowing players to speak to each other while playing.

The price will vary in different markets but in the UK it will retail at £395, or £429 with Mario Kart.

What games were announced?

As well as huge interest in the device itself, fans have been keen to find out what games they will be able to play on it.

Most eye-catching was Mario Kart World - in which the franchise appears to have been given a significant refresh.

Water graphics, character tweaks, big sprawling race tracks seen from a distance with varying weather and climates - Nintendo is firmly showing fans this console has more under the hood than its predecessor.

The games made by third party developers - such as Elden Ring - are notable too because they are the kind of high-profile games that typically have not come to Nintendo consoles in recent years.

They included:

• Cyberpunk 2077
• Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
• Hitman World of Assassination
• The Duskbloods

The firm also said a new Donkey Kong platforming adventure was in development, and announced Kirby Air Riders will be coming in 2025, a sequel to a fan favourite game released back in 2005.

Nintendo also confirmed that "compatible" Switch games will work on the Switch 2. Others will get Switch 2 editions, meaning they will have updated graphics and gameplay.

The company did not say how much the upgrades will cost.

Mouse, camera and chat function

The console itself has a bigger screen than its predecessor at 7.9imches, with a better display - 1080p compared to the Switch's 720p, with HDR support and showing up to 120fps.

Marginal changes - such as larger buttons and control sticks - will get attention. But more interesting is that both controls can be used as a mouse, as with a PC, in supported games.

Nintendo argues its 3D audio tech will create a surround sound experience, but this is unlikely to be the feature that sways people to picking up the device.

256GB of internal storage is a big upgrade, as Nintendo has historically been stingy on this front.

The C button on the switch controller is the new bit of hardware for the Switch 2.

It appears to help control a voice chat feature which is built into the system.

Players pop up at the bottom of the screen, appearing almost like Zoom or Teams - complete with a quite low frame rate screen share - and Nintendo claims its tech will isolate your voice regardless of background noise.

A tough act to follow

The original Nintendo Switch is one of the best-selling consoles of all time, having shifted more than 150 million units since its 2017 release.

Only Sony's PS2 and Nintendo's own DS have proved more popular.

Its hybrid format - allowing players to use it as a handheld device or hooked up to a TV in a more traditional home console set-up - is thought to be one of the big reasons behind its success.

Even if the new device replicates that level of interest, it may need to overcome other challenges.

Console launches are often hit with hardware shortages - a trend that was particularly evident when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles were launched in late 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nintendo's president Shuntaro Furukawa previously told investors the long wait for the new console was partly to ensure the company could manufacture enough machines to meet demand.

Since then the global trading picture has been affected by President Donald Trump launching a wave of tariffs - it is not yet clear how they could affect the production and sales of the Switch 2.

Women in England and Wales are likely to continue having babies later in life, and having smaller families, than previous generations, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) projections.

The ONS says girls turning 18 in 2025 are likely to have an average of one child per woman by the age of 35 - unlike their mothers' generation, which had an average of one child per woman by the time they were 31.

They are also projected to have an average of 1.52 children during their lifetimes - down from 1.95 children for their mothers and 2.04 children for their grandmothers.

The new analysis marks the first time the ONS has explored how fertility levels could change in future generations.

It looks at fertility patterns for women born in 1978 alongside patterns for their mothers' generation - assumed to be those born in 1951 - and projections for their daughters' generation - considered to be those born in 2007, who turn 18 this year.

It shows those born in 1978 on average have one child by the time they reach 31. For their mothers' generation, this occurred by the age of 26.

By projecting this trend forwards into the future, the ONS found that women born in 2007 are likely to have an average of one child by the time they are 35.

For girls born in 2025, this is projected to occur by the time they are 36.

Kerry Gadsdon, from the ONS, said the trend may be driven by "financial pressures and the timing of other life events such as partnership formation and moving into your own home generally happening later".

The data also shows the largest average family size for women born in England and Wales over the past 100 years was for girls born in 1934 and 1935, who went on to have an average of 2.42 children.

Projections suggest a steady fall began in the early 1980s - to an average of 1.80 children for women born in 1990, 1.54 for those born in 2000, 1.52 for those born in 2007 - who turn 18 this year - and 1.46 for girls born this year.

Women born in 2007 are projected to have most of their children after they have turned 30. By contrast, women born in the first few decades of the 20th century had already had most of their children by the time they had reached the same age.

The latest analysis comes months after the ONS published data which found the fertility rate in England and Wales had dropped to its lowest rate on record.

Only 591,072 babies were born in 2023, fewer than in any year since 1977 and a fall of more than 14,000 on the previous year, the ONS said.

Research suggests pregnancy at older ages increases the risk of complications during pregnancy and labour.

There is also research to suggest more women in their late 30s will experience difficulties conceiving than women in their late 20s or early 30s.

The government has defended its policy of adding VAT to private school fees, telling the High Court it enhances "the fairness of the tax system overall".

Barristers representing Chancellor Rachel Reeves, as well as HMRC and the Department for Education, said they wanted to raise standards for the 94% of children who attend state schools by making private school parents pay "their fair share".

