The UK is now in a better place on trade "than any other country in the world", the chancellor has claimed.

Rachel Reeves said Britain's economic growth was on course to be upgraded as a result of the country's recent three trade deals agreed with the US, India and the EU.

Reeves suggested the government wanted to go further on its new agreement with the EU but told the BBC a trade pact with countries in the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, would be the "next deal".

She told the BBC the UK was "not looking to have trade negotiations with China", despite previously saying she wanted a long-term relationship with the country.

On Monday, the UK and the EU struck a deal across several areas including fishing, trade, defence and energy, which marked the biggest agreement between the parties since the UK left the trading bloc in 2020 following the Brexit vote.

The summit in London came after the government reached a trade deal with India to make it easier for UK firms to export whisky, cars and other products to the country, and cut taxes on India's clothing and footwear exports.

The government has also secured an agreement with US President Donald Trump to reduce tariffs on some goods traded between the nations.

Reeves described the recent trade deals as having "come along like buses" and hinted at expectations of an upgrade to UK economic growth forecasts as a result.

"Britain is in a better place than any other country in the world in terms of deals with those countries," she said.

"The first deal and the best deal so far with the US, we've got the best deal with the EU for any country outside the EU, and we've got the best trade agreement with India," Reeves added.

"Not only are these important in their own right, but it also shows that Britain now is the place for investment and business, because we've got preferential deals with the biggest economies around the world."

The chancellor told the BBC another deal with Gulf nations was the "next deal", with the government closing in on a pact with the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.

It appears the government had the EU, the UK's largest trading partner, in mind during its talks with the US and India.

As part of the deal with the EU, in return for extending current fishing rules, checks have been reduced on UK food exports.

Reeves said UK officials had made it clear to the Trump administration and India that food standards were not up for negotiation in their deals.

"We increased the quota for the import of beef from the US, it was all still on the high standards that we pride ourselves in, and in part because standards matter to us, but also because we wanted to secure this agreement with the EU, which is by far the biggest market for UK agriculture and fishing," the chancellor said.

But while the government has hailed recent trade agreements as triumphs, some opposition parties have criticised Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for some of the concessions offered in return.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the latest EU deal took the UK "backwards" and previously said the country had been "shafted" in the America tariff pact.

The chancellor received a boost last week when the latest official figures revealed the UK economy had grown by 0.7% in the first three months of the year.

The growth was bigger than expected but is not forecast to last.

The government has made growing the economy its main priority in order to boost living standards. A higher growth rate usually means people are getting paid a little bit more, can spend more and more jobs are created by businesses investing.

Reeves suggested UK growth forecasts could be boosted because of the better figures, but economists have warned US tariffs and the chancellor's decision to raise National Insurance for employers could hit the economy.

"We are forecasting growth of 1% this year, and we had 0.7% in Q1 and they'll take into account the new trade deals that have been secured," she said.

US President Donald Trump says Russia and Ukraine will "immediately" start negotiating towards a ceasefire and an end to the war after a two-hour phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Trump, who described the conversation as having gone "very well", also said conditions for peace would need to be negotiated between the two parties.

Putin said he was ready to work with Ukraine on a "memorandum on a possible future peace agreement", but did not address demands from the US and European countries for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who said "this is a defining moment", and urged the US not to distance itself from talks.

While Trump has expressed positivity towards his conversation with Putin, there was no indication about when peace negotiations would take place, or if Moscow is prepared to make any concessions on its demands for a ceasefire.

After his one-on-one call with Trump, Zelensky reaffirmed Ukraine's desire for a "full and unconditional ceasefire", and warned if Moscow is not ready, "there must be stronger sanctions".

Speaking earlier before Trump's conversation with Putin, Zelensky said he had asked that any decisions about Ukraine were not made without his country, calling them "matters of principles" for Ukraine.

He added he did not have any details on a "memorandum" but said once they have received anything from the Russians, they will "be able to formulate their vision accordingly".

Writing on his Truth Social page after the call, Trump said: "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War," adding he had informed Zelensky of this in a second call, which also included other world leaders.

He added: "The conditions for that will be negotiated between the two parties, as it can only be, because they know details of a negotiation that nobody else would be aware of."

Zelensky said the negotiation process "must involve both American and European representatives at the appropriate level".

"It is crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace, because the only one who benefits from that is Putin," he explained.

Talking at a White House event later in the day, Trump said the US would not be stepping away from brokering talks between Russia and Ukraine, but that he has a "red line in his head" on when he will stop pushing on them both.

He also denied that the US was stepping back from its negotiating role.

In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly warned that the US would step away from negotiations as he became increasingly frustrated at the lack of developments from both Moscow and Kyiv in the way of peace.

When asked on what he believes on Russia, he said he thinks Putin has had enough of the war and wants it to end.

Meanwhile, Putin - who described the call with Trump, which he took from a music school on a visit to the city of Sochi, as "frank, informative and constructive" - also spoke of the potential for a ceasefire.

"We have agreed with the US president that Russia will offer and is ready to work with Ukraine on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement," he said.

This, he added would define "a number of positions" including "principles of the settlement and a timeline for concluding a possible peace agreement...including a possible ceasefire for a certain period of time, should relevant agreements be reached".

Yury Ushakov, an aide to the Russian president, said a ceasefire timeframe was not "discussed... although Trump, of course, emphasises his interest in reaching one or another agreement as soon as possible".

Zelensky held a second call with Trump after the US president spoke to Putin, which also included President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, and the leaders of France, Italy, Germany and Finland.

"I want to thank President Trump for his tireless efforts to bring a ceasefire to Ukraine," von der Leyen said, adding: "It's important that the US stays engaged."

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Pope Leo's offer to host potential peace talks was a gesture welcomed by the US and the other leaders in the call, and "judged positively".

Earlier this month, the new Pope offered the Vatican as a venue for possible peace talks after Putin turned down Zelensky's offer to meet face-to-face in Turkey for negotiations.

Kyiv has previously said Putin's comments saying he desires peace are hollow.

"Putin wants war," Andriy Yermak, a top aide to the Ukrainian president, said after Russia on Sunday launched what Ukraine said was its biggest drone attack since the full-scale invasion began.

Ukraine says at least 10 people have been killed in Russian strikes in recent days - including nine people in an attack on a civilian minibus in north-eastern Ukraine. Russia says it has also intercepted Ukrainian drones.

The strike on the bus happened just hours after Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face talks in more than three years. A prisoner swap was agreed but there was no commitment to a ceasefire.

Trump had offered to attend the talks in Turkey if Putin would also be there, but the Russian president declined to go.

Russia has declared ceasefires before - but only temporary ones. It declared one for 8-11 May - which coincided with victory celebrations to mark the end of World War Two - but Kyiv would not sign up to it, saying Putin could not be trusted and that an immediate 30-day ceasefire was needed.

The Kremlin announced a similar, 30-hour truce over Easter, but while both sides reported a dip in fighting, they accused each other of hundreds of violations.

Russia and Ukraine have been at war since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Last year, Donald Trump promised he would end the Ukraine War in "24 hours".

Last week, he said that it would not be resolved until he and Russian President Vladimir Putin could "get together" and hash it out in person.

On Monday, the ground shifted again.

After a two-hour phone call with Putin, he said that the conditions of a peace deal could only be negotiated between Russia and Ukraine – and maybe with the help of the Pope.

Still, the US president has not lost his sense of optimism about the prospect for peace, posting on social media that the combatants would "immediately start" negotiations for a ceasefire and an end to the war.

That sentiment was a somewhat at odds with the Russian view. Putin only said that his country is ready to work with Ukraine to craft a "memorandum on a possible future peace agreement".

Talks about memorandums and a "possible future" of peace hardly seems the kind of solid ground on which lasting deals can be quickly built.

• Russia and Ukraine to 'immediately' start ceasefire talks, says Trump
• Trump says he will call Putin to discuss stopping Ukraine 'bloodbath'
• Rosenberg: Trump-Putin call seen as victory in Russia

Putin again emphasised that any resolution would have to address the "root causes" of the war – which Russia has claimed in past to be Ukraine's desire for closer ties to Europe.

There is a possibility that Trump's latest take on the war in Ukraine could be a sign that the US will ultimately abandon the negotiating table.

"Big egos involved, but I think something's going to happen," Trump said on Monday afternoon. "And if it doesn't, I'll just back away and they'll have to keep going."

Such a move, however, comes with its own set of questions – and risks.

If the US washes its hands of the war, as Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have also threatened, does it mean the US would also end any military and intelligence support for Ukraine?

And if that is the case, then it may be a development that Russia, with its greater resources compared to a Ukraine cut off from American backing, would welcome.

That prospect is enough to have Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky concerned.

"It's crucial for all of us that the United States does not distance itself from the talks and the pursuit of peace," he said on Monday after the Trump-Putin call.

• Trump's frantic peace brokering hints at what he really wants

Putting aside Monday's rhetoric, it appears that Ukraine and Russia are set to continue some kind of talks – and talking in any form is progress after nearly three years of war. Still to be determined is whether the Russian team will be more than the low-level delegation that travelled to Istanbul to meet with the Ukrainians last Friday.

Trump is holding out the promise of reduced sanctions on Russia – and new trade deals and economic investment – as the enticement that will move Putin toward a peace agreement. He mentioned that again in his post-call comments. Not discussed, on the other hand, were any negative consequences, such as new sanctions on Russian banking and energy exports.

The US president last month warned that he would not tolerate Putin "tapping me along" and said that Russia should not target civilian areas. But yesterday, Russia launched its largest drone strike of the war on Ukrainian cities, and Monday's call between the two world leaders makes clear that any ceasefire or peace deal still seems well over the horizon.

The Post Office has agreed compensation for hundreds of former sub-postmasters after accidentally leaking their names and addresses on its corporate website.

The data breach was revealed in June last year when it emerged the personal details of 555 victims of the Horizon IT scandal had been published.

The company has now confirmed individual payouts of up to £5,000 with the potential for higher sums for those who want to pursue a further claim.

The Post Office has already apologised and said it was working in "full co-operation" with the Information Commissioner's Office.

The sub-postmasters' details were published in a document on its website.

At the time, then-Post Office chief executive Nick Read said the leak was a "truly terrible error".

The law firm Freeths, which acted for the 555 sub-postmasters when they sued the Post Office in a landmark High Court case in 2017, said it had secured the payouts on behalf of all those affected and their legal representatives.

Of the 420 victims Freeths represents in the ongoing and separate battle for compensation from the scandal, 348 have already received payouts for the breach.

Former sub-postmaster Chris Head welcomed the Post Office admitting the data breach mistake, but said they took "far too long to right this wrong".

