London Assembly member Zack Polanski has been elected leader of the Green Party of England and Wales by a landslide.

Polanski beat joint candidates, the Green MPs Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, by 20,411 votes to 3,705.

The result was greeted by whoops and cheers, with Polanski promising in his victory speech to "work every single day to grow this party" and paying tribute to his defeated rivals.

Polanski, a former actor who was the party's deputy leader, campaigned on an "eco-populism" platform and has promised to make the party "bolder" in its approach.

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Figures to be published on Tuesday are expected to show that Scotland remains the drugs death capital of Europe for the seventh year in a row.

In 2023, there were 1,172 drug misuse deaths in Scotland, bringing the total in a decade to 10,481, according to official figures.

Although experts expect that number to have dropped slightly for 2024, they are warning that any fall will almost certainly be a blip.

Kirsten Horsburgh, chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum says the arrival of deadly synthetic opioids known as nitazenes in the country is "a crisis on top of a crisis."

Suspected deaths early this year "are already higher than they were last year" she said.

How did we get here?

This is a crisis with deep roots in the social and economic changes which swept through Scotland in the latter half of the 20th Century as the country's economy shifted away from manufacturing.

When the shipyards, steel mills and collieries fell silent, they left a generation of men, whose pride and identity had been bound up with the things they made, struggling to adapt.

Society changed rapidly too. The old city slums were cleared, but many people were moved to damp, isolated tower blocks with limited amenities.

It was a recipe for joblessness, family breakdown and addiction.

In 1972, in a famous speech at the University of Glasgow, the trade unionist Jimmy Reid said Britain's "major social problem" could be summed up in one word - alienation.

Men, he said, viewed themselves as "victims of blind economic forces beyond their control" leading to a "feeling of despair and hopelessness that pervades people who feel with justification that they have no real say in shaping or determining their own destinies."

One way alienation found expression, said Reid, was in "those who seek to escape permanently from the reality of society through intoxicants and narcotics."

Half a century after his speech, Scotland is still grappling with alienation and still struggling with the scourge of alcohol and drugs.

High unemployment in the 1980s was followed by cuts to public spending after the financial crash of 2007/8 and the skyrocketing cost of living this decade.

By 2023, people in the most deprived parts of Scotland were more than 15 times more likely to die from drug misuse than those in the richest areas.

For many years this was a particularly male problem.

In the early 2000s, men were up to five times more likely to die of an overdose than women although that gap has since narrowed considerably.

As demand for drugs rose, so did supply. From 1980, heroin from Afghanistan and Iran began to arrive in Scotland in large quantities, with deadly results.

The sharing of dirty needles by injecting drug users and the arrival of HIV led to a public health crisis which was graphically depicted in Irvine Welsh's 1993 novel, Trainspotting, and its film adaptation.

'Drugs are becoming normalised'

Drug overdoses are not the only evidence that Scotland is experiencing a crisis related to alienation. Other so-called deaths of despair are also high.

Scotland has a higher rate of suicide than other parts of the UK and some of the highest levels of alcohol-related deaths in Europe.

These too are often linked to poverty. In 2023, deaths directly caused by alcohol were 4.5 times higher in the most deprived areas of Scotland than in the least deprived.

Taken together, says Annemarie Ward, of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, Scotland has a "penchant for oblivion".

Illegal drugs, she argues, have become part of the national culture.

"It's become normalised," she said. "I don't think we have to accept that normality."

Of course, deprivation and despair are not unique to Scotland and do not on their own amount to a sufficient explanation for its crisis.

Various other theories have been put forward including the existence of a macho, hard-partying culture; a reluctance, especially among men, to seek mental health support; and even the country's long, dark winters.

Another suggestion is that years of substance abuse are now catching up with the ageing Trainspotting generation - although this is disputed.

Between 2000 and 2023, according to the National Records of Scotland, the average age of a drug misuse death increased from 32 to 45.

Another potential explanation is the ripple effect of trauma.

When more than 1,000 people are dying every year in a small country, the implications for their families and friends are enormous and potentially catastrophic.

Drugs have scarred whole communities with abuse of substances continuing from generation to generation.

Nearly "every person who seeks treatment has been traumatised in some way," says Dr Susanna Galea-Singer, chair of the Faculty of Addictions at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland.

Last year, Public Health Scotland published a review of all drug deaths in 2020 which revealed that 602 children lost a parent or parental figure to overdose in that year alone.

"You get social fragmentation when you have aspects of poverty, aspects of trauma," said Dr Galea-Singer.

"You burn bridges with families, it's just extremely difficult. It does fragment society."

Trauma might explain a high or even rising level of drug deaths but even it does not adequately account for a dramatic jump in the numbers a decade ago.

There appear to be two main reasons for the surge in deaths at that point.

First, in 2015, the Scottish government cut funding for alcohol and drug partnerships, which co-ordinated local addiction services around the country.

"We saw the start of a really sharp increase in drug-related deaths," said Kirsten Horsburgh of the Scottish Drugs Forum.

"There's no doubt that cuts to funding in this area reduces the amounts of services that people can access, reduces the staff that are able to support people and results in deaths."

Ministers later boosted resources as part of a five-year "national mission" to tackle the drugs emergency, only for funding to fall again in real terms in the past two years.

The 2015 cuts were "a disaster," said Ms Horsburgh. "Even with increased resource as part of the national mission, we can see it's still not enough.

"We can't just have small pilots of projects to address a public health emergency.

"We would not do that for any other public health emergency. We did not do that for Covid. We should not be doing that for the drug deaths crisis."

The second big change came around the same time as drug services were being cut.

It was the arrival on Scottish streets of dangerous benzodiazepenes known as street valium.

These blue pills were a fake and powerful version of the anti-anxiety medication, Valium, and they were deadly.

Nicola Sturgeon, who was First Minister at the time, would later admit that her SNP government had taken its "eye off the ball" as deaths rose.

How to tackle the issue now remains contentious.

Many public health experts support a harm reduction approach involving the provision of substitute drugs such as methadone, clean needles, and a drug consumption room which has been set up in Glasgow.

"Harm reduction has to be the core of any effective evidence-based drugs policy approach," said Ms Horsburgh of the Scottish Drugs Forum.

She is among those calling for decriminalisation of all drugs while others argue for a transfer of related powers from Westminster to Holyrood.

Harm reduction

Annemarie Ward of Faces and Voices of Recovery UK agreed that harm reduction should be part of the mix but said the balance needed to tilt towards rehabilitation.

"When government ministers talk about treatment in Scotland, what they're talking about is harm reduction," she said.

"When the general public hears the word treatment, they're thinking detox, rehab, people getting on with their lives."

Ms Ward also wants a shift away from NHS provision of drugs services in favour of organisations, such as her charity, which focus on rehabilitation and recovery.

"Our treatment system is delivered through the public sector, which means it's incredibly bureaucratic. So you can't just walk into a service and get seen that day, for instance, the way you can in England."

Ms Horsburgh and Ms Ward may have different priorities for tackling the crisis but both agree that it is almost certainly about to get worse.

"Nitazenes are a whole new ball game," warns Ms Ward.

"These are the synthetic opioids that are 100 times stronger than your average hit of heroin, and they're also ending up in the coke supply."

She predicts an exponential rise in deaths "unless we start to help people get clean and sober again."

If that is the case, it appears Scotland has not yet got to grips with this emergency.

The causes of the drug deaths crisis are multiple and complex.

But the fear is that they are producing a cumulative and compounding effect from which it is proving almost impossible to escape.

The price of gold has hit a record high as demand for the precious metal remains strong amid global economic uncertainty.

The spot gold price hit $3,508.50 per ounce early on Tuesday, continuing its upwards trend which has seen it rise by nearly a third this year.

The precious metal is viewed as a safer asset for investors during times of economic uncertainty, and its price rose earlier this year after US President Donald Trump announced wide ranging tariffs which have upset global trade.

Analysts say the price has also been lifted by expectations that the US central bank will cut its key interest rate, making gold an even more attractive prospect for investors.

Adrian Ash, director of research at BullionVault, told the BBC's Today programme that the rise in gold prices over the past few months is really down to Trump and "what he's done to geopolitics [and] what he's done to global trade".

"It was really the US election last year that really put a fire under it," he said.

Analysts also cite worries over the independence of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, as another factor driving the gold price.

Trump has launched repeated attacks on the Federal Reserve's chair, Jerome Powell, and recently attempted to fire one of its governors, Lisa Cook.

Derren Nathan from Hargreaves Lansdown said it was Trump's "attempts to undermine the independence of the Federal Reserve Bank" that was "driving renewed interest in safe haven assets including gold".

On Monday, the head of the European Central Bank Christine Lagarde warned that if Trump were to undermine the independence of the Fed, it would represent a "very serious danger" to the global economy.

She said if the Fed was forced to respond to Trump's politics, it would have a "very worrying" impact on economic stability in the US, and therefore in the rest of the world as well.

Mr Ash added that when the price of gold surges because of investor interest, it was usually tempered by a slowdown in buying from China and India - two of the biggest markets for gold jewellery.

But this time, he said gold was continuing to find demand in China and India as, rather than exiting the market during times of high prices, jewellery buyers turn towards buying investment gold products such as bars or coins.

The stage is set in the heart of Beijing for a grand display of power and military might that has been choreographed by President Xi Jinping.

Eight huge Chinese flags flutter and flank the portrait of Mao Zedong, the founder of Communist China, which sits on top of the Gate of Heavenly Peace overlooking Tiananmen Square, one of the largest public squares in the world.

Below are rows of seats reserved for 26 foreign heads of state, including Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un, whose attendance is a diplomatic win for Xi.

Across the road, near the Great Hall of the People, two huge floral arrangements commemorating the end of World War II rise up alongside seating for around 50,000 invitees.

On the last day of preparations - Monday - Chang'an Avenue, the multi-lane road that cuts through the square was once again open to the public. Drivers and cyclists held their phones aloft trying their best to capture the scene.

Ostensibly the parade marks 80 years of Japan's surrender in the war, and China's victory against an occupying force. But it's so much more than that for President Xi.

This is a big week for him, with quite a few firsts. He enticed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit China over the weekend for the first time in seven years, rebooting a key economic and strategic relationship.

More than 20 world leaders attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, which just concluded - its largest ever gathering.

And a North Korean leader will attend a Chinese military parade for the first time since 1959.

The Chinese leader is having his moment in the spotlight.

The SCO summit in Tianjin has allowed him to project power and offer a vision of a new world order which he hopes will challenge the United States. Now attention turns to the parade in Beijing, which will showcase his country's growing ability to rival the US in any conflict.

The leaders of Iran, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, Indonesia, Zimbabwe and central Asian countries will witness the precise troop formations and get a glimpse of what authorities say will be new hypersonic weapons and unmanned underwater drones. The only western leaders on the guest list are from Serbia and Slovakia.

