The UK economy shrank unexpectedly in May, according to latest official figures.

The economy shrank by 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics said, the second month in a row it has contracted.

Economists had expected GDP to grow by 0.1%.

The fall in economic output was mainly driven by a drop in production, the ONS said.

A surgeon banned from working for a private healthcare company, following an investigation into patient safety, continues to work in the NHS, the BBC understands.

Nuffield Health has stopped Marc Lamah from working in their hospitals, but he is still operating on patients for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

An NHS patient left with a twisted bowel following an operation he carried out said he should never work again.

Mr Lamah did not respond to the BBC's request for comment sent via his employer.

In January the BBC revealed concerns had been raised about Mr Lamah's complication rate and that he was no longer practising at Nuffield Health's hospital in Brighton pending an investigation.

A former employee at the hospital told the BBC that internal data showed one third of Mr Lamah's patients had experienced a "moderate harm event", where, for instance, a patient had to be transferred to another hospital or re-admitted, over a 12-month period. The figure should be 5%, the BBC was told.

In a statement to the BBC, Nuffield Health said following an independent investigation, "we can confirm Mr Lamah's practicing privileges with Nuffield Health have been withdrawn.

"His conduct did not meet the standards of medical practice and governance we expect. Patient safety is our top priority, and we hold all consultants to the highest standards."

Mr Lamah continues to operate as a colorectal surgeon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, told the BBC it had audited Mr Lamah's NHS data, which showed his outcomes were within the expected national range. The trust added that Nuffield's investigation had found "no concerns with regard to technical abilities, surgical practice or patient safety".

The trust is at the centre of a large police investigation, Operation Bramber, looking into at least 200 cases of alleged medical negligence.

Sussex Police is examining concerns about avoidable harm and cover-ups in the trust's neurosurgery and general surgery departments between 2015 and 2021.

The trust runs seven hospitals across East and West Sussex and is one of the largest organisations within the NHS, providing care to a population of almost two million people.

Sheryl Hunter says she has suffered "five years of hell" after an NHS operation carried out by Mr Lamah. She has to manually excavate her bowels and has needed several emergency admissions.

After suffering from endometriosis for a number of years, in 2019 doctors decided that Ms Hunter, a mother of one, needed an operation to ease her pain.

Mr Lamah decided the best approach was to remove a part of her large intestine, the colon, and connect it to her small intestine.

A few days after she was discharged, said Ms Hunter, "I felt something pop, and this very awful fluid was coming out of me".

She was rushed back to the Royal Sussex where they discovered the joint between the two intestines had torn, and "for 10 days it had been filling up my abdomen with bowel matter."

This is a known complication of this type of surgery, the BBC understands.

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Despite that problem being resolved, Ms Hunter continued to suffer extreme pain for several years, necessitating repeated visits to both her GP and the Royal Sussex hospital.

She said: "I have very little good days. By that, I mean I am curled up in a ball crying.

"When I try to go to the toilet, I scream on the toilet in tears because it is so painful to go, to open up my bowels. I have to manually do that, which means I have to wear gloves.

"The pain is very severe – it's in my stomach, it gets into my spine, down my legs, my arms."

Letters shared with the BBC by Ms Hunter show her GP wrote to Mr Lamah repeatedly requesting he see her again.

In January, 2023 the GP wrote that "we have written to you on multiple occasions to review her and discuss her options".

A few days later Mr Lamah replied to say he had not received any previous letters.

But almost 12 months later, in December 2023, the GP wrote another letter urging Mr Lamah to see her.

Ms Hunter told the BBC he was "begged" by colleagues to see her but "he refused".

Finally, in April 2024, she was seen by another consultant at a different hospital run by the same trust - the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath - when she found out what was causing her pain.

"The main problem is a 180 degree twist on the small bowel causing an internal hernia and twisting the anastomosis [the surgical joint]," said the discharge sheet given to Ms Hunter by the hospital after the procedure.

"When they did the reconnection [of the intestines], they put it on backwards," Sheryl said she was told.

"That [creates] a risk of rupture. If you rupture, it's a two-hour window before death.

"Had I not been manually opening my bowels for five years, they said that would have happened."

The trust said surgical error was only presented as one of a range of possibilities.

The BBC passed the details to an independent medical expert who said the twist "certainly is a consequence of the 2019 operation".

The trust said only a further operation would confirm if Mr Lamah had made an error or whether the twist had occurred naturally.

However, the damage is now more extensive than it would have been had Ms Hunter been treated earlier.

She has been told she will need pelvic reconstruction surgery before she can have another operation to try to fix her intestines. She is on a waiting list for the first procedure and has spoken to Sussex Police about her experience.

Former NHS colleagues have also raised concerns to the BBC about Mr Lamah, but he continues to practise at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

"I think it's disgusting. That man shouldn't be allowed to touch any other patients," said Ms Hunter.

"I was told Marc Lamah has a terrible bedside manner, but he's a fantastic surgeon.

"Marc Lamar has a terrible bedside manner, and he's a terrible surgeon. He shouldn't be allowed to operate, as far as I'm concerned."

'Robust systems'

In a statement, Prof Katie Urch, chief medical officer for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, told the BBC: "We can't publicly discuss an individual's care, but we absolutely understand the distress and difficulty anyone living with ongoing complex health issues can face.

"Our clinical teams are dedicated to understanding their patients' needs and providing the highest standard of care.

"Whilst no medical procedure can guarantee a successful outcome, our teams strive for the best possible results every day – and if we ever have cause to think we could have done more for a patient we have robust systems, including the routine use of independent experts, to help us learn and improve."

Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

The home secretary has said the new "one in, one out" migrant scheme agreed with France on Thursday is "robust" enough to withstand potential legal challenges.

Yvette Cooper said she had been in close contact with European governments which have expressed concerns about the deal, saying that the European Union had been "very supportive and helpful".

She told BBC Breakfast the government had done "a lot of work to make sure that the system is robust to legal challenges", which stymied the previous government's efforts to deport some illegal migrants to Rwanda.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp described the plan to return an expected 50 migrants a week to France as a "gimmick".

Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a deal on Thursday which will see the UK return migrants who arrive in small boats back to France.

The scheme - which will initially run as a pilot - proposes that for each migrant the UK returns, Britain will accept another who has made a legal claim in France, which both countries say will act as a deterrent.

Cooper would not be drawn on how many migrants would be exchanged under the deal, though it is expected the pilot will involve around 50 people a week.

She said the government would "provide updates" on figures as the pilot progressed.

The home secretary said the pilot scheme would be accompanied by a plan to target those working illegally in the UK, which she said was a pull factor driving small boat crossings.

Asked what would happen if a migrant who is returned to France attempts to cross the Channel a second time, she said they would be "returned again" and banned from the UK asylum system.

Philp dismissed the plan as "another gimmick" that will allow the majority of illegal migrants to remain in the UK, and said Labour's pledge to "smash the gangs" had not worked.

He said the Rwanda scheme originally proposed by Boris Johnson would have seen "100% of illegal arrivals being removed" and described Sir Keir's decision to axe the plan as a "catastrophic" mistake.

Cooper said only four migrants had ever been sent to Rwanda and on a voluntary basis, and described the previous government's approach to migration as "chaos".

Since 2018, when figures began to be gathered, more than 170,000 people have arrived in the UK in small boats.

Numbers this year have reached record levels with nearly 20,000 arriving in the first six months of 2025.

On Thursday, Macron said the scheme would have a "deterrent effect" beyond the numbers returned, and suggested Brexit had made it harder for the UK to tackle illegal migration.

Watching the president of France and the prime minister close up was to see two men under the cosh, behind in the opinion polls and fighting for what they see as the essence of their political creed.

It boils down to this - how do Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron make the case for what they see as the virtues of patience, nuance, subtleties and trade-offs in an era of growing impatience at the perceived repeated failures of those in high office?

There were just two lecterns and two speakers at the news conference the leaders hosted, but two other parties hovered in the air.

Reform UK and National Rally, the party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, were never mentioned explicitly. Nor were their leaders. But they were repeatedly mentioned implicitly.

The two parties on either side of the Channel are not the same, but they have the same capacity to frighten the life out of those in power now.

They do it with an anti-establishment zeal, a knack of communicating in plain language and at a time of disillusionment with the traditional political classes. Quite the combination.

"Whilst we have been working hard to get a returns agreement, others have been simply taking pictures of the problem," the prime minister told us.

Whoever could he possibly have been thinking of?

"That is where the politics is. We have to show that pragmatic politics is the way to deliver the results that matter for both of our peoples," he added, to ensure people weren't seduced by what he called "the politics of easy answers".

Reform leader Nigel Farage had spent the morning on a boat in the English Channel in the company of a camera from GB News and regards this new deal between Paris and London as a humiliation for the UK.

He says the UK should abandon the European Convention on Human Rights and makes a wider argument that the country can escape the funk many feel it is trapped in by embracing a party willing to be unorthodox, noisy and pick a few fights. Why not, after the last few years, goes the argument.

President Macron, confronting similar arguments back home from National Rally, made similar arguments to the prime minister.

There was a need, the president argued, to recognise "the complexity of the world" and to avoid what he saw as the "temptation" for some of those he described as "populists".

As I wrote here the other day, this is the latest evidence we are seeing of the prime minister's shifting argument – a sharpening public critique of Farage and what Sir Keir believes will be the choice at the next election: one of the two of them in Downing Street.

And an outsized part of the argument between the two of them, today and in the coming years, will be over small boat crossings.

New polling for Portland Communications suggests 26% of Labour's voters in last year's general election who have since switched to Reform would be much more likely to come back to Labour if the number of small boat crossings fell.

The same polling suggests that eight out of ten Reform-leaning voters say that after one year, Labour has had enough time to improve things across the piece.

And nearly half of all voters see Nigel Farage as the leader who most represents change.

This is an insight into the challenge and, potentially, opportunity for the prime minister.

Hoping for patience in an era of the opposite, but arguing his opponent is offering a false promise.

Hoping the levers of government can, in time, deliver. Let's see.

One final thought.

