The US justice department has released an initial tranche of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.

The documents, which include photos, videos and investigative documents, were highly anticipated after Congress passed a law mandating the files be released in their entirety by Friday. The Department of Justice (DOJ), however, acknowledged it would not be able to release all of the documents by the deadline.

A number of famous faces are included in the first batch of files - including former US President Bill Clinton, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and musicians Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson.

Being named or pictured in the files is not an indication of wrongdoing. Many of those identified in the files or in previous releases related to Epstein have denied any wrongdoing.

Several hundred thousand pages still have not been released

Among the documents released on Friday are many that are redacted, including police statements, investigative reports and photos.

More than 100 pages in one file related to a grand jury investigation are entirely blacked out.

Officials, as outlined in the law, were allowed to redact materials to protect the identity of victims, or anything related to an active criminal investigation, but they were required by law to explain such redactions, which has not yet been done.

The thousands of pages released on Friday are only a share of what is to come, according to the justice department.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department was releasing "several hundred thousand pages" on Friday and that he expected "several hundred thousand more" to be released over the coming weeks.

He told Fox & Friends that the department was heavily vetting each page of material to ensure "every victim - their name, their identity, their story, to the extent that it needs to be protected - is completely protected". That is a process, he argued, that takes time.

The timing of when additional materials will be released is unclear, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed frustration.

Democrats including Congressman Ro Khanna have threatened action against members of the justice department, including impeachment or possible prosecution over the delay.

Khanna led with Republican Congressman Thomas Massie to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, defying US President Donald Trump who at first urged his party to vote against the measure.

"The DOJ's document dump of hundreds of thousands of pages failed to comply with the law," he said on social media, saying in a video that all options were on the table and being mulled over by him and Massie.

Bill Clinton pictured in pool and hot tub

Several of the images released include former US President Bill Clinton.

One picture shows him swimming in a pool, and another shows him lying on his back with his hands behind his head in what appears to be a hot tub.

Clinton was photographed with Epstein several times over the 1990s and early 2000s, before the disgraced financier was first arrested. He has never been accused of wrongdoing by survivors of Epstein's abuse, and has denied knowledge of his sex offending.

A spokesperson for Clinton commented on the new photos, saying they were decades old.

"They can release as many grainy 20-plus-year-old photos as they want, but this isn't about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be," Angel Ureña wrote on social media.

"There are two types of people here. The first group knew nothing and cut Epstein off before his crimes came to light. The second group continued relationships with him after. We're in the first. No amount of stalling by people in the second group will change that," he continued.

"Everyone, especially MAGA, expects answers, not scapegoats."

Epstein allegedly introduced Trump to 14-year-old girl

In the tranche of files released by the justice department are court documents that mention the US president.

The court documents detail that Epstein allegedly introduced a 14-year-old girl to Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

During the alleged encounter in the 1990s, Epstein elbowed Trump and "playfully asked him", in reference to the girl, "This is a good one, right?", the document says.

Trump smiled and nodded in agreement, according to the lawsuit filed against Epstein's estate and Ghislaine Maxwell in 2020.

The document says that "they both chuckled" and she felt uncomfortable, but "at the time, was too young to understand why".

The victim alleges she was groomed and abused by Epstein over many years.

In the court filing she makes no accusations against Trump, and Epstein's victims have not made any allegations against him.

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

The alleged episode is one of very few mentions of the president in the thousands of files released on Friday. He can be seen in several photos but his inclusion is minimal at best.

The Trump War Room, the official X account for the president's political operation, instead was posting photographs of Clinton. Trump's press secretary, too, re-posted images of Clinton, saying "Oh my!"

However, there are still pages to be released.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has said that "several hundred thousand" pages of documents are still being reviewed and have yet to be made public.

The US president has previously said he was a friend of Epstein's for years, but said they fell out in about 2004, years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Photo appears to show Andrew laying across laps

A photo in the released files appears to show Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor laying across five people, whose faces are redacted. Epstein's convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell is seen in the image standing behind them.

Andrew has faced years of scrutiny over his past friendship with Epstein, who does not appear in the photo.

He has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and said he did not "see, witness or suspect any behaviour of the sort that subsequently led to his arrest and conviction".

Michael Jackson, Diana Ross, Chris Tucker and Mick Jagger

The newly released documents include the widest assortment of celebrities we've seen in an Epstein file release so far.

The former financer was known for having connections across entertainment, politics and business. Some images released by the DOJ show him with stars that include Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and Diana Ross.

It's unclear where or when any of the photos were taken or in what context. It's also unclear if Epstein was associated with all of these figures or whether he attended these events. Previously released photos from Epstein's estate have included photos that he did not take from events where he was not in attendence.

In one of the newly released photos, Epstein is photographed with Michael Jackson. The pop idol is wearing a suit and Epstein is seen in a zip-up hoodie.

Another image of Jackson shows him with former US President Bill Clinton and Diana Ross. They are posing together in a small area and multiple other faces are redacted from the image.

Another photo in the thousands of files shows Rolling Stones legend Jagger posing for a photo with Clinton and a woman whose face is redacted. They are all in cocktail attire.

Several photos include the actor Chris Tucker. One shows him posing and seated next to Clinton at a dining table. Another shows him on an airplane tarmac with Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted associate of Epstein.

The BBC has contacted Jagger, Tucker and Ross for comment. Clinton has previously denied knowledge of Epstein's sex offending and a spokesperson on Friday said they were decades-old photos.

"This isn't about Bill Clinton. Never has, never will be," the spokesperson said.

Epstein threatened to burn down house, accuser says

One of the first people to report Epstein is included in the files. Maria Farmer, an artist who had been working for Epstein, told the FBI in a 1996 report that he had stolen personal photos she took of her 12-year-old and 16-year-old sisters.

She said in a complaint that she believed he sold the photos to potential buyers, and said he threatened to burn her house down if she told anyone about it. Her name is redacted in the files but Farmer confirmed the account was hers.

She notes in the report that Epstein had allegedly asked her to take pictures for him of young girls at swimming pools.

"Epstein is now threatening [redacted] that if she tells anyone about the photos he will burn her house down", the report states.

Farmer said she feels vindicated after nearly 30 years.

"I feel redeemed," she said.

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After weeks of intense competition, the Strictly Come Dancing finalists are primed to take to the dance floor one last time.

Just three couples remain of the 15 at the start of the series, with celebrities Amber Davies, George Clarke and Karen Carney vying to get their hands on the glitterball trophy.

It's also the last time Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman will present a Strictly final. The pair announced they would be stepping down at the end of the current series.

The grand final will be broadcast on Saturday from 19:00 GMT on BBC One and iPlayer.

Amber Davies says she's earned her place in final

One of the main talking points leading into the final has been whether Amber Davies' performing background has given her an unfair advantage.

The Love Island star has faced a backlash online with people pointing out she's had roles in West End musicals Pretty Woman, 9 to 5: The Musical, and The Great Gatsby, as well as competing in the 16th series of Dancing on Ice.

This week, she told BBC News and other reporters at a Strictly press conference that she could "appreciate" where the comments are coming from.

"I have experience compared to these two," she said, gesturing at the other finalists. "I'm not shying away from that. However, I would say that the love actually does outshine the hate."

When asked whether she deserves to win, the actress, who is paired with Nikita Kuzmin, said: "I feel like I have worked just as hard as these guys going into the final, because I had to fight to get into the final."

The backlash is perhaps a symptom of a wider theme on Strictly, where over the years some viewers have appeared to form their own judgements on contestants, regardless of what the judges think or what the overall audience vote says.

Earlier this series Lewis Cope received criticism for having been a child actor in Billy Elliot, for example, and last year JB Gill came under fire for having danced before in the boyband JLS.

'I can't believe a footballer is in the final'

And it seems many viewers value an element of surprise or beating the odds, as with Strictly's first blind contestant Chris McCausland winning last year.

For Karen Carney, becoming the first footballer to reach the Strictly Come Dancing final feels "weird" but she's also "really, really proud".

"I can't believe a footballer is in the final," she said in the press conference.

The former Lioness, who is partnered with Carlos Gu, said she had struggled with her confidence in recent years, but added: "I always knew in my heart Strictly would be the thing that would fix me... It's by far the happiest I've ever been."

Crown for the social stars?

For social media star George Clarke, reaching this point in the contest is "mental".

"It's a completely different world to what I'm used to," he said.

Another online star, AngryGinge, was recently crowned king of the jungle in this year's I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! It opens up the possibility of two social media stars winning two of the biggest shows on television.

"I feel like it's a whole demographic that hasn't really been touched massively in mainstream TV," said Clarke, who is partnered with Alexis Warr.

Who is dancing to what this week?

The finalists will perform three routines: they will revisit a previous routine, perform a show dance and then take to the floor with their favourite dance from the series.

This is what they'll be dancing to:

Amber and Nikita

• Showdance to Rain On Me by Lady Gaga and Ariana Grande
• Judges' Pick - Paso Doble to Dream On by Aerosmith
• Favourite Dance - Jive to Proud Mary

George and Alexis

• Showdance to Human by The Killers
• Judges' Choice - Viennese Waltz to Somebody to Love by Queen
• Favourite Dance - Paso Doble to Game of Survival by Ruelle

Karen and Carlos

• Showdance to Inner Smile by Texas
• Judges' Pick - Argentine Tango to Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
• Favourite Dance - Jive to One Way Or Another by Blondie

Other highlights from the show will include a group routine from the professional dancers and this year's finalists.

The cast of 2025 will return to the dance floor one last time for a group number, although BBC News understands that Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner will not join.

What time does the Strictly final start?

Strictly Come Dancing 2025's grand final is at 19:00 GMT this Saturday on BBC One and iPlayer.

It will also be available to watch on the live page on the BBC News website.

The live page will also have plenty of build up ahead of the show - plus extra insight on the dances, the outfits, the judges' comments, and much more.

How can I vote for my favourites?

This year, Strictly has moved to online-only voting.

When the vote is open, shimmy over to this website to make your decision!

As with every final, all of us at home have the full power to decide the winner.

The judges will give their scores, but these will just be for guidance and don't get combined with the viewers' votes.

What happened last weekend?

Warning: The section below includes spoilers from last week's Strictly

Standards were incredibly high last week, as you would expect for a semi-final.

Amber Davies and Nikita Kuzmin kept up with their perfect score for a third consecutive week, while Karen Carney's Waltz had judge Anton Du Beke "a bit emotional" and George Clarke captivated the judges with his hip movement.