"We cannot underestimate the level of pain, anxiety, stress and worry that so many people have had to suffer through this new episode. Post Office did not seem to understand how much this impacted those people. They appeared unwilling to engage in genuine discussions until further action was on the table.

"The impact on myself and my family has been profound on top of an already traumatic past 10 years due to the Horizon scandal."

The Post Office said victims would be paid either £5,000 or £3,500, depending on whether the individual was also living at the address at the time.

In a statement it also confirmed it would consider any special cases if individuals believe they are entitled to further amounts.

"We have written to all named individuals either directly, or via their solicitors. If there are any individuals whose name was impacted by last year's breach, but who have not received information about the payment for some reason, they can contact us or ask their solicitors if they have legal representation," it said.

The lawyer who led the case on behalf of the sub-postmasters said the agreement was struck without the need for any claims to be submitted but also allowed victims the opportunity to pursue further action.

"We welcome the progress we have made with this case but there is still a long way to go to recognise the devastating impact of this breach for those affected," said Will Richmond-Coggan, Freeths' partner specialising in data breach litigation.

"Whenever I was struggling, if it was going to be a really bad day, I could then start to chat to one of these bots, and it was like [having] a cheerleader, someone who's going to give you some good vibes for the day.

"I've got this encouraging external voice going – 'right - what are we going to do [today]?' Like an imaginary friend, essentially."

For months, Kelly spent up to three hours a day speaking to online "chatbots" created using artificial intelligence (AI), exchanging hundreds of messages.

At the time, Kelly was on a waiting list for traditional NHS talking therapy to discuss issues with anxiety, low self-esteem and a relationship breakdown.

She says interacting with chatbots on character.ai got her through a really dark period, as they gave her coping strategies and were available for 24 hours a day.

"I'm not from an openly emotional family - if you had a problem, you just got on with it.

"The fact that this is not a real person is so much easier to handle."

During May, the BBC is sharing stories and tips on how to support your mental health and wellbeing.

Visit bbc.co.uk/mentalwellbeing to find out more

People around the world have shared their private thoughts and experiences with AI chatbots, even though they are widely acknowledged as inferior to seeking professional advice. Character.ai itself tells its users: "This is an AI chatbot and not a real person. Treat everything it says as fiction. What is said should not be relied upon as fact or advice."

But in extreme examples chatbots have been accused of giving harmful advice.

Character.ai is currently the subject of legal action from a mother whose 14-year-old son took his own life after reportedly becoming obsessed with one of its AI characters. According to transcripts of their chats in court filings he discussed ending his life with the chatbot. In a final conversation he told the chatbot he was "coming home" - and it allegedly encouraged him to do so "as soon as possible".

Character.ai has denied the suit's allegations.

And in 2023, the National Eating Disorder Association replaced its live helpline with a chatbot, but later had to suspend it over claims the bot was recommending calorie restriction.

In April 2024 alone, nearly 426,000 mental health referrals were made in England - a rise of 40% in five years. An estimated one million people are also waiting to access mental health services, and private therapy can be prohibitively expensive (costs vary greatly, but the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy reports on average people spend £40 to £50 an hour).

At the same time, AI has revolutionised healthcare in many ways, including helping to screen, diagnose and triage patients. There is a huge spectrum of chatbots, and about 30 local NHS services now use one called Wysa.

Experts express concerns about chatbots around potential biases and limitations, lack of safeguarding and the security of users' information. But some believe that if specialist human help is not easily available, chatbots can be a help. So with NHS mental health waitlists at record highs, are chatbots a possible solution?

An 'inexperienced therapist'

Character.ai and other bots such as Chat GPT are based on "large language models" of artificial intelligence. These are trained on vast amounts of data – whether that's websites, articles, books or blog posts - to predict the next word in a sequence. From here, they predict and generate human-like text and interactions.

The way mental health chatbots are created varies, but they can be trained in practices such as cognitive behavioural therapy, which helps users to explore how to reframe their thoughts and actions. They can also adapt to the end user's preferences and feedback.

Hamed Haddadi, professor of human-centred systems at Imperial College London, likens these chatbots to an "inexperienced therapist", and points out that humans with decades of experience will be able to engage and "read" their patient based on many things, while bots are forced to go on text alone.

"They [therapists] look at various other clues from your clothes and your behaviour and your actions and the way you look and your body language and all of that. And it's very difficult to embed these things in chatbots."

Another potential problem, says Prof Haddadi, is that chatbots can be trained to keep you engaged, and to be supportive, "so even if you say harmful content, it will probably cooperate with you". This is sometimes referred to as a 'Yes Man' issue, in that they are often very agreeable.

And as with other forms of AI, biases can be inherent in the model because they reflect the prejudices of the data they are trained on.

Prof Haddadi points out counsellors and psychologists don't tend to keep transcripts from their patient interactions, so chatbots don't have many "real-life" sessions to train from. Therefore, he says they are not likely to have enough training data, and what they do access may have biases built into it which are highly situational.

"Based on where you get your training data from, your situation will completely change.

"Even in the restricted geographic area of London, a psychiatrist who is used to dealing with patients in Chelsea might really struggle to open a new office in Peckham dealing with those issues, because he or she just doesn't have enough training data with those users," he says.

Philosopher Dr Paula Boddington, who has written a textbook on AI Ethics, agrees that in-built biases are a problem.

"A big issue would be any biases or underlying assumptions built into the therapy model."

"Biases include general models of what constitutes mental health and good functioning in daily life, such as independence, autonomy, relationships with others," she says.

Lack of cultural context is another issue – Dr Boddington cites an example of how she was living in Australia when Princess Diana died, and people did not understand why she was upset.

"These kinds of things really make me wonder about the human connection that is so often needed in counselling," she says.

"Sometimes just being there with someone is all that is needed, but that is of course only achieved by someone who is also an embodied, living, breathing human being."

Kelly ultimately started to find responses the chatbot gave unsatisfying.

"Sometimes you get a bit frustrated. If they don't know how to deal with something, they'll just sort of say the same sentence, and you realise there's not really anywhere to go with it." At times "it was like hitting a brick wall".

"It would be relationship things that I'd probably previously gone into, but I guess I hadn't used the right phrasing […] and it just didn't want to get in depth."

A Character.AI spokesperson said "for any Characters created by users with the words 'psychologist', 'therapist,' 'doctor,' or other similar terms in their names, we have language making it clear that users should not rely on these Characters for any type of professional advice".

'It was so empathetic'

For some users chatbots have been invaluable when they have been at their lowest.

Nicholas has autism, anxiety, OCD, and says he has always experienced depression. He found face-to-face support dried up once he reached adulthood: "When you turn 18, it's as if support pretty much stops, so I haven't seen an actual human therapist in years."

He tried to take his own life last autumn, and since then he says he has been on a NHS waitlist.

"My partner and I have been up to the doctor's surgery a few times, to try to get it [talking therapy] quicker. The GP has put in a referral [to see a human counsellor] but I haven't even had a letter off the mental health service where I live."

While Nicholas is chasing in-person support, he has found using Wysa has some benefits.

"As someone with autism, I'm not particularly great with interaction in person. [I find] speaking to a computer is much better."

The app allows patients to self-refer for mental health support, and offers tools and coping strategies such as a chat function, breathing exercises and guided meditation while they wait to be seen by a human therapist, and can also be used as a standalone self-help tool.

Wysa stresses that its service is designed for people experiencing low mood, stress or anxiety rather than abuse and severe mental health conditions. It has in-built crisis and escalation pathways whereby users are signposted to helplines or can send for help directly if they show signs of self-harm or suicidal ideation.

For people with suicidal thoughts, human counsellors on the free Samaritans helpline are available 24/7.

Nicholas also experiences sleep deprivation, so finds it helpful if support is available at times when friends and family are asleep.

"There was one time in the night when I was feeling really down. I messaged the app and said 'I don't know if I want to be here anymore.' It came back saying 'Nick, you are valued. People love you'.

"It was so empathetic, it gave a response that you'd think was from a human that you've known for years […] And it did make me feel valued."

His experiences chime with a recent study by Dartmouth College researchers looking at the impact of chatbots on people diagnosed with anxiety, depression or an eating disorder, versus a control group with the same conditions.

After four weeks, bot users showed significant reductions in their symptoms – including a 51% reduction in depressive symptoms - and reported a level of trust and collaboration akin to a human therapist.

Despite this, the study's senior author commented there is no replacement for in-person care.

'A stop gap to these huge waiting lists'

Aside from the debate around the value of their advice, there are also wider concerns about security and privacy, and whether the technology could be monetised.

"There's that little niggle of doubt that says, 'oh, what if someone takes the things that you're saying in therapy and then tries to blackmail you with them?'," says Kelly.

Psychologist Ian MacRae specialises in emerging technologies, and warns "some people are placing a lot of trust in these [bots] without it being necessarily earned".

"Personally, I would never put any of my personal information, especially health, psychological information, into one of these large language models that's just hoovering up an absolute tonne of data, and you're not entirely sure how it's being used, what you're consenting to."

"It's not to say in the future, there couldn't be tools like this that are private, well tested […] but I just don't think we're in the place yet where we have any of that evidence to show that a general purpose chatbot can be a good therapist," Mr MacRae says.

Wysa's managing director, John Tench, says Wysa does not collect any personally identifiable information, and users are not required to register or share personal data to use Wysa.

"Conversation data may occasionally be reviewed in anonymised form to help improve the quality of Wysa's AI responses, but no information that could identify a user is collected or stored. In addition, Wysa has data processing agreements in place with external AI providers to ensure that no user conversations are used to train third-party large language models."

Kelly feels chatbots cannot currently fully replace a human therapist. "It's a wild roulette out there in AI world, you don't really know what you're getting."

"AI support can be a helpful first step, but it's not a substitute for professional care," agrees Mr Tench.

And the public are largely unconvinced. A YouGov survey found just 12% of the public think AI chatbots would make a good therapist.

But with the right safeguards, some feel chatbots could be a useful stopgap in an overloaded mental health system.

John, who has an anxiety disorder, says he has been on the waitlist for a human therapist for nine months. He has been using Wysa two or three times a week.

"There is not a lot of help out there at the moment, so you clutch at straws."

"[It] is a stop gap to these huge waiting lists… to get people a tool while they are waiting to talk to a healthcare professional."

If you have been affected by any of the issues in this story you can find information and support on the BBC Actionline website here.

Top image credit: Getty

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The House of Lords has dealt a second defeat to the government over its Data (Use and Access) Bill.

Peers had already backed an amendment calling for more copyright protections for the creative industries from artificial intelligence (AI) scrapers once.

MPs rejected that amendment and sent the Bill back to the Lords, where Technology Minister Baroness Jones told peers it would lead to "piecemeal" legislation as it pre-empted consultation on AI and copyright.