On two separate occasions this week I have spoken privately to senior figures in both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, who, unprompted, offered near identical reflections about how the next few years may pan out.

It won't surprise you that both the people I spoke to don't want to see Reform UK win a general election.

Both acknowledged that it was a real possibility, but both had a deep worry beyond that.

They both reflected that many in the electorate concluded last year that the Conservatives had failed and many in the electorate are concluding this year, or may soon conclude, that Labour are failing too.

Reform could deliver in a way its predecessors never managed.

But what happens, pondered the two people I spoke to, if Nigel Farage was to win and he too was subsequently deemed to have failed?

Where, they wonder, and in what political direction would the country turn in next?

There will be no immediate changes to cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas), the BBC understands.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was widely expected to announce plans to reduce the £20,000 tax-free allowance.

The move was aimed at encouraging more investment in stocks and shares, which the goverment says it will still focus on.

"Our ambition is to ensure people's hard-earned savings are delivering the best returns and driving more investment into the UK economy," a Treasury spokesperson said.

The Treasury is expected to continue to talk to banks, building societies and investment firms about options for reform.

An Isa is a savings or investment product that is treated differently for tax purposes.

Any returns you make from an Isa are tax-free, but there is a limit to how much money you can put in each year.

The current £20,000 annual allowance can be used in one account or spread across multiple Isa products as you wish.

Irvine Welsh is pointing up to the second floor of a grey stone building in Leith, the port district of Edinburgh.

As he gets ready to publish a sequel to his 1993 cult novel Trainspotting, the author is showing me the window of the room, with its view over a local park, where he wrote that first book, which later became a hit film starring Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller.

The son of a Leith docker and a waitress - who did a course in electrical engineering, spent time in a punk band and was addicted to heroin as a younger man - Welsh had moved back home to Leith from London and "just started typing". He tells me that before writing Trainspotting he had decided "this is my last chance to do something creative".

Trainspotting follows the lives of a group of heroin-addicted friends in Edinburgh. Violent, often shocking and darkly funny, the book is a picture of the social decay sparked by the decimation of Britain's industrial heartlands. It was Welsh's first novel and sold more than a million copies in the UK alone.

But as he sat typing away, back in the early 90s, he had no idea it would do well. "I just wanted to get it done," he explains. It certainly paid off.

The book and film tapped so successfully into the cultural zeitgeist that more than 30 years on, you can still book an official Trainspotting tour in Leith. But on a blustery Scottish summer's day, I'm getting a bespoke one from the writer himself, touring some of the key haunts that inspired him.

We head to the so-called Banana Flats, the curved building officially called Cables Wynd House that dominates the Leith skyline and where his character Sick Boy (played by Miller in the film) grows up.

We visit the Leith Dockers' Club where Renton (played by McGregor) goes with his mum and dad and where Welsh remembers hanging out "as a kid and sitting there with lemonade and crisps" and "feeling really sort of resentful" while everyone else was getting drunk.

Welsh's latest return to his characters is called Men in Love. He's previously written follow-up books and a prequel about the Trainspotting gang (he clearly can't get enough of them), but this new novel is set immediately after the first one finished, when Renton has run off with the money he and his friends have made from a big drug deal.

This time, Welsh is exploring what happens when young men start to fall in love and have relationships. He was partly motivated to write it, he says, because "we're living in a world that seems to be so full of hate and poison... I think that it's time we focused more on love as a kind of antidote to all that".

But don't expect saccharine stories of romance - this is Welsh, after all. The cheating, lying, manipulative - and at times, horrifying - behaviour of some of his characters is still much in evidence.

The book even has a disclaimer at the end explaining that because the novel is set in the 1980s, many of the characters "express themselves in ways that we now consider offensive and discriminatory".

Welsh says the publishers insisted on it. "They felt we live in such sensitive times that we need to make that point.

"We live in a much more censorious environment," he continues. While he accepts that misogynist terms in the book including "fat lassie" are hurtful and "there's a good reason why we don't say them", he worries that if the state starts to say "you can't talk about this, you can't talk about that, I think we're on a dangerous road".

The Men in Love story spans into the early 90s. It's being published at a time when Britain is indulging in a bit of 90s nostalgia, with Oasis on tour and Pulp's surprise set at Glastonbury getting rave reviews.

Welsh tells me he "never left" that era, but says younger generations also feel a nostalgia for it because "people had lives then".

He pins some of the blame for cultural change on the internet and social media which has become "a controlling rather than an enabling force".

As someone who understands addiction, Welsh hopes we'll be "more judicious" about using social media in future. He points to the way people have "their phones stuck to their face" while they are moving around.

"If we survive the next 50 years, that's going to look as strange in film as people chain smoking cigarettes did back in the 80s."

He also thinks the internet is making us more stupid. "When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies." He fears we're heading towards "a post-democratic, post-art, post-culture society where we've got artificial intelligence on one side and we've a kind of natural stupidity on the other side, we just become these dumbed down machines that are taking instructions".

Trainspotting's success came in part he says at a time when people were willing to read more challenging, less formulaic books. And as the money rolled in, it gave him the freedom to write.

He's also a DJ and is releasing an album with the Sci-Fi Soul Orchestra to go with his new book. The disco tracks relate to the characters, the storyline and the "emotional landscape" of the novel.

Music is "fundamental" to his writing and he's also "looking for that four-four beat all the time while I'm typing".

He builds a playlist in his head for every character and theme.

Renton's into Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground. Sick Boy also likes Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, New Order, he says.

The aggressive and violent Begbie likes "Rod Stewart and power ballads basically".

The singer recently told The Times that the public should give the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a chance. I wondered if Irvine Welsh thinks that his Trainspotting characters would support that party if they were growing up now.

He pushes back, telling me the Scottish working classes "still have a radical kind of spirit. They're not really there to be the stooge of some public school idiot".

Although later he adds "people are so desperate that they'll go along with anybody who has that rhetoric of change".

Welsh has always been political and, as we walk around the area where he grew up, he describes how Margaret Thatcher ended centuries of shipbuilding in Leith "at a stroke". Five thousand dockers became none, he says.

Trainspotting also resonated, he thinks, because it "heralded the adjustment to people living in a world without paid work. And now we're all in that position".

His argument is that Britain's class system is changing "because of this massive concentration of wealth towards the wealthy".

The working classes already have no money and now the middle classes are being pulled into more and more debt too and are less able to pass on their assets which makes life increasingly insecure.

"We're all members of the Precariat, basically. We don't know how long we'll have paid work if we do have it, and we just don't know how long this will last because our economy, our society is in a long-form revolutionary transformation."

In my time in Welsh's company, we haven't just toured Leith, I've had an insight into his brain, exploding with opinions on everything from our dystopian future, to why the best music was made in the analogue era and even to what would happen if he were offered a knighthood (it's a no, by the way).

When our time's up, he heads into the bar at the Dockers' Club to see a friend he first met at primary school 60 years ago. His old pal jokes to me that he's a plumber while Welsh is a millionaire author. You can see the affection between them.

Trainspotting may have changed Welsh's life entirely. But he's still plugged into the community that shaped him, and the Leith that he turned so spectacularly into fiction.

Men in Love is published on 24 July 2025

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Creative on court, an artist off it

Millions of people are facing restrictions on water use as the UK's first regional hosepipe ban of 2025 comes into force. Despite Yorkshire Water saying it has cut leakage by 15% in recent years, bill payers say they are frustrated at the number of leaks which appear to go unchecked.

"It's literally going out of that hole and straight into a drain," said Neela Patel.

The business owner said water has been pouring along Greasbrough Road, in Rotherham, for two weeks.

"They've put a few cones up but I've not seen much work done so we're not sure what's going on.

"We just want it resolved, they've put a hosepipe ban on and it's just flowing out of there."

Fellow shop owner John Smallwood said everyone in the area had reported it, calling it "ridiculous" to impose restrictions on customers while water was being wasted in this way.

"They came and stopped the traffic, caused a lot of havoc and not been back," he said.

"It's just a tonne of water going down the drain."

The hosepipe ban applies to customers across much of Yorkshire, parts of North Lincolnshire and parts of Derbyshire.

It prohibits the use of a hosepipe for activities such as watering the garden, washing the car or filling a paddling pool. Anyone flouting the restriction could be fined up to £1,000.

Dean Majors, a massage therapist from Skipton, North Yorkshire, said he had reported a leak outside his home on Canal Street at the end of June.

He said water had been pooling outside his house, with some passing down a drain and through an overflow pipe into the nearby canal.

"It just got worse and worse and every time any traffic came through, water just splashed down the overflow."

Mr Majors also reported a leak outside his business, The Backcave, last May, with the residual water so deep that he floated rubber ducks on it.

He said the leak outside his home was fixed on Thursday, joking that the company had remembered his duck stunt.

Carol Lilleker, from Laughton-en-le-Morthen, near Dinnington in South Yorkshire, said water has been leaking from beneath a manhole cover in the village since 27 June.

She said despite several calls to Yorkshire Water it has not been repaired and "thousands of gallons of water" must have been lost.

"We reported it. Our neighbours across the road reported it. The school's reported it. Several other people have reported it," she said.

"We're going to have a hosepipe ban on Friday, which is understandable - we can understand the reasons why that's going to happen - but it's a bit much when thousands and thousands of gallons of water are flowing past our houses and nobody seems to be doing anything."

In West Yorkshire, Kevin Baker said he had noticed a significant leak on Green Hill Road, in Armley, Leeds, six weeks ago.

"They came along, put traffic lights on, dug a hole, scratched their heads and went away and it's been pouring out ever since."

He said having passed it on Thursday he noticed a digger was there and hoped that meant it was finally being dealt with.

Having had a leak at his homes that Yorkshire Water charged him for, he said it was incredibly frustrating.

"It just felt like no action was taken on top of the frustration that they can charge me an exorbitant amount of money for what was a very small leak on my system."

Yorkshire Water said it understood how "frustrating leaks are" for its customers.

"Leakage is the lowest it has ever been in Yorkshire, and it's something that we work on all year round," a spokesperson said.

"We reduced leakage by 15% over the last five years, and will be spending £38m over the next five years to continue bringing the number of leaks down."

