The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is facing pushback for what some have called "draconian" restrictions as it tries to limit wildfire risk in extremely dry conditions.

Last week, Nova Scotia banned all hiking, fishing and use of vehicles like ATVs in wooded areas, with rule breakers facing a C$25,000 ($18,000) fine. A tip line has been set up to report violations.

The Canadian Constitution Foundation, a non-profit that defends charter rights in the country, called the ban a "dangerous example of 'safetyism' and creeping authoritarianism".

Tens of thousands of residents are under evacuation alerts in eastern Canada as the country experiences its second worst wildfire season on record.

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says human activity is responsible for almost all wildfires in the Atlantic province - official statistics from 2009 say 97% of such blazes are caused by people.

On Wednesday, he defended the ban, which was announced last week, calling the province a "tinder box" that has not seen any rain since June.

"I get that people want to go for a hike or want to go for a walk in the woods with their dog," Houston said during a wildfire update with officials.

"But how would you like to be stuck in the woods while there's a fire burning around you?"

He said the restrictions will be loosened once enough rain falls to mitigate the risk.

"In the meantime go to the beach," he added.

Houston confirmed that 12 people have been fined so far for violating the ban.

"It's certainly my hope that every single one of those is fully prosecuted and collected," said the premier. "It's just too serious of a situation by now."

One of those penalised is military veteran Jeff Evely.

On Friday, Mr Evely posted a video on Facebook of himself going to a Department of Natural Resources office saying he wanted to challenge the ban in court, and "the only way for me to do that is to get the fine".

"I'm not trying to make trouble for you guys," Mr Evely, who ran as a candidate for the People's Party of Canada in April's federal election, is heard telling an official.

He is later seen walking into the woods, before going back to the office where he is fined C$28,872.50.

Others defend the restrictions as a needed precaution since the province has seen two fires a day for the last week on average.

Stephen Maher, a political journalist who lives in rural Nova Scotia, argued in an opinion piece for the Globe and Mail newspaper that there is little chance his run in the woods would have sparked a fire.

He added, "but fires are mostly caused by dimwitted and careless people, and there is no way of separating them from their careful neighbours, so the ban is necessary".

In a separate blog post, former Conservative Party campaign manager Fred DeLorey said that given the lack of rain, "when the provincial government announced a temporary ban on travelling in the woods due to extreme fire risk, I didn't complain. I exhaled".

Officials fear a repeat of 2023, the worst-ever fire season in Canada and in Nova Scotia, when 220 fires razed more than 25,000 hectares of land in the province.

The province of New Brunswick has brought in similar restrictions, barring use of public land.

On Wednesday, the province of Newfoundland and Labrador banned off-road vehicles in forested areas until at least next week. It has brought in fines of up to C$150,000 for fire ban violations.

Canada's 2025 wildfire season is the second-worst on record, after 2023.

Fires happen naturally in many parts of the world and it's difficult to know if climate change has caused or worsened a specific wildfire because other factors are also relevant.

According to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, climate change is making the weather conditions needed for wildfires to spread more likely.

More than 470 blazes are currently "out of control", says the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

One is on the western outskirts of Halifax, the largest city in Nova Scotia, which continues to burn out of control.

In New Brunswick, Premier Susan Holt called it "a tale of two fires".

She said crews had made progress on one fire, but were having less success with another blaze near the community of Miramichi.

Military and coast guard units were deployed in Newfoundland and Labrador, while the worst fires were concentrated in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Three other provinces, British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, have also seen fire activity well above their 25-year average.

Hailed by some as a hero and scorned by others as a traitor, Hong Kong's pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is in the final stage of his national security trial.

Closing arguments begin on Thursday for Lai, who is accused of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

The trial has drawn international attention, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for Lai's release. The 77-year-old has British as well as Chinese citizenship - though China does not recognise dual nationality, and therefore considers Lai to be exclusively Chinese.

Lai has been detained since December 2020 and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if he is convicted.

Critics say Lai's case shows how Hong Kong's legal system has been weaponised to silence political opposition.

Lai has been a persistent thorn in China's side. Unlike other tycoons who rose to the top in Hong Kong, Mr Lai became one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating democracy in the former British territory.

"I'm a born rebel," he told the BBC in an interview in 2020, hours before he was charged. "I have a very rebellious character."

He is the most prominent person charged under the controversial national security law which China introduced in 2020, in response to massive protests which erupted in Hong Kong the year before.

The legislation criminalises a wider range of dissenting acts which Beijing considers subversion and secession, among other things.

Beijing says the national security law is necessary to maintain stability in Hong Kong but critics say it has effectively outlawed dissent.

Over the years, Lai's son Sebastien has called for his release. In February, the younger Lai urged Starmer and US President Donald Trump to take urgent action, adding that his father's "body is breaking down".

Rags to riches

Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to a wealthy family that lost everything when the communists took power in 1949.

He was 12 years old when he fled his village in mainland China, arriving in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat.

While working odd jobs and knitting in a small clothing shop he taught himself English. He went from a menial role to eventually founding a multi-million dollar empire including the international clothing brand Giordano.

The chain was a huge success. But when China sent in tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, Lai began a new journey as a vocal democracy activist as well as an entrepreneur.

He started writing columns criticising the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing and established a publishing house that went on to become one of Hong Kong's most influential.

As China responded by threatening to shut his stores on the mainland, leading him to sell the company, Lai launched a string of popular pro-democracy titles that included Next, a digital magazine, and the widely read Apple Daily newspaper.

In a local media landscape increasingly fearful of Beijing, Lai had been a persistent critic of Chinese authorities both through his publications and writing.

This has seen him become a hero for many in Hong Kong, who view him as a man of courage who took great risks to defend the freedoms of the city.

But on the mainland he is viewed as a "traitor" who threatens Chinese national security.

In recent years, masked attackers firebombed Lai's house and company headquarters. He was also the target of an assassination plot.

But none of the threats stopped him from airing his views robustly. He was a prominent part of the city's pro-democracy demonstrations and was arrested twice in 2021 on illegal assembly charges.

When China passed Hong Kong's new national security law in June 2020, Lai told the BBC it sounded the "death knell" for the territory.

The influential entrepreneur also warned that Hong Kong would become as corrupt as China. Without the rule of law, he said, its coveted status as a global financial hub would be "totally destroyed".

The media mogul is known for his frankness and acts of flamboyance.

In 2021, he urged Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he was "the only one who can save us" from China. His newspaper, Apple Daily, published a front-page letter that finished: "Mr President, please help us."

For Lai, such acts were necessary to defend the city which had taken him in and fuelled his success.

He once told news agency AFP: "I came here with nothing, the freedom of this place has given me everything... Maybe it's time I paid back for that freedom by fighting for it."

Lai has been slapped with various charges - including unauthorised assembly and fraud - since 2020.

He has been in custody since December of that year.

The prosecution of Lai has captured international attention, with rights groups and foreign governments urging his release.

Over the years, Sebastien Lai has travelled the world to denounce his father's arrest and condemn Hong Kong for punishing "characteristics that should be celebrated".

"My father is in jail for the truth on his lips, courage in his heart, and freedom in his soul," he had said.

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It is a first in Taylor Swift's music career.

The megastar made her podcast debut on Wednesday night, appearing on New Heights - hosted by boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce - where she told the world about her new album "The Life of a Showgirl".

The American football star brothers offered a warm welcome to Swift, calling her "Tay Tay" and running through a list of her many awards.

Teaser clips of the New Heights podcast had already gone viral before the podcast aired, including one video clip where Swift unveils a briefcase with "TS" on it and pulls out her new 12th studio album, which is obscured by blurring.

The record was simultaneously made available for pre-order on her website - which also had a countdown clock to the moment when she would appear on the podcast.

The pop superstar is notorious for not giving interviews, typically sharing updates on her life through song lyrics which frenzied fans analyse and piece together.

Here is some of what we learned from the hour-long appearance.

Poking fun at male sports fans

The episode begins with a screaming introduction from Jason, the former Philadelphia Eagles player, who runs through a long list of his brother's girlfriend's accomplishments, including being the only artist to win the album of the year Grammy four times.

Swift sat beside Travis, chuckling along before thanking Jason for his enthusiasm.

She then went on to poke fun at her appearing on a podcast that typically caters to American football fans.

"As we all know, you know, you guys have a lot of male sports fans that listen to your podcast," she said.

"I think we all know that if there's one thing that male sports fans want in their spaces and on their screens, it's more of me," she deadpanned, looking straight into the camera.

Swift's appearance at Kansas City Chiefs games caused a frenzy over the years. In 2023 when the pair started dating and she started making appearances, game cameras looked for the singer in the stands - cutting to her more than a dozen times during some games.

The NFL promoted her appearances at games heavily on social media, posting videos and tweets about the singer and her celebrity entourage that often accompanied her.

Some football fans weren't happy with the new focus.

Swift was booed by NFL fans during her appearance on the jumbotron screen at the Super Bowl last February, which drew headlines and even social media posts by President Donald Trump.

But despite the criticism, Jason assured her that she has been the "most requested guest on the podcast". Other recent guests on the show include basketball stars Caitlin Clark, Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James, and actors Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Bill Murry and Adam Sandler.

What the cover of her new album looks like

As the countdown clock ran down on her website and the podcast started, Swift's website updated with the cover of her 12th studio album.

The Life of a Showgirl features Swift wearing a bralette emblazoned with diamonds lying in turquoise green.

She is seen submerged in the water, with only her face above the surface.

The website to pre-order the album started crashing as soon as the podcast began, with users receiving error messages.

