To Russia, the Yantar is a oceanic research vessel - to others, including the UK, it's a spy ship, and a worry for Britain's defence chiefs.

The vessel has long been suspected of secretly mapping out Britain's undersea cables, where more than 90% of our data, including billions of dollars of financial transactions, are transferred.

But now, a new escalation, with revelations the Yantar's sailors targeted Royal Air Force pilots in patrol planes with lasers.

Shining lasers into a pilot's eyes is provocative, and to use the Defence Secretary John Healey's words, "deeply dangerous". It's illegal in the UK and can lead to a prison sentence.

Healey's direct message to Russia and its leader Vladimir Putin was stark: "We see you. We know what you're doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready."

By that, he is implying should the Yantar cross inside Britain's 12-mile maritime boundary there would be a military response.

This isn't the first time the Yantar has popped up near Britain's shores - at the start of the year a Royal Navy submarine made the highly unusual move to surface right in front of the ship as a sort of deterrent measure.

The concern is that this is part of an ongoing operation by the Kremlin to locate and map all the vital undersea cables and pipelines that connect the UK to the rest of the world.

It is also part of a wider pattern of Russian activity, as it tests Nato's reactions, resolve and defences. We've seen similar moves with the recent drone incursions across Europe, and Russian warplanes flying into Nato airspace.

When three Russian fighter jets entered Estonian skies without permission in September, Italy, Finland and Sweden scrambled jets under Nato's mission to bolster its eastern flank.

This is all interesting intel for Russia.

As an island nation, Britain is heavily reliant on its network of undersea cables that carry data. There are also vital oil and gas pipelines connecting Britain to North Sea neighbours such as Norway.

These cables and pipes are largely undefended and apparently of great interest to Russia's research vessels.

Nato has identified deep-sea cables as part of the world's critical infrastructure. But they are also strategic pressure points, it says, warning that adversaries could exploit them through sabotage or hybrid warfare, threatening both civilian and military communications.

Retired Royal Navy Commander Tom Sharpe made clear what the spy ship could be doing: "The most obvious one is they sit above our cables and our critical undersea infrastructure and they nose around in the cables that transfer up to $7tn worth of financial transactions every day between us and America alone".

The Yantar may be described by Moscow as a research vessel, but it is part of Russia's secretive Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research, or GUGI, which reports directly to the defence ministry.

And while the ship bristles with hi-tech communications equipment, it's what we can't see that is of most concern.

It can operate remotely-piloted miniature submarines that can dive down to sea beds many thousands of metres below the surface. These are capable of mapping the locations of cables, cutting them or planting sabotage devices that could, potentially, be activated in a time of war.

The Royal Navy is experimenting with various means of combating the threat, such as a new vessel called Proteus, but critics fear much of the damage to Britain's coastal security may already have been done.

Any foreign vessel operating in British waters must comply with UK national laws and international maritime conventions.

The cornerstone of these complex rules is the UN Convention on the Law of The Sea (UNCLOS). This allows foreign ships to navigate through coastal waters provided that their passage is "innocent" - meaning it doesn't threaten the peace or security of a coastal nation like Britain.

President Putin was at an AI conference in Moscow on Wednesday, and gave no immediate reaction on the situation unfolding north of Scotland.

Russia's Embassy in London says it's not undermining UK security and it has condemned UK Defence Secretary Healey's statement as provocative.

But all this is happening while war rages in Ukraine, a conflict Putin blames on the West and which seemingly he has no intention of stopping soon.

Additional reporting by Tiffany Wertheimer and Stuart Hughes

Wintry weather is set to continue across the UK on Thursday - with temperatures forecast to fall below zero overnight, and snow and ice affecting some areas.

Met Office yellow warnings are in place for Northern Ireland, northern and central Scotland, and coastal areas in south-west Wales, and south-west, east and north-east England.

A more severe amber warning is due to come into force later in the North York Moors, where as much as 15-25cm (6-10ins) of snow could fall on higher ground.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has also issued cold-health alerts for England until Saturday, saying there could be "significant" impacts to the elderly and people with health conditions.

Areas from London to Shetland saw snow on Wednesday.

There were dozens of school closures in north-east Scotland and the Highlands and road closures on the Woodhead Pass between Hollingworth and Flouch in Derbyshire and the B4391 between Rhyd y Sarn and Pen y Bryn in north-west Wales.

Temperatures on Wednesday night could fall to as low as -5C (23F) in Scotland and northern England, and -3C (26.6F) in other parts of England and east Wales.

With a frost expected, areas where showers or rain and sleet have left the ground damp are at risk of ice becoming a hazard on roads and pavements. Forecasters warn that buses and trains may be cancelled or delayed.

But the conditions are unlikely to resemble the snowy and icy spell this time last year which closed hundreds of schools and saw 12cm of snow in Nottingham.

Over recent decades the Met Office have observed a decrease in the frequency, duration, and intensity of cold spells, clearly linked to climate change. According to the latest State of the Climate Report, external, air and ground frosts have reduced by around a quarter since the 1980s.

Yellow warnings

• There are yellow warnings for snow and ice on Thursday in:

• Cornwall and parts of Devon, and Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Swansea until 23:59 GMT

• North East England, SW Scotland and Lothian Borders, Yorks & Humber until 23:59 GMT

• Central and northern Scotland until 21:00 GMT

• Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire until 11:00 GMT

• Northern Ireland until 12:00 GMT

'Thundersnow' forecast

Thursday's amber warning for North Yorkshire is in place from 03:00 to 2100 GMT. Forecasters say snow is expected throughout the day, mostly on hills above 100m elevation and could lead to "substantial disruption".

They say it is possible some areas, including the North York Moors and the Highlands of Scotland, could see what is known as thundersnow.

It is is a phenomenon which happens when thunderstorms form in wintry weather and give rise to heavy falls of snow rather than rain.

Meanwhile, in Wales, the snow warning is linked to what forecasters dub the "Pembrokeshire Dangler". This is a line of showers that develop over the warmer waters of the Irish Sea and are pushed southwards over the county of Pembrokeshire in south-west Wales.

Daytime temperatures in most areas of the UK on Thursday will reach between 4C and 6C.

Temperatures are expected to become milder by the weekend, rising to average levels by Saturday.

Amber cold-health alerts have been issued in England by the UKHSA until 08:00 GMT on Saturday for the North West, North East, and Yorkshire and Humber, with all other areas under less-severe yellow alerts.

The alerts are mainly for health and social care services, warning of "significant" impacts to more vulnerable members of the community.

Extra demands may be put on services to deal with colder weather.

Albania's prime minister accused Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood of "ethnic stereotyping" after she singled out Albanian families in a speech about abuses of the asylum system.

Edi Rama criticised Mahmood for telling MPs around 700 Albanian families were "living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims" as she announced major reforms on Monday.

Rama called the number a "statistical drop in the ocean of post-Brexit Britain's challenges".

Official data show the UK has deported more than 13,000 people to Albania since a returns deal was signed in 2022. Rama called the deal one of "Europe's most successful partnerships on illegal migration."

Mahmood's comments came as she announced major changes to the UK's "out of control and unfair" asylum system.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mahmood said: "If we fail to deal with this crisis, we will draw more people down a path that starts with anger and ends in hatred."

The reforms will make refugee status temporary, extend the wait for permanent settlement from five years to 20, and allow the removal of families with children who have no right to remain.

Alongside tightening access to refugee status, the UK would create new legal routes to the UK, with an annual cap on numbers.

As part of her speech, Mahmood told MPs "we must remove those who have failed asylum claims, regardless of who they are".

"There are, for instance, around 700 Albanian families living in taxpayer-funded accommodation having failed their asylum claims - despite an existing returns agreement, and Albania being a signatory to the European convention on human rights," she added.

Posting on social media, Rama said: "How can a Labour Home Secretary so poorly echo the rhetoric of the populist far-right – and single out 700 Albanian families, a statistical drop in the ocean of post-Brexit Britain's challenges – precisely at a moment when the UK and Albania have built one of Europe's most successful partnerships on illegal migration?"

"Let us also be clear: Albanians are net contributors to the British economy, and the number of Albanians receiving UK benefits is very low relative to other communities.

"To single them out again and again is not policy - it is a troubling and indecent exercise in demagoguery.

"Official policy should never be driven by ethnic stereotyping. That is the very least humanity expects from the great Great Britain."

Rama has repeatedly clashed with British politicians over their descriptions of Albanian nationals.

In May, Sir Keir Starmer travelled to the Albanian capital Tirana only to be told by Rama he would not host UK "return hubs" for failed asylum seekers from other countries.

During the same press conference, Rama accused the previous Conservative government of "stigmatising" Albanians and warning that "cursing the Albanians was not a good idea, because the curse went back and they are now out of the parliament".

A combative figure on social media, Rama has also previously invited Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to come to Albania to debate his claim one in 50 Albanians in Britain were in prison.

Rama dismissed the figure as "bonkers" and accused Farage of peddling "post-truth Brexit playbook" politics.

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

Chip giant Nvidia beat Wall Street's expectations for revenue and upcoming sales, easing investor concerns about heavy artificial intelligence (AI) spending that have unsettled markets.

In its quarterly earnings report on Wednesday, the firm said revenue for the three months to October jumped 62% to $57bn, driven by demand for its chips used in AI data centres. Sales from that division rose 66% to more than $51bn.

Fourth-quarter sales forecasts in the range of $65bn also topped estimates, sending shares in Nvidia more than 3% higher in after-hours trading.

Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, is seen as a bellwether for the AI boom. The chip-maker's results could inform market sentiment.

Chief executive Jensen Huang said in a statement that sales of its AI Blackwell systems were "off the charts" and that "cloud GPUs [graphics processing units] are sold out".

The chip-maker's quarterly report garnered even more attention than usual on Wall Street amid mounting concern that AI stocks are overvalued.

Those fears had fueled four consecutive daily drops in the S&P 500 index leading up to Wednesday, as questions swirl about returns on AI investments.

Senior Pentagon officials have arrived in Ukraine to "discuss efforts to end the war" with Russia, the US military has said.

The team, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday when he returns from a trip to Turkey.

Reports began surfacing on Wednesday that the US and Russia had prepared a new peace plan, containing major concessions from Ukraine. Neither Washington nor Moscow has officially confirmed the plan.

Earlier in the day, at least 25 people were killed in a Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's western city of Ternopil, officials there said. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In Kyiv, Driscoll is joined by the US Army's chief of staff Gen Randy George, top US army commander in Europe Gen Chris Donahue, and Srg Maj of the Army Michael Weimer.

"Secretary Driscoll and team arrived this morning in Kyiv on behalf of the administration on a factfinding mission to meet Ukrainian officials and discuss efforts to end the war," Army spokesman Col David Butler said in a statement.

Driscoll was pictured meeting Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday.

Driscoll and Gen George are the most senior US military officials to hold talks in the Ukrainian capital since President Donald Trump took office in January.

The Ukrainian authorities have not publicly commented on what issues are being discussed with the Americans.

However, one Ukrainian official told CBS, the BBC's US media partner, that the focus would be on the military situation on the ground - in addition to plans for a possible ceasefire.

The official - who was not named - said: "Presidents Zelensky and Trump have already agreed to stop the conflict along the existing lines of engagement, and there are agreements on granting security guarantees".

It comes as a number of outlets are reporting that the US and Russia have privately drawn up proposals on how to end the war.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Axios, the Financial Times and Reuters reported that the plans call for Kyiv to give up some territories and weapons, as well as to significantly cut Ukraine's Armed Forces.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian leader Vladimir Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev are believed to have been involved in working on the 28-point peace plan.

The BBC has asked the White House and a representative for Witkoff to comment.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov appeared to downplay the reports.