It said it had dedicated more resources to reducing leaks and had recruited 100 extra leakage inspectors to "help us find and fix leaks faster".

It said its team fix on average 334 leaks every week and prioritise those losing the most water.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

This week saw Donald Trump finally get approval for his "big, beautiful bill", the UK mark the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 attacks, and Ozzy Osbourne headline a star-studded gig to bring an end to almost 60 years in heavy metal.

But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world over the past seven days?

Quiz collated by Ben Fell.

Fancy testing your memory? Try last week's quiz, or have a go at something from the archives.

Watching the president of France and the prime minister close up was to see two men under the cosh, behind in the opinion polls and fighting for what they see as the essence of their political creed.

It boils down to this - how do Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron make the case for what they see as the virtues of patience, nuance, subtleties and trade-offs in an era of growing impatience at the perceived repeated failures of those in high office?

There were just two lecterns and two speakers at the news conference the leaders hosted, but two other parties hovered in the air.

Reform UK and National Rally, the party of Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, were never mentioned explicitly. Nor were their leaders. But they were repeatedly mentioned implicitly.

The two parties on either side of the Channel are not the same, but they have the same capacity to frighten the life out of those in power now.

They do it with an anti-establishment zeal, a knack of communicating in plain language and at a time of disillusionment with the traditional political classes. Quite the combination.

"Whilst we have been working hard to get a returns agreement, others have been simply taking pictures of the problem," the prime minister told us.

Whoever could he possibly have been thinking of?

"That is where the politics is. We have to show that pragmatic politics is the way to deliver the results that matter for both of our peoples," he added, to ensure people weren't seduced by what he called "the politics of easy answers".

Reform leader Nigel Farage had spent the morning on a boat in the English Channel in the company of a camera from GB News and regards this new deal between Paris and London as a humiliation for the UK.

He says the UK should abandon the European Convention on Human Rights and makes a wider argument that the country can escape the funk many feel it is trapped in by embracing a party willing to be unorthodox, noisy and pick a few fights. Why not, after the last few years, goes the argument.

President Macron, confronting similar arguments back home from National Rally, made similar arguments to the prime minister.

There was a need, the president argued, to recognise "the complexity of the world" and to avoid what he saw as the "temptation" for some of those he described as "populists".

As I wrote here the other day, this is the latest evidence we are seeing of the prime minister's shifting argument – a sharpening public critique of Farage and what Sir Keir believes will be the choice at the next election: one of the two of them in Downing Street.

And an outsized part of the argument between the two of them, today and in the coming years, will be over small boat crossings.

New polling for Portland Communications suggests 26% of Labour's voters in last year's general election who have since switched to Reform would be much more likely to come back to Labour if the number of small boat crossings fell.

The same polling suggests that eight out of ten Reform-leaning voters say that after one year, Labour has had enough time to improve things across the piece.

And nearly half of all voters see Nigel Farage as the leader who most represents change.

This is an insight into the challenge and, potentially, opportunity for the prime minister.

Hoping for patience in an era of the opposite, but arguing his opponent is offering a false promise.

Hoping the levers of government can, in time, deliver. Let's see.

One final thought.

On two separate occasions this week I have spoken privately to senior figures in both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, who, unprompted, offered near identical reflections about how the next few years may pan out.

It won't surprise you that both the people I spoke to don't want to see Reform UK win a general election.

Both acknowledged that it was a real possibility, but both had a deep worry beyond that.

They both reflected that many in the electorate concluded last year that the Conservatives had failed and many in the electorate are concluding this year, or may soon conclude, that Labour are failing too.

Reform could deliver in a way its predecessors never managed.

But what happens, pondered the two people I spoke to, if Nigel Farage was to win and he too was subsequently deemed to have failed?

Where, they wonder, and in what political direction would the country turn in next?

US President Donald Trump has said he will slap a 35% tariff on Canadian goods starting 1 August, even as the two countries are days away from a self-imposed deadline to reach a new deal on trade.

The missive came as Trump also threatened blanket tariffs of 15% or 20% on most trade partners, and said he would soon notify the European Union of a new tariff rate on its goods.

Trump announced the new levies on Canada on Thursday in a letter posted to social media and addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The US has already imposed a blanket 25% tariff on some Canadian goods, and the country is feeling the pain of the Trump administration's global steel, aluminium and auto tariffs.

The letter is among more than 20 that Trump had posted this week to US trade partners, including Japan, South Korea and Sri Lanka.

Like Canada's letter, Trump has vowed to implement those tariffs on trade partners by 1 August.

The US has imposed a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports, though there is a current exemption in place for goods that comply with a North American free trade agreement.

It is unclear if the latest tariffs threat would apply to goods covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).

Trump has also imposed a global 50% tariff on aluminium and steel imports, and a 25% tariff on all cars and trucks not build in the US.

Canada sells about three-quarters of its goods to the US, and is an auto manufacturing hub and a major supplier of metals, making those tariffs especially damaging to those sectors.

Trump's letter said the 35% tariffs are separate to those sector-specific levies.

"As you are aware, there will be no tariff if Canada, or companies within your country, decide to build or manufacture products within the United States," Trump stated.

He also tied the tariffs to what he called "Canada's failure" to stop the flow of fentanyl into the US, as well as Canada's existing levies on US dairy farmers and the trade deficit between the two countries.

Canada has been engaged in intense talk with the US in recent months to reach a new trade and security deal.

At the G7 Summit in June, Prime Minister Carney and Trump said they were committed to reaching a new deal on within 30 days, setting a deadline of 21 July.

In late June, Carney removed a tax on big US technology firms after Trump labelled it a "blatant attack" and threatened to call off trade talks.

Carney said the tax was dropped as "part of a bigger negotiation" on trade between the two countries.

The BBC has reached out to the Canadian officials for comment.

Delays, infrastructure gaps and personnel shortages to Britain's most advanced warplane programme are undermining the UK's warfighting capability, the public spending watchdog has said.

The F-35 stealth jet used by the RAF is "significantly superior" to all previous UK aircraft, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

But the NAO said there had been a "disappointing return" on the £11bn spent so far, adding that it estimated plans to expand the fleet would cost more than three times initial Ministry of Defence (MoD) forecasts.

An MoD spokesperson said the programme was within its "approved budget" and there would be two full squadrons of F-35s ready for deployment by the end of the year.

As of June 2025, there are 37 F-35s in service, which are deployed from the Royal Navy's two aircraft carriers.

The F-35s, made by the American company Lockheed Martin, are technologically superior to all previous UK fighter jets and are expected to remain in service until 2069.

But last year, the F-35 fleet's "full mission capable rate" – the aircraft's ability to carry out all of the missions it is needed for – was around a third of the MoD's target.

Plans to equip the new aircraft with weapons that can attack ground targets from a safe range - while ensuring they can retain their stealth characteristics - have been delayed until the early 2030s.

The report from the NAO published on Friday said the capability gained by spending £11bn so far - also higher than initial 2013 estimates - was a "disappointing return".

The £18.76bn the MoD had estimated for the project was "considerably lower" than the NAO's £71bn estimate, the report added.

Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said: "The MoD now needs to decide where to prioritise its resources to improve capability in a way that maximises the full benefits of the F‑35 programme to the UK."

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said last month that UK spending on national security would increase to 5% of GDP by 2035.

The committment is in line with Nato's target, with countries at this year's summit agreeing to boost defence spending due to "profound" security challenges and a "long-term threat posed by Russia".

An MoD spokesman said: "The National Audit Office's report rightly recognises the world-class capabilities of the F-35 fighter jet, as well as its significant economic benefits - including £22bn of work for UK companies, creating thousands of jobs.

"We also recently announced we will purchase 12 F-35As, supporting 20,000 jobs in the UK, and join Nato's dual capable aircraft nuclear mission."

Lord Robert Winston, a professor and TV doctor who was a pioneer of IVF treatment, has resigned from the British Medical Association (BMA) over planned strikes by resident doctors.

Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, are planning a walkout for five consecutive days from 25 July until 30 July over a pay dispute with the government.

In an interview with The Times, the Labour peer and host of the BBC series Child of Our Time urged against strike action, arguing it could damage people's trust in the profession.

The BMA met with the health secretary earlier this week and said the government had "stated it will not negotiate on pay".

Lord Winston, 84, has been a member of the BMA since 1964.

"I've paid my membership for a long time. I feel very strongly that this isn't the time to be striking. I think that the country is really struggling in all sorts of ways, people are struggling in all sorts of ways," he told The Times.

"Strike action completely ignores the vulnerability of people in front of you," he added.

Resident doctors have been awarded a 5.4% pay rise for this financial year - which will go into pay packets from August - following a 22% increase over the previous two years.

But the BMA says wages are still around 20% lower in real terms than in 2008.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the move was "unnecessary and unreasonable", adding: "The NHS is hanging by a thread - why on earth are they threatening to pull it?"

The BMA's resident doctors committee co-chairs Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt said they had "no choice" but to strike without "a credible offer to keep on the path to restore our pay".

Lord Winston's comments come after doctors and patient groups warned that the NHS in England was struggling to reduce wait times - a top priority for the NHS.

"Doctors need to be reminded that every time they have a patient in front of them they have someone who is frightened and in pain. It's important that doctors consider their own responsibility much more seriously," he said.

A surgeon banned from working for a private healthcare company, following an investigation into patient safety, continues to work in the NHS, the BBC understands.

Nuffield Health has stopped Marc Lamah from working in their hospitals, but he is still operating on patients for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

An NHS patient left with a twisted bowel following an operation he carried out said he should never work again.

Mr Lamah did not respond to the BBC's request for comment sent via his employer.

In January the BBC revealed concerns had been raised about Mr Lamah's complication rate and that he was no longer practising at Nuffield Health's hospital in Brighton pending an investigation.

A former employee at the hospital told the BBC that internal data showed one third of Mr Lamah's patients had experienced a "moderate harm event", where, for instance, a patient had to be transferred to another hospital or re-admitted, over a 12-month period. The figure should be 5%, the BBC was told.