A judicial review of the policy has been brought by three separate groups, including parents of children with special educational needs and disabilities (Send) and low-paying faith schools.

They claim the policy is incompatible with human rights law and is discriminatory.

The policy was part of Labour's manifesto during the general election last year and was implemented on 1 January across the UK.

Sir James Eadie, the First Treasury Counsel, told the court there was no obligation for the government to subsidise private education in any way.

The main objective of the VAT policy is to raise additional tax revenue to invest in public services, "including the state education system", the government argued.

It consulted extensively on the policy design, "weighing the pros and cons" of possible exemptions for small faith schools, international schools and children with special education needs.

They also looked at whether introducing it in September 2025, rather than January 2025, would be more appropriate, the court heard.

The government said it rejected the exemptions after a consultation, arguing it would be "unworkable and administratively onerous" and that delaying the timing of it coming in would affect the amount of money it raised.

Only fees for children with a local authority education, health and care plan (EHCP) which names their specific school will continue to be exempt.

Sir James said parents who wish to opt out of the system of "universally accessible, state-funded education" are free to choose any private education for their child that they can afford, or "to educate their child at home".

The argument that increasing the cost to parents who choose a private school would be an infringement of the common law "is plainly not right", he wrote in his submissions.

The government wants all three claims to be dismissed.

The legal challenge is being brought by families who say their needs "cannot be adequately met in the state sector".

Jeremy Hyam KC, representing two children with Send in private schools, told the court that it is estimated 6,500 children who have Send, but who do not have EHCPs, would leave the private sector as a result of the VAT changes, based on the government's own analysis.

He said it was "not fair" to remove vulnerable children from a school where their needs are met, to an environment where they are not met, without "weighty justification".

Bruno Quintavalle, representing four small Christian schools, said the "ill thought-out proposal" was introduced in haste.

If the legal challenge is successful, the government could consider whether it would amend the policy, but it would be under no obligation to do so.

The hearing is due to conclude on Thursday and a decision is expected at a later date.

British acts Muse and Robbie Williams are facing pressure from pro-opposition supporters in Turkey to scrap summer tours of the country over allegations that the local concert organiser insulted anti-government protesters.

Abdulkadir Ozkan denounced some protesters' acts as treason, before expressing regret for any "misunderstanding".

Turkey has been gripped by protests following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu on 19 March over corruption charges, which he denies.

The popular mayor was due to run for the presidency in 2028 elections. His supporters see his arrest as a political move by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Calls for the two UK acts to cancel their concerts emerged after Mr Ozkan went on social media to condemn a fight that broke out in a coffee shop boycotted by protesters.

"Plain and simple, this is hostility towards the capital. Act of treason," he said on X.

He later posted another message, explaining his comments were not aimed at the "constitutional right to protests", and that he "deeply regrets" any misunderstanding.

Since 19 March, police have detained nearly 2,000 people, many of them university students.

The controversy over the concerts coincides with wider calls for a countrywide boycott in Turkey which has been criticised by the government as economic sabotage.

The social media accounts of Muse and Robbie Williams have been flooded with comments calling for their concerts to be cancelled.

"You've played a huge role in shaping my musical taste," wrote one post, "but unfortunately the company organising it is on our boycott list."

Singer Gaye Su Akyol, a popular artist in Turkey, took to X to make a personal appeal to Muse, Robbie Williams and Norwegian singer Ane Brun.

"I've respected your works for years and know how much you mean to many," she said. "But neither I, nor anyone, will attend your Istanbul concerts because the organiser is on the boycott list of the pro-democracy movement. Solidarity matters."

As pressure grew, Abdulkadir Ozkan announced on Tuesday that his company was "withdrawing from all projects" in relation to the two concerts.

A statement from the promoter to the BBC Turkish said the concerts would be organised by another company which would be determined by the artists.

Some fans have said that is not enough.

Muse and Robbie Williams have not responded publicly so far.

The BBC has reached out to Robbie Williams' management team but is yet to receive a response.

Tickets for his October show in Istanbul are still available online, while Muse tickets for 11 June are due to go on sale on Thursday.

Norwegian singer Ane Brun has cancelled her concert.

"I have decided not to play in Istanbul this October... unfortunately, this is not the right time," she said in an Instagram post.

A show in Istanbul by South African comedian Trevor Noah, promoted by Ozkan's firm and planned for 23 April has also been cancelled, with no reason given.

As part of the anti-Erdogan protests, Imamoglu's opposition Republican People's Party has called for a boycott of companies which it says support the government.

Party leader Ozgur Ozel supported a call by students to halt all shopping on Wednesday, and some shops closed in solidarity.

Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said the calls threatened social harmony and economic stability and were "doomed to fail".

Male fruit flies that drink alcohol become more attractive to females, according to a new study.

Adding alcohol to males' food increases their release of chemicals that attract females and leads to higher mating success.

Fruit flies, or Drosophila melanogaster, are often found around our food waste bins as they feed on rotting fruit which gradually produces alcohol.

Scientists have been trying to study why they are attracted to alcohol and how it affects them.

