The average two-year mortgage rate has dipped below 5% for the first time since former Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget in September 2022, figures show.
The rate has dropped to 4.99%, according to Moneyfacts, which described it as a "symbolic turning point" for homebuyers and shows lenders are "competing more aggressively".
Interest rates have been cut five times since last August but at the Bank of England's last meeting, a split vote between policymakers raised questions about whether there would be another reduction this year.
A Moneyfacts spokesperson said that although mortgages are following the "mood music" set by the Bank's rate cuts, they are unlikely to fall at the same pace.
Netanyahu has dismissed international criticism of his plans to expand the war
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has indicated that Gaza ceasefire efforts are now focused on a comprehensive deal to release all the remaining hostages at once.
The plan previously being pushed was for an initial 60-day truce and partial release of living hostages.
Hamas says a delegation of its leaders is in Cairo for "preliminary talks" with Egyptian officials.
Reports say that mediators see a window of opportunity in the coming weeks to try to push a deal through.
After indirect talks between Israel and Hamas broke down last month, Israel announced a controversial plan to widen its military offensive and conquer all the Gaza Strip - including the areas where most of its two million Palestinian residents have sought refuge.
However, Israeli media do not expect the new operation to begin until October - allowing time for military preparations, including a mass call-up of reservists.
Early on Wednesday, al-Shifa Hospital said seven members of one family, five of them children, were killed when tents were targeted in Tel al-Hawa. Al-Ahli Hospital said 10 people were killed in a strike on a house in the Zaytoun area.
The Israeli military chief Lt Gen Eyal Zamir also "approved the main framework for the IDF's operational plan in the Gaza Strip", a statement released by the army said.
In an interview with the i24 Israeli TV Channel shown on Tuesday, Netanyahu was asked if a partial ceasefire was still possible.
"I think it's behind us," he replied. "We tried, we made all kinds of attempts, we went through a lot, but it turned out that they were just misleading us."
"I want all of them," he said of the hostages. "The release of all the hostages, both alive and dead - that's the stage we're at."
Palestinian armed groups still hold 50 hostages taken in the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war. Israel believes that around 20 of them are still alive.
Last week, unnamed Arab officials were quoted as saying that regional mediators, Egypt and Qatar, were preparing a new framework for a deal that would involve releasing all remaining hostages at the same time in return for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
However, this will be difficult to do in a short time frame as Israel is demanding that Hamas give up control of Gaza as well as its weapons.
This is likely to be why, at a news conference on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told journalists that Cairo was still "making great efforts" with Qatar and the US - the other mediators - to revive the earlier phased plan.
"The main goal is to return to the original proposal - a 60-day ceasefire - along with the release of some hostages and some Palestinian prisoners, and the flow of humanitarian and medical aid into Gaza without obstacles or conditions," Abdelatty said.
The Israeli prime minister says Israel's goals have not changed. He says that the war will end only when all hostages are returned and Hamas surrenders.
Netanyahu has said that, ultimately, Israel must keep open-ended security control over Gaza.
Hamas has long called for a comprehensive deal to exchange the hostages it is holding for Palestinian prisoners in Israel jails. It also wants a full pull-out of Israeli forces and an end to the war.
It refuses to disarm unless an independent Palestinian state is created.
Speaking to i24, Netanyahu also reiterated an idea that Palestinians should simply leave the territory through "voluntary" emigration, saying: "They're not being pushed out, they'll be allowed to exit."
He went on: "All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us."
Palestinians, human rights groups and many in the international community have warned that any forced displacement of people from Gaza violates international law.
Many Palestinians fear a repeat of what they call the "Nakba" (Catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced from their homes in the fighting that came before and after the state of Israel was created in 1948.
Most Gazans are descendants of those original refugees and themselves hold official refugee status.
UN-backed experts have warned of widespread famine unfolding in Gaza, where Israel has greatly limited the amount of humanitarian aid it allows in.
The UN's World Food Programme has warned that starvation and malnutrition are at the highest levels in Gaza since the conflict began.
Hamas's 2023 attack killed about 1,200 people in Israel, with 251 taken into Gaza as hostages.
Israel's offensive has since killed at least 61,722 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. It says that 235 people including 106 children have also died due to starvation and malnutrition.
An amber heat health alert remains place for parts of the UK until 1800 on Wednesday, as areas in England and Wales officially entered their fourth heatwave this summer.
Temperatures will rise into the high 20Cs and low 30Cs, with parts of the East Midlands, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire experiencing the hottest weather with a maximum temperature of 33C forecast on Wednesday afternoon.
Wednesday brings "a more complex picture", the Met Office has said, as high temperatures coincide with a chance of thunderstorms across northern areas.
A yellow weather warning for thunderstorms will be in place for some parts of Scotland between 14:00 and midnight.
The weather warning, issued by the Met Office, covers northern, central and south-east Scotland, where showers are forecast. Conditions could be particularly heavy and thundery.
The downpours could lead to some localised disruption, with road spray and flash flooding leading to difficult conditions.
There are further heavy and thundery showers expected across Scotland and Northern Ireland on Thursday, with an additional yellow weather warning in place from midnight on Wednesday until 22:00 on Thursday.
While Scotland and Northern Ireland will not technically be in a heatwave, due to the three consecutive day rule, temperatures there are still well above the average for the time of year with a forecast of 25C to 29C on Wednesday.
The threshold is 25C for most of the UK, but rises to 28C in London and its surrounding areas, where temperatures are typically higher.
Areas in south-west England, south-west Midlands, north-west England and East Anglia already met the heatwave criteria, by having three consecutive days above a certain temperature.
An amber heat health alert, issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Met Office, means the weather's impacts are likely to be felt across the health service. It is under these circumstances that we can see an increase in risk to health for individuals aged over 65, or those with pre-existing health conditions.
Amber alerts are in place for London, the South East, East of England, West Midlands and East Midlands. A yellow heat health alert is in place for the South West, North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber.
Climate change is making heatwaves like those parts of the UK and Europe have experienced this summer more frequent and intense.
Extreme weather events in Europe should be treated as "a health emergency, not just a climate one", a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group that looks into the health impacts of climate change said on Wednesday.
Citing a 2023 report, the Pan-European Commission on Climate and Health said that heat-related mortality in Europe has increased by 30% in the past two decades, with more than 100,000 deaths recorded.
There is no current law in the UK for maximum workplace temperatures, although employers have an obligation to keep them at a comfortable level.
Trade union Unite has called for the introduction of a maximum working temperature to be set at 30C and for work to be stopped where temperatures cannot be controlled indoors or when no protection - such as shaded areas - can be provided outdoors.
Overheating can lead to heat exhaustion or heatstroke. Heatstroke is considered to be a medical emergency that requires immediate treatment.
Older adults, young children and people with long-term health conditions are especially at risk.
Highest temperatures of 2025:
England - 35.8C Faversham, 1July
Wales - 33.1C Cardiff Bute Park, 12 July
Scotland - 32.2C Aviemore, 12 July
Northern Ireland - 30C Magilligan, 12 July
The heat will ease for most on Thursday with some thunderstorms and some cooler, less humid air into Friday - but temperatures could rise again into the weekend.
Thursday will still be a very warm day for eastern and south-east England, with temperatures reaching 29C. Elsewhere the forecast temperatures will be slightly lower at 24C to 27C.
Friday could be hotter again with temperatures rising back above 30C in south-east England and to mid to high 20s elsewhere across England and Wales.
It then stays very warm into the weekend. While cloudy at times, especially in the mornings over the coming days, there will still be lots of sunshine for most of us.
The lack of any significant rain into next week is another concern, especially for farmers and growers, as well as for those in areas experiencing a drought and hosepipe bans.
England is suffering widespread environmental effects from the shortage of water, which is hitting farms, damaging wildlife and increasing wildfires, the national drought group - which includes the Met Office, regulators, the government and water companies - said.
The group met on Tuesday as Yorkshire, Cumbria and Lancashire, Greater Manchester Merseyside and Cheshire, East Midlands, and the West Midlands experienced drought.
North-east England, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, East Anglia, Thames, Wessex, Solent and South Downs are currently classed as areas "in prolonged dry weather", the phase before drought.
Droughts began to occur earlier than expected this summer following a long period of low rainfall and the sixth driest spring since records began in 1836.
Millions of people in England are now under hosepipe bans aimed at limiting water consumption.
Roxanne Freeman built up her online following while working as a slimming consultant
"This has been the turning point for me - it's improved my confidence, my own self-belief."
Single mum Roxanne Freeman says she lived beyond her means and used her credit cards to support her family, even using one to put down a deposit on a caravan.
She had racked up £13,000 worth of debt by summer 2023, but her fortunes changed after she turned her hand to content creation, filming and posting reviews of plus-size clothing on TikTok.
The 36-year-old from Leicester earns commissions on her videos - up to £5,000 a month now, she says - and has cleared her debt.
Roxanne is among a growing number of people turning to social media to boost their income and says: "It's literally life-changing."
Roxanne says she can now afford to do more with her sons
Roxanne was working as a Slimming World consultant when she bought a dress from TikTok Shop and filmed herself trying it on before posting a review for her 1,000 followers in February 2024.
She says she earned £200 in commission from the dress manufacturer in a week - 10% for each one bought via the link she posted with her video - and was soon approached by other companies offering her samples to review.
"In my second month I earned £600 and it just went up and up gradually," she adds.
"I'm now earning up to £5,000 per month from just two to three hours' work a day, it's insane."
'Imposter syndrome'
Roxanne, who now has almost 50,000 followers, has since left her slimming consultant job and relies solely on her income from TikTok.
She says her earnings vary each month depending on her followers, but she has earned enough to pay off her debts and to do more with her sons, aged six and 10.
"I took the kids on holiday - my youngest boy had never been abroad before," she says.
"Sometimes imposter syndrome does sneak in a little bit and I worry, but you could lose any job tomorrow."
Holly and Diego Hernandez's TikTok account has almost 300,000 followers
Like Roxanne, married couple Holly and Diego Hernandezalso earn money by posting videos on TikTok.
Holly, from Leicester, and Diego, from Mexico, met on the social media platform when they were 16 and went on to set up an account to document their relationship and daily life.
The couple now have almost 300,000 followers and earn up to £5,000 a month, but they have both kept their day jobs - Holly, 22, is a nurse and Diego, 23, works for a medical supply company.
Some of their income comes via the TikTok Creator Fund, which pays users for their content.
To be eligible, creators must be 18 or older, have 10,000 followers or more and have had at least 100,000 video views in the 30 days before applying to join the fund.
For Holly and Diego, who live in Leicester, they are paid according to their video interactions.
They are also paid by record labels to play particular songs in the background of their videos.
Due to their success, the couple have become a limited company - registered with Companies House - and have signed with a management agency.
Diego and Holly have both kept their day jobs
Holly says: "We were so young when the money came in, and we were going on amazing holidays and buying things.
"I wish there was somebody back then who guided us, because I think we would have invested or saved it.
"In the beginning, I was trying to manage the monetary side of it myself and I found it really overwhelming.
"Things like taxes came into play, so we ended up getting an accountant and becoming a limited company."
The couple post videos most days but admit there are negatives to sharing their lives so openly.
"I think the biggest downside is the trolls," says Holly.
"There's always someone hounding you because of our relationship or the way that we look, the way we speak or the way we dress.
"It can get to you when it's constant."
Estelle Keeber says "influencer marketing is here to stay"
Estelle Keeber, also from Leicester, started a Facebook group aimed at female business owners in 2017 and, after gaining a large following, started charging for her social media expertise.
The 42-year-old says she turned over £1.2m in the first two years and now runs a social media marketing consultancy firm called Immortal Monkey.
"Whether you want to be an influencer or an affiliate marketer, there has never been a better time for people to be jumping in," she says.
"But it does takes time, it takes a lot of hard work, especially if you're building a brand around yourself. It is constant hard work."
Estelle is now setting up a community interest company to link influencers with schools to educate the next generation on content creation.
"I think influencer marketing is here to stay because it's an organic way of marketing," she says.
"Nobody wants to be sold to, whereas when it's organic, people trust and believe in that person - and the bigger brands are really understanding this now."
'Big, fat juicy tax bill'
According to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, there are 54 million social media users in the UK and 84% of adults follow an influencer.
But anyone who makes a living from or supplements their income by posting content online is subject to the same tax laws as everyone else.
According to Revenue and Customs, income from creating online content includes gifts and services received from promoting products on social media.
If someone's total income is more than the £1,000 allowance for the tax year, including any gifts and services received, they must tell HMRC about it.
Zubair Ali, managing partner of MyTaxDoc Accountants, based in Birmingham, says three in 10 of the firm's clients are social media influencers.
"Just because you've got a million followers, HMRC won't let it slide," Zubair says.