In a statement to the BBC, Nuffield Health said following an independent investigation, "we can confirm Mr Lamah's practicing privileges with Nuffield Health have been withdrawn.

"His conduct did not meet the standards of medical practice and governance we expect. Patient safety is our top priority, and we hold all consultants to the highest standards."

Mr Lamah continues to operate as a colorectal surgeon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, told the BBC it had audited Mr Lamah's NHS data, which showed his outcomes were within the expected national range. The trust added that Nuffield's investigation had found "no concerns with regard to technical abilities, surgical practice or patient safety".

The trust is at the centre of a large police investigation, Operation Bramber, looking into at least 200 cases of alleged medical negligence.

Sussex Police is examining concerns about avoidable harm and cover-ups in the trust's neurosurgery and general surgery departments between 2015 and 2021.

The trust runs seven hospitals across East and West Sussex and is one of the largest organisations within the NHS, providing care to a population of almost two million people.

Sheryl Hunter says she has suffered "five years of hell" after an NHS operation carried out by Mr Lamah. She has to manually excavate her bowels and has needed several emergency admissions.

After suffering from endometriosis for a number of years, in 2019 doctors decided that Ms Hunter, a mother of one, needed an operation to ease her pain.

Mr Lamah decided the best approach was to remove a part of her large intestine, the colon, and connect it to her small intestine.

A few days after she was discharged, said Ms Hunter, "I felt something pop, and this very awful fluid was coming out of me".

She was rushed back to the Royal Sussex where they discovered the joint between the two intestines had torn, and "for 10 days it had been filling up my abdomen with bowel matter."

This is a known complication of this type of surgery, the BBC understands.

• Cases double in NHS trust death and injury investigation

• Families back hospital trust manslaughter probe

Despite that problem being resolved, Ms Hunter continued to suffer extreme pain for several years, necessitating repeated visits to both her GP and the Royal Sussex hospital.

She said: "I have very little good days. By that, I mean I am curled up in a ball crying.

"When I try to go to the toilet, I scream on the toilet in tears because it is so painful to go, to open up my bowels. I have to manually do that, which means I have to wear gloves.

"The pain is very severe – it's in my stomach, it gets into my spine, down my legs, my arms."

Letters shared with the BBC by Ms Hunter show her GP wrote to Mr Lamah repeatedly requesting he see her again.

In January, 2023 the GP wrote that "we have written to you on multiple occasions to review her and discuss her options".

A few days later Mr Lamah replied to say he had not received any previous letters.

But almost 12 months later, in December 2023, the GP wrote another letter urging Mr Lamah to see her.

Ms Hunter told the BBC he was "begged" by colleagues to see her but "he refused".

Finally, in April 2024, she was seen by another consultant at a different hospital run by the same trust - the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath - when she found out what was causing her pain.

"The main problem is a 180 degree twist on the small bowel causing an internal hernia and twisting the anastomosis [the surgical joint]," said the discharge sheet given to Ms Hunter by the hospital after the procedure.

"When they did the reconnection [of the intestines], they put it on backwards," Sheryl said she was told.

"That [creates] a risk of rupture. If you rupture, it's a two-hour window before death.

"Had I not been manually opening my bowels for five years, they said that would have happened."

The trust said surgical error was only presented as one of a range of possibilities.

The BBC passed the details to an independent medical expert who said the twist "certainly is a consequence of the 2019 operation".

The trust said only a further operation would confirm if Mr Lamah had made an error or whether the twist had occurred naturally.

However, the damage is now more extensive than it would have been had Ms Hunter been treated earlier.

She has been told she will need pelvic reconstruction surgery before she can have another operation to try to fix her intestines. She is on a waiting list for the first procedure and has spoken to Sussex Police about her experience.

Former NHS colleagues have also raised concerns to the BBC about Mr Lamah, but he continues to practise at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

"I think it's disgusting. That man shouldn't be allowed to touch any other patients," said Ms Hunter.

"I was told Marc Lamah has a terrible bedside manner, but he's a fantastic surgeon.

"Marc Lamar has a terrible bedside manner, and he's a terrible surgeon. He shouldn't be allowed to operate, as far as I'm concerned."

'Robust systems'

In a statement, Prof Katie Urch, chief medical officer for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, told the BBC: "We can't publicly discuss an individual's care, but we absolutely understand the distress and difficulty anyone living with ongoing complex health issues can face.

"Our clinical teams are dedicated to understanding their patients' needs and providing the highest standard of care.

"Whilst no medical procedure can guarantee a successful outcome, our teams strive for the best possible results every day – and if we ever have cause to think we could have done more for a patient we have robust systems, including the routine use of independent experts, to help us learn and improve."

Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

Every political campaign needs a good slogan – a snappy phrase to energise voters and skewer opponents.

Some slogans resonate beyond polling day, capturing a national mood or a moment in time - Barack Obama's "Yes, We Can", perhaps, or the Brexit campaign's "Take Back Control".

Others are dead on arrival – clunky, overcomplicated and unmemorable, capturing nothing much beyond the desperation of the committee that devised them.

Now political strategist and pollster Chris Bruni-Lowe claims to have cracked the formula for creating the perfect slogan.

He has analysed 20,000 campaign messages from around the world to come up with eight words that, he says, have been proven to resonate with voters of all political persuasions.

They are: people, better, democracy, new, time, strong, change, together.

He is quick to stress, in his new book Eight Words That Changed The World, that they are not a guarantee of electoral success. They will not help if the candidate using them is an uncharismatic dud, with unpopular policies.

And they can not just be combined in a random order – Strong New Time or People Better Change – to produce results.

They are, rather, "emotional shortcuts", or building blocks for slogan-writers that work across cultures and even languages, Bruni-Lowe says.

"Voters instinctively know what 'people', 'better' or 'together' promise without needing a policy paper.

"They are also remarkably elastic: a socialist in South Africa, a conservative in Luxembourg and a populist in Hungary can all bend the same word to their own story."

The most commonly used word in winning campaigns is "people", according to Bruni- Lowe's analysis - he cites Bill Clinton's 1992 "Putting People First" and "For People, For a Change" as examples of slogans that made a real difference, allowing the presidential candidate to play to his strengths as a "people person" in contrast to his stiff opponent George HW Bush.

But isn't there a danger that following this formula will result in bland, catch-all slogans?

Some of the most effective ones - such as Boris Johnson's 2019 general election slogan "Get Brexit Done" - were devised with a single purpose in mind.

(As were some of the worst, such as "Vote for Al Smith and he'll make your wet dreams come true". The anti-prohibitionist Smith - who wanted to legalise alcohol sales - failed to win the 1928 US presidency.)

Bruni-Lowe argues that "bespoke" slogans like "Get Brexit Done" are the exceptions that prove his rule.

"Bespoke slogans explode when one unresolved grievance crowds out every other issue and a decisive-looking outsider offers a three-word cure; they're brilliant for that election, but useless the moment the storm moves on."

Bruni-Lowe's own contributions to the genre include "Change Politics For Good", for Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, and "It's Time", for Jakov Milatovic's successful 2023 bid to be president of Montenegro on a campaign to get his country to join the EU.

He devotes a chapter of his book to "Make America Great Again" (MAGA), another slogan that does not conform to his rules.

Donald Trump claims to have dreamed it up in 2012, sitting at his desk on the 26th floor of Trump Tower, but "great again" as a political rallying cry dates back more than a century, according to Bruni-Lowe.

In 1950, the Conservative Party unsuccessfully fought a general election on the promise to "Make Britain Great Again". Ronald Reagan had more success in 1980 when he used the slogan "Let's Make America Great Again".

Whether Trump knew any of this when he claimed to have invented the phrase is, in the end, irrelevant, argues Bruni-Lowe - he managed to turn MAGA into brand, and a dividing line that, for better or worse, has reshaped American politics.

He even registering it with US Trademark Office, for a fee of $325, to prevent other politicians using it.

In the UK, the Brexit campaign's "Take Back Control" is probably the most memorable slogan of recent years.

It was part of a trend for shorter, snappier slogans - with the three word formula briefly being seen as a key to success.

Last year, Labour's landslide winning general election campaign boiled its message down to a single word - "Change".

The Conservative slogan - in case you have forgotten it - was "Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future".

But soon there may not be any slogans at all, in the traditional sense.

Artificial Intelligence is increasingly being used to craft messages tailored to the concerns of individual voters, delivered through social media and constantly refined to have the maximum impact.

Bruni-Lowe also highlights a growing interest in neuroscience, and the use of tools such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, which measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow.

This allows researchers to study how people respond neurologically to political stimuli such as campaign ads, speeches and election slogans.

Such trends could fundamentally change democratic politics, reshaping elected representatives' relationship with voters.

They could also rob us of some irritatingly catchy election slogans.

Few fit that bill more than one of the first ever political ads shown on US television, in 1952.

The 60 second spot was aimed at putting a human face on the Republican candidate, the former supreme commander of allied forces in Europe Dwight E Eisenhower, who was widely known by his nickname Ike.

Featuring an insanely infectious jingle by composer Irving Berlin, "I like Ike" was a Disney cartoon aimed at the broadest possible audience,

It was so successful his campaign team saw no need to change the formula for his re-election bid, adding just one word, before, presumably, heading off for an early lunch.

"I still like Ike" doesn't fit Chris Bruni-Lowe's formula - but it did prove to be another winner.

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A surgeon banned from working for a private healthcare company, following an investigation into patient safety, continues to work in the NHS, the BBC understands.

Nuffield Health has stopped Marc Lamah from working in their hospitals, but he is still operating on patients for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust.

An NHS patient left with a twisted bowel following an operation he carried out said he should never work again.

Mr Lamah did not respond to the BBC's request for comment sent via his employer.

In January the BBC revealed concerns had been raised about Mr Lamah's complication rate and that he was no longer practising at Nuffield Health's hospital in Brighton pending an investigation.

A former employee at the hospital told the BBC that internal data showed one third of Mr Lamah's patients had experienced a "moderate harm event", where, for instance, a patient had to be transferred to another hospital or re-admitted, over a 12-month period. The figure should be 5%, the BBC was told.