Kim Jong Un is a surprise addition - his attendance was only announced at the end of last week - and his armoured train and usual motorcade flanked by bodyguards will add to the spectacle.

Xi is expected to have both Kim and Putin by his side which will inevitably lead to western headlines or analysts describing them as the "axis of upheaval".

While the parade is a show of China's strength and Xi's influence as a world leader, there is also a clear domestic message: pride and patriotism.

China describes World War II as the "people's war of resistance against Japanese aggression", although much of the resistance was not from the Communist Party, but from the nationalists who later lost the civil war to Mao and his forces, and have been largely scrubbed from national memory.

In the run-up to the anniversary, several films have been released depicting this struggle, some of which have been box office hits. State media has been publishing reports to "foster a right view of WWII history".

The campaign has caused some friction with Japan. Last week, Beijing lodged a protest with Tokyo over reports that Japan had asked European and Asian governments not to attend the parade.

All of this appears to be part of a rallying cry to the nation, as China struggles with a sluggish economy, youth unemployment and plummeting house prices. Demand is weak and the most recent data suggests Trump's tariffs are hitting factory output. And the "anti-corruption" drive continues, with reports of high-ranking officials being investigated.

There is discontent, even disillusionment, especially among young people and it has seeped through, even on the tightly-controlled Chinese internet.

The fear that this could spill into the real world is partly what has been driving the extra-cautious preparations, which have become a demonstration of the Party's control of a capital city home to more than 21 million people. The city has grown quieter as the parade draws closer.

Airport security scanners have been installed in some office entrances. All drones are banned and international journalists have been visited at home, some on multiple occasions, to ensure they get the message.

Guards have been stationed 24 hours a day at the entrances to overpasses and bridges to prevent any protests, some of them in army uniforms.

Three years ago, when the Party chose Xi as its leader for a historic third term, a protester unfurled a banner over a major highway bridge criticising Xi and calling for his ouster. He was taken away instantly and we still don't know what happened to him.

But that is a moment the Party does not want to relive.

Communist Party officials have spent months planning and preparing for their first military parade in six years. More than 200,000 flags have been put up across the capital.

More floral arrangements depicting China's fight against Japan sit proudly on prominent roadsides and roundabouts. There's even a new city "lightscape" to brighten buildings in the business district.

Officials from the Parade Command Office have said "the overarching principle... is to avoid disturbing the public as much as possible".

But for those living in Beijing, the parade has upturned life.

Tanks could be heard rolling down the streets during weekly overnight rehearsals and the sounds of marching echoed far beyond the parade route.

People living near Chang'an Avenue, which leads to Tiananmen square, were told to stay off their balconies to ensure the rehearsals could be held in secrecy.

Schools, businesses and hotels along the parade route will be closed for the next two days. There are multiple road diversions and subway line closures, which have effectively paralysed transport into and out of the city centre.

Even getting hold of a shared city bike, often the best way to get around Beijing, can now be troublesome. Usually there are hundreds of them lined up outside subway stations, and along pavements. But recently city workers have been scooping them up to move them further away from the parade route. Trying to hire the odd one left behind is not an option: the bike will not move.

There have been reports in the past that China has used its air force to ensure there are blue skies for the parade. The aircraft can manipulate weather to trigger rain through cloud-seeding one or two days in advance, to make sure it's clear afterwards.

It's hard to know if this tactic has been used this year, but forecasters are predicting clear skies. Officials in Beijing are taking no chances on President Xi's big day.

US actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has said he had a "burning desire" to make a different kind of film, after years of being "pigeon-holed" as a blockbuster star.

The 53-year-old could be in line for the first Oscar nomination of his career for his role in The Smashing Machine, which has just launched at the Venice Film Festival.

Johnson said playing UFC fighter Mark Kerr in the film had "certainly changed my life", adding that the transformation was something he was "really hungry to do".

He told journalists: "I've been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity to do this."

Johnson is best known for his roles in big-budget movies such as Jumanji, San Andreas, Moana, Black Adam and the Fast & Furious franchise.

The Smashing Machine, directed by Benny Safdie, sees Johnson reunite with his Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt, who stars as Kerr's girlfriend Dawn Staples.

Asked about his motivation for taking on the role, Johnson explained: "I have wanted this for a long time.

"When you're in Hollywood, as we all know, it had become about box office and you chase the box office. And the box office in our business is very loud, it can be very [overwhelming].

"And it can push you into a corner and category - 'This is your lane, this is what you do, and this is what people want you to be and this is what Hollywood wants you to be'.

"And I understood that, and I made those movies and I liked them and they were fun, and some were really good and did well, and some not so good!" he laughed.

"But I think what I did realise is I just had this burning desire and this voice that was just saying, 'what if there's more, what if I can?'

"Sometimes it's hard to know what you're capable of when you've been pigeon-holed into something. It's harder to know 'wait, can I do that? I feel like I can'. And sometimes it takes people who you love and respect to say 'you can'."

Johnson, also known as The Rock from his own earlier career in wrestling, added he didn't think playing the role was "about anything to prove to Hollywood as much as it is for me, internally".

Johnson's performance 'a revelation'

Johnson was praised by critics in early reviews of the film. Variety's Owen Gleiberman described his performance as "a revelation", adding that he "seems like a new actor".

In a four-star review, the Telegraph's Robbie Collin said: "His performance is warm, sincere and admirably ego-less, while some phenomenally delicate facial prosthetics alter his appearance just enough that you see his character, rather than The Rock, looming up on the screen."

IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio concluded: "While The Smashing Machine doesn't play like easy awards catnip, Johnson earns a sizeable position among this year's prize-seekers."

Normally in a Dwayne Johnson film, you're never more than about four minutes away from the next explosion or car chase.

The Smashing Machine is a different kettle of fish, focusing on the world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and how prominent a figure Kerr was in the early years of the sport in the 1990s.

As explained early in the film, UFC involves all kinds of fighting in the same ring. One fighter might be a boxer, while his opponent could come from a wrestling or karate background. More or less anything goes in the battle to be the last one standing.

"Around that time, there was something so experimental about what was going on," explains director Safdie, one half of the Safdie brothers, whose screen credits include Uncut Gems.

"You had all of these different martial arts forms competing against one another, and it was just such a unique sport.

"And it was also such a close-knit community where everybody knew one another and loved one another, and to have that contradiction of this fighting world but this love between them was something that was really beautiful to me, and I wanted to explore that."

The film has plenty of fight scenes, but its primary focus is outside of the ring, focusing on Kerr's gentle nature, his battle with substance abuse, and his complex relationship with Dawn, played by Blunt.

The actress describes Johnson as a "dear friend", adding: "One of the most extraordinary things was seeing him completely disappear, it was spooky."

Discussing her own character, Blunt says: "I was delighted there was a woman in the midst of it, because there was a lot going on behind closed doors of what it means to live with a fighter and the all-consuming world that comes with that.

"I got to know Dawn well and she was very generous with her story with me, the full weather system of it, the regrets, the eruptions, the hazardous nature of the relationship at times, and the deep, profound love and devotion they had to each other amid an impossible environment.

"So I think it was an incredibly exciting relationship to put on screen. I'd been part of a lot of [on-screen] relationships that essentially are a movie-fied relationship, and this just felt like the full spectrum of what a relationship really looks like."

Set between 1997 and 2000, The Smashing Machine gets its title from the nickname given to Kerr after one of his early tournament victories. An HBO documentary about Kerr with the same title was released in 2002.

Johnson first met Kerr in the 1990s when he was a wrestler himself. He semi-retired from the sport in 2004 to focus on his Hollywood career, going on to become one of the industry's most bankable stars.

"I remember talking to [Kerr] back then and being so enamoured and respecting of his career, and it's so wild how years later life can come full circle in this incredible way," Johnson notes.

The actor said he's become "very close" to Kerr, who he describes as "a walking contradiction for a man who at one time was the greatest fighter on the planet, but also the most kind, gentle, tender, empathetic [person]".

Awards pundits will be watching closely to see how Johnson's film is received, but the star joins a best actor race that is stacked with A-listers this year.

Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, George Clooney, Jesse Plemons, Timothee Chalamet and Jeremy Allen White are among the big names who could be competing with Johnson.

Only a small number of those names will make it all the way to the Oscars, although several of them could be recognised at the more celebrity-skewing Golden Globes, which has more slots available. The race will start to crystallise as more of the films premiere in the coming weeks.

Reflecting on his success since leaving wrestling, Johnson said: "I have been very fortunate to have the career I've had over the years and make the films that I've made. But there was this voice inside of me that said 'what if I could do more?'"

He continues: "The truth is, I looked around a few years ago and started to think, 'am I living my dream or am I living other people's dreams?'

"And you come to that recognition and you can either fall in line, go 'it's status quo, things are good', or you can go, 'no, I wanna live my dreams now and do what I want to do, and tap into the things I want to tap into and have a place to put all this stuff that I've experienced in the past that I've shied away from'."

There is a "decent chance" the aurora borealis will be visible across much of the UK on in the coming days, the Met Office has said.

Heighted solar activity could lead to the Northern Lights being visible further south than usual, with sightings possible with the naked eye.

Although the Met Office cautioned that solar forecasts can change rapidly, and factors such as cloud cover and light pollution will impact visibility.

But those lucky enough to have clear and dark skies could be rewarded "with a rare and memorable display".

BBC Weather said the lights, formally known as the aurora borealis, would be visible across much of England and Wales away from western coasts.

As is usually the case, Northern Ireland and north east Scotland would have the best chance for clear spells of viewing, it said.

It also advised the public to head away from city lights for the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights and that if the lights were not visible - another way to potentially see them was to use a smartphone on night mode.

The Met Office forecasts that while there will be lots of cloud cover throughout the evening, the Midlands will be most likely to have clear skies, making it potentially one of the best place in the UK for a sighting.

Monday night could offer the best chance for a sighting, but the lights should still be visible throughout Tuesday night.

By Wednesday night no significant solar activity is currently expected, meaning less chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

"There's a decent chance of seeing the aurora tonight [Monday] - it may be visible as far south as the Midlands (perhaps even further south)", the Met Office said on social media site X.

The Northern Lights are caused by solar winds carrying charged particles interacting with the earth's magnetic field.

The heightened chance of a UK sighting has been caused by a fast-moving coronal mass ejection, which is a "release of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun's corona", late on Saturday night.

Met Office space weather manager, Krista Hammond, said: "As we monitor the arrival of this coronal mass ejection, there is a real possibility of aurora sightings further south than usual on Monday night.

"While the best views are likely further north, anyone with clear, dark skies should keep an eye out.