However, there was broad and vociferous support for Baroness Kidron, a film director and digital rights campaigner, who accused ministers of being swayed by the "whisperings of Silicon Valley" asking them to "redefine theft".

The Lords rebellion follows condemnation from Sir Elton John, who called the government "losers" over the weekend and said ministers would be "committing theft" if they allowed AI firms to use artists' content without paying.

He joins the ranks of high-profile musicians, including Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, and Kate Bush, who are outraged by plans they say would make it easier for AI models to be trained on copyrighted material.

Kidron's amendment would force AI companies to disclose what material they were using to develop their programmes, and demand they get permission from copyright holders before they use any of their work.

Highlighting the power differential between the big tech giants in the US and creatives in the UK, Kidron branded the government's plans "extraordinary".

"There's no industrial sector in the UK that government policy requires to give its property or labour to another sector - which is in direct competition with it - on a compulsory basis, in the name of balance," she said.

"The government has got it wrong.

"They have been turned by the sweet whisperings of Silicon Valley who have stolen - and continue to steal every day we take no action - the UK's extraordinary, beautiful and valuable creative output.

"Silicon Valley has persuaded the government that it's easier for them to redefine theft than make them pay for what they have stolen."

Defending her amendment, the crossbench peer said it was "the minimum viable action from the government" to signal that "UK copyright law is indeed the law of the land".

Otherwise, Kidron said, the Bill was merely a "political gesture" ignoring "widespread theft" of UK copyright and "starving" the creative industry of "the transparency they need to survive".

She was backed by Labour's Lord Brennan, who said the government was trying to set up "a double standard" with AI companies, and abandoning its historical leadership over the importance of intellectual copyright.

"This country has shown leadership throughout history in relation to copyright and setting the highest standards in order to try and drag people up to our level rather than simply putting up the flag of surrender," he said.

"I fear there is a view that we have to allow AI companies to do anything they want because otherwise they'll just go and do it somewhere else."

Lord Watson, former deputy leader of the Labour Party and clearly a fan of Sir Elton, reeled off a string of song lyrics urging ministers to heed "the clarion cry of this country's creators".

A third Labour peer, Lord Knight, also called on his party colleagues to "protect the livelihoods of artists from big tech" and said he believed this could be done at the same time as "taking advantage of the creative and economic opportunities of AI".

The strength of feeling around the urgency to protect artists was made clear by others, including crossbencher and composer Lord Berkeley, who labelled the current situation "burglary".

"The only way you will stop it is by acting now before the gate is trampled down by the horses," he said.

"If this door is left open we will destroy the future of our creative industries."

Conservative Lord Dobbs agreed those who had "slogged away, struggled and suffered" for their art deserved the government's protection and Liberal Democrat Floella Benjamin said she saluted Kidron for her "tenacity and dogged determination" to ensure "creativity will not be stolen".

Baroness Jones spoke again at the close of the debate to plead with peers not to overturn the will of MPs for a second time, insisting "this isn't about Silicon Valley", denying the government was being complacent, and pointing out that "no other territory has cracked this either".

"We all want to see a way forward that protects our creative industries while supporting everyone in the UK to develop and benefit from AI," she said.

"Kidron's amendment will not provide certainty of anything except for certainty of more uncertainty, of continuous regulations stacked one upon another in a pile of instruments...

"Jumping the gun on one issue will hamstring us in reaching the best outcome on all the others and especially because this is a global issue and we cannot ringfence the UK away from the rest of the world."

However, Kidron said her amendment "does not challenge the primacy of the Commons" and pushed ahead.

The result was a decisive defeat for the Government, with 287 votes in favour of Kidron's amendment and 118 against - a majority of 169 - and the Bill will now be sent back to the Commons.

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The Great British tradition of talking about the weather has been taken to a new level after the Met Office unveiled a new supercomputer which it says produces better forecasts.

The weather agency says detailed estimates up to 14 days in advance will become the norm, while rainfall predictions will also be more accurate.

The new cloud-based system, which was launched on Monday, can perform 60 quadrillion calculations per second.

It is being operated by Microsoft's cloud-based Azure, making it the first system the Met Office is not running by itself.

And it ends a long wait for the weather prediction tech, which was first announced in 2020 and originally slated for 2022.

According to the Met Office, this is the world's first cloud-based supercomputer dedicated to weather and climate science.

It said one of the benefits of the tech will be improving forecasting at airports, while it could also give the energy sector more detailed information to help it plan for potential blackouts and surges.

And it said the supercomputer, which is entirely powered by renewable energy, will also improve predications on ongoing challenges caused by climate change, such as flooding and wildfires.

Secret location

The new supercomputer, which can perform more than four times the number of calculations per second than its predecessor, contains 1.8m core processors.

While the exact location of the infrastructure is a secret, the Azure supercomputing service is physically located in the south of England and is split across two data centres.

After recent hacks of British institutions such as M&S and Co-op, cyber security is on "everyone's thoughts" according to the Met Office's chief information officer Charles Ewen.

But he said he is happy with the security of the new system and is "very confident this is a big enhancement" on its predecessor.

"There's never been a more critical time for weather and climate intelligence," said Prof Simon Vosper, the Met Office's science director.

"We know the climate's changing, as we know the risks of hazardous weather.

"The supercomputer will unlock our ability to deliver those improved services where they're needed."

In February 2020, the UK government pledged £1.2bn for the project and said the old supercomputers would reach the end of their lives in 2022.

Mr Ewen said the three-year delay was predominantly caused by the Covid pandemic and its impact on the availability of silicon, while the Met Office highlighted the need to keep delivering existing services during the changeover.

"I'm very confident the Met Office is best placed in the world to be able to accommodate at scale emerging methods and techniques such as artificial intelligence," he said.

Microsoft's Azure cloud computing service is one of the largest providers of data centres in the world, and powers a large part of artificial intelligence infrastructure.

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A fire chief took his own life because he "couldn't take it any more" after months of alleged harassment and questions over his qualifications, an inquest has heard.

Wayne Brown, chief fire officer at West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS), was found dead at his flat in Birmingham by police on the morning of 24 January last year.

Mr Brown had been under scrutiny from colleagues over claims he had lied on his CV.

His partner, Nicola White, told the first day of the inquest on Monday that attention from the national press was the "final straw".

Birmingham Coroners' Court heard that in the days before his death, an internal investigation had been launched at WMFS into a claim Mr Brown had lied about having an MBA (Master of Business Administration), a requirement for chief fire officers.

Satinder Sahota, monitoring officer for WMFS, said Mr Brown, who had been in the role permanently since April 2023, admitted he had started an MBA but had not finished it and apologised for putting it on his CV.

Ms White said her partner was clearly "low" about the ongoing investigation, but when a national news outlet ran a story about him, "He just couldn't take it anymore. I said, 'Wayne, you need to speak to someone,' but he didn't like to show his weaknesses."

She added: "On the Tuesday... I did think to ask him, 'You're not going to do anything silly, are you?' But I put that thought immediately out of my head because I thought he would never do that."

Ms White said her partner did say that he felt supported by the fire service.

However, Mr Sahota said Mr Brown was a "private and stoic" man who did not seek the support from occupational health colleagues that he was urged to take during their meetings.

On one occasion, days before he died, Mr Brown told Mr Sahota that he was feeling under pressure, was exhausted, was struggling to sleep and had "racing thoughts".

Mr Sahota told the inquest: "My view at the time was that he was saying he was okay. I urged him to reach out to occupational health.

"I had to be careful with Wayne... I didn't want to annoy him; it was quite clear he was private, and he was the most senior person in the organisation, and I didn't want to be disrespectful of that because it would affect my relationship with him going forward."

Deputy fire chief Joanne Bowcock said in a statement that she recognised Mr Brown was under pressure but that she never considered he would take his own life.

And added he appeared to be coping well, but when speaking to him on 18 January, he told her he had had "the worst two weeks of his life" and feared he would be suspended.

'Loved and respected'

Det Ch Insp Jonathan Kiteley of West Midlands Police told the court Mr Brown was also "frustrated" that a court date for a man charged with harassing him had been pushed back.

"I had no idea he would go on to take his own life, but I could tell the constant barrage of contact was getting to him," said Mr Kiteley.

The charges against the man were dropped following Mr Brown's death.

Senior coroner Louise Hunt, who presided over the inquest, said Mr Brown had died as a result of suicide and indicated she would be writing a Prevention of Future Deaths report to WMFS to raise concerns.

She said the fire service did not undertake any investigation following Mr Brown's death so lessons could be learnt and was concerned that there was no policy requiring them to do so.

Mrs Hunt was also concerned that there appeared to be no mechanism for recording concerns raised about the welfare of staff during a fact-finding or formal investigation and that there was no provision in the service's health and wellbeing or mental health policy for employees as senior as Mr Brown was.

In a tribute, Mr Brown's son Kai said he was "loved and respected", had many friends and was their "shining star".

He said: "We will be forever proud of him, and he leaves a void in our lives which will never be filled."

The inquest continues.

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The US Supreme Court has said it will allow the Trump administration to terminate deportation protections for some 350,000 Venezuelans in the US.

The ruling lifts a hold that was placed by a California judge that kept Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in place for Venezuelans whose status' would have expired last month.

Temporary Protected Status allows people to live and work in the US legally if their home countries are deemed unsafe due to things like countries experiencing wars, natural disasters or other "extraordinary and temporary" conditions.

The ruling marks a win for US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly tried to use the Supreme Court to enact immigration policy decisions.

The Trump administration wanted to end protections and work permits for migrants with TPS in April 2025, more than a year before they were originally supposed to end in October 2026.

Lawyers representing the US government argued the California federal court, the US District Court for the Northern District of California, had undermined "the Executive Branch's inherent powers as to immigration and foreign affairs," when it stopped the administration from ending protections and work permits in April.

Ahilan Arulanantham, who represents TPS holders in the case, told the BBC he believes this to be "the largest single action stripping any group of non-citizens of immigration status in modern US history".

"That the Supreme Court authorized this action in a two-paragraph order with no reasoning is truly shocking," Mr Arulanantham said. "The humanitarian and economic impact of the Court's decision will be felt immediately, and will reverberate for generations."

Because it was an emergency appeal, justices on the Supreme Court did not provide a reasoning for the ruling.

The court's order only noted one judge's dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In August, the Trump administration is also expected to revoke TPS protections for tens of thousands of Haitians.

The ruling on Monday by the Supreme Court marks the latest in a series of decisions on immigration policies from the high court that the Trump administration has left them to rule on.

• What is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?

Last week, the administration asked the Supreme Court to end humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan and Venezuela immigrants.

Along with some of their successes, the Trump administration was dealt a blow on Friday when the high court blocked Trump from using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport immigrants in north Texas.

Trump had wanted to use the centuries-old law to swiftly deport thousands from the US, but Supreme Court judges questioned if the president's action was legal.