Previous research has studied different theories about this attraction, such as the flies were seeking a euphoric state or a substitute for the high of mating among males rejected by females.

Study author Bill Hansson, head of the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology at the Max Planck Institute, said such research has taken an anthropomorphic view of fly behaviour, whereas this latest study suggests drinking alcohol gives the flies a reproductive advantage.

"We don't think flies drink alcohol because they are depressed," he said.

The fly's attraction both to the carbohydrates and yeast in rotting fruit, as well as to the alcohol, cannot be separated, he added.

In the study, alcohol, and particularly methanol, increased the males' production and release of chemical sex signals, called pheromones, which made them more attractive to females.

Pheromones are released into the air from one individual to influence the behaviour of another animal of the same species.

Males were therefore strongly attracted to alcohol, especially those males which had never mated.

The new study also showed that the fly's response to smelling alcohol is controlled by three different neural circuits in its brain.

While two are responsible for attracting male flies to small amounts of alcohol, a third ensures that excessive amounts have a deterrent effect.

Because alcohol is toxic, the fly's brain must carefully weigh the risks and benefits of drinking it, and it does this by balancing signals of attraction with aversion.

"This means that the flies have a control mechanism that allows them to get all the benefits of alcohol consumption without risking alcohol intoxication," lead author Ian Keesey, of the University of Nebraska, said.

For their investigations, the researchers combined physiological studies - such as imaging techniques to visualise processes in the fly brain, chemical analyses of environmental odours, and behavioural studies.

The paper is published in the journal Science Advances.

Warning: This article contains details and images that some readers may find distressing

Driving into Mandalay, the massive scale of the destruction from last Friday's earthquake revealed itself bit by bit.

In nearly every street we turned into, especially in the northern and central parts of the city, at least one building had completely collapsed, reduced to a pile of rubble. Some streets had multiple structures which had come down.

Almost every building we saw had cracks running through at least one of its walls, unsafe to step into. At the main city hospital they're having to treat patients outdoors.

Myanmar's military government has said it's not allowing foreign journalists into the country after the quake, so we went in undercover. We had to operate carefully, because the country is riddled with informers and secret police who spy on their own people for the ruling military junta.

What we witnessed was a people who had very little help coming their way in the face of this massive disaster.

"I have hope that he's alive, even if it's a small chance," said Nan Sin Hein, 41, who's been waiting on the street opposite a collapsed five-storey building, day and night for five days.

Her 21 year-old-son Sai Han Pha was a construction worker, renovating the interiors of the building, which used to be a hotel and was being turned into an office space.

"If they can rescue him today, there's a chance he'll survive," she says.

When the 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck, the bottom of the building sank into the ground, its top lurching at an angle over the street, looking like it could tip over at any minute.

Sai Han Pha and four other workers were trapped inside.

When we visited, rescue efforts had not even begun at the building and there was no sign they would start soon. There just isn't enough help available on the ground - and the reason for that is the political situation in the country.

Even before the earthquake Myanmar was in turmoil - locked in a civil war that has displaced an estimated 3.5 million people. Its military has continued operations against armed insurgent groups despite the disaster.

This means that security forces are too stretched to put their full might behind relief and rescue operations. Except in some key locations, we didn't see them in large numbers in Mandalay.

The military junta has put out a rare appeal for international aid, but its uneasy relations with many foreign countries, including the UK and the US, has meant that while these countries have pledged aid, help in the form of manpower on the ground is currently only from countries like India, China and Russia, among a few others.

And so far those rescue efforts appear to be focused on structures where masses of people are feared trapped – the high-rise Sky Villa condominium complex which was home to hundreds of people, and U Hla Thein Buddhist academy where scores of monks were taking an examination when the earthquake struck.

Neeraj Singh, who is leading the Indian disaster response team working at the Buddhist academy, said the structure had collapsed like a "pancake" - one layer on top of another.

"It's the most difficult collapse pattern and the chances of finding survivors are very low. But we are still hopeful and trying our best," he told the BBC.

Working under the sweltering sun, in nearly 40C, rescuers use metal drills and cutters to break the concrete slabs into smaller pieces. It's slow and extremely demanding work. When a crane lifts up the concrete pieces, the stench of decaying bodies, already quite strong, becomes overwhelming.

The rescuers spot four to five bodies, but it still takes a couple of hours to pull the first one out.

Sitting on mats under a makeshift tent in the compound of the academy are families of the students. Their faces are weary and despondent. As soon as they hear a body has been recovered, they crowd around the ambulance it is placed in.

Others gather around a rescuer who shows them a photo of the body on his mobile phone.

Agonising moments pass as the families try to see if the dead man is a loved one.

But the body is so disfigured, the task is impossible. It is sent to a morgue where forensic tests will have to be conducted to confirm the identity.

Among the families is the father of 29-year-old U Thuzana. He has no hope that his son survived. "Knowing my son ended up like this, I'm inconsolable, I'm filled with grief," U Hla Aung said, his face crumpling into a sob.

Many of Mandalay's historical sites have also suffered significant damage, including the Mandalay Palace and the Maha Muni Pagoda, but we could not get in to see the extent of the damage.