Within seconds of beginning, nearly one million people had started watching on YouTube. About 30 minutes into the episode, more than 1.25 million were tuning in.

Why did Taylor appear on a sports podcast?

Swift was asked why she chose to appear on the podcast, which caters primarily to sports fans.

"This podcast has done a lot for me. This podcast got me a boyfriend," she said, accusing Travis of using the podcast as his "personal dating app" before he met her.

Before they started dating - or even met - Travis famously gushed on the podcast about attending one of Swift's concerts and being saddened when they couldn't meet. He talked about making her a beaded friendship bracelet, which were popular during the Eras Tour, and said he wanted to give her his phone number.

She said the clip, which went viral, felt almost like "he was standing outside of my apartment, holding boom box saying, 'I want to go on a date with you'".

She said this was exactly the moment she had "been writing songs about, wanting to happen to me since I was a teenager".

"It was wild, but it worked...He's the good kind of crazy," she said, calling her boyfriend "a human exclamation point".

She said she was circling back to the podcast show as a way to say thank you.

Swift didn't know about football - until Travis

Swift said that she knew nothing about football before their romance began.

"I didn't know what a first down was," or a "tight-end," (which is the position Travis plays), she said.

She said she appreciated Travis' patience and understanding when they started dating and introducing her to his world.

She's now found herself personally invested - citing an episode where she found herself interested in a recent player trade. She recalled thinking to herself: "Who body snatched me?"

Travis told her that he will be "forever grateful" that she dove fully into his world "wholeheartedly".

While Swift has at times been shy about discussing her relationship in public, Travis has been more outspoken. Before the podcast aired, he told GQ in an interview, "I love being the happiest guy in the world".

He also praised Swift for her athleticism, comparing her three-hour long concerts to his football games.

"She will never tell anyone that she is an athlete. But I've seen what she goes through. I've seen the amount of work that she puts on her body, and it's mind-blowing," he said.

"That is arguably more exhausting than how much I put in on a Sunday, and she's doing it three, four, five days in a row," he said.

The pictures from last week's sit-in protest in Parliament Square over the banned group Palestine Action were unprecedented.

As demonstrators held up placards reading, "I support Palestine Action", some 522 of them were arrested on suspicion of breaking terrorism laws - more than double the total such arrests in 2024.

Their average age was 54, said the police. Some 112 of them were over 70 years old.

The battle over the ban on Palestine Action (PAG) - last month, proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK - now feels as much a political and PR battle as a legal one.

And the organisers of the campaign are trying to capitalise on perceived sympathy among some of the public by organising another demonstration in September - hoping to force the state, through numbers, to lift the ban.

How does it end?

Does it risk becoming an "I am Spartacus moment"? - the words of Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the Labour peer and civil rights campaigner?

That depends on three courtroom battles that will each, in turn, influence how Palestine Action is publicly perceived and legally characterised.

Let's start with the protesters arrested since July for showing support for the group - more than 700 so far.

One lawyer says it has been awkward so far for police officers.

"I've seen police look incredibly uncomfortable with the fact that they are having to treat these elderly people as criminals," said solicitor Katie McFadden, who advised many protesters, after their arrests, last Saturday.

"I've seen them in police custody and they've certainly been considerate and looked, frankly, quite shocked and horrified that this is what they were having to do as part of their job when they've signed up to go out and protect the public from dangerous criminals."

The real challenge for the police and prosecutors is how many protesters do they need to charge with support of a banned terrorist organisation to send a message to the public. And what message do they send if they don't charge them all?

So far, three people have been charged with displaying an item showing support for Palestine Action during the first demonstration on 5 July. They will all appear in court next month.

The director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, had to consult the Attorney General's Office before he could go ahead with the charges because of additional safeguards in some terrorism cases.

That means that Lord Hermer, the Attorney General and also a cabinet minister, or his deputy, may have to be involved in each of the files that police send to prosecutors.

That, in turn, means the vast majority of the 700 may not know for months if they are going to end up on trial - in cases that could be more than a year away from a jury.

Just assuming they do get charged, history suggests the risk of a maximum of 14-year sentence is low.

• Palestine Action can challenge UK ban, court rules
• Palestine Action protest arrests rise to more than 500
• Some don't know 'full nature' of Palestine Action, says Cooper

Conventionally, a conviction like this would leave careers in tatters and have other life-changing effects.

The equation for some Palestine Action protesters is different.

Many are older people who have graduated from involvement in climate change activism and believe the ban breaches free speech safeguards. It seems many have fewer fears about the impact of arrest on their day-to-day lives.

So is the ban on Palestine Action a legal and PR disaster in the making for Home Secretary Yvette Cooper?

Huda Ammori, Palestine Action's co-founder, has said on social media: "The system can't cope when thousands resist."

But ministers hope that the difference between the organisation she founded and other forms of protest over Gaza will become clear thanks to the second of the three linked legal battles soon to take centre stage.

In August 2024 alleged PAG supporters broke into Elbit Systems UK in Bristol, an Israeli defence firm that has long been a key target.

A repurposed prison van smashed through a security fence and crowbars and a sledgehammer were allegedly used to smash up equipment.

Three people were injured: a security guard and two police officers.

Palestine Action promoted video of the damage - but not any pictures of the alleged assaults.

Those allegations begin to come to trial in November. Some 18 people deny charges including criminal damage, assault causing actual bodily harm, violent disorder and aggravated burglary.

That incident prompted national security officials and the police to look at whether a terrorism ban on PAG could be justified, after having previously concluded that the vast majority of its highly disruptive activities amounted to minor criminal damage.

Documents disclosed to the BBC in the High Court show how the thinking on a ban had evolved. Palestine Action was becoming more militant, said officials. It had allegedly produced an "underground manual" that it was claimed detailed how to plan a "break-in", referring to face masks, burner phones and fake car number plates.

"With an efficient sledgehammer in your hand, you can cause quite a bit of damage," the manual read, before than detailing how to do so.

And this is where the UK's wide definition of terrorism comes in. It includes not just the threat or use of violence to advance a cause - but also the use of serious criminal damage.

That's because in the 1990s the IRA began causing economic damage through bombs, without taking life.

So when Cooper banned PAG, her decision was largely informed by what the Home Office has described as millions of pounds of criminal damage, not an assessment that it was a group of murderous militants.

"Proscription is about one narrow group that has been involved in violent attacks including injuries, including weapons, smoke bombs causing panic among innocent people, major criminal damage," the home secretary said following last Saturday's arrests.

"There may be people who are objecting to proscription who don't know the full nature of this organisation due to court restrictions on reporting while serious prosecutions are under way but it's really important that no one is in any doubt that this is not a non-violent organisation."

Ms Ammori has contested this characterisation, saying the government's own papers show that Palestine Action did not advocate for violence.

This brings us to the third of the three big legal challenges that will decide this affair: was the Home Secretary right?

The High Court will consider in the autumn if the ban was a rational and proportionate response to PAG's activities.

Jonathan Hall KC, the independent watchdog of terrorism laws, has previously told BBC News that the ban is legally workable because the group had moved from protest into what is effectively "blackmail" - suggesting it was exerting pressure to get what it wanted.

But Ms Ammori's legal team have a range of significant arguments around freedom of protest.

Volker Turk, the United Nations' human rights chief has got involved too, saying the ban is so wrong it places the UK outside international law.

The outcome of that case will define whether Palestine Action remains banned. If the ban falls, then the 700 arrested so far are free - their cases would collapse. As for the group itself, it may feel emboldened - but would know that it could still be banned again if its actions cross the terrorism laws line.

If the ban stands, then the advantage will be with the government - and arrests and charges will continue.

That is the counter-terrorism policing way: slowly but surely, step by step, seek to contain and, ultimately, crush the threat.

Drug treatment can help people newly diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) to reduce their risk of substance misuse, suicidal behaviour, transport accidents and criminality, a study suggests.

These issues are linked to common ADHD symptoms such as acting impulsively and becoming easily distracted.

Some 5% of children and 2.5% of adults worldwide are thought to be affected by the disorder - and growing numbers are being diagnosed.

The findings, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), confirm the wider potential benefits of drug treatment and could help patients decide whether to start medication, the researchers say.

Having ADHD means the brain works differently to most other people's.

Symptoms can include difficulties concentrating and sitting still, having high energy levels and being impulsive.

Despite the surge in people asking for help, the disorder is not becoming more common. Last year a BBC investigation found long waits for assessment in the UK.

People are only diagnosed if the symptoms cause at least a moderate impact on their lives.

The most commonly prescribed drugs, called stimulants, help manage everyday symptoms but there has been limited evidence of longer-term benefits for people's behaviour, while well-publicised side-effects, such as headaches, loss of appetite and trouble sleeping, have sparked debate on their safety.

This BMJ study was based on 148,500 people aged six to 64, with ADHD in Sweden.

Some 57% started drug treatment and, of these, methylphenidate (also known as Ritalin), was prescribed, to 88%.

The researchers, from Southampton University and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, found taking ADHD medication was linked to reductions of first-time instances of:

• suicidal behaviour - 17%
• substance misuse - 15%
• transport accidents - 12%
• criminal behaviour - 13%

When recurrent events were analysed, the researchers found ADHD medication was linked to reductions of:

• 15% for suicide attempts
• 25% for substance misuses
• 4% for accidental injuries
• 16% for transport accidents
• 25% for criminal behaviour

"Oftentimes there is no information on what the risks are if you don't treat ADHD," said Prof Samuele Cortese, study author and professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at University of Southampton.

"Now we have evidence they [drugs] can reduce these risks."