"The last thing anyone wants is a big, fat juicy tax bill which they haven't got the means to pay for."
Hefin David had been a Labour backbench member in the Senedd
Welsh Labour politician Hefin David has died suddenly, aged 47.
Mr David had been Member of the Senedd (MS) for Caerphilly since 2016.
Paying tribute, First Minister and Welsh Labour leader Eluned Morgan called him an "outstanding politician" who would be "greatly missed".
Gwent Police said a 47-year-old man was found unresponsive at a property in Nelson, Caerphilly county, on Tuesday evening, and the death was not being treated as suspicious.
His partner was Cynon Valley MS Vikki Howells, the minister for further and higher education in the Welsh Labour government.
The first minister said: "We are extremely saddened by the sudden death of Hefin. Our thoughts are with his family at this terrible time.
"Hefin was a much-loved member of the Labour family. He served Caerphilly as a councillor and a Member of the Senedd with pride and passion.
"He was an outstanding politician, warm and enthusiastic and a great communicator – especially on behalf of his constituents.
"He will be greatly missed."
Mark Hobrough, Gwent Police chief constable, said his "thoughts and heartfelt condolences" are with Mr David's family, friends and colleagues.
"After I joined Gwent Police as the chief superintendent for the area covering Caerphilly, I worked closely with Hefin on many occasions and I found him to be an engaging and thoughtful individual.
"A dedicated public servant to Caerphilly, his commitment to our communities will be a significant loss."
Elected to Cardiff Bay in 2016, Mr David was one of the more prominent Labour backbench members and was never afraid to go against the party line.
UK firms bidding for Indian government contracts in specified areas will be treated on par with Indian suppliers
A standout feature of the India-UK free trade agreement signed last month was the Narendra Modi government's decision to open India's vast government procurement market to UK suppliers.
This typically includes a range of things the government buys - from goods and services to contracts for public works such as roads.
Some 40,000 high-value tenders worth £38bn from federal ministries will now be open to bidding for UK businesses in strategic sectors like transport, green energy and infrastructure - areas which have thus far been heavily protected from foreign competition.
The access is unprecedented, trade experts say.
It is "far greater" than what India had offered in its earlier agreement with the United Arab Emirates and "sets a new benchmark", Ajay Srivastava of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), a Delhi-based think-tank, told the BBC.
Under the agreement, UK firms bidding for Indian government contracts in specified areas will be treated almost on par with Indian suppliers and also have real-time access to information on forthcoming public tenders and procurement opportunities.
Also, goods from the UK made with just 20% domestic input can now be supplied to the Indian government, allowing UK companies the flexibility to source up to 80% of the parts or raw material from other countries and still qualify for procurement preference in India.
The minimum contract value at which these firms can bid for government projects has also been sharply reduced as a result of which "UK companies can now bid on a wide range of lower-value projects - such as rural roads, solar equipment for schools, or IT systems for government offices - that were previously out of reach", said Mr Srivastava.
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UK companies can now bid on a wide range of lower-value projects such as rural roads
But for British companies, realising this opportunity on the ground will be easier said than done, several experts told the BBC.
While UK suppliers are eligible to participate as Class-II local suppliers, Indian companies will continue to get preferential treatment as Class-I suppliers, says Dr Arpita Mukherjee, a trade expert with the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations.
Moreover, pricing plays a key role in winning contracts, and "UK companies tend to have higher prices" compared with Indian companies, which will be a major challenge for them, she adds.
A more significant deterrent will be delayed payments and difficult contract enforcement, which are "major legacy issues when it comes to public procurement in India", says Srijan Shukla of the Observer Research Foundation think-tank.
He says a study on procurement by India's central public sector enterprises from 2017 to 2020 found that pending payments to suppliers were often more than the total average procurement in a year.
"This will impact UK players trying to enter India's public procurement markets, especially when it comes to public contracts that have long-time horizons and are subject to regulatory and political uncertainties," Mr Shukla told the BBC.
Pending dues have been a major irritant for India's small businesses too, leading to short-term liquidity issues that often "force them out of these procurement markets and reallocate that business to the big players", according to Mr Shukla.
Much of this is reflected in India's poor ranking - 163 out of 190 - on contract enforcement in the World Bank's Doing Business report, the latest round of which was in 2020.
While things have improved since these rankings were published - with one-stop-shop portals like Government e-Marketplace, the Central Public Procurement Portal or the recently launched online dispute resolution portal bringing more transparency to the public tendering process - payment discipline by government entities continues to remain a challenge, says Mr Shukla.
According to Ms Mukherjee, the India-UK trade agreement emphasises transparency in procurement but omits issues like pending dues, contract enforcement and penalties.
She adds the deal excludes the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement's dispute settlement provisions for four years after the CETA takes effect - these provisions usually define how disputes are resolved.
"Doing business in India is an acquired skill. Over time, companies from the UK will have to learn the way to work around complexities regarding the art of winning public tenders and navigating though complex regulations," Mr Shukla says.
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India's public procurement market has long been reserved for local small and medium enterprises
Despite the niggling issues, allowing foreign players entry into India's government procurement market marks a far-reaching policy shift.
It shows the Indian government's intentions to open up a space that has long been reserved for local small and medium enterprises, and could be reflective of the concessions Delhi is willing to give foreign players in future trade agreements like the one being negotiated with the US, according to GTRI.
India is late to including deep government procurement clauses in trade deals, making its current efforts a catch-up game, says Mr Shukla.
It is also a sign, he says, of the Indian government's "confidence that its own firms can compete with global firms both externally and at home".
The hope is that more foreign players will force more accountability from the Indian government and "help standardise" its tendering and public procurement process - marked by payment delays and poor contract enforcement - to global standards.
The US and Russia have agreed to hold a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday 15 August, to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.
Trump announced the meeting a week beforehand - the same day as his deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more US sanctions.
Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine held at Trump's behest this summer have yet to bring the two sides any closer to peace.
Here is what we know about the meeting between the two leaders, taking place in Alaska - which was once Russian territory - in Anchorage.
Why are they meeting in Alaska?
The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, lending a historical resonance to the meeting. It became a US state in 1959.
Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov pointed out that the two countries are neighbours, with only the Bering Strait separating them.
"It seems quite logical for our delegation simply to fly over the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska," Ushakov said.
The last time Alaska took centre-stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden's newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.
The sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of "condescension and hypocrisy".
Where in Alaska will Trump and Putin meet?
The meeting will be in Anchorage, the White House confirmed on Tuesday.
When announcing the bilateral, Trump said the location would be "a very popular one for a number of reasons", without disclosing it would be in the state's largest city.
The pair will be hosted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the largest military installation in Alaska. The 64,000 acre base is a key US site for Arctic military readiness.
Why are Putin and Trump meeting?
Trump has been pushing hard - without much success - to end the war in Ukraine.
As a presidential candidate, he pledged that he could end the war within 24 hours of taking office. He has also repeatedly argued that the war "never would have happened" if he had been president at the time of Russia's invasion in 2022.
Frustrations grew and Trump set an 8 August deadline for Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face more severe US sanctions.
As the deadline hit, Trump instead announced he and Putin would meet in person on 15 August.
The meeting comes after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held "highly productive" talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Trump.
Ahead of the meeting, the White House sought to play down speculation that the bilateral could yield a ceasefire.
"This is a listening exercise for the president," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She added that Trump may travel to Russia following the Alaska trip.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he viewed the summit as a "feel-out meeting" aimed at urging Putin to end the war.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not expected to attend. Trump said on Monday: "I would say he could go, but he's been to a lot of meetings."
Trump did, however, say that Zelensky would be the first person he would call afterwards.
A White House official later said that Trump and Zelensky would meet virtually on Wednesday, ahead of the US president's summit with Putin. The Zelensky meeting will be joined by several European leaders.
Putin had requested that Zelensky be excluded, although the White House has previously said that Trump was willing to hold a trilateral in which all three leaders were present.
Zelensky has said any agreements without input from Ukraine would amount to "dead decisions".
What do both sides hope to get out of it?
While both Russia and Ukraine have long said that they want the war to end, both countries want things that the other harshly opposes.
Trump said on Monday he was "going to try to get some of that [Russian-occupied] territory back for Ukraine". But he also warned that there might have to be "some swapping, changes in land".
Ukraine, however, has been adamant that it will not accept Russian control of regions that Moscow has seized, including Crimea.
Zelensky pushed back this week against any idea of "swapping" territories.
"We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated," the Ukrainian president said.
Watch: 'We're going to change the battle lines' Trump on the war in Ukraine
Meanwhile, Putin has not budged from his territorial demands, Ukraine's neutrality and the future size of its army.
Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in part, over Putin's belief the Western defensive alliance, Nato, was using the neighbouring country to gain a foothold to bring its troops closer to Russia's borders.
The Trump administration has been attempting to sway European leaders on a ceasefire deal that would hand over swathes of Ukrainian territory to Russia, the BBC's US partner CBS News has reported.
The agreement would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean peninsula, and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with the talks.
Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas region.
Under the deal, Russia would have to give up the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has some military control.
Speaking to Fox News, US Vice-President JD Vance said any future deal was "not going to make anybody super happy".
"You've got to make peace here… you can't finger point," he said.
"The way to peace is to have a decisive leader to sit down and force people to come together."
The number of people surviving cancer has improved hugely in the past 50 years, but experts warn progress has been uneven with some of the cancers with the worst survival rates falling further behind.
For some, including melanoma skin cancer, 10-year survival is now above 90%, while for all cancers, half of patients can expect to live that long - double the figure in the early 1970s.
But a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said there had been little improvement in those affecting the oesophagus, stomach and lungs - and less than 5% survive pancreatic cancer for 10 years.
The government said it was committed to making more progress with a new strategy due soon.
The researchers said advances in treatment and earlier detection were behind the improvements in survival seen for many cancers.
Breast cancer is a perfect example of this, with 10-year survival rates rising from 42% to more than 76% between 1971 and 2018 in England and Wales.
The period saw the introduction of an NHS breast screening programme, plus targeted therapies for different types of breast cancer.
In comparison, the cancers with the lowest survival rates tend to be the hardest to detect and have the fewest treatment options.
Alongside pancreatic cancer, the study says these include oesophagus, stomach and lung cancers, which all still have 10-year survival rates below 20%, after only a small amount of progress since the 1970s.
This has meant the gap between the cancers with the best and worst survival rates has nearly doubled.
'Amazing job'
Matt Black is someone with first-hand experience of how the type of cancer you get makes a huge difference.
In 2019 the 60-year-old lost his sister, Harriette, to pancreatic cancer, 20 years after his father-in-law died of oesophageal cancer.
Five years ago he was diagnosed with bowel cancer which has above average survival rates. Soon after developing symptoms he had surgery and was given the all-clear.
"NHS staff do an amazing job, but it's such a difficult time to be a cancer patient, especially for those with cancers which aren't easy to spot or treat.
"It's so important that there is more research and support for cancer services here, so that more people can be as fortunate as me," says Matt.
The researchers also warned that, while overall survival was still improving, the rate of progress had slowed during the 2010s. Longer waits for diagnosis and treatment are thought to be partly to blame.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said: "Thanks to research, most patients today are far more likely to survive cancer than at any other point in the past.
"But the reality is that this progress is slowing – and for some cancers it never got going in the first place."
The charity wants the government's forthcoming strategy to focus on:
cutting waiting times
early detection, including full introduction of a lung cancer screening programme
investment in research, particularly targeting the most deadly cancers
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said cancer care was a priority. with some progress already made on waiting times.
"The national cancer plan will set out how we will improve survival rates further and address the unacceptable variation between different cancer types," he added.
The average two-year mortgage rate has dipped below 5% for the first time since former Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget in September 2022, figures show.
The rate has dropped to 4.99%, according to Moneyfacts, which described it as a "symbolic turning point" for homebuyers and shows lenders are "competing more aggressively".
Interest rates have been cut five times since last August but at the Bank of England's last meeting, a split vote between policymakers raised questions about whether there would be another reduction this year.
A Moneyfacts spokesperson said that although mortgages are following the "mood music" set by the Bank's rate cuts, they are unlikely to fall at the same pace.
Aikines-Aryeetey took part in last year's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special
Gladiators star and Olympic sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey is the first celebrity contestant to be announced for the Strictly Come Dancing 2025 line-up.
Aikines-Aryeetey, known as Nitro to Gladiators fans, appeared on the BBC's Newsround on Monday to announce he will be joining the dancing show.
"I'm so excited to be part of the Strictly family this series and I'm ready to give it all I've got," he said.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One and iPlayer from September through to December.
Aikines-Aryeetey is a former Team GB sprinter and was the first athlete to win gold medals at both 100 and 200 metres at the World Youth Championships.