"In this case, we have no additional innovations to what we call 'the spirit of Anchorage'," he told Russia's state-run media on Wednesday - referring to the August summit between Putin and Trump in the US state of Alaska.

Any agreements reached during the one-day meeting have not been made public.

President Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out any territorial concessions to Russia.

Kyiv and its Western allies, including the US, have been calling for an immediate ceasefire along the vast front line, but Moscow has ruled that out, repeating demands that Ukraine says amount to its de facto capitulation.

Earlier this month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow's pre-conditions for a peace deal - including ceding territory, tough curbs on the size of Ukraine's military and the country's neutrality - had not changed since Putin laid them out two months before the full-scale invasion.

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has hinted that she is thinking of changing how policing in England and Wales is organised.

She told a conference of police leaders "the structure of our police forces, if is, if we are honest, irrational".

Mahmood said "disparities in performance" meant that policing in England and Wales was a "postcode lottery".

Some police chiefs want the number of forces to be reduced. Currently, there are 43 in England and Wales.

The government is expected to publish a White Paper on the future of policing next month.

The home secretary was talking at a conference of police leaders organised by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC).

Last week the Home Office announced that the role of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) would be abolished. Mahmood told delegates on Wednesday the position "had not worked".

She told the conference "I was a reformer at the Ministry of Justice. I will be a reformer at the Home Office too."

Mahmood told the delegates - mostly senior officers and Police and Crime Commissioners: "The structure of our police forces is, if we are honest, irrational.

"We have loaded critical functions like the national police air service and vetting onto local forces, drawing attention away from neighbourhood policing.

"We have 43 forces tackling criminal gangs who cross borders, and the disparities in performance in forces across the country have grown far too wide, giving truth to the old store that policing in this country is a postcode lottery."

She said the government's plans would be laid out in a White Paper due in December, saying she wanted to see "that national policing is world class without distracting local forces from neighbourhood policing".

"The detail will follow," she said. She did not stay behind to answer questions.

Some police chiefs favour a reduction in the number of forces. In July, Gavin Stephens, NPCC chair, said: "A smaller number of police forces, supported by a national policing organisation, would enable us to make decisions far quicker and maximise funding to invest in technology and our workforce."

But some local PCCs have opposed the idea of force mergers. Last week the Policing Minister Sarah Jones said the role would be abolished.

PCCs are elected officials, but elections have often had a limited turnout. The role was created by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2012.

The home secretary said in her speech on Wednesday: "I believe the position of a Police and Crime Commissioner, unfortunately, has not worked.

"Without necessary investment in creating a public profile, too many voters were unaware of the existence of the position, or its occupant."

Police forces are also waiting for the latest funding settlement which is due in early December.

Paul Sanford, Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and Chair of the NPCC Finance Coordination Committee, said: "Policing is in a state of financial distress.

"We are seeing declining financial resilience across all forces."

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Ten people, including a woman and a young girl, were killed when a ministry of religious endowments building in the eastern Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City was hit, according to rescuers.

The Israeli military said it had struck "Hamas terrorist targets" after it said gunmen had opened fire towards an area where its soldiers were operating in the southern city of Khan Younis, in violation of the five-week-old ceasefire agreement.

There was no immediate comment from Hamas.

The flare-up of violence comes after the UN Security Council passed a resolution that endorsed US President Donald Trump's Gaza peace plan to end two years of devastating war.

Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence agency, told the BBC that Israeli air, drone and artillery strikes hit several locations in Gaza City and Khan Younis shortly after sunset on Wednesday.

The attacks marked a sharp escalation after several days of relative calm, he said.

The Civil Defence reported that the strike in Zeitoun caused severe damage to the religious endowments ministry's building and surrounding structures, and posted a video showing its rescue workers appearing to find two people buried under rubble.

Photos published by the Anadolu news agency meanwhile showed the bodies of three young children reportedly recovered from the scene.

In a separate incident in Gaza City, one person was killed and several others were wounded when a drone struck a group of people at Shejaiya junction on Salah al-Din Street, Gaza's main north-south road, according to Mr Bassal.

He said another person was killed when a tank shell struck a house belonging to the Balboul family in Shejaiya's Mushtaha Street, which is also in eastern Gaza City.

In Khan Younis, three people were killed and a number were wounded in a strike on a group inside a sports club run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), he added.

In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that "several terrorists opened fire toward the area where IDF soldiers are operating in Khan Younis" earlier on Wednesday.

"This action constitutes a violation of the ceasefire agreement. No IDF injuries were reported," it added. "In response, the IDF began striking Hamas terrorist targets across the Gaza Strip."

Israeli public broadcaster Kan cited a security source as saying the targets of the strikes were the commander of the Zeitoun Battalion of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and the commander of its naval force.

On Monday, the UN Security Council passed a resolution that sought to shore up the fragile ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October.

Member states authorised the creation of a transitional governance body called the Board of Peace, which will be chaired by President Trump, and a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF), which will be tasked with ensuring "the process of demilitarizing the Gaza Strip".

Trump hailed the resolution as "a moment of true historic proportion".

A Hamas statement reiterated that the group would not give up its weapons without a Palestinian state, arguing its fight against Israel was legitimate "resistance".

Israel's ambassador to the UN stressed the importance of disarmament, saying that his country would "not stop or let up" until Hamas no longer presented "a threat".

The Israeli military launched an offensive in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 69,500 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, including 280 during the ceasefire, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

More on this story

• How to drive in snow and icy weather

  Published
  21 hours ago

  

• How to look after dogs, cats and other pets in cold weather

  Published
  15 hours ago

  

• How to keep babies warm in cold weather and other winter tips

  Published
  7 January

  

The stories of people facing court proceedings to repossess their homes have been shared with the BBC as mortgage repossessions reach a five-year high.

BBC journalists in the East of England and London attended various county courts as mortgage-holders and renters appeared in front of judges.

They included a couple now £13,000 in arrears on a home they bought, and a woman who faced the repossession of a house she left following a marriage breakdown 15 years earlier.

The BBC also heard landlords were grappling with financial pressures - while the body representing lenders said seeking to repossess a home was "always a last resort".

Mortgage repossessions highest in five years

Data obtained by the BBC's investigations team showed mortgage repossession orders in England and Wales reached 10,853 in 2024-5 - the highest number in five years.

Andrew Goodwin, senior economist at Oxford Economics, said rising unemployment and interest rates had been contributing factors in recent years.

Reporters were sent to courts in Northampton, Peterborough and Norwich in the East, as well as Stratford, Wandsworth and Croydon courts in London to hear cases and the pressures facing mortgage-holders and tenants.

The courts heard matters concerning both mortgage and rental repossessions.

In Croydon, a former management consultant said he and his wife both lost their jobs in 2024, leaving them in mortgage arrears.

The prospect of his son losing his childhood home had hit hard, adding it was "the perfect place for us". They now have until March to pay the arrears.

In Stratford, a tearful woman who had not lived in her property for 15 years after her marriage broke down had the home with £87,000 in mortgage arrears repossessed.

Other stories heard throughout the day included:

• Three homes repossessed in less than an hour at Stratford Magistrates' Court, including one with arrears of £87,672
• A Wandsworth case where a tenant of 30 years faced losing his rental property because the landlord needed to put the rent up
• A 75-year-old man in Peterborough, living in social housing, ended up in nearly £3,000 worth of arrears, telling the court he had been a victim of a scam
• A single mother at Norwich County Court who owed her landlady £5,200 in unpaid rent

Case workers 'overrun'

It was not just those facing the loss of their homes sharing their challenges.

Case workers and solicitors across the courts revealed they were being "overrun" with requests for help.

"When I began my career, up until a few years ago, I would think to myself 'that person won't actually end up homeless'," said Angus King, a housing solicitor from Southwark Law Centre.

"I knew we would find some way to keep them from it, but now that simply isn't the case."

Billy Harding, a Southwark Law Centre housing case worker assisting at Wandsworth County Court on Wednesday, said people were turning up "at crisis point".

Renter loses home as judge rejects 'last chance': BBC reports from repossession courts in England

The BBC found that across England the number of people asking their council for help to prevent becoming homeless was increasing.

Figures from 244 councils that responded to Freedom of Information requests showed three-quarters of them reported a rise.

For 2024/25, Broxbourne in Hertfordshire had the highest rate, where 95 out of 100,000 people were seeking help.

Similarly bailiff repossessions were rising again after a dip during the Covid-19 pandemic.

'I have never done this before,' says landlord

One landlord attending Norwich County Court also told of how anxious she was about coming to court to try to collect £2,200 in unpaid rent.

She told the judge the tenant, a carpenter, had offered to repair the windows of the property in lieu of rent.

"That was OK, but he never got back to me about that," she said.

Speaking on behalf of landlords in a separate court, one solicitor said the landlords also had bills to pay or financial issues themselves and couldn't be expected to subsidise their tenants.

Karina Hutchins, of UK Finance - which represents the banking industry - said seeking to repossess a home is "always a last resort" for lenders.

With additional reporting by Charlotte Rose, Gabriela Pomeroy, Stephen Menon, Jon Ironmonger, Phil Shepka, Matt Precey and Jessica Ure

If you have been affected by this story or would like support then you can find organisations which offer help and information at the BBC Action Line.

Younger Australian teenagers on Instagram, Facebook and Threads are being told their accounts will be shut down ahead of the country's social media ban for under-16s.

Meta, which owns the three brands, said it had begun notifying users it believes to be between 13 and 15 years old by text, email and in-app messages that their accounts would start being deactivated from 4 December.

The ban in Australia comes into force on 10 December. It affects a number of platforms which also include TikTok, YouTube, X and Reddit.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the "world-leading" ban was aimed at "letting kids be kids". Meta and other firms oppose the measure but said they would comply.

Australia's internet regulator has estimated there are 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 teens on Instagram in the 13-15 age bracket.

From 4 December, children aged below 16 will not be able to create accounts on Meta's social media platforms.

The company said it was asking young users to update their contact details so they could be notified when they became eligible to open an account.

They can download and save their posts, videos and messages before their accounts are shut down.

Meta said that teens who said they were old enough to use Instagram, Facebook and Threads could challenge the restriction by taking a "video selfie" to be used in facial age scans.

They could also provide a driver's licence or other government issued-ID.

All these verification methods were tested by the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) earlier this year, in a report commissioned by the Australian state.

While the ACCS said that all methods had their merits, it added: "We did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments."

Social media platforms which fail to take "reasonable steps" to block under-16s face fines of up to A$50m (£25m).

"While we are working hard to remove all users who we understand to be under the age of 16 by 10 December, compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multi-layered process," Antigone Davis, vice-president and global head of safety at Meta, told Reuters Financial.

Meta wants to see a law where under-16s have to get parental approval before they download a social media app.

The firm told Australia's Seven News: "Teens are resourceful, and may attempt to circumvent age assurance measures to access restricted services."

But it said: "We're committed to meeting our compliance obligations and are taking the necessary steps to comply with the law."

Australia's e-Safety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said the ban was aimed at proctecting teens "from pressures and risks they can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts".

In a move seemingly to avoid being included in the ban, gaming platform Roblox this week announced that children under 16 would be unable to chat to adult strangers.

Mandatory age checks will be introduced for accounts using chat features, starting in December for Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, then the rest of the globe from January.

• Roblox blocks children from chatting to adult strangers
• Enforcing Australia's social media ban is possible but contains risks, report says

Which firms does Australia's social media ban apply to?

The e-safety commissioner has published a list of which social media platforms will be impacted by the age ban.