This could be explained by medication reducing impulsive behaviour and lack of concentration, which might reduce the risk of accidents while driving and reduce aggressive behaviour which could lead to criminality.

The researchers say the study was designed to be as robust as possible but cannot rule out the possibility the results were affected by factors such as people's genes, lifestyles and the severity of their ADHD.

Accessing the right medication for ADHD in many countries is not easy, with some drugs in short supply. In the UK waiting times to see specialists after diagnosis in order to access drugs can be several years.

Prof Stuart Kinner, head of the Justice Health Group at Curtin University in Western Australia, said the research demonstrated "the diffuse benefits of ADHD diagnosis and treatment".

"Failure to diagnose and treat ADHD can lead to self-medication with alcohol or other drugs, poor mental health, injury, and incarceration," he said.

"Too many people with undiagnosed ADHD end up in the criminal justice system, where their condition may remain undiagnosed and untreated."

Ian Maidment, professor in clinical pharmacy at Aston University, said the study "adds to our understanding of the potential benefits of these drugs".

However, he said the research did not assess whether patients actually took their medication or the impact of different doses.

Cities across the UK are facing a growing threat from an emerging phenomenon called "firewaves" as temperatures rise due to climate change, scientists have warned.

The term, coined by researchers at Imperial College London, describes multiple urban wildfires triggered by extended periods of hot, dry weather.

The warning comes as firefighters battled three separate heath fires in London and a dramatic gorse blaze on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh in recent days, as this summer's latest heatwave left vegetation across both capitals dangerously dry.

These fires, though now contained, highlight the increasing vulnerability of urban areas to wildfires - a risk that was once considered largely rural.

Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at Imperial College London, has been working alongside the London Fire Brigade to help predict when conditions are ripe for a "firewave".

Based on current forecasts, he believes London could be at risk again by this weekend.

London Fire Brigade Assistant Commissioner Tom Goodall said he welcomes any research that helps predict the likelihood of wildfires occurring.

The service is "ready to tackle the threat of wildfires head-on to help protect London's communities and green spaces", he added.

Prof Rein's research finds that, after ten consecutive days of very dry weather, vegetation becomes so desiccated across wide areas that the likelihood of multiple fires igniting simultaneously rises sharply.

Using detailed incident data from the London Fire Brigade dating back to 2009, combined with weather records, the team identified key factors that drive wildfire outbreaks in London.

One of the most important is a measure of how much moisture the atmosphere can extract from the land, known as the "vapour pressure deficit".

The higher the deficit, the drier the vegetation becomes, and the more easily it ignites.

"Vegetation doesn't just become a bit more flammable," explained Professor Rein, "it becomes much more flammable."

"Once the moisture content of the vegetation drops below a certain threshold, even a small spark can lead to a fast-spreading fire," he added.

Most fires are started by humans, whether accidentally or deliberately. But a warming world is creating conditions more conducive to these blazes.

"Climate change is bringing more heatwaves and longer dry spells," Prof Rein said.

"These conditions dry out fuels and increase the risk of wildfires. That risk is much greater now than it was even a decade ago."

While the researchers focused on London, concerns are widespread.

"I worry about all other UK cities and other northern European cities in particular because climate change seems to be making green vegetation that was not flammable very flammable indeed," said Prof Rein.

"And these places don't have a history of dealing with wildfires so don't have as much institutional experience as cities in the south of the continent."

Managing fire risk

Urban environments like London, with their abundance of parks and green spaces bordering residential zones, are particularly susceptible.

The concept of a "firewave" is meant to capture the unique danger posed when several fires erupt at once in densely populated areas, which has the potential to overwhelm emergency services and threaten homes and infrastructure.

That happened in the summer of 2022 when UK temperatures exceeded 40C for the first time on record.

On 19 July 2022, London Fire Brigade (LFB) experienced its busiest day since World War II.

Fires broke out simultaneously across the city, including a devastating blaze in Wennington, East London, which destroyed 37 buildings, five cars, and forced the evacuation of 88 homes.

Blake Betts, a borough commander with the LFB, has extensive experience dealing with wildfires in urban settings.

He emphasises the serious threat they pose, especially when open spaces are adjacent to residential properties.

"The potential for fires to spread into homes is very real," said Cdr Betts.

"We're seeing more extreme weather events, and that's why the London Fire Brigade has adopted a much more proactive approach."

To meet this growing challenge, the LFB says it has invested in new technologies and equipment.

Drones now play a critical role in wildfire response, providing real-time aerial views that help commanders map fire spread and direct resources where they are needed most.

"The bird's-eye view from drones gives us a huge boost in situational awareness," explained a spokesperson from the LFB.

"It allows us to target our efforts where the risk to life and property is greatest."

In addition to drones, the brigade has introduced off-road vehicles capable of reaching fires in difficult terrain, such as heathland and grassland.

These vehicles can be used to create firebreaks – using water to soak the ground to help stop fires from spreading further.

The Imperial College London researchers argue that the Met Office's current definition of a heatwave does not adequately reflect the wildfire risk in urban areas.

They propose it adopts the term "firewave" to signal periods of extreme fire danger in cities - a concept they hope will inform future public safety strategies and climate resilience planning.

The Met Office has been asked for comment.

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Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive A-level, T-level and BTec National results on Thursday morning.

The amount of students getting top A-level results is expected to be broadly similar to 2024, after years of flux as a result of the Covid pandemic.

A record number of 18-year-olds will get into their first choice of university, the head of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) has predicted.

Dr Jo Saxton stressed that this year's Year 13s had received lower GCSE grades than previous cohorts as part of a plan to push down grade inflation that happened during Covid, and they would need universities to take that into account.

The pass rate for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams in Scotland rose across the board last week.

BTec National and Cambridge Technical results are also due to be released on Thursday along with AS-levels - which, in Wales and Northern Ireland, will count towards students' final A-level results next summer.

This is also the fourth year of results for vocational T-level qualifications in England.

To achieve the technical qualification, time is split between classroom learning and industry placements - with students awarded a pass, merit, distinction or distinction* after two years of work and study.

• More teens to get their choice of uni even if they miss their grades, says Ucas
• Your full guide to A-level results day
• What are T-levels and what are the grades worth?
• What are BTecs and how are they graded?

Freya, a student at Middlesbrough College, will be getting her grade for a T-level in health.

"It gives you a hands-on experience in what sort of things you're going to do in a real-world scenario, rather than just learning from a book," she said.

She is about to start a full-time job in an NHS maternity department, and hopes to ultimately become a midwife.

"I thought coming here [and] doing this course would give me the theoretical and physical knowledge to be able to achieve what I want to do," she added.

Dr Jo Saxton, the chief executive of Ucas, said last week that it was a "really, really good year" for UK students applying to university.

She said universities were keen to enroll UK undergraduates because there was more "uncertainty" around international student numbers and domestic students offered universities "stability" for "financial planning".

They could "quite possibly" accept students who did not meet the conditions of their offer, she added.

• How much does university cost, and is it worth it?
• How do student loans work and when are they written off?
• What is an apprenticeship and how much are apprentices paid?
• 'I didn't go to uni - now I work as a celebrity photographer'

Dr Saxton also said Year 13 students would need universities to "respect and understand" the specific circumstances they have gone through.

They were in Year 8 and Year 9 during national lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

Both years saw spikes in pass rates at GCSE and top grades at A-level, after exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers' assessments.

What followed was a phased effort to bring grades back in line with pre-pandemic levels.

The year that these students sat their GCSEs, 2023, was the final stage of that process in England. Grading returned to pre-pandemic standards in Wales and Northern Ireland last year.

It meant GCSE passes fell, with the steepest drop in England.

Dr Saxton said the "significant national programme to deflate their grades" at GCSE represented an "important backdrop" for those getting the grades for their Level 3 qualifications this week.

She also pointed out that, with GCSE grades down in 2023, fewer achieved the results they needed to start A-levels.

A-level entries fell from 825,355 last summer to 821,875 this summer, according to provisional data for England.

Dr Saxton said that students' previous grades would therefore "probably" be "fractionally higher" across the cohort.

Last year, with grading back to pre-pandemic standards across all three nations, 27.8% of all A-level grades were marked at A* or A - up from 27.2% in 2023 and 25.4% in 2019.

There is likely to be less emphasis this year on how grades compare to 2019 and more on how they compare to last year, since it is the second year that grading has returned to pre-pandemic levels across the board.

Students heading to university will pay higher fees in England and Wales this year. They have risen to £9,535 for undergraduate courses.

Maintenance loans have also gone up, meaning that students can borrow more to help with their living costs.

Hailed by some as a hero and scorned by others as a traitor, Hong Kong's pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai is in the final stage of his national security trial.

Closing arguments begin on Thursday for Lai, who is accused of colluding with foreign forces under a Beijing-imposed national security law.

The trial has drawn international attention, with UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer calling for Lai's release. The 77-year-old has British as well as Chinese citizenship - though China does not recognise dual nationality, and therefore considers Lai to be exclusively Chinese.

Lai has been detained since December 2020 and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment if he is convicted.

Critics say Lai's case shows how Hong Kong's legal system has been weaponised to silence political opposition.

Lai has been a persistent thorn in China's side. Unlike other tycoons who rose to the top in Hong Kong, Mr Lai became one of the fiercest critics of the Chinese state and a leading figure advocating democracy in the former British territory.

"I'm a born rebel," he told the BBC in an interview in 2020, hours before he was charged. "I have a very rebellious character."

He is the most prominent person charged under the controversial national security law which China introduced in 2020, in response to massive protests which erupted in Hong Kong the year before.