In 2005, aged 17, he was won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.
He has competed at two Olympic Games and is a three-time European champion and two-time Commonwealth champion.
In 2023, he was unveiled as Nitro in Gladiators, and took part in last year's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special partnered with Nancy Xu.
Aikines-Aryeetey said the Christmas Special "was so nice I just had to do it twice".
On Monday, he appeared live in the Newsround studio disguised as "world-famous choreographer Nicky Trott", there to talk about a scientific study into the benefits of dancing every day.
He then revealed his real identity and told viewers how excited he was to be joining the dancing competition.
"I'll be bringing tons of energy to light up the dance floor," he said. "Let's hope I'm as quick picking up the routines as I am on the track."
The next three celebrity contestants joining the new series of Strictly will be announced on The One Show on Monday evening.
Two new professional dancers are also joining the line-up this year - Alexis Warr, who won US dance series So You Think You Can Dance in 2022, and Australian-born Julian Caillon, who has appeared as a professional dancer on three seasons of Australia's Dancing With The Stars.
The show, which has been airing since 2004, has faced multiple controversies over the past year relating to the behaviour of some of its professional dancers and celebrity guests.
Professional dancers Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima left the show last year following allegations about their behaviour towards their dance partners.
The BBC announced new welfare measures for Strictly last July. These include having chaperones in all rehearsal rooms, adding two new welfare producers and providing additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew.
Under-22s in England should be given free bus passes to help them get into work and education, according to major a report by MPs.
The number of bus journeys taken in England has dropped in recent years, while fares have risen faster than inflation, it said.
This was a barrier to opportunity and growth in some areas, MPs found, recommending a pilot scheme of free bus travel at any time of day for under-22s.
The Department for Transport said it was providing "£1bn in multi-year funding to improve the reliability and frequency of bus services across the country".
In England, the number of bus passenger journeys had dropped from 4.6 billion in 2009 to 3.6 billion in 2024, the report by the Transport Committee said.
Some smaller towns and rural areas have no bus services at all, or buses that run so infrequently that "they do not meaningfully add to people's transport options", it said.
A 2019 study found that some 57% of jobseekers lived in areas where they could not reach a centre of employment within 45 minutes by bus.
"High bus fares and limited local provision can severely restrict young people's access to education, employment, and other opportunities," the report said.
'We rely on public transport'
Alex Mustafa
Alex Mustafa, 19, says she uses the bus all the time as she can't drive due to health and financial reasons and would benefit from a free bus pass.
"It would also help poorer young people like myself who rely on public transport to better plan for social connections without needing to worry about bus cost on top of how expensive it is to go out as it is," she said.
Alex says she has been left waiting for a bus for over an hour before and has been late to work and missed social events due to cancelled buses.
"It's very difficult to live life according to plan when you have to plan around an unreliable schedule. Trains are sometimes better, but they also come with a higher cost and they're more limiting with location," she said.
Roman Dibden, chief executive of youth charity Rise Up, said it sees young people turn down job interviews and training all the time because they can't afford the bus fare.
"Free bus passes for under-22s would remove a huge barrier, opening up access to jobs, apprenticeships, and training - especially in communities where opportunity isn't on your doorstep."
'Support people who struggle costs-wise'
Dylan Lewis-Creser
Dylan Lewis-Creser, 21, is a student in town planning and also stood as a Green Party candidate for Walkley Ward in the local elections in May 2024.
They told the BBC they use the bus quite a lot to travel around Sheffield as driving is too expensive.
"A free bus pass would mean I could get to and from university and work without paying £10 a week, which adds up significantly as a student on a low budget," they said.
"That cost is amplified when considering changing buses to get to other job opportunities and elsewhere, like hospitals."
Dylan thinks there needs to be more discussion around "making transport accessible, affordable and reliable."
"Part of that would be supporting people who often struggle costs-wise to do that, such as young people," they said.
"We've seen how it's boosted young people using buses in Scotland, and it only makes sense to extend that policy."
Bus passengers spend £39.1 billion in local businesses every year, according to research from KPMG.
But experts told the Transport Committee that the bus sector's contribution to the economy declined by around £8.9 billion between 2011 and 2023.
The report said: "The current deregulated nature of the bus sector can encourage commercial operators to "deprioritise" less profitable routes, often leaving vulnerable communities without a service."
'Social exclusion'
The committee heard that older people were particularly deterred from using the bus if they felt unsafe at bus stops.
The report recommended improvements to bus stops and shelters such as screen showing real-time information.
Jane Bishop is the chief executive of North Norfolk Community Transport, a charity that provides low-cost dial-a-ride services in the local area. She says for some people bus services mean the difference between being able to stay in their homes or having to move into assisted living.
Jane Bishop
North Norfolk Community Transport helps people get around if they can't drive
"Most of our passengers are older people, but not all," she told the BBC. "A lot of people, we're the only people they see every week."
"They become friends with the other people on their route so it's a great tool for combatting loneliness," Ms Bishop said.
But, she added, "it's a lottery whether there is a community transport in your area".
Fare cap
The cap on bus fares outside London was increased to £3 last year.
The committee said fare caps were most beneficial to people in rural areas, as they tended to take longer journeys or had to use multiple buses for one trip.
But the report was critical of the short-term nature of funding for bus services, saying it has "hampered local authorities' ability to improve services".
"Five-year settlements in other transport sectors like rail and the strategic road network have enabled greater certainty and promoted strategic planning," it said. "Bus services, the most widely used form of public transport, require a similar commitment."
Bus services are devolved in England, meaning they are the responsibility of local authorities. Individual councils could choose to offer concessions to under-22s.
The Local Government Association (LGA) welcomed the committee's recommendation to end "stop-start funding" for buses.
A spokesperson said: "Bus services provide an essential mode of public transport in local communities, relied upon by millions of people.
"More work is needed to attract them back onto buses to ensure services are sustainable for our communities. Stop-start funding risks losing passengers, with patronage difficult to recover if and when money is found."
Steff Aquarone, a Liberal Democrat MP who sits on the Transport Committee, said the report shows the need for "a different model for rural public transport".
He said local councils cannot heavily subsidise bus fares as in other countries, but "if you put buses on at the time people want to travel, going to places they want to go, people will use them".
Police will be encouraged to disclose the ethnicity and nationality of suspects charged in high-profile and sensitive investigations under new guidance, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) says.
It is hoped the change will reduce the risk to public safety where there are high levels of misinformation about an incident or in cases of significant public interest.
Decisions on releasing such information will remain with police forces, with wider legal and ethical considerations also considered, the NPCC added.
Welcoming the new guidance, a Home Office spokesperson said: "Public trust requires transparency and consistency from the authorities that serve them."
The guidance, which comes into immediate effect, forms part of a wider review of the College of Policing's professional practice for media relations.
The NPCC said the guidance would reaffirm that verifying a suspect's immigration status was not the police's responsibility.
"It is for the Home Office to decide if it is appropriate in all the circumstances to confirm immigration status," the council said.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC last week that there needed to be "more transparency in cases" over the background of suspects.
The NPCC said the new guidance aimed to ensure policing was more consistent, fair and transparent, as well as addressing possible mis and disinformation.
The change was in recognition of public concern and ensured police processes were "fit for purpose in an age of rapid information spread", the council added.
Before 2012 police forces made decisions on what information to give to the media on a purely case-by-case basis.
But after Lord Leveson published his report into the ethics of the press, police forces became much more cautious abut what information they released.
As it stands, there is nothing in the College of Policing's guidance on media relations that prevents police giving information about the nationality, asylum status or even ethnicity of someone who has been charged.
However there is nothing that specifically mentions them either which is why the information released to the media largely comes at the discretion of the police force. Hence the very different measures taken in recent cases.
In May, when a car ploughed into crowds celebrating Liverpool FC's winning of the Premiership title, Merseyside Police were quick to reveal that the man arrested was white and British, in order to quash rumours of a terrorist attack in the public interest.
Conversely, the forces decision not to release information about Axel Rudakubana - the man jailed for murdering Alice Aguiar, nine, Bebe King, six, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, in Southport last summer - allowed false information to spread.
That misinformation was deemed at least partly responsible for the riots in England and Northern Ireland between 30 July and 5 August 2024.
Referring to the riots, Deputy Chief Constable Sam de Reya, the NPCC lead for communications and media, described it as the "real-world consequences" of the information the police release into the public domain.
He said: "We have to make sure our processes are fit for purpose in an age of social media speculation and where information can travel incredibly quickly across a wide range of channels."
He added that "being as fair, consistent and transparent as we can will improve confidence in policing".
Chief Constable Sir Andy Marsh, CEO at the College of Policing, added that the interim guidance would "bring consistency" and that "information can be released for all ethnicities and nationalities when it meets the right criteria."
The guidance has been developed following consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Home Office and the College of Policing will update its current authorised professional practice for media relations later this year.
The Home Office spokesperson added: "The public, and police forces themselves, want greater clarity on when, why and how information is released and the legitimate and compelling reasons it may need to be withheld.
"The Home Office will support that effort by authorising the release of relevant accompanying immigration information in future cases, where it is appropriate to do so, and where the police have requested it. All cases will of course take account of consultation with the police and CPS.
"The government also asked the Law Commission at the end of February to speed up the elements of its review around the law of contempt in relation to what can be said publicly ahead of a trial."
The number of people surviving cancer has improved hugely in the past 50 years, but experts warn progress has been uneven with some of the cancers with the worst survival rates falling further behind.
For some, including melanoma skin cancer, 10-year survival is now above 90%, while for all cancers, half of patients can expect to live that long - double the figure in the early 1970s.
But a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said there had been little improvement in those affecting the oesophagus, stomach and lungs - and less than 5% survive pancreatic cancer for 10 years.
The government said it was committed to making more progress with a new strategy due soon.
The researchers said advances in treatment and earlier detection were behind the improvements in survival seen for many cancers.
Breast cancer is a perfect example of this, with 10-year survival rates rising from 42% to more than 76% between 1971 and 2018 in England and Wales.
The period saw the introduction of an NHS breast screening programme, plus targeted therapies for different types of breast cancer.
In comparison, the cancers with the lowest survival rates tend to be the hardest to detect and have the fewest treatment options.
Alongside pancreatic cancer, the study says these include oesophagus, stomach and lung cancers, which all still have 10-year survival rates below 20%, after only a small amount of progress since the 1970s.
This has meant the gap between the cancers with the best and worst survival rates has nearly doubled.
'Amazing job'
Matt Black is someone with first-hand experience of how the type of cancer you get makes a huge difference.
In 2019 the 60-year-old lost his sister, Harriette, to pancreatic cancer, 20 years after his father-in-law died of oesophageal cancer.
Five years ago he was diagnosed with bowel cancer which has above average survival rates. Soon after developing symptoms he had surgery and was given the all-clear.
"NHS staff do an amazing job, but it's such a difficult time to be a cancer patient, especially for those with cancers which aren't easy to spot or treat.
"It's so important that there is more research and support for cancer services here, so that more people can be as fortunate as me," says Matt.
The researchers also warned that, while overall survival was still improving, the rate of progress had slowed during the 2010s. Longer waits for diagnosis and treatment are thought to be partly to blame.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said: "Thanks to research, most patients today are far more likely to survive cancer than at any other point in the past.
"But the reality is that this progress is slowing – and for some cancers it never got going in the first place."
The charity wants the government's forthcoming strategy to focus on:
cutting waiting times
early detection, including full introduction of a lung cancer screening programme
investment in research, particularly targeting the most deadly cancers
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said cancer care was a priority. with some progress already made on waiting times.
"The national cancer plan will set out how we will improve survival rates further and address the unacceptable variation between different cancer types," he added.
Under-22s in England should be given free bus passes to help them get into work and education, according to major a report by MPs.
The number of bus journeys taken in England has dropped in recent years, while fares have risen faster than inflation, it said.
This was a barrier to opportunity and growth in some areas, MPs found, recommending a pilot scheme of free bus travel at any time of day for under-22s.
The Department for Transport said it was providing "£1bn in multi-year funding to improve the reliability and frequency of bus services across the country".
In England, the number of bus passenger journeys had dropped from 4.6 billion in 2009 to 3.6 billion in 2024, the report by the Transport Committee said.
Some smaller towns and rural areas have no bus services at all, or buses that run so infrequently that "they do not meaningfully add to people's transport options", it said.
A 2019 study found that some 57% of jobseekers lived in areas where they could not reach a centre of employment within 45 minutes by bus.
"High bus fares and limited local provision can severely restrict young people's access to education, employment, and other opportunities," the report said.
'We rely on public transport'
Alex Mustafa
Alex Mustafa, 19, says she uses the bus all the time as she can't drive due to health and financial reasons and would benefit from a free bus pass.