In a statement to the BBC, Nuffield Health said following an independent investigation, "we can confirm Mr Lamah's practicing privileges with Nuffield Health have been withdrawn.

"His conduct did not meet the standards of medical practice and governance we expect. Patient safety is our top priority, and we hold all consultants to the highest standards."

Mr Lamah continues to operate as a colorectal surgeon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

The University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust, which runs the hospital, told the BBC it had audited Mr Lamah's NHS data, which showed his outcomes were within the expected national range. The trust added that Nuffield's investigation had found "no concerns with regard to technical abilities, surgical practice or patient safety".

The trust is at the centre of a large police investigation, Operation Bramber, looking into at least 200 cases of alleged medical negligence.

Sussex Police is examining concerns about avoidable harm and cover-ups in the trust's neurosurgery and general surgery departments between 2015 and 2021.

The trust runs seven hospitals across East and West Sussex and is one of the largest organisations within the NHS, providing care to a population of almost two million people.

Sheryl Hunter says she has suffered "five years of hell" after an NHS operation carried out by Mr Lamah. She has to manually excavate her bowels and has needed several emergency admissions.

After suffering from endometriosis for a number of years, in 2019 doctors decided that Ms Hunter, a mother of one, needed an operation to ease her pain.

Mr Lamah decided the best approach was to remove a part of her large intestine, the colon, and connect it to her small intestine.

A few days after she was discharged, said Ms Hunter, "I felt something pop, and this very awful fluid was coming out of me".

She was rushed back to the Royal Sussex where they discovered the joint between the two intestines had torn, and "for 10 days it had been filling up my abdomen with bowel matter."

This is a known complication of this type of surgery, the BBC understands.

• Cases double in NHS trust death and injury investigation

• Families back hospital trust manslaughter probe

Despite that problem being resolved, Ms Hunter continued to suffer extreme pain for several years, necessitating repeated visits to both her GP and the Royal Sussex hospital.

She said: "I have very little good days. By that, I mean I am curled up in a ball crying.

"When I try to go to the toilet, I scream on the toilet in tears because it is so painful to go, to open up my bowels. I have to manually do that, which means I have to wear gloves.

"The pain is very severe – it's in my stomach, it gets into my spine, down my legs, my arms."

Letters shared with the BBC by Ms Hunter show her GP wrote to Mr Lamah repeatedly requesting he see her again.

In January, 2023 the GP wrote that "we have written to you on multiple occasions to review her and discuss her options".

A few days later Mr Lamah replied to say he had not received any previous letters.

But almost 12 months later, in December 2023, the GP wrote another letter urging Mr Lamah to see her.

Ms Hunter told the BBC he was "begged" by colleagues to see her but "he refused".

Finally, in April 2024, she was seen by another consultant at a different hospital run by the same trust - the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath - when she found out what was causing her pain.

"The main problem is a 180 degree twist on the small bowel causing an internal hernia and twisting the anastomosis [the surgical joint]," said the discharge sheet given to Ms Hunter by the hospital after the procedure.

"When they did the reconnection [of the intestines], they put it on backwards," Sheryl said she was told.

"That [creates] a risk of rupture. If you rupture, it's a two-hour window before death.

"Had I not been manually opening my bowels for five years, they said that would have happened."

The trust said surgical error was only presented as one of a range of possibilities.

The BBC passed the details to an independent medical expert who said the twist "certainly is a consequence of the 2019 operation".

The trust said only a further operation would confirm if Mr Lamah had made an error or whether the twist had occurred naturally.

However, the damage is now more extensive than it would have been had Ms Hunter been treated earlier.

She has been told she will need pelvic reconstruction surgery before she can have another operation to try to fix her intestines. She is on a waiting list for the first procedure and has spoken to Sussex Police about her experience.

Former NHS colleagues have also raised concerns to the BBC about Mr Lamah, but he continues to practise at the Royal Sussex County Hospital.

"I think it's disgusting. That man shouldn't be allowed to touch any other patients," said Ms Hunter.

"I was told Marc Lamah has a terrible bedside manner, but he's a fantastic surgeon.

"Marc Lamar has a terrible bedside manner, and he's a terrible surgeon. He shouldn't be allowed to operate, as far as I'm concerned."

'Robust systems'

In a statement, Prof Katie Urch, chief medical officer for the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, told the BBC: "We can't publicly discuss an individual's care, but we absolutely understand the distress and difficulty anyone living with ongoing complex health issues can face.

"Our clinical teams are dedicated to understanding their patients' needs and providing the highest standard of care.

"Whilst no medical procedure can guarantee a successful outcome, our teams strive for the best possible results every day – and if we ever have cause to think we could have done more for a patient we have robust systems, including the routine use of independent experts, to help us learn and improve."

Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

A man has been stabbed to death outside a five-star hotel in west London.

Police, paramedics and London's Air Ambulance were called to the Park Tower Hotel on Seville Street, Knightsbridge, just before 21:30 BST on Wednesday.

Paramedics treated the 24-year-old for knife wounds but he died at the scene, the Metropolitan Police said. No arrests have been made but officers are working "to establish the circumstances of what happened".

A spokesperson for the hotel said the incident did not involve any of its guests or staff.

The area where the incident happened is generally known for its luxury shopping, multimillion-pound residences and landmarks like Harrods and Hyde Park.

Police have closed off the pavement surrounding the hotel and adjacent restaurant Nusr-Et, run by Turkish chef Nusret Gokce, aka "Salt Bae".

Supt Owen Renowden, who leads policing in Kensington and Chelsea, said: "We are aware of reports that this incident was a robbery.

"Although this is an active line of inquiry, we are keeping an open mind about all possible motives and the exact circumstances are still to be determined.

"We understand the impact this incident will have on the local community and you will see extra officers in the area to help answer any questions or concerns."

The man's family have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers.

Kaya Comer-Schwartz, London's deputy mayor for policing and crime, called the stabbing "appalling" and said there would be "increased high-visibility police patrols" in the area.

She said: "Knife crime has no place in our streets of communities."

In July 2021, an Omani student Mohammed Al-Araimi, 20, was stabbed to death outside nearby Harrods in an attempted watch robbery.

Badir Al-Nazi was subsequently sentenced to a minimum of 27 years in prison for his murder.

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

The police have declared a major incident over a bonfire in south Belfast that is due to be lit on Friday as part of annual Twelfth events across Northern Ireland.

Belfast City Council have requested the police assist contractors to dismantle the bonfire before it is lit.

There are concerns that the power supply to Belfast City Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital would be put at risk because the bonfire lies near a major electricity substation.

On Thursday afternoon, bonfire builders voluntarily removed tiers of pallets from the top of the bonfire and told BBC News NI the action was an "olive branch" to those concerned.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said no decision had been taken on assisting the removal of the bonfire and they continued to work with agencies and community representatives on this matter.

Bonfires are lit as part of Eleventh night celebrations in some unionist areas of Northern Ireland, to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading season.

The Twelfth commemorates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III - also known as King Billy and William of Orange - defeated Catholic King James II.

Bonfires were lit on 11 July to welcome - and guide - William.

There are separate concerns about the presence of asbestos at the bonfire site which is between the Donegall Road and the Westlink and the council voted to write to the environment minister to act immediately to have it removed.

The Deputy First Minister and DUP MLA, Emma Little-Pengelly, said: "No one wants anyone to be hurt or for there to be any risks to health or wellbeing".

On Facebook she said those involved in the bonfire had engaged for "some time" on "size and other mitigations" and she believed that would continue.

Earlier, Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that the police had a "responsibility" in the situation.

He said the issue had only been brought into the public domain because it is "the first time a bonfire has been held in this site".

He also called on action from the landowner and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) regarding the asbestos.

Sheehan had also urged unionist politicians to "show leadership" and said Emma Little Pengelly "should be out today calling for that bonfire to be dismantled. Where is her leadership?"

Residents of the Village area of Belfast, where the bonfire is situated, said the bonfire means "everything".

"This bonfire has been going for all of our generations… and we want our next generations to know our culture. This isn't to get up anybody's nose.

"The children of this area have been collecting for the bonfire since Christmas time."

Billy Garrett, another resident, said there was "a lot of frustration".

"It's just another attack on our culture and our traditions. We don't see any harm in what we're doing here, especially in the Village area of south Belfast. It's just knocking the heart out of everyone," he told BBC News NI.

He said the organisers of the bonfire site had been making sure it was safe since September last year.

"They've went through all the proper people to make sure it is safe for everyone in the community."

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson planned to take legal action to stop the bonfire being dismantled and has questioned the decision-making process behind the vote.

However, the council rejected claims that the decision to dismantle the bonfire breached legal guidelines and said the move was part of its "emergency" decision-making processes.

It also said it was in line with the rules of council, those cases on which an "inability to immediately implement a decision would result in a breach of statutory or contractual duty".

Power for hospitals

Belfast Health Trust said the bonfire was near a substation that supplies both hospitals.

Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said it had expressed concerns over the bonfire's "proximity to the substation causing potential risk to critical infrastructure and power outages".

The trust said it had contingency measures including back-up generators and it was confident there was no need to cancel any planned treatments or procedures.

The NIEA said it was first alerted to the issues of asbestos near the bonfire on 16 May and had been engaging with the landowner and the city council regularly since then.

An inspection was carried out and the NIEA said if the asbestos was not cleared by 11 July, "mitigating measures" would need to be put in place.

Tensions are escalated

The PSNI appears to have been put between a rock and a hard place here by a political decision at the 11th hour.

One of its considerations is most certainly: Would any operation trigger disorder which could spread to other areas?

Just 36 hours ago, the PSNI felt the mood music going into the 12th of July was pretty positive.

Now we have a significant bonfire row which has escalated tensions.

We saw evidence last night of how the local community has reacted to the prospect of a police operation.

Site entrances were blocked, a protest took place on the road, people were in an around the bonfire, and there is also a risk it could be lit early if any operation is mobilised.

Who owns the site?

The landowners, Boron Developments, bought the site in the summer of 2017 and were made aware of asbestos at that time.