"We're turning a page," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on Monday after the bloc's first summit with the UK since Brexit. "We're opening a new chapter."

It is not the first page that has been turned in the post-Brexit period, but it is the most significant.

The two sides have now struck a deal that covers fishing, trade, defence, energy and strengthening ties in a number of policy areas that are still up for negotiation.

For Brussels, this negotiation was a chance to bring Britain – a major defence power – closer in a time of geopolitical turbulence.

And to address what some member states see as irritating hangovers from Brexit.

For years, there was a "don't touch it" mentality when it came to taking a broad look at the Brexit settlement, according to one EU diplomat.

It all involved "too much politics" with fears it could all "go wrong."

Remember, up until the 2023 Windsor Framework agreement, London and Brussels were bogged down in a protracted dispute over trade arrangements for Northern Ireland.

Then, in 2024, a new government won power in the UK - the more EU-friendly Labour Party.

Officials in Brussels had long voiced exasperation – even distrust – with prior Conservative administrations, a party with a vocal Brexit-backing contingent.

Some Brexit supporters are now castigating a deal that they say amounts to a sell-out of sovereignty to EU bureaucrats.

• The new UK-EU deal at a glance

Diplomats in Brussels, however, insist that this is a "normalisation" of relations between neighbours who still look at the world in a broadly similar way.

That being said, there was evident satisfaction in EU circles about locking in fishing quotas for 12 years.

When I checked with one diplomat about that detail, they initially replied with a smiley face emoji.

Another said: "The deal is balanced—arguably with favourable terms for the EU—and simply shows that splendid isolation is not an option in today's climate."

Of course, the EU will want to highlight its "wins" in a negotiation with a former member state who badly shook the bloc by leaving.

Nevertheless, coastal countries - notably France – will be happy at not having to endure annual fish quota talks, for now.

Neighbouring coastal states, notably France, did not want to endure annual negotiations.

It was, in the end I'm told, quid pro quo. The EU got its fishing deal. In return, it'll be easier for UK businesses to export agri-food products – although that element hasn't been finalised.

Also yet to be ironed out are the plans for youth mobility – which would allow young people to study or work more easily between Britain and the EU.

That was a particularly important goal for countries like Germany, anxious to win better access to an English-speaking country with prestigious universities.

Another key point for Berlin was the new defence and security partnership.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Donald Trump's unpredictable White House have ripped up the rules on European security.

Time has been something of a healer – but the events of recent years have also created a sense of urgency.

Better ties with Britain, which remains a major defence player, is a no-brainer – now more than ever – for mainland Europe as it tries to scale up investment and capabilities.

Nations like Germany – which only recently hit the 2% Nato spending target – are acutely aware that they have been left exposed by the dramatic global developments of recent years.

But, of course, most of this deal is an agreement in principle; a statement of intent on issues also ranging across cyber security, energy and migration.

"I think it's a good step," another EU diplomat told me. "It's good to test the waters for practical cooperation and what can be done. Let's take it from there."

There is still a watchful wariness in Brussels about Britain's fraught and divisive debate about relations with the EU.

All the specifics, which have yet to be negotiated, could stir up further political storms whether that's on political compromises or cost.

This "reset" may not change the big fundamentals of Brexit - the UK remains out of the single market and customs union- but it does commit London and Brussels to doing a lot more talking as they try to fill the many gaps that lie within this long list of ambitions.

That means there will be a greater volume of diplomatic traffic between the UK and the EU going forward.

Doing more business with Brussels inevitably means doing more talking. In that regard, today is just the beginning.

Negotiations for a deal between the UK and EU are still ongoing hours before the prime minister hosts a UK-EU summit on Monday.

Sir Keir Starmer will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the second time in four days as he aims to strike a deal with the EU on a range of issues.

This could include a youth mobility scheme, allowing UK passport holders to use EU airport e-gates, and announcements on trade, security, and fishing rights.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have already described the deal as a "surrender" despite the contents not being known.

As the talks continue into the night, the BBC understands, there is no deadline for when they will conclude.

Negotiations for the UK are being led by the minister for UK-EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, who told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he was driven by "ruthless pragmatism" and was focused on jobs, lower household bills, and stronger borders.

But he declined to give specific details of any deal, saying: "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed."

Announcements around trade and security have been expected to include British access to a 150 billion euro (£125 billion) EU defence fund, which could be a boost for UK defence companies.

Fishing could also be part of a deal, with a post-Brexit deal on fishing rights set to expire at the end of June 2026.

The Conservatives have warned that the government must "make it clear that giving up any rights to UK waters and natural resources would represent a betrayal to British fishermen".

Reports have circulated that a youth mobility scheme with the EU could be set up - something that Sir Keir told the Times on Saturday would be a "reciprocal" arrangement in which young people would be able to move abroad for up to two years.

No specific details about the ages of those who could be eligible and whether there would be a cap on numbers were given, and it has received mixed responses from opposition parties.

Badenoch described the possible scheme as "free movement through the back door" while Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice said earlier this week that such a scheme would be "the thin end" of EU free movement.

The Liberal Democrats have backed the idea of a "capped mobility scheme", although the party's Europe spokesperson James MacCleary has accused the government of "dragging their heels when it comes to properly negotiating on the issue".

Reports have also suggested there could be agreements on British travellers using EU e-gates at European airports and cutting red tape on food exports and imports.

Thomas-Symonds said he was "pushing for people to be able to go through" European airports "far more quickly" and that he was confident about a deal on food.

He added: "We know we've had lorries waiting for 16 hours, fresh food in the back not able to be exported because frankly it's just going off, red tape, all the certifications that are required, we absolutely want to reduce that."

Conservative MP Alex Burghart told the BBC on Sunday he was concerned the government was signing up to EU standards and becoming "a rule taker - one of the things we specifically left behind when we left the EU".

There was much fanfare - and then lunch on the Thames - to mark the "reset" of the relationship between the UK and the EU with claims of a "huge" potential boost to growth.

The deal does represent a significant breakthrough in deepening ties in the UK's most important trading relationship and paves the way for more gains while still allowing scope for pursuing other trade deals.

But ultimately what has been agreed so far only dismantles a fraction of the trade barriers erected post-Brexit.

Those producing and selling foodstuffs between Britain and the EU, in particular, are celebrating a reduction in red tape and checks.

The agreement on plant and animal health, or sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS), goes further than envisaged a few months ago. By agreeing to follow EU rules, the government has faced accusations of selling out on sovereignty. But it will smooth the path for over 1,500 products crossing borders.

For more than four years, those selling agricultural products from Britain to the EU have had to comply with extra certification and checks, intended to prevent the spread of disease and ensure food safety.

Amid frequent complaints of forms stretching to dozens of pages and fish and other perishables rotting in transit, the Food & Drink Federation claims that exports of such items to the EU have dropped by a third since 2019.

Small companies were particularly likely to conclude it wasn't worth the effort; the variety of products being exported was reduced as costs increased. Formalities on items coming into the UK, too, have been ramped up, albeit more gradually

By doing away with some of the paperwork and inspections, the government claims this agreement - and the one centred on energy - will be worth £8.9bn to the UK by 2040.

Those predictions are always uncertain but that's roughly equivalent to 0.3% of GDP - helpful but not quite the "huge" boost to growth it claims. And that would recoup only a small fraction of the 4% of GDP the government's own independent forecasters reckon has been foregone as a result of Brexit.

What about prices?

Some studies suggest that greater red tape has contributed to higher prices for foodstuffs imported from the EU in recent years.

And while retailers are among those welcoming this deal, it's not guaranteed that any savings in costs will be passed on, although the deal could limit the degree of future increases in the price of - that depends on suppliers passing on savings.

The key concession made by the UK was an extension to the agreement on fisheries by 12 years. That sector represents just 0.04% of GDP, but clearly this will be a big disappointment to some fishing communities, concerned by an encroachment of rights. However, exports of fish to the EU have fallen by 29% over the course of just a few years - the SPS agreement is likely to help reverse that loss.

What's been agreed in detail so far may not provide the "huge" boost to growth the government wants, but there is more that should be ahead.

The youth mobility scheme could deliver significant gains, depending on the details that are hammered out, as could the mutual recognition of professional qualifications.

But even those are unlikely to repair even the majority of the damage to growth some economists reckon Brexit has caused.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility, the official forecasters, had reckoned that as a result of Brexit GDP will be the equivalent of 4% lower than it could have been. That's the equivalent of costing the economy £100bn per year.

Fully compensating for that, analysts reckon, would involve the UK rejoining the single market and customs union and allowing freedom of movement - all of which the government reiterated today are "red lines" it's not prepared to cross.

But there is still a very significant triumph the government can claim. In a short period of time, it has tied up trade agreements with India and the US - and struck this improved deal with the EU.

The latter, in particular, may have been given added impetus by President Trump's trade hostility.

Knowing it perhaps could rely less on that traditional ally across the Atlantic may not have driven the EU and UK into each others arms, but it likely added a new focus on working to break down barriers previously thought insurmountable.

Moreover, the UK has achieved something many commentators thought not possible in the early years of Brexit, securing a deal (albeit limited) with the US without lowering food standards and so managing to align with EU rules.

This deal may not be a huge growth gamechanger. But it paves the way for reaching more common ground with the EU while allowing the UK to strengthen ties with the US on services, in particular financial services, and technology - areas of growing importance for British firms doing business with America.

And that strategic focus on building on our economic strength is not to be sniffed at, particularly at a time of geopolitical uncertainty

Gary Lineker has confirmed he will leave the BBC after presenting his final episode of Match of the Day on Sunday.

The 64-year-old had been expected to front future coverage of the FA Cup and World Cup, but was criticised last week after sharing a social media post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat, historically used as an antisemitic insult.

In a statement on Monday, Lineker reiterated that he didn't know about the post's antisemitic connotations, adding that he "recognises the error and upset that I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am".

He added: "Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action."

The presenter has previously attracted criticism for his social media posts, but the latest example was thought to be the last straw for bosses, who considered his position untenable, the BBC's culture and media editor Katie Razzall said.

The BBC's director general Tim Davie, said in a statement: "Gary has acknowledged the mistake he made. Accordingly, we have agreed he will step back from further presenting after this season.

"Gary has been a defining voice in football coverage for the BBC for over two decades. His passion and knowledge have shaped our sports journalism and earned him the respect of sports fans across the UK and beyond. We want to thank him for the contribution he has made."

• A sorry end to Gary Lineker's BBC career
• Live updates: Host to leave the BBC after social media 'error'
• From football sensation to headline-hitting presenter

Lineker said: "Football has been at the heart of my life for as long as I can remember – both on the pitch and in the studio.