"It would also help poorer young people like myself who rely on public transport to better plan for social connections without needing to worry about bus cost on top of how expensive it is to go out as it is," she said.
Alex says she has been left waiting for a bus for over an hour before and has been late to work and missed social events due to cancelled buses.
"It's very difficult to live life according to plan when you have to plan around an unreliable schedule. Trains are sometimes better, but they also come with a higher cost and they're more limiting with location," she said.
Roman Dibden, chief executive of youth charity Rise Up, said it sees young people turn down job interviews and training all the time because they can't afford the bus fare.
"Free bus passes for under-22s would remove a huge barrier, opening up access to jobs, apprenticeships, and training - especially in communities where opportunity isn't on your doorstep."
'Support people who struggle costs-wise'
Dylan Lewis-Creser
Dylan Lewis-Creser, 21, is a student in town planning and also stood as a Green Party candidate for Walkley Ward in the local elections in May 2024.
They told the BBC they use the bus quite a lot to travel around Sheffield as driving is too expensive.
"A free bus pass would mean I could get to and from university and work without paying £10 a week, which adds up significantly as a student on a low budget," they said.
"That cost is amplified when considering changing buses to get to other job opportunities and elsewhere, like hospitals."
Dylan thinks there needs to be more discussion around "making transport accessible, affordable and reliable."
"Part of that would be supporting people who often struggle costs-wise to do that, such as young people," they said.
"We've seen how it's boosted young people using buses in Scotland, and it only makes sense to extend that policy."
Bus passengers spend £39.1 billion in local businesses every year, according to research from KPMG.
But experts told the Transport Committee that the bus sector's contribution to the economy declined by around £8.9 billion between 2011 and 2023.
The report said: "The current deregulated nature of the bus sector can encourage commercial operators to "deprioritise" less profitable routes, often leaving vulnerable communities without a service."
'Social exclusion'
The committee heard that older people were particularly deterred from using the bus if they felt unsafe at bus stops.
The report recommended improvements to bus stops and shelters such as screen showing real-time information.
Jane Bishop is the chief executive of North Norfolk Community Transport, a charity that provides low-cost dial-a-ride services in the local area. She says for some people bus services mean the difference between being able to stay in their homes or having to move into assisted living.
Jane Bishop
North Norfolk Community Transport helps people get around if they can't drive
"Most of our passengers are older people, but not all," she told the BBC. "A lot of people, we're the only people they see every week."
"They become friends with the other people on their route so it's a great tool for combatting loneliness," Ms Bishop said.
But, she added, "it's a lottery whether there is a community transport in your area".
Fare cap
The cap on bus fares outside London was increased to £3 last year.
The committee said fare caps were most beneficial to people in rural areas, as they tended to take longer journeys or had to use multiple buses for one trip.
But the report was critical of the short-term nature of funding for bus services, saying it has "hampered local authorities' ability to improve services".
"Five-year settlements in other transport sectors like rail and the strategic road network have enabled greater certainty and promoted strategic planning," it said. "Bus services, the most widely used form of public transport, require a similar commitment."
Bus services are devolved in England, meaning they are the responsibility of local authorities. Individual councils could choose to offer concessions to under-22s.
The Local Government Association (LGA) welcomed the committee's recommendation to end "stop-start funding" for buses.
A spokesperson said: "Bus services provide an essential mode of public transport in local communities, relied upon by millions of people.
"More work is needed to attract them back onto buses to ensure services are sustainable for our communities. Stop-start funding risks losing passengers, with patronage difficult to recover if and when money is found."
Steff Aquarone, a Liberal Democrat MP who sits on the Transport Committee, said the report shows the need for "a different model for rural public transport".
He said local councils cannot heavily subsidise bus fares as in other countries, but "if you put buses on at the time people want to travel, going to places they want to go, people will use them".
Aikines-Aryeetey took part in last year's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special
Gladiators star and Olympic sprinter Harry Aikines-Aryeetey is the first celebrity contestant to be announced for the Strictly Come Dancing 2025 line-up.
Aikines-Aryeetey, known as Nitro to Gladiators fans, appeared on the BBC's Newsround on Monday to announce he will be joining the dancing show.
"I'm so excited to be part of the Strictly family this series and I'm ready to give it all I've got," he said.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on BBC One and iPlayer from September through to December.
Aikines-Aryeetey is a former Team GB sprinter and was the first athlete to win gold medals at both 100 and 200 metres at the World Youth Championships.
In 2005, aged 17, he was won the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year award.
He has competed at two Olympic Games and is a three-time European champion and two-time Commonwealth champion.
In 2023, he was unveiled as Nitro in Gladiators, and took part in last year's Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special partnered with Nancy Xu.
Aikines-Aryeetey said the Christmas Special "was so nice I just had to do it twice".
On Monday, he appeared live in the Newsround studio disguised as "world-famous choreographer Nicky Trott", there to talk about a scientific study into the benefits of dancing every day.
He then revealed his real identity and told viewers how excited he was to be joining the dancing competition.
"I'll be bringing tons of energy to light up the dance floor," he said. "Let's hope I'm as quick picking up the routines as I am on the track."
The next three celebrity contestants joining the new series of Strictly will be announced on The One Show on Monday evening.
Two new professional dancers are also joining the line-up this year - Alexis Warr, who won US dance series So You Think You Can Dance in 2022, and Australian-born Julian Caillon, who has appeared as a professional dancer on three seasons of Australia's Dancing With The Stars.
The show, which has been airing since 2004, has faced multiple controversies over the past year relating to the behaviour of some of its professional dancers and celebrity guests.
Professional dancers Giovanni Pernice and Graziano Di Prima left the show last year following allegations about their behaviour towards their dance partners.
The BBC announced new welfare measures for Strictly last July. These include having chaperones in all rehearsal rooms, adding two new welfare producers and providing additional training for the professional dancers, production team and crew.
More than one in seven councils have lowered swimming pool temperatures in the past five years, new figures have revealed.
Freedom of Information (FOI) requests by the BBC found 15% of councils had reduced pool temperatures since 2020, with rising energy costs taking most of the blame.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said council finances remained in a "fragile position", with almost a quarter of councils in England reducing or closing leisure services.
However, critics fear it could put some people off swimming. Tiffany Watson, who used to swim to help her muscular dystrophy, urged councils to reconsider.
Of the 256 councils who responded to BBC FOIs, 39 had lowered pool temperatures in the past five years.
In total, 33 local authorities had permanently lowered the temperature of at least one main or learner pool.
No council lowered the target temperature of their pools by more that one degree, or below the guidelines given by the Pool and Water Treatment Advisory Group, a pool standards body.
These recommend that pools should be 27C to 29C for recreational swimming and adult teaching, and 29C to 31C for children's teaching.
'Please don't do it'
Mrs Watson, 55, who lives in south-west England, has a rare type of muscular dystrophy called central core disease.
She stopped swimming due to the lower pool temperatures.
"I used to come out and I couldn't get warm," she said.
Central core disease is a genetic condition affecting the muscles, usually leading to weakness in the muscles closest to the centre of the body, such as hips and shoulders.
Swimming is a non-weight-bearing exercise, making it ideal for Mrs Watson. For 10 years, she swam five times a week.
She said: "I can walk in a pool like a normal person. I feel normal in a pool. I look like every other swimmer in there."
Tiffany Watson used to swim to help her muscular dystrophy
However, her pool became "far too cold" for her to continue her sessions.
"Anyone with muscle wasting, they're slower in the water," she said.
"Being slower, you get colder quicker."
She said she told pool staff over a period of months the pool was too cold but was met with "a number of excuses".
Eventually she decided swimming was no longer helping her health, and she had to stop, which she said had contributed to her walking getting worse.
She said she believed the lower pool temperatures were "an easy way to spend less money", and urged councils: "Please don't do it - look at the other options."
More than 30 councils that permanently or temporarily lowered pool temperatures said they did so due to the rise in energy costs following Covid and the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
Since the start of 2019, the average cost of electricity for non-domestic users has more than doubled, rising from 12.9 p/kWh to 28.39 p/kWh in 2023.
Additionally, five local authorities gave sustainability and net zero targets as a key factor in the decision to lower temperatures.
An LGA spokesperson said "rising energy and operational costs" were forcing councils to reduce or close leisure facilities.
They added that despite "tough spending decisions" faced by the government, more funding was needed to support "essential preventative services which benefit the health of the nation, such as swimming pools".
A Department of Culture, Media and Sport spokesperson said the government was "absolutely committed to building a healthier nation and reducing pressure on our NHS".
They added they were working with the sport and leisure sector as part of a £400m pledge to support grassroots facilities, promote "health, wellbeing and community cohesion" and help "remove the barriers to physical activity for under-represented groups".
Roxanne Freeman built up her online following while working as a slimming consultant
"This has been the turning point for me - it's improved my confidence, my own self-belief."
Single mum Roxanne Freeman says she lived beyond her means and used her credit cards to support her family, even using one to put down a deposit on a caravan.
She had racked up £13,000 worth of debt by summer 2023, but her fortunes changed after she turned her hand to content creation, filming and posting reviews of plus-size clothing on TikTok.
The 36-year-old from Leicester earns commissions on her videos - up to £5,000 a month now, she says - and has cleared her debt.
Roxanne is among a growing number of people turning to social media to boost their income and says: "It's literally life-changing."
Roxanne says she can now afford to do more with her sons
Roxanne was working as a Slimming World consultant when she bought a dress from TikTok Shop and filmed herself trying it on before posting a review for her 1,000 followers in February 2024.
She says she earned £200 in commission from the dress manufacturer in a week - 10% for each one bought via the link she posted with her video - and was soon approached by other companies offering her samples to review.
"In my second month I earned £600 and it just went up and up gradually," she adds.
"I'm now earning up to £5,000 per month from just two to three hours' work a day, it's insane."
'Imposter syndrome'
Roxanne, who now has almost 50,000 followers, has since left her slimming consultant job and relies solely on her income from TikTok.
She says her earnings vary each month depending on her followers, but she has earned enough to pay off her debts and to do more with her sons, aged six and 10.
"I took the kids on holiday - my youngest boy had never been abroad before," she says.
"Sometimes imposter syndrome does sneak in a little bit and I worry, but you could lose any job tomorrow."
Holly and Diego Hernandez's TikTok account has almost 300,000 followers
Like Roxanne, married couple Holly and Diego Hernandezalso earn money by posting videos on TikTok.
Holly, from Leicester, and Diego, from Mexico, met on the social media platform when they were 16 and went on to set up an account to document their relationship and daily life.
The couple now have almost 300,000 followers and earn up to £5,000 a month, but they have both kept their day jobs - Holly, 22, is a nurse and Diego, 23, works for a medical supply company.
Some of their income comes via the TikTok Creator Fund, which pays users for their content.
To be eligible, creators must be 18 or older, have 10,000 followers or more and have had at least 100,000 video views in the 30 days before applying to join the fund.
For Holly and Diego, who live in Leicester, they are paid according to their video interactions.
They are also paid by record labels to play particular songs in the background of their videos.
Due to their success, the couple have become a limited company - registered with Companies House - and have signed with a management agency.
Diego and Holly have both kept their day jobs
Holly says: "We were so young when the money came in, and we were going on amazing holidays and buying things.
"I wish there was somebody back then who guided us, because I think we would have invested or saved it.
"In the beginning, I was trying to manage the monetary side of it myself and I found it really overwhelming.
"Things like taxes came into play, so we ended up getting an accountant and becoming a limited company."
The couple post videos most days but admit there are negatives to sharing their lives so openly.
"I think the biggest downside is the trolls," says Holly.
"There's always someone hounding you because of our relationship or the way that we look, the way we speak or the way we dress.
"It can get to you when it's constant."
Estelle Keeber says "influencer marketing is here to stay"
Estelle Keeber, also from Leicester, started a Facebook group aimed at female business owners in 2017 and, after gaining a large following, started charging for her social media expertise.
The 42-year-old says she turned over £1.2m in the first two years and now runs a social media marketing consultancy firm called Immortal Monkey.
"Whether you want to be an influencer or an affiliate marketer, there has never been a better time for people to be jumping in," she says.
"But it does takes time, it takes a lot of hard work, especially if you're building a brand around yourself. It is constant hard work."
Estelle is now setting up a community interest company to link influencers with schools to educate the next generation on content creation.
"I think influencer marketing is here to stay because it's an organic way of marketing," she says.
"Nobody wants to be sold to, whereas when it's organic, people trust and believe in that person - and the bigger brands are really understanding this now."
'Big, fat juicy tax bill'
According to Statista, a global data and business intelligence platform, there are 54 million social media users in the UK and 84% of adults follow an influencer.
But anyone who makes a living from or supplements their income by posting content online is subject to the same tax laws as everyone else.