They are:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Kick
• Reddit
• Snapchat
• Threads
• TikTok
• X (formerly Twitter)
• YouTube

Platforms not included are:

• Discord
• GitHub
• Google Classroom
• LEGO Play
• Messenger
• Roblox
• Steam and Steam Chat
• WhatsApp
• YouTube Kids

The Labour MP Clive Lewis has offered to give up his seat to allow Andy Burnham to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.

There has been ongoing speculation that Greater Manchester Mayor Burnham wants to take on Sir Keir for the top job, but he would need to be an MP to do so.

Lewis told the BBC's Politics Live that he was willing to step down from his Norwich South seat to allow Burnham to return to the Commons and put "country before party, party before personal ambition".

Burnham was contacted for comment. Number 10 declined to comment.

Lewis, who has been an MP for 10 years, said he had spoken to Burnham, and when asked if he would give up his seat for him, he said it was "a question I've asked myself".

He added: "Do you know what? If I'm going to sit here and say country before party, party before personal ambition, then yes, I have to say yes, don't I."

Last week, he said Sir Keir's position as Prime Minister was "untenable" and told Channel 4 News that Burnham should be given the chance to "step up".

Lewis first won his seat in 2015, and last year he increased his majority to more than 13,000.

But if he were to step down, any would-be successor would first need to win a selection contest before a by-election was held.

In September, Burnham said he had "no intention of abandoning Manchester" but did not rule out challenging Sir Keir.

Follow Norfolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

Google's ultra-private CEO Sundar Pichai is showing me around Googleplex, its California headquarters. A walkway runs along the length of it, passing by a giant dinosaur skeleton, a beach volleyball pitch and dozens of Googlers lunching under the hazy November sun.

But it's a laboratory, hidden away at the back of the campus behind some trees, that he is most excited to show me.

This is where the invention that Google believes is its secret weapon is being developed.

Known as a Tensor Processing Unit (or TPU), it looks like an unassuming little chip but, says Mr Pichai, it will one day power every AI query that goes through Google. This makes it potentially one of the most important objects in the world economy right now.

"AI is the most profound technology humanity [has ever worked] on," he insists. "It has potential for extraordinary benefits - we will have to work through societal disruptions."

But the confusing question lingering over the AI hype is whether it is a bubble at risk of bursting - as, if so, it may well be a spectacular burst akin to the dotcom crash at the start of the century, with consequences for us all.

The Bank of England has already warned of a "sudden correction" in global financial markets, saying "market valuations appear stretched" for tech AI firms. Meanwhile. OpenAI boss Sam Altman has speculated that "there are many parts of AI that I think are kind of bubbly right now".

Asked whether Google would be immune from a potential bubble burst, Mr Pichai said it could weather that potential storm - but for all his starry-eyed excitement around the possibilities of AI, he also issued a warning: "I think no company is going to be immune, including us."

So why, then, is Google investing more than $90bn a year in the AI build-out, a three-fold increase in just four years, at the very moment these suggestions are being discussed?

The big AI surge - and the big risk

The AI surge - of which Google is just one part - is, in cash terms, the biggest market boom the world has seen.

Its numbers are extraordinary - there is $15 trillion of market value at Google and four other tech giants whose headquarters are all within a short drive of one another.

Chipmaker turned AI systems pioneer Nvidia in Santa Clara is now worth more than $5 trillion. A 10-minute drive south, in Cupertino, is Apple HQ, hovering around $4 trillion; while 15 minutes west is $1.9 trillion Meta (previously Facebook). And in the centre of San Francisco, OpenAI was recently valued at $500bn.

The purely financial consequences of this trend are significant enough.

The value of the shares in these companies (and a few others outside Silicon Valley, such as Microsoft in Seattle) have helped cushion the US economy from the impact of trade wars, and kept retirement plans and investments buoyant - and not just in the US.

Yet it comes with a big risk. That is, the incredible dependence of US stock market growth on the performance of a handful of tech giants. The Magnificent 7 - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla - collectively comprise one third of the valuation of America's entire S&P 500.

And that market value is now more highly concentrated in a few firms than it was during the dotcom bubble in 1999, according to the IMF.

Mr Pichai points out that every decade or so come these "inflection points": the personal computer, then the internet in the late 1990s, followed by mobile and cloud. "Now it's clearly the era of Artificial Intelligence."

But as for the big question - is it a bubble?

Mr Pichai argues there are two ways of thinking about it. First, there is "palpably exciting" progress of services that people and companies are using.

But he concedes: "It's also true when we go through these investment cycles, there are moments we overshoot collectively as an industry…

"So I think it's both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this."

Now, a distinction is emerging in the markets between those businesses that rely on often borrowed money and complicated deals to access the chips that power their AI, and the biggest tech companies, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, which can fund investment in chips and data from their own pockets.

Which brings us to Google's own silicon chips, or their prized TPUs.

'Restricted': inside the silicon chip lab

The lab, where they are tested, is the size of a five-a-side football pitch with a mesh of multi-coloured wires and deep blue blinking lights. Signs all around read: "restricted".

What's striking is the sheer noise - this is down to the cooling systems, which are needed to help control the temperature of the chips, which can get incredibly hot when crunching trillions of calculations.

The TPUs are designed to help power AI machines. And they work differently from other types of chips.

The CPU (central processing unit) is the primary component of a computer - essentially its brain - that performs most of the processing and control functions, while GPUs (graphics processing units) perform more specialised processing, executing many parallel tasks at once - this can include AI.

However Asics (application-specific integrated circuits), are chips custom-built for a specific purpose, for example, a specific AI algorithm. And the TPU is a specialist Google-designed type of Asic.

A core aspect of the AI boom has been the mad dash to amass lots of top-performing chips and put them into data centres (or the physical facilities that store, process and run large amounts of data and software).

Nvidia's boss Jensen Huang once coined the term "AI factories" to describe the massive data centres full of pods and racks of super chips, connected to huge energy and cooling systems.

(Tech bosses such as Mark Zuckerberg have referred to some being the size of Manhattan. The Google TPU lab is somewhat more modest, testing out the technology for deployment elsewhere.)

Stories abound of tech bros begging chip makers for hundreds of thousands of these highly engineered pieces of silicon. Take the recent dinner at Nobu in Palo Alto, where Elon Musk and Larry Ellison, the founder and head of Oracle, tried to woo Nvidia's Jensen Huang, to sell them more of them.

As Mr Ellison put it: "I would describe the dinner as me and Elon begging Jensen for GPUs. Please take our money - no, no take more. You're not taking enough. We need you to take more, please!"

It is precisely the race to access the power of as many as possible of these high performance chips, and to scale them up into massive data centres, that is driving an AI boom - and there's a perception that the only way to win is to keep spending.

The chips race - and the OpenAI storm

The terrace of the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, a sprawling 16-acre estate near the Santa Cruz mountains that serves crab rolls and $35 signature vodka martinis, is where the big Silicon Valley deal-making gets done. It's close to Stanford University and Meta's HQ, as well as the headquarters of major venture capital firms.

There are whispered rumours about who will be next to announce customised AI chips - Asics - to compete with Google and Nvidia.

Just before I visited, something of a storm was brewing about the investment plans of OpenAI, which Elon Musk co-founded.

The firm, which started as a not-for-profit but has since established a commercial structure, has been the focus of a web of cross-investments involving buying up chips and other computer hardware needed for AI processing.

Few in the industry doubt OpenAI's phenomenal user growth - in particular the popularity of its chatbot, ChatGPT. It has ambitions to design its own custom AI chips, but some have speculated about whether it might need government support to achieve this.

In a podcast episode that aired last month, an OpenAI investor questioned how the company's spending commitments tallied with its revenues, to which co-founder Sam Altman shot back, challenging the revenue figures quoted, and adding: "If you want to sell your shares, I'll find you a buyer. Enough."

He has since shared a lengthy post on X, explaining, among other things, that OpenAI is looking at commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next eight years and why he believes now is the time to invest in scaling up their technology.

"I do not think the government should be writing insurance policies for AI companies," he said.

But he also said: "What we do think might make sense is governments building (and owning) their own AI infrastructure."

Elsewhere, there have been notable very recent falls in share prices of AI infrastructure companies - Coreweave, a start-up that supplies OpenAI, saw its shares lose 26% of their value earlier this month.

Plus, there have been some reactions in markets for perceived credit risk among other firms. And while most of these tech share prices have generally climbed higher over the course of 2025, there has been a mild dip more generally in the past few days.

ChatGPT versus Gemini 3.0

None of this has dampened the excitement over AI's potential within the industry. Google's consumer AI model, Gemini 3.0, launched to great fanfare earlier this week — this will pitch Google in a direct battle with OpenAI and its still-dominant ChatGPT for the market share.

What we don't yet know is whether it marks an end to the days of chatbots going rogue and recommending glue as a pizza ingredient. So, is the end result of all this fantastic investment is that information is less reliable, I asked Mr Pichai.

"I think if you only construct systems standalone and you only rely on that, [that] would be true," he told me. "Which is why I think we have to make the information ecosystem has to be much richer than just having AI technology being the sole product in it."

But I put it to him that truth matters. His response: "truth matters".

Nor is the other big question facing tech today dampening the enthusiasm around advancing AI's potential. That is: how on Earth to power it?

By 2030, data centres around the world will use about as much electricity as India did in 2023, according to the IMF. Yet this is also an age where energy supply is under pressure by governments committing to climate change targets.

I put this to Google's Mr Pichai, asking if it is coherent to have ambitions to generate 95% of electricity from low-carbon sources by 2030 - as the UK government does - and also be an AI superpower?

"I think it's possible. But I think for every government, including the UK, it's important to figure out how to scale up infrastructure, including energy infrastructure.

"You don't want to constrain an economy based on energy," he adds. "I think that will have consequences."

Lessons from the 2000 dotcom bust

Years ago, as a fledgling reporter I cut my teeth in the 2000 dotcom bubble. It followed a famous speech by Federal Reserve Governor Alan Greenspan about "irrational exuberance".

In that time I interviewed Steve Jobs twice, and a few years later questioned Mr Pichai's predecessor Larry Page, and commentated live on the collapse of WorldOfFruit.com.

Through it all, one lesson became clear: that even in the worst-case scenarios and the toughest of crashes, catastrophe isn't guaranteed for all.

Take Amazon - its share price slumped to $6 and its market capitalisation fell to $4bn during that crash, yet some 25 years on Jeff Bezos and his company are very much going strong. Today Amazon is worth $2.4 trillion.

The same would, inevitably, be true of companies shaken by a potential AI bubble burst.

Plus there is another looming factor that may well explain why so many in Silicon Valley - and beyond - are blind to, or perhaps choosing not to, acknowledge this risk, and pushing on regardless.

That is, the attraction of the glittering prize at the end: achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).

This is the point at which machines match human intelligence, something many believe is within reach. Or beyond that, reaching artificial super-intelligence (ASI), the point at which machines surpass our intelligence.

But I was also told something else that was thought-provoking by a Silicon Valley figure - that it doesn't matter whether there really is a bubble or if it bursts. Step back and what is going on in the bigger picture is a global battle for AI supremacy, with the US against China taking centre stage.

And while Beijing funds these developments centrally, in the US it is a messy but productive free market free for all, which means trial and error on an epic scale.

For now, the US has superiority in silicon over China - companies like Nvidia with their GPUs and Google with their TPUs can afford to accelerate into the storm.

Others will surely fail, and spectacularly so, affecting markets, consumer sentiment and the world economy. The physical footprint left behind, however, containing sheer computing firepower for the deployment of mass AI technologies, will inevitably shape our economy and could well also shape how we work and learn - and who dominates the world for the rest of the 21st Century.

BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. You can now sign up for notifications that will alert you whenever an InDepth story is published - click here to find out how.

The Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has hinted that she is thinking of changing how policing in England and Wales is organised.

She told a conference of police leaders "the structure of our police forces, if is, if we are honest, irrational".

Mahmood said "disparities in performance" meant that policing in England and Wales was a "postcode lottery".

Some police chiefs want the number of forces to be reduced. Currently, there are 43 in England and Wales.

The government is expected to publish a White Paper on the future of policing next month.

The home secretary was talking at a conference of police leaders organised by the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) and the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC).

Last week the Home Office announced that the role of Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) would be abolished. Mahmood told delegates on Wednesday the position "had not worked".

She told the conference "I was a reformer at the Ministry of Justice. I will be a reformer at the Home Office too."

Mahmood told the delegates - mostly senior officers and Police and Crime Commissioners: "The structure of our police forces is, if we are honest, irrational.

"We have loaded critical functions like the national police air service and vetting onto local forces, drawing attention away from neighbourhood policing.

"We have 43 forces tackling criminal gangs who cross borders, and the disparities in performance in forces across the country have grown far too wide, giving truth to the old store that policing in this country is a postcode lottery."

She said the government's plans would be laid out in a White Paper due in December, saying she wanted to see "that national policing is world class without distracting local forces from neighbourhood policing".

"The detail will follow," she said. She did not stay behind to answer questions.

Some police chiefs favour a reduction in the number of forces. In July, Gavin Stephens, NPCC chair, said: "A smaller number of police forces, supported by a national policing organisation, would enable us to make decisions far quicker and maximise funding to invest in technology and our workforce."

But some local PCCs have opposed the idea of force mergers. Last week the Policing Minister Sarah Jones said the role would be abolished.

PCCs are elected officials, but elections have often had a limited turnout. The role was created by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2012.

The home secretary said in her speech on Wednesday: "I believe the position of a Police and Crime Commissioner, unfortunately, has not worked.

"Without necessary investment in creating a public profile, too many voters were unaware of the existence of the position, or its occupant."

Police forces are also waiting for the latest funding settlement which is due in early December.

Paul Sanford, Chief Constable of Norfolk Constabulary and Chair of the NPCC Finance Coordination Committee, said: "Policing is in a state of financial distress.

"We are seeing declining financial resilience across all forces."

A prominent French anti-drugs campaigner whose brother was killed by drugs criminals last week, five years after the murder of his elder brother, has vowed to stand up to intimidation and "keep telling the truth about drugs violence".

Amine Kessaci, 22, was writing in Le Monde newspaper a day after the funeral of his younger brother Mehdi, whose murder last week has been described by the government as a turning-point in France's drugs wars.

"Yesterday I lost my brother. Today I speak out," he wrote in his opinion piece.

"[The drugs-traffickers] strike at us in order to break, to tame, to subdue. They want to wipe out any resistance, to break any free spirit, to kill in the egg any embryo of revolt."

Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead last Wednesday as he parked his car in central Marseille in what appears to have been a warning or punishment aimed at his older brother, Amine, from the city's drugs gangs.

Speaking after a ministerial meeting on drugs crime at the Elysée palace on Tuesday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said: "We all agreed that this premeditated murder was something totally new. It's clearly a crime of intimidation. It's a new level of violence."

Mehdi was the second Kessaci brother to be killed by drugs criminals. In 2020 the body of Brahim Kessaci, then 22, was found in a burnt-out car.

That murder prompted Amine to launch his association, Conscience, which aims to expose the damage to working-class communities caused by gangs.

Marseille is renowned for worsening drugs wars, and Amine Kessaci recently wrote a book called Marseille Wipe your Tears – Life and Death in a Land of Drugs.

In his Le Monde article, Amine revealed he was recently warned by police to leave Marseille because of threats to his life.

He attended his younger brother's funeral wearing a bullet-proof jacket and under heavy police protection.

"I speak because I have no choice but to fight if I don't want to die. I speak because I know that silence is the refuge of our enemies," he wrote, urging courage from citizens, and action from the government.

Mehdi Kessaci's murder has brought the national spotlight back on a drugs trafficking problem that French experts and ministers agree is reaching almost unmanageable proportions.

According to Senate member Étienne Blanc, author of a recent study, turnover in the drugs trade in France is now €7bn (£6bn) – or 70% of the entire budget of the justice ministry.

He said around 250,000 people drew a living from the trade in France – more than the entire number of police and gendarmes, which is 230,000. According to Le Monde, the country counts 1.1 million users of cocaine.

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday launched a broadside against such consumers, telling the weekly cabinet meeting that "sometimes it is the city-centre bourgeoisie that is funding the traffickers".

Macron had called a special drugs summit the day before in response to Amine's murder and in order to review progress on a new anti-drugs law that was passed in June.

It sets up a special prosecutor's office dedicated to organised crime - similar to the office that tackles terrorism - which will eventually have 30 specialised magistrates.

Under the law, senior drugs convicts are made to serve their terms in isolation in a specially converted prison where it is hoped it will be harder to continue running operations from behind bars.

According to Laurent Nuñez, there is evidence that the crackdown on drugs crime is having an effect - with the number of homicides in Marseille down from 49 in 2023 to 24 in 2024.

The number of dealing points in the city had halved from 160 to 80, he added.

"The war is not won, but we do have results."

According to the author of a recent book, Narcotraffic, Europe's poison, "France is at the heart of the geopolitics of drugs. With its two major ports of Marseille and Le Havre, it has an ideal geographical position in this Europe of free movement."

Mathieu Verboud said that the growth in world production of cocaine had triggered an "explosion of supply and demand. The market has gone through the roof and so have the profits."

The sheer wealth of drugs organisations meant they had the power to corrupt everyone from dock-workers to local politicians, the author warned, a process he said was already well-advanced in countries like the Netherlands and Belgium.

Several French politicians have said it is time to call in the army to deal with drugs-trafficking and the gangs which hold sway in many high-immigration city estates.

Christian Estrosi, mayor of the southern coastal city of Nice, said: "Narcotrafficking has transformed into narcoterrorism. Its aim now is to terrorise, subjugate and rule.

"We have already successfully deployed the means to fight terrorism. It's time to act with determination against narcoterrorism."

Estrosi was referring to wave of deadly jihadist attacks in the mid 2010s, when France deployed hundreds of soldiers on to the streets of many cities where they continue to patrol.

The owner of a cocktail and karaoke bar where solo drinkers are banned says he is baffled by the furore it has caused on social media as the policy is "for the safety of all guests".

Carl Peters said the no-single-entry policy after 21:00 had been in place since the opening of Alibi in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, in 2022.

He told the BBC it was to "mitigate risk" and "protect his customers" from being "mithered" by solo drinkers.

He posted a reel on Instagram earlier this month about the policy after saying someone had accused him of discrimination. He said he was "astounded" by the ensuing criticism, describing his venue as an "inclusive and safe environment".

The ban got a mixed response from Instagram users with one commenter saying she "always feels safe in Alibi", while another described the policy as "narrow minded", adding if he finishes work late and goes for a drink himself "he has never once mithered anyone and... happy in my own company".

Mr Peters explained there were two reasons why he introduced the policy.

Firstly, if someone on their own has a seizure or an accident with no-one with them "in a late night busy bar environment, it's an absolute nightmare for us to deal with".

He said also "sometimes if you let people in on their own, the reason why they're on their own is that they've got no-one to talk to, so they start mithering other groups".

"So what we do as a venue is we just eliminate that."

He added: "Unless you're with a group and we know who you're with, then you're not coming in."

Mr Peters added he took "pride that his customers feel safe in his venue" so was "astounded" it was now being criticised on social media.

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

US President Donald Trump has urged Republicans in Congress to vote to release more files relating to Jeffrey Epstein - a sudden reversal in his position after having previously opposed efforts to make the documents public.

Trump had been facing a potential revolt after a growing number of Republicans signalled they would vote in favour of releasing the files despite his opposition.

While the measure is likely to pass in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, it is far from certain that it would pass in the Republican-controlled Senate.

And even if it does pass in the Senate, it remains unclear when the files could be released and whether they would satisfy ardent campaigners.

On Tuesday, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on a measure that would compel the justice department to make publicly available "in a searchable and downloadable format" all files pertaining to Epstein within 30 days.

Procedural votes and debates are expected to begin at 10:00EST (15:00GMT) and continue for many hours.

Several victims of Epstein are also expected to spend the day on Capitol Hill, to advocate for the bill's passage and to hold news conferences with reporters.

The releases could, in theory, also include files pertaining to imprisoned Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as people - including government officials - mentioned in the case. It could also include internal justice department documents.

The vote will come just two days after Trump wrote on Truth Social to encourage Republicans to vote for the measure. In the post, he argued that "we have nothing to hide".

The measure is likely to pass. Even before Trump's post, some House Republicans had made clear they were willing to break ranks with the president and House Speaker Mike Johnson to vote in favour.

Should it pass, it still faces an uncertain future in the Senate, which is under no obligation to even pick up the measure.

It remains unclear whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune will do so - but the Republican is under enormous pressure from both sides of the US political spectrum.

He had previously suggested that while he was "not hearing" much desire from fellow Republicans to push for the release of the documents, a successful House vote could change that.

"I just hope John Thune will do the right thing," Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie told ABC News over the weekend.

Another Republican, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, only told NBC's "Meet the Press" that the Senate will "take a look" at the bill if it passes the House.

"We'll see what it says," Barrasso said. "We all want accountability and transparency. But to me, this it not about the truth. It's not about justice."

"This is about an attempt by the Democrats to make President Trump a lame-duck president," he added. "And I'm not going to aid and abet them in their efforts to do that."

Only after the Senate passes the bill would it head to President Trump, who has said he would sign it into law.

Speking to reporters on Monday night, he said Republicans had "nothing to do with Epstein". "It's really a Democrat problem," he claimed. "The Democrats were Epstein's friends, all of them."

Trump went on to argue the Epstein scandal was a "hoax" distracting from "the greatness of what the Republican Party had accomplished over the last period of time".

There are obstacles to the files being released even if Trump signs the bill.

The text of the document that will go before the House, for example, notes that the attorney general could withhold or redact portions of records that contain personal information that "would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy".

"Simply letting anything out could reveal a lot of private information that's not relevant or appropriate for public consumption," Jonathan Entin, a constitutional law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, told the BBC.

"There may also be some issues about law enforcement techniques that the justice department might not want to be out there in the public domain," he added.

The proposed House bill also notes that the justice department can hold back any documents that "jeapordise an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution, provided that such withholding is narrowly tailored and temporary".

That could potentially lead to delays, given that President Trump said in his post that he would be calling for an investigation into Epstein's alleged links with prominent Democrats, such as Bill Clinton and Larry Summers "to determine what was going on with them, and him".

"That's a potential hurdle," Prof Entin said. "If, in fact, this is a serious investigation, presumably the prosecutors will not want everything out there while they're sorting out whether they bring charges."

Doing so, he added, "might create some prejudicial publicity about targets of the investigation" that could ultimately lead to intense litigation if any indictments are brought.

For those who have campaigned for the release of the files, anything short of full disclosure is likely to spark further questions and even outrage.

"I believe the country deserves transparency in these files," Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican now in a public row with Trump over the files, told CNN on Sunday.

"I have no idea what's in the files. I can't even guess," Greene added. "But that is the question everyone is asking is - why fight this so hard?"

Google's ultra-private CEO Sundar Pichai is showing me around Googleplex, its California headquarters. A walkway runs along the length of it, passing by a giant dinosaur skeleton, a beach volleyball pitch and dozens of Googlers lunching under the hazy November sun.

But it's a laboratory, hidden away at the back of the campus behind some trees, that he is most excited to show me.