"I care deeply about the game, and about the work I've done with the BBC over many years. As I've said, I would never consciously repost anything antisemitic – it goes against everything I stand for.

"However, I recognise the error and upset that I caused, and reiterate how sorry I am. Stepping back now feels like the responsible course of action."

In addition to the written statement, the former footballer also posted a video on Instagram.

He said he would "never, ever have shared" the post if he had seen the emoji, which he said "has awful connotations".

"I would like once again to say I'm sorry unreservedly for the hurt and upset caused. It was a genuine mistake and oversight," he continued. "But I should have been more diligent. I know that."

Lineker said he had "stood up for minorities and humanitarian issues, and against all forms of racism all of my life, including, of course, antisemitism, which I absolutely abhor".

He told his followers it was "best for all concerned" that he "step down from BBC presenting duties altogether".

Lineker described his 30 years at the BBC as a "pleasure and a huge privilege", adding that Match of the Day had become "an integral part of my life".

The presenter concluded by saying his relationship with the BBC had been "long and wonderful", but that it was "time for the organisation and myself to go our separate ways".

'Difficult and emotional week'

Writing to staff, BBC Sport director Alex Kay-Jelski said he "appreciated the last week has been difficult and emotional for many of you".

He said it was "sad to be saying goodbye to such a brilliant broadcaster" and thanked Lineker "for his years of service".

He concluded: "Let's finish the season strongly with Gary's final show, enjoy an incredible summer of sport and look forward with excitement to what lies ahead."

Lineker and the BBC had announced last year that he would leave Match of the Day at the end of this season, which concludes on Sunday.

But he had been due to remain at the forefront of the BBC coverage of the men's FA Cup and the World Cup in 2026.

The former England striker replaced Des Lynam as the corporation's main presenter of Match of the Day in 1999.

In a recent interview with the BBC's Amol Rajan he said he had a sense during his latest contract negotiations that the BBC wanted him to step down from the Premier League highlights show.

Roger Mosey, former director of BBC Sport and ex-head of BBC television news, told Radio 4's Today programme on Monday he believed the "difficulty" was that "you can't both be the highest paid presenter and be a social media activist".

"I think it's always been a problem that allowing Gary to do the amount of social media he did and also be the BBC's highest-paid presenter was never going to be easy," he said.

This is a sorry end to a long BBC career. Gary Lineker was among the corporation's highest-paid presenters for a reason - he is popular with audiences, knowledgeable and brilliant at his job.

But it's an understatement to suggest he has also caused problems for his BBC bosses over the years, as their high-profile football host began to morph into a presenter with opinions that he voiced on social media.

In the end, those two things were increasingly in conflict.

This has always been about reputation management for the BBC. Lineker had already, in the eyes of BBC bosses, caused the corporation damage with previous social media posts. Mistakenly sharing a video about Zionism which included a rat emoji was the final straw.

• Live updates and reaction to Lineker's departure
• Lineker to leave BBC after social media 'error'
• From football sensation to headline-hitting presenter

It was difficult to see how he could continue presenting for the corporation, particularly at a time when the BBC is enmeshed in another controversy surrounding a documentary about Gaza, which it pulled after discovering the child narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

I think what's different is that on this occasion, Lineker regrets his actions. He has appeared bullish about previous posts, saying that while he regretted damaging the BBC, he didn't believe, for example, that comparing the language of a Conservative asylum policy to that of 1930s Germany was wrong.

But last week he crossed the line.

Lineker is genuinely upset by what happened. He is mortified that he reposted the video. His relationship with the BBC is coming to an end in circumstances nobody would have wanted, but some might have predicted.

He seemed unable or unwilling to accept that his high profile might prevent him from voicing strongly-held views that many believed had an impact on the BBC's need for impartiality.

We live increasingly in an age when people want to express their opinions, and often do. Social media has given everyone a platform, and high-profile media figures have huge followings.

He could not keep quiet. In the end, it brought him down.

But he is a successful podcast entrepreneur, owning a third of the shares in Goalhanger, the company behind hit shows including The Rest is History and The Rest is Politics.

I would also not be surprised if he does appear in the future on TV, perhaps even as a presenter of the World Cup for another outlet.

He has shown contrition, but it has been a damaging few days.

A third man has been arrested over alleged arson attacks at properties connected to Sir Keir Starmer, the Met Police says.

The 34-year-old was arrested on Monday morning in south-west London on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life, the force said.

His arrest follows that of two other men in connection with the fires.

The arrests relate to three incidents: a vehicle fire in Kentish Town, a fire at the prime minister's private home on the same street, and a fire at an address where he previously lived in north-west London.

On Saturday, a 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of the same offence at Luton Airport.

A third man called Roman Lavrynovych, 21, has already been charged with three counts of arson with intent to endanger life in connection with the fires.

He appeared in court last Friday where he entered no pleas to the charges.

The BBC understands that Mr Lavrynovych, a Ukrainian builder and roofer, denied arson in a police interview.

He has been remanded in custody until the next scheduled hearing at the Old Bailey on 6 June.

Police have been given extra time to question the man who was arrested at Luton Airport. He remains in police custody and has not been named.

There are three separate incidents being investigated and these are being led by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command because of the connection with a high-profile public figure.

Emergency services responded to a fire in the early hours of 12 May at the Kentish Town home where Sir Keir lived before becoming prime minister and moving into 10 Downing Street.

Damage was caused to the entrance of the property, which it is understood Sir Keir still owns and rents out, but nobody was hurt.

On 8 May, a car Sir Keir sold to a neighbour in 2024 caught fire on the same street.

On 11 May, firefighters dealt with a small fire at the front door of a house converted into flats in nearby Islington, which the prime minister previously lived at.

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

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Former US President Joe Biden expressed his gratitude for the words of support that have poured in after he announced his cancer diagnosis on Sunday.

"Cancer touches us all," Biden wrote on social media on Monday morning. "Like so many of you, Jill and I have learned that we are strongest in the broken places. Thank you for lifting us up with love and support."

On Sunday, Biden's office disclosed that he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones.

The news comes as fresh questions are being raised about the former president's health while he was in office.

"On Friday, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone," Biden's office said in a statement.

"While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management."

A Gleason score of nine means his illness is classified as "high-grade" and the cancer cells could spread quickly, according to Cancer Research UK.

• What we know about Biden's prostate cancer diagnosis
• Analysis: Cancer diagnosis is another formidable challenge

Questions have been raised about how long he might have had this cancer for and if the disease was affecting him while he was still in office.

Biden said his diagnosis was made on Friday after he reported urinary symptoms which led doctors to find a small nodule on his prostate.

In the wake of the cancer diagnosis, many have offered Biden their support including President Donald Trump, former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Kamala Harris.

King Charles, who is undergoing his own treatment for an undisclosed cancer, has offered his support and sent his best wishes to Biden.

Vice-President JD Vance offered well wishes, but questioned whether the American people had a clear picture of Biden's health while the former president was in office.

"We really do need to be honest about whether the former president was capable of doing the job," Vance said on Monday. "And that's that's … you can separate the desire for him to have the right health outcome with a recognition that whether it was doctors or whether there were staffers around the former president, I don't think he was able to do a good job for the American people."

Vance also said he blamed the people around him more than Biden himself.

"This is not child's play, and we can pray for good health, but also recognize that if you're not in good enough health to do the job, you shouldn't be doing the job," he added.

The announcement comes as Biden staves off criticism from a forthcoming book that claims he and his advisers hid his deteriorating health while he was in the White House.

Details revealed last week from the book entitled, Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, include Biden not recognising actor and frequent Democratic donor George Clooney at a fundraiser last year and aides discussing putting the former president in a wheelchair.

The book will be released on Tuesday.

Nearly a year ago, the former president was forced to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election because of concerns about his health and age.

Israel's prime minister has said his decision to allow a "minimal" amount of food into Gaza after 11 weeks of blockade followed pressure from allies in the US Senate.

"We must not reach a situation of famine, both from a practical and a diplomatic standpoint," Benjamin Netanyahu stressed in a video in response to criticism of the move in Israel.

He said food deliveries would continue only until Israel's military and American companies had set up hubs to distribute aid under US-backed plan that the UN has rejected.

Netanyahu also declared that Israeli forces would "take control of all areas" of Gaza as part of the expanded ground offensive against Hamas that the Israeli military began on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes killed at least 20 people across the territory on Monday, according to first responders and hospitals.

The Israeli military said it had struck more than 160 targets over the past day.

It also ordered the evacuation of the southern city of Khan Younis and its eastern suburbs, warning residents that it was about to launch an "unprecedented attack" there.

Israel stopped all deliveries of humanitarian aid and commercial supplies to Gaza on 2 March and resumed its military offensive two weeks later, ending a two-month ceasefire with Hamas.

It said the steps were meant to put pressure on the armed group to release the hostages still held in Gaza.

The resumed Israeli bombardment and ground operation have reportedly killed more than 3,000 people and displaced 400,000 others, and the UN says that the blockade has caused severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Last week, the Hamas-run health ministry reported that 57 children had died from the effects of malnutrition over the past 11 weeks, and an assessment by the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) warned that half a million people - one in five Gazans - faced starvation.

The UN said Israel was obliged under international law to ensure food and medical supplies for Gaza's population. But Israeli officials repeatedly said there was no shortage of aid because thousands of lorry loads had gone into Gaza during the ceasefire, and accused Hamas of stealing supplies.

But after pressure from its allies increased, the Israeli prime minister's office announced on Sunday night that it would "allow a basic quantity of food to be brought in for the population in order to make certain that no starvation crisis develops in the Gaza Strip".

Key members of the cabinet strongly opposed the move. Among them were far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who called it a "grave mistake" that would "fuel Hamas and give it oxygen while our hostages languish in tunnels".

In a video posted on social media on Monday, Benjamin Netanyahu defended himself from the criticism.

"Since the beginning of the war, we said that in order to achieve victory - to defeat Hamas and to free all our hostages, two missions that are intertwined - there is one necessary condition: We must not reach a situation of famine, both from a practical and a diplomatic standpoint," he said.

The prime minister said he had blocked aid deliveries via the UN and other humanitarian organisations because of looting by Hamas, and that he was now pursuing a "different method" involving American companies distributing aid from hubs secured by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

However, he warned that a "red line" was now approaching and "our best friends in the world, [US] senators whom I know as passionate supporters of Israel" had expressed concern about a looming famine.

"They come to me and say this: 'We're giving you all the support to achieve victory... But there's one thing we cannot accept. We cannot handle images of starvation.'"

"And so, in order to achieve victory, we must somehow solve this problem. Until we establish those distribution points, and until we build a sterile area under IDF control for distributing food and medicine, we need to provide a minimal, basic bridge - just enough to prevent hunger," he added.