According to Revenue and Customs, income from creating online content includes gifts and services received from promoting products on social media.
If someone's total income is more than the £1,000 allowance for the tax year, including any gifts and services received, they must tell HMRC about it.
Zubair Ali, managing partner of MyTaxDoc Accountants, based in Birmingham, says three in 10 of the firm's clients are social media influencers.
"Just because you've got a million followers, HMRC won't let it slide," Zubair says.
"The last thing anyone wants is a big, fat juicy tax bill which they haven't got the means to pay for."
"Whenever I walk in here, I can't help but recall how he used to move and the way he controlled the ball. It was something else."
One of Mohamed Salah's first coaches is opening the all-new dark green gates of the youth centre in Nagrig, a village about three hours north of Cairo. This is where it all began for one of the world's most prolific forwards - a player who propelled Liverpool to the Premier League title in May.
It was on the streets of Nagrig where a seven-year-old Salah, external would play football with his friends, pretending to be Brazil striker Ronaldo, France's legendary playmaker Zinedine Zidane or Italian maestro Francesco Totti.
"Mohamed was small compared to his team-mates, but he was doing things even the older boys couldn't manage," Ghamry Abd El-Hamid El-Saadany says as he points to the artificial pitch which is now named in Salah's honour.
"His shots were incredibly powerful, and it was obvious that he had determination and drive."
Salah, 33, is about to embark on his ninth season at Liverpool, where the winger has scored a remarkable 245 goals in 402 league and cup appearancessince joining in 2017.
Egypt's first global football superstar has won every domestic honour as well as the Champions League with the Reds, but has yet to taste success with his country.
With the Africa Cup of Nations in December and the 2026 World Cup on the horizon, BBC Sport visited Egypt to discover what Salah means to the people of the football-mad country of 115 million, and how a small boy from humble beginnings became a national icon.
"I still feel my father's joy when I watch Salah," says Lamisse El-Sadek, at the Dentists Cafe in the east of Cairo. "After Salah joined Liverpool, we used to watch every match on television together."
The cafe is named after the former owner's original profession and is now where Liverpool fans gather to watch matches on the big screen.
Lamisse is wearing a Liverpool shirt with her father's name on the back. "He sadly passed away two years ago," she adds.
"Every Liverpool game was some of the happiest two hours in our household every week and even if I had to miss some of the game due to school or work, my father used to text me minute-by-minute updates.
"Salah didn't come from a class of privilege. He really worked hard and sacrificed a lot to reach where he is now. A lot of us see ourselves in him."
Children in Nagrig, where Salah was born and raised, dream of following in the player's footsteps
'All the kids want to be Salah'
The small farming village of Nagrig in the Egyptian Nile Delta is nestled in swathes of green fields, growing jasmine and watermelons. Water buffalos, cows and donkeys share dirt roads with cars, motorbikes and horse-drawn carts.
It is here where one of the world's best and most prolific forwards, affectionately known as the 'Egyptian King', spent his early years.
"Salah's family is the foundation and secret behind his success," adds El-Saadany, who calls himself Salah's first coach after nurturing him when he was eight years old.
"They still live here with humility, values and respect. That's one reason people love them so much."
The youth centre has been given an impressive upgrade recently in tribute to the village's most famous son, and the green playing surface would not look out of place at a professional training ground.
"They [Salah's family] made many sacrifices when he was young," says El-Saadany, who is standing next to a huge photograph that hangs behind one of the goals, showing Salah with the Champions League trophy.
"They were incredibly supportive from the very beginning, especially his father and his uncle, who is actually chairman of this centre."
Salah's footprint is everywhere in Nagrig, where children run around wearing Liverpool and Egypt shirts with the player's name and number on the back.
There is a mural of Salah outside his old school, while a tuk-tuk rushes past beeping its horn with a large sticker of the player smiling on the front.
In the heart of Nagrig is the barber's shop where a teenage Salah would get his hair cut after training.
"I'm the one who gave him that curly hairstyle and the beard," says Ahmed El Masri.
"His friends told him not to get his hair cut here because we're from a village not a city, but he'd always come to me. The next day his friends would be surprised [at how good he looked] and ask him 'who's your barber?'."
Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,
Ahmed El Masri, the barber who used to cut Salah's hair, outside his shop in Nagrig
The hairdresser recalls watching Salah's skills at the youth centre and on the streets of the village.
"The big thing I remember most is that when we all played PlayStation, Salah would always choose to be Liverpool," he adds. "The other boys would choose Manchester United or Barcelona, but he'd always be Liverpool.
"All the young kids now living in the village want to be like him."
Salah's football education included a six-year spell at Cairo-based club Arab Contractors, also known as Al Mokawloon.
He joined them at the age of 14 and the story of Salah being given permission to leave school early to make daily round trips, taking many hours, to train and play for Arab Contractors has become legendary in Egypt and beyond.
A tuk-tuk driver in Nagrig poses in front of his vehicle and a sticker of Salah on the windscreen
Shaped by a famous bus journey
A couple of the passengers on board the cramped, seven-seater Suzuki van on the edge of Nagrig are getting jittery.
"Are they getting on or not?"
This is not a bus service which runs to a timetable. In fact, the driver only leaves when it fills up.
As a teenager this bus stop was where Salah started his long journey to training at Arab Contractors. "It was a tough journey and also incredibly expensive," El-Saadany says.
"He depended on himself and travelled alone most of the time. Imagine a child leaving at 10am and not returning until midnight. That journey required someone strong; only someone with a clear goal could bear such a burden."
When we do jump on the bus, we are squeezed at the back behind a mother and her two sons and we head in the direction of a city called Basyoun, the first stop on Salah's regular journey to Cairo.
He would then jump on another bus to Tanta, before changing again to get to the Ramses bus station in Cairo where there would be another switch before finally reaching his destination.
After the early evening sessions it was time for the same long trip back to Nagrig and the same regular changes in reverse.
The white microbuses darting around the roads at all hours are one of the first things you notice when you arrive in Cairo, packed with travellers hopping on and hopping off.
"These vehicles handle around 80% of commuters in a city home to over 10 million people," Egyptian journalist Wael El-Sayed explains.
"There are thousands of these vans working 24/7."
Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,
A microbus in Nagrig similar to the ones Salah used to travel on to get to Cairo and back several times a week
Just the small journey to Basyoun is tough in hot and uncomfortable conditions at the back of the bus, so you can only imagine how challenging the much longer journey, several times a week, would have been for a teenage Salah.
The coach who gave Salah his first international cap believes such experiences have helped provide the player with the mentality to succeed at the top level.
"To start as a football player here in Egypt is very hard," says Hany Ramzy.
Ramzy was part of the Egypt side that faced England, external at the 1990 World Cup and spent 11 years playing in the Bundesliga. He handed Salah his senior Egypt debut in October 2011 when he was interim manager of the national side.
He was also in charge of the Egypt Under-23 team that Salah played in at the London 2012 Olympics.
"I also had to take buses and walk five or six kilometres to get to my first club of Al Ahly and my father couldn't afford football boots for me," adds Ramzy.
"Salah playing at the top level and staying at the top level for so many years was 100% shaped by this because this kind of life builds strong players."
Mohamed Salah joined Liverpool from Roma for £34m in June 2017
'Don't defend!'
Driving into Cairo over one of its busiest bridges, a huge electronic billboard flicks from an ice cream advert to a picture of Salah next to the Arabic word 'shukran', which means 'thank you'.
Waiting at a nearby office is Diaa El-Sayed, one of the most influential coaches in Salah's early career.
He was the coach when Salah made his first impact on the global stage, at the 2011 Under-20 World Cup in Colombia.
"The country wasn't stable, there was a revolution, so preparing for the tournament was tough for us," says the man everyone calls 'Captain Diaa'.
"Salah came with us and the first thing that stood out was his speed and that he was always concentrating. He's gone far because he listens so well, no arguments with anyone, always listening and working, listening and working. He deserves what he has."
'Captain Diaa' recalls telling a young Salah to stay away from his own penalty area and just concentrate on attacking.
"Then against Argentina, external he came back to defend in the 18-yard box and gave away a penalty," he says, laughing.
"I told him, 'don't defend, why are you in our box? You can't defend!'.
"After Liverpool won the Premier League title last season, I heard him saying Arne Slot tells him not to defend. But I was the first coach who told him not to defend."
Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,
A mural of Salah outside a cafe in Cairo
Egypt's 'greatest ambassador'
Salah has played for the senior national team for 14 years and his importance to Egypt is such that high-ranking government officials have been known to get involved when he has been injured.
"I even had calls from Egypt's Minister of Health," recalls Dr Mohamed Aboud, the national team's medic, about the time Salah suffered a serious shoulder injury in Liverpool's defeat to Real Madrid in the 2018 Champions League final, leading to speculation he could miss the World Cup in Russia a few weeks later.
"I told him not to panic, everything is going well."
Speaking from his medical clinic in the Maadi area of Egypt's capital, Dr Aboud adds: "I was younger and the pressure from inside the country was intense.
"I had calls from so many people trying to help. One of our board members told me I was now one of the most important people in the whole world.
"This situation changed me as a person."
For the record, Salah did recover to play in two of his country's three group games but was unable to prevent Egypt from making a quick exit after defeats to Uruguay, Russia and Saudi Arabia.
"I need to tell you that Salah was involved in every single goal in our 2018 World Cup qualification campaign," says former Egypt assistant coach Mahmoud Fayez at his home on the outskirts of Cairo.
Salah had scored a dramatic 95th-minute penalty against Congo in Alexandria to secure a 2-1 win and book Egypt's place at the World Cup, with one qualifying game to spare, for the first time in 28 years.
In a nail-biting game, Salah put Egypt ahead before Congo equalised three minutes from time.
"Do you know when you can listen to silence? I listened to the silence when Congo scored - 75,000 fans and silence everywhere," adds Fayez.
Then came the penalty that turned Salah into a national hero.
"Imagine it, a nation of nearly 120 million waiting for this moment to qualify," says Fayez. "He had the toughest and most difficult moment for one player, a penalty in the 95th minute that Mohamed had to score.
"He scored it and he made us all proud. In the dressing room afterwards he started to dance, hug everyone and he was shouting 'we did it, we did it', after 28 years, we did it."
In Cairo is a football academy called 'The Maker', founded and run by former Tottenham and Egypt striker Mido, who is hoping to produce players who will follow in Salah's footsteps.
"I played for the national team in front of 110,000 people when I was only 17, the youngest player to represent Egypt," Mido says. "I love to feel that people depend on me and Salah is the same."
At the time of our visit, a classroom lesson for young players about the mindset required to become a top professional is taking place.
Underneath Salah's name on a whiteboard, one of the coaches has written "discipline, dedication and motivation".
"The reason Salah is where he is now is because he works on his mental strength daily," Mido adds.
"He is the greatest ambassador for Egypt and for African players as well. He made European clubs respect Arab players, this is what Salah has done.
"I think a lot of European clubs now, when they see a young player from Egypt, they think of Salah. He has made our young players dream."
Giving back to where it all started
Back to Nagrig and we meet Rashida, a 70-year-old who sells vegetables from a small stall. She talks about how Salah has changed her life and the lives of hundreds of other people in the village where he was born and raised.
"Mohamed is a good man. He's respectful and kind, he's like a brother to us," Rashida says.
She is one of many people in the village who have benefited from the work of Salah's charity, which gives back to the place where his journey to football stardom started.
"The aim is to help orphans, divorced and widowed women, the poor, and the sick," says Hassan Bakr from the Mohamed Salah Charity Foundation.
"It provides monthly support, meals and food boxes on holidays and special occasions. For example [with Rashida] there's a supplement to the pension a widow receives.
"When Mohamed is here he stays humble, walking around in normal clothes, never showing off. People love him because of his modesty and kindness."
As well as the charity helping people like Rashida, Salah has funded a new post office to serve the local community, an ambulance unit, a religious institute and has donated land for a sewage station, among other projects.
When Liverpool won the English league title for a record-equalling 20th time last season, fans turned up at a local cafe in Nagrig to watch on television and celebrate the village's famous son.
With there be more celebrations in Salah's home village in 2025-26?
Despite helping Liverpool to the Premier League title in 2019-20 and 2024-25, the player has yet to lift a trophy for his country.
The generation before Salah won three Africa Cup of Nations titles in a row between 2006 and 2010. Since then, there have been two defeats in finals, against Cameroon in 2017 and Senegal in the 2021 edition, which took place in early 2022.
With the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations starting on 21 December - six months before the World Cup - do Egyptians feel that the 33-year-old now needs to deliver on the international stage?
"Salah has already done his legacy. He's the greatest Egyptian footballer in our history," says Mido.