Access to everything - collapse sites, victims and their families - was not easy because of the oppressive environment created by the military junta, with people often fearful of speaking to journalists.

Close to the pagoda, we saw Buddhist funeral rituals being held on the street outside a destroyed house. It was the home of U Hla Aung Khaing and his wife Daw Mamarhtay, both in their sixties.

"I lived with them but was out when the earthquake struck. That's why I survived. Both my parents are gone in a single moment," their son told us.

Their bodies were extricated not by trained rescuers, but by locals who used rudimentary equipment. It took two days to pull out the couple, who were found with their arms around each other.

Myanmar's military government says 2,886 people have died so far, but so many collapse sites have still not even been reached by the authorities, that that count is unlikely to be accurate. We may never find out what the real death toll of the earthquake was.

Parks and open spaces in Mandalay have turned into makeshift camps, as have the banks of the moat that runs around the palace. All over the city we saw people laying out mats and mattresses outside their homes as evening approached, preferring to sleep outdoors.

Mandalay is a city living in terror, and with good reason. Nearly every night since Friday there have been big aftershocks. We woke up to an aftershock of magnitude 5 in the middle of the night.

But tens of thousands are sleeping outdoors because they have no home to return to.

"I don't know what to think anymore. My heart still trembles when I think of that moment when the earthquake struck," said Daw Khin Saw Myint, 72, who we met while she was waiting in a queue for water, with her little granddaughter by her side. "We ran out, but my house is gone. I'm living under a tree. Come and see."

She works as a washerwoman and says her son suffers from a disability which doesn't allow him to work.

"Where will I live now? I am in so much trouble. I'm living next to a rubbish dump. Some people have given me rice and a few clothes. We ran out in these clothes we are wearing.

"We don't have anyone to rescue us. Please help us," she said, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Another elderly woman chimes in, eyes tearing up, "No one has distributed food yet today. So we haven't eaten."

Most of the vehicles we saw pulling up to distribute supplies were small vans with limited stocks - donations from individuals or small local organisations. It's nowhere near enough for the number of people in need, leading to a scramble to grab whatever relief is available.

Parts of Mandalay's main hospital are also damaged, and so in an already difficult situation, rows and rows of beds are laid out in the hospital compound for patients.

Shwe Gy Thun Phyo, 14, has suffered from a brain injury, and has bloodshot eyes. She's conscious but unresponsive. Her father tries to make her as comfortable as possible.

There were very few doctors and nurses around to cope with the demand for treatment, which means families are stepping in to do what medical staff should.

Zar Zar has a distended belly because of a serious abdominal injury. Her daughter sits behind her, holding her up, and fans her, to give her some relief from the heat.

We couldn't spend a lot of time at the hospital for fear of being apprehended by the police or military.

As the window to find survivors of the earthquake narrows, increasingly those being brought into the hospital are the dead.

Nan Sin Hein, who is waiting outside the collapsed building where her son was trapped, was initially stoical, but she now looks like she is preparing to face what seems like the most likely outcome.

"I'm heartbroken. My son loved me and his little sisters. He struggled to support us," she says.

"I am just hoping to see my son's face, even if he is dead. I want to see his body. I want them to do everything they can to find his body."

"I'm the only survivor who saw what happened to my colleagues," Munther Abed says, scrolling through pictures of his fellow paramedics on his phone.

He survived the Israeli attack that killed 15 emergency workers in Gaza by diving to the floor in the back of his ambulance, as his two colleagues in the front were shot in the early hours of 23 March.

"We left the headquarters roughly at dawn," he told one of the BBC's trusted freelance journalists working in Gaza, explaining how the response team from the Palestinian Red Crescent, Gaza's Civil Defence agency and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) gathered on the edge of the southern city of Rafah after receiving reports of gunfire and wounded people.

"Roughly by 04:30, all Civil Defence vehicles were in place. At 04:40 the first two vehicles went out. At 04:50, the last vehicle arrived. At around 05:00, the agency [UN] car was shot at directly in the street," he says.

The Israeli military says its forces opened fire because the vehicles were moving suspiciously towards soldiers without prior co-ordination and with their lights off. It also claimed that nine Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives were killed in the incident.

Munther challenges that account.

"During day and at night, it's the same thing. External and internal lights are on. Everything tells you it's an ambulance vehicle that belongs to the Palestinian Red Crescent. All lights were on until the vehicle came under direct fire," he says.

After that, he adds, he was pulled from the wreckage by Israeli soldiers, arrested and blindfolded. He claimed he was interrogated over 15 hours, before being released.

The BBC has put his claims to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but it is yet to respond.

"The IDF did not randomly attack an ambulance," Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed, when questioned at a news conference, echoing the IDF's statements.

"Several uncoordinated vehicles were identified advancing suspiciously toward IDF troops without headlights or emergency signals. IDF troops then opened fire at the suspected vehicles."

He added: "Following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military terrorist, Mohammed Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad."