"Forecasts can change rapidly, so we encourage the public to stay updated with the latest information."

'It was like wildfire - word of mouth'

'These guys have ruined our lives'

Where did the investments go?

Have the police done anything?

'HMRC will probably enforce, I have nothing to give'

'If it wasn't for the group, I don't know where I'd be'

Rescuers on helicopters are searching the ruins of remote villages in eastern Afghanistan for survivors of a powerful earthquake that has killed 800 people and injured 1,800 others.

Many are feared trapped under the rubble of their homes after the magnitude 6.0 earthquake struck on Sunday near the country's border with Pakistan.

Authorities searched by air for the second day on Tuesday as roads blocked with debris and the mountainous terrain in the affected areas made land travel difficult.

The Taliban government has appealed for international help. The UN has released emergency funds, while the UK has pledged £1m ($1.3m) in aid.

Sunday's earthquake was one of the strongest to hit Afghanistan in recent years. The country is very prone to earthquakes because it is located on top of a number of fault lines where the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates meet.

In 2023, more than 1,400 people died after a series of 6.3-magnitude earthquakes hit western Afghanistan, near the city of Herat.

Survivors of Sunday's earthquake were brought to a hospital in Jalalabad, which has been overwhelemed with hundreds of patients daily even before the disaster.

Mir Zaman told the BBC that he pulled his dead children out of the rubble by himself.

"It was dark. There was no light. Someone lent me a lamp, and then I used a shovel and pick axe to dig them out. There was no one to help because everyone was affected. So many people died in my village. Some are still buried. Whole families have died," he said.

Two-and-a-half-year-old Maiwand suffered head injuries and blood loss.

"You can see his situation. It's so tragic. The earthquake was deadly. I want the doctors to treat him, to cure him," said the child's uncle, Khawat Gul.

The most recent earthquake hit Afghanistan when it is reeling under severe drought and what the UN calls an unprecedented crisis of hunger.

The country has also experienced massive aid cuts especially from the US this year which is further reducing the aid that many of these people could have got. This disaster couldn't have come at a worse time.

Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy said aid from the UK will be "channelled through experienced partners", the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Red Cross.

India delivered 1,000 tents to Kabul, its foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar wrote on X after speaking to his Taliban counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi.

The Indian mission is also helping to move 15 tonnes of food from Kabul to Kunar province, which has been badly hit by the earthquake, he said, adding that India would send more relief items.

China and Switzerland have also pledged support.

Survivors will need housing, shelter and blankets, said Amy Martin, who leads the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan.

This article contains some spoilers about series two of Love is Blind UK

When it comes to love, most of us would like to think personality and values are our main priorities. But if looks were taken out of the equation entirely, would we still fall in love with the same people?

That's the question at the heart of Love Is Blind, Netflix's hit reality dating experiment.

The show sees singles date each other in "pods", speaking through a wall without seeing what the other person looks like. Only after getting engaged can couples meet face to face, then navigate the pressures of a honeymoon, moving in together, and meeting families - all in a whirlwind run-up to a legally binding wedding.

In the UK's second season of the show, 30 hopefuls entered the pods - five couples got engaged and three said yes at the altar. And yet, a year later, only one couple remains together.

The one couple still standing is Megan and Kieran, and when I sit down with them they couldn't look happier. Megan says life since the pods has "been a hoot" and the couple are "having the best time ever".

"It's been seamless fitting into each other's lives and now we live together," Kieran says. "We've had a really good, fun and silly time. I'm grateful to have had the year after the experiment out of the public eye."

Unlike some of the show's other couples, they insist they haven't had to overcome any major hurdles. "People will eye-roll at us," Kieran says, "but it's been really easy."

There was some drama between the pair during the show as Kieran was accused of disrespect for giving Megan a gift while he was still dating another contestant, Sophie.

The pair insist the situation was exaggerated in the edit, with Kieran saying the love triangle was "slightly manufactured".

"You see a very small portion of a very long experience," he adds. "Everyone is dating everyone up until you propose, and that's the point of the experiment."

The BBC has approached Netflix for comment.

'I might troll back sometimes'

The other men on the show who got engaged agree with Kieran and say viewers only see a fraction of the real story.

Javen, who had a rocky time with his partner Katisha, tells me "what you don't see is just as powerful as what you do see".

Watching his love story back, he was left thinking "I wouldn't pick myself either" but he says that's because the edit didn't show "the intimate and vulnerable moments that we had".

"They can only show so much and they are creating an entertainment show so I just take it on the chin," he continues.

He laughs and admits: "I might troll back in the comments sometimes but I don't really look at the negativity."

Katisha insists she and Javen had chemistry but that the show "highlighted the worst parts" of their relationship.

One thing she says she struggled with was being asked by producers to repeat conversations she'd had with Javen offscreen for the cameras.

"It was difficult to discuss it again and make it look like a real conversation," she says.

Megan and Kieran say they also found this a challenge and that most of their deeper conversations happened when the cameras weren't around.

"We'd get told off a bit for being too silly," Megan tells me. "The producers would ask us to get a bit deeper and we'd just be laughing."

Watching their love story back on screen was "the weirdest thing ever", she says, adding that it felt like being "in a Black Mirror episode".

'Not the same person off camera'

As well as feeling wrongfooted by the editing process, a few of the female cast members tell me the men they met on the show seemed like very different people "when the cameras were on".

Bardha, who was engaged to Jed but said no at the altar on their wedding day, says her partner "was not the man [from] the pods".

"For him, it was all about 'when this comes out and I make some money', it was never about love or planning a future like we discussed. That all went out the window when the experiment ended."

Jed strongly denies ever talking about the money or fame that could come from being on the show. "I don't even understand the opportunities that come after because this is not my world, I'm a family man," he insists.

The other men I interview also come to his defence. Kal, who married Sarover, makes the point that people go on the show "for a lot of reasons".

"We're all aware it's a reality show, no one is here my accident," he says and his castmate Billy agrees. "You'd be foolish to ignore everything that comes with this."

Despite most of the couples no longer being together, I ask the cast whether they've learnt anything about themselves or what they want in a partner from the experience.

Billy, a personal trainer who works in the Army, says people often stereotype him and he hopes the show will make women see him differently in future.

"I will also now give everyone a fair chance but hopefully, people won't judge me just being a PT [personal trainer]."

For Kal, the show was a chance to step beyond boundaries of familiarity. On the show, he explains he has only previously dated white women because Wigan is less diverse than many other parts of the UK.

He ended up marrying Sarover, who is British Indian, and says it was "nice to learn more about her culture and religion".

After the show, their relationship disintegrated. Sarover says she was "blindsided" by the breakup, which happened "so abruptly".

"The Kal I dated in the pods was not the Kal after we got married," she explains.

Kal agrees to some extent and says he was "a better communicator in the pods, as you can open up a bit more in that environment", but stands by the fact that he "gave it 100%".

While only one couple is still together now, most of the cast agree the experiment offered them a rare opportunity to test themselves, explore love in a unique environment and, in some cases, grow through failure.

"Delivery, delivery, delivery."

The words of the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, about his priorities in his curtain-raising interview for the new political term with Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 live, which you can listen to here.

It was a tacit admission that despite campaigning on a platform of "change" before the general election, there is plenty of evidence that plenty of folk think there has been nowhere near enough of it.

Or, plenty may have concluded that what has changed has changed in the wrong direction.

Sir Keir argues it was always going to take time to get things changing, but he is frustrated he hasn't managed to deliver more of it up to now.

Part of his solution is another shake-up of his Downing Street team.

You can read more about that from Henry Zeffman here.

The other is to set out what he and the government are doing and to make the case that it is better than what he and his ministers are increasingly framing as the likely alternative - Reform UK.

Privately, figures in government acknowledge that Reform had a visible and noisy summer.

The party set out to try to dominate the political conversation when others often take a break and by and large they achieved that.

The prominence of the issue of asylum, particularly the rows about the Bell Hotel in Epping in Essex, gave a salience to a theme Reform regard as their own.

"And we didn't come this far just to get this far," a senior Reform figure tells me, as party leader Nigel Farage heads to Washington to rail against the government about the Lucy Connolly case, and then heads to Birmingham on Friday for his party conference.

The party is doing all it can to maintain its momentum.

So we shouldn't be surprised that barely hours into this new political season and both the prime minister and the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper were each attempting to make a virtue of their approach - and try to contrast it with Reform's.

The pitch from them both amounted to arguing that they are assembling what they see as a careful set of thoughtful, workable, iterative steps forward on asylum policy.

The new detail this time was the government's decision to suspend family reunion applications from refugees.

They contrasted that with what they claim is not only opportunistic rhetoric from Farage, but an attempt to sow grievance without providing solutions.

Reform counter that it is only they who are offering solutions that might actually work - such as withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights, which both Labour in government now and the Conservatives before them baulked at.

This tussle gets to the heart of our politics right now - and in the coming months, even years.

Are people running out of patience with a government with a strategy that, until now at least, has demanded just that - patience?

And if plenty are, and the opinion polls suggest many are, would they embrace an insurgent, barely tested alternative, Reform UK?

These are the questions politics looks set to keep returning to.

And, in time, we will get an answer.

Tens of thousands of foreign students are being contacted directly by the government and told they will be removed from the UK if they overstay their visas.

The Home Office launched the new government campaign in response to what it has called an "alarming" spike in the number of international students arriving legally on student visas then claiming asylum when they expire.

As part of the campaign, the Home Office has for the first time proactively contacted international students directly by text and email.

Under the plans, about 130,000 students and their families in total will be sent a message telling them: "If you have no legal right to remain in the UK, you must leave.

"If you don't, we will remove you."

Ten thousand international students whose visas are due to expire have already been contacted directly by text and email - warning them they could be deported.

Tens of thousands more will receive the message in the coming months, the BBC understands, to coincide with autumn when applications often increase.

The full message will read: "If you submit an asylum claim that lacks merit, it will be swiftly and robustly refused.

"Any request for asylum support will be assessed against destitution criteria. If you do not meet the criteria, you will not receive support.

"If you have no legal right to remain in the UK, you must leave.

"If you don't, we will remove you."

While the political focus this summer has been on people arriving on small boats, a similar number arrive legally with visas, then apply for asylum often when those visas run out.

Many of these claims are legitimate, but ministers are worried that too many international students are seeking asylum simply to stay in the country because their leave to remain has run out.

In the year to June 2025, 43,600 people seeking asylum arrived on a small boat - 39% of all asylum claims, according to Home Office data.

Another 41,100 asylum claims came from people who entered legally with a visa, the department said, with the largest group among visa holders being students.

Last year, 16,000 asylum claims came from those who arrived on student visas, nearly six times as many as in 2020, it said.

Since then, Home Office data shows there has been a drop of 10%, but ministers in the department want the figures to fall further.