This is where the invention that Google believes is its secret weapon is being developed.

Known as a Tensor Processing Unit (or TPU), it looks like an unassuming little chip but, says Mr Pichai, it will one day power every AI query that goes through Google. This makes it potentially one of the most important objects in the world economy right now.

"AI is the most profound technology humanity [has ever worked] on," he insists. "It has potential for extraordinary benefits - we will have to work through societal disruptions."

But the confusing question lingering over the AI hype is whether it is a bubble at risk of bursting - as, if so, it may well be a spectacular burst akin to the dotcom crash at the start of the century, with consequences for us all.

The Bank of England has already warned of a "sudden correction" in global financial markets, saying "market valuations appear stretched" for tech AI firms. Meanwhile. OpenAI boss Sam Altman has speculated that "there are many parts of AI that I think are kind of bubbly right now".

Asked whether Google would be immune from a potential bubble burst, Mr Pichai said it could weather that potential storm - but for all his starry-eyed excitement around the possibilities of AI, he also issued a warning: "I think no company is going to be immune, including us."

So why, then, is Google investing more than $90bn a year in the AI build-out, a three-fold increase in just four years, at the very moment these suggestions are being discussed?

The big AI surge - and the big risk

The AI surge - of which Google is just one part - is, in cash terms, the biggest market boom the world has seen.

Its numbers are extraordinary - there is $15 trillion of market value at Google and four other tech giants whose headquarters are all within a short drive of one another.

Chipmaker turned AI systems pioneer Nvidia in Santa Clara is now worth more than $5 trillion. A 10-minute drive south, in Cupertino, is Apple HQ, hovering around $4 trillion; while 15 minutes west is $1.9 trillion Meta (previously Facebook). And in the centre of San Francisco, OpenAI was recently valued at $500bn.

The purely financial consequences of this trend are significant enough.

The value of the shares in these companies (and a few others outside Silicon Valley, such as Microsoft in Seattle) have helped cushion the US economy from the impact of trade wars, and kept retirement plans and investments buoyant - and not just in the US.

Yet it comes with a big risk. That is, the incredible dependence of US stock market growth on the performance of a handful of tech giants. The Magnificent 7 - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla - collectively comprise one third of the valuation of America's entire S&P 500.

And that market value is now more highly concentrated in a few firms than it was during the dotcom bubble in 1999, according to the IMF.

Mr Pichai points out that every decade or so come these "inflection points": the personal computer, then the internet in the late 1990s, followed by mobile and cloud. "Now it's clearly the era of Artificial Intelligence."

But as for the big question - is it a bubble?

Mr Pichai argues there are two ways of thinking about it. First, there is "palpably exciting" progress of services that people and companies are using.

But he concedes: "It's also true when we go through these investment cycles, there are moments we overshoot collectively as an industry…

"So I think it's both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this."

Now, a distinction is emerging in the markets between those businesses that rely on often borrowed money and complicated deals to access the chips that power their AI, and the biggest tech companies, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, which can fund investment in chips and data from their own pockets.

Which brings us to Google's own silicon chips, or their prized TPUs.

'Restricted': inside the silicon chip lab

The lab, where they are tested, is the size of a five-a-side football pitch with a mesh of multi-coloured wires and deep blue blinking lights. Signs all around read: "restricted".

What's striking is the sheer noise - this is down to the cooling systems, which are needed to help control the temperature of the chips, which can get incredibly hot when crunching trillions of calculations.

The TPUs are designed to help power AI machines. And they work differently from other types of chips.

The CPU (central processing unit) is the primary component of a computer - essentially its brain - that performs most of the processing and control functions, while GPUs (graphics processing units) perform more specialised processing, executing many parallel tasks at once - this can include AI.

However Asics (application-specific integrated circuits), are chips custom-built for a specific purpose, for example, a specific AI algorithm. And the TPU is a specialist Google-designed type of Asic.

A core aspect of the AI boom has been the mad dash to amass lots of top-performing chips and put them into data centres (or the physical facilities that store, process and run large amounts of data and software).

Nvidia's boss Jensen Huang once coined the term "AI factories" to describe the massive data centres full of pods and racks of super chips, connected to huge energy and cooling systems.

(Tech bosses such as Mark Zuckerberg have referred to some being the size of Manhattan. The Google TPU lab is somewhat more modest, testing out the technology for deployment elsewhere.)

Stories abound of tech bros begging chip makers for hundreds of thousands of these highly engineered pieces of silicon. Take the recent dinner at Nobu in Palo Alto, where Elon Musk and Larry Ellison, the founder and head of Oracle, tried to woo Nvidia's Jensen Huang, to sell them more of them.

As Mr Ellison put it: "I would describe the dinner as me and Elon begging Jensen for GPUs. Please take our money - no, no take more. You're not taking enough. We need you to take more, please!"

It is precisely the race to access the power of as many as possible of these high performance chips, and to scale them up into massive data centres, that is driving an AI boom - and there's a perception that the only way to win is to keep spending.

The chips race - and the OpenAI storm

The terrace of the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, a sprawling 16-acre estate near the Santa Cruz mountains that serves crab rolls and $35 signature vodka martinis, is where the big Silicon Valley deal-making gets done. It's close to Stanford University and Meta's HQ, as well as the headquarters of major venture capital firms.

There are whispered rumours about who will be next to announce customised AI chips - Asics - to compete with Google and Nvidia.

Just before I visited, something of a storm was brewing about the investment plans of OpenAI, which Elon Musk co-founded.

The firm, which started as a not-for-profit but has since established a commercial structure, has been the focus of a web of cross-investments involving buying up chips and other computer hardware needed for AI processing.

Few in the industry doubt OpenAI's phenomenal user growth - in particular the popularity of its chatbot, ChatGPT. It has ambitions to design its own custom AI chips, but some have speculated about whether it might need government support to achieve this.

In a podcast episode that aired last month, an OpenAI investor questioned how the company's spending commitments tallied with its revenues, to which co-founder Sam Altman shot back, challenging the revenue figures quoted, and adding: "If you want to sell your shares, I'll find you a buyer. Enough."

He has since shared a lengthy post on X, explaining, among other things, that OpenAI is looking at commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next eight years and why he believes now is the time to invest in scaling up their technology.

"I do not think the government should be writing insurance policies for AI companies," he said.

But he also said: "What we do think might make sense is governments building (and owning) their own AI infrastructure."

Elsewhere, there have been notable very recent falls in share prices of AI infrastructure companies - Coreweave, a start-up that supplies OpenAI, saw its shares lose 26% of their value earlier this month.

Plus, there have been some reactions in markets for perceived credit risk among other firms. And while most of these tech share prices have generally climbed higher over the course of 2025, there has been a mild dip more generally in the past few days.

ChatGPT versus Gemini 3.0

None of this has dampened the excitement over AI's potential within the industry. Google's consumer AI model, Gemini 3.0, launched to great fanfare earlier this week — this will pitch Google in a direct battle with OpenAI and its still-dominant ChatGPT for the market share.

What we don't yet know is whether it marks an end to the days of chatbots going rogue and recommending glue as a pizza ingredient. So, is the end result of all this fantastic investment is that information is less reliable, I asked Mr Pichai.

"I think if you only construct systems standalone and you only rely on that, [that] would be true," he told me. "Which is why I think we have to make the information ecosystem has to be much richer than just having AI technology being the sole product in it."

But I put it to him that truth matters. His response: "truth matters".

Nor is the other big question facing tech today dampening the enthusiasm around advancing AI's potential. That is: how on Earth to power it?

By 2030, data centres around the world will use about as much electricity as India did in 2023, according to the IMF. Yet this is also an age where energy supply is under pressure by governments committing to climate change targets.

I put this to Google's Mr Pichai, asking if it is coherent to have ambitions to generate 95% of electricity from low-carbon sources by 2030 - as the UK government does - and also be an AI superpower?

"I think it's possible. But I think for every government, including the UK, it's important to figure out how to scale up infrastructure, including energy infrastructure.

"You don't want to constrain an economy based on energy," he adds. "I think that will have consequences."

Lessons from the 2000 dotcom bust

Years ago, as a fledgling reporter I cut my teeth in the 2000 dotcom bubble. It followed a famous speech by Federal Reserve Governor Alan Greenspan about "irrational exuberance".

In that time I interviewed Steve Jobs twice, and a few years later questioned Mr Pichai's predecessor Larry Page, and commentated live on the collapse of WorldOfFruit.com.

Through it all, one lesson became clear: that even in the worst-case scenarios and the toughest of crashes, catastrophe isn't guaranteed for all.

Take Amazon - its share price slumped to $6 and its market capitalisation fell to $4bn during that crash, yet some 25 years on Jeff Bezos and his company are very much going strong. Today Amazon is worth $2.4 trillion.

The same would, inevitably, be true of companies shaken by a potential AI bubble burst.

Plus there is another looming factor that may well explain why so many in Silicon Valley - and beyond - are blind to, or perhaps choosing not to, acknowledge this risk, and pushing on regardless.

That is, the attraction of the glittering prize at the end: achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).

This is the point at which machines match human intelligence, something many believe is within reach. Or beyond that, reaching artificial super-intelligence (ASI), the point at which machines surpass our intelligence.

But I was also told something else that was thought-provoking by a Silicon Valley figure - that it doesn't matter whether there really is a bubble or if it bursts. Step back and what is going on in the bigger picture is a global battle for AI supremacy, with the US against China taking centre stage.

And while Beijing funds these developments centrally, in the US it is a messy but productive free market free for all, which means trial and error on an epic scale.

For now, the US has superiority in silicon over China - companies like Nvidia with their GPUs and Google with their TPUs can afford to accelerate into the storm.

Others will surely fail, and spectacularly so, affecting markets, consumer sentiment and the world economy. The physical footprint left behind, however, containing sheer computing firepower for the deployment of mass AI technologies, will inevitably shape our economy and could well also shape how we work and learn - and who dominates the world for the rest of the 21st Century.

BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. You can now sign up for notifications that will alert you whenever an InDepth story is published - click here to find out how.

The death of an Oasis fan who fell from height at a concert at Wembley Stadium was a "tragic accident", a pre-inquest review has heard.

Lee Claydon, 45, from Bournemouth and known to his family by his middle name Clive, fell from an upper level at the end of the show on 2 August.

At Barnet Coroner's Court, Det Sgt James Raffin, of the Metropolitan Police, told the hearing it was no longer being treated as a criminal case.

"We do not suspect any third party involvement," he said. "This, from everything we have seen, was a tragic accident."

Mr Claydon had been drinking but a toxicology report revealed "no concerns", the officer told the court.

He said the force had also ruled out the possibility of suicide.

Det Sgt Raffin added: "From a police point of view, I would say our investigation is complete."

The officer said he was aware the family had concerns over the "circumstances on the night" and that he would pass these on to officials at Brent Council.

The father of three was pronounced dead at a Wembley medical centre at 22:38 BST, an initial hearing in September was told.

The preliminary cause of death was given as "multiple bodily injuries".

The fall happened during a run of stadium shows for the rock band's sell-out Live '25 reunion tour - their first since splitting in 2009.

Oasis previously said in a statement: "We are shocked and saddened to hear of the tragic death of a fan at the show."

Mr Claydon's father, Clive, paid a tribute to his son, describing him as a "lovely bloke" and a "hard-working family man".

Senior Coroner Andrew Walker said the full inquest would take place on 26 February.

Weather warnings for snow and ice have been issued across much of the UK.

Here are some tips for coping with low temperatures.

How can I keep my baby warm?

Babies and young children under five are more at risk in cold weather.

While outside, the NHS advises that babies and children should wear several layers of clothes to keep warm, including a hat and mittens to stop heat loss.