The legislation criminalises a wider range of dissenting acts which Beijing considers subversion and secession, among other things.

Beijing says the national security law is necessary to maintain stability in Hong Kong but critics say it has effectively outlawed dissent.

Over the years, Lai's son Sebastien has called for his release. In February, the younger Lai urged Starmer and US President Donald Trump to take urgent action, adding that his father's "body is breaking down".

Rags to riches

Lai was born in Guangzhou, a city in southern China, to a wealthy family that lost everything when the communists took power in 1949.

He was 12 years old when he fled his village in mainland China, arriving in Hong Kong as a stowaway on a fishing boat.

While working odd jobs and knitting in a small clothing shop he taught himself English. He went from a menial role to eventually founding a multi-million dollar empire including the international clothing brand Giordano.

The chain was a huge success. But when China sent in tanks to crush pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989, Lai began a new journey as a vocal democracy activist as well as an entrepreneur.

He started writing columns criticising the massacre that followed the demonstrations in Beijing and established a publishing house that went on to become one of Hong Kong's most influential.

As China responded by threatening to shut his stores on the mainland, leading him to sell the company, Lai launched a string of popular pro-democracy titles that included Next, a digital magazine, and the widely read Apple Daily newspaper.

In a local media landscape increasingly fearful of Beijing, Lai had been a persistent critic of Chinese authorities both through his publications and writing.

This has seen him become a hero for many in Hong Kong, who view him as a man of courage who took great risks to defend the freedoms of the city.

But on the mainland he is viewed as a "traitor" who threatens Chinese national security.

In recent years, masked attackers firebombed Lai's house and company headquarters. He was also the target of an assassination plot.

But none of the threats stopped him from airing his views robustly. He was a prominent part of the city's pro-democracy demonstrations and was arrested twice in 2021 on illegal assembly charges.

When China passed Hong Kong's new national security law in June 2020, Lai told the BBC it sounded the "death knell" for the territory.

The influential entrepreneur also warned that Hong Kong would become as corrupt as China. Without the rule of law, he said, its coveted status as a global financial hub would be "totally destroyed".

The media mogul is known for his frankness and acts of flamboyance.

In 2021, he urged Donald Trump to help the territory, saying he was "the only one who can save us" from China. His newspaper, Apple Daily, published a front-page letter that finished: "Mr President, please help us."

For Lai, such acts were necessary to defend the city which had taken him in and fuelled his success.

He once told news agency AFP: "I came here with nothing, the freedom of this place has given me everything... Maybe it's time I paid back for that freedom by fighting for it."

Lai has been slapped with various charges - including unauthorised assembly and fraud - since 2020.

He has been in custody since December of that year.

The prosecution of Lai has captured international attention, with rights groups and foreign governments urging his release.

Over the years, Sebastien Lai has travelled the world to denounce his father's arrest and condemn Hong Kong for punishing "characteristics that should be celebrated".

"My father is in jail for the truth on his lips, courage in his heart, and freedom in his soul," he had said.

The women at the community kitchen in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher are sitting in huddles of desperation.

"Our children are dying before our eyes," one of them tells the BBC.

"We don't know what to do. They are innocent. They have nothing to do with the army or [its paramilitary rival] the Rapid Support Forces. Our suffering is worse than what you can imagine."

Food is so scarce in el-Fasher that prices have soared to the point where money that used to cover a week's worth of meals can now buy only one. International aid organisations have condemned the "calculated use of starvation as a weapon of war".

The BBC has obtained rare footage of people still trapped in the city, sent to us by a local activist and filmed by a freelance cameraman.

The Sudanese army has been battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than two years after their commanders jointly staged a coup, and then fell out.

El-Fasher, in the western Darfur region, is one of the most brutal frontlines in the conflict.

The hunger crisis is compounded by a surge of cholera sweeping through the squalid camps of those displaced by the fighting, which escalated this week into one of the most intense RSF attacks on the city yet.

The paramilitaries tightened their 14-month blockade after losing control of the capital Khartoum earlier this year, and stepped up their battle for el-Fasher, the last foothold of the armed forces in Darfur.

In the north and centre of the country where the army has wrestled back territory from the RSF, food and medical aid have begun to make a dent in civilian suffering.

But the situation is desperate in the conflict zones of western and southern Sudan.

• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening

At the Matbakh-al-Khair communal kitchen in el-Fasher late last month, volunteers turned ambaz into a porridge. This is the residue of peanuts after the oil has been extracted, normally fed to animals.

Sometimes it is possible to find sorghum or millet but on the day of filming, the kitchen manager says: "There is no flour or bread."

"Now we've reached the point of eating ambaz. May God relieve us of this calamity, there's nothing left in the market to buy," he adds.

The UN has amplified its appeal for a humanitarian pause to allow food convoys into the city, with its Sudan envoy Sheldon Yett once more demanding this week that the warring sides observe their obligations under international law.

The army has given clearance for the trucks to proceed but the UN is still waiting for official word from the paramilitary group.

RSF advisers have said they believed the truce would be used to facilitate the delivery of food and ammunition to the army's "besieged militias" inside el-Fasher.

They have also claimed the paramilitary group and its allies were setting up "safe routes" for civilians to leave the city.

Local responders in el-Fasher can receive some emergency cash via a digital banking system, but it does not go very far.

"The prices in the markets have exploded," says Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council.

"Today, $5,000 [£3,680] covers one meal for 1,500 people in a single day. Three months ago, the same amount could feed them for an entire week."

Doctors say people are dying of malnutrition. It is impossible to know how many - one report quoting a regional health official put the number at more than 60 last week.

Hospitals cannot cope. Few are still operating. They have been damaged by shelling and are short of medical supplies to help both the starving, and those injured in the continual bombardment.

"We have many malnourished children admitted in hospital but unfortunately there is no single sachet of [therapeutic food]," says Dr Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, a paediatrician at the Al Saudi Hospital, noting that the five severely malnourished children currently in the ward also have medical complications.

"They are just waiting for their death," he says.

When hunger crises hit, those who usually die first are the most vulnerable, the least healthy or those suffering from pre-existing conditions.

"The situation, it is so miserable, it is so catastrophic," the doctor tells us in a voice message.

"The children of el-Fasher are dying on a daily basis due to lack of food, lack of medicine. Unfortunately, the international community is just watching."

International non-governmental organisations working in Sudan issued an urgent statement this week declaring that "sustained attacks, obstruction of aid and targeting of critical infrastructure demonstrate a deliberate strategy to break the civilian population through hunger, fear, and exhaustion".

They said that "anecdotal reports of recent food hoarding for military use add to the suffering of civilians".

"There is no safe passage out of the city, with roads blocked and those attempting to flee facing attacks, taxation at checkpoints, community-based discrimination and death," the organisations said.

Hundreds of thousands of people did flee in recent months, many from the Zamzam displaced persons camp at the edge of el-Fasher, seized by the RSF in April.

They arrive in Tawila, a town 60km (37 miles) west of the city, weak and dehydrated, with accounts of violence and extortion along the road from RSF-allied groups.

Life is safer in the crowded camps, but they are stalked by disease - most deadly of all: cholera.

It is caused by polluted water and has killed hundreds in Sudan, triggered by the destruction of water infrastructure and lack of food and medical care, and made worse by flooding due to the rainy season.

Unlike el-Fasher, in Tawila aid workers at least have access, but their supplies are limited, says John Joseph Ocheibi, the on-site project coordinator for a group called The Alliance for International Medical Action.

"We have shortages in terms of [washing facilities], in terms of medical supplies, to be able to deal with this situation," he tells the BBC. "We are mobilizing resources to see how best we can be able to respond."

Sylvain Penicaud of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimates there are only three litres of water per person per day in the camps, which, he says, is "way below the basic need, and forces people to get water from contaminated sources".

Zubaida Ismail Ishaq is lying in the tent clinic. She is seven months pregnant, gaunt and exhausted. Her story is a tale of trauma told by many.

She tells us she used to trade when she had a little money, before fleeing el-Fasher.

Her husband was captured by armed men on the road to Tawila. Her daughter has a head injury.

Zubaida and her mother came down with cholera shortly after arriving in the camp.

"We drink water without boiling it," she says. "We have no-one to get us water. Since coming here, I have nothing left."

Back in el-Fasher we hear appeals for help from the women clustered at the soup kitchen - any kind of help.

"We're exhausted. We want this siege lifted," says Faiza Abkar Mohammed. "Even if they airdrop food, airdrop anything - we're completely exhausted."

You may also be interested in:

• 'I lost a baby and then rescued a child dodging air strikes in Sudan's civil war'
• Oil-rich Sudanese region becomes new focus of war between army and rival forces
• Sudan in danger of self-destructing as conflict and famine reign

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

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

The Princess of Wales has encouraged people to "cherish the bonds of love and friendship" this summer, as part of her Mother Nature video series.

In an Instagram post, Catherine narrates over clips showing natural landscapes and people enjoying the sunshine at the beach and in parks.

It is the second such post from the princess this year - she launched the series in May with a special message for Mother's Day.

Catherine has been making a gradual return to public duties since completing chemotherapy treatment last summer.

Most recently she attended both Wimbledon tennis finals, as patron of the All England Lawn Tennis Club, and Colchester Hospital's Wellbeing Garden - both in July.

Alongside the video, which was posted to the princess' official Instagram account on Wednesday, she wrote: "It has never been more important to appreciate the value of one another, and of Mother Nature. Here's to Summer."

The scenery featured was shot at locations in Sheffield, Bradford, North Wales and Anglesey and the south coast.