Shubaki's name is not on the list of the 15 dead emergency workers - eight of whom were Palestinian Red Crescent medics, six were Civil Defence first responders, and one was an Unrwa staff member.

Israel has not accounted for the whereabouts of Shubaki's body or offered any evidence of the direct threat the emergency workers posed.

Munther rejects Israel's claim that Hamas may have used the ambulances as cover.

"That's utterly untrue. All crews are civilian," he says.

"We don't belong to any militant group. Our main duty is to offer ambulance services and save people's lives. No more, no less".

Gaza's paramedics carried their own colleagues to their funerals earlier this week. There was an outcry of grief along with calls for accountability. One bereaved father told the BBC that his son was killed "in cold blood".

International agencies could only access the area to retrieve their bodies a week after the attack. They were found buried in sand alongside the wrecked ambulances, fire truck and UN vehicle.

Sam Rose, acting director of Unrwa's Gaza office, says: "What we know is that fifteen people lost their lives, that they were buried in shallow graves in a sand berm in the middle of the road, treated with complete indignity and what would appear to be an infringement of international humanitarian law.

"But it's only if we have an investigation, a full and complete investigation, that we'll be able to get to the bottom of it."

Israel is yet to commit to an investigation. According to the UN, at least 1,060 healthcare workers have been killed since the start of the conflict.

"Certainly all ambulance workers, all medics, all humanitarian workers inside Gaza right now feel increasingly insecure, increasingly fragile," Mr Rose says.

One paramedic is still unaccounted for following the 23 March incident.

"They were not just colleagues but friends", Munther says, nervously running prayer beads through his fingers. "We used to eat, drink, laugh and have jokes together... I consider them my second family."

"I will expose the crimes committed by the occupation [Israel] against my colleagues. If I was not the only survivor, who could have told the world what they did to our colleagues, and who would have told their story?"

A man has been charged with 64 offences after a major investigation into a funeral directors in Hull in which police removed 35 bodies and a quantity of ashes.

Humberside Police began its inquiry into Legacy Independent Funeral Directors after a report of "concern for care of the deceased" in March last year.

Robert Bush, 47, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, is charged with 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, 30 counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of theft from charities, one count of fraud and another of fraudulent trading.

He has been released on bail and is due to appear at Hull Magistrates' Court on 25 June.

A 55-year-old woman, who was arrested in July 2024 on suspicion of money laundering offences, has been released with "no further action to be taken", the force said.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Marshall said: "We have updated the families of the 35 deceased with this development and we have made initial contact with additional victims who have been affected by the investigation and we will be personally in touch with them in the coming days."

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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Women in England and Wales are likely to continue having babies later in life, and having smaller families, than previous generations, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) projections.

The ONS says girls turning 18 in 2025 are likely to have an average of one child per woman by the age of 35 - unlike their mothers' generation, which had an average of one child per woman by the time they were 31.

They are also projected to have an average of 1.52 children during their lifetimes - down from 1.95 children for their mothers and 2.04 children for their grandmothers.

The new analysis marks the first time the ONS has explored how fertility levels could change in future generations.

It looks at fertility patterns for women born in 1978 alongside patterns for their mothers' generation - assumed to be those born in 1951 - and projections for their daughters' generation - considered to be those born in 2007, who turn 18 this year.

It shows those born in 1978 on average have one child by the time they reach 31. For their mothers' generation, this occurred by the age of 26.

By projecting this trend forwards into the future, the ONS found that women born in 2007 are likely to have an average of one child by the time they are 35.

For girls born in 2025, this is projected to occur by the time they are 36.

Kerry Gadsdon, from the ONS, said the trend may be driven by "financial pressures and the timing of other life events such as partnership formation and moving into your own home generally happening later".

The data also shows the largest average family size for women born in England and Wales over the past 100 years was for girls born in 1934 and 1935, who went on to have an average of 2.42 children.

Projections suggest a steady fall began in the early 1980s - to an average of 1.80 children for women born in 1990, 1.54 for those born in 2000, 1.52 for those born in 2007 - who turn 18 this year - and 1.46 for girls born this year.

Women born in 2007 are projected to have most of their children after they have turned 30. By contrast, women born in the first few decades of the 20th century had already had most of their children by the time they had reached the same age.

The latest analysis comes months after the ONS published data which found the fertility rate in England and Wales had dropped to its lowest rate on record.

Only 591,072 babies were born in 2023, fewer than in any year since 1977 and a fall of more than 14,000 on the previous year, the ONS said.

Research suggests pregnancy at older ages increases the risk of complications during pregnancy and labour.

There is also research to suggest more women in their late 30s will experience difficulties conceiving than women in their late 20s or early 30s.

Tesla's sales have plummeted to their lowest level in three years in a surprise drop after a backlash against its boss Elon Musk.

The electric car maker delivered almost 337,000 electric vehicles in the first three months of this year, a 13% drop from a year ago.

Shares of Tesla tumbled after the release of the unexpectedly low sales numbers.

The cars face steepened competition from Chinese firm BYD, but experts believe Musk's controversial role in the Trump administration have had an effect too.

The firm has blamed the drop on the transition to a new version of its most popular car.