The number of people on skilled worker visas being granted asylum has also fallen, according to the department.

Earlier this year, the Home Office announced a cut in the amount of time overseas graduates can stay in the UK after their studies – from two years to 18 months.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have kicked off bilateral talks in Beijing, on the eve of a massive military parade in the Chinese capital.

Putin hailed relations between both countries saying they were on an "unprecedented level", adding that their "close communication reflects the strategic nature of Russian-Chinese ties."

"Dear friend, both I and the entire Russian delegation are pleased to meet once again with our Chinese friends and colleagues," Putin told Xi, according to a video published on the Kremlin's official Telegram messaging app.

"Our close communication reflects the strategic nature of Russia-China relations, which are at an unprecedentedly high level."

"We were always together then, and we remain together now," Putin added.

Xi told Putin that "China-Russia relations have withstood the test of international changes" - adding that Beijing was willing to work with Moscow to "promote the construction of a more just and reasonable global governance system".

Xi is set to host China's largest-ever military parade on Wednesday, which will mark the 80th anniversary of the surrender of the Japanese in China at the end of World War Two.

It comes at a time when Xi seeks to project Beijing's power on the international stage - not just as the world's second-largest economy, but also as a diplomatic heavyweight.

He has emphasised China's role as a stable trading partner while US president Donald Trump's tariffs have upended economic relationships.

Xi is now hosting Putin in Beijing while a deal with the Russian leader to end the war in Ukraine continues to elude Trump.

Xi and Putin criticised Western governments during the summit on Monday, with Xi slamming "bullying behaviour" from certain countries - a veiled reference to the US - while Putin defended Russia's Ukraine offensive and blamed the West for triggering the conflict.

The two leaders met in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Tuesday, Chinese state broadcaster CCTV reported.

US actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has said he had a "burning desire" to make a different kind of film, after years of being "pigeon-holed" as a blockbuster star.

The 53-year-old could be in line for the first Oscar nomination of his career for his role in The Smashing Machine, which has just launched at the Venice Film Festival.

Johnson said playing UFC fighter Mark Kerr in the film had "certainly changed my life", adding that the transformation was something he was "really hungry to do".

He told journalists: "I've been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity to do this."

Johnson is best known for his roles in big-budget movies such as Jumanji, San Andreas, Moana, Black Adam and the Fast & Furious franchise.

The Smashing Machine, directed by Benny Safdie, sees Johnson reunite with his Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt, who stars as Kerr's girlfriend Dawn Staples.

Asked about his motivation for taking on the role, Johnson explained: "I have wanted this for a long time.

"When you're in Hollywood, as we all know, it had become about box office and you chase the box office. And the box office in our business is very loud, it can be very [overwhelming].

"And it can push you into a corner and category - 'This is your lane, this is what you do, and this is what people want you to be and this is what Hollywood wants you to be'.

"And I understood that, and I made those movies and I liked them and they were fun, and some were really good and did well, and some not so good!" he laughed.

"But I think what I did realise is I just had this burning desire and this voice that was just saying, 'what if there's more, what if I can?'

"Sometimes it's hard to know what you're capable of when you've been pigeon-holed into something. It's harder to know 'wait, can I do that? I feel like I can'. And sometimes it takes people who you love and respect to say 'you can'."

Johnson, also known as The Rock from his own earlier career in wrestling, added he didn't think playing the role was "about anything to prove to Hollywood as much as it is for me, internally".

Johnson's performance 'a revelation'

Johnson was praised by critics in early reviews of the film. Variety's Owen Gleiberman described his performance as "a revelation", adding that he "seems like a new actor".

In a four-star review, the Telegraph's Robbie Collin said: "His performance is warm, sincere and admirably ego-less, while some phenomenally delicate facial prosthetics alter his appearance just enough that you see his character, rather than The Rock, looming up on the screen."

IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio concluded: "While The Smashing Machine doesn't play like easy awards catnip, Johnson earns a sizeable position among this year's prize-seekers."

Normally in a Dwayne Johnson film, you're never more than about four minutes away from the next explosion or car chase.

The Smashing Machine is a different kettle of fish, focusing on the world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and how prominent a figure Kerr was in the early years of the sport in the 1990s.

As explained early in the film, UFC involves all kinds of fighting in the same ring. One fighter might be a boxer, while his opponent could come from a wrestling or karate background. More or less anything goes in the battle to be the last one standing.

"Around that time, there was something so experimental about what was going on," explains director Safdie, one half of the Safdie brothers, whose screen credits include Uncut Gems.

"You had all of these different martial arts forms competing against one another, and it was just such a unique sport.

"And it was also such a close-knit community where everybody knew one another and loved one another, and to have that contradiction of this fighting world but this love between them was something that was really beautiful to me, and I wanted to explore that."

The film has plenty of fight scenes, but its primary focus is outside of the ring, focusing on Kerr's gentle nature, his battle with substance abuse, and his complex relationship with Dawn, played by Blunt.

The actress describes Johnson as a "dear friend", adding: "One of the most extraordinary things was seeing him completely disappear, it was spooky."

Discussing her own character, Blunt says: "I was delighted there was a woman in the midst of it, because there was a lot going on behind closed doors of what it means to live with a fighter and the all-consuming world that comes with that.

"I got to know Dawn well and she was very generous with her story with me, the full weather system of it, the regrets, the eruptions, the hazardous nature of the relationship at times, and the deep, profound love and devotion they had to each other amid an impossible environment.

"So I think it was an incredibly exciting relationship to put on screen. I'd been part of a lot of [on-screen] relationships that essentially are a movie-fied relationship, and this just felt like the full spectrum of what a relationship really looks like."

Set between 1997 and 2000, The Smashing Machine gets its title from the nickname given to Kerr after one of his early tournament victories. An HBO documentary about Kerr with the same title was released in 2002.

Johnson first met Kerr in the 1990s when he was a wrestler himself. He semi-retired from the sport in 2004 to focus on his Hollywood career, going on to become one of the industry's most bankable stars.

"I remember talking to [Kerr] back then and being so enamoured and respecting of his career, and it's so wild how years later life can come full circle in this incredible way," Johnson notes.

The actor said he's become "very close" to Kerr, who he describes as "a walking contradiction for a man who at one time was the greatest fighter on the planet, but also the most kind, gentle, tender, empathetic [person]".

Awards pundits will be watching closely to see how Johnson's film is received, but the star joins a best actor race that is stacked with A-listers this year.

Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, George Clooney, Jesse Plemons, Timothee Chalamet and Jeremy Allen White are among the big names who could be competing with Johnson.

Only a small number of those names will make it all the way to the Oscars, although several of them could be recognised at the more celebrity-skewing Golden Globes, which has more slots available. The race will start to crystallise as more of the films premiere in the coming weeks.

Reflecting on his success since leaving wrestling, Johnson said: "I have been very fortunate to have the career I've had over the years and make the films that I've made. But there was this voice inside of me that said 'what if I could do more?'"

He continues: "The truth is, I looked around a few years ago and started to think, 'am I living my dream or am I living other people's dreams?'

"And you come to that recognition and you can either fall in line, go 'it's status quo, things are good', or you can go, 'no, I wanna live my dreams now and do what I want to do, and tap into the things I want to tap into and have a place to put all this stuff that I've experienced in the past that I've shied away from'."

'It was like wildfire - word of mouth'

'These guys have ruined our lives'

Where did the investments go?

Have the police done anything?

'HMRC will probably enforce, I have nothing to give'

'If it wasn't for the group, I don't know where I'd be'

There is a "decent chance" the aurora borealis will be visible across much of the UK on in the coming days, the Met Office has said.

Heighted solar activity could lead to the Northern Lights being visible further south than usual, with sightings possible with the naked eye.

Although the Met Office cautioned that solar forecasts can change rapidly, and factors such as cloud cover and light pollution will impact visibility.

But those lucky enough to have clear and dark skies could be rewarded "with a rare and memorable display".

BBC Weather said the lights, formally known as the aurora borealis, would be visible across much of England and Wales away from western coasts.

As is usually the case, Northern Ireland and north east Scotland would have the best chance for clear spells of viewing, it said.

It also advised the public to head away from city lights for the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights and that if the lights were not visible - another way to potentially see them was to use a smartphone on night mode.

The Met Office forecasts that while there will be lots of cloud cover throughout the evening, the Midlands will be most likely to have clear skies, making it potentially one of the best place in the UK for a sighting.

Monday night could offer the best chance for a sighting, but the lights should still be visible throughout Tuesday night.

By Wednesday night no significant solar activity is currently expected, meaning less chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

"There's a decent chance of seeing the aurora tonight [Monday] - it may be visible as far south as the Midlands (perhaps even further south)", the Met Office said on social media site X.

The Northern Lights are caused by solar winds carrying charged particles interacting with the earth's magnetic field.

The heightened chance of a UK sighting has been caused by a fast-moving coronal mass ejection, which is a "release of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun's corona", late on Saturday night.

Met Office space weather manager, Krista Hammond, said: "As we monitor the arrival of this coronal mass ejection, there is a real possibility of aurora sightings further south than usual on Monday night.

"While the best views are likely further north, anyone with clear, dark skies should keep an eye out.

"Forecasts can change rapidly, so we encourage the public to stay updated with the latest information."

A landslide has killed at least 1,000 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan, according to the rebel group The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.

Days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and "levelled" much of the village of Tarasin, the group said in a statement.

The movement has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and other regional and international organisations.

Many residents from North Darfur state had sought refuge in the Marra Mountains region, after war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced them from their homes.

Civil war that broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF has plunged the country into famine and has led to accusations of genocide in the western Darfur region.

Estimates for death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023. About 12 million have fled their homes.

Factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, have pledged to fight alongside the Sudanese military against the RSF.

Many Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.

A landslide has killed at least 1,000 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan, according to the rebel group The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.

Days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and "levelled" much of the village of Tarasin, the group said in a statement.

The movement has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and other regional and international organisations.

Many residents from North Darfur state had sought refuge in the Marra Mountains region, after war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced them from their homes.

Civil war that broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF has plunged the country into famine and has led to accusations of genocide in the western Darfur region.

Estimates for death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023. About 12 million have fled their homes.

Factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, have pledged to fight alongside the Sudanese military against the RSF.

Many Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.

Graham Greene, the Canadian First Nations actor who starred in films including Dances With Wolves, has died aged 73, his manager says.

"It is with deep sadness we announce the peaceful passing of award-winning legendary Canadian actor Graham Greene," Gerry Jordan said in a statement to CBC News. The outlet reported he died of natural causes.

Greene scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Kevin Costner's 1990 epic western, where he played Kicking Bird.

He was a member of the Oneida Nation, part of the Six Nations Reserve in southern Ontario.