Boron Developments have said it engaged a waste management company to remove the asbestos but the company needed "no personnel" on the site in order to complete the removal of asbestos.

Due to people "bringing in materials and building the bonfire" the company told the landowners it could not complete its work.

Belfast City Council said while the lands at the site remained "the responsibility of the landowner" the council and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) were "working together in relation to this site".

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said it had put in place mitigations "over the past week including the further covering of the asbestos containing material, the use of fire-retardant material and the erection of additional fencing".

'Quite something for the women's game'

The police have declared a major incident over a bonfire in south Belfast that is due to be lit on Friday as part of annual Twelfth events across Northern Ireland.

Belfast City Council have requested the police assist contractors to dismantle the bonfire before it is lit.

There are concerns that the power supply to Belfast City Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital would be put at risk because the bonfire lies near a major electricity substation.

On Thursday afternoon, bonfire builders voluntarily removed tiers of pallets from the top of the bonfire and told BBC News NI the action was an "olive branch" to those concerned.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said no decision had been taken on assisting the removal of the bonfire and they continued to work with agencies and community representatives on this matter.

Bonfires are lit as part of Eleventh night celebrations in some unionist areas of Northern Ireland, to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading season.

The Twelfth commemorates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III - also known as King Billy and William of Orange - defeated Catholic King James II.

Bonfires were lit on 11 July to welcome - and guide - William.

There are separate concerns about the presence of asbestos at the bonfire site which is between the Donegall Road and the Westlink and the council voted to write to the environment minister to act immediately to have it removed.

The Deputy First Minister and DUP MLA, Emma Little-Pengelly, said: "No one wants anyone to be hurt or for there to be any risks to health or wellbeing".

On Facebook she said those involved in the bonfire had engaged for "some time" on "size and other mitigations" and she believed that would continue.

Earlier, Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that the police had a "responsibility" in the situation.

He said the issue had only been brought into the public domain because it is "the first time a bonfire has been held in this site".

He also called on action from the landowner and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) regarding the asbestos.

Sheehan had also urged unionist politicians to "show leadership" and said Emma Little Pengelly "should be out today calling for that bonfire to be dismantled. Where is her leadership?"

Residents of the Village area of Belfast, where the bonfire is situated, said the bonfire means "everything".

"This bonfire has been going for all of our generations… and we want our next generations to know our culture. This isn't to get up anybody's nose.

"The children of this area have been collecting for the bonfire since Christmas time."

Billy Garrett, another resident, said there was "a lot of frustration".

"It's just another attack on our culture and our traditions. We don't see any harm in what we're doing here, especially in the Village area of south Belfast. It's just knocking the heart out of everyone," he told BBC News NI.

He said the organisers of the bonfire site had been making sure it was safe since September last year.

"They've went through all the proper people to make sure it is safe for everyone in the community."

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson planned to take legal action to stop the bonfire being dismantled and has questioned the decision-making process behind the vote.

However, the council rejected claims that the decision to dismantle the bonfire breached legal guidelines and said the move was part of its "emergency" decision-making processes.

It also said it was in line with the rules of council, those cases on which an "inability to immediately implement a decision would result in a breach of statutory or contractual duty".

Power for hospitals

Belfast Health Trust said the bonfire was near a substation that supplies both hospitals.

Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said it had expressed concerns over the bonfire's "proximity to the substation causing potential risk to critical infrastructure and power outages".

The trust said it had contingency measures including back-up generators and it was confident there was no need to cancel any planned treatments or procedures.

The NIEA said it was first alerted to the issues of asbestos near the bonfire on 16 May and had been engaging with the landowner and the city council regularly since then.

An inspection was carried out and the NIEA said if the asbestos was not cleared by 11 July, "mitigating measures" would need to be put in place.

Tensions are escalated

The PSNI appears to have been put between a rock and a hard place here by a political decision at the 11th hour.

One of its considerations is most certainly: Would any operation trigger disorder which could spread to other areas?

Just 36 hours ago, the PSNI felt the mood music going into the 12th of July was pretty positive.

Now we have a significant bonfire row which has escalated tensions.

We saw evidence last night of how the local community has reacted to the prospect of a police operation.

Site entrances were blocked, a protest took place on the road, people were in an around the bonfire, and there is also a risk it could be lit early if any operation is mobilised.

Who owns the site?

The landowners, Boron Developments, bought the site in the summer of 2017 and were made aware of asbestos at that time.

Boron Developments have said it engaged a waste management company to remove the asbestos but the company needed "no personnel" on the site in order to complete the removal of asbestos.

Due to people "bringing in materials and building the bonfire" the company told the landowners it could not complete its work.

Belfast City Council said while the lands at the site remained "the responsibility of the landowner" the council and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) were "working together in relation to this site".

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said it had put in place mitigations "over the past week including the further covering of the asbestos containing material, the use of fire-retardant material and the erection of additional fencing".

US President Donald Trump has praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for speaking "good English" and asked him where he went to school.

What Trump might have missed is that Liberia shares a unique and long-standing connection with the US.

English is the country's official language and many Liberians speak with an American accent because of those historical ties to the US.

It may have been this accent that Trump picked up on.

Here are five things to know about the country:

Founded by freed slaves

Liberia was founded by freed African-American slaves in 1822 before declaring independence in 1847.

Thousands of black Americans and liberated Africans - rescued from transatlantic slave ships - settled in Liberia during the colonial era.

Former US President Abraham Lincoln officially declared Liberia's independence in 1862 but the country retained a lot of US heritage and it remained in the American "sphere of influence" during the colonial period.

Due to this integration, Liberian culture, landmarks, and institutions have a heavy African-American influence.

Ten of Liberia's 26 presidents were born in the US.

The capital is named after a former US president

Liberia's capital, Monrovia, was named in honour of America's 5th President, James Monroe, who was a strong supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS).

The ACS was the organisation responsible for resettling freed African-Americans in West Africa - which eventually led to the founding of Liberia.

Not surprisingly the early architecture of the city was largely influenced by American-style buildings.

Many streets in Monrovia are named after colonial American figures, reflecting the city's founding and historical ties to the US.

Nearly identical flags

The flag of Liberia closely resembles the American flag. It features 11 alternating red and white stripes and a blue square with a single white star.

The white star symbolises Liberia as the first independent republic in Africa.

The US flag, in comparison, has 13 stripes representing the original 13 colonies and 50 stars, one for each state.

The Liberian flag was designed by seven black women - all born in America.

Ex-president's son plays for US football team

Timothy Weah, the son of Liberia's former President George Weah, is an American professional soccer player who plays for Italian club Juventus as well as the US national team.

The 25-year-old forward was born in the US but began his professional career with Paris St-Germain in France, where he won the Ligue 1 title before moving on loan to the Scottish team, Celtic.

His father, George, is a Liberian football legend who won the Ballon d'Or in 1995 while playing for Juventus's Italian rivals AC Milan. He is the only African winner of this award - and went on to be elected president in 2018.

Former president won the Nobel Peace Prize

Liberia produced Africa's first elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

She was elected in 2005, two years after the nation's bloody civil war ended, and served as president until 2018.

Sirleaf has a strong American background as she studied at Madison Business College and later went to Harvard University where she graduated as an economist.

She has received worldwide recognition and accolades for maintaining peace during her administration.

Her story is pitted with remarkable feats of defiance and courage.

In 2011, along with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karmān, she won the Nobel Prize for Peace for her efforts to further women's rights.

In 2016, Forbes listed her among the most powerful women in the world.

What do Liberians make of the comments?

There has been a mixed reaction.

Accountant Joseph Manley, 40, told the BBC that Trump should have been properly briefed before meeting Liberia's leader.

"Liberia has always been an English-speaking country. Our president represents a country with a rich educational tradition."

For human resources professional Henrietta Peter-Mogballah, The US president's surprise at Boakai's eloquence reflects a broader problem of global ignorance about African nations and its peoples.

"From travel experiences and observations, most citizens of other nations outside Africa do not know a lot about African countries," she said. "The few that know a little, their minds are clouded by narratives of war, poverty, and lack of education."

While many have criticised Trump, others see nothing wrong in his comments.

"I believe President Trump's remark was a genuine compliment on President Boakai's command of English," lawyer and politician Kanio Gbala told the BBC. "There is no evidence of sarcasm. Reading it as disrespectful may reflect political agendas."

More about Liberia from the BBC:

• Why Trump invited five African leaders to the White House
• Liberian president killed in coup gets state funeral after 45 years
• How President Joseph Boakai hopes to rid Liberia of its problems
• Liberia's war and peace: Lessons from 30 years' reporting

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

Prices for all-inclusive family package holidays in some of the most popular desinations have soared over the past year.

But there are ways of saving money if you want to escape abroad. Here are six tips to help keep costs down.

1. Book early for July and August

The price you pay for your accommodation depends on when you book.

July and August are the peak months for summer holidays, not just for Brits but for people in other parts of Europe.

"If you've ever been to Paris in August there's hardly anyone there, everybody goes to the beach or heads for the mountains," says Sean Tipton, spokesperson for The Travel Association (ABTA), which represents tour operators and travel agents.

"That's when the hotels put their prices up," he says. Therefore, it is usually cheaper to book a holiday aboard for June or September.

If you do have to go during the peak months, Mr Tipton says: "It is generally a good idea to book it as early as you can.

"It can be a bit of a lottery because you can't 100% predict what the demand will be but as a rule of thumb in the majority of cases if you know you're travelling in July, August or over Christmas or Easter, book early."

2. Fly mid-week and early in the morning

The best time to travel is the middle of the week, according to Mr Tipton.

"The weekend is the most expensive time to go because people prefer to fly over the weekend so if you fly mid-week it is generally cheaper," he says.

"Just simple little things like that get the price down."

The same goes for the time of the day you travel.

"It is common sense really," he says. "I don't particularly like getting up at 3am for a 6am flight and I'm not alone in that so those flights will be consequently cheaper."

3. Book a hotel room late

If you have some flexibility around when you can travel, there are some last minute bargains to be had.

Package holiday operators may have booked a lot of hotel space in advance which they may not have been able to sell at the holiday date approaches.