• Strictly stars in glitterball showdown to secure spot in final

In the end, Balvinder Sopal and Caillon left the competition, following a dance off on Sunday night against Davies and Kuzmin.

Tess and Claudia's last Strictly final

In October, we had the shock announcement by Daly and Winkleman that they would be stepping down at the end of this year's series.

The celebrity contestants later told me that the news took them by surprise too. "No one saw it coming," one said.

Daly has presented since the first series 21 years ago. Winkleman joined in 2014, having hosted Strictly's sister show It Takes Two since 2004.

This Saturday will be their last time presenting a Strictly final. Speaking on Strictly's sister show It Takes Two last week, the pair admitted they might feel "emotional" after the show.

Their last ever appearance on the show will be the Christmas special, which airs on 25 December.

There have been plenty of twists and turns in the show's 21st year.

But the show has also been embroiled in controversy.

In November, it emerged that an unnamed star from Strictly has been arrested on suspicion of rape. It comes after another man involved with the hit BBC dance show was also arrested on suspicion of rape in August.

It is understood that neither developments were related to the current series of Strictly.

It came after a difficult few years for the show, with a number of former celebrity contestants speaking up about their negative experiences on Strictly.

Last year, the corporation introduced new duty of care measures, including putting chaperones in rehearsals.

What was the last thing you asked an AI chatbot to do for you?

Maybe you asked it for an essay structure to help answer a tricky question, provide an insightful analysis of a chunky data set, or to check if your cover letter matches the job description.

Some experts worry that outsourcing these kinds of tasks means your brain is working less - and could even be harming your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Earlier this year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) published a study showing that people who used ChatGPT to write essays showed less activity in brain networks associated with cognitive processing while undertaking the exercise.

These people also couldn't quote from their essays as easily as those in the study who didn't use an AI chatbot.

The researchers said their study demonstrated "the pressing matter of exploring a possible decrease in learning skills".

All 54 participants were recruited from MIT and nearby universities. Their brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG), which involves electrodes being placed on the scalp.

Some of the prompts used by the participants included asking AI to summarise essay questions, track down sources as well as refine grammar and style.

It was also used to generate and articulate ideas - but some users felt AI wasn't very good at this.

'AI makes it too easy to find answers'

Separately, Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft, which operates Copilot, found people's problem-solving skills could diminish if they became too reliant on AI.

They surveyed 319 white-collar workers who used AI tools for their jobs at least once per week about how they apply critical thinking when using them.

They looked at 900 examples of tasks given to AI, ranging from analysing data for new insights to checking whether a piece of work satisfies particular rules.

The study found that higher confidence in the tool's ability to perform a task was related to "less critical thinking effort".

"While GenAI can improve worker efficiency, it can inhibit critical engagement with work and can potentially lead to long-term overreliance on the tool and diminished skill for independent problem-solving."

Schoolchildren in the UK were similarly surveyed for a study published in October by Oxford University Press (OUP).

It found six in 10 felt AI had negatively impacted their skills in relation to schoolwork.

So, with the massive explosion of AI use, are our cognitive skills at risk of decline?

Not necessarily, says Dr Alexandra Tomescu, a generative AI specialist at OUP who worked on the school survey.

"Our research tells us that nine in 10 students say AI has helped them develop at least one skill related to schoolwork - be it problem-solving, creativity or revision.

"But at the same time, about a quarter state that AI use made it too easy to do work for them… So [it's] quite a nuanced picture."

She adds that many pupils want more guidance on how to use AI.

ChatGPT, which has more than 800 million weekly active users according to boss Sam Altman, has published a set of 100 prompts for students designed to help them get the most out of the technology.

But Prof Wayne Holmes, who researches critical studies of artificial intelligence and education at University College London (UCL), says this isn't enough.

He wants much more academic research to be done about the effects of AI tools on learning before pupils and students are encouraged to use them.

He tells us: "Today there is no independent evidence at scale for the effectiveness of these tools in education, or for their safety, or even for the idea they have a positive impact."

Better results but worse learning?

Prof Holmes points to research about cognitive atrophy, where someone's abilities and skills become worse after using AI.

He says this has been a problem for radiologists who use AI tools to help them interpret X-rays before they diagnose patients.

A study by Harvard Medical School published last year found AI assistance did improve the performance of some clinicians but damaged others for reasons researchers don't fully understand.

The authors called for more work to be done on how humans interact with AI so we can figure out ways of using AI tools that "boost human performance rather than hurt it".

Prof Holmes fears that students, whether in school or university, could become too reliant on AI to do their work for them and not develop the fundamental skills an education provides.

A student's essay might receive better marks thanks to help from AI but the issue is whether they end up understanding less.

As Prof Holmes puts it: "Their outputs are better but actually their learning is worse."

Jayna Devani, who leads international education at OpenAI - the company that owns ChatGPT - and helped secure a deal with the University of Oxford, says the firm are "very aware of this debate right now".

She tells the BBC: "We definitely don't think students should be using ChatGPT to outsource work".

In her view, it's best used as a tutor rather than just a provider of answers.

The example she gives is of a student having a back and forth with ChatGPT using the study mode setting.

You enter the question you're having difficulty answering and the chatbot can break down its components and help you understand it.

The example she gives is of a student doing an assignment late at night about a topic they don't quite understand.

"[If] you have an upcoming presentation to give and… it's midnight, you're not going to email your [university] tutor and ask for help," she says.

"I think the potential is truly there for ChatGPT to accelerate learning when it's used in a targeted way."

But Prof Holmes insists that any student who uses AI tools should be aware of how its reasoning works and how the companies providing them handle data. He stresses that results should always be checked.

"It is not just the latest iteration of the calculator," he says, describing AI's far-reaching capabilities and implications.

"I never say to my students, you shouldn't use AI… But what I do try to say is look, we need to understand all these different things about it so that you can make informed decisions."

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For anyone who has spent years renting, staring at the same landlord-approved magnolia walls and dreaming of one day adding some actual personality to their home, Pantone's 2026 Colour of the Year might feel like a personal attack.

This year, Pantone has chosen white as its colour of the year.

More specifically, Cloud Dancer - a white described as "lofty" and "billowy" which "serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection".

It is the first time white has been chosen as the colour of the year, and it has raised more than a few eyebrows.

According to Pantone, Cloud Dancer "is not just a colour, it's a mindset" and reflects a collective desire to slow down, reset and find calm after years of visual overload.

But some critics have labelled the decision as "Pantonedeaf", arguing that elevating minimalist and pristine white spaces can feel far removed from the smaller, messier homes most people inhabit.

Others argue that positioning white as aspirational risks racial undertones, landing uncomfortably amid ongoing political and cultural conversations about race and representation.

Clinical or calm?

Designer Chris Beaumont says the backlash goes beyond aesthetics, arguing that white carries cultural undertones and is rarely a neutral choice.

"White is a signal," he says, shaped by a decade of minimalist celebrity interiors – most notably Kim Kardashian's stripped-back home – that came to represent "wealth, order and distance from chaos".

He explains that white is "not about inspiration but being careful not to offend", with Cloud Dancer embodying "austerity, moral minimalism and the idea that neutrality signifies virtue".

Beaumont points to the pandemic as a turning point in how people relate to their homes.

"Overnight they became our offices, sanctuaries and emotional anchors," he says, adding that against this backdrop, pushing the Colour of the Year towards "further visual emptiness feels rather tone-deaf".

Rather than offering calm, he believes white now risks amplifying "a sense of bleakness", particularly when paired with cool, clinical lighting.

'Hospital vibes'

Lara Clark, a Surrey based interior designer, agrees and says Cloud Dancer "doesn't really read as a colour" and is "firmly in the bin for me".

While it may suit highly minimal or architectural spaces, she says bright whites rarely create calm in real homes.

"What looks serene in a styled shoot can easily feel clinical at home," she explains.

"White can feel stark and unforgiving and you don't want your home to give hospital vibes."

She adds that "homes should spark joy and feel warm and lived-in, and this shade feels quite removed from that."

Beaumont hopes that homeowners will reject the Pantone Colour of the Year in favour of "full-scale dopamine décor", using colour to express personality.

Laurie Pressman, VP of the Pantone Colour Institute, told the BBC that people "bring different feelings" to the meaning of the colour, but it was chosen as it "works seamlessly with everything around it, offering a refined neutrality that feels intentional and adaptable".

Since its launch in 2000, Pantone's Colour of the Year has become a powerful industry signal.

Past choices have included the optimism of Living Coral, the calm confidence of Classic Blue, the vibrancy of Viva Magenta, and most recently softer, emotionally driven tones like Peach Fuzz.

These colours don't just live on trend forecasts - they show up in fashion collections, beauty launches, interiors, packaging and even technology, shaping how products are marketed and how consumers imagine the year ahead.

Victoria Robinson, a style and trend expert, says Cloud Dancer is a "beautiful choice" and while it may seem simple, "this particular shade feels soft and elegant rather than stark".

In contrast to those who say the colour is boring, Robinson sees it as "adaptable" and says it's best used in "bedrooms and living areas where you want a serene, restful atmosphere".

"Even if you don't want to repaint, you can introduce the colour into a room with cushions, throws and curtains."

Interior designer James Mellan-Matulewicz says although he was surprised that Pantone's pick this year was "essentially the absence of colour", it is a bit like vanilla ice cream, in that "everyone likes it but it's nobody's favourite".

He can see its merits, explaining that white can work particularly well as a backdrop for architectural details like panelling and arched doorways which is a "growing trend in modern homes".

In fashion, white has long been a staple rather than a statement and as a Colour of the Year it presents a different challenge to designers more accustomed to bold shades.

Luxury stylist Oriona Robb says elevating white feels "less about novelty and more about intention", reflecting a shift towards refinement after years of trend overloads.

"White forces designers and wearers alike to focus on form, proportion and quality, there's really nowhere to hide," she explains.

But she adds that it also carries assumptions around body confidence, lifestyle and privilege, saying: "When white is treated as something only a narrow group of people can pull off, it becomes exclusionary."

She says industry is already aware of the uncomfortable undertones tied to celebrating white as an ideal, particularly amid ongoing conversations about representation and accessibility, and the real test will be whether "brands engage with that nuance honestly, or simply aestheticise the colour".