As part of her narration, Catherine describes summer as the "season for abundance", saying that "as the flowers bloom and the fruits ripen, we too are reminded of our own potential for growth".

A group of dancers from The Royal Ballet School, who performed in a Westminster Abbey carol service hosted by the princess last year, are also featured.

The video concludes with Catherine encouraging us to "embrace the joy to be found in even the most fleeting of moments and shared experiences".

Unlike the first video in the series, published earlier this year, the Prince of Wales does not feature.

In that one, there were shots of the pair walking their dogs in Norfolk. Catherine also alluded to her cancer battle, saying nature had been her family's "sanctuary" for the past year.

European leaders appeared cautiously optimistic after holding a virtual meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday, two days before he meets his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.

Trump reportedly told the Europeans that his goal for the summit was to obtain a ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv.

He also agreed that any territorial issues had to be decided with Volodymyr Zelensky's involvement, and that security guarantees had to be part of the deal, according to France's Emmanuel Macron.

Speaking to Trump had allowed him to "clarify his intentions" and gave the Europeans a chance to "express our expectations," Macron said.

Trump and Vice-President JD Vance spoke to the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Finland and Poland as well as EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Nato chief Mark Rutte.

The Europeans have been sidelined from the hastily organised summit in Alaska and their phone call today was a last-ditch attempt to keep Ukraine's interests and the continent's security at the forefront of Trump's mind.

To an extent, it seemed to work. On Wednesday evening Trump rated the meeting "a ten" and said Russia would face "very severe" consequences unless it halted its war in Ukraine.

He also said that if Friday's meeting went well he would try and organise a "quick second one" involving both Putin and Zelensky.

Still, in their statements European leaders restated the need for Kyiv to be involved in any final decision – betraying an underlying nervousness that Putin could ultimately persuade Trump to concede Ukrainian land in exchange for a ceasefire.

"It's most important thing that Europe convinces Donald Trump that one can't trust Russia," said Poland's Donald Tusk, while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stressed the leaders had "made it clear that Ukraine must be at the table as soon as follow-up meetings take place".

If the Russian side refused to make any concessions, "then the United States and we Europeans should and must increase the pressure," Merz said.

Since the US-Russia summit was announced last week, Trump has made several references to "land-swapping" between Kyiv and Moscow – sparking serious concerns in Ukraine and beyond that he could be preparing to give in to Putin's longstanding demand to seize large swathes of Ukrainian territory.

On Wednesday morning Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexey Fadeev reiterated that Russia's stance had not changed since Putin set it out in June 2024.

At the time Putin said a ceasefire would start the minute the Ukrainian government withdrew from four regions partially occupied by Russia - Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. He also said Ukraine would need to officially give up in its efforts to join the Nato military alliance.

• What to know about Trump and Putin's meeting at an Alaska military base
• Why did Putin's Russia invade Ukraine?

These are maximalist demands which neither Kyiv nor its European partners see as viable.

Zelensky has said he is convinced that Russia would use any region it was allowed to keep as a springboard for future invasions.

A way to counter this threat could be security guarantees - intended as commitments to ensure Ukraine's long-term defence.

In statements issued after the phone call with Trump, several European leaders said such guarantees had been mentioned and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that "real progress" had been made in that respect.

Since the spring the UK and France have been spearheading efforts to create a so-called "Coalition of the Willing" - a group of nations who have pledged to deter Russia from further invading Ukraine.

On Wednesday the group said it stood "ready to play an active role" including by deploying "a reassurance force once hostilities have ceased" - although the shape, composition and role of such a force is yet unclear.

Meanwhile, on the front lines, Russia's summer offensive continues to press on. Referencing the sudden advance of Moscow's troops near Dobropillya, in the embattled Donetsk region, Zelensky said Putin was pretending that sanctions were not effective at damaging the Russian economy.

"I told Trump and our European allies that Putin is bluffing," the Ukrainian president said, urging them to apply "more pressure" on Russia.

For his part, Trump appeared to admit that even when he meets Putin face-to-face he may not be able to get him to stop killing civilians in Ukraine.

"I've had that conversation with him... but then I go home and see that a rocket has hit a nursing home or an apartment building and people are lying dead in the street.

"So I guess the answer to that is probably no."

Speculation has swirled over whether the Trump-Putin summit will result in the map of Ukraine being forcibly – and fundamentally – altered.

Russia has laid claim to vast parts of Ukraine since 2014, when President Vladimir Putin made his first move.

At the time, in the space of a short few months, Moscow carried out the relatively bloodless occupation and annexation of the Crimean peninsula.

But that was followed by a Russian-backed separatist movement in the eastern Donbas region – specifically the two regions, or "oblasts", known as Donetsk and Luhansk.

A war simmered there for eight years.

Ukraine lost around 14,000 soldiers and civilians during this period.

But in February 2022, Putin launched his full-scale invasion. Russian troops quickly reached the outskirts of Kyiv and seized huge swathes of the south, including big chunks of two more oblasts, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

The war has ebbed and flowed ever since. Russia now controls rather less territory - down from about 27% in the spring of 2022 to around 20% now. In the east, Russian forces are advancing, but very slowly and at great cost.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine says an unconditional ceasefire is needed now. European allies also insist on on a halt in fighting. US President Donald Trump says that is what he has been trying to achieve.

But in the run-up to his Alaska summit with Putin, Trump has started talking, instead about territorial swaps. That has sent shockwaves across Kyiv and Europe.

It is not at all clear what land Trump is referring to, or what those swaps could look like, given that all the territory in question legally belongs to Ukraine.

As of August 2025, the territory of Ukraine looks as follows:

Russia would dearly love to expand its control over the entirety of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Some reports suggest that Putin is demanding that Ukraine hand over the remaining territory it controls in both oblasts.

But that would mean Kyiv giving up on places which tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers have died trying to protect - cities like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, and a fortified line protecting Ukrainian territory to the north and west.

For Kyiv, such a concession would be a bitter pill to swallow. For Moscow, whose losses have been even more catastrophic, it would be seen as victory.

Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine "could not" leave the Donbas as Moscow would use the region as a springboard to attack the rest of the country.

In recent days, Russian forces appear to be pushing hard, and making progress, near the town of Dobropillya. But it's not yet clear whether this marks a significant strategic move or just an effort to show Trump that Moscow has the upper hand.

What about Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, captured in 2022?

Here, it's reported, Russia is offering to halt its offensive and freeze the lines.

But would Russia be prepared to give any of it back?

On Monday, Trump talked vaguely about "ocean-front property" – presumably a reference to some of this shoreline, along the Sea of Azov or Black Sea.

But this is all part of Putin's strategically vital land bridge connecting Russia to occupied Crimea.

It's hard to see the Russian leader agreeing to give any of it up. Like Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin regards these places as part of Russia, and illegally annexed them three years ago in four referendums widely regarded as a sham.

For Ukraine, and Europe, territorial swaps – at this very early stage of the talks – are a non-starter.

A discussion about future borders may eventually come, but only when the war has stopped and Ukraine's security has been guaranteed.

Claire's Accessories is on the brink of collapse after the fashion retailer said it will appoint administrators in the UK and Ireland, putting 2,150 jobs at risk.

The company has 278 stores in the UK and 28 in Ireland but has been struggling with falling sales and fierce competition.

All the shops will continue trading while administrators at Interpath, once appointed, will "assess options for the company".

Interpath chief executive Will Wright, said options include "exploring the possibility of a sale which would secure a future for this well-loved brand".

Claire's in the US filed for bankruptcy in the US earlier this month.

The firm operates under two brand names, Claire's and Icing, and is owned by a group of firms, including investment giant Elliott Management.

Students in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive A-level, T-level and BTec National results on Thursday morning.

The amount of students getting top A-level results is expected to be broadly similar to 2024, after years of flux as a result of the Covid pandemic.

A record number of 18-year-olds will get into their first choice of university, the head of the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (Ucas) has predicted.

Dr Jo Saxton stressed that this year's Year 13s had received lower GCSE grades than previous cohorts as part of a plan to push down grade inflation that happened during Covid, and they would need universities to take that into account.

The pass rate for National 5, Higher and Advanced Higher exams in Scotland rose across the board last week.

BTec National and Cambridge Technical results are also due to be released on Thursday along with AS-levels - which, in Wales and Northern Ireland, will count towards students' final A-level results next summer.

This is also the fourth year of results for vocational T-level qualifications in England.

To achieve the technical qualification, time is split between classroom learning and industry placements - with students awarded a pass, merit, distinction or distinction* after two years of work and study.

• More teens to get their choice of uni even if they miss their grades, says Ucas
• Your full guide to A-level results day
• What are T-levels and what are the grades worth?
• What are BTecs and how are they graded?

Freya, a student at Middlesbrough College, will be getting her grade for a T-level in health.

"It gives you a hands-on experience in what sort of things you're going to do in a real-world scenario, rather than just learning from a book," she said.

She is about to start a full-time job in an NHS maternity department, and hopes to ultimately become a midwife.

"I thought coming here [and] doing this course would give me the theoretical and physical knowledge to be able to achieve what I want to do," she added.

Dr Jo Saxton, the chief executive of Ucas, said last week that it was a "really, really good year" for UK students applying to university.

She said universities were keen to enroll UK undergraduates because there was more "uncertainty" around international student numbers and domestic students offered universities "stability" for "financial planning".

They could "quite possibly" accept students who did not meet the conditions of their offer, she added.

• How much does university cost, and is it worth it?
• How do student loans work and when are they written off?
• What is an apprenticeship and how much are apprentices paid?
• 'I didn't go to uni - now I work as a celebrity photographer'

Dr Saxton also said Year 13 students would need universities to "respect and understand" the specific circumstances they have gone through.