However, there have been protests and boycotts around the world at Mr Musk's outspoken and controversial political involvement.

Mr Musk has been heading up President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative to cut federal spending and slash the government workforce.

The Tesla boss is the world's richest man and contributed more than a quarter of a billion dollars to help Trump get elected in November.

In recent weeks, Mr Musk poured millions into a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, supporting former Republican attorney general Brad Schimel who was soundly defeated on Tuesday.

The backlash against Mr Musk has included "Tesla Takedown" protests at Tesla dealerships across the US and in Europe.

Tesla vehicles have also been vandalised, and Trump has said his administration would charge people who deface Teslas with "domestic terrorism."

Musk's stewardship of his businesses, including Tesla, has been called into question.

In an recent interview, he admitted he was running his enterprises "with great difficulty," adding "Frankly, I can't believe I'm here doing this."

Shares of Tesla have lost more than a third of their value over the last year.

"We are not going to look at these numbers with rose colored glasses... they were a disaster on every metric," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a note on Wednesday.

"The more political [Musk] gets with DOGE the more the brand suffers, there is no debate."

Donald Trump says tariffs are coming. That message from the US president has been consistent.

But what tariffs and when? The announcements of the new import taxes have come so thick and fast since he took office that it can be hard to keep track.

Trump has already raised duties on Chinese imports, steel, aluminium and some goods from Canada and Mexico. Higher levies on cars are due to go into effect this week.

We're now waiting for Trump to unveil the details of his plan for a wider set of tariffs, which his team has spent the last few weeks developing.

The White House is calling it "Liberation Day". So what might we learn on Wednesday?

How big are the tariffs?

The White House has not said how big the tariffs will be, although various possible rates have been floated by analysts.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump backed a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imports coming into the US, sometimes suggesting that could be 20% - even 60% on imports from China.

Once in office, he introduced the idea of a "reciprocal" tariffs, suggesting the rates could vary country by country.

"Very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them," he said in February, shortly before he ordered officials to develop such a plan.

The White House almost immediately complicated the picture, noting that their recommendations would reflect not just tariffs but also other policies they believe are unfair to American businesses, like sanitary rules and Value Added Tax (VAT).

It has a led to a scramble, as businesses and political leaders try to get a sense of how big a new tax their products might be facing; and how whatever is announced on Wednesday will interact with other duties, such as those on steel and aluminium, that Trump has already put into effect.

Officials in Europe, for example, are preparing for a double-digit tariff on their exports. Trump earlier this year indicated he could slap goods from the bloc with a 25% import tax.

Which countries could be affected?

The Trump administration has not confirmed which countries will be hit, although it has trailed Wednesday's announcement as a sweeping one.

On Sunday, the president said the new tariffs could apply to "all countries", suggesting a planned return to the across-the-board tariff he backed in the campaign.

It dashed hopes in some countries, such as the UK, that thought they might float under the radar, though many are still hoping eventually to work out some sort of deal.

But it is still unclear whether the tariffs will be universally applied or more targeted.

In television appearances over the last month, Trump advisers have hinted at a list of the "Dirty 15" - the 15% of countries that account for the bulk of trade with the US and impose steep tariffs on imports of American goods.

The Office of the US Trade Representative, as part of its recent review of unfair trade practices, listed countries in which it is "particularly interested".

They were Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and Vietnam.

Trump himself has reserved some of his harshest criticism for historic allies and major trade partners, such as Canada and the EU.

"Friend has been, oftentimes, much worse than foe," he declared last week.

What impact will the tariffs have?

Tariffs are taxes on imports. So the big question is, who will pay?

Technically, there is a simple answer: the US firms bringing in the goods are the companies that will face the bill, especially if the White House starts levying the tariffs "immediately", as spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt suggested on Tuesday.

But the larger the tariffs are, the more firms will be looking for ways to offset those costs, either by changing suppliers, pushing business partners to share the burden - or by raising prices for Americans.

Many firms have said they are already preparing for that step. But it is a risky game because if companies raise prices too much, buyers will simply stay away.

The dynamics have raised the risks of an economic recession both in the US - and far outside its borders, where many firms rely on American sales.

Trump says companies looking to avoid tariffs can simply do their business in the US, but that's not an immediate, or easy fix, given the high costs of hiring and setting up factories.

Introduce currency swings and retaliation by other countries into the mix, and the repercussions of Trump's bid to reset global trade balances are likely to prove hard to predict long after Wednesday's announcement.

Hollywood actor Val Kilmer, known for his roles in some of the biggest movies of the 1980s and 90s, including Top Gun and Batman Forever, has died aged 65.

He starred in 1991's The Doors - playing the band's frontman Jim Morrison - plus the Western Tombstone and crime drama Heat.

Kilmer died of pneumonia on Tuesday in Los Angeles, his daughter Mercedes told US media. She said her father had been diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014 but later recovered.

Tracheotomy surgery affected his voice and curtailed his acting career, but he returned to the screen to reprise his role as fighter pilot Iceman alongside Tom Cruise in 2022's Top Gun: Maverick.