A cultural mood, not a trend

Stylist Katie Malik admits the choice initially surprised her, given Pantone's history of bold colours, but says it reflects a genuine shift and fits within a wider mood of "quiet luxury", burnout and a rejection of excess.

She says feedback from her clients has been largely positive, with many craving calmer, more restorative spaces.

"Many people are actively seeking tranquillity and serenity in their homes and aren't always ready to commit to more daring colours," she explains.

Whether white feels calming or sterile, Malik argues, depends on how it is used and far from being "Pantonedeaf", she sees it as one of Pantone's most usable picks.

Cloud Dancer is described as a blank canvas that allows "all colours to shine", a view Malik shares.

"A blank canvas isn't an empty space, it's a space filled with potential," she says.

Adding that its success "won't be in its universal adoption, but in how it anchors a larger conversation about what we want from our homes".

For those tempted to embrace Cloud Dancer in all its pristine glory, one thing may be essential: a very good stain remover, kept firmly within reach.

Reporters ask world leaders questions all the time.

No big deal. Right?

But what's it like putting a question to Vladimir Putin - the president who ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the leader whose country was accused this week by the head of MI6 of "the export of chaos"?

And imagine asking that question live on TV while millions of Russians are watching.

It's a big responsibility. You don't want to mess up.

"My question is about Russia's future. What kind of future are you planning for your country and your people?" I ask President Putin.

"Will the future be like the present, with any public objection to the official line punishable by law? Will the hunt for enemies at home and abroad be accelerated? Will mobile internet outages become even more common? Will there be new 'special military operations'?"

While I'm speaking, Vladimir Putin is making notes. And then replies.

He defends Russia's repressive foreign agent law. Hundreds of Russians who are critical of the authorities have been designated "foreign agents".

"We didn't invent it," Putin tells me.

"This [foreign agent] law was adopted in a string of Western countries, including in America in the 1930s. And all these laws, including the US one, are much tougher…"

In reality, the Russian law is draconian. It excludes "foreign agents" from many aspects of public life, including teaching, the civil service, elections and public events. It imposes financial and property restrictions. Criminal prosecution can follow a single administrative fine.

However, I'm unable to point this out to President Putin. The microphone was taken away from me after I'd finished my question.

Suddenly the moderator intervenes to change the subject.

"There's another question here: 'What's going to happen to the BBC? It's facing a multi-billion lawsuit from the US president?'," says anchor Pavel Zarubin.

"I think President Trump is right," President Putin confirms.

The Kremlin and the White House seeing eye to eye… on the BBC.

Putin returns to my question.

"Will there be new special military operations? There won't be, if you treat us with respect, and respect our interests, just as we've always tried to do with you. Unless you cheat us, like you did with Nato's eastward expansion."

Visible for all to see is what is driving Vladimir Putin - a deep-seated resentment of the West.

He argues that, for years, Western leaders have disrespected, deceived and lied to Russia - and that they're lying still by claiming that Moscow intends to attack Europe. "What kind of rubbish is that?" declares the Kremlin leader.

But many European leaders simply don't trust Moscow.

In the run-up to the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials denied they had plans for a mass attack.

More recently Russia has been accused of violating European air space with fighter jets and drones, as well as of carrying out cyber-attacks and acts of sabotage.

But as he finished answering my question, was this an olive branch to Europe from Russia's president?

"We're ready to cease hostilities immediately provided that Russia's medium- and long-term security is ensured, and we are ready to co-operate with you."

However, if Moscow continues to connect its long-term security to its maximalist demands over Ukraine, European leaders will remain sceptical.

Flu should always be taken seriously. It is a virus that kills thousands of people every winter and puts intense strain on hospitals.

However, I can't remember a flu season that has played out quite like this. There have been claims it is both a "superflu" and "unprecedented" across the media and even from NHS England - while experts say this year's flu is not out of the ordinary with accusations of "crying wolf".

So what's really going on and is anything truly different this year?

As I reported in early November, there were concerns the flu season had the potential to be the worst for a decade.

Scientists who track the multitude of flu viruses around the world noticed seven fresh mutations appear in a strain of influenza – a type called H3N2 – in June.

This newly mutated virus rapidly became the dominant form of H3N2 and was named subclade-K.

The flu season took off a month early in the UK hinting the virus may have the potential to spread more widely than normal and it was too late to adjust this year's flu vaccine to match the new mutations.

That was the concern, but the reality has been more in line with a normal flu than a super flu.

The K-flu virus has not gained a dramatic ability to rip through the population.

"It was basically spreading at a very similar speed to previous years, it was towards the upper end, but it wasn't an outlier," says Prof Christophe Fraser, who is analysing the spread of the virus at the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford.

His team's latest analyses, still to be published, suggest the mutations did give the virus a slight edge at slipping past our immunity – in the region of 5-10% more than usual. It is not clear if that applies to everyone or is concentrated just in children and young adults who have caught less flu in the past and who have been most affected so far.

H3N2 viruses always tend to be more severe for the elderly and there is no clear evidence the virus is worse than expected this year. A rapid analysis of the seasonal flu vaccine also suggested it was performing in line with previous years despite fears of a mismatch.

Dr Jamie Lopez Bernal, a consultant epidemiologist at the UKHSA, said: "The things that we saw that were unusual this season are the early start to the season, we also saw this change to the virus, with more evolution than we typically see.

"But overall, in terms of the impact on the NHS and the impact on people's health, we're seeing a broadly typical flu season."

There are suggestions that flu may already be peaking, although this comes with significant uncertainty. There are questions about what happens over Christmas when everyone meets up and it's easier for the virus to infect older people who are more at risk. There are also signs a different strain of flu - H1N1 - is picking up in Europe and may lead to an increase in cases here too.

But a "broadly typical flu season" is probably not the sense you'd get from watching or reading the news.

Statistical artistry was used to compare an early flu season to one that started much later allowing claims of flu cases being "an incredible 10 times higher" than in 2023.

It was technically true, but is like saying your train to Glasgow got you there in record time… but the journey time was identical, you just booked an earlier train.

NHS England was not the first organisation to start calling it superflu, but Prof Meghana Pandit, national medical director at NHS England, did label it an "unprecedented wave of super flu".

It has been suggested by the British Medical Association that flu has been used to scaremonger while resident doctors were deciding whether to continue their strike action.

Superflu isn't a scientific description and the BBC Health Team has not found any expert who thinks it is an accurate one.

"I don't think it's a helpful term, there isn't a particularly unusual set of symptoms, there's no indication of it being associated with exceptional severity, exceptionally rapid spread or exceptional health impact," says Prof Fraser.

One of the UK's top flu scientists, Prof Nicola Lewis, the director of the World Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute, said the virus was "not particularly unusual" and that she saw "no evidence" the virus was "particularly different" and superflu "wouldn't be my description".

The former deputy chief medical officer for England through the pandemic, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, posted: "I'm very unclear what is meant by the rather silly term of 'superflu'."

Crying wolf?

Persuading people to get the flu vaccine saves lives and last winter the jabs were estimated to have kept around 100,000 people out of hospital.

However, experts have started to question whether the escalation in language used since the Covid pandemic could harm trust in official health advice. Previous winters came with warnings of a tripledemic of flu, Covid and RSV; then it was upgraded to a quademic adding in norovirus; this year it's superflu.

Dr Simon Williams, who researches psychology and public health at Swansea University, says there are issues with the "current language around every winter being 'the worst' in some way or another" and risks a "cry wolf" effect that damages trust and means people become "numb" to the advice.

He said there was a danger of "over-using the narrative that viruses will overwhelm the NHS" when "ultimately the NHS hasn't got overwhelmed to the point of not being able to carry out emergency and basic functions".

Instead he argues a "fine balance" is needed between raising awareness and "not falling into the trap of fear-messaging or being overly alarmist, which can backfire".

Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist at Nottingham University, agrees saying: "I think it is a concern to use words like super flu, when we may one day experience a real super flu.

"We have to be very, very careful about how we communicate these things to the public, because there is a risk that we can cry wolf."

It was a Sunday afternoon in April 1996 when a lone gunman armed with semi-automatic rifles killed 35 people in the Australian tourist town of Port Arthur.

The massacre almost 30 years ago, which ushered in some of the strictest gun laws in the world, feels like a bygone age for many Australians.

But the Bondi Beach attack on Sunday, which left 15 dead, rekindled memories of the Tasmanian tragedy - none more so than for leading gun control advocate Roland Browne.

As the country's deadliest modern-day mass shooting was unfolding an hour's drive away, Mr Browne was meeting fellow gun control advocates at his home, ahead of a government meeting, to lobby for a ban on the exact type of firearm the Port Arthur gunman was using.

Mr Browne, 66, was again at home in Hobart on Sunday when he received news of the shooting at Bondi, targeting a Jewish event celebrating the first night of Hanukkah.

"There's just a lot of similarities," Mr Browne, who spent childhood summers in Bondi and still has family there, told the BBC.

"They're both very public places frequented by tourists from around the nation and around the world."

"It's sickening and I'm bitterly disappointed in our political system whereby the voices for tighter gun laws and public health aren't listened to until there's a major event like this," he added.

For decades, Australia has stood as a beacon on the world stage for its strict gun laws, he says, taking a similar path to the UK which experienced its own mass shooting in Dunblane, just one month before Port Arthur.

Even now, Mr Browne remains friends with relatives of some of the 17 victims - mostly children aged five and six - killed at a primary school in Scotland.

But despite being praised for its stringent gun laws, the reality in Australia is not clear-cut.

Gun ownership at record high

A report by the Australia Institute earlier this year revealed that there are more than four million privately-owned firearms across the country - almost double the amount from about 20 years ago.

That equates to one gun for every seven Australians, the report says.

Queensland has the most registered guns, followed by New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria while Tasmania and the Northern Territory have the most guns per person.

The report also dispels a common view that guns are mainly owned by rural residents.

Guns are widespread in metropolitan and suburban areas, with one in three firearms in NSW located in major cities, the report said.

The total figure has risen at a lower rate than population increases, but there are now more guns in fewer hands, with every licence holder owning an average of more than four firearms.

And that's one of the key issues that Mr Browne wants the government to address.

Currently, only one jurisdiction - Western Australia - has a cap on the number of legal firearms that a licence holder can have. Under new laws introduced in March this year, gun owners can have between five and ten firearms, depending on the type of licence and model of firearm.

Authorities have confirmed that one of the alleged gunmen, Sajid Akram who was killed at the scene of the Bondi attack, owned six registered guns.