They were in Year 8 and Year 9 during national lockdowns in 2020 and 2021.

Both years saw spikes in pass rates at GCSE and top grades at A-level, after exams were cancelled and results were based on teachers' assessments.

What followed was a phased effort to bring grades back in line with pre-pandemic levels.

The year that these students sat their GCSEs, 2023, was the final stage of that process in England. Grading returned to pre-pandemic standards in Wales and Northern Ireland last year.

It meant GCSE passes fell, with the steepest drop in England.

Dr Saxton said the "significant national programme to deflate their grades" at GCSE represented an "important backdrop" for those getting the grades for their Level 3 qualifications this week.

She also pointed out that, with GCSE grades down in 2023, fewer achieved the results they needed to start A-levels.

A-level entries fell from 825,355 last summer to 821,875 this summer, according to provisional data for England.

Dr Saxton said that students' previous grades would therefore "probably" be "fractionally higher" across the cohort.

Last year, with grading back to pre-pandemic standards across all three nations, 27.8% of all A-level grades were marked at A* or A - up from 27.2% in 2023 and 25.4% in 2019.

There is likely to be less emphasis this year on how grades compare to 2019 and more on how they compare to last year, since it is the second year that grading has returned to pre-pandemic levels across the board.

Students heading to university will pay higher fees in England and Wales this year. They have risen to £9,535 for undergraduate courses.

Maintenance loans have also gone up, meaning that students can borrow more to help with their living costs.

A man living at a hotel that has been the focus of a series of anti-migrant protests has been charged with assault and sexual assault offences.

Mohammed Sharwarq, 32, a Syrian national living at The Bell Hotel, Epping, Essex, has been charged with two counts of common assault, four of assault by beating, and one count of sexual assault on a male.

Essex Police said the offences were alleged to have taken place between 25 July and 12 August.

He was arrested on Tuesday and remanded in custody. Officers said they were not seeking any other suspects in relation to the case.

The hotel has been used by the Home Office to house asylum seekers, and has been the scene of a number of protests in recent weeks.

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

The BBC has apologised after a contributor to the Radio 4 Today programme's Thought for the Day slot accused shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick of "xenophobia".

Theologian and author Dr Krish Kandiah used the term about an article in which Jenrick said he wouldn't want his daughters living near "men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally and about whom you know next to nothing".

In response, Jenrick said listeners had been told that "if you're concerned about the threat of illegal migrants to your kids, you're racist".

A BBC statement said that while Dr Kandiah's message was "broadly in line with expectations of Thought for the Day, some of the language it used went beyond that and we apologise for its inclusion".

Wednesday's episode of the Today programme was temporarily taken down from catch-up service BBC Sounds while three sentences were edited out of Thought for the Day.

The segment, which is broadcast during the Today programme but overseen by the BBC's religion department, features contributors from religious and theological backgrounds delivering messages related to topical themes and events.

On Wednesday, Dr Kandiah, founder of refugee charity The Sanctuary Foundation, referred to a Mail on Sunday article written by Jenrick this weekend.

He quoted a line from the Conservative politican that said: "I certainly don't want my children to share a neighbourhood with men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally and about whom we know next to nothing."

Dr Kandiah continued: "These words echo a fear many have absorbed – fear of the stranger. The technical name for this is xenophobia. All phobias are, by definition, irrational. Nevertheless, they have a huge impact.

"It is understandable that many people are scared by the unknown, especially if they've been told illegality and unfairness are part of the story. However, over the past year, xenophobia has fuelled angry protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers, deepening divisions in our communities."

In response, Jenrick, who has three daughters aged 10, 12 and 14, posted: "On BBC Radio 4 this morning listeners were told that if you're concerned about the threat of illegal migrants to your kids, you're racist. Wrong. You're a good parent."

A BBC spokesperson said: "While its reflection on fear in society from a faith perspective is broadly in line with expectations of Thought for the Day, some of the language it used went beyond that and we apologise for its inclusion."

The BBC said it was apologising for the inclusion of an opinion in a place where it was inappropriate, not passing judgement on the rights or wrongs of the opinion.

In his Mail on Sunday article, Jenrick also described migrant crossings in the English Channel as "a national security emergency" and said he had sympathy with "the mothers and fathers peacefully protesting outside asylum hotels who have been pushed to breaking point".

More than 27,000 migrants have crossed the English Channel since the start of the year.

Small boat arrivals are a small percentage of the UK's overall immigration figure. In 2024, an estimated 948,000 people arrived expecting to stay at least a year, while an estimated 517,000 people left the country.

A major city in western Greece is under threat from fast-moving wildfires as extreme heat and strong winds drive blazes across much of southern Europe.

Searing winds pushed flames into the outskirts of Patras, the country's third-largest city with a population of around 200,000, forcing evacuations including a children's hospital, and sending plumes of smoke across the skyline.

Nearly 10,000 hectares have burned in the surrounding Achaia region in two days.

Entire villages have been emptied, homes and businesses destroyed and hundreds of vehicles incinerated, including more than 500 cars at a customs yard.

The streets of Patras were deserted on Wednesday, save for some residents watching in silence as the fires descended from the surrounding mountains.

Strong and scorching winds blew as temperatures hit 38C and smoke has blanketed the city, sending some to hospital with breathing difficulties.

Authorities ordered residents of a nearby town of 7,700 people to evacuate on Tuesday and fresh alerts were issued on Wednesday for two villages.

Elsewhere in Greece, dozens of people were rescued by coastguards as fires inched towards beaches on the islands of Zante and Chios.

Greece has requested EU water bombers to bolster the more than 4,800 firefighters tackling the more than 20 wildfires currently raging across the country.

The crisis comes as a heatwave blankets southern Europe, sparking blazes from Portugal to the Balkans.

In Spain, a civilian and a volunteer firefighter were killed on Wednesday during the country's tenth consecutive day of extreme heat, which peaked at 45C the day before.

The state weather agency warned almost all of Spain was at extreme or very high fire risk. The heatwave is expected to last until Monday, making it one of the longest in the country on record.

The fires have triggered a political row after transport minister Oscar Puente said that "things are getting a little hot" in Castile and León, where flames have threatened a world heritage Roman site and forced more than 6,000 people to flee.

His remark, aimed at the region's conservative leader for holidaying during the crisis, drew condemnation from opposition figures, who demanded his dismissal. Puente defended his comments, saying leaders absent during disasters should be held to account.

Authorities say 199 wildfires have destroyed nearly 99,000 hectares nationwide this year - double last year's total by mid-August - with several outbreaks suspected to be arson.

In neighbouring Portugal, 1,800 firefighters have been deployed against five major blazes, including one in the eastern town Trancoso reignited by lightning.

In Albania, the defence minister called it a "critical week" as 24 wildfires burned, forcing residents from central villages.

Italy has brought under control a five-day blaze on Mount Vesuvius but remains under extreme heat warnings in 16 cities, with Florence touching 39C. Temperatures are at such a high that Pope Leo moved his weekly audience from St. Peter's Square to an indoor venue in the Vatican.

Britain entered its fourth heatwave of the summer, with temperatures forecast to peak at 34C and health officials warning of a strain on care services.

Meteorologists say such extremes are becoming more frequent and intense due to human-induced climate change.

The US and Russia have agreed to hold a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday 15 August, to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump announced the meeting a week beforehand - the same day as his deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more US sanctions.

Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine held at Trump's behest this summer have yet to bring the two sides any closer to peace.

Here is what we know about the meeting between the two leaders, taking place in Alaska - which was once Russian territory - in Anchorage.

Why are they meeting in Alaska?

The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, lending a historical resonance to the meeting. It became a US state in 1959.

Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov pointed out that the two countries are neighbours, with only the Bering Strait separating them.

"It seems quite logical for our delegation simply to fly over the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska," Ushakov said.

The last time Alaska took centre-stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden's newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.

The sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of "condescension and hypocrisy".

Where in Alaska will Trump and Putin meet?

The meeting will be in Anchorage, the White House confirmed on Tuesday.

When announcing the bilateral, Trump said the location would be "a very popular one for a number of reasons", without disclosing it would be in the state's largest city.

The pair will be hosted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the largest military installation in Alaska. The 64,000 acre base is a key US site for Arctic military readiness.

Why are Putin and Trump meeting?

Trump has been pushing hard - without much success - to end the war in Ukraine.

As a presidential candidate, he pledged that he could end the war within 24 hours of taking office. He has also repeatedly argued that the war "never would have happened" if he had been president at the time of Russia's invasion in 2022.

Last month, Trump told the BBC that he was "disappointed" by Putin.

Frustrations grew and Trump set an 8 August deadline for Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face more severe US sanctions.

As the deadline hit, Trump instead announced he and Putin would meet in person on 15 August.

The meeting comes after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held "highly productive" talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Trump.

Ahead of the meeting, the White House sought to play down speculation that the bilateral could yield a ceasefire.

"This is a listening exercise for the president," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She added that Trump may travel to Russia following the Alaska trip.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he viewed the summit as a "feel-out meeting" aimed at urging Putin to end the war.

• Trump says he will try to get back territory for Ukraine in talks with Putin
• Zelensky could still join Trump and Putin, but rest of Europe is shut out

Is Ukraine attending?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not expected to attend. Trump said on Monday: "I would say he could go, but he's been to a lot of meetings."

Trump did, however, say that Zelensky would be the first person he would call afterwards.