Israeli Army Radio reported that nine lorries carrying humanitarian aid, including baby food, would cross into Gaza on Monday, but there was no immediate confirmation from Cogat, the Israeli military body that controls crossings.

The UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) meanwhile said it had been "approached by Israeli authorities to resume limited aid delivery, and we are in discussions with them now on how this would take place given the conditions on the ground".

UN and other aid agencies have insisted they will not co-operate with the Israeli-US plan to distribute aid, saying it contradicted fundamental humanitarian principles.

Netanyahu also said Israeli forces were engaged in "massive fighting" in Gaza and were making progress.

"We are going to take control of all areas of the Strip, that's what we're going to do," he said.

He said the "main objective" of the expanded offensive was to defeat Hamas and that it would lead to the release of the 58 remaining hostages, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive.

While negotiators for Israel and Hamas remain in Qatar, both sides say there has been no breakthrough in a new round of indirect talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response Hamas's cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 53,475 people have been killed in Gaza since then, including 3,340 since the Israeli offensive resumed, according to the territory's health ministry.

A woman has won a long-running battle over a parking fine after sharing her ordeal to TikTok under her alter-ego Zoë Bread.

Zoë Bread's campaign started when she received a penalty for parking on Collier Street in Manchester and claimed confusing signs meant she bought a ticket from the wrong machine.

Manchester City Council has now backed down and Zoë wants to help other people who had been caught out in the same way

Council leader Bev Craig said the signs "could be clearer" and that some other fines issued on the street over the past year would be quashed.

After a month-long campaign that included challenging Greater Manchester metro mayor Andy Burnham on a BBC Radio Manchester phone-in, she finally won her battle.

"The only part of it that I think is bad is the amount of effort it took to get heard, which is obviously not possible for a proper person to do," she told the BBC.

She added that "their system doesn't work, but my system does," putting down her success to being "persistent and annoying".

Zoë Bread said her problems began because the 'Pay At Machine' sign on the street pointed to both a council-run car park and private one.

After unsuccessfully arguing her case, she submitted a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the council about how many fines had been issued on the street.

But the council knocked it back.

She then scoured council documents and found there had been a significant rise in the number of penalties issued in the first year the SIP car park was open.

Opposition Liberal Democrat councillor Alan Good applauded Zoë's campaign.

But he said it "shouldn't have taken the social media pressure that was largely due to Zoë's following".

He said the council should cancel fines going back further than the last 12 months, considering the big rise in penalties in 2018, when the privately-run car park was first opened.

Council leader Craig - who directly contacted the campaign - said she thanked Zoe for drawing attention to the situation.

She said the signs on the street complied with all the rules, but that there would be changes.

Craig added: "We're going to address this as soon as possible with new signs, by relocating the metre and by asking the owners of the nearby private car park to take down their signs which have contributed to confusion.

"As a goodwill gesture, we will also quash any pending or unpaid tickets relating to Collier Street - including Zoe's - and review our records of fines for the last 12 months in that location.

"We will refund anyone who said at the time that they believed they had paid for their parking."

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Greggs will move its self-serve food and drinks to behind the counter to stamp out shoplifting at the High Street bakery.

The company is trialling the measure at a handful of stores which, it said, are "exposed to higher levels of anti-social behaviour".

These include Whitechapel in east London which is one of five shops that will try out the new policy - the others are in Peckham and Ilford.

It is not expected that the change will be implemented across all Greggs' 2,600 bakeries in the UK, but it may be rolled out to sites where there are high levels of theft.

In 2024, shoplifting offences recorded by the police rose by 20% to 516,971, according the Office for National Statistics.

But the number of thefts recorded by retailers was far higher - for the year to last September shops saw a 3.7 million rise to 20.4 million.

Greggs said customers can expect to see its full range behind its counters but added: "The safety of our colleagues and customers remains our number one priority."

The organisers of a female empowerment conference have welcomed an apology from the communities minister after he said the "good-looking" attendees had been seated at the front.

Gordon Lyons was speaking at a leadership event for women in business and sport.

Headline speakers at the event included sports broadcaster Gabby Logan, and Larne Olympian Danielle Hill.

Lyons said he recognised his comments had offended members of the audience and "for that I apologise unreservedly".

'Did he really just say that?'

His comments at the Impact Players event prompted groans from the crowd, with one audience member telling BBC News NI, many asked themselves, "did he really just say that?"

First reported in the Belfast Telegraph, Lyons is understood to have said he could not see the back of the hall to see all the guests but said the "good-looking ones" must have been seated at the front.

Organiser Lisa Strutt told BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme: "I'm glad that he's apologised."

She said it angered people in the audience and it overshadowed the good work that the department is doing.

Ms Strutt said: "I think it's a shame that we're even having to talk about this because it's ironic, organising a conference with really big plans, big ambitions to elevate women in business and sport, to bring some of the biggest names that we can think of to Belfast, to have these conversations to talk about high performance."

She said women encounter "this sort of thing in sport and business all the time".

Sinead Sharkey-Steenson, also an event organiser, said it was one moment in a day full of "magic moments where so many brilliant voices were heard".

"Let's not let the voice of one man over shadow the voice of 20 powerful women that spoke on that day and lifted the audience," she said.

Discussions over 2026 invite

Asked if Lyons will be invited to next year's event, they said those discussions will be had.

After Lyons spoke at the event, a panel followed and included leadership consultant Tony McGaharan.

He said the minister's comments were "absolutely inappropriate".

"When someone puts their foot in it, I think it's important to call it out in order for everyone to move on and take value from the event," he said.

Mr McGaharan told the audience, "don't worry I won't be making any comments about your appearances".

'Apologise unreservedly'

In a statement released through the minister's Department for Communities, Lyons, said: "At the event, a host asked me if I agreed that everyone was looking well and I recognise that my response has offended some of the audience members and for that I apologise unreservedly.

"I hope it does not detract from my message and support that day for women who are leading the way in business and sport.

"I will continue this work in my capacity as minister, ensuring we increase the visibility of female leaders and role models who help to inspire the next generation of girls to get involved and become the leaders of tomorrow."

The UK and the EU have reached a new deal setting out post-Brexit relations on areas including fishing rights, trade and defence.

The full details will be set out later.

But here's a look at what we know is in the deal.

Fishing

• A new deal will keep the current status quo giving EU boats continued access to UK waters until 2038, the BBC understands
• The 2020 Brexit deal, which saw the UK regain 25% EU fishing quotas, was due to run out next year
• The UK will continue to agree yearly quotas with the EU and Norway and issue licences to control who fishes in its waters
• Later, the government is due to unveil a £360m "fishing and coastal growth fund" to invest in coastal communities

Farming exports

• In return for extending current fishing rules, the UK has secured a deal to reduce checks on food exports to the EU
• Officials will drop some routine border checks on animal and plant shipments to and from the EU
• The new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement means the UK can sell burgers and sausages back into the EU for the first time since Brexit

Security

• A formal UK-EU defence and security pact has been established
• Both sides have been pushing for closer cooperation and information-sharing since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Donald Trump has re-entered the White House
• The government says the agreement "paves the way" for UK-based arms firms to access the Security Action for Europe (Safe) - a £150bn EU fund providing loans for defence projects

Carbon tax

• The UK and EU will link their carbon markets to avoid taxes on carbon-intensive goods like steel and cement travelling between the UK and EU
• The UK launched its own carbon system after exiting the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
• The government says it will save £800m in taxes and shield British steel from EU tariffs, thanks to a UK-only deal worth £25m a year

Passport e-gates

• British holidaymakers will be able to use e-gates at more European airports
• When Brexit ended freedom of movement, it changed the rules for people travelling to European countries. Now, British passport holders can't use "EU/EEA/CH" lanes at EU border crossings
• A new passport system will make it easier for UK pets to travel, ending the need for repeat vet certificates

Still up for negotiation

• The BBC understands some key aspects are still subject to further negotiation – such as the idea of a youth mobility scheme
• What finally makes it into this package will set the agenda for the next set of post-Brexit negotiations early next year

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A deal to "reset" relations between the UK and the EU following Brexit has been agreed at a summit in London.

The agreement covers a range of issues, including defence, fishing, the trade in food products and the ability of young people to move freely between the UK and the EU.

BBC Verify has gone through the deal, picking out the potential winners and losers.

Food

Winner: UK food exporters to the EU who could see fewer checks

Loser: People who don't want the UK to follow EU rules, as there are strings attached

Since Brexit, UK goods travelling to the EU – including food products – have faced new checks and extra paperwork.

Some items, such as UK exports of raw burgers and sausages, have been banned from entering the EU because they do not meet its strict import rules.

UK food exports to the EU have fallen – with volumes in 2024 down 34% compared with 2019 – and the industry blames this partly on the added red tape.

Now, both sides have agreed to work on a joint food safety agreement that could remove many of the current barriers.

If signed and fully implemented, it would reduce paperwork, ease checks, and could even lift bans on products like raw meats.

Food and drink exports to the EU in 2023 were worth £14bn, accounting for 57% of all the sector's overseas sales.

But the deal comes with conditions. The UK will need to follow future EU food standards – a system known as "dynamic alignment" – and accept that the European Court of Justice will have the final say in any disputes in this area.

The UK will be also required to make a financial contribution. However is it currently unknown how much the payment would be and when it would be required.

Fishing

Winner: The EU - fishing vessels get 12 more years of access to UK waters

Loser: UK fishermen who wanted annual negotiations on fishing access

Although fishing accounts for a very small part of the UK economy - just 0.04% of GDP in 2024 - it is politically sensitive.

The "reset" document notes "political agreements leading to full reciprocal access to waters to fish until 30 June 2038" - a 12-year extension to the current deal negotiated by Boris Johnson's Conservative government - and much longer than expected.

Under the existing agreement (due to expire in 2026), EU vessels get access to UK waters to fish - in return for transferring 25% of their fishing quota - the amount they are allowed to catch - to UK fleets.

Some UK fishing groups have criticised the existing deal and do not want to see it extended.

Elspeth Macdonald, who represents 450 fishing boats as chief executive of the Scottish Fishermen's Federation says: "This deal is a horror show for Scottish fishermen, far worse than Boris Johnson's botched Brexit agreement."

She says the long-term deal takes away the industry's bargaining power in future talks and would prefer annual negotiations with the EU.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer says there will be "no increase in the amount that the EU vessels can catch in British waters" and says it will now be easier for UK fishermen to export their products.

In 2023, the UK exported £1.2bn of fish to the EU, around 70% of all fish exports.

Tavish Scott from Salmon Scotland, which represents salmon farming in Scotland, says the agreement to reduce checks would "speed up the delivery of our premium salmon to market".