Mr Browne wants a cap of one to three guns, depending on the licence category, to be introduced across Australia.

But Tom Kenyon, chief executive of the Sporting Shooters Association of Australia, argues that a cap would be meaningless.

"Limiting the number of guns wouldn't have made a difference on Sunday," he says.

"And it wouldn't have changed the fact that an attack occurred because those two individuals had been radicalised."

Mr Kenyon argues that people intent on harm, without access to guns, will use other weapons, referencing the 2016 Bastille Day massacre in the French city of Nice where 86 people were killed after a man drove a truck into crowds during fireworks celebrations. The attack was claimed by Islamic State (IS).

The other alleged Bondi gunman, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, was previously investigated over links to IS, according to comments made by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Mr Kenyon also says that more guns are found in cities because most people in Australia live in metropolitan areas and travel to other areas to hunt.

What are Australia's current gun laws?

Gun control laws in Australia are not uniform across the country, with inconsistent implementation of the rules across states and territories.

But generally, to apply for a gun licence, you must be over 18, a "fit and proper person", pass a training and safety course and give a "genuine reason" for having a firearm.

The eight accepted reasons include recreational hunting or pest control, target or sport shooting, for work (such as security guards and prison officers), for use in farming or animal welfare and firearms collectors.

But there are loopholes.

For example, anyone under 18 was meant to be barred from owning a firearm under the 1996 gun control reforms, but minors in various jurisdictions can have access to a firearm while under supervision, ranging from age 10 in the Northern Territory to 12 in other states.

Another situation is where a particular type of gun is banned in one state but legal elsewhere.

In the days after the Port Arthur massacre, then-Australian prime ministerJohn Howard galvanised every state and territory to overhaul the country's gun laws.

More than 650,000 firearms were voluntarily handed in to authorities and destroyed, as part of a buyback programme. And background checks and a mandatory cooling-off period for gun sales were introduced. Automatic and semi-automatic rifles and shotguns were banned.

Similar gun reforms - a ban on semi-automatic weapons and a buyback scheme - were introduced in New Zealand after a white supremacist killed 51 Muslims at two Christchurch mosques in 2019.

Part of Howard's reforms included scrapping self-defence as a reason for owning a firearm - a contrast to gun laws in the United States where personal protection is often the main reason for citizens to own guns.

Gun ownership in the US is much higher compared to Australia as is gun violence. The country saw 488 mass shootings - defined as where four or more people are killed or injured - last year.

Recent polling by the Australia Institute showed that seven out of ten Australians think gun laws should make it harder to access a gun and 64% agreed that current gun laws need to be strengthened.

Fresh reform for gun laws

In the hours after the Bondi shooting, the NSW Premier Chris Minns was unequivocal about the need to tighten the state's gun laws.

"If you're not a farmer, you're not involved in agriculture, why do you need these massive weapons?" he asked.

And less than 24 hours after the shooting, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hosted an emergency meeting where leaders from across the country pledged to tighten gun laws. On Friday he announced a national gun buyback scheme "to help get guns off our streets", the first scheme of its size since 1996.

Other proposals include:

• limiting the number of guns someone can legally own
• limiting "open-ended" licensing
• making Australian citizenship a condition of owning a firearm
• improving intelligence sharing when licence applications are being assessed

Albanese said there should also be regular reviews of licence holders.

"People's circumstances can change," he said. "People can be radicalised over a period of time."

The swift action prompted Howard – the architect of the 1996 gun laws – to weigh in.

While he supported stricter gun laws, Howard said the move was an "attempted diversion" from the real cause of the tragedy, which he said was a rise in antisemitism in recent years.

Mr Kenyon believes the moves to tighten gun laws are a waste of resources.

"All that time and effort and political capital could be spent combating radicalisation of individuals," he says.

The only thing that might have prevented Sunday's attack was better intelligence-sharing that would have flagged the gunmen's links to extremist ideology to the NSW firearms' registry, he says.

Elsewhere, one of the headline reforms proposed in 1996 - a national firearms register - is yet to be created, with authorities saying the database is "expected to be operational by mid-2028".

Little had been done to implement the measure until the 2022 fatal shooting of two police officers and a civilian in Wieambilla became a catalyst to speed the process up.

The Bondi shooting has now propelled the government to list the creation of the register as a priority.

Recreational hunting under spotlight

Mr Browne believes the application process for a gun licence is too easy and that licences for recreational hunting should be abolished as its definition is ambiguous.

Sajid Akram owned a recreational hunting licence.

But recreational hunting contributes a "valuable social good" to Australia, argues Mr Kenyon, saying that hunters remove millions of feral animals such as rabbits, foxes and cats.

He was just 10 when he picked up his first gun. Now 53, he goes on regular hunting trips - often shooting deer in Victoria's high country - and competes in pistol shooting events six times a year.

Hunting isn't just a pastime for him, it's about family and community connections. He taught his three children - all adults now - how to shoot when they were teens.

"All my life I've had the opportunity to do it and I've enjoyed it," Mr Kenyon, a former Labour politician in South Australia, says, "so I want my kids to have the same opportunity".

In the wake of the Port Arthur massacre, self-loading firearms were banned, resulting in a drop in gun-related deaths, but the risk to public safety has now shifted to high-powered fast-loading rifles with magazines that can shoot up to five rounds, of the kind believed to have been used by the gunmen.

"If you watch the video, you'll see him firing rapidly with his rifle," Mr Browne says, referring to footage of one of the gunmen shooting from a footbridge leading to Bondi Beach.

"If he didn't have a magazine in that rifle, he would have had to manually reload each time," which would dramatically reduce - but not eliminate - the threat of a mass shooting.

Mass shootings remain rare in Australia.

In 2018, a Western Australian grandfather killed his wife, his daughter and four grandchildren before turning the gun on himself in what was, at the time, the worst such incident since Port Arthur.

For Mr Browne, Australia is a safe country but incidents involving firearms are not uncommon, ranging from neighbourhood disputes to gang shootings.

"This is a reflection on guns being in the wrong hands, a legacy of poor storage allowing guns to be stolen and sold - and thus move into black markets."

But the issue of gun control isn't just about the physical firearm.

"It's like a plane crash, it's never just one thing. It's a culmination of a lot of factors," he says. Australia needs better assessment of whether a licence holder is a suitable candidate and more stringent rules on the types of guns that can be legally owned, he says.

Tragedy is a wake-up call

In the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre, Mr Browne met with many of the survivors and families of the victims including Walter Mikac, whose wife Nanette and two young daughters were among the 35 people killed.

Mr Mikac, who founded the Alannah and Madeline Foundation charity to honour his children, said the Bondi shooting was a "horrific reminder" of ensuring Australia's gun laws protect everyone.

"After Port Arthur, Australia made a collective commitment to put community safety first, and that commitment remains as important today as ever," he said in a statement.

Mr Browne echoed those sentiments.

Gun laws need to be reformed to "keep up-to-date with changing community attitudes, technological advances and to rectify identified deficiencies," Mr Browne says.

"It's sad that it takes such a tragedy to get people to wake up and listen."

There can be a lot to think about at Christmas, from whether public transport is running to when shops and services are open.

With UK bank holidays on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day, and a fourth holiday in Scotland on 2 January, here are some tips to help you win the festive period.

When are roads likely to be busiest?

Motoring organisations the RAC and AA predict that 2025 could see the busiest festive getaway on record.

The RAC expects 37.5 million trips to take place in the week running up to Christmas Day. It thinks roads are likely to be especially busy after lunchtime on Saturday 20 December, and during the afternoon and evening on Christmas Eve.

It suggests the following periods may be quieter:

• Saturday 20 December, before 12:00 GMT
• Sunday 21 December, before 10:00
• Monday 22 December, after 17:00
• Tuesday 23 December, before 11:00
• Wednesday 24 December, before 11:00

You can check for planned roadworks and closures in England on the National Highways website.

For instance, the M27 motorway will be closed in both directions between junctions nine (Whiteley) and 11 (Fareham), from 20:00 on 24 December until 04:00 on Sunday 4 January.

Details of planned roadworks are also available from Traffic Scotland, Traffic Wales and TrafficwatchNI.

You can also check local weather warnings before setting off.

Make sure you have plenty of fuel, that your tyres are properly inflated and your lights are working. Prepare for bad weather by carrying a charged phone, food, drinks and warm clothes. Top up your screen wash and de-icer supplies.

Many BP and Shell petrol stations will be open as usual, but some garages may have shorter hours. All Tesco petrol stations will be closed on Christmas Day. On other days, opening hours could be different to those of the linked store.

Are trains, buses and ferries running?

Trains

Some National Rail services will finish early on Christmas Eve, and no trains will run on Christmas Day.

Most train operators won't run any services on Boxing Day either. However, a small number of firms (Chiltern Railways, London Overground, Merseyrail, ScotRail, Southern and Stansted Express) will have a very limited service.

The UK's busiest station, London's Liverpool Street, will be closed for eight days between Christmas Day and New Year's Day, for works on its roof.

No trains will call at London Waterloo on 27 and 28 December, with trains terminating at Clapham Junction and a reduced timetable between 29 December and 4 January.

Improvement works will also affect services into Cardiff Central station between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve.

You can check for other engineering works and timetable alterations on the National Rail website.

There are no Eurostar services on Christmas Day, but trains are running every other day.

Buses and coaches

Most local bus services will not run on Christmas Day, but check individual websites for detailed schedule information.

National Express is running extra coaches on a number of UK routes between 20 December and 4 January.

On Christmas Day itself, 355 services will operate from 96 locations. This includes routes between Edinburgh, Glasgow and London, as well as some to and from Heathrow, Gatwick and Luton airports.

Transport for London (Tfl)

Bus, tram, DLR, underground, overground and Elizabeth Line services will finish earlier than usual on Christmas Eve. No services will run on Christmas Day.

There is no Elizabeth line service on Boxing Day, and a number of overground lines are also shut. Some Tube lines have restricted service. No night Tube or night overground services will operate.

Tfl services will run through the night on New Year's Eve.

Some black taxis and private cab firms may operate throughout the period, including Christmas Day. Hire bikes and electric scooters will be available.

The congestion charge will not apply between Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) is suspended on Christmas Day only, but the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) remains active throughout the period.

Blackwall and Silvertown tunnels charges do not apply on Christmas Day.

Ferries

The Port of Dover will close at 15:30 GMT on Christmas Eve and reopen at 07:30 on Boxing Day.