In the car, for safety reasons, you should keep thick jumpers and coats to a minimum, so there is not too much padding between your child and the car seat straps.

If necessary, you can lay a blanket on top of your child once they are safely strapped in.

Remove any hats, gloves and extra layers when you come back inside.

NHS guidance says babies do not need hot rooms at night - a room temperature of between 16-20C (61-68F) is ideal. Overheating is one of the potential causes of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

A sleepsuit and either a sleeping bag or a sheet and/or blanket should be fine.

If you're using a sleeping bag and feel like your baby is cold, you should add an extra layer of clothing - but not extra blankets.

If you are using sheets and/or blankets rather than a sleeping bag, you should use lightweight cellular blankets. Avoid thick, fleecy or padded blankets.

How can I avoid winter infections?

Cases of flu and norovirus - the winter vomiting bug - typically rise at this time of year, and Covid is still around too.

When it is cold outside, people tend to spend more time indoors, where it can be easier to catch an infection.

For example, coughs and sneezes in an enclosed space with little or no ventilation (windows closed, doors shut) can quickly spread illnesses from person to person.

Opening windows where possible and practising good hygiene - using and then binning a tissue for coughs and sneezes and washing your hands - can help prevent this.

Those who are eligible for the Covid winter booster jab can get it until 31 January 2026. Some groups can also get a free flu vaccine.

Anyone who does not qualify for an NHS vaccine can pay to have either or both jabs privately from a local pharmacy.

How can I keep my pet safe and warm?

Like humans, animals can be at risk of hypothermia if they become too cold.

Veterinary charity PDSA advises giving dogs and cats extra blankets for their beds over the winter months. Raised beds can keep older dogs away from draughts, while cats may like high-up dens.

The charity also recommends extra playtime for pets to make sure they keep active if they are spending less time outside. Indoor toys can help.

Consider keeping cats inside overnight and provide an indoor litter tray.

A sudden drop in temperature can also have a big impact on outside pets, such as rabbits and guinea pigs. They should be given extra bedding for warmth and, if possible, moved to a more sheltered space or even brought inside.

But you should make sure they have enough indoor space to exercise safely.

Can I walk my dog in cold weather?

Dogs still need walks during cold weather. Usually, their fur will keep them warm.

But the RSPCA advises buying a winter coat or jumper for sick or elderly dogs, or those with thinner fur.

Walk your dog during the day if you can, or consider using LED collars or hi-vis leads if you have to go out in the dark.

Be cautious when letting dogs off the lead in the snow, and supervise them closely as hazards may be hidden. Frozen water may not bear their weight.

If you can, take shorter, more frequent walks rather than one long daily hike.

If your dog gets wet, make sure you dry them off with a towel as soon as you get home and check their paws for salt, grit, dirt or snow.

• How to look after dogs, cats and other animals in cold weather

How can I dry clothes more cheaply?

Drying clothes on radiators is a common practice in the winter.

But it can mean turning on heating in parts of the home you are not using. It may also risk making your home damp, which can cause mould.

One option is to use a dehumidifier, which takes water out of the air. Some have laundry settings and can be run for several hours next to wet clothes on a drying rack.

The financial journalist Martin Lewis has previously pointed out on his BBC podcast that running a dehumidifier is generally "far, far cheaper" than putting on the heating in a room.

What's the best way to de-ice your car?

Many drivers waking up to freezing temperatures have to de-ice their cars.

But motorists are warned not to use boiling water from a kettle - hot water can crack the glass and the water will only freeze again on the screen or on the ground.

Instead, the AA recommends turning on the engine - ensuring the wipers are off to avoid damage - and directing warm air to the windscreen.

You should also turn on your rear windscreen heater, and use air-con if you have it to ensure your windows don't fog up.

The next step is to clear any snow with a soft brush, before using a scraper and liquid de-icer.

• How to drive in snow and icy weather

How can you use plug-in heaters and electric blankets safely?

Portable heaters can be an alternative to switching on your central heating, but they can pose a serious fire hazard if not used carefully.

Firefighters and safety managers from the Electrical Safety First charity say you should place your heater on a flat surface to ensure it will not fall over.

It should be at least 3ft (1m) away from anything flammable. You should not let curtains, clothes, blankets, duvets or armchairs lean against it.

You should not use your heater to dry your washing, or leave it unattended for long periods of time, or overnight.

Experts also warn against plugging heaters into extension leads, as this could cause a fire.

Leaving electric blankets or heated throws on for too long can also be dangerous, so use the timer function.

You should not use any kind of electric blanket at all if any of the heating wires are visible, there is damage to the power cord or control unit, or it gives off a smell when switched on.

Using gas heaters also carries the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning, so you should ensure you have a working carbon monoxide alarm in the same room.

A Russian spy ship is on the edge of UK waters north of Scotland and has pointed lasers to distract pilots of surveillance aircraft monitoring its activities, the defence secretary has said.

Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, John Healey said it was the second time in a year that the Yantar had entered UK waters.

The ship is "designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables", Healey told journalists.

"My message to Russia and to Putin is this: we see you. We know what you're doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready," he added.

Giving more details on the vessel, Healey said: "It is part of a Russian fleet designed to put and hold our undersea infrastructure and those of our allies at risk.

"It isn't just a naval operation. It's part of a Russian programme driven by what they call the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, and this is designed to have capabilities which can undertake surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in conflict.

"That is why we've been determined, whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it and we say to Putin we are ready, and we do that alongside allies."

He said this was a demonstration of Britain's capability and "readiness to act".

The defence secretary issued a warning in January about the ship after it was spotted in UK waters.

Serial rapist and former Metropolitan Police officer David Carrick has been found guilty of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl and a former partner.

The 50-year-old, who has already been jailed for life, has been convicted of molesting the girl in the late-1990s and raping the woman during a relationship more than 20 years later.

Jurors at the Old Bailey found him guilty of nine offences.

Carrick, from Stevenage, is already serving a minimum term of 32 years in prison, having admitted 71 offences of sexual violence committed over a 17-year period.

He is due to be sentenced this afternoon. The court has risen for a short break.

Carrick, wearing a suit and tie, shook his head repeatedly in the dock as the verdicts were read out.

The jury found him unanimously guilty of the following offences:

• Five counts of indecent assault against a girl under 16 between April 1989 and August 1990
• Two counts of rape against a woman, once between December 2014 and April 2016 then between January and December 2019
• Sexual assault against the same woman between January and December 2019
• Coercive and controlling behaviour in relation to the same woman between 2016 and 2019

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

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

Action is needed now to reduce ultra-processed food (UPF) in diets worldwide because of their threat to health, say international experts in a global review of research.

They say the way we eat is changing - with a move away from fresh, whole foods to cheap, highly-processed meals - which is increasing our risk of a range of chronic diseases, including obesity and depression.

Writing in The Lancet, the researchers say governments need "to step up" and introduce warnings and higher taxes on UPF products, to help fund access to more nutritious foods.

However some scientists say this review can not prove that UPFs directly cause health harms and more research and trials are needed to show that.

Ultra-processed foods are defined as containing more than five ingredients which you would not find at home in your kitchen cupboard, such as emulsifiers, preservatives, additives, dyes and sweeteners.

Examples of UPFs include sausages, crisps, pastries, biscuits, instant soups, fizzy drinks, ice cream and supermarket bread.

Surveys indicate these industrially-manufactured foods are on the rise in diets around the world, worsening the quality of what we eat with too much sugar and unhealthy fats and a lack of fibre and protein.

This review of evidence on the impact of UPFs on health, carried out by 43 global experts and based on 104 long-term studies, suggests these foods are linked to a greater risk of 12 health conditions.

These include type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, depression and dying prematurely from any cause.

Review author Prof Carlos Monteiro, from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, who set up the Nova classification system for categorising food, said the growing consumption of ultra-processed foods "is reshaping diets worldwide, displacing fresh and minimally processed foods and meals".

"This change in what people eat is fuelled by powerful global corporations who generate huge profits by prioritising ultra-processed products, supported by extensive marketing and political lobbying to stop effective public health policies to support healthy eating," he added.

Co-author Dr Phillip Baker, from the University of Sydney, said the answer was "a strong global public health response - like the coordinated efforts to challenge the tobacco industry".

The review acknowledges a lack of clinical trials showing exactly how UPFs damage health - but says that should not delay action to protect people worldwide from potential health harms.

Some scientists have commented that it is difficult to untangle the effects of UPFs in people's diets from other factors in people's lives, such as lifestyle, behaviour and wealth.

Critics of the Nova classification system say it relies too much on the level of processing in foods, and not on how nutritious that particular food is. For example, wholegrain bread, breakfast cereals, low-fat yoghurts, baby formula milk and fish fingers all count as ultra-processed but have lots of good in them.

Prof Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said: "A study like this can find a correlation, but it can't be certain about cause and effect."

He said there was still "room for doubt and for clarification from further research".

"It seems to me likely that at least some UPFs could cause increases in the risk of some chronic diseases. But this certainly doesn't establish that all UPFs increase disease risk."

It is still not clear what it is about ultra-processed foods that could be causing or contributing to diseases.

Prof Jules Griffin, from the University of Aberdeen, said there were some positive sides to food processing, and more research to understand how it influences our health was "urgently needed".

The Food and Drink Federation says UPFs can form part of a balanced diet, like frozen peas and wholemeal bread.

"Companies have been making a series of changes over many years to make the food and drink we all buy healthier, in line with government guidelines," says Kate Halliwell, chief scientific officer at the Food and Drink Federation, which represents industry.

The amount of sugar and salt in products on sale in shops and supermarkets has gone down by a third since 2015, she added.

Current UK government advice on diet is to eat more fruit, vegetables and fibre, and cut back on sugar, fat and salt.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the government's Budget is unravelling before it has even been delivered, after the chancellor backed away from raising income tax rates.

The government had given strong indications it was planning to increase the tax - which would break an election pledge - but last week government sources said Rachel Reeves had decided against the move after better-than-expected economic forecasts.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Badenoch pressed Sir Keir Starmer over whether the government would "break another promise" instead by freezing income tax thresholds.

The PM refused to rule this out, saying the chancellor would set out her plans in next week's Budget.

Describing the situation as a "shambles", Badenoch accused the government of floating the idea of increasing income tax rates only to "U-turn".

"This is the first Budget to unravel before it's even been delivered," she told the House of Commons.

"The chancellor's cluelessness, I'm afraid, is damaging the economy now."

Badenoch also highlighted comments from the chancellor in her Budget last year, when Reeves said: "I am keeping every single promise on tax that I made in our manifesto", and said she would not extend the freeze on income tax and National Insurance thresholds because this "would hurt working people".

The Tory leader asked the PM to confirm the government would not break this promise and continue the freeze on income tax thresholds.

But Sir Keir dodged the question, only saying the Budget would focus on cutting NHS waiting lists, debt and the cost-of-living.

"What we won't do is inflict austerity on the country as they did. What we won't do is inflict a borrowing spree like [Conservative prime minister] Liz Truss did," he added.

In response, Badenoch said it was "quite clear" the government was planning to freeze thresholds.

"If [the chancellor] breaks such a clear promise, how can the public trust a word that she says next week?"

Reeves will deliver her Budget in the House of Commons on 26 November, and Badenoch will give the immediate response for the opposition.

In Labour's 2024 general election manifesto, the party promised it would "not increase taxes on working people, which is why we will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher or additional rates of income tax, or VAT".

The freeze on income tax thresholds was introduced under the Conservatives in April 2023 and is due to expire in 2028.

While an extension of the freeze would not break the strict letter of the manifesto promise, it would mean some people's tax bills go up.