Greene worked as a draftsman, civil technologist, steelworker and rock-band crew member before starting his career in theatre in the UK in the 1970s.

In a 2012 interview with Canadian publication Playback, he credited theatre with giving him a grounding for acting.

"It helps you build a character. When you get into film you don't have that luxury. The discipline of theatre is what I recommend to all actors."

In the same interview, he said a key moment for him came when he married his wife Hilary Blackmore, which led to "the best time of my life".

His breakthrough came in 1990 when he played Kicking Bird, a Lakota medicine man, in Dances With Wolves. Greene won widespread acclaim for the role.

He also appeared in the 1992 western thriller Thunderheart, playing tribal officer Walter Crow Horse.

In the 1999 fantasy drama The Green Mile, Greene played Arlen Bitterbuck, a Native American man on death row in prison.

He also starred in Die Hard With A Vengeance (1995), Maverick (1994), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) and Wind River (2017).

He picked up numerous awards through his storied career, including the Earle Grey Award for Lifetime Achievement by the Academy of Canadian Film and Television in 2004.

In 2016, he was inducted into the Order of Canada, the country's second highest civilian honour.

A flotilla of boats headed for Gaza carrying 350 pro-Palestinian activists - including climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg - has departed from Barcelona.

Around 20 vessels displaying Palestinian flags left the Spanish port at 19:00 local time on Monday, stocked with medical and food supplies.

The flotilla first attempted to set sail on Sunday, but had to return to port due to stormy weather.

The aim of the mission is to "break Israel's illegal siege on Gaza", the organisers said - though a previous attempt to reach Gaza by sea was intercepted by Israeli forces.

The Global Sumud Flotilla Mission plans to launch in two waves - the first from Barcelona and the second from Tunis on 4 September.

Activists hope the boats will converge in the Mediterranean before sailing towards Gaza, a trip that is estimated to take seven or eight days.

"We are sailing again to break the siege and open up a humanitarian corridor," Thunberg said in a video message.

Punk singer Bob Vylan - who provoked controversy for leading a chant of "death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]" at Glastonbury - spoke at the flotilla's departure on Sunday.

He called the activists as "brave individuals" who were "attempting to do what should have been done by government intervention a long time ago".

Israeli authorities have characterised a previous attempt to sail aid to Gaza as a publicity stunt that offered no real humanitarian assistance.

In March, Israel introduced a nearly three-month total blockade on goods entering Gaza, before allowing a limited amount of goods back into the territory in late-May following international pressure. a UN-backed body has since declared there is a famine in parts of Gaza.

Israel has since tried to impose its own distribution system through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been criticised by aid agencies.

In June, a yacht carrying Thunberg and several other activists - and a symbolic amount of humanitarian aid - was intercepted by Israeli forces as it tried to reach Gaza.

Israeli authorities escorted the activists to the port of Ashdod before deporting them from the country.

In 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 people when they boarded Turkish ship Mavi Marmara which was leading an aid flotilla towards Gaza.

Figures to be published on Tuesday are expected to show that Scotland remains the drugs death capital of Europe for the seventh year in a row.

In 2023, there were 1,172 drug misuse deaths in Scotland, bringing the total in a decade to 10,481, according to official figures.

Although experts expect that number to have dropped slightly for 2024, they are warning that any fall will almost certainly be a blip.

Kirsten Horsburgh, chief executive of the Scottish Drugs Forum says the arrival of deadly synthetic opioids known as nitazenes in the country is "a crisis on top of a crisis."

Suspected deaths early this year "are already higher than they were last year" she said.

How did we get here?

This is a crisis with deep roots in the social and economic changes which swept through Scotland in the latter half of the 20th Century as the country's economy shifted away from manufacturing.

When the shipyards, steel mills and collieries fell silent, they left a generation of men, whose pride and identity had been bound up with the things they made, struggling to adapt.

Society changed rapidly too. The old city slums were cleared, but many people were moved to damp, isolated tower blocks with limited amenities.

It was a recipe for joblessness, family breakdown and addiction.

In 1972, in a famous speech at the University of Glasgow, the trade unionist Jimmy Reid said Britain's "major social problem" could be summed up in one word - alienation.

Men, he said, viewed themselves as "victims of blind economic forces beyond their control" leading to a "feeling of despair and hopelessness that pervades people who feel with justification that they have no real say in shaping or determining their own destinies."

One way alienation found expression, said Reid, was in "those who seek to escape permanently from the reality of society through intoxicants and narcotics."

Half a century after his speech, Scotland is still grappling with alienation and still struggling with the scourge of alcohol and drugs.

High unemployment in the 1980s was followed by cuts to public spending after the financial crash of 2007/8 and the skyrocketing cost of living this decade.

By 2023, people in the most deprived parts of Scotland were more than 15 times more likely to die from drug misuse than those in the richest areas.

For many years this was a particularly male problem.

In the early 2000s, men were up to five times more likely to die of an overdose than women although that gap has since narrowed considerably.

As demand for drugs rose, so did supply. From 1980, heroin from Afghanistan and Iran began to arrive in Scotland in large quantities, with deadly results.

The sharing of dirty needles by injecting drug users and the arrival of HIV led to a public health crisis which was graphically depicted in Irvine Welsh's 1993 novel, Trainspotting, and its film adaptation.

'Drugs are becoming normalised'

Drug overdoses are not the only evidence that Scotland is experiencing a crisis related to alienation. Other so-called deaths of despair are also high.

Scotland has a higher rate of suicide than other parts of the UK and some of the highest levels of alcohol-related deaths in Europe.

These too are often linked to poverty. In 2023, deaths directly caused by alcohol were 4.5 times higher in the most deprived areas of Scotland than in the least deprived.

Taken together, says Annemarie Ward, of the charity Faces and Voices of Recovery UK, Scotland has a "penchant for oblivion".

Illegal drugs, she argues, have become part of the national culture.

"It's become normalised," she said. "I don't think we have to accept that normality."

Of course, deprivation and despair are not unique to Scotland and do not on their own amount to a sufficient explanation for its crisis.

Various other theories have been put forward including the existence of a macho, hard-partying culture; a reluctance, especially among men, to seek mental health support; and even the country's long, dark winters.

Another suggestion is that years of substance abuse are now catching up with the ageing Trainspotting generation - although this is disputed.

Between 2000 and 2023, according to the National Records of Scotland, the average age of a drug misuse death increased from 32 to 45.

Another potential explanation is the ripple effect of trauma.

When more than 1,000 people are dying every year in a small country, the implications for their families and friends are enormous and potentially catastrophic.

Drugs have scarred whole communities with abuse of substances continuing from generation to generation.

Nearly "every person who seeks treatment has been traumatised in some way," says Dr Susanna Galea-Singer, chair of the Faculty of Addictions at the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland.

Last year, Public Health Scotland published a review of all drug deaths in 2020 which revealed that 602 children lost a parent or parental figure to overdose in that year alone.

"You get social fragmentation when you have aspects of poverty, aspects of trauma," said Dr Galea-Singer.

"You burn bridges with families, it's just extremely difficult. It does fragment society."

Trauma might explain a high or even rising level of drug deaths but even it does not adequately account for a dramatic jump in the numbers a decade ago.

There appear to be two main reasons for the surge in deaths at that point.

First, in 2015, the Scottish government cut funding for alcohol and drug partnerships, which co-ordinated local addiction services around the country.

"We saw the start of a really sharp increase in drug-related deaths," said Kirsten Horsburgh of the Scottish Drugs Forum.

"There's no doubt that cuts to funding in this area reduces the amounts of services that people can access, reduces the staff that are able to support people and results in deaths."

Ministers later boosted resources as part of a five-year "national mission" to tackle the drugs emergency, only for funding to fall again in real terms in the past two years.

The 2015 cuts were "a disaster," said Ms Horsburgh. "Even with increased resource as part of the national mission, we can see it's still not enough.

"We can't just have small pilots of projects to address a public health emergency.

"We would not do that for any other public health emergency. We did not do that for Covid. We should not be doing that for the drug deaths crisis."

The second big change came around the same time as drug services were being cut.

It was the arrival on Scottish streets of dangerous benzodiazepenes known as street valium.

These blue pills were a fake and powerful version of the anti-anxiety medication, Valium, and they were deadly.

Nicola Sturgeon, who was First Minister at the time, would later admit that her SNP government had taken its "eye off the ball" as deaths rose.

How to tackle the issue now remains contentious.

Many public health experts support a harm reduction approach involving the provision of substitute drugs such as methadone, clean needles, and a drug consumption room which has been set up in Glasgow.

"Harm reduction has to be the core of any effective evidence-based drugs policy approach," said Ms Horsburgh of the Scottish Drugs Forum.

She is among those calling for decriminalisation of all drugs while others argue for a transfer of related powers from Westminster to Holyrood.

Harm reduction

Annemarie Ward of Faces and Voices of Recovery UK agreed that harm reduction should be part of the mix but said the balance needed to tilt towards rehabilitation.

"When government ministers talk about treatment in Scotland, what they're talking about is harm reduction," she said.

"When the general public hears the word treatment, they're thinking detox, rehab, people getting on with their lives."

Ms Ward also wants a shift away from NHS provision of drugs services in favour of organisations, such as her charity, which focus on rehabilitation and recovery.

"Our treatment system is delivered through the public sector, which means it's incredibly bureaucratic. So you can't just walk into a service and get seen that day, for instance, the way you can in England."

Ms Horsburgh and Ms Ward may have different priorities for tackling the crisis but both agree that it is almost certainly about to get worse.

"Nitazenes are a whole new ball game," warns Ms Ward.

"These are the synthetic opioids that are 100 times stronger than your average hit of heroin, and they're also ending up in the coke supply."

She predicts an exponential rise in deaths "unless we start to help people get clean and sober again."

If that is the case, it appears Scotland has not yet got to grips with this emergency.

The causes of the drug deaths crisis are multiple and complex.

But the fear is that they are producing a cumulative and compounding effect from which it is proving almost impossible to escape.

Warning: Contains images some may find upsetting

A computer scientist at a university in the north of England is studying an image of a corpse - attempting to solve a mystery that has gripped the Middle East for nearly 50 years.

"This is what he looks like now?" asks Bradford University's Prof Hassan Ugail doubtfully.

The digitised photo is of a decomposed face and it is about to be run through a special algorithm for our BBC investigation.

The original photo was taken by a journalist who saw the body in a secret mortuary in the Libyan capital in 2011. He was told then that it could be charismatic cleric Musa al-Sadr, who vanished in Libya in 1978.

Sadr's disappearance has spawned endless conspiracy theories. Some people believe he was killed, while others claim he is still alive and being held somewhere in Libya.