A White House official later said that Trump and Zelensky would meet virtually on Wednesday, ahead of the US president's summit with Putin. The Zelensky meeting will be joined by several European leaders.

Putin had requested that Zelensky be excluded, although the White House has previously said that Trump was willing to hold a trilateral in which all three leaders were present.

Zelensky has said any agreements without input from Ukraine would amount to "dead decisions".

What do both sides hope to get out of it?

While both Russia and Ukraine have long said that they want the war to end, both countries want things that the other harshly opposes.

Trump said on Monday he was "going to try to get some of that [Russian-occupied] territory back for Ukraine". But he also warned that there might have to be "some swapping, changes in land".

Ukraine, however, has been adamant that it will not accept Russian control of regions that Moscow has seized, including Crimea.

Zelensky pushed back this week against any idea of "swapping" territories.

"We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated," the Ukrainian president said.

Meanwhile, Putin has not budged from his territorial demands, Ukraine's neutrality and the future size of its army.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in part, over Putin's belief the Western defensive alliance, Nato, was using the neighbouring country to gain a foothold to bring its troops closer to Russia's borders.

The Trump administration has been attempting to sway European leaders on a ceasefire deal that would hand over swathes of Ukrainian territory to Russia, the BBC's US partner CBS News has reported.

The agreement would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean peninsula, and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas region.

Under the deal, Russia would have to give up the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has some military control.

Speaking to Fox News, US Vice-President JD Vance said any future deal was "not going to make anybody super happy".

"You've got to make peace here… you can't finger point," he said.

"The way to peace is to have a decisive leader to sit down and force people to come together."

• ANALYSIS: Why Trump-Putin relationship has soured
• EXPLAINER: Why did Putin's Russia invade Ukraine?
• VISUALS: Tracking the war in maps
• GLOBAL FALLOUT: How the global economy could be impacted
• VERIFY: Russian attacks on Ukraine double since Trump inauguration
• GROUND REPORT: On Ukraine's front line, twisted wreckage shows sanctions haven't yet stopped Russia

The brother of the man who carried out the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing has been charged with attempting to murder three prison officers and assaulting a fourth.

Hashem Abedi, who was jailed in 2020 for helping his brother to plan the suicide bombing, is accused of attacking the four guards at the high-security HMP Frankland in County Durham on 11 April.

Abedi, who had been housed in a separation unit at the jail, also faces a charge of unauthorised possession of a knife in prison.

He is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 18 September.

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

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Claire's Accessories is on the brink of collapse after the fashion retailer said it will appoint administrators in the UK and Ireland, putting 2,150 jobs at risk.

The company has 278 stores in the UK and 28 in Ireland but has been struggling with falling sales and fierce competition.

All the shops will continue trading while administrators at Interpath, once appointed, will "assess options for the company".

Interpath chief executive Will Wright, said options include "exploring the possibility of a sale which would secure a future for this well-loved brand".

Claire's in the US filed for bankruptcy in the US earlier this month.

The firm operates under two brand names, Claire's and Icing, and is owned by a group of firms, including investment giant Elliott Management.

Three children have been charged with the murder of a man who was found dead on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent.

A 16-year-old girl and two boys, aged 14 and 15, were arrested following an altercation in Leysdown-on-Sea on Sunday night.

Alexander Cashford, 49, was pronounced dead at the scene, police 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.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has admitted he did not have a rod licence to go fishing with JD Vance and has blamed the oversight on an "administrative error".

Lammy has written to the Environment Agency to tell them about the mistake and has bought a fishing licence.

The agency says anglers in England and Wales aged 13 or over must have a rod fishing licence to fish for freshwater species and can be fined if they do not have one.

The foreign secretary did not catch any fish when he went angling with the US vice-president at his official residence at Chevening House, Kent, last week.

The two men went carp fishing in a pond near the 17th-century house before they held talks about Gaza and other international affairs at the residence during Vance's family holiday to the UK.

At the start of their meeting, the vice-president said: "Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not."

All fish that were caught were returned to the private lake.

It is not clear if Vance had bought a fishing licence. The BBC has asked his spokesperson for comment.

In a statement, the Foreign Office said: "The foreign secretary has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licences had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week.

"As soon as the foreign secretary was made aware of the administrative error, he successfully purchased the relevant rod fishing licences.

"He also wrote to the Environment Agency notifying them of the error, demonstrating how it would be rectified, and thanking them for their work protecting Britain's fisheries."

A one-day licence for trout and coarse fishing costs £7.30.

Fishing illegally can incur a fine of up to £2,500, and offenders can also have their fishing equipment seized.

In February, the Environment Agency said six anglers were found guilty of fishing illegally in London and were fined £2,182 collectively.

At the time, Richard Tyner, area fisheries team leader at the Environment Agency, said: "We inspect rod licences 24/7, 7 days a week to check on cases of illegal fishing, and for those caught cheating the system, we will always prosecute.

"Illegal fishing undermines the Environment Agency's efforts to protect fish stocks and make fishing sustainable."

The BBC asked the Environment Agency if Lammy had been fined and it did not respond to the question.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said: "Everyone who goes fishing needs licence to help improve our rivers, lakes and the sport anglers love.

"We understand the relevant licences have been purchased."

A 10-year-old chess prodigy from north-west London has become the youngest person to earn the woman international master title.

Bodhana Sivanandan, from Harrow, also became the youngest female player to beat a chess grandmaster at the 2025 British Chess Championship earlier this month.

In 2024 Bodhana was thought to have become the youngest person ever to represent England internationally in any sport when she was selected for England Women's Team at the Chess Olympiad in Hungary.

Her father Siva previously told the BBC he had no idea where his daughter got her talent from as neither he or his wife, both engineering graduates, are any good at chess.

The International Chess Federation said on its social media account on X that Bodhana "pulled off the win against 60-year-old Grandmaster Peter Wells in the last round of the 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool".

The federation added: "Sivanandan's victory at 10 years, five months and three days beats the 2019 record held by American Carissa Yip (10 years, 11 months and 20 days)."

Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain and the rank is held for life.

Bodhana's new title - woman international master - is the second highest-ranking title given exclusively to women, second only to woman grandmaster.

Bodhana first took up chess during the Covid-19 pandemic.

She told the BBC last year: "When one of my dad's friends was going back to India, he gave us a few bags [of possessions].

"There was a chess board, and I was interested in the pieces so I started playing."

She says chess makes her feel "good" and helps her with "lots of other things like maths, how to calculate".

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

The amount of people in the UK visiting the most popular pornography sites has decreased after new age verification rules came into place, new figures indicate.

Data analytics firm Similarweb said leading adult site Pornhub lost more than one million visitors in just two weeks.

Pornhub and other major adult websites introduced advanced age checks on 25 July after the Online Safety Act said sites must make it harder for under-18s to see explicit material.

Data experts at Similarweb compared the daily average user figures of popular pornography sites from 1 to 9 August with the daily average figures for July.

Pornhub is the UK's most visited website for adult content and it experienced a 47% decrease in traffic between 24 July, one day before the new rules came into place, and 8 August, according to Similarweb's data.

Over the same time period, traffic to XVideos, another leading adult site, was also down 47% and OnlyFans saw traffic drop by over 10%.

The number of average daily visits to Pornhub fell from 3.2 million in July to 2 million in the first nine days of August.

However, the data also showed that some smaller and less well regulated pornography sites saw visits increase.

This comes after Virtual private network (VPN) apps became the most downloaded on Apple's App Store in the UK in the days after the age verification rules were enforced.

VPNs can disguise your location online - allowing you to use the internet as though you are in another country.

The apps would also make it harder to collect data on how many people are visiting sites from specific locations.

Media regulator Ofcom estimates 14 million people watch online pornography.

It has set out a number of ways websites can verify the age of users including through credit card checks, photo ID matching and estimating age using a selfie.

Critics have suggested an unintended consequence of the changes could be to drive people to more extreme content in darker corners of the internet, such as the dark web.

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The US and Russia have agreed to hold a meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday 15 August, to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump announced the meeting a week beforehand - the same day as his deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine or face more US sanctions.

Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine held at Trump's behest this summer have yet to bring the two sides any closer to peace.

Here is what we know about the meeting between the two leaders, taking place in Alaska - which was once Russian territory - in Anchorage.

Why are they meeting in Alaska?

The US purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, lending a historical resonance to the meeting. It became a US state in 1959.

Russian presidential assistant Yuri Ushakov pointed out that the two countries are neighbours, with only the Bering Strait separating them.

"It seems quite logical for our delegation simply to fly over the Bering Strait and for such an important and anticipated summit of the leaders of the two countries to be held in Alaska," Ushakov said.

The last time Alaska took centre-stage in an American diplomatic event was in March 2021, when Joe Biden's newly minted diplomatic and national security team met their Chinese counterparts in Anchorage.

The sit-down turned acrimonious, with the Chinese accusing the Americans of "condescension and hypocrisy".

Where in Alaska will Trump and Putin meet?

The meeting will be in Anchorage, the White House confirmed on Tuesday.

When announcing the bilateral, Trump said the location would be "a very popular one for a number of reasons", without disclosing it would be in the state's largest city.

The pair will be hosted at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the largest military installation in Alaska. The 64,000 acre base is a key US site for Arctic military readiness.

Why are Putin and Trump meeting?

Trump has been pushing hard - without much success - to end the war in Ukraine.

As a presidential candidate, he pledged that he could end the war within 24 hours of taking office. He has also repeatedly argued that the war "never would have happened" if he had been president at the time of Russia's invasion in 2022.

Last month, Trump told the BBC that he was "disappointed" by Putin.