This is because more people would be dragged into a higher tax band, or have to pay tax on their income for the first time, if they get a pay rise.

In the months running up to the Budget, ministers had repeatedly given strong indications that income tax rates would go up.

As recently as last week, Reeves had told the BBC sticking to Labour's manifesto commitments would require "deep cuts in capital spending".

In October, Sir Keir had declined to repeat his previous promises not to increase key taxes during Prime Minister's Questions.

However, last Friday it emerged that Reeves had decided not to go ahead with the move, after estimates suggested a gap in the public finances was £10bn smaller than previously thought.

Ahead of every Budget, the chancellor submits their plans to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which then make forecasts on whether the government will spend more money than it raises and whether the economy will grow or shrink.

A proposal to increase income tax rates by 2p, while cutting National Insurance by the same amount, was sent to the OBR as an option earlier this month to be costed, to help fill what was then a £30bn gap in the public finances.

Newer assessments from the OBR appear to have increased the projected strength of wages and tax receipts in the coming years and offset several billion pounds of that gap, taking it closer to £20bn.

Many Labour MPs were also nervous about breaking an election promise, which would have influenced the chancellor's decision.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to read top political analysis, gain insight from across the UK and stay up to speed with the big moments. It'll be delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

Walking around your local supermarket and you'll struggle to find much that's healthy for your finances on the shelves - food price rises are accelerating.

The cost of the weekly shop is, and will continue to be, a worry for millions of people.

Beyond just food, prices of goods and services in general are going up, but the rate of those price rises have slowed.

And that is likely to bring better news for the cost of borrowing, in particular mortgage rates for homeowners and first-time buyers.

Are prices going up or down?

Prices pretty much always rise. Official statistics chart the movement in the cost of hundreds of goods and services in the UK.

It is the rate of increase that is crucial, and that inflation rate is published every month by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

On Wednesday, the ONS said the rate of inflation had fallen to 3.6%, which means prices are rising more slowly than they were and will foster hope that inflation has peaked.

Delve a little further into the data, and there are more details about what is behind the latest trends.

For example, fish, vegetables, chocolate and confectionary were among the products that rose in price, although fruit prices fell slightly.

Recent research by the Bank of England found that people on average are still buying the same amount of food, but paying more for it. That said, they are changing the way they shop.

"Concerns about rising food costs and utility bills still dominate conversations," it said.

"Households continue to change their shopping habits to reduce spending, such as buying more vegetables and reducing meat consumption."

"Staples like bread, meat and potatoes all cost more than they did even a month ago," says Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at investment platform AJ Bell.

But she does point to a silver lining - the dip in the inflation rate means the Bank of England is now more likely to cut interest rates in December.

The Bank uses its benchmark interest rate - which heavily influences the cost of borrowing for households and businesses - to try to bring inflation to its target rate of 2%.

"Inflation remains well above the Band of England's happy place of 2%," says Alice Haine, personal finance analyst at Bestinvest.

But, she says, the latest figures could pave the way for a sixth interest rate cut since August last year.

The prospect of an interest rate cut has seen lenders make changes already. In recent weeks, many major lenders have lowered their rates for people getting a new fixed-rate mortgage or renewing their current one.

"There has been particular emphasis placed on rates for home movers with some of the best rates available for purchases," says David Hollingworth, of mortgage brokers L&C.

Data from the financial information service Moneyfacts shows that the average rate on a new two-year fixed deal has fallen to 4.88%, and is down to 4.93% for the average five-year fixed deal.

Average rates for those only able to put down a deposit of 5% or 10% - often first-time buyers - are now looking lower than they have been at any time in the last two or three years.

Why are lenders cutting rates now?

Inflation is only one factor in lenders' decisions to cut mortgage rates now.

Generally, Christmas is a quiet time for the housing market as potential buyers and sellers concentrate on turkey and trimmings instead.

So, they may be lowering rates in a bid to stimulate custom.

The same cannot be said for savings rates. "Competition has been scarce," says Caitlyn Eastell, from Moneyfacts.

That is compounded by the fact that many of those buyers, sellers and savers have put plans on hold until they find out what happens in the Budget delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves on 26 November.

The Budget looms large over the housing market, with talk of taxation on high value properties, as well as over economic activity in general.

Reeves wants to introduce measures to lower the rate of inflation, and help people with the cost of living. However, she also needs to bring in more money or cut government spending to meet her own fiscal rules.

It is a delicate balancing act that will affect individual and family finances, affecting the money people have to spend in the supermarket and the appetite they have to save, as well as buy or sell a home.

A British woman is among five people who have died in a snowstorm in Chilean Patagonia.

Victoria Bond, a public relations consultant from Cornwall, was named by authorities in Chile as among those killed in the tourist hotspot of Torres del Paine National Park, in the south of the country.

Along with Ms Bond, two German and two Mexican citizens died in the snowstorm, according to Jose Antonio Ruiz, the presidential delegate of the Magallanes region of southern Chile. Their bodies were found on Tuesday.

Visit Isles of Scilly chairman Andrew Sells said the organisation was "utterly devastated" by Ms Bond's death.

Visit Isles of Scilly said Ms Bond had headed up its public relations for more than six years and was on a "trip of lifetime" with friends in Argentina and Chile.

She was out hiking when she became trapped in the storm, the organisation said.

Mr Sells said she had "worked tirelessly" in her role to promote the islands, 28 miles off the Cornish coast, and was an "integral part" of the team.

He said: "She was always a joy to work with, and I cannot praise her work too highly. She is an enormous loss to the community."

Euan Rodger, executive vice-chairman of Visit Isles of Scilly, said the organisation was "heartbroken".

"She brought life, energy, and an infectious enthusiasm to every project, making her a true joy to work alongside," he said.

'Leaves a huge hole'

Adrian Jones, who worked with Ms Bond promoting the Roseland Festival in Cornwall, paid tribute to her as "lovable, witty and creative".

"She was a doer... she had ideas and she saw them through," he said.

"She will leave a huge hole in Portscatho... she lived in Newquay but she spent a lot of the time in Portscatho."

He described her as adventurous.

"Unbelievably sad as it may seem, she was doing what she lived life for," he said.

'Intense' snowfall

Chilean officials said the search for victims had ended and the focus was now on repatriating the bodies and liaising with foreign consulates.

Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font paid tribute to search and rescue teams who worked in "intense" snowfall and winds reaching speeds of up to 118mph (190km/h).

He said in a post on X: "To the families, friends, and loved ones of the five individuals of Mexican, German, and British nationalities who tragically lost their lives in the incident that occurred in Torres del Paine, I extend my deepest condolences.

"Know that you have the full support and collaboration of Chilean authorities and institutions during these difficult times."

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: "We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died following an incident in Chile and are in contact with the local authorities."

Follow BBC Cornwall on X, Facebook and Instagram. Send your story ideas to spotlight@bbc.co.uk.

Nine people have been killed in Russian strikes on Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

Russia launched more than 470 drones and 47 missiles in the "brazen attack", he wrote in a post on Telegram.

Three districts of Ukraine's second city, Kharkiv, were hit by a massive drone attack which injured more than 30 people, including children. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

Power cuts are affecting a number of regions across the country, Ukraine's energy ministry said.

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

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

The time it takes to bring shoplifters to justice is "unacceptable" with retailers waiting longer for criminals to face punishment compared with a decade ago, the BBC has learned.

In one case, stores targeted by a thief waited up to 10 months for a shoplifter to be sentenced, despite retail workers piecing together her identity without help from the police.

Chelsea Strange, 33, went on a three-week crime spree stealing £2,000 worth of Jellycat soft toys from four different stores across the south west of England and one in Wales - which she later sold on Vinted.

Figures obtained by the BBC show the average time it takes for a shoplifting case to be dealt with from offence to completion in a magistrates' court in England and Wales has risen by more than 80% in the last 10 years – from 32 days in 2014 to 59 days in 2024.

Trade bodies representing retailers have said many stores have been left frustrated with the way shoplifters are dealt with. They say the time taken reduces shopkeepers' faith in the justice system - making them feel there's no point in reporting crimes.

"The delays in bringing perpetrators to court really does add insult to injury," said Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association.

"It is no surprise many small shop owners simply do not bother reporting the crime in the first place. In their minds it makes no difference."

The BBC has looked at a series of shoplifting cases which highlight how shops have been left waiting months for thieves to be brought to justice.

We followed the Jellycat shoplifting case since December 2024, when we reported how a garden centre owner in Bridport, Dorset, had managed to piece together the thief's identity by scouring resale websites, deciphering her car's personalised number plate, and finding her Facebook profile.

Austins department store in Newton Abbot, Devon, was also targeted by Strange on three separate occasions – and staff said they too were able to figure out who she was.

Head of security Tom Hirst described the time taken to deal with shoplifters as "unacceptable" and said the criminal justice system is "too easy on them".

"You're better off shoplifting than going to work, that's my honest view," he added.

"Every time someone comes in and steals something, that cost gets passed on… it puts the price up so we're all paying."

In July, Strange, from Felton, Bristol, was sentenced to a 12-month community order at Newton Abbot Magistrates Court after admitting stealing from five shops across Devon, Somerset, Dorset and South Wales in September and October last year.

She was also ordered to pay nearly £1,800 in compensation.

Strange's defence team said the offences were out of character and would not have taken place if it had not been for her poor mental health.

​​Fiona Malone, who runs a Post Office in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, also told the BBC she had to wait five months for a shoplifter who stole from her store to face sentencing – despite catching the thief red-handed.

The shopkeeper confronted Natalie Lintern after security cameras captured her stealing pre-mixed vodka cans, sandwiches and cake from the store in August last year.

Mrs Malone chased the 36-year-old down the street and got the stolen items back before reporting it to the police.

"The whole criminal justice system is too slow, it's bureaucratic," she told the BBC.

"We need to deal with these people and deal with them quickly and think about alternative punishments to stop them doing it in the first place."

In January, Lintern, from Pembroke, Pembrokeshire, was given a 12-month community order after pleading guilty to stealing from Tenby Post Office and four other stores between April and September 2024.

But the sentence did not stop her from shoplifting again.

Six months later, she was back in court again where she admitted stealing from a service station in May.

She was given six weeks in jail, suspended for 12 months.

"What we're doing as a society, it's not working," said Mrs Malone.

"It's like whatever punishment she got it was almost like 'Oh never mind I'll just go out and do it again'."

The most serious shop thefts can end up being heard at crown court where figures show the average time from the offence to cases being completed has increased from 111 days in 2016 to 128 days in 2024.

Shoplifter Bianca Mirica appeared in crown court after stealing more than £105,000 worth of goods from high street chain Boots between December 2023 and May 2024.

The 20-year-old, from Tottenham, London, was part of a shoplifting gang and would clear shelves of cosmetics and perfumes while another member of her team acted as look-out, according to police.

It took 14 months from her last theft before she was sentenced to 32 months in a young offenders' institution, after pleading guilty to 18 charges of theft.

Shoplifting has increased by 13% in the last year with 529,994 shoplifting offences recorded by police in England and Wales up to June 2025, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

However, the ONS said there are signs that increasing rates of shops thefts being reported are now slowing.

The crime adds an estimated £133 onto the cost of an average UK household's shopping bill each year, according to the Centre for Retail Research.

The government told the BBC it understood the "devastating impact" of shop theft on retailers and it was clear many cases were taking too long to be resolved, adding: "Justice delayed is justice denied."

It said it is backing the courts with record funding and considering recommendations for long term structural reform of the system.

The National Police Chiefs Council said it had strengthened its relationship with retailers and improved information sharing in the last two years - which had resulted in a number of offenders being brought to justice.