For his ardent followers, his disappearance holds the same level of intrigue as the 1963 killing of US President John F Kennedy. Such is the sensitivity of our long investigation that my BBC World Service team and I even found ourselves detained in Libya for several days.

Emotions run high because Sadr is so revered by his followers - both for his political reputation, having advocated on behalf of his native Lebanon's then-marginalised Shia Muslims, and as a wider religious leader.

His followers gave him the title of imam, an unusual honour for a living Shia cleric and one bestowed on him in recognition of his work on behalf of the Shia community.

His mysterious disappearance has added to his emotional power because it echoes the fate - according to the largest branch of Shia Islam, known as Twelvers - of the "hidden" 12th imam, who disappeared in the 9th Century. Twelver Muslims believe the 12th imam did not die and will return at the end of time to bring justice to Earth.

And Sadr's disappearance also arguably changed the fate of the world's most politically, religiously and ethnically volatile region - the Middle East. Some believe the Iranian-Lebanese cleric was on the verge of using his influence to take Iran - and, as a result, the region - in a more moderate direction when he disappeared on the eve of the Iranian revolution.

So there was a lot riding on Bradford University's identification efforts. The journalist who took the photo told us the body was unusually tall - and Sadr was said to be 1.98m (6ft 5in). But the face had barely any identifiable features.

Could we finally solve the mystery?

I am from the village of Yammouneh, high in the mountains of Lebanon, where stories have long been told of the terrible winter of 1968 when, after the community was devastated by an avalanche, Musa al-Sadr waded through deep snow to come to the village's aid.

The wonder with which the villagers share this story today reflects just how mythologised he has become. One told me, referring to his memories as a four-year-old: "It was like a dream… He walked across the snow, followed by all the villagers… I followed him just to touch the Imam's robe."

Back in 1968, Sadr wasn't well known in an isolated village like Yammouneh, but he was slowly garnering a national reputation. By the end of that decade he had become a major figure in Lebanon, known for advocating for interfaith dialogue and national unity.

His status was reflected in the honorary title "imam" bestowed on him by his followers. In 1974, Sadr launched the Movement of the Deprived, a social and political organisation which called for proportional representation for the Shia and social and economic emancipation for the poor, regardless of their religion. So determined was he to avoid sectarianism that he even gave sermons in Christian churches.

On 25 August 1978, Sadr flew to Libya, invited to meet the country's then leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

Three years earlier, Lebanon had erupted into civil war. Palestinian fighters became involved in the sectarian conflict, with many based in Lebanon's south, where most of Sadr's followers lived. The Palestinians had begun exchanging fire with Israel across the border, and Sadr wanted Gaddafi, who supported the Palestinians, to intervene to keep Lebanon's civilians safe.

On 31 August, after six days spent waiting for a meeting with Gaddafi, Sadr was seen being driven away from a Tripoli hotel in a Libyan government car.

He was never seen again.

Gaddafi's security forces later claimed he had left for Rome, though this was proved false by the investigations that followed.

Independent journalism was impossible in Gaddafi's Libya. But in 2011, when Libyans rose against him during the Arab Spring, the door of probity opened a crack.

Kassem Hamadé, a Lebanese-Swedish reporter who covered the uprising, was told about a secret mortuary in Tripoli that, a source had said, might contain the remains of Sadr.

There were 17 bodies refrigerated in the room he was shown - one was of a child, the rest were all adult men. Kassem was told the bodies had been dead for about three decades - which would fit with Sadr's timeline. Only one corpse resembled Sadr.

Kassem told me: "This one drawer, [the mortuary staff member] opens it, he reveals the corpse, and two things struck me immediately."

Firstly, Kassem said, the look of the body's face, skin colour and hair still resembled Sadr's, despite the passage of time.

And secondly, he said, the person had been executed.

Or at least that was Kassem's assumption, based on the skull. It looked as if it had either suffered a heavy blow to the forehead or been pierced by a bullet above the left eye.

But how could we know for sure this was Sadr?

So we took the photo that Kassem had taken in the mortuary to a team at Bradford University which, for the past 20 years, has been developing a unique algorithm called Deep Face Recognition. It identifies complex similarities between photos, and has been shown to be extremely reliable in tests, even on imperfect images.

Prof Ugail, who leads the team, agreed to compare the image from the mortuary with four photos of Sadr at different stages of his life. The software would then give the mortuary image an overall score out of 100 - the higher the number, the more likely it was to be either the same person, or a family member.

If the image scored below 50, the person was probably unrelated to Sadr. Between 60 and 70 meant it was him or a close relative. Seventy or higher would be a direct match.

The photo scored in the 60s - a "high probability" it was Sadr, Prof Ugail told us.

To test this conclusion, the professor used his same algorithm to compare the photo with six members of Sadr's family, and then with 100 random images of Middle Eastern men who all resembled him in some way.

The family photos scored much better than the random faces. But the best result remained the comparison between the mortuary image and the images of Sadr alive.

It showed there was a strong probability that Kassem had seen Sadr's body. And the fact he found it with a damaged skull suggested that, in all probability, Sadr had been killed.

In March 2023, some four years after I first came across Kassem's photo, we were able to travel to Libya to talk to possible witnesses and to look for the body ourselves. We had always known the story was sensitive but even so, we were surprised by the Libyan reaction.

We were on the second day of our deployment in Tripoli, looking for the secret mortuary. Kassem, who was accompanying the BBC team, couldn't remember the name of the area he had visited in 2011, except that it had been near a hospital.

We were told there was a hospital within walking distance and headed off to find it.

Suddenly, Kassem said: "This is it. I'm sure of it. This is the building that contained the morgue."

The building's exterior was the last thing we were able to film. We sought permission to film inside, but our permits were cancelled. The next day, a group of unidentified men - who we would later learn were Libya intelligence service officers - seized us without explanation.

• Outside of the UK, watch on YouTube

We were taken to a prison run by Libyan intelligence, where we were held in solitary confinement, and accused of spying. We were blindfolded, repeatedly interrogated, and told that no-one could help us. Our captors said we would be there for decades.

We spent a traumatic six days in detention. Finally, after pressure from the BBC and the UK government, we were released and deported.

It was disturbing to feel we had become part of the story. Libya is still divided into two rival administrations with competing militia, and staff at the prison had indicated Libyan intelligence was being run by former Gaddafi loyalists who would not want the BBC investigating Sadr's disappearance.

Some people have long believed Sadr was murdered.

Dr Hussein Kenaan, formerly a Lebanese academic working in the US, says he visited the State Department in Washington the week Sadr disappeared in 1978 and was told it had received a report that he had been killed.

This account is backed up by the former Libyan Minister of Justice, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who told Kassem in 2011: "The second or third day, they forged his papers, that he's going to Italy. And they killed him inside Libyan prisons."

He added: "Gaddafi has the first and the last word in all decisions."

So if Gaddafi did order Sadr's killing, then why?

One theory, says Iran expert Andrew Cooper, is that Gaddafi was influenced by Iranian hardliners, alarmed that Sadr was about to obstruct their objectives for the Iranian Revolution.

Sadr supported many Iranian revolutionaries who wanted an end to then-ruler Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's regime. But his moderate vision of Iran strongly differed from the ideas of Islamic hardline revolutionaries and was disliked and even resented by them.

A week before his disappearance, according to Cooper, Sadr had written to the Shah offering assistance.

Cooper interviewed Parviz Sabeti, a former director of counter espionage for the Shah's secret police, as part of his research for a biography of the Shah. Sabeti told him that Sadr's letter offered to help defuse the power of Islamic hardliners by working towards introducing policy changes that would appeal to more moderate elements of the opposition.

A former Lebanese ambassador to Iran confirms the existence of Sadr's letter. Khalil al-Khalil told us he understands it requested a meeting with the Shah scheduled for 7 September 1978.

Cooper believes this information was leaked to Iranian hardline revolutionaries.

But the Iranians are not the only people who might have wanted Sadr dead.

Gaddafi had been militarily supporting Palestinian fighters attacking Israel from southern Lebanon - and Sadr is quoted in interviews from the time explaining his attempts to find a solution with the Palestine Liberation Organisation [PLO].

The PLO may have believed Sadr, fearing they were endangering the Lebanese population, might have convinced Gaddafi to rein them in.

While there are many who believe Sadr to be dead, others are adamant he is still alive.

These include the organisation Sadr founded in the 1970s, now a powerful political party of the Lebanese Shia called Amal.

The head of Amal - and parliamentary Speaker - Nabih Berri, maintains there is no proof Sadr, who would now be 97, has died. But there had been an opportunity to prove whether he had or not.

Back in 2011 when Kassem visited the secret mortuary, he had not only photographed the body.

He had also managed to pull out some hair follicles, with a view to them being used in a DNA test. He had given them to senior officials in Berri's office so they could have them analysed.

A match with a member of the Sadr family would prove beyond doubt whether the body was that of Musa sl-Sadr. However, Berri's office never got back to Kassem.

Judge Hassan al-Shami, one of the officials appointed by Lebanon's government to investigate Sadr's disappearance, says Amal told him the follicle sample had been lost because of a "technical error".

We presented our facial recognition results to Sadr's son Sayyed Sadreddine Sadr. He brought senior Amal official Hajj Samih Haidous and Judge al-Shami to our meeting.

They all said they did not believe our findings.

Sadreddine said it was "evident" from the look of the body in the photo that it was not his father. He added that it also "contradicts the information we have after this date [2011, the year the photo was taken]", that he is still alive, held in a Libyan jail.

The BBC has found no evidence to support this view.

But during our investigation it became clear to us that the belief Sadr is still alive holds great power as a unifying creed for many Lebanese Shia. Every 31 August, Amal marks the anniversary of his disappearance.

We repeatedly approached Berri's office for an interview, and asked for comment on our findings. It did not reply.

The BBC also asked the Libyan authorities to comment on our investigation and to explain why the BBC team was seized by the Libyan intelligence service. We received no response.

The justice secretary will be able to veto any new changes to sentencing guidelines proposed by an independent public body, the justice department has said.

Shabana Mahmood said the change will "right the democratic deficit that has been uncovered" by ensuring the Sentencing Council can no longer issue new guidelines without her approval.

The changes will be brought in as part of the Sentencing Bill, being introduced in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

It comes after both government and opposition ministers criticised the council's plan to advise judges to seek extra information before deciding how to punish offenders from certain minority groups.

Both the justice secretary and the lady chief justice, who is the head of the judiciary, will be given individual powers requiring them both to approve any future guidelines before they can be issued by the Sentencing Council.

This means that if either oppose the guidance, it will not be issued.

The council will also have to seek approval from the justice secretary to sign off its  annual business plan.

The Justice Department said the reforms do not interfere with the independence of judges in making individual sentencing decisions.