Frustrations grew and Trump set an 8 August deadline for Putin to agree to an immediate ceasefire or face more severe US sanctions.

As the deadline hit, Trump instead announced he and Putin would meet in person on 15 August.

The meeting comes after US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held "highly productive" talks with Putin in Moscow on Wednesday, according to Trump.

Ahead of the meeting, the White House sought to play down speculation that the bilateral could yield a ceasefire.

"This is a listening exercise for the president," said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. She added that Trump may travel to Russia following the Alaska trip.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Trump said he viewed the summit as a "feel-out meeting" aimed at urging Putin to end the war.

• Trump says he will try to get back territory for Ukraine in talks with Putin
• Zelensky could still join Trump and Putin, but rest of Europe is shut out

Is Ukraine attending?

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not expected to attend. Trump said on Monday: "I would say he could go, but he's been to a lot of meetings."

Trump did, however, say that Zelensky would be the first person he would call afterwards.

A White House official later said that Trump and Zelensky would meet virtually on Wednesday, ahead of the US president's summit with Putin. The Zelensky meeting will be joined by several European leaders.

Putin had requested that Zelensky be excluded, although the White House has previously said that Trump was willing to hold a trilateral in which all three leaders were present.

Zelensky has said any agreements without input from Ukraine would amount to "dead decisions".

What do both sides hope to get out of it?

While both Russia and Ukraine have long said that they want the war to end, both countries want things that the other harshly opposes.

Trump said on Monday he was "going to try to get some of that [Russian-occupied] territory back for Ukraine". But he also warned that there might have to be "some swapping, changes in land".

Ukraine, however, has been adamant that it will not accept Russian control of regions that Moscow has seized, including Crimea.

Zelensky pushed back this week against any idea of "swapping" territories.

"We will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated," the Ukrainian president said.

Meanwhile, Putin has not budged from his territorial demands, Ukraine's neutrality and the future size of its army.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in part, over Putin's belief the Western defensive alliance, Nato, was using the neighbouring country to gain a foothold to bring its troops closer to Russia's borders.

The Trump administration has been attempting to sway European leaders on a ceasefire deal that would hand over swathes of Ukrainian territory to Russia, the BBC's US partner CBS News has reported.

The agreement would allow Russia to keep control of the Crimean peninsula, and take the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk, according to sources familiar with the talks.

Russia illegally occupied Crimea in 2014 and its forces control the majority of the Donbas region.

Under the deal, Russia would have to give up the Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where it currently has some military control.

Speaking to Fox News, US Vice-President JD Vance said any future deal was "not going to make anybody super happy".

"You've got to make peace here… you can't finger point," he said.

"The way to peace is to have a decisive leader to sit down and force people to come together."

• ANALYSIS: Why Trump-Putin relationship has soured
• EXPLAINER: Why did Putin's Russia invade Ukraine?
• VISUALS: Tracking the war in maps
• GLOBAL FALLOUT: How the global economy could be impacted
• VERIFY: Russian attacks on Ukraine double since Trump inauguration
• GROUND REPORT: On Ukraine's front line, twisted wreckage shows sanctions haven't yet stopped Russia

The Metropolitan Police says 146 people have now come forward to report a crime in their investigation into former Harrod's boss Mohammed Al Fayed.

In a video update sent to victims, Scotland Yard said women and men had reported crimes, and a number of new witnesses had also contacted the force to give evidence.

The Met is currently conducting an investigation into how it handled historical allegations, including sexual assault and rape, perpetrated by Al Fayed - who died in 2023 aged 94.

It is also looking into whether there may have been others who could face charges for enabling or assisting his behaviour. The force has previously said it was investigating at least five people.

In the update, Detective Inspector Karen Khan said the Met was working with international agencies, including foreign police forces.

She said it was "difficult" to say when the investigation might be concluded because of the sheer number of survivors who had come forward.

She also asked for victims and witnesses to continue to come forward but acknowledged there was a "reluctance" to trust the police by some.

Last month, the force wrote to alleged victims apologising, saying it was "truly sorry" for the distress they have suffered because Al Fayed will never face justice.

The latest figure is more than double the 61 people who the Met said had reported allegations the last time it released a number in October.

Harrods said more than 100 victims of Al Fayed's abuse had entered its compensation scheme in July. Al Fayed owned the luxury department store between 1985 and 2010.

The store started issuing compensation at the end of April and the scheme remains open for new applications until 31 March 2026.

Eligible applicants could receive up to £385,000 in compensation, plus treatment costs, if they agree to be assessed by a consultant psychiatrist, Harrods said in March.

They are also offered a meeting with a senior Harrods' representative to receive an apology in person or by video, as well as a written apology.

The extent of Al Fayed's predatory behaviour was brought to light by a BBC documentary and podcast, broadcast in September 2024.

Al Fayed: Predator at Harrods heard testimony from more than 20 female ex-Harrods employees who said Al Fayed sexually assaulted or raped them.

Since then, dozens more women have come forward with similar experiences.

Responding to the BBC investigation at the time, Harrods' current owners said they were "utterly appalled" by the allegations and that his victims had been failed - for which the store sincerely apologised.

It was only after the broadcast that the Met revealed it had been approached by 21 women before Al Fayed's death, who accused him of sexual offences including rape, sexual assault and trafficking. Despite this, he was never charged with any offences.

In October, the Met said 40 new allegations including sexual assault and rape had been made against Al Fayed, covering a period between 1979 and 2013. These allegations were in addition to the 21 it had already received.

Two complaints against the Met Police for its handing of allegations against Al Fayed are being investigated by the force under the direction of the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

Trouble on the streets, rising tension in communities, and angry scenes outside immigration hotels - in many cases fuelled by rumours on social media.

Moments like these are what police chiefs and the government are keen to avoid.

Riots across England and Northern Ireland last summer were partly triggered by misinformation on social media, which said the man responsible for the murder of three girls in Southport was an illegal migrant.

But in recent months, police have been inconsistent on when they have disclosed the ethnicity of a suspect.

When a car drove into a crowd at a bus parade for Liverpool FC in the city in May, police were quick to say a white man had been arrested over the incident to defuse any trouble.

But Warwickshire Police was not so forthcoming with details earlier this month when two men in Nuneaton were charged in connection with an alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl.

Reform UK claimed the men were asylum seekers, and reports suggested they were Afghans - but this was not confirmed by police.

This led to claims of a "cover-up" - something Warwickshire Police fiercely denied.

The force said it simply followed police guidance, which at the time did not include revealing the ethnicity and immigration status of suspects.

The ongoing debate has led to an update in police guidance on what to disclose when someone is charged with a crime.

The National Police Chiefs' Council, along with the College of Policing, have come up with the advice for forces across the UK.

It states they should consider revealing the suspect's ethnicity and nationality in high-profile and sensitive investigations and operations.

But how will it work in practice?

The guidance says if someone is arrested, officers should provide only the suspect's sex and age.

Police want to be certain there are no legal issues surrounding disclosing more details, and the decision to do so is up to individual forces.

When the suspect is charged, it says police can provide their name, date of birth and address.

This has been updated to say police should consider revealing the race and nationality.

The BBC understands this will apply when the case is of public interest or involves a serious offence - such as murder, rape, or an assault involving numerous victims.

However, there is no single definition of what constitutes a serious offence and this would need assessing on a case-by-case basis.

Ultimately, it will be up to the individual police force to decide what it discloses, but decisions are likely to be based on factors such as the risk of local unrest or inflammatory social media rumours.

What are the pitfalls?

There are concerns among some police officers that revealing these details could be counterintuitive.

One Metropolitan Police officer told the BBC: "Stating whether someone is black or brown could fuel the far-right and racism towards certain communities, rather than calm it down."

Another said it was important not to disclose more information than is necessary to avoid influencing a future trial - although revealing a suspect's race and nationality is unlikely to do this.

It is also up to the force whether they give these details even earlier - such as when someone is arrested - if for example they sense potential trouble in the community.

The immediate aftermath of a high-profile, public incident could be when the risk of online speculation and tensions is highest, but a charging decision may not be made for at least a day or two.

Police will need to assess whether there are any legal issues in releasing more information at the point of arrest, such as the right to a fair trial and presumption of innocence, as well as the suspect's right to privacy.

The former chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy, believes it will cause suspicion and misunderstanding if police release some details in certain cases and not others.

"People could create a story which isn't true because they've disclosed certain information and it's a dangerous road to go down," he said.

But he argues police are in an impossible situation because social media is fast moving, and officers need to quash falsehoods as quickly as possible.

It will be up to the Home Office whether a suspect's immigration status will be revealed.

But some police officers are concerned this could cause tension between the government and police chiefs.

A senior police officer said: "Policing should be a job for police officers and not ministers."

The new guidance is not permanent yet, with the Authorised Professional Practice (APP) - the official source of professional practice for policing - currently reviewing it.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp has said he was pelted with bottles and had a knife pulled on him while speaking to migrants in a camp in northern France.

The Conservative MP posted a video on social media discussing the incident with Daily Express journalist Zak Garner-Purkis who has accompanied him on his visit to France.

In the clip, Philp says: "I found it pretty shocking - you said behind me somebody had pulled out some sort of machete and we left pretty quickly."

Mr Garner-Purkis says the man was "swinging it around in the air" adding: "It was, clear he was doing it to send a message to the other people there - whether it was a case of 'don't speak'."

In the video, the two men are recounting the incident while walking along the side of a road at which point objects can be seen being thrown at them.

Mr Garner-Purkis says "they are throwing bottles at us" and Philp says: "Right, we've got to go."