"He doesn't have to prove anything to anyone, he's a legend for Liverpool and a legend for Egypt."
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Salah takes a selfie in front of Liverpool fans after the club's 2024-25 Premier League title triumph
One-year-old Exodus Eyob died when he fell from a seventh floor window in Leeds in 2022
Thirteen children have died in falls from windows in their rented or temporary accommodation in England since 2019, according to a study into fatalities of very young and primary-school age children.
Such deaths are "entirely preventable", says the authors, the NHS-funded National Child Mortality Database (NCMD). Landlords must prioritise fixing faulty windows and ensure appropriate locks are in place, they say.
The findings come as a second report, from England's housing watchdog, likens the scale of window safety defects in social housing to known issues with damp and mould.
The BBC has visited families living in blocks of flats in Leeds and west London who say they are "terrified" of young children falling out of "unsafe" windows.
A paediatric consultant in Manchester has also told us she has treated an "unusually high number" of children who have fallen from windows in recent months.
Most attend with "significant injuries", she says, from broken bones - including to the skull and jaw - to internal damage to organs like the liver.
The National Housing Federation, which represents England's housing associations, told us that social landlords have increased the number of checks they do to make sure buildings are "compliant with current regulations and safety requirements".
Windows in the Leeds flat where Exodus Eyob lived were not defective, ruled an inquest
The 13 children in the NCMD report were all aged under 11, and died between April 2019 and the end of May 2025. In some cases, families had reported broken windows, it says.
In four cases there were no locks or restrictors (which limit how far a window can open), in four more cases a lock or restrictor was present but broken, and in another four they were not in use or had been disabled.
One of the children who died was Exodus Eyob, who was a year old when he fell out of an open window from the seventh floor of a Leeds tower block in 2022. The restrictor on the window had been disengaged because it was a hot day.
The lawyer who represented his family at his inquest, Gareth Naylor, tells the BBC that in a "split second" of an adult leaving the room, the toddler climbed on a bed and fell.
The family lost their child in "terrible circumstances", says Mr Naylor.
"What they ignored during [Exodus's] inquest is that these apartments are tiny, and the bed can only go under the window." If children are housed in towers, believes Mr Naylor, "a mesh or a guard" should be added for protection.
Other fatalities include five-year-old Aalim Ahmed, who fell in May 2024 from the kitchen window of a social housing flat on the 15th storey of an east London tower block - and two deaths this year of two-year-olds, one in Gloucestershire and the other in south London.
Tracey McGurk is worried about the safety of her windows when her grandchildren visit
The number of deaths in the NCMD study is "very distressing" says the social housing watchdog, the Housing Ombudsman Service.
Its own report highlights 34 cases of "severe maladministration", where complaints were dealt with badly. More than half involved children, where windows had not been repaired. The cases are not "one-offs" and landlords should urgently address safety concerns, says the report.
It is "alarming" how some window complaints have been handled by landlords and how reports of children at risk of falls are being ignored, adds housing ombudsman, Richard Blakeway.
One resident in Fulham uses duct tape to try to make their windows safer
Examples from the watchdog's report include a mother unable to close some of her windows properly for four years, a window coming loose from its frame in a baby's room, and residents using duct tape to hold windows together.
Duct tape is also how one council tenant in west London told us he had tried to make his windows safer, because he was so worried about his nine-year-old daughter. The tenant, who lives on the Lancaster Court Estate in Fulham, also says at one point, broken handles, which the council said were unfixable, meant a window was stuck open for a week during the winter.
In total, we spoke to a dozen residents on the estate, which is owned by Hammersmith and Fulham Council, and saw that visibly broken windows without handles were a widespread problem, as well as mould around window frames.
The windows are a "death trap" says Tracey McGurk, who has lived in her flat for five years and is worried for her grandchildren's safety.
The day after we contacted the council, it sent a team to survey the windows and found six urgent repairs were required.
"We're investing more than £1m every week to refurbish and repair our ageing housing stock," a spokesperson for Hammersmith and Fulham Council said, "part of a bold, three-year strategy that includes replacing every window that has reached the end of its life."
The council is "not just meeting the housing ombudsman's window safety standards, we're exceeding them," they added.
According to the ombudsman's report, some landlords are delaying temporary repairs for years because it is "most cost-effective" to wait for major works.
"Replacing windows can be complex and costly," says Richard Blakeway, "but there can be no justification for the conditions some residents have endured."
Rise in hospital admissions
At Manchester Royal Infirmary, more than double the number of children attended with major trauma from a window fall between April and June this year, than in any similar period since 2020, the BBC has been told.
There have been some 14 cases this spring, "almost one a week", says Dr Noellie Mottershead, a paediatric consultant at the children's emergency department.
"It's the highest number we have seen, which is worrying us," she says, adding that the majority of patients were pre-school age.
The doctor says she cannot explain the high number of incidents, but the UK recorded its warmest spring on record.
A lot of the families said they knew the window was broken, or would not lock, and that no action had been taken despite reporting it to a landlord, says Dr Mottershead.
Pre-school children are particularly susceptible to falls because of their lack of awareness of danger - and because their bodies are top heavy - says the Child Accident Prevention Trust says.
Buildings with "at risk" individuals like hospitals, schools and care homes are required to fit window restrictors, but such rules do not currently apply to rented accommodation.
A government consultation on how to improve standards in both private and socially rented homes is currently taking place - and it is looking at how to ensure that all rented homes in England have child-resistant restrictors on any windows that present a fall risk.
At the Leeds estate where Exodus died, and others, we saw windows wide open on flats
The current proposals would make it possible for adults to override the restrictors to ensure fire safety, but lawyer Gareth Naylor says that's not enough. He wants restrictors installed that cannot be opened.
"If you fall out of one of those tower block windows you are going to die," he says. "It's as simple as that. Deaths will keep occurring as long as you have these window restrictors in place that can be deactivated, because it's just too easy."
We went to the estate in Leeds where Exodus died, and to several others where there have been child deaths, and saw that many windows were wide open.
One father told us he has them open because it gets "so hot" living in a tower. Another mother of two small children living on the top floor of one block said she has to be "constantly" careful on hot days.
The National Housing Federation told us it welcomed the review into requiring window restrictors on upper floors of blocks of flats.
"Housing associations are dedicated to making sure all residents are safe in their homes," said its director of policy and research, Alistair Smyth, and they "recognise the crucial importance of secure windows in ensuring children's safety in particular".
The government also plans to change current UK social housing regulations so a window has to be replaced if it has fallen into disrepair, irrespective of its age.
Under current rules, windows in flats only have to be replaced, rather than repaired, if they have fallen into a state of disrepair and are over 30 years old.
Councils need adequate and sustained funding to deliver the quality of housing that tenants rightly expect and deserve - according to the Local Government Association, which speaks for local councils. Any new requirements must be fully funded by government, a spokesperson added.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in England told us that "no child's life should be at risk because of poor quality housing, and we are determined to prevent future tragedies".
Artist's impression of a small nuclear power station
Rolls-Royce's plan to power artificial intelligence (AI) with its nuclear reactors could make it the UK's most valuable company, its boss has said.
The engineering firm has signed deals to provide small modular reactors (SMRs) to the UK and Czech governments to power AI-driven data centres.
AI has boomed in popularity since 2022, but the technology use lots of energy, something which has raised practical and environmental concerns.
Rolls-Royce chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic told the BBC it has the "potential" to become the UK's highest-valued company by overtaking the largest firms on the London Stock Exchange thanks to its SMR deals.
"There is no private company in the world with the nuclear capability we have. If we are not market leader globally, we did something wrong," he said.
Tufan Erginbilgic has overseen a ten-fold increase in Rolls-Royce's share price since taking over in January 2023.
However, he has ruled out the idea of Rolls-Royce seeking to list its shares in New York as British chip designer Arm has done and the likes of Shell and AstraZeneca have considered in the search for higher valuations.
This is despite the fact that 50% of its shareholders and customers are US-based.
"It's not in our plan," said Mr Erginbilgic, a Turkish energy industry veteran. "I don't agree with the idea you can only perform in the US. That's not true and hopefully we have demonstrated that."
AI investment
Rolls-Royce already supplies the reactors that power dozens of nuclear submarines. Mr Erginbilgic said the company has a massive advantage in the future market of bringing that technology on land in the form of SMRs.
SMRs are not only smaller but quicker to build than traditional nuclear plants, with costs likely to come down as units are rolled out.
He estimates that the world will need 400 SMRs by 2050. At a cost of up to $3bn (£2.2bn) each, that's another trillion dollar-plus market he wants and expects Rolls-Royce to dominate.
The company has signed a deal to develop six SMRs for the Czech Republic and is developing three for the UK.
But it remains an unproven technology. Mr Erginbilgic conceded he could not currently point to a working SMR example but said he was confident in its future potential.
There are also concerns about the demands on water supplies from the data centre and SMR cooling systems.
In response, companies including Google, Microsoft and Meta have signed deals to take energy from SMRs in the US when they are available.
Next generation aircraft
Rolls-Royce sees SMRs as key to its future, but its biggest business is aircraft engines.
Already dominant in supplying engines to wide-bodied aircraft like Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, it plans to break into the next generation of narrow-bodied aircraft like the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320. This market is worth $1.6tn - nine times that of the wide-bodied .
Rolls-Royce is abit player in a market that has powerful and successful leaders, and that rival Pratt and Witney lost $8bn trying and failing to break into.
The market is dominated by CFM International – a joint venture between US-based GE Aerospace and French company Safran Aerospace Engines.
Industry veterans told the BBC that market leaders can and will drop prices to airline customers long enough to see off a new assault on their market dominance.
But Mr Erginbilgic said this is not just the biggest business opportunity for Rolls-Royce. Rather, it is "for industrial strategy... the single biggest opportunity for the UK for economic growth".
"No other UK opportunity, I challenge, will match that," he said.
Share price up ten-fold
Although Rolls-Royce sold its car making business to BMW nearly 30 years ago, the name of the company is still synonymous with British engineering excellence.
But in the early part of this decade that shine had worn off. The company was heavily indebted, its profit margins were non-existent, and thousands of staff were being laid off.
When Mr Erginbilgic took over in January 2023, he likened the company to "a burning platform".
"Our cost of capital was 12%, our return was 4% so every time we invested we destroyed value," he said.
Two and a half years later, the company expects to make a profit of over £3bn, its debt levels have fallen and shares have risen over 1,000% - a ten-fold rise.
So how did that happen? And is Mr Erginbilgic right to think that Rolls-Royce's roll is only just starting?
'Grudging respect'
The timing of his appointment was fortunate according to some industry veterans.
Rolls-Royce's biggest business – supplying engines to commercial airlines – has rebounded strongly from the Covid pandemic.
The company's most successful product – the Trent series of aircraft engines – are at the sweet spot of profitability as the returns on investment in their development over a decade ago begin to pour into company coffers.
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 arguably made it almost inevitable that its defence business would see higher spending from European governments – which has been confirmed by recent announcements.
Unions have not always been fans of Mr Erginbilgic's hard-charging approach.
In October 2023, one of his first major move was cutting jobs, which drew criticism from Sharon Graham, the boss of the Unite union.
"This announcement appears to be about appeasing the markets and its shareholders while ignoring its workers," she said at the time.
However, overall global headcount has grown from 43,000 to 45,000 since 2023 and union sources say there is "grudging respect" for Mr Erginbilgic.
Those sources give him one third of the credit for the turnaround around in the company's fortunes, with a third credited to market conditions and a third to his predecessor Warren East for "steadying the ship".
So does Mr Erginbilgic really believe that Rolls-Royce can be the UK's most valuable company – overtaking the likes of AstraZeneca, HSBC, and Shell?
"We are now number five in the FTSE. I believe the growth potential we created in the company right now, in our existing business and our new businesses, actually yes – we have that potential."
Rolls-Royce is undoubtedly a company with the wind at its back – and Tufan Ergenbilgic certainly believes he has set the sails just right.
Rare earths are essential in the production of alloys for magnets
Drive three hours north of Perth, and you'll arrive in Eneabba.
This is Western Australia mining territory - the landscape is barren and desolate, just the odd hill in the distance.
Buried in this vast terrain is a massive pit, full of what looks like mounds of worthless dirt.
But appearances can be deceiving: in fact, this pit is home to a million tonne stockpile containing critical minerals, and Australia's bet on the future.
Earlier this year, carmakers and other manufacturers around the world rushed to their war rooms, alarmed that China's tight export controls on rare earth magnets – crucial for makingelectric vehicles, wind turbines and defence equipment – could cripple production.
Ford was forced to halt production of its popular Explorer SUV for a week at one of its Chicago plants - a bold move for a major automaker already grappling with pressure from Trump's tariffs.