"They'll discount it just to make sure they get something for it," says Mr Tipton.

"Travel agents get sent notifications of last minute good deals so they're a good place to go if you've left it late and you want a good, cheap deal."

Another option is house-swapping. Instead of paying for a hotel or villa, people can register with an online platform which acts as a fixer between homeowners in different countries who want to stay in other's houses.

Justine Palefsky, co-founder and chief executive of Kindred, says that people who register with her site pay only a service and a cleaning fee.

For example, someone booking a seven night stay at a three bedroom house in Majorca would pay a $140 (£103) service fee to Kindred as well as $140 for cleaning before and after a stay in the house.

Ms Hawkes advises that travellers go through a reputable site if they are choosing a house-swap.

"People need to be wary of social media ads at this time of year, advertising cheap holidays because scammers do tend to use those portals to show you images of a wonderful location.

"Then when you book it and do you bank transfer, you find it doesn't exsist," she says.

She recommends doing a reverse image search on websites such as Google to check the images haven't been lifted from somewhere else to promote a home that doesn't exist.

4. Pay in the local currency

Avoid changing money at the airport, says Alastair Douglas, chief executive at TotallyMoney, a price comparison site.

"Airports are normally the most expensive places to change cash," he says.

Instead, change your money well in advance.

Mr Douglas says that if people are worried about exhange rate shifting between booking a holiday and the date of departure they can "hedge their bets" by changing half in advance and half nearer the time.

However, he says that people don't really travel with lots of cash anymore. Most spending is done on cards.

This is a good thing, Mr Douglas says, because it will often allow you to select the local currency which is "probably the thing that will save you the most amount of money".

5. Weigh your bags

Even before you reach your destination, costs can pile up. Make sure you print out your boarding pass ahead of time.

"Some airlines can charge a lot of money just to print out at the airport," says Nicky Kelvin, editor at The Points Guy website. "Not all of them but just be safe."

If you're bringing a small suitcase on board the plane, bear in mind both the weight and the size of the luggage if you have to measure it in a metal sizer at the airport.

If it doesn't fit, you may be charged a fee to check it into the plane's hold.

Ms Hawkes recommends documenting the luggage dimensions an airline provides on its website just in case you have followed them but get to the airport and discover your bag does not fit.

"In that case, if the airline makes you put it in the hold and you've adhered to their website conditions, document everything and make a complaint after," she says.

6. Buy toiletries in advance

Food, drink and toiletries are often more expensive at the airport.

One of the reasons, according to Mr Kelvin, is because of the 100ml onboard liquid rule. While restrictions have recently been relaxed at airports in Edinburgh and Birmingham, it applies everywhere else in the UK.

One way to cut costs is to order your suncream or other toiletries online and pick them up in-store at the airport once you've been through security.

Some retailers allow you to do this, Mr Kelvin tells the BBC's Morning Live programme.

"So it's a double whammy - you're going to save because you're going to get the cheaper online pricing and you're going to avoid the security issue because you're going to pick up your big liquids after."

Another cost-saving tip is to take a water bottle with you. Most airports have free water refill stations.

He also recommends taking along your own snacks in lunch boxes, especially handy if you're travelling with children.

The UK will begin returning migrants arriving in small boats to France within weeks under a new pilot scheme, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Under the "one in one out" deal, some arrivals would be detained and returned to France and in exchange the UK would accept an equivalent number of asylum seekers, subject to security checks and provided they had not tried to enter the UK illegally.

Speaking at a press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Sir Keir said the plan would demonstrate that trying to make the Channel crossing would "be in vain".

He did not confirm how many people would be returned or accepted during the pilot.

Asked if the deal would be big enough to act as an effective deterrent, Sir Keir said the pilot would help "break the model" of the people smugglers, and added that it would be ramped up if it was successful.

The migrants accepted by the UK would need to have a connection to Britain, such as family ties.

In a statement released after the press conference, the government said the agreement would be signed "subject to completing prior legal scrutiny in full transparency and understanding with the Commission and EU Member states".

Macron said he was "totally committed" to the plans to tackle small boat crossings.

He also said Brexit had made it harder for the UK to tackle illegal migration arguing that the British people were "sold a lie... which is that the problem was Europe".

During the press conference, the two leaders also announced that their countries would:

• co-ordinate their nuclear deterrents
• strengthen collaboration on supercomputers and AI
• "speed up and accelerate" co-operation on anti-ship missiles.

Announcing the small boats pilot, Sir Keir said: "I know some people will still ask, why should we take anyone in - so let me address that directly.

"We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need.

"But there is also something else, something more practical which is that we simply cannot solve a challenge like stopping the boats by acting alone and telling our allies that we won't play ball."

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the deal would "only return one in every 17 illegal immigrants arriving".

"Allowing 94% of illegal immigrants to stay will make no difference whatsoever and have no deterrent effect."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the crossings are "a national security emergency" and in a reference to payments made by the UK to support French policing efforts added: "Frankly the French owe us our money back."

He said he didn't believe the pilot would work, saying: "If we even try to deport people across the Channel, we will run straight into the European Convention on Human Rights."

Both the previous Conservative governments and current Labour one have struggled to stem the numbers coming to the UK in small boats.

The Conservatives had proposed sending arrivals to Rwanda, however the scheme was delayed by legal challenges and the general election was called before it could be implemented.

One of Sir Keir's first acts as prime minister was to scrap the plan, calling it a gimmick.

He said his government would focus instead on tackling the smuggling gangs that organise the crossings.

Numbers have continued to rise, with nearly 20,000 people arriving in the UK in the first half of this year – a 48% increase on the same time period in 2024.

The returns deal is designed as a deterrent to stop the boats. But the announcement of a pilot for a 'one-in-one-out' scheme is just the first step in what could be a very complicated process.

The plan proposes that for each migrant the UK returns to France, another migrant with a strong case for asylum in Britain will come the other way. The Home Office would not speculate on how many people would actually be expelled weekly, noting that the number may vary during the pilot stage of the scheme.

During a press conference Sir Keir Starmer gave with France's President Emmanuel Macron this afternoon, the prime minister also would not be drawn into the details, and said discussing them could undermine "how this will operate".

Details aside, the agreement is likely to encounter legal, political and practical obstacles, and the need to demonstrate 'proof of concept' will not be straightforward.

However, the legal principle behind the idea is broadly sound. The UN Refugee Convention does not allow migrants to choose where they claim asylum, so there is nothing necessarily unlawful about people being sent from Britain to France for processing.

The previous government's Rwanda scheme struggled to get off the ground because the courts were persuaded the East African country was not safe enough to be compliant with the demands of the convention. France, however, would not raise such concerns.

Legal challenges are likely to be about the details of the process. Is the system of selection fair? What might happen to people when they reach France?

One political hurdle will be convincing EU member states that Britain's migrants will not end up back in their territory. Information stored on the EU's Eurodac asylum database, unavailable to Britain since Brexit, might be used to identify migrants who had previously claimed asylum in another European state.

As well as legal challenges regarding returning people to France, there may be practical difficulties in deciding which migrants in France should be sent to the UK. Who will make those decisions and on what basis?

Britain has long resisted the idea that asylum claims can be assessed beyond this country's border, fearing such a facility would become a magnet for migrants seeking a new life across the Channel.

However, there is a precedent for a scheme to identify asylum seekers with a strong case for being awarded refugee status in the UK.

In 2002, Britain and France jointly worked on a plan to close the Sangatte camp of migrants trying to get to the UK. As part of that arrangement, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) oversaw a registration process conducted by British officials in France, deciding which migrants should be given permission to pursue their asylum claim in Britain.

The details of every aspect of today's Anglo-French arrangement will need to be tested. No wonder officials want the scheme to start small.

And will it work? It is very hard to comprehend how migrants balance the risks and opportunities when deciding whether or not to board a flimsy dinghy.

The pilot scheme being proposed is probably not at a large enough scale to act as a serious deterrent, but officials believe the arrangement has the potential to be a powerful weapon in the battle to stop the boats.

Even if the arrangement can be shown to work, there will then be questions about the cost and practicalities of scaling it up to a level that will make desperate migrants waiting in the Calais camps think again about attempting to cross the Channel.

A police officer has told a jury she was "absolutely terrified" after she was floored with a punch to the face as she tried to arrest an assault suspect at Manchester Airport.

Greater Manchester PC Lydia Ward suffered a broken nose in the incident at the Terminal 2 car park pay station area on 23 July last year.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, are accused of assault. Both men, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, deny the allegations.

PC Ward told the trial she remembered "falling on the floor and everything went black" after a "really forceful" blow to her face.

The court heard PC Ward and two colleagues had approached Mr Amaaz at a ticket machine after a report that a male fitting his description had headbutted a customer at Starbucks cafe in T2 arrivals.

The jury has heard Mr Amaaz allegedly resisted, and his brother, Mr Amaad is then said to have intervened as the prosecution claimed they inflicted a "high level of violence" on the officers.

PC Ward said: "I was trying to keep hold of Mr Amaaz's arm and get it behind his back so I could get some cuffs on him."

She said she recalled that PC Zachary Marsden fell or was pushed towards some seats and that Mr Amaaz then kicked out at her colleague.

'Nobody helped'

PC Ward added: "I tried to grab him off so he could stop kicking PC Marsden. All I remember then is that he turned and he punched me straight in the face."

"I can't really remember where it landed but I know where my injuries were. I remember falling on the floor and everything went black."

She told prosecutor Adam Birkby that the blow delivered was "really forceful".

"As I came round, all I could feel was blood pouring out of my nose. I was just thinking he has done something to my nose, face area, I didn't know what has happened."

"I was terrified to be honest. I was absolutely terrified. I had never experienced that level of violence towards me in my life.

"I didn't know who was going to come up at me next. I was scared of going after this male again and being punched in the face again."

She said at one point she pressed her police radio emergency button to call for further assistance but the impact of the punch had knocked the battery out.

PC Ward told the court that other people in the pay station area were "shouting stuff" and "filming on their mobile phones".

She said: "Nobody came to assist. I felt everyone in that room was against us. To be honest, I was terrified."