The final departures on 24 December are:

• DFDS (Dunkerque route): 12:00
• DFDS (Calais route): 13:15
• Irish Ferries:14:25
• P&O: 16:05

There are no sailings to or from Holyhead or Portsmouth ports on Christmas Day either, but services will run on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.

What if I'm flying over Christmas?

Most UK airports are open on Christmas Day, although they may have a reduced schedule. All Heathrow and Gatwick terminals will be open as normal.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) expects Friday 19 December to be the busiest travel day, with around 460,000 passengers. Around 160,000 people are due to fly on Christmas Day itself, a 13% increase on 2024.

Planned strike action at London Luton Airport could cause disruption, between 19 and 29 December. Some easyJet check-in and baggage handling staff employed by DHL Group are set to walk out over pay.

All air passengers are advised to check the status of their flights before setting off. Experts also recommend confirming any return journey.

As usual, passengers should arrive at the airport three hours before long-haul flights and two hours before short-haul flights.

You may need to make alternative travel arrangements to get to the airport if public transport is not running. If you plan to drive, consider booking parking in advance.

The CAA recommends that passengers:

• leave presents in hand luggage unwrapped, to allow security checks
• remember that party poppers are not allowed on UK aircraft
• remember that some airlines do not allow other festive items like crackers

What if I need a doctor or dentist?

GP surgeries are generally closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

Some practices offer out-of-hours services which you can access via the NHS 111 helpline, which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Calls are free from landlines and mobile phones.

If you run out of medication when your GP is closed, you can use the NHS 111 emergency prescription service.

A&E departments will be open as usual throughout the festive period. Urgent treatment centres are also operating, but may have reduced hours.

You should only call 999 for life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks, strokes, severe bleeding or difficulty breathing.

Most NHS dentists are closed on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day. Emergency services are available via NHS 111 for urgent issues.

When will pharmacies be open?

Most pharmacies will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

However, one or more should be open near you under out-of-hours arrangements. Your local pharmacy should display details of the rota, or you can find details online.

You can find open pharmacies near you via the relevant NHS website:

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

Boots will open more than 60 pharmacies on Christmas Day and more than 460 on New Year's Day.

All Superdrug pharmacies will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Most branches in Scotland will remain shut on 2 January.

What about supermarkets and food delivery services?

You should check your local store's opening hours, but in general you should assume:

• early closing on Christmas Eve
• almost all stores will be shut on Christmas Day
• Aldi, Lidl, M&S and most Waitrose shops will also close on Boxing Day. Other chains have reduced hours
• early closing on New Year's Eve
• Aldi, Lidl, M&S and most Waitrose shops are closed on New Year's Day

Smaller local shops are more likely to be open earlier and later than the large superstores. Many petrol station forecourt shops will be open too.

The Deliveroo, Just Eat and Uber Eats apps and websites will be running throughout the festive period, but restaurants will set their own operating hours.

When will universal credit and other benefits be paid over Christmas?

Some payments will be made earlier if they're due between 24 December 2025 and 2 January 2026:

• universal credit payments due on 24, 25, or 26 December will be made on 24 December
• other payments due on 24, 25, 26 December will be paid on 23 December
• all payments due on 1 January including Universal Credit will be paid on 31 December
• in Scotland, payments due on 2 January will be made on 31 December

Child benefit payments due on bank holidays will also be paid on a different date:

• in Northern Ireland, payments due on 29 or 30 December will be paid on 30 and 31 December
• in Scotland, payments due on 5 January will be made on 6 January

The Department for Work and Pensions says that you should tell the office that pays your benefit if you do not get your payment.

The US says its military has carried out a "massive strike" against the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria, in response to a deadly attack on American forces in the country.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said Operation Hawkeye Strike was aimed at eliminating IS "fighters, infrastructure, and weapons sites".

Fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery hit multiple targets in central Syria, US officials told CBS, the BBC's media partner in the US. Aircraft from Jordan were also involved.

President Donald Trump later said "we are striking very strongly" against IS strongholds, after the 13 December IS ambush in the city of Palmyra in which two US soldiers and a US civilian interpreter were killed.

In a post on X late on Friday, Hegseth wrote: "This is not the beginning of a war - it is a declaration of vengeance. The United States of America, under President Trump's leadership, will never hesitate and never relent to defend our people.

"If you target Americans - anywhere in the world - you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you.

"Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue," the US defence secretary added.

Meanwhile, the US Central Command (Centcom) said that "US forces have commenced a large-scale strike" against IS, adding that more information would be provided soon.

Posting on Truth Social later on, President Trump said the US "is inflicting very serious retaliation, just as I promised, on the murderous terrorists responsible".

He said the Syrian government was "fully in support".

Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OBHR) said IS positions near the cities of Raqqa and Deir ez Zor were targeted.

It said that a prominent IS leader and a number of fighters were killed.

IS has not publicly commented. The BBC was unable to verify the targets immediately.

Centcom, which directs American military operations in Europe, Africa and the Indo-Pacific, earlier said that the deadly attack in Palmyra was carried out by an IS gunman, who was "engaged and killed".

Another three US soldiers were injured in the ambush, with a Pentagon official saying that it happened "in an area where the Syrian president does not have control."

At the same time, the SOHR said the attacker was a member of the Syrian security forces.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the identity of the gunman has not been released.

In 2019, a US-backed alliance of Syrian fighters announced IS had lost the last pocket of territory in Syria it controlled, but since then the jihadist group has carried out some attacks.

The United Nations says the group still has between 5,000 and 7,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.

US troops have maintained a presence in Syria since 2015 to help train other forces as part of a campaign against IS.

Timothée Chalamet has finally quashed rumours that he is cult anonymous rapper EsDeeKid - by performing alongside him in a new video.

Speculation has run riot that the Oscar-nominated US actor has been leading a double life as the masked rapper, who only ever reveals his eyes.

Some followers spotted an apparent resemblance with Chalamet's eyes, and when the BBC questioned the star about the connection earlier this week, he responded: "No comment... You'll see, all in due time."

Now, the actor - who adopted the hip-hop moniker Lil Timmy Tim in high school - has scotched the conspiracies by posting a video of himself rapping alongside EsDeeKid on a remix of the musician's top 40 hit 4Raws.

In the music video, Chalamet appeared to refer to the rumours by starting with only his eyes on show, like the drill artist, before pulling down the bandana from his face and dropping the bars: "It's Timothée Chalamet chillin', tryin' to stack $100 million."

He then referenced his partner Kylie Jenner with the line: "Girl got $1 billion."

The clip was filmed at Andover Minimarket Off Licence in north London, and was reposted by EsDeeKid.

The speculation has been seized upon by fans in recent weeks, and both sides stayed silent as EsDeeKid reached the UK top 10 and Chalamet promoted his new film.

He even gave the title, Marty Supreme, several shout-outs in the new collaboration, building on an already savvy marketing campaign for the film.

But it was always far-fetched that the two people could be one and the same, and that Chalamet could have pulled off rapping with EsDeeKid's Liverpudlian accent.

Their collaboration quickly went viral, with British rapper Central Cee replying "Naaa" with crying and laughing emojis, Tinie Tempah posting "Hahha this is sickkk" and US star Shaboozey declaring "This going #1".

Additional reporting by Lola Schroer.

This article contains descriptions of sexual abuse and violence which some readers may find distressing.

Two Palestinian men have told the BBC they personally experienced the kind of beatings and sexual abuse highlighted in recent reports into the treatment of prisoners in Israeli detention.

The United Nations Committee against Torture said last month that it was deeply concerned about reports indicating "a de facto state policy of organised and widespread torture and ill treatment" of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. It said the allegations had "gravely intensified" after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.

Other reports by Israeli and Palestinian rights groups have detailed what they say is "systematic" abuse.

Israel has denied all the allegations, but rights groups say the fury in the country over the 7 October attacks and the treatment of Israeli hostages in Gaza has created a culture of impunity within the prison services, especially towards detainees who have expressed support for Hamas and its attacks.

Last year, leaked CCTV footage from inside an Israeli military prison showed a Palestinian man from Gaza allegedly being sexually abused by prison guards. That led to a resignation and recriminations at the top of Israel's military and political establishment.

Sami al-Saei, 46, now works in a furniture shop, but he used to be a freelance journalist in the town of Tulkarm, in the north of the occupied West Bank.

He was arrested by Israeli soldiers in January 2024 after working with reporters to arrange interviews with members of Hamas and other armed groups.

He was detained without being charged for 16 months, under a controversial Israeli system known as administrative detention, before being released this summer.

While he was being held in Megiddo prison in northern Israel, he said, the guards partially stripped him and raped him with a baton on or around 13 March 2024.

He said he had decided to speak to the BBC about his allegations of sexual abuse, despite the risk of being ostracised in the often conservative Palestinian society in the West Bank.

"There were five or six of them," he said.

"They were laughing and enjoying it. The guard asked me: 'Are you enjoying this? We want to play with you, and bring your wife, your sister, your mother, and friends here too,'" Mr al-Saei continued.

"I was hoping to die and be done from that, as the pain was not only caused by the rape, but also from the severe and painful beating."

He said the assault lasted around 15 to 20 minutes, during which time the guards also squeezed his genitals, causing extreme pain.

He said the beatings happened on an almost daily basis, but he was only sexually abused once.

The BBC asked the Israel Prison Service (IPS) for a response to Mr al-Saei's allegations. It sent a statement, which said: "We operate in full accordance with the law, while ensuring the safety, welfare, and rights of all inmates under its custody.

"We are not aware of the claims described, and to the best of our knowledge, no such incidents have occurred under IPS responsibility."

We also asked the IPS whether an investigation had been launched into the alleged sexual assault and whether any medical records existed. It did not comment.

Allegations of abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons have been made for decades, but one recent case has shaken the country's establishment and deepened a growing divide in Israeli society over the treatment of prisoners and detainees accused of supporting Hamas.

In August 2024, leaked CCTV from inside Sde Teiman military prison in southern Israel showed a Palestinian detainee from Gaza allegedly being abused with a sharp object by soldiers, leaving the man with a pierced rectum. The assault allegedly happened in July 2024.

Five Israeli reservist soldiers were charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm to the detainee.

Last month, they convened a press conference on Israeli television, four of them appearing in black balaclavas to hide their identities.

In an interview with Channel 14 News, a fifth soldier pulled off his mask to reveal his face, saying he had nothing to hide.