A month later, CEO Jim Farley revealed the pause was triggered by a shortage of rare earths, admitting the company was still struggling to secure reliable supply of the critical minerals.
"It's day to day," Mr Farley told Bloomberg TV.
Beijing has since agreed to let rare earths minerals and magnets flow to the United States, which eased the disruption.
But without a trade deal between the US and China, the fear is that the rare earths bottleneck could return, creating a massive supply chain shock.
It's triggered a realisation amongst policymakers and manufacturers everywhere: Beijing's control of rare earths has the world in a chokehold.
"The West dropped the ball – that's the reality. And China was in for the long run – it saw the benefit and was willing to invest in it," says Jacques Eksteen, chair for extractive metallurgy at Curtin University.
Why rare earths matter
The phrase "rare earths" - referring to 17 elements on the periodic table which are lightweight, super strong and resistant to heat, making them useful in small electric motors - is something of a misnomer.
"Rare earths are not rare or scarce. Gold is scarce, but it's not a critical material," Professor Eksteen explains.
Rare earths are critical, however. Take the average electric vehicle – there might be rare earths-based motors in dozens of components from side mirrors and speakers to windshield wipers and breaking sensors.
The problem is therefore not amount, but the fact "somewhere in the supply chain you've got one or maybe a few countries controlling that bottleneck", Professor Eksteen adds.
In the 90s, Europe and France in particular had a prominent rare earths industry. Today, almost all these minerals come from China, which has spent decades mining and refining at scale.
China now accounts for more than half of global rare earth mining, and almost 90% of processing.
The US sources 80% of its rare earth imports from China, while the European Union relies on China for about 98% of its supply.
"China has since very deliberately and overtly sought to control the market for the purposes of supporting their downstream manufacturing and defence industries," says Dan McGrath, head of rare earths for Iluka Resources, in between driving us around the company's vast Eneabba site.
But Mr McGrath, and Iluka, are hoping to make a dent in that control - even if it wasn't necessarily in the company's original plan.
Iluka's 1mn tonne stockpile is worth more than $650m
For decades, Iluka has been mining zircon in Australia - a key ingredient in ceramics, and titanium dioxide used in the pigmentation of paint, plastics and paper.
It just so happens the byproducts of these mineral sands include dysprosium and terbium - some of the most sought-after rare earths.
Over the years, Iluka has built up the stockpile, and is now worth more than $650m (£440m).
This was the easy part, however. The processing or refining is another matter altogether.
"They're chemically very similar so to try and separate them requires a huge number of stages," Professor Eksteen explained.
"Also, you've got residues and wastes that you have to deal with out of this industry, and that's problematic. They often produce radioactive materials. It comes at a cost."
And that is one of the reasons why the Australian government is loaning Iluka A$1.65bn ($1bn; £798m) to build a refinery to meet demand for rare earths which Iluka sees growing by 50-170% by the end of the decade.
"We expect to be able to supply a significant proportion of Western demand for rare earths by 2030. Our customers recognise that having an independent, secure and sustainable supply chain outside of China is fundamental for the continuity of their business," says Mr McGrath.
"This refinery and Iluka's commitment to the rare earth business is an alternative to China."
The Australian government see investment in rare earths as a strategic decision
But the refinery will take another two years to build and come online.
"Without the strategic partnership we have with the Australian government, a rare earths project would not be economically viable," Mr McGrath says.
A strategic necessity
China's recent willingness to turn supply of rare earths on and off has spurred trading partners to diversify their suppliers.
Iluka says because automakers for example plan their production years in advance, it is already fielding requests for when its refinery does come online.
Rare earths are critical to the green transition, electric vehicles, and defence technologies – making their control a pressing national priority.
"The open international market in critical minerals and rare earths is a mirage. It doesn't exist. And the reason it doesn't exist is because there is one supplier of these materials and they have the wherewithal to change where the market goes, whether that be in pricing or supply," Australia's resources minister Madeleine King says.
Canberra sees government intervention as necessary to provide an alternative supply, and help the world rely less on China.
"We can either sit back and do nothing about that... or we can step up to take on the responsibility to develop a rare earths industry here that competes with that market," Ms King adds.
But there is something that Australia will have to contend with as it invests and works to expand a rare earths industry – pollution.
Getty Images
Critics say China's environmental protections and regulations are weak
In China, environmental damage from years of processing rare earths has led to chemicals and radioactive waste seeping into waterways - cities and people bearing the scars of decades of poor regulation.
With rare earths, it's not so much about the mining footprint, rather the processing that is a dirty business – because it involves extraction, leaching, thermal cracking and refining which produce radioactive components.
"I think there is no metal industry that is completely clean... unfortunately, it's a matter of picking your poison sometimes," Professor Eksteen says.
"In Australia, we've got mechanisms to handle that. We've got a legal environment and a framework to work with that to at least deal with it responsibly."
The EU has in the past accused China of using a "quasi monopoly" on rare earths as a bargaining chip, weaponising it to undermine competitors in key industries.
The bloc - which is home to hundreds of auto manufacturers that so desperately need rare earths - said even if China has loosened restrictions on supplies, the threat of supply chain shocks remains.
Even if building a brand new industry will take time, Australia seems to have a lot going for it in the rare earths race, as it tries to be a more reliable and cleaner source.
And one that - crucially - is independent of China.
Lloyd Wakefield on the red carpet for the 2023 iHeart Radio Music Awards
As thousands of students across the UK open their exam results, many are getting ready for the next big step: university.
But that path isn't for everyone - and it doesn't have to be.
BBC News spoke to four former pupils who chose a different route and still landed their dream jobs.
From working with animals at Chester Zoo to photographing Harry Styles on tour, their stories show that skipping university doesn't mean missing out on success.
'Don't rush it'
When 29-year-old Lloyd Wakefield was growing up in Stockport, he didn't imagine his future behind a camera, and certainly not on tour with one of the biggest pop stars in the world.
"Up until college, my only goal was to be a footballer," he says.
"I'm not the most academic. I didn't click with any lessons outside of PE. I'm a hands-on person."
When football didn't work out, he took a job at Aldi.
"It took me two years to adjust, to find any kind of direction or purpose outside of football," he says.
He "caught a bug" for photography through a friend's film camera, spending their days off going out and taking photos together.
Teaching himself through YouTube and lots of trial and error, Lloyd began messaging agencies and chasing opportunities. That led him to a backstage gig at Fashion Week, and eventually to photographing Harry Styles' Love On Tour.
"If you told me when I was working in Aldi that I'd be in the music world, on a tour, it was so polar opposite of where I thought I was going to be."
Lloyd Wakefield
Lloyd Wakefield with Emma Corrin, star of The Crown
His work at Love On Tour landed him the title of favourite tour photographer at the 2023 iHeartRadio Awards. He has also worked with other celebrities and brands such as Dua Lipa, EA, UFC and Arsenal FC.
Today, Lloyd runs Lloyd's Workshop, a creative community for young photographers without connections or formal training.
His advice for other young creatives is to take their time.
"There's no shame in getting a normal job," he says.
"Use it to fund your passion. Don't rush it."
Looking back, he says choosing not to go to university was the right call for him.
"I learned way more by just kind of putting myself in those situations on set. The benefits vastly outweigh the negatives."
'Just go for it'
Chester Zoo
Frazer completed a Level 3 zookeeping apprenticeship at Chester Zoo after his A-levels
Frazer Walsh's journey to working with lions didn't begin in a lab or lecture hall - it started with a job advert he spotted by chance.
"I applied for three different universities but I didn't want to go - it was just because I felt I had no other option," he says.
"Then I saw a Chester zookeeping apprenticeship listed and thought: 'Oh my god, that's my dream, it's something I've always wanted to do.'"
The 21-year-old, from Widnes in Cheshire, was "obsessed" with animals from a young age, he says, driving his mum "insane" with his love of David Attenborough.
But he had no idea how to turn that into a career.
"You don't really hear of many zookeepers, or if you do, you don't really know how they got into that position in the first place," he says.
Chester Zoo
Frazer feeding the otters at Chester Zoo
Now a qualified keeper, Frazer is thriving.
"About a year into the apprenticeship, I was finally able to work with the lions by myself. They're your responsibility then, you're looking after them, and you take a lot of pride in it.
"That is something that I'll always keep with me."
Frazer's advice to school leavers is similar to Lloyd's.
"Just don't rush it, because it's your life, isn't it?" he says.
"A job like this is really once in a lifetime, so just go for it."
'It's okay not to have it all figured out'
Thaliqua Smith
Thaliqua Smith with rappers Big Zuu (left) and AJ Tracey (right) on set for Big Zuu & AJ Tracey's Rich Flavours
For south Londoner Thaliqua Smith, film-making was always the dream, but going to university to get there just didn't feel right.
"I just felt like school should be done," she says.
"They were saying the only way for me to get into [directing and producing] was to go and do further studies. But it just wasn't something that I was particularly interested in."
After her dad suggested she look into an apprenticeship, Thaliqua found the Channel 4 production training scheme.
"It just sounded really cool," she says.
"I thought, 'Wow, this is great. I'm working, I'm learning for a year. I'm earning money for a year in a field that would be amazing.'"
Thaliqua was one of just 10 people selected for the first year of the scheme. From day one, she says she knew she was in the right place.
Thaliqua Smith
Thaliqua originally wanted to be an actor before finding her love of production.
Now 25, she's worked on shows like The Apprentice, Naked Attraction, and Rich Flavours with Big Zuu and AJ Tracey. She's filmed abroad in Spain and New York and has moved up to the role of assistant producer.
"I didn't travel much as a kid, so to be flown to amazing places, staying in beautiful hotels, meeting insanely cool people - it's a dream come true."
Now she says she's passionate about spreading the word.
"Apprenticeships are amazing, [but] I had to dig through Google to find mine. They should be promoted way more."
Her advice is to "not let anyone convince you you can't do something".
"It's OK to not have it all figured out," she says.
"Even people who act like they've got it figured out probably don't."
Turning a hobby into a career
Faye Husband
Faye, from Teesside, started her own nail business after doing her own as a hobby
Faye Husband's school years were far from typical.
Diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, as well as Pots - a condition which causes dizziness - and hypermobility, she struggled with attendance and anxiety.
"I had a lot of time off and it was hard managing being off and then coming back to school and teachers and friends not understanding," the 19-year-old says.
She eventually left mainstream school and was homeschooled before joining a support unit called Strive.
"That literally gave me my GCSEs - I probably wouldn't have managed them if I wasn't there," she says.
After going to college and earning A-levels in criminology and psychology, Faye still wasn't sure about university. That's when her parents suggested turning a hobby into a career.
"I'd done my own nails for years and my mum and dad said, 'Why don't you do a course and do it for other people?'"
Faye Husband
Faye is often booked a month in advance
Working from a converted garage at home in Redcar, she now runs her business Phaze Nails which is often booked up to a month in advance.
Being self-employed has given Faye the room to thrive despite her health struggles.
"I've met so many nice people and made really strong friendships from it," she says.
"That's usually stuff I don't get the opportunity to do, because I don't go out a lot."
Faye says young people should not put too much pressure on themselves.
"Be kind to yourself," she says.
"Don't rush yourself into doing something that you're not ready to do."
A report produced by the Trump administration says the human rights situation in the UK has "worsened" over the past year.
The annual report, which looks at global human rights, specifically pointed to what it said were restrictions on freedom of expression and threats of violence motivated by antisemitism in Britain.
The criticism echoes comments previously made by members of the US president's senior team, including Vice-President JD Vance.
A UK government spokesperson said: "Free speech is vital for democracy around the world including here in the UK and we are proud to uphold freedoms whilst keeping our citizens safe."
The report also describes the human rights situation as having "worsened" in France and Germany.
On freedom of speech in the UK, it said "specific areas of concern" included restrictions on political speech deemed "hateful" or "offensive".
It said the response to last year's Southport attacks had been an "especially grievous example of government censorship", adding, "censorship of ordinary Britons was increasingly routine, often targeted at political speech".
A peaceful vigil was held in the town the next day, but misinformation spread online about Rudakubana led to violent protests.
Posts claiming he was an asylum seeker, who had arrived in the UK on a small boat, were shared widely.
In the wake of the rioting, action was taken against internet users who made the false claims and urged revenge. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer promised that those involved would "face the full force of the law".
The US state department report said local and national government officials had "repeatedly intervened to chill speech".
State department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, without naming the UK specifically, said online restrictions had targeted "disfavoured voices on political or religious grounds."
"No matter really how disagreeable someone's speech may be, criminalising it or silencing it by force only serves as a catalyst for further hatred, suppression or polarisation," Bruce told reporters.
The report also pointed to buffer zone laws which prohibit protests outside abortion service centres and Public Spaces Protection Orders, powers local councils can use to ban certain anti-social activities.