Mahmood said: "Individual sentencing decisions will always be the responsibility of the independent judiciary – and this is something I will staunchly defend."

"However, policy must be set by parliamentarians, who answer to the people.

"It is right that we now have greater democratic and judicial oversight of the direction of the Council's work and the final guidelines they publish."

The move forms part of wider changes to sentencing policy, including measures to stop prison overcrowding, such as including Texas-style earned release sentences and tougher community punishment.

The new powers come after ministers intervened to block updated Sentencing Council guidance earlier this year, which would have seen judges having to consider the background of offenders from certain minority groups when deciding on a punishment.

Under the proposed rules, a pre-sentence report would have usually been necessary before deciding punishment for someone of an ethnic, cultural or faith minority, alongside other groups such as young adults aged 18 to 25, women and pregnant women.

Both the opposition and the government criticised the change.

Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick first raised concerns about the guidelines in April, saying they were biased "against straight white men" and amounted to "two-tier justice".

Official figures show that offenders from ethnic minorities consistently get longer sentences than white offenders for indictable offences.

Mahmood had asked the Council to reconsider its guidance for judges earlier this year but it rejected her request, arguing the rules would ensure courts had the "most comprehensive information available" with which decide an appropriate punishment.

The guidelines were abandoned after ministers actioned an emergency law to override them.

US actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has said he had a "burning desire" to make a different kind of film, after years of being "pigeon-holed" as a blockbuster star.

The 53-year-old could be in line for the first Oscar nomination of his career for his role in The Smashing Machine, which has just launched at the Venice Film Festival.

Johnson said playing UFC fighter Mark Kerr in the film had "certainly changed my life", adding that the transformation was something he was "really hungry to do".

He told journalists: "I've been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity to do this."

Johnson is best known for his roles in big-budget movies such as Jumanji, San Andreas, Moana, Black Adam and the Fast & Furious franchise.

The Smashing Machine, directed by Benny Safdie, sees Johnson reunite with his Jungle Cruise co-star Emily Blunt, who stars as Kerr's girlfriend Dawn Staples.

Asked about his motivation for taking on the role, Johnson explained: "I have wanted this for a long time.

"When you're in Hollywood, as we all know, it had become about box office and you chase the box office. And the box office in our business is very loud, it can be very [overwhelming].

"And it can push you into a corner and category - 'This is your lane, this is what you do, and this is what people want you to be and this is what Hollywood wants you to be'.

"And I understood that, and I made those movies and I liked them and they were fun, and some were really good and did well, and some not so good!" he laughed.

"But I think what I did realise is I just had this burning desire and this voice that was just saying, 'what if there's more, what if I can?'

"Sometimes it's hard to know what you're capable of when you've been pigeon-holed into something. It's harder to know 'wait, can I do that? I feel like I can'. And sometimes it takes people who you love and respect to say 'you can'."

Johnson, also known as The Rock from his own earlier career in wrestling, added he didn't think playing the role was "about anything to prove to Hollywood as much as it is for me, internally".

Johnson's performance 'a revelation'

Johnson was praised by critics in early reviews of the film. Variety's Owen Gleiberman described his performance as "a revelation", adding that he "seems like a new actor".

In a four-star review, the Telegraph's Robbie Collin said: "His performance is warm, sincere and admirably ego-less, while some phenomenally delicate facial prosthetics alter his appearance just enough that you see his character, rather than The Rock, looming up on the screen."

IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio concluded: "While The Smashing Machine doesn't play like easy awards catnip, Johnson earns a sizeable position among this year's prize-seekers."

Normally in a Dwayne Johnson film, you're never more than about four minutes away from the next explosion or car chase.

The Smashing Machine is a different kettle of fish, focusing on the world of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and how prominent a figure Kerr was in the early years of the sport in the 1990s.

As explained early in the film, UFC involves all kinds of fighting in the same ring. One fighter might be a boxer, while his opponent could come from a wrestling or karate background. More or less anything goes in the battle to be the last one standing.

"Around that time, there was something so experimental about what was going on," explains director Safdie, one half of the Safdie brothers, whose screen credits include Uncut Gems.

"You had all of these different martial arts forms competing against one another, and it was just such a unique sport.

"And it was also such a close-knit community where everybody knew one another and loved one another, and to have that contradiction of this fighting world but this love between them was something that was really beautiful to me, and I wanted to explore that."

The film has plenty of fight scenes, but its primary focus is outside of the ring, focusing on Kerr's gentle nature, his battle with substance abuse, and his complex relationship with Dawn, played by Blunt.

The actress describes Johnson as a "dear friend", adding: "One of the most extraordinary things was seeing him completely disappear, it was spooky."

Discussing her own character, Blunt says: "I was delighted there was a woman in the midst of it, because there was a lot going on behind closed doors of what it means to live with a fighter and the all-consuming world that comes with that.

"I got to know Dawn well and she was very generous with her story with me, the full weather system of it, the regrets, the eruptions, the hazardous nature of the relationship at times, and the deep, profound love and devotion they had to each other amid an impossible environment.

"So I think it was an incredibly exciting relationship to put on screen. I'd been part of a lot of [on-screen] relationships that essentially are a movie-fied relationship, and this just felt like the full spectrum of what a relationship really looks like."

Set between 1997 and 2000, The Smashing Machine gets its title from the nickname given to Kerr after one of his early tournament victories. An HBO documentary about Kerr with the same title was released in 2002.

Johnson first met Kerr in the 1990s when he was a wrestler himself. He semi-retired from the sport in 2004 to focus on his Hollywood career, going on to become one of the industry's most bankable stars.

"I remember talking to [Kerr] back then and being so enamoured and respecting of his career, and it's so wild how years later life can come full circle in this incredible way," Johnson notes.

The actor said he's become "very close" to Kerr, who he describes as "a walking contradiction for a man who at one time was the greatest fighter on the planet, but also the most kind, gentle, tender, empathetic [person]".

Awards pundits will be watching closely to see how Johnson's film is received, but the star joins a best actor race that is stacked with A-listers this year.

Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, George Clooney, Jesse Plemons, Timothee Chalamet and Jeremy Allen White are among the big names who could be competing with Johnson.

Only a small number of those names will make it all the way to the Oscars, although several of them could be recognised at the more celebrity-skewing Golden Globes, which has more slots available. The race will start to crystallise as more of the films premiere in the coming weeks.

Reflecting on his success since leaving wrestling, Johnson said: "I have been very fortunate to have the career I've had over the years and make the films that I've made. But there was this voice inside of me that said 'what if I could do more?'"

He continues: "The truth is, I looked around a few years ago and started to think, 'am I living my dream or am I living other people's dreams?'

"And you come to that recognition and you can either fall in line, go 'it's status quo, things are good', or you can go, 'no, I wanna live my dreams now and do what I want to do, and tap into the things I want to tap into and have a place to put all this stuff that I've experienced in the past that I've shied away from'."

Even the best performers have bad days. And when Tom Odell played the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in 2016, he wrote the gig off as a dud.

"I was really dissatisfied with that show," he recalls. "I was frustrated, and I don't think it went how I wanted it to go. I don't even think it was a full crowd."

But in the audience that night was an 18-year-old musician called Finneas O'Connell and his younger sister, Billie Eilish.

A few months earlier, they'd uploaded a demo song to Soundcloud. Something about Odell's performance changed the trajectory of their lives.

"I was already a fan," said O'Connell, "but I watched the show he put on, and his band were incredible and his songs were incredible.

"I credit that show as being the reason I wanted to start putting out music under my own name."

O'Connell made those comments on stage in Manchester this April as he played his first UK solo tour.

Odell, who was in the audience that night, was dumbfounded.

"It was really moving for me, because my career has not always been easy," he says.

"But also, it was a wonderful lesson. We write off days where we feel like we have nothing to offer - but you never know what effect you might have on people."

Eilish and O'Connell never forgot the debt. Earlier this summer, Eilish asked Odell to open up the European dates of her world tour. They have more shows planned in 2027.

It coincides with a new, and long-awaited, peak in the musician's career.

After being discovered by Lily Allen, the Chichester-born musician had massive success with his first album, thanks to the heart-rending ballad Another Love – which became one of the most-streamed songs of all time, with more than three billion plays on Spotify alone.

But that was followed by a long stretch in limbo, with albums and tours that were devoured by hardcore fans, without crossing over to the mainstream.

In 2021, he fulfilled his contract with Sony Music and went independent – a process he has called "liberating" after years of "struggling to put out the music I wanted to put out".

His new material was darker and more confessional. And after finding a new audience on TikTok, the title track to his sixth album, Black Friday, became a global hit – racking up 700 million streams last year.

Just like that gig in Hollywood, Odell underestimated how people would react to the song's uncomfortably stark lyrics.

"It wasn't even supposed to be the first single," he laughs, "but in the wonderful world of TikTok, there was a bit of it that really caught people's attention."

The line he's talking about – "I want a better body, I want better skin / I wanna be perfect like all your other friends" – later found its way into the teen drama Heartstopper, soundtracking an emotional scene where one of the main characters is admitted to an eating disorder clinic.

Odell says the reaction was overwhelming.

"When I wrote that song, I was really, really miserable," he says. "I'm a vulnerable person and it's hard to be alive sometimes.

"Then fast forward to a year later, and I'm singing that song on stage and all these people are singing back these words and going, 'We feel the same way'.

"It's the most connected I've ever felt to an audience."

The success of Black Friday gave Odell a new freedom when it came to making his new album, A Wonderful Life.

The previous record was made in his tiny, private London studio (you can even hear the creaky pedals of his piano on Nothing Hurts Like Love).

This time, he hired Studio One of RAK Studios – where The Pogues laid down Fairytale of New York and Radiohead wrote High And Dry.

"I haven't been able to afford to make a record like that for the last 10 years," he says.

"But Black Friday made some money so it was a nice moment of being independent, having success, and then being able to carve out time out to record live."

To keep the sessions spontaneous, he didn't finish any of the "16 or 17" songs he'd written, preferring to thrash out the arrangements in the studio with his touring band.

It's an approach that gives the songs a weighty, lived-in quality.

Odell's voice, which tends towards the tremulous, thrums with emotional resonance, gently underscored by brushed drums and swelling strings.

But if you thought his lyrical outlook might have brightened thanks to a mid-career resurgence, or his November 2023 marriage to sculptor Georgina Somerville, you thought wrong: A Wonderful Life is an album rife with uncertainty.

Several of the song titles are questions (Can We Just Go Home Now? or Why Do I Always Want The Things That I Can't Have?) and Odell frequently undercuts romance with images of death or decay.

Odell says the music is the "truest reflection" of his state of mind between January and October last year.

Personally and professionally, he was on top of the world. It's just that the world was in a parlous state.