"See ya, pal. I'm going to miss you", American actor Josh Brolin wrote alongside a picture of himself and Kilmer on Instagram.

"You were a smart, challenging, brave, uber-creative firecracker. There's not a lot left of those", he added.

In 2021, Kilmer released a documentary chronicling the highs and lows of his life and career. Val, which debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, features 40 years of home recordings, including him speaking with a voice box post-cancer surgery.

Born Val Edward Kilmer on 31 December 1959, Kilmer grew up in a middle-class family in Los Angeles.

His parents were Christian Scientists, a movement to which Kilmer would adhere for the rest of his life.

Aged 17, he became the then-youngest pupil to enrol at the Julliard School, in New York, one of the world's most prestigious drama conservatories.

Kilmer had two children with his ex-wife, actress Joanne Whalley.

A man has been charged with 64 offences after a major investigation into a funeral directors in Hull in which police removed 35 bodies and a quantity of ashes.

Humberside Police began its inquiry into Legacy Independent Funeral Directors after a report of "concern for care of the deceased" in March last year.

Robert Bush, 47, formerly of Kirk Ella, East Yorkshire, is charged with 30 counts of preventing a lawful and decent burial, 30 counts of fraud by false representation, two counts of theft from charities, one count of fraud and another of fraudulent trading.

He has been released on bail and is due to appear at Hull Magistrates' Court on 25 June.

A 55-year-old woman, who was arrested in July 2024 on suspicion of money laundering offences, has been released with "no further action to be taken", the force said.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Marshall said: "We have updated the families of the 35 deceased with this development and we have made initial contact with additional victims who have been affected by the investigation and we will be personally in touch with them in the coming days."

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A photograph of Kaliyah Coa, an 11-year-old girl who went missing in the River Thames on Monday, has been released by the Metropolitan Police.

Police were called at about 13:20 BST after Kaliyah, who had been playing during a school inset day, entered the water near Bargehouse Causeway, near London City Airport in east London.

Emergency services launched a "large-scale response" to the incident, the force said, but crews from the London Ambulance Service, London Fire Brigade (LFB) and the RNLI were later stood down.

The Met said a recovery mission was now under way along the Thames.

On Tuesday, a witness who lives near the causeway said he had been alerted to the incident by the children who were with Kaliyah "shouting, screaming".

His neighbour, 59-year-old Shaleen Rajaendram, added: "Then I saw suddenly two kids were coming out to the top of the bridge, I said 'what happened?'

"Then they said 'one of my friends was playing in the water, one of my friends has gone into water and she's gone underneath and we can't find her'."

Ch Supt Dan Card from the Met, local policing commander for north-east London, said the force was committed to finding Kaliyah, and were using drone technology and boats as part of their "thorough search over a wide area".

"Specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah's family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened."

He added: "I'd like to thank the members of public, our first-responding officers, and colleagues from other emergency services, as they responded rapidly to carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time."

The force is appealing for witnesses.

The search on Monday involved boats and helicopters from HM Coastguard, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and London Fire Brigade.

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Parents will be able to block their children from specific games and experiences on Roblox as part of new safety measures announced by the hugely popular gaming platform.

They will also be able to block or report their children's friends, and the platform will provide more information about which games young users are playing.

The measures will only apply to children who are under the age of 13 and have parental controls set up on their accounts.

The announcements comes after the CEO of Roblox, Dave Baszucki told the BBC that parents should keep their children off the platform if they were "not comfortable" with it.

Roblox - the most popular site in the UK for gamers aged eight to 12 - has been dogged by claims that some children are being exposed to explicit or harmful content through its games.

However, in his BBC interview, Mr Baszucki stressed that the company was vigilant about protecting its users, with "tens of millions" of people having "amazing" experiences on Roblox.

Announcing the latest safety features, Roblox's Chief Safety Officer Matt Kaufman said: "These tools, features, and innovations reflect our mission to make Roblox the safest and most civil online platform in the world."

A spokesperson for the regulator, Ofcom, said the measures were "encouraging", but added "tech companies will have to do a lot more in the coming months to protect children online".

'Shoot down planes'

In preparation for the interview with Mr Baszucki, the BBC found a range of game titles with troubling titles that had been recommended to an 11-year-old on the platform.

They included games such as "Late Night Boys And Girls Club RP" and "Shoot down planes…because why not?"

Parents with linked accounts of children who are 12 and under can now block such titles if they are uncomfortable with them.

They will also be able to go further in managing who their children are friends with.

They can already view their child's friends list - now they can block or report people on that list, preventing them exchanging direct messages.

Messaging between children had already been restricted in measures announced in November last year.

Additionally, parents will now be able to see the top games their child played on Roblox over the last week and how long they spent in each one.

What do parents think?

Sally, from the north of Scotland, told the BBC last month that her nine-year-old daughter was groomed on the platform in December last year. Despite reporting it to Roblox, she never received a response.

She welcomed the announcements as a "start", but said Roblox "needs to do better".

She added: "What's missing is proper authentication of users. How does the company know that users are who they say they are - how will perpetrators be traced when grooming keeps happening?"