Scotland implemented 200m (656ft) buffer zones in September 2024. A month later, 150m buffer zones were put in place around abortion clinics in England and Wales.
When they were introduced, safeguarding minister Jess Phillips said: "We will not sit back and tolerate harassment, abuse and intimidation as people exercise their legal right to healthcare."
In April, a woman was convicted of holding a sign reading "Here to talk, if you want" outside a clinic in Bournemouth.
Livia Tossici-Bolt's case was highlighted by Vance and the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labour - a bureau within the US state department.
The bureau said it was "disappointed" by the ruling. "Freedom of expression must be protected for all," it added.
On a more positive note, the report also highlighted how "the government effectively enforced laws protecting freedom of association, collective bargaining, and the right of workers to engage in a strike or other industrial action".
Crime in DC: What do the figures say and how safe do people feel?
US National Guard troops have begun appearing on the streets of Washington DC, a day after President Donald Trump deployed the troops to the city and took control of its police force as he argued violent crime was out of control.
Armoured vehicles were spotted at urban centres and tourist sites around the US capital on Tuesday evening.
Officials have said that 800 National Guard troops are expected to be deployed, as well as 500 federal law enforcement agents.
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, who has denied crime is out of control in her city, described the troop deployment as an "authoritarian push".
Watch: National Guard arrives in Washington DC
Trump, a Republican, has also threatened similar deployments against New York and Chicago, two other Democratic-controlled cities.
The camouflaged troops have been trickling into the US capital since Trump's announcement on Monday.
They have been seen erecting barricades outside several government buildings, and taking photos with tourists.
Twenty-three people were arrested by federal agents on Monday night, according to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. The agents are aiding local law enforcement.
She said the arrests were for homicide, gun offences, drug dealing, lewd acts, stalking, reckless driving, and other crimes.
"This is only the beginning," said Leavitt.
"Over the course of the next month, the Trump administration will relentlessly pursue and arrest every violent criminal in the District who breaks the law, undermines public safety, and endangers law-abiding Americans."
Getty Images
FBI Director Kash Patel later said FBI agents were involved in around half of those arrests.
Both the mayor of Washington and the city's police chief said earlier in the day they shared the same goal as the federal agents.
"What I'm focused on is the federal surge and how to make the most of the federal officers that we have," Bowser said after a meeting on Tuesday with US Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said: "We know that we have to get illegal guns off of our streets, and if we have this influx of enhanced presence, we know that it's going to make our city even better."
But at a town hall on Tuesday night, the mayor sharpened her criticism of Trump.
Bowser called on community members to "protect our city, to protect our autonomy, to protect our home rule and get to the other side of this guy and make sure we elect a Democratic House so that we have a backstop to this authoritarian push", according to the New York Times.
Getty Images
It comes as a manhunt was launched for an armed assailant who killed a man on Monday night in Logan Circle, one of Washington DC's trendiest neighbourhoods, just a mile from the White House.
It was the 100th homicide recorded in Washington DC this year, according to local media.
Police say the suspect was last seen wearing a black shirt and carrying a rifle.
The shooting prompted US Secret Service to bolster security outside the president's home as a precaution.
According to crime figures published by Washington DC's Metropolitan Police, violent offences peaked in 2023 and fell 35% last year to their lowest level in three decades.
But DC Police Union chairman Gregg Pemberton has disputed those figures, previously accusing the city police department of "deliberately falsifying crime data, creating a false narrative of reduced crime while communities suffer".
FBI data has also indicated a drop in crime in Washington DC last year - a more modest decrease of 9%.
Studies suggest the capital's homicide rate is higher than average compared with other major US cities.
Getty Images
Troops were seen posing with tourists on the National Mall near the Washington Monument
The number of people surviving cancer has improved hugely in the past 50 years, but experts warn progress has been uneven with some of the cancers with the worst survival rates falling further behind.
For some, including melanoma skin cancer, 10-year survival is now above 90%, while for all cancers, half of patients can expect to live that long - double the figure in the early 1970s.
But a study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said there had been little improvement in those affecting the oesophagus, stomach and lungs - and less than 5% survive pancreatic cancer for 10 years.
The government said it was committed to making more progress with a new strategy due soon.
The researchers said advances in treatment and earlier detection were behind the improvements in survival seen for many cancers.
Breast cancer is a perfect example of this, with 10-year survival rates rising from 42% to more than 76% between 1971 and 2018 in England and Wales.
The period saw the introduction of an NHS breast screening programme, plus targeted therapies for different types of breast cancer.
In comparison, the cancers with the lowest survival rates tend to be the hardest to detect and have the fewest treatment options.
Alongside pancreatic cancer, the study says these include oesophagus, stomach and lung cancers, which all still have 10-year survival rates below 20%, after only a small amount of progress since the 1970s.
This has meant the gap between the cancers with the best and worst survival rates has nearly doubled.
'Amazing job'
Matt Black is someone with first-hand experience of how the type of cancer you get makes a huge difference.
In 2019 the 60-year-old lost his sister, Harriette, to pancreatic cancer, 20 years after his father-in-law died of oesophageal cancer.
Five years ago he was diagnosed with bowel cancer which has above average survival rates. Soon after developing symptoms he had surgery and was given the all-clear.
"NHS staff do an amazing job, but it's such a difficult time to be a cancer patient, especially for those with cancers which aren't easy to spot or treat.
"It's so important that there is more research and support for cancer services here, so that more people can be as fortunate as me," says Matt.
The researchers also warned that, while overall survival was still improving, the rate of progress had slowed during the 2010s. Longer waits for diagnosis and treatment are thought to be partly to blame.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study, said: "Thanks to research, most patients today are far more likely to survive cancer than at any other point in the past.
"But the reality is that this progress is slowing – and for some cancers it never got going in the first place."
The charity wants the government's forthcoming strategy to focus on:
cutting waiting times
early detection, including full introduction of a lung cancer screening programme
investment in research, particularly targeting the most deadly cancers
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said cancer care was a priority. with some progress already made on waiting times.
"The national cancer plan will set out how we will improve survival rates further and address the unacceptable variation between different cancer types," he added.
"I sincerely apologise for causing trouble despite being a person of no importance," Kim told reporters.
The wife of South Korea's jailed former president, Yoon Suk Yeol, has been arrested over a raft of charges, including stock manipulation and bribery.
Former first lady Kim Keon Hee denied all charges during a four-hour court hearing in Seoul on Tuesday. But the court issued a detention warrant, citing the risk that she may destroy evidence.
South Korea has a history of former presidents being indicted and imprisoned. However, this is the first time both the former president and former first lady have been jailed.
Yoon was detained in January to face trial over a failed martial law bid last year that plunged the country into chaos and eventually led to his ouster.
Prosecutors say Kim, 52, made over 800 million won ($577,940; £428,000) by participating in a price-rigging scheme involving the stocks of Deutsch Motors, a BMW dealer in South Korea.
While this allegedly happened before her husband was elected the country's leader, it continued to cast a shadow throughout his presidency.
"I sincerely apologise for causing trouble despite being a person of no importance," Kim told reporters.
She allegedly also accepted two Chanel bags and a diamond necklace as bribes from the controversial Unification Church in exchange for business favours.
Among other charges, Kim is also accused of meddling in candidate nominations during the parliamentary by-elections in 2022 and the general elections last year.
Kim appeared solemn as she attended Tuesday's hearing wearing a black suit and a black skirt.
"I sincerely apologise for causing trouble despite being a person of no importance," she told reporters.
While he was president, Yoon vetoed three opposition-led bills that sought a special counsel investigation into allegations against Kim.
He issued the last veto in November, a week before he declared martial law.
A special counsel was set up in June this year after Yoon's rival Lee Jae Myung became president.
More live facial recognition (LFR) vans will be rolled out across seven police forces in England to locate suspects for crimes including sexual offences, violent assaults and homicides, the Home Office has announced.
The forces will get access to 10 new vans equipped with cameras which scan the faces of people walking past and check them against a list of wanted people.
The government says the technology has been used in London to make 580 arrests in 12 months, including 52 registered sex offenders who breached their conditions.
However, campaign group Big Brother Watch said the "significant expansion of the surveillance state" was "alarming".
Live facial recognition was first used in England and Wales in 2017 during the Uefa Champions League final football match in Cardiff.
The government is now funding ten vans equipped with LFR to be shared between seven forces, approximately doubling the number of vehicles.
The seven forces are Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Bedfordshire, Surrey, Sussex, Thames Valley and Hampshire.
The technology identifies people by taking measurements of facial features including the distance between the eyes and the length of the jawline and then comparing the data to to an existing watchlist.
Each van will be staffed with a trained officer who checks the matches identified by the technology.
Simultaneously, the government is holding a consultation on what safeguards are needed to "ensure transparency and public confidence", ahead of drawing up a new legal framework.
Rebecca Vincent, interim director of Big Brother Watch, said: "Police have interpreted the absence of any legislative basis authorising the use of this intrusive technology as carte blanche to continue to roll it out unfettered, despite the fact that a crucial judicial review on the matter is pending.
"The Home Office must scrap its plans to roll out further live facial recognition capacity until robust legislative safeguards are established."
Charlie Whelton, policy and campaigns officer at Liberty, said: "It's welcome news that the government will finally develop a statutory framework on the use of facial recognition, but this should be in place before more facial recognition technology is rolled out.
"There's no reasonable excuse to be putting even more cameras on our streets before the public have had their say and legislation is brought in to protect all of us."
The government says officers using the LFR vans will need to follow the College of Policing's guidance on the technology and the Surveillance Camera Code of Practice.
It also says independent testing of the facial recognition algorithm by the National Physical Laboratory found that "the algorithm is accurate and there is no bias for ethnicity, age or gender at the settings used by the police".
Chief Superintendent of South Wales Police Tim Morgan said: "We understand the concerns which are raised about the use of live facial recognition technology and we use any new technology ethically and spend time and effort making sure it's deployed in line with all legislation and guidance."
The Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents police officers, said: "The government must also invest in comprehensive training programmes for officers to accompany this technology rollout, particularly as police forces face an unprecedented officer retention crisis."
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the government would "provide police with the tools they need to do their jobs".
"Facial recognition will be used in a targeted way to identify sex offenders or people wanted for the most serious crimes who the police have not been able to find."
The Home Office has also announced that it has fulfilled a manifesto pledge to ensure there is a named, contactable officer in every neighbourhood in England and Wales.
It said people can search for an officer on the website of local police forces, who have signed up to a commitment to respond to queries within 72 hours.
The type of contact method provided will be up to individual forces.
The migrant crisis dominates the papers on Wednesday, with the Times leading with the headline "Channel boat migrants arriving at record speed". More than 50,000 migrants have crossed the Channel under Sir Keir Starmer's leadership, which the paper says is "the fastest the milestone has been reached under any prime minister".
The Guardian's headline reads "Treasury targets inheritance tax rises", reporting that a "clampdown on gifting money and assets" is under consideration for the forthcoming budget. Sources told the paper that officials have been tasked with examining whether a change to inheritance tax could help close the reported £40bn gap between revenue and spending.
"Migrants flood into Britain" says The Telegraph, paired with a photograph of migrants racing into the sea to board small boats off the coast of Gravelines, France. The headline story is also on inheritance tax, with the paper reporting that the amount of money raised from the tax has more than doubled over the past decade.
"It's not our fault!" declares the Mail's headline, leading on comments from Baroness Smith of Malvern, a former Labour home secretary, after she said "what is happening is the result of the last government". The image of migrants sprinting into the channel is front and centre of the paper, with the caption "Dawn dash".
The Financial Times says migrants arriving by boat will "add to stresses" for local councils, which will have a duty to house the homeless amid a severe shortage of social homes. The paper also reports that weapons factories in the EU are expanding at three times their rate before the Ukraine war, which they write "represents rearmament on a historic scale".
A record eight million people are now receiving universal credit, according to the Express. The paper reports that the number of benefit claimants who are not obliged to look for work has "shot up by a million under Labour".
The i Paper is leading with a clampdown on artificial stone imports to the UK, writing that the incoming restrictions have come off the back of their own investigation into rising cases of silicosis among young workers.
"Bungling hitwoman in niqab faces life" reads the front page of the Metro, after US woman Aimee Betro was found guilty of attempting to shoot a man dead in the UK. Betro will be sentenced on 21 August.
The Sun's headline reads "Taunts of the TikTok migrant", reporting that a man has "boasted on TikTok" of crossing the Channel by dinghy and has "racked up a million views" detailing his journey from an asylum hotel near Heathrow.
The Star has pictured Match of the Day's new "hat-trick of hosts" of the front page, with the paper saying the new show will "focus strictly on footie".
"Dry alert" warns the Mirror, reporting that drought conditions could last until the middle of October.
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