"We're living through such a period of global political uncertainty," he says. "It feels like an epochal moment, and it also feels extraordinarily terrifying."

A compulsive diarist, Odell observed that his "anguish" about the news was affecting his day-to-day relationships. But, he maintains, that's the logical mindset.

"Is it, in fact, unhealthy and desensitising and numbing to feel joy when we're surrounded by so much suffering?" he asks.

"And how much joy is okay before you have to go back to giving a damn?"

The album offers no solutions, only observations.

"There's a tension that's resolved when you start answering things, and the best songs for me are those that leave you with more questions," he says.

Even so, the final track, The End Of Suffering, finds a sort of equilibrium – as the singer throws open the curtains and lets the sun warm his skin.

It was inspired, Odell says, by Leonard Cohen's The Goal.

Written in the final weeks of Cohen's life, at a time when his long-term depression had suddenly lifted, it ends with a serene, almost mystical observation on man's capacity to fix the world: "Nowhere to go, nothing to teach / Except that the goal falls short of the reach."

"As he reached the finishing line of this life, he was saying that the [human] mind can't solve all the problems we face," says Odell.

"And more and more, I feel let down by thought. I find that this idea of the individual is so dissatisfying.

"I find myself most at peace, most content, when I'm in an ensemble making music, or talking to somebody and the conversation is flowing."

The conclusion, he says, is that when he lets go of anxiety and lives in the moment, life becomes immeasurably better.

"All through my 20s, I was constantly running towards this goal, you know, 'one day I'll feel artistically satisfied', and you begin to realise that it doesn't exist," he says.

"It's actually in each day. The destination is there. You have arrived, it's right there."

Marie Tidball MP says she is joking when she threatens to chain herself to a Parliament door handle. But I am not entirely sure I believe her.

Tidball was born with a congenital disability, which affects all four limbs. She has foreshortened arms and legs, with one digit on each hand.

When she was a child she missed three years of school because of the critical surgeries she needed.

The disability campaigner was elected as Labour MP for Penistone and Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire last July, and says that while getting into politics is difficult, getting around the Houses of Parliament is hard when you have a disability.

As MPs return to Parliament following the summer recess, I took a tour around the building with her.

It is not long before we reach a heavy wooden door with one of the round, smooth door handles.

"Within about five months of being here, I had about six conversations with senior people about door handles," she tells me.

"And I said if I have to have another conversation about why we need to make the door handles more accessible I will chain myself to them - rather irreverently I might say."

A Parliament spokesperson says work is taking place to upgrade access for disabled people and the House of Commons Modernisation Committee is currently looking at how to improve things.

But Tidball says there is a long way to go.

"Twenty-two per cent of the voting age population are disabled," she says.

"We absolutely need to make sure that the composition of Parliament reflects those numbers. It makes our politics much more rich."

As we go up and down sets of stairs and in and out of doors, we talk about how far away the accessible toilets are from some of the committee rooms.

And when you get there, you have to push open a heavy door to get into them.

I ask Tidball if any of this makes her angry.

"It does make me angry but you know what they say - don't get angry, get organised," she says, smiling.

"Ultimately I want to make this place more inclusive for other disabled people who might come through the doors."

As our footsteps echo across the stone floor tiles and the courtyards of Parliament, I notice we have already done a fair chunk of our recommended 10,000 daily steps.

Walking through the buildings is a good way to bump into fellow MPs but you can cover a fair distance.

Tidball wants to show me a change that has already been made in the newer Portcullis House - an accessible door.

I joke that perhaps it should have a plaque with her name on outside and Tidball laughs as she says it might be a part of her legacy.

She is among several disabled MPs who have given evidence to the Modernisation Committee about accessibility.

A number reported challenges including concerns about dark spaces in the historic Palace of Westminster, a lack of accessible toilet facilities and unclear signage.

We have been given special permission to walk around certain areas of the Houses of Parliament with Tidball. The scale of the buildings is not often seen by the public.

As a political editor, I am supposed to be used to all the statues, vaulted ceilings, and, to be frank, posh surroundings.

But I'm not.

It instantly strikes me as an amazing slice of history but a very difficult place to navigate if you do not necessarily feel welcome.

When we get to Central Lobby we are being looked down upon by statues of former prime ministers as we chat. This is Parliament's meeting place.

Members of the Commons and Lords mingle here and technically you can turn up here as a member of the public and ask to see your MP, although you are encouraged to make an appointment.

That is of course, if you feel like you can.

Fifteen years ago, the government passed the Equalities Act in these buildings.

The duty to make it easier for disabled people to access public spaces was made law in the room right next to where we are stood.

The irony is that room, the Commons Chamber, is still inaccessible to many.

These buildings are not easy to modernise.

But it is not just the fixtures and fittings that need to be looked at. The archaic ways of Parliament, that some people love, can create barriers for disabled MPs.

To get the Speaker's attention during a debate, MPs stand up and sit down, pretty much constantly, to grab his eye.

"Sitting on those green benches is really special, but they were designed for tall men so for me it is a bit of struggle," Tidball says.

She adds that although she feels "incredibly lucky" to be in Parliament, there are other physical challenges to the job.

When MPs vote they walk through voting lobbies - either the Aye or the No lobby.

"Its a long old walk, it takes about 15 minutes per vote," Tidball says.

"We've done 10 votes in a day before. "

'Changes are needed'

Tidball wants everyone to feel like they could become an MP and hopes that Parliament can reflect society

In terms of it being welcoming for everyone, however, I ask her if it is good enough.

"It's not good enough. That is why we'll continue to work hard to make it better," she says.

"I think we've got the will there to make those changes."

"That culture has already changed and the staff have been incredible.

"While I have the privilege of being here, I've got to do what I can to make it easier for the next generation of disabled young people - to make them feel that this space is for them.

"I also want to make sure that constituents, regardless of whether they've got disabilities or not, feel that this is their house too."

The House of Commons Modernisation Committee is currently looking at how to improve things.

An accessible toilet has been installed near the Commons Chamber, as well as improved signage and lighting.

A report is due to be published later in the year with plans for bigger changes.

Lucy Powell, Leader of the House of Commons and Chair of the Modernisation Committee, said: "The House of Commons must set an example on accessibility, yet we're repeatedly falling short of what we expect from every other employer in the country.

"No-one can have listened to the evidence we've heard over the past months and not feel compelled to act."

She said it is "unacceptable" that the role of an MP is made harder by the structure of the building and by inaccessible procedures and processes.

"Our inquiry is ongoing, and we'll be setting out a whole host of ambitious recommendations in the autumn, but with these quick and important actions we make this a more workable and welcoming place to all those who use it," she said.

A Parliament spokesperson said: "It is vital that Parliament is accessible to all.

"We understand that there is more to be done to ensure that disabled people do not face unnecessary difficulties when working in or visiting Parliament."

They said Parliament is "committed to making further essential adjustments".

"In the meantime, we are getting on with work across the estate to ensure the safety of our colleagues and visitors, as well as supporting the continued business of Parliament," they said.

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There is a "decent chance" the aurora borealis will be visible across much of the UK on in the coming days, the Met Office has said.

Heighted solar activity could lead to the Northern Lights being visible further south than usual, with sightings possible with the naked eye.

Although the Met Office cautioned that solar forecasts can change rapidly, and factors such as cloud cover and light pollution will impact visibility.

But those lucky enough to have clear and dark skies could be rewarded "with a rare and memorable display".

BBC Weather said the lights, formally known as the aurora borealis, would be visible across much of England and Wales away from western coasts.

As is usually the case, Northern Ireland and north east Scotland would have the best chance for clear spells of viewing, it said.

It also advised the public to head away from city lights for the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights and that if the lights were not visible - another way to potentially see them was to use a smartphone on night mode.

The Met Office forecasts that while there will be lots of cloud cover throughout the evening, the Midlands will be most likely to have clear skies, making it potentially one of the best place in the UK for a sighting.

Monday night could offer the best chance for a sighting, but the lights should still be visible throughout Tuesday night.

By Wednesday night no significant solar activity is currently expected, meaning less chance of seeing the Northern Lights.

"There's a decent chance of seeing the aurora tonight [Monday] - it may be visible as far south as the Midlands (perhaps even further south)", the Met Office said on social media site X.

The Northern Lights are caused by solar winds carrying charged particles interacting with the earth's magnetic field.

The heightened chance of a UK sighting has been caused by a fast-moving coronal mass ejection, which is a "release of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun's corona", late on Saturday night.

Met Office space weather manager, Krista Hammond, said: "As we monitor the arrival of this coronal mass ejection, there is a real possibility of aurora sightings further south than usual on Monday night.

"While the best views are likely further north, anyone with clear, dark skies should keep an eye out.

"Forecasts can change rapidly, so we encourage the public to stay updated with the latest information."

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani will receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honour, Donald Trump has announced on Truth Social.

Giuliani became known as "America's Mayor" after leading New York through 9/11. While he previously worked as Trump's personal lawyer, the pair have since parted ways.

The announcement comes two days after Giuliani sustained back injuries when a car he was a passenger in was struck from behind, police said.

Presidential Medals of Freedom are awarded to people who have made "exceptionally meritorious contributions to the nation's prosperity, values, or security, world peace, or other significant public or private endeavours".

In the Truth Social post where Trump announced Giuliani's nomination, the president called him "the greatest Mayor in the history of New York City, and an equally great American Patriot".

Past honourees include Muhammad Ali, Dr Jane Goodell, Anna Wintour and Michael J Fox, among many others.

In 2017, former President Barack Obama awarded then Vice-President Joe Biden with the Medal of Freedom.

Giuliani has not yet publicly commented on the announcement and it's unclear when he will formally receive the medal.

On Saturday evening, a car he was a passenger in was struck from behind in the US state of New Hampshire.

All involved in the crash suffered non-life threatening injuries and were taken to hospital, police said. His security guard said he suffered back injuries as well as lacerations and contusions. Giuliani has since left hospital, reports say.

Giuliani's response to the 11 September terror attack in New York drew widespread praise. Time magazine named him its Person of the Year for 2001, and Queen Elizabeth II presented him with an honorary knighthood.

In 2008, he made an unsuccessful run for US president, and later became one of Trump's advisers during the latter's 2016 campaign.

While Giuliani had a historic rise to fame, in recent years he has been troubled by personal and financial problems.

He joined Trump's legal team in 2018 and remained a part of it through to the 2020 election.

He was among several Trump allies who spread false claims of election fraud in an effort to overturn Trump's loss to former President Joe Biden in 2020.

Giuliani was sued for defamation and forced to pay two former Georgia election workers $148m (£120m).

That judgement also forced Giuliani to file for bankruptcy and led to him being stripped of his legal credentials.

In early 2021, Giuliani's legal work with Trump ended, although an adviser said they remained allies and friends.