Assistant Chief Constable Alex Goss said it planned to bring together police, shops and the security industry to make best use of their resources and "turn the tide on the volume of offending blighting our communities".

Google's ultra-private CEO Sundar Pichai is showing me around Googleplex, its California headquarters. A walkway runs along the length of it, passing by a giant dinosaur skeleton, a beach volleyball pitch and dozens of Googlers lunching under the hazy November sun.

But it's a laboratory, hidden away at the back of the campus behind some trees, that he is most excited to show me.

This is where the invention that Google believes is its secret weapon is being developed.

Known as a Tensor Processing Unit (or TPU), it looks like an unassuming little chip but, says Mr Pichai, it will one day power every AI query that goes through Google. This makes it potentially one of the most important objects in the world economy right now.

"AI is the most profound technology humanity [has ever worked] on," he insists. "It has potential for extraordinary benefits - we will have to work through societal disruptions."

But the confusing question lingering over the AI hype is whether it is a bubble at risk of bursting - as, if so, it may well be a spectacular burst akin to the dotcom crash at the start of the century, with consequences for us all.

The Bank of England has already warned of a "sudden correction" in global financial markets, saying "market valuations appear stretched" for tech AI firms. Meanwhile. OpenAI boss Sam Altman has speculated that "there are many parts of AI that I think are kind of bubbly right now".

Asked whether Google would be immune from a potential bubble burst, Mr Pichai said it could weather that potential storm - but for all his starry-eyed excitement around the possibilities of AI, he also issued a warning: "I think no company is going to be immune, including us."

So why, then, is Google investing more than $90bn a year in the AI build-out, a three-fold increase in just four years, at the very moment these suggestions are being discussed?

The big AI surge - and the big risk

The AI surge - of which Google is just one part - is, in cash terms, the biggest market boom the world has seen.

Its numbers are extraordinary - there is $15 trillion of market value at Google and four other tech giants whose headquarters are all within a short drive of one another.

Chipmaker turned AI systems pioneer Nvidia in Santa Clara is now worth more than $5 trillion. A 10-minute drive south, in Cupertino, is Apple HQ, hovering around $4 trillion; while 15 minutes west is $1.9 trillion Meta (previously Facebook). And in the centre of San Francisco, OpenAI was recently valued at $500bn.

The purely financial consequences of this trend are significant enough.

The value of the shares in these companies (and a few others outside Silicon Valley, such as Microsoft in Seattle) have helped cushion the US economy from the impact of trade wars, and kept retirement plans and investments buoyant - and not just in the US.

Yet it comes with a big risk. That is, the incredible dependence of US stock market growth on the performance of a handful of tech giants. The Magnificent 7 - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla - collectively comprise one third of the valuation of America's entire S&P 500.

And that market value is now more highly concentrated in a few firms than it was during the dotcom bubble in 1999, according to the IMF.

Mr Pichai points out that every decade or so come these "inflection points": the personal computer, then the internet in the late 1990s, followed by mobile and cloud. "Now it's clearly the era of Artificial Intelligence."

But as for the big question - is it a bubble?

Mr Pichai argues there are two ways of thinking about it. First, there is "palpably exciting" progress of services that people and companies are using.

But he concedes: "It's also true when we go through these investment cycles, there are moments we overshoot collectively as an industry…

"So I think it's both rational and there are elements of irrationality through a moment like this."

Now, a distinction is emerging in the markets between those businesses that rely on often borrowed money and complicated deals to access the chips that power their AI, and the biggest tech companies, such as Google, Microsoft and Amazon, which can fund investment in chips and data from their own pockets.

Which brings us to Google's own silicon chips, or their prized TPUs.

'Restricted': inside the silicon chip lab

The lab, where they are tested, is the size of a five-a-side football pitch with a mesh of multi-coloured wires and deep blue blinking lights. Signs all around read: "restricted".

What's striking is the sheer noise - this is down to the cooling systems, which are needed to help control the temperature of the chips, which can get incredibly hot when crunching trillions of calculations.

The TPUs are designed to help power AI machines. And they work differently from other types of chips.

The CPU (central processing unit) is the primary component of a computer - essentially its brain - that performs most of the processing and control functions, while GPUs (graphics processing units) perform more specialised processing, executing many parallel tasks at once - this can include AI.

However Asics (application-specific integrated circuits), are chips custom-built for a specific purpose, for example, a specific AI algorithm. And the TPU is a specialist Google-designed type of Asic.

A core aspect of the AI boom has been the mad dash to amass lots of top-performing chips and put them into data centres (or the physical facilities that store, process and run large amounts of data and software).

Nvidia's boss Jensen Huang once coined the term "AI factories" to describe the massive data centres full of pods and racks of super chips, connected to huge energy and cooling systems.

(Tech bosses such as Mark Zuckerberg have referred to some being the size of Manhattan. The Google TPU lab is somewhat more modest, testing out the technology for deployment elsewhere.)

Stories abound of tech bros begging chip makers for hundreds of thousands of these highly engineered pieces of silicon. Take the recent dinner at Nobu in Palo Alto, where Elon Musk and Larry Ellison, the founder and head of Oracle, tried to woo Nvidia's Jensen Huang, to sell them more of them.

As Mr Ellison put it: "I would describe the dinner as me and Elon begging Jensen for GPUs. Please take our money - no, no take more. You're not taking enough. We need you to take more, please!"

It is precisely the race to access the power of as many as possible of these high performance chips, and to scale them up into massive data centres, that is driving an AI boom - and there's a perception that the only way to win is to keep spending.

The chips race - and the OpenAI storm

The terrace of the Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, a sprawling 16-acre estate near the Santa Cruz mountains that serves crab rolls and $35 signature vodka martinis, is where the big Silicon Valley deal-making gets done. It's close to Stanford University and Meta's HQ, as well as the headquarters of major venture capital firms.

There are whispered rumours about who will be next to announce customised AI chips - Asics - to compete with Google and Nvidia.

Just before I visited, something of a storm was brewing about the investment plans of OpenAI, which Elon Musk co-founded.

The firm, which started as a not-for-profit but has since established a commercial structure, has been the focus of a web of cross-investments involving buying up chips and other computer hardware needed for AI processing.

Few in the industry doubt OpenAI's phenomenal user growth - in particular the popularity of its chatbot, ChatGPT. It has ambitions to design its own custom AI chips, but some have speculated about whether it might need government support to achieve this.

In a podcast episode that aired last month, an OpenAI investor questioned how the company's spending commitments tallied with its revenues, to which co-founder Sam Altman shot back, challenging the revenue figures quoted, and adding: "If you want to sell your shares, I'll find you a buyer. Enough."

He has since shared a lengthy post on X, explaining, among other things, that OpenAI is looking at commitments of about $1.4 trillion over the next eight years and why he believes now is the time to invest in scaling up their technology.

"I do not think the government should be writing insurance policies for AI companies," he said.

But he also said: "What we do think might make sense is governments building (and owning) their own AI infrastructure."

Elsewhere, there have been notable very recent falls in share prices of AI infrastructure companies - Coreweave, a start-up that supplies OpenAI, saw its shares lose 26% of their value earlier this month.

Plus, there have been some reactions in markets for perceived credit risk among other firms. And while most of these tech share prices have generally climbed higher over the course of 2025, there has been a mild dip more generally in the past few days.

ChatGPT versus Gemini 3.0

None of this has dampened the excitement over AI's potential within the industry. Google's consumer AI model, Gemini 3.0, launched to great fanfare earlier this week — this will pitch Google in a direct battle with OpenAI and its still-dominant ChatGPT for the market share.

What we don't yet know is whether it marks an end to the days of chatbots going rogue and recommending glue as a pizza ingredient. So, is the end result of all this fantastic investment is that information is less reliable, I asked Mr Pichai.

"I think if you only construct systems standalone and you only rely on that, [that] would be true," he told me. "Which is why I think we have to make the information ecosystem has to be much richer than just having AI technology being the sole product in it."

But I put it to him that truth matters. His response: "truth matters".

Nor is the other big question facing tech today dampening the enthusiasm around advancing AI's potential. That is: how on Earth to power it?

By 2030, data centres around the world will use about as much electricity as India did in 2023, according to the IMF. Yet this is also an age where energy supply is under pressure by governments committing to climate change targets.

I put this to Google's Mr Pichai, asking if it is coherent to have ambitions to generate 95% of electricity from low-carbon sources by 2030 - as the UK government does - and also be an AI superpower?

"I think it's possible. But I think for every government, including the UK, it's important to figure out how to scale up infrastructure, including energy infrastructure.

"You don't want to constrain an economy based on energy," he adds. "I think that will have consequences."

Lessons from the 2000 dotcom bust

Years ago, as a fledgling reporter I cut my teeth in the 2000 dotcom bubble. It followed a famous speech by Federal Reserve Governor Alan Greenspan about "irrational exuberance".

In that time I interviewed Steve Jobs twice, and a few years later questioned Mr Pichai's predecessor Larry Page, and commentated live on the collapse of WorldOfFruit.com.

Through it all, one lesson became clear: that even in the worst-case scenarios and the toughest of crashes, catastrophe isn't guaranteed for all.

Take Amazon - its share price slumped to $6 and its market capitalisation fell to $4bn during that crash, yet some 25 years on Jeff Bezos and his company are very much going strong. Today Amazon is worth $2.4 trillion.

The same would, inevitably, be true of companies shaken by a potential AI bubble burst.

Plus there is another looming factor that may well explain why so many in Silicon Valley - and beyond - are blind to, or perhaps choosing not to, acknowledge this risk, and pushing on regardless.

That is, the attraction of the glittering prize at the end: achieving artificial general intelligence (AGI).

This is the point at which machines match human intelligence, something many believe is within reach. Or beyond that, reaching artificial super-intelligence (ASI), the point at which machines surpass our intelligence.

But I was also told something else that was thought-provoking by a Silicon Valley figure - that it doesn't matter whether there really is a bubble or if it bursts. Step back and what is going on in the bigger picture is a global battle for AI supremacy, with the US against China taking centre stage.

And while Beijing funds these developments centrally, in the US it is a messy but productive free market free for all, which means trial and error on an epic scale.

For now, the US has superiority in silicon over China - companies like Nvidia with their GPUs and Google with their TPUs can afford to accelerate into the storm.

Others will surely fail, and spectacularly so, affecting markets, consumer sentiment and the world economy. The physical footprint left behind, however, containing sheer computing firepower for the deployment of mass AI technologies, will inevitably shape our economy and could well also shape how we work and learn - and who dominates the world for the rest of the 21st Century.

BBC InDepth is the home on the website and app for the best analysis, with fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions and deep reporting on the biggest issues of the day. You can now sign up for notifications that will alert you whenever an InDepth story is published - click here to find out how.

A Russian spy ship is on the edge of UK waters north of Scotland and has pointed lasers to distract pilots of surveillance aircraft monitoring its activities, the defence secretary has said.

Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street, John Healey said it was the second time in a year that the Yantar had entered UK waters.

The ship is "designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables", Healey told journalists.

"My message to Russia and to Putin is this: we see you. We know what you're doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready," he added.

Giving more details on the vessel, Healey said: "It is part of a Russian fleet designed to put and hold our undersea infrastructure and those of our allies at risk.

"It isn't just a naval operation. It's part of a Russian programme driven by what they call the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, or GUGI, and this is designed to have capabilities which can undertake surveillance in peacetime and sabotage in conflict.

"That is why we've been determined, whenever the Yantar comes into British wider waters, we track it, we deter it and we say to Putin we are ready, and we do that alongside allies."

He said this was a demonstration of Britain's capability and "readiness to act".

The defence secretary issued a warning in January about the ship after it was spotted in UK waters.