'Taken by surprise'

Rosemary Fernandes, representing Mr Amaaz, put it to PC Ward that her client was "taken by surprise" at the ticket machine and was "shocked".

She said: "It is important you identify yourselves as police officers, isn't it?"

PC Ward said: "I don't think we had any time to do that. We didn't have any time for rational discussion with this male as it turned violently quickly."

Ms Fernandes said: "I put it to you that the defendant believed he was being attacked from behind and it all happened extremely fast.

"It is the defence's case that he punched you in lawful self-defence on the basis that you were an assailant. Do you have any comment on that?"

PC Ward said: "I don't know how he felt I was an assailant. He turned towards me and punched me in the face.

"He could see I was a police officer and he could see I was a female as well."

Footage from a body-worn video camera was played to the jury which showed a bloodied and crying PC Ward being comforted by a colleague in the aftermath of the incident.

Mr Amaaz is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden and PC Ward, causing them actual bodily harm.

He is also accused of the assault of PC Cook and the assault of Abdulkareem Ismaeil at Starbucks.

Mr Amaad is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden, causing actual bodily harm.

Both men deny the allegations.

The trial continues.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Manchester on Sounds and follow BBC Manchester on Facebook, X, and Instagram. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.

Prices for all-inclusive family package holidays in some of the most popular desinations have soared over the past year.

But there are ways of saving money if you want to escape abroad. Here are six tips to help keep costs down.

1. Book early for July and August

The price you pay for your accommodation depends on when you book.

July and August are the peak months for summer holidays, not just for Brits but for people in other parts of Europe.

"If you've ever been to Paris in August there's hardly anyone there, everybody goes to the beach or heads for the mountains," says Sean Tipton, spokesperson for The Travel Association (ABTA), which represents tour operators and travel agents.

"That's when the hotels put their prices up," he says. Therefore, it is usually cheaper to book a holiday aboard for June or September.

If you do have to go during the peak months, Mr Tipton says: "It is generally a good idea to book it as early as you can.

"It can be a bit of a lottery because you can't 100% predict what the demand will be but as a rule of thumb in the majority of cases if you know you're travelling in July, August or over Christmas or Easter, book early."

2. Fly mid-week and early in the morning

The best time to travel is the middle of the week, according to Mr Tipton.

"The weekend is the most expensive time to go because people prefer to fly over the weekend so if you fly mid-week it is generally cheaper," he says.

"Just simple little things like that get the price down."

The same goes for the time of the day you travel.

"It is common sense really," he says. "I don't particularly like getting up at 3am for a 6am flight and I'm not alone in that so those flights will be consequently cheaper."

3. Book a hotel room late

If you have some flexibility around when you can travel, there are some last minute bargains to be had.

Package holiday operators may have booked a lot of hotel space in advance which they may not have been able to sell at the holiday date approaches.

"They'll discount it just to make sure they get something for it," says Mr Tipton.

"Travel agents get sent notifications of last minute good deals so they're a good place to go if you've left it late and you want a good, cheap deal."

Another option is house-swapping. Instead of paying for a hotel or villa, people can register with an online platform which acts as a fixer between homeowners in different countries who want to stay in other's houses.

Justine Palefsky, co-founder and chief executive of Kindred, says that people who register with her site pay only a service and a cleaning fee.

For example, someone booking a seven night stay at a three bedroom house in Majorca would pay a $140 (£103) service fee to Kindred as well as $140 for cleaning before and after a stay in the house.

Ms Hawkes advises that travellers go through a reputable site if they are choosing a house-swap.

"People need to be wary of social media ads at this time of year, advertising cheap holidays because scammers do tend to use those portals to show you images of a wonderful location.

"Then when you book it and do you bank transfer, you find it doesn't exsist," she says.

She recommends doing a reverse image search on websites such as Google to check the images haven't been lifted from somewhere else to promote a home that doesn't exist.

4. Pay in the local currency

Avoid changing money at the airport, says Alastair Douglas, chief executive at TotallyMoney, a price comparison site.

"Airports are normally the most expensive places to change cash," he says.

Instead, change your money well in advance.

Mr Douglas says that if people are worried about exhange rate shifting between booking a holiday and the date of departure they can "hedge their bets" by changing half in advance and half nearer the time.

However, he says that people don't really travel with lots of cash anymore. Most spending is done on cards.

This is a good thing, Mr Douglas says, because it will often allow you to select the local currency which is "probably the thing that will save you the most amount of money".

5. Weigh your bags

Even before you reach your destination, costs can pile up. Make sure you print out your boarding pass ahead of time.

"Some airlines can charge a lot of money just to print out at the airport," says Nicky Kelvin, editor at The Points Guy website. "Not all of them but just be safe."

If you're bringing a small suitcase on board the plane, bear in mind both the weight and the size of the luggage if you have to measure it in a metal sizer at the airport.

If it doesn't fit, you may be charged a fee to check it into the plane's hold.

Ms Hawkes recommends documenting the luggage dimensions an airline provides on its website just in case you have followed them but get to the airport and discover your bag does not fit.

"In that case, if the airline makes you put it in the hold and you've adhered to their website conditions, document everything and make a complaint after," she says.

6. Buy toiletries in advance

Food, drink and toiletries are often more expensive at the airport.

One of the reasons, according to Mr Kelvin, is because of the 100ml onboard liquid rule. While restrictions have recently been relaxed at airports in Edinburgh and Birmingham, it applies everywhere else in the UK.

One way to cut costs is to order your suncream or other toiletries online and pick them up in-store at the airport once you've been through security.

Some retailers allow you to do this, Mr Kelvin tells the BBC's Morning Live programme.

"So it's a double whammy - you're going to save because you're going to get the cheaper online pricing and you're going to avoid the security issue because you're going to pick up your big liquids after."

Another cost-saving tip is to take a water bottle with you. Most airports have free water refill stations.

He also recommends taking along your own snacks in lunch boxes, especially handy if you're travelling with children.

Everyone agrees: it's getting worse.

The people of Kyiv have, like the citizens of other Ukrainian cities, been through a lot.

After three and a half years of fluctuating fortunes, they are tough and extremely resilient.

But in recent months, they have been experiencing something new: vast, coordinated waves of attacks from the air, involving hundreds of drones and missiles, often concentrated on a single city.

• Deadly new Russian drone and missile attack hits Kyiv

Last night, it was Kyiv. And the week before too. In between, it was Lutsk in the far west.

Three years ago, Iranian-supplied Shahed drones were a relative novelty. I remember hearing my first, buzzing a lazy arc across the night sky above the southern city of Zaporizhzhia in October 2022.

But now everyone is familiar with the sound, and its most fearsome recent iteration: a dive-bombing wail some have compared to the German World War Two Stuka aircraft.

The sound of swarms of approaching drones have sent hardened civilians back to bomb shelters, the metro and underground car parks for the first time since the early days of the war.

"The house shook like it was made of paper," Katya, a Kyiv resident, told me after last night's heavy bombardment.

"We spent the entire night sitting in the bathroom."

"I went to the parking for the first time," another resident, Svitlana, told me.

"The building shook and I could see fires across the river."

The attacks don't always claim lives, but they are spreading fear and eroding morale.

After an attack on a residential block in Kyiv last week, a shocked grandmother, Mariia, told me that her 11-year old grandson had turned to her, in the shelter, and said he understood the meaning of death for the first time.

He has every reason to be fearful. The UN's Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) says June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and over 1,300 injured.

Many will have been killed or wounded in communities close to the front lines, but others have been killed in cities far from the fighting.

"The surge in long-range missile and drone strikes across the country has brought even more death and destruction to civilians far away from the frontline," says Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU.

Modifications in the Shahed's design have allowed it to fly much higher than before and descend on its target from a greater altitude.

Its range has also increased, to around 2,500km, and it's capable of carrying a more deadly payload (up from around 50kg of explosive to 90kg).

Tracking maps produced by local experts show swirling masses of Shahed drones, sometimes taking circuitous routes across Ukraine before homing in on their targets.

Many – often as many as half – are decoys, designed to confuse and overwhelm Ukraine's air defences.

Other, straight lines show the paths of ballistic or cruise missiles: much fewer in number but the weapons Russia relies on to do the most damage.

Analysis by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War shows an increase in Russia's drone and missile strikes in the two months following Donald Trump's inauguration in January.

March saw a slight decline, with occasional spikes, until May, when the numbers suddenly rose dramatically.

New records have been set with alarming regularity.

June saw a new monthly high of 5,429 drones, July has seen more than 2,000 in just the first nine days.

With production in Russia ramping up, some reports suggest Moscow may soon be able to fire over 1,000 missiles and drones in a single night.

Experts in Kyiv warn that the country is in danger of being overwhelmed.

"If Ukraine doesn't find a solution for how to deal with these drones, we will face great problems during 2025," says former intelligence officer Ivan Stupak.

"Some of these drones are trying to reach military objects - we have to understand it - but the rest, they are destroying apartments, falling into office buildings and causing lots of damage to citizens."

For all their increasing capability, the drones are not an especially sophisticated weapon. But they do represent yet another example of the vast gulf in resources between Russia and Ukraine.

It also neatly illustrates the maxim, attributed to the Soviet Union's World War Two leader Joseph Stalin, that "quantity has a quality of its own."

"This is a war of resources," says Serhii Kuzan, of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre.

"When production of particular missiles became too complicated - too expensive, too many components, too many complicated supply routes – they concentrated on this particular type of drone and developed different modifications and improvements."

The more drones in a single attack, Kuzan says, the more Ukraine hard-pressed air defence units struggle to shoot them down. This forces Kyiv to fall back on its precious supply of jets and air-to-air missiles to shoot them down.

"So if the drones go as a swarm, they destroy all the air defence missiles," he says.

Hence President Zelensky's constant appeals to Ukraine's allies to do more to protect its skies. Not just with Patriot missiles – vital to counter the most dangerous Russian ballistic threat – but with a wide array of other systems too.

On Thursday, the British government said it would sign a defence agreement with Ukraine to provide more than 5,000 air defence missiles.

Kyiv will be looking for many more such deals in the coming months.