Roblox highlighted to BBC News its community standards, which have a zero-tolerance policy for the exploitation of minors.

Amir from Leeds told the BBC last month that his 15-year-old son is "addicted" to Roblox, and can use the site for up to 14 hours a day.

He has welcomed the changes announced today for younger users, but wants the platform itself to do more and target the availability of inappropriate games for children.

Kathryn Foley's nine-year-old daughter Helene is a regular on Roblox. Kathryn ensures her daughter avoids games where other players would talk to her, or friend requests.

Ms Foley told BBC News: "I know I will absolutely be using the game blocking feature, and to see how long my daughter spends on particular games - and also if she is playing games I didn't know she played."

Kirsty Solman has spoken with the BBC about how Roblox has helped her 13-year-old son Kyle - who has ADHD, autism and severe anxiety - with social interactions.

She said: "These all sound fantastic especially the experience blocking, as a concern is the type of games our children are accessing."

Roblox has also announced the expansion of its voice safety AI (artificial intelligence) model, to help moderate voice chats between players, with the feature now available in seven additional languages.

Meanwhile, Roblox has outlined changes to its advertising model, with players to be paid in-game currency to watch adverts on the platform.

• The BBC has changed some names in this report to protect the identities of young people.

Hollywood actor Michael Sheen has said he will star as Owain Glyndŵr, the last Welsh-born Prince of Wales, in a new theatre production.

Owain & Henry will tell the story of Glyndŵr's rebellion against English rule in Wales during the 15th Century, in one of the first productions announced by Welsh National Theatre, Sheen's own theatre company.

Glyndŵr became a figurehead for Welsh nationalism and there are statues, monuments, pub and street names across Wales commemorating him.

Sheen, who previously said the Royal family should give up the Prince of Wales title, said as Glyndŵr he would portray "the true Welsh prince".

"Owain & Henry is one of the origin stories of our nation, as relevant in today's complex world as it was when Glyndŵr declared Wales an independent nation six hundred years ago," Sheen said.

The play will be performed at Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff in November 2026.

"It's the play that tells the exact story that I want this national theatre company to be able to tell, on the second biggest stage in Europe," Sheen told BBC News.

"I'm incredibly excited."

Who was Owain Glyndŵr?

Owain Glyndŵr instigated a 15-year revolt against the rule of King Henry IV and claimed the title Prince of Wales, before Wales was reconquered by the English.

More than a hundred years earlier, Llywelyn ap Gruffydd - the last prince of an independent Wales - had been killed in battle and his head sent to Edward I, the English king.

Edward I then invested his son Edward II as the Prince of Wales, and since then the title has customarily - though not always - been given to the heir apparent.

In 2020, Sheen told newspaper columnist Owen Jones that when the time came for the Prince of Wales title to be handed down from Charles to William, "it would be a really meaningful and powerful gesture for that title to no longer be held in the same way as it has before".

Owain & Henry is believed to be the first time the story of Glyndŵr has been tackled by a dramatist.

The play's writer, Gary Owen, said when he began to write the story Sheen was his "dream casting" - but he had never imagined it becoming a reality.

"I've been saying for years that we need to do these big shows here in Wales. We need to connect with a big audience," said Owen.

"And now I have to actually do it. So it's some pressure but it's very welcome pressure."

Sheen said he had been a "huge fan" of Owen's work for years, calling him "one of the greatest writers Wales has ever produced".

"There'll be people who come along to this who have never heard of Owain Glyndŵr before, have no idea what the history is, the importance of that moment in our culture.

"And it starts a conversation, you know, it starts a national conversation."

Sheen announced that he was funding the Welsh National Theatre in January, to fill the gap left by the folding of National Theatre Wales.

The company, which has received £200,000 in transition funding from Arts Council Wales, has also announced a Welsh spin on the classic American play Our Town, with Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies overseeing as creative director.

Our Town will tour Swansea, Mold, Llandudno and Kingston-upon-Thames between January and March 2026.

Welsh National Theatre said it had also commissioned four Welsh writers to create plays of "national significance", and created a network of talent scouts to find and develop new Welsh talent.

"When I used to play football on a pitch by the side of the A48 in Port Talbot, I always knew that there was the possibility that there might be someone standing on the touch line," said Sheen.

"Local people who were the eyes and ears of the big clubs. There was always the potential you could end up at Man United or Liverpool.

"And I've always thought, why isn't there a similar system for the arts, for the theatre? So I'm trying to create that and using the Welsh National Theatre company as the kind of engine for that."

Sheen said "lots of people have been getting in touch" to support Welsh National Theatre since it was announced - including fellow Hollywood Welsh-born actor Matthew Rhys.

"I had a lovely message from Matthew," said Sheen.

He said people had also shown support in other ways, including through a surprise donation sent to his parents.

"The envelope just said 'brilliant actor Michael Sheen'. And it got to my parents. And inside it said 'what you're doing with the Welsh National Theatre - think it's brilliant. Would love to support it'.

"And I keep [the cheque] in my pocket," said Sheen.

"I walk around with it now."