All five have denied the charges.

The reservists held the press conference after it emerged that the CCTV footage was leaked by the Israeli military's top lawyer, Military Advocate General Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi.

She resigned in October, saying that she took full responsibility for the leak. She explained that she had wanted to "counter false propaganda against the army's law enforcement authorities" – a reference to claims from some right-wing politicians that the allegations were fabricated.

Supporters of the far right have held protests in support of the five accused reservists outside Sde Teiman prison.

In July, before her resignation, at a fiery committee hearing at Israel's parliament, Hanoch Milwidsky, a politician from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party, was challenged over whether raping a detainee was acceptable.

"Shut up, shut up," he shouted. "Yes, everything is legitimate if they are Nukhba [elite Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October attacks]. Everything."

A recent opinion poll by the widely respected Israel Democracy Institute indicated that the majority of the Israeli public oppose investigating soldiers when they are suspected of having abused Palestinians from Gaza.

Ahmed, not his real name, lives in the West Bank with his wife and 11 children.

He was arrested by soldiers in January 2024 and was found guilty of incitement to terrorism, after making social media posts praising the 7 October Hamas-led attacks, in which around 1,200 people, mostly Israelis, were killed and a further 251 were taken hostage.

He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined 3,000 shekels ($935, £700).

He alleges serious sexual abuse while in Israeli detention.

"The prison guards, three of them, took me into a bathroom and stripped me completely naked before forcing me to the ground," Ahmed said in an interview at his home.

"They put my head in the toilet bowl and a massive man, maybe 150kg (330lb), stood on my head, so I was bent over. Then, I heard the voice of someone talking to the prison dog. The dog was named Messi, like the footballer."

He then detailed how he said the dog was used to sexually humiliate him. He said his trousers and underwear were removed and the dog mounted his back.

"I could feel its breath... then it jumped on me... I started to scream. The more I screamed, the more they beat me until I almost lost consciousness."

During his time in detention, Ahmed also said the guards would beat him on a regular basis, including on his genitals.

He said he was released 12 days after the alleged sexual abuse, after serving his full sentence.

We asked Ahmed if there were any medical documents regarding his claims, but he said he did not have any.

We contacted the IPS to ask for a response to Ahmed's allegations, and if an investigation had been launched into his alleged abuse, but we did not receive a reply.

There are over 9,000 Palestinian security detainees held in Israeli jails, nearly double the number before the 7 October attacks. Many have never been charged.

The recent report by the UN Committee against Torture unequivocally condemned the 7 October attacks, and also expressed deep concern over Israel's response and the huge loss of human life in Gaza.

Some of the hostages abducted on 7 October and survivors of the attacks have also made allegations of sexual abuse, rape and torture by Hamas and its allies.

Hamas has also publicly executed Palestinians in Gaza accused of collaborating with Israel.

There are also claims of abuse within prisons run by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is in charge in parts of the West Bank not under Israeli control and is a political and military rival of Hamas.

The BBC has spoken to a former detainee who said PA security officers beat him and used electric shocks on him.

The BBC has contacted the PA for comment but received no reply. It has previously denied allegations of systematic abuse.

In a report submitted in October to the UN Committee against Torture, five Israeli human rights groups said there had been "a dramatic escalation in torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment across all detention facilities, carried out with near total impunity and implemented as state policy targeting Palestinians".

Adalah, the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Parents Against Child Detention, HaMoked, and Physicians for Human Rights–Israel presented evidence that they said showed Israel had "dismantled existing safeguards and now employs torture throughout the entire detention process - from arrest to imprisonment - targeting Palestinians under occupation and Palestinian citizens, with senior officials sanctioning these abuses while judicial and administrative mechanisms fail to intervene".

The report said such practices had resulted in a surge of Palestinian deaths in custody, with at least 94 deaths in Israeli custody documented between the start of the Gaza war and the end of August 2025.

Israel's ambassador to the UN in Geneva rejected the allegations made before the UN Committee against Torture as "disinformation".

Daniel Meron told the expert panel last month that Israel was "committed to upholding its obligations in line with our moral values and principles, even in the face of the challenges posed by a terrorist organisation".

He said the relevant Israeli agencies complied fully with the prohibition against torture and that Israel rejected allegations of systematic use of sexual and gender-based violence.

Best-selling children's author and comedian David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher HarperCollins, the company has said.

A spokesman for the publisher said: "After careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams."

The Telegraph reported that the decision was made after an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards young women.

HarperCollins did not confirm the reasons for its decision, adding: "We do not comment on internal matters." Walliams has not yet responded to the decision or the Telegraph report.

Walliams is one of the UK's most successful children's authors, having sold more than 60 million copies worldwide in 55 languages.

Some of his books, including Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, have also been adapted into television films.

He rose to fame on TV sketch series Little Britain and has also won National Television Awards for his work as a judge on Britain's Got Talent.

He was made an OBE in 2017 his services to charity and the arts.

Kylie Minogue has scored this year's Christmas number one, deposing Wham!'s Last Christmas, which topped the chart in 2023 and 2024.

The pop star achieved the feat with her single XMAS, an irrepressibly jaunty anthem about "the presents underneath the tree" and kissing someone special "out in the snow".

Arriving 37 years after her first UK number one hit, I Should Be So Lucky in 1988, it makes Kylie the first female artist to top the charts in four different decades.

"It's hard to put into words how special this feels," said the singer, adding that she'd be celebrating Christmas by "obsessing over a jigsaw" with her family in Australia.

XMAS is taken from a new, expanded edition of her 2015 album Kylie Christmas, and was available exclusively through Amazon.

You could argue that gave her a slight advantage because XMAS was prominently positioned on Amazon Music's Christmas playlist. But it also meant her song was unavailable on rival streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music.

But the combination of her plays on Amazon and YouTube, and the availability of limited edition vinyl and CD singles, ultimately gave her the Christmas crown.

"Kylie really, really targeted this particular race. Her record label pulled out all the stops," said Martin Talbot, head of the Official Charts Company.

"When you have a superstar of her status really going for it, she's always going to be in with a chance."

According to chart data, Kylie's Christmas charm offensive gave the star her biggest sales week in 23 years, since 2002's Love At First Sight.

Close race

Despite that, Talbot said the competition for this year's Christmas number one was "tight right the way through the week".

At one point, only 10,000 copies separated the top five songs.

Mariah Carey and Brenda Lee were also in contention for the top spot as people pumped Christmas classics into their playlists.

The Christmas Top 10 in full:

1. Kylie Minogue - XMAS
2. Wham! - Last Christmas
3. Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
4. Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
5. Together For Palestine - Lullaby
6. Pogues ft Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
7. Dave ft Tems - Raindance
8. Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree
9. Elton John - Step Into Christmas
10. Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock

It wasn't Kylie's first attempt to scale the festive summit.

Her duet with Jason Donovan, Especially For You, was a major contender for Christmas number one in 1988, but ultimately took the runners-up position behind Cliff Richard's Mistletoe and Wine.

Despite finally triumphing in the seasonal chart, she said she was planning a quiet Christmas after completing her massive, 66-date Tension World Tour.

That means settling down to watch the Boxing Day cricket Test match between Australia and England while chipping away at a jigsaw.

"We're not long-term puzzlers, but somehow a jigsaw puzzle was on the end of the dining table in the family house last Christmas," she explained.

"So all Christmas, you'd float past and, if someone else was working on it, you'd be like, 'Is now the right time? Are we on the same page? Should we work on separate zones?'

"But as time went by, we were getting nowhere. There were all these trouble zones - a bit of blue sky and a big patch of grass - and nobody could get them. No-one.

"Then, maybe about a month ago, my brother sent me a video of the moment the last piece of the puzzle went in.

"I was like, 'Oh my God! Hallelujah that he happened to be filming!'

"So this year, I know there's a new jigsaw puzzle with a $1 sticker on the box from our local op shop [charity shop]. It's another 1,000-piecer and we'll start all over."

Wham! had been hoping to become the first act to top the Christmas chart three times with the same song.

Last Christmas was famously denied the top spot when it was first released in 1984, due to the phenomenal success of Band Aid's charity single Do They Know It's Christmas?

It finally reached the summit in 2023, thanks to a wave of goodwill and strong streaming numbers. It topped the chart again last year with a massive 12.6 million streams in Christmas week alone.

Although Wham! were beaten by Kylie in the UK, Last Christmas has just topped Billboard's global 200 for the first time - meaning it's the number one song in the world.

BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders, who presents the UK chart show, attributed the song's enduring popularity to its message.

"It's a fantastic pop song," he said, "but it also captures the true heart and soul of what Christmas means to people. It's family coming together, it's reigniting friendships, it's community.

"When you hear Wham! on the radio, you think, oh yeah we are all in this together, this is our song."

Other songs in the running for this year's Christmas number one included Together For Palestine's charity single, Lullaby, which is raising funds for aid for people in Gaza.

Based on the traditional Palestinian folk song Yamma Mwel El Hawa (Mama, Sing to the Wind), it features new lyrics by Peter Gabriel and was recorded by a group of Palestinian artists alongside British stars like Neneh Cherry, Celeste and Dan from Bastille.

"To me, the Lullaby will always be number one," said Nai Barghouti, who features on the track.

"I am beyond proud of and humbled by the overwhelming support that we have received globally. Thank you to each and every one of you."

Britain's roads, railways and airports are set to be thronged by festive travellers on what is is anticipated to be the busiest day for Christmas trips.

The AA has warned of gridlock on Friday as 24.4 million cars are expected to hit the roads.

It is also expected to be the busiest day of the Christmas period for airports, with 460,000 journeys planned.

Network Rail has also advised travellers to check their journeys and book a seat if possible.

Drivers told to allow extra time

The AA said this Christmas could be the busiest on record for UK roads, and advised drivers to allow extra time to complete their journeys.

The insurance company said most people driving during the festive period travelled less than 100 miles, meaning congestion is likely around motorway interchanges and retail destinations.

AA patrol expert Shaun Jones said patience behind the wheel "will be your best present this year".

"Plan ahead, check your route, and allow extra time," he said.

• The M27 will be closed between Junction 9 (Whiteley/Park Gate) and Junction 11 (Fareham East/Gosport) from Christmas Eve to 4 January, so anyone travelling in Hampshire should plan alternative routes.

Rail closures

Network Rail also encouraged passengers to allow extra time for train travel. Improvement works taking place over the Christmas period mean several routes will be closed or restricted.