Youth mobility

Winner: Young people in the UK and EU who should - if this is confirmed - be able to work and study more freely between the two

Loser: Those who oppose an increase in net migration to the UK will point out that any mobility scheme could affect immigration figures, although this effect may be temporary

The details here are still to be confirmed, but the winners would be those young people from both the UK and EU who would be able to work and study more easily across Europe and Great Britain. Other youth mobility schemes have focused on people aged 18 to 30.

However, the impact of what is being called a "youth experience scheme" could be uneven.

Before Brexit more young people from the EU came to the UK than went the other way.

And, remember, Sir Keir has pledged to "significantly" reduce immigration levels in the coming years. So there's a big question mark on what impact a UK-EU scheme could have on UK immigration levels.

Madeleine Sumption from Oxford University's Migration Observatory told BBC Verify that a scheme would likely increase net migration in the short term, as new participants arrive.

However, she adds that if everyone left the UK when their visa expired, the long-term impact on migration levels would be minimal.

"If the UK is worried about the impact, it could phase in the scheme, where it gradually increases the quota. So as people leave, the quota could be raised rather than a big bang all come at once," she said.

eGates

Winner: British tourists may be able to use eGates at EU airports but we do not know which ones and from when

Loser: Those expecting to escape long queues this summer

As part of the agreement, UK nationals will be able to use eGates at EU airports, rather than having their passport manually checked by a border officer.

The government claims: "British holidaymakers will be able to use more eGates in Europe, ending the dreaded queues at border control."

However the text of the EU-UK agreement is less clear, only referring to the "potential use of eGates where appropriate".

It is unlikely any change will be implemented by the summer, travel organisation Abta told BBC Verify.

Abta believes the deal clarifies that the EU countries can offer eGates to UK nationals once a new Entry/Exit System (EES) comes into effect in October.

EES is an automated IT system for registering all non-EU travellers for a short stay, each time they cross the EU's external borders.

Whether UK passengers will avoid a border guard altogether will depend on the technology at each border crossing, Abta says.

Defence

Winner: UK defence firms may get contracts from new EU rearmament fund

Loser: EU defence firms which hoped to get more of these revenues

The EU has established a Security Action for Europe fund (SAFE) with €150bn (£126bn) of loans, backed by the EU budget, to enable its member states to rearm.

This was going to be spent on EU-based defence firms. The fund also allows for the involvement of a number of non-EU countries and could now be opened up to UK defence companies too. This would potentially allow EU firms to use the fund to buy kit from the UK.

The UK has a large defence manufacturing industry relative to many EU states and this sector directly employs about164,00 people in the UK.

Between 2020 and 2024, the UK was estimated by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute to have accounted for around 3.6% of total global annual arms exports, making the UK the seventh largest national exporter.

Again, the detail is still being worked out here and we do not know when and exactly how the UK will participate in the fund.

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This is undeniably a significant deal. In a funny way, though, for Sir Keir Starmer to succeed he needs it to seem as insignificant and uncontroversial as possible.

For many in politics, wading through the details of this agreement will be an act of nostalgia – or perhaps deeply triggering.

Dynamic alignment. Sanitary and phytosanitary checks. Fishing quotas. Jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

These are concepts, institutions and trade-offs which came to dominate British politics for much of the past decade. And with good reason: as the UK navigated its divorce with the EU, these technical questions became deeply political as they shaped the post-Brexit relationship.

Sir Keir's big bet is that nobody really cares any more. The view at the top of government is that there is no public clamour to reopen the biggest questions of Brexit – membership of the single market and customs union – but that making the relationship smoother within those parameters is mere pragmatic common sense.

Of course pragmatism lies in the eyes of the beholder. The Conservatives have lambasted the deal as "surrender", attacking both the 12-year extension to existing fishing quotas and the commitment for the UK to follow EU rules on agriculture.

Reform UK, in many ways the successor to the Brexit Party and UKIP, are unsurprisingly making a similar argument.

On the other side of the equation, the Liberal Democrats welcomed "some positive first steps" but urged the prime minister to "be more ambitious".

Their position is that the UK should rejoin the EU's customs union - an agreement between member states not to charge tariffs on each other's goods.

What will prove revealing over the coming days, weeks, and months is not just those opposition parties' positions but how much they campaign on them.

If opposition to today's deal becomes a significant part of these parties' platforms, it will tell us that they believe there is in fact plenty of controversy yet in the decades-long debate over the UK's relationship with the EU.

If that's right, then today's main significance may prove to have been thrusting questions about Brexit right back to the centre of political life.

But if Sir Keir is right that the bulk of the public simply wants as little friction with the EU as possible, then he could prove to be our first truly post-Brexit prime minister.

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The UK and the European Union have agreed a major new deal covering areas including trade, defence, fishing and energy.

However, negotiations are still taking place on a number of key issues - leaving some important questions unanswered.

How much will the UK pay?

The deal makes several references to a "financial contribution" from the UK to access certain benefits, notably an agreement to reduce checks on food exports to the EU.

The prime minister's official spokesman said these were "administrative costs".

He insisted they would not be "big" but refused to put a figure on how much the UK would pay.

In other areas, terms are still being negotiated so the cost to the UK isn't known yet.

For example, the two sides are working towards the UK rejoining the Erasmus+ exchange programme, which allows students to study or do work placements abroad.

Rather than simply covering administrative costs, the UK would be expecting to get direct benefits in return and the government has said it will only take part "on significantly improved financial terms".

How many people will benefit from youth visa scheme?

The UK has agreed to work towards a "youth experience scheme" with the EU, which would allow young people from the bloc to apply for a visa to live and work in the UK and vice versa.

The government has said any such deal would be "capped and time-limited" but it has not specified how many visas could be issued annually and how long they would be valid for.

These details will be the subject of future negotiations.

The UK already has similar schemes with 11 countries including Australia, New Zealand and Japan, with people able to stay for up to three years depending on which country they are from.

Last year, just over 24,000 youth mobility visas were issued by the UK.

When can British travellers use e-gates?

Since Brexit, British travellers at EU airports have generally been forced to have their passport stamped at manned desks, rather than use automatic gates with facial recognition technology.

Some airports already allow British passport-holders to use e-gates - but for those that don't the only alternative is often a lengthy queue.

The deal states that there will be "no legal barriers" to Britons using e-gates when travelling to and from EU countries after the introduction of the European Union Entry-Exit System.

The long-awaited digital border checks system is due to replace passport stamping for travellers from outside the EU in October.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said UK holidaymakers will want to get away "without delay" this summer and he wants them to be able to use e-gates "as soon as possible".

But it is up to individual EU countries to decide whether British passport holders can use e-gates at their airports.

So whether this will be possible in more countries by the summer holidays is unclear.

Will it be easier for British bands to tour Europe?

Since Brexit, British musicians have faced extra costs and red tape when touring Europe - and stars have long called for action to tackle this.

Labour's general election manifesto last year pledged to "help our touring artists" as part of negotiations with the EU.

But the deal agreed on Monday only recognises the "value" of touring artists and promises to continue efforts "to support travel and cultural exchange".

The UK says it will explore "how best to improve arrangements for touring across the European continent".

Tom Kiehl, chief executive of UK Music, which represents the industry, welcomed this as "an important first step" but said the sector was seeking "more concrete commitments".

Will UK qualifications be recognised in the EU?

Another promise in Labour's manifesto was to "secure a mutual recognition agreement for professional qualifications to help open up markets for UK service exporters".

This would mean professionals - such as doctors, lawyers, accountants and architects - who qualified in one country could practice in another with minimal extra bureaucracy.

EU citizens already have the right to do this across the bloc.

Such an agreement would make it easier for British companies to move staff between the UK and EU and undertake short-term work in Europe.

However, there may be less incentive for the EU to reach a deal on this, given that the current situation makes it harder for UK firms to compete for business in Europe.

Monday's deal only promises to set up "dedicated dialogues" on the recognition of professional qualifications.

A full agreement in this area could take much longer to negotiate, if the EU will sign up to one at all.

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The UK and the EU have reached a new deal setting out post-Brexit relations on areas including fishing rights, trade and defence.

The full details will be set out later.

But here's a look at what we know is in the deal.

Fishing

• A new deal will keep the current status quo giving EU boats continued access to UK waters until 2038, the BBC understands
• The 2020 Brexit deal, which saw the UK regain 25% EU fishing quotas, was due to run out next year
• The UK will continue to agree yearly quotas with the EU and Norway and issue licences to control who fishes in its waters
• Later, the government is due to unveil a £360m "fishing and coastal growth fund" to invest in coastal communities

Farming exports

• In return for extending current fishing rules, the UK has secured a deal to reduce checks on food exports to the EU
• Officials will drop some routine border checks on animal and plant shipments to and from the EU
• The new sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement means the UK can sell burgers and sausages back into the EU for the first time since Brexit

Security

• A formal UK-EU defence and security pact has been established
• Both sides have been pushing for closer cooperation and information-sharing since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Donald Trump has re-entered the White House
• The government says the agreement "paves the way" for UK-based arms firms to access the Security Action for Europe (Safe) - a £150bn EU fund providing loans for defence projects

Carbon tax

• The UK and EU will link their carbon markets to avoid taxes on carbon-intensive goods like steel and cement travelling between the UK and EU
• The UK launched its own carbon system after exiting the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM)
• The government says it will save £800m in taxes and shield British steel from EU tariffs, thanks to a UK-only deal worth £25m a year

Passport e-gates

• British holidaymakers will be able to use e-gates at more European airports
• When Brexit ended freedom of movement, it changed the rules for people travelling to European countries. Now, British passport holders can't use "EU/EEA/CH" lanes at EU border crossings
• A new passport system will make it easier for UK pets to travel, ending the need for repeat vet certificates

Still up for negotiation

• The BBC understands some key aspects are still subject to further negotiation – such as the idea of a youth mobility scheme
• What finally makes it into this package will set the agenda for the next set of post-Brexit negotiations early next year

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

France will build a new high-security prison in its overseas department of French Guiana to house drug traffickers and radical Islamists, the country's justice minister announced during a visit to the territory.

Gérald Darmanin told Le Journal du Dimanche (JDD) newspaper that the prison would target organised crime "at all levels" of the drug supply chain.

The €400m (£337m) facility, which could open as early as 2028, will be built in an isolated location deep in the Amazon jungle in the northwestern region of Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni.

The plan was announced after a series of violent incidents linked to criminal gangs which saw prisons and staff targeted across France in recent months.

The prison will hold up to 500 people, with a separate wing designed to house the most dangerous criminals.

In an interview with JDD, the minister said the new prison would be governed by an "extremely strict carceral regime" designed to "incapacitate the most dangerous drug traffickers".

Darmanin said the facility would be used to detain people "at the beginning of the drug trail", as well as serving as a "lasting means of removing the heads of the drug trafficking networks" in mainland France.