Information on what routes will be closed for repairs can be found on the Network Rail website.

National Rail trains do not run on Christmas Day and only a small number will run on Boxing Day.

Daniel Mann, Director of Industry Operations at the Rail Delivery Group, said: "We encourage customers to reserve seats where possible, bring only luggage that is easy to carry and fits in designated storage areas, and allow extra time for their journeys."

Flights

Friday is expected to be the busiest day of the festive season for airports, but the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said flying on Christmas Day was becoming more popular.

It advised customers to know their rights in case their flight is cancelled or delayed.

If this happens, airlines are required to support passengers. This can include:

• Providing food and drink during extended delays
• Covering accommodation if passengers are delayed overnight
• Offering a refund or alternative travel if a flight is cancelled

If your flight is cancelled, and it is covered by UK law, your airline must let you choose between either getting a refund or being booked on to an alternative flight.

You can check if your flight is covered under UK law here.

The CAA also said that travellers can minimise their risk of delays by ensuring their cases are packed correctly.

This includes leaving presents unwrapped as they may need to be inspected.

Kylie Minogue has scored this year's Christmas number one, deposing Wham!'s Last Christmas, which topped the chart in 2023 and 2024.

The pop star achieved the feat with her single XMAS, an irrepressibly jaunty anthem about "the presents underneath the tree" and kissing someone special "out in the snow".

Arriving 37 years after her first UK number one hit, I Should Be So Lucky in 1988, it makes Kylie the first female artist to top the charts in four different decades.

"It's hard to put into words how special this feels," said the singer, adding that she'd be celebrating Christmas by "obsessing over a jigsaw" with her family in Australia.

XMAS is taken from a new, expanded edition of her 2015 album Kylie Christmas, and was available exclusively through Amazon.

You could argue that gave her a slight advantage because XMAS was prominently positioned on Amazon Music's Christmas playlist. But it also meant her song was unavailable on rival streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music.

But the combination of her plays on Amazon and YouTube, and the availability of limited edition vinyl and CD singles, ultimately gave her the Christmas crown.

"Kylie really, really targeted this particular race. Her record label pulled out all the stops," said Martin Talbot, head of the Official Charts Company.

"When you have a superstar of her status really going for it, she's always going to be in with a chance."

According to chart data, Kylie's Christmas charm offensive gave the star her biggest sales week in 23 years, since 2002's Love At First Sight.

Close race

Despite that, Talbot said the competition for this year's Christmas number one was "tight right the way through the week".

At one point, only 10,000 copies separated the top five songs.

Mariah Carey and Brenda Lee were also in contention for the top spot as people pumped Christmas classics into their playlists.

The Christmas Top 10 in full:

1. Kylie Minogue - XMAS
2. Wham! - Last Christmas
3. Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
4. Brenda Lee - Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree
5. Together For Palestine - Lullaby
6. Pogues ft Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
7. Dave ft Tems - Raindance
8. Kelly Clarkson - Underneath The Tree
9. Elton John - Step Into Christmas
10. Bobby Helms - Jingle Bell Rock

It wasn't Kylie's first attempt to scale the festive summit.

Her duet with Jason Donovan, Especially For You, was a major contender for Christmas number one in 1988, but ultimately took the runners-up position behind Cliff Richard's Mistletoe and Wine.

Despite finally triumphing in the seasonal chart, she said she was planning a quiet Christmas after completing her massive, 66-date Tension World Tour.

That means settling down to watch the Boxing Day cricket Test match between Australia and England while chipping away at a jigsaw.

"We're not long-term puzzlers, but somehow a jigsaw puzzle was on the end of the dining table in the family house last Christmas," she explained.

"So all Christmas, you'd float past and, if someone else was working on it, you'd be like, 'Is now the right time? Are we on the same page? Should we work on separate zones?'

"But as time went by, we were getting nowhere. There were all these trouble zones - a bit of blue sky and a big patch of grass - and nobody could get them. No-one.

"Then, maybe about a month ago, my brother sent me a video of the moment the last piece of the puzzle went in.

"I was like, 'Oh my God! Hallelujah that he happened to be filming!'

"So this year, I know there's a new jigsaw puzzle with a $1 sticker on the box from our local op shop [charity shop]. It's another 1,000-piecer and we'll start all over."

Wham! had been hoping to become the first act to top the Christmas chart three times with the same song.

Last Christmas was famously denied the top spot when it was first released in 1984, due to the phenomenal success of Band Aid's charity single Do They Know It's Christmas?

It finally reached the summit in 2023, thanks to a wave of goodwill and strong streaming numbers. It topped the chart again last year with a massive 12.6 million streams in Christmas week alone.

Although Wham! were beaten by Kylie in the UK, Last Christmas has just topped Billboard's global 200 for the first time - meaning it's the number one song in the world.

BBC Radio 1's Jack Saunders, who presents the UK chart show, attributed the song's enduring popularity to its message.

"It's a fantastic pop song," he said, "but it also captures the true heart and soul of what Christmas means to people. It's family coming together, it's reigniting friendships, it's community.

"When you hear Wham! on the radio, you think, oh yeah we are all in this together, this is our song."

Other songs in the running for this year's Christmas number one included Together For Palestine's charity single, Lullaby, which is raising funds for aid for people in Gaza.

Based on the traditional Palestinian folk song Yamma Mwel El Hawa (Mama, Sing to the Wind), it features new lyrics by Peter Gabriel and was recorded by a group of Palestinian artists alongside British stars like Neneh Cherry, Celeste and Dan from Bastille.

"To me, the Lullaby will always be number one," said Nai Barghouti, who features on the track.

"I am beyond proud of and humbled by the overwhelming support that we have received globally. Thank you to each and every one of you."

A Paris court has rejected an effort by the French government to suspend the website of fast-fashion giant Shein in response to it selling childlike sex dolls on its platform.

The court said the request for a three-month suspension was "disproportionate" - but did order age verification for the sale of adult products.

The action against Shein was taken after France's consumer watchdog last month reported it to authorities for selling "sex dolls with a childlike appearance" and weapons.

Shein said its priority remained protecting French consumers and ensuring compliance.

In its judgement, the court acknowledged the seriousness of selling the childlike sex dolls and weapons, but said these had been isolated incidents.

It noted that the Chinese company had taken action to remove the offending items once they were made aware of them, and that the issues related to a small number of the hundreds of thousands of products on sale on its site.

In response to the initial controversy, Shein announced it would be banning the sale of all sex dolls on its site internationally.

A request by the French government for Shein to be forced to suspend the sale of third-party items on its website - the source of the initial offending items - was also rejected.

In ordering age verification measures to be put in place for the sale of adult items, the court said the fine for each breach would be €10,000 (£8,700; $11,700).

The decision to suspend Shein's website in early November coincided with the company opening its first physical store in the French capital.

Its launch drew both shoppers and protesters, with opposition related to the sale of childlike sex dolls, and also its profile as a fast fashion retailer.

In a statement, Shein said: "We remain committed to continuously improving our control processes, in close collaboration with the French authorities, with the aim of establishing some of the most stringent standards in the industry.

"Our priority remains protecting French consumers and ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations."

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said there will be no more wars after Ukraine if Russia is treated with respect - and claims that Moscow is planning to attack European countries are "nonsense".

In a marathon televised event lasting almost four and a half hours, he was asked by the BBC's Steve Rosenberg whether there would be new "special military operations" - Putin's term for the full-scale war.

"There won't be any operations if you treat us with respect, if you respect our interests just as we've always tried to respect yours," he asserted.

His remarks were in line with a recent comment in which he said Russia was not planning to go to war, but was ready "right now" if Europe wanted to.

He also added the condition,"if you don't cheat us like you cheated us with Nato's eastward expansion".

He has long accused Nato of going back on an alleged 1990 Western promise before the fall of the Soviet Union. It was denied years afterwards by late Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

The "Direct Line" marathon combined questions from the public at large and journalists from across Russia in a Moscow hall, with Putin sitting beneath an enormous map of Russia that encompassed occupied areas of Ukraine, including Crimea.

Russian state TV claimed more than three million questions had been submitted.

Although it was largely choreographed, some critical comments from the public appeared on a big screen, including one that referred to the event as a "circus", another bemoaning internet outages and one that highlighted poor-quality tap water. Mobile internet outages have been blamed by authorities on Ukrainian drone attacks.

Putin also addressed Russia's faltering economy, with prices rising, growth on the slide and VAT going up from 20 to 22% on 1 January. One message to the president read: "Stop the crazy rise in prices on everything!"

The Kremlin regularly uses the end-of-year event to highlight the resilience of the economy and, as Putin spoke, Russia's central bank announced it was lowering interest rates to 16%.

Foreign policy issues were mixed with musings about the motherland, praise for local businesses, fish prices and the importance of looking after veterans.

But the issue of almost four years of full-scale war in Ukraine was never far away and it was often in the background of many of the questions.

Putin again claimed to be "ready and willing" to end the war in Ukraine "peacefully" but offered little sign of compromise.

He repeated his insistence on principles he had outlined in a June 2024 speech, when he demanded that Ukrainian forces leave four regions Russia partially occupies and that Kyiv gives up its efforts to join Nato.

Chief among Russia's demands is full control of Ukraine's eastern Donbas, including about 23% of Donetsk region which Russia has not been able to occupy.

Putin argued Russian forces were making advances across the front line in Ukraine and he ridiculed Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to the front line at Kupiansk last week, when the Ukrainian leader was able to refute Russia claims that it had captured the town.

Putin has also demanded new elections in Ukraine to be included in the peace proposals that US President Donald Trump has submitted as part of his efforts to bring the conflict to an end. At his news conference, Putin offered to stop bombing Ukraine when voting took place.

Ukraine's SBU security service said on Friday it had for the first time hit an oil tanker operating as part of Russia's "shadow fleet" in the Mediterranean. Putin said it would not lead to the result that Kyiv wanted and would not disrupt Russian exports.

Most of the questions from Russian media or from the public made little attempt to challenge Putin, but two were allowed from Western correspondents, Keir Simmons of US network NBC and the BBC's Steve Rosenberg.

When Simmons asked if Putin would feel responsible for the deaths of Ukrainians and Russians if he rejected the Trump peace plan, Putin praised the US president's "sincere" efforts to end the war, but said it was the West not Russia that was blocking a deal.