French Guiana is a region of France on the north-east coast of South America. Its residents are eligible to vote in French elections and have access to the French social security system, as well as other subsidies.

Its distance from the French mainland means drug lords "will no longer be able to have any contact with their criminal networks", Darmanin told JDD.

French authorities have long struggled to control the infiltration of mobile phones into the prison network. Tens of thousands are known to circulate through French jails.

Earlier this year, the French government announced new legislation designed to crack down on the activity of criminal gangs.

The measures will create a dedicated branch of the prosecutors' office to deal with organised crime. It will also introduce extra powers for investigators, and a special protected status for informers.

It will also see the creation of new high-security prisons - including the facility in French Guiana - to hold the most powerful drugs barons, with stricter rules governing visits and communication with the outside world.

France has seen a series of attacks on prisons in recent months, which Darmanin has described as "terrorist" incidents that come in response to the government's new legislation.

The perpetrators of these attacks have set vehicles outside prisons alight, while Toulon's La Farlede prison was hit by gunfire.

In some incidents the perpetrators of these attacks have styled themselves as defenders of prisoners' rights.

The proposed new facility in French Guiana is to be built at a "strategic crossroads" for drugs mules, particularly from Brazil and Suriname, according to AFP news agency.

Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni is the former port of entry to the infamous Devil's Island penal colony, where 70,000 convicts from mainland France were sent between 1852 and 1954.

The penal colony was the setting of French writer Henri Charrière's book Papillon, which was later made into a Hollywood film starring Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman.

The BBC has contacted the French justice ministry for comment.

A "significant amount" of private data including criminal records has been hacked from the Legal Aid online system, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said.

The MoJ said said it became aware of a cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency's online digital services on April 23 of data dating back to 2010. It then became aware the incident was "more extensive than originally understood".

Legal Aid Agency chief executive Jane Harbottle apologised for the breach, saying she understood the news "will be shocking and upsetting for people".

The group that carried out the attack claimed it accessed 2.1 million pieces of data, according to the PA news agency. The MoJ has not verified that figure, however.

The ministry urged members of the public who have applied for legal aid in this time period to take steps to safeguard themselves.

"This data may have included contact details and addresses of applicants, their dates of birth, national ID numbers, criminal history, employment status and financial data such as contribution amounts, debts and payments," it said.

It also warned the public to be alert for any suspicious activity, including unknown messages or phone calls, and to update any potentially exposed passwords.

"If you are in doubt about anyone you are communicating with online or over the phone you should verify their identity independently before providing any information to them," it said.

The ministry said it was working with the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre, and has informed the Information Commissioner.

The Legal Aid Agency's online digital services, which are used by legal aid providers to log their work and get paid by the government, have been taken offline.

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

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

Uber has said it is "ready to go" now with driverless taxis in the UK - but the government has put back the date it expects to approve fully self-driving vehicles.

The previous administration said fully autonomous cars were "set to be on roads by 2026", but the new government says it is now more likely to happen in the second half of 2027.

While limited self-driving technology is already permitted on UK roads, a human driver must be at the wheel and responsible for the vehicle, even if automated technology is being used.

With some companies trialling more advanced tech on British streets, I took an automated car ride across central London in a car using a system developed by UK AI firm Wayve.

"We're ready to launch robotaxis in the UK as soon as the regulatory environment is ready for us," said Andrew Macdonald, senior vice president of mobility at Uber, who joined me for the ride.

The ride-hailing firm is working with 18 automated car tech companies including Wayve.

It is one of several companies which already offers robotaxis in the US.

They are also on the roads in China, the UAE and Singapore.

But Mr Macdonald disagreed that the UK was behind the rest of the world, arguing that the US and China were ahead largely because that is where the majority of the tech had been developed.

"We are working quickly and will implement self-driving vehicle legislation in the second half of 2027", the Department for Transport said in a statement.

"We are also exploring options for short-term trials and pilots to create the right conditions for a thriving self-driving sector," it added.

'Hands-off' experience

In the US, Mr Macdonald said robotaxis typically operate for 20 hours per day, seven days per week.

Even though there is no driver to pay, Uber says the fare is currently the same as a ride with a human behind the wheel.

The option to take one appears on the app if one is available, and customers can opt in or out.

That's partly because, aside from the regulatory environment, another potential barrier to their uptake is the public's reticence about travelling in a self-driving vehicle.

A poll by YouGov in 2024 suggested that 37% of Brits would feel "very unsafe" travelling in a car without a driver.

But Mr Macdonald insisted new customers' initial nervousness was short-lived and the experience soon "becomes the new normal".

That was certainly my experience during our ride.

I was in a Ford Mach-e, fitted with Wayve's autonomous driving sensors and software.

It uses a radar and seven cameras. In the boot there's is a computer which is running the AI-driven software that processes all that sensor data in real time and controls the car's responses.

The automated tech handled every scenario without a hitch, including pedestrians in the road, parked cars, heavy traffic, temporary traffic lights and delivery bikes.

George, our safety driver, did not touch the controls once and a big red button, which shuts off the automated system immediately, was not deployed.

If anything the robo-ride was a far more patient city driver than I am – and has no voice, making it a lot less chatty.

Whether autonomous vehicles are more or less safe than human-driven ones is still being investigated.

But numerous studies suggest that automated vehicles are less accident-prone than human drivers, based on US data.

But there have been a number of incidents involving robotaxis in the countries where they operate, ranging from road accidents to passengers being locked in.

In January, a man in Arizona, in the US, documented how his robotaxi drove round in circles in an airport carpark, with him trapped in the vehicle, unable to stop the car or get help.

General Motors paused its driverless taxi service Cruise in San Francisco in 2023 because of safety concerns.

"The reality is that one accident is too many," said Uber's Mr Macdonald.

"That said, with EV (electric vehicles), human drivers… we operate in the real world and stuff happens."

In the UK there are also practical questions around insurance, ownership and liability when a self-driving vehicle is involved in an accident. Mr Macdonald said they were all still being worked out.

Tom Leggett, vehicle technology manager at Thatcham Research - an independent car safety centre - said robotaxis would have to be "safety-led" in the UK.

"Secondly, they will have to make sure the data is available to those who need it – insurers and those investigating incidents when they occur."

The government says self-driving vehicles have the potential "to build an industry worth £42bn and provide 38,000 jobs by 2035."

But of course they are source of concern for people who earn a living driving.

Andy Prendergast, GMB national secretary, said the "significant social implications" driverless cars and taxis could have - such as potential less work or unemployment - for workers and the public must be fully considered.

Uber's Mr Macdonald meanwhile believes automated vehicles will transform the way many people travel in the near future.

"I've got young kids," he said.

"Do I think my daughters will necessarily get their drivers licences when they turn 16?" [the legal age in his home country, Canada].

"No – I think the world is changing a lot."

Additional reporting by Liv McMahon

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Gas and electricity bills are expected to fall in July, when a new price cap takes effect.

It is likely to reverse the increase for millions of households on 1 April, under the current cap.

The annual bill for a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity rose to £1,849 per year, an increase of £111, in April.

The energy price cap sets the maximum amount customers can be charged for each unit of energy, but actual bills depend on how much gas and electricity you use.

What is the energy price cap and how is it changing?

The energy price cap covers around 22 million households in England, Wales and Scotland and is set every three months by Ofgem.

It fixes the maximum price that can be charged for each unit of energy on a standard - or default - variable tariff for a typical dual-fuel household which pays by direct debit.

Between 1 April and 30 June 2025, gas prices are capped at 6.99p per kilowatt hour (kWh), and electricity at 27.03p per kWh.

This means the annual bill for a dual-fuel direct debit household using a typical amount of energy is £1,849 per year.

However, analysts at consultancy Cornwall Insight have predicted that from 1 July this annual bill will fall to £1,720.

Those who pay their bills every three months by cash or cheque pay £1,969.

The cap does not apply in Northern Ireland, which has its own energy market.

What is a typical household?

Your energy bill depends on the overall amount of gas and electricity you use, and how you pay for it.

The type of property you live in, how energy efficient it is, how many people live there and the weather all make a difference.

The Ofgem cap is based on a "typical household" using 11,500 kWh of gas and 2,700 kWh of electricity a year with a single bill for gas and electricity, settled by direct debit.

The vast majority of people pay their bill this way to help spread payments across the year. Those who pay every three months by cash or cheque are charged more.

Should I take a meter reading when the energy cap changes?

Submitting a meter reading when the cap changes means you will not be charged for estimated usage at the wrong rate.

This is especially important when prices go up.

Customers with working smart meters do not need to submit a reading as their bill is calculated automatically.

What is happening to prepayment customers?

Between April and June, households on prepayment meters are paying slightly less than those on direct debit, with a typical bill of £1,803, a rise of £113 from the previous quarter.

About four million households had prepayment meters in January 2025, according to Ofgem.

Many have been in place for years, but some were installed more recently after customers struggled to pay higher bills.

Rules introduced in November 2023 mean suppliers must give customers more opportunity to clear their debts before switching them to a meter. They cannot be installed at all in certain households.

Can I fix my energy prices?

Fixed-price deals are not affected by the energy price cap, which changes every three months and can go up or down.

They offer certainty for a set period - often a year, or longer - but if energy prices drop when you are on the deal, you could be stuck at a higher price. You may also have to pay a penalty to leave a fixed deal early.

Ofgem, the energy regulator, says customers who want the security of knowing what their bill will be should consider moving to a fixed deal. However, it says they should make sure they understand all the costs.

Martin Lewis, founder of Money Saving Expert, recommends checking whole-of-market energy price comparison sites to help find the best deal.

What are standing charges and how are they changing?

Standing charges are a fixed daily fee to cover the costs of connecting to gas and electricity supplies. They vary slightly by region.

On 1 April, the average electricity standing charge fell from 60.97p to 53.8p but the average gas standing charge increased from 31.65p to 32.67p

Some customers in London and the North Wales and Mersey region saw larger increases.

Campaigners argue standing charges are unfair because they make up a bigger proportion of the bill of low energy users.

In response, Ofgem has said that energy firms must provide a choice of price-capped tariffs from winter 2025.

One would have a standing charge and unit rate - as is the case now - and another no standing charge but a higher unit rate. However, the proposals have been criticised as being too complicated.

What help can I get with energy bills?

The Household Support Fund, which was introduced in September 2021 to help vulnerable customers, has been extended until March 2026.

The Warm Home Discount scheme continues to offer a discount to eligible pensioners and low income households.

The government's Fuel Direct Scheme can help people to repay an energy debt directly from their benefit payments.

In addition, suppliers must offer customers affordable payment plans or repayment holidays if they are struggling with bills.

Most suppliers also offer hardship grants.

Changes to the winter fuel payment mean more than 10 million pensioners have not received the money this winter.

• Ofgem: Help with bills