"The ball is in the hands of our Western opponents," he said, "primarily the leaders of the Kyiv regime, and in this case, first and foremost, their European sponsors."

Trump has said a peace deal is closer than ever and, despite Putin's apparent refusal to compromise, the US president has said he hopes "Ukraine moves quickly because Russia is there".

A Ukrainian delegation is holding talks in Miami on Friday with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. German, French and British officials are also there, days after they met the US officials in Berlin.

Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev is also expected in Miami over the weekend, according to reports.

Putin told the BBC's Russia Editor: "We are ready to work with you - with the UK and with Europe in general and with the United States, but as equals, with mutual respect to each other.

"We are ready to cease these hostilities immediately, provided that Russia's medium- and long-term security is ensured, and we are ready to cooperate with you."

He accused the West of creating an enemy out of Russia. Skating over his decision to mount a full-scale invasion in February 2022, he said: "You are waging a war against us with the hands of Ukrainian neo-Nazis," he added, repeating his regular diatribe against Ukraine's democratically elected leaders.

European intelligence agencies have warned that Russia is only a few years away from attacking Nato. The Western defensive alliance's chief Mark Rutte said this month that Russia was already escalating a covert campaign and the West had to be prepared for war.

While many of the questions were benign, including several from children, from a one reporter from Yakutia in north-eastern Siberia highlighted a tenfold increase in energy prices in the past four years. Putin told her that his team would look into alternative sources of energy and "keep Yakutia in mind".

Towards the end of the TV marathon, Putin was asked a series of quickfire questions, touching on his views on friendship, religion, the motherland and love at first sight. He said he believed in love at first sight - then added that he himself was in love, without divulging any more details.

The family of nine-year-old Aria Thorpe, who died from a single stab wound in Weston-super-Mare on Monday, have described her as "the most beautiful little soul".

In a statement, they added: "Our hearts are broken in a way we never imagined possible."

Aria's father, Tom Thorpe, said her death was "devastating" and added: "You will be greatly missed, you special little angel. A life gone far too early but I hope a life lived well. We all love you dearly. Goodnight darling."

A 15-year-old boy appeared at Bristol Crown Court on Friday charged with her murder.

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Scotland's resident doctors are to go on strike in a dispute over pay - the first time a national walkout has been staged by NHS workers.

Their union BMA Scotland had accused the government of reneging on a commitment to restore pay to 2008 levels.

With 92% voting in favour, strike dates have been set for 07:00 on Tuesday 13 January to 07:00 on Saturday 17 January 2026.

However, BMA Scotland said it still believed a resolution could be found and called for the Scottish government to get back to the negotiating table and present a "credible offer".

The Scottish government has been contacted for comment.

Resident doctors - who used to be called junior doctors - make up almost half of the medical workforce in Scotland.

They range from newly qualified doctors to those with up to 10 years experience.

Scotland had been the only part of the UK to have avoided strike action by NHS workers.

With 5,185 resident doctors in Scotland eligible to vote, turnout was 58% with a total of 3,008 votes cast.

A strike in the summer of 2023 was called off at the last minute after a deal was agreed.

As part of that, BMA Scotland said the government committed to making "credible progress" towards restoring pay to 2008 levels in each of the three following financial years.

Dr Chris Smith, chairman of the BMA resident doctors committee, said: "The result of this ballot shows that resident doctors in Scotland are united in anger over the Scottish government breaking the deal they agreed over pay just two years ago.

"This is not where we wanted to be. However, we have sent a message loud and clear – the government cannot brazenly renege on its commitments without expecting to be held to account.

"Instead of negotiating with resident doctors to make credible progress towards pay restoration, as they agreed to do, they have imposed a pay uplift that is the lowest average award received by resident doctors anywhere in the UK."

He said the deal the Scottish government agreed to in 2023 was the only reason strike action had been avoided.

"It was working for doctors and the health service," he said. "By turning their backs on this deal, the Scottish government is forcing a dispute and knowingly putting the NHS in Scotland at risk of disruptive strike action."

Dr Smith said there was still time to avoid strikes.

"BMA Scotland resident doctors remain committed to the deal when it is being upheld in its entirety," he said.

"If we don't take a stand now when the government have broken a commitment agreed to in good faith, they will take this as licence to do it again and again, including on issues such as contract negotiations and more training jobs for resident doctors as part of future medical workforce planning.

"This matters not just for doctors, but for patients and for the future of the entire NHS in Scotland, which relies on today's resident doctors to stay here and become the GPs, specialist doctors and consultants of tomorrow."

What was the Scottish government's offer?

The two-year offer from the Scottish government was for a 4.25% increase in 2026/26 and 3.75% in 26/27.

It is the same offer that nurses, paramedics and other NHS workers accepted earlier this year.

BMA Scotland said it would have been the lowest in the UK and was less than was recommended by the independent pay review body.

The current offer would see the basic pay for a newly qualified doctor rise from £34,500 to £37,345 for 2026/27 and for a doctor with 10 years experience rise from £71,549 to £77,387.

Medics will often be expected to work night shifts, weekend or longer hours for which they will receive extra payments.

A series of strikes by resident doctors in England has led to thousands of operations and procedures being cancelled.

An ongoing five-day walkout is causing further disruption and has been described as "dangerous and utterly irresponsible" by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Any strike in Scotland would be a major blow to the Scottish government's promise to end long waits for procedures and appointments by March 2026 and would put even more pressure on an overstretched NHS in an election year.

So far, Scotland is the only part of the UK to have avoided strike action by NHS workers.

Best-selling children's author and comedian David Walliams has been dropped by his publisher HarperCollins, the company has said.

A spokesman for the publisher said: "After careful consideration, and under the leadership of its new CEO, HarperCollins UK has decided not to publish any new titles by David Walliams."

The Telegraph reported that the decision was made after an investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour towards young women.

HarperCollins did not confirm the reasons for its decision, adding: "We do not comment on internal matters." Walliams has not yet responded to the decision or the Telegraph report.

Walliams is one of the UK's most successful children's authors, having sold more than 60 million copies worldwide in 55 languages.

Some of his books, including Gangsta Granny and Billionaire Boy, have also been adapted into television films.

He rose to fame on TV sketch series Little Britain and has also won National Television Awards for his work as a judge on Britain's Got Talent.

He was made an OBE in 2017 his services to charity and the arts.

The Duchess of Sussex has shared a family photo taken with the Duke of Sussex and their two children alongside a Christmas message.

In the photo shared on Instagram, Prince Archie is seen hugging his father, while Meghan is bending down and holding hands with Princess Lilibet. They are standing on a small, wooden bridge in a woodland.

"Happy Holidays! From our family to yours," her message reads.

Separately, the duke and duchess have also released a Christmas card and end-of-year video highlighting their charitable endeavours.

Six-year-old Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet, four, also feature in the nearly two-minute long video, helping their parents bake cookies ahead of Thanksgiving with a local charity.

The video depicts work the duke and duchess have done under their Archewell Foundation, which has now changed its name to Archewell Philanthropies.

Announcing the rebrand on the Archewell website on Friday, Prince Harry and Meghan said the charity allowed the couple and their children to "expand upon their global philanthropic endeavours as a family".

The charity was established in 2020 after the couple stepped down from royal duties and moved to the US.

Meanwhile, the couple's Christmas card message reads: "On behalf of the Office of Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and Archewell, we wish you a very happy holiday season and a joyful new year."

It comes a day after the Prince and Princess of Wales released a new family portrait which featured on their Christmas card this year.

The image shows Prince William and Catherine surrounded by daffodils, alongside their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

Earlier this month, King Charles III and Queen Camilla released their own Christmas card with a photo of them in Rome, Italy.

The US justice department says it will begin releasing long-awaited files related to Jeffrey Epstein as mandated by a new law, though not all documents would be made public on Friday.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the department expects to publish "several hundred thousand pages" initially, followed by more over the coming weeks.

The Friday deadline was mandated by a bill that got near-unanimous support in Congress, and was later signed into law by President Donald Trump, after he reversed his earlier opposition to its release.

The files relate to investigations into the disgraced late sex offender, but it's likely that much of the content will be heavily redacted.

"Today is the 30 days when I expect that we're going to release several hundred thousand documents today," Blanche told Fox & Friends. "And those documents will come in in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with, with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein."

Under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the DOJ was given until 19 December to release the files.

The bill specifically mentions the government must release all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the DOJ's possession that relate to the investigation and prosecution of Jeffrey Epstein.

Leading up to its release, Democrats in the House have been releasing batches of documents and photos from Epstein's estate without context.

Lawmakers say they have been sorting through a trove of 20,000 documents and 95,000 photos from Epstein's estate.

Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia said in a press release that most of the documents arrived without context, and they have been working to redact potential victims.

The documents and images have featured several high-profile figures, including Trump, former US President Bill Clinton, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and others.

But appearing in the photos or documents is not evidence of any wrongdoing, and many of the pictured men have said they were never involved in Epstein's illegal activity.

A woman said she was left "terrified" after a goose crashed through her front door as she watched television.

Lynne Sewell said she initially thought a loud bang was someone trying to kick the door in - before she went to have a gander and found the bird wedged in the door at her home in Countesthorpe, Leicestershire, on Wednesday.

"I was scared by the loud bang to start with, and it was enormous," she said.

Wildlife rescuers, who believe the in-flight Canada goose may have become tired and misjudged its landing, said it suffered just a few cuts and was set to make a swift return to the wild.

Lynne, who was watching Manchester City take on Brentford with her friend Ian Bullock, said she initially thought it was human vandals behind the bang and did not expect fowl play.

She said: "I thought it was probably someone trying to kick the door or something.

"My friend went out first because I was scared - and he shouted 'there's a bird with its head through the glass'."

After a short time, the goose managed to finish its breaking and entering and drop into the porch.

"We didn't know if it was alive or dead," said Lynne. "I was so scared. I was scared by the loud bang to start with, and it was enormous."

Ian, who suspected a traffic accident had happened outside at first, tried to call the RSPCA and police but without any offer of support late at night, the pair decided to wait and see if the goose survived until the morning.

Lynne said: "We opened the door a bit and pushed a little small blanket in there for it, just in case, and a bowl of water, some porridge oats, because we didn't know what else to give him.

"I was thinking about it all night in bed, wondering what to expect the next morning."

'Wrapped him up'

Ian then managed to arrange for Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital in Kibworth Harcourt to collect the goose.

He said: "In the morning, I came downstairs, looked out, and yes, he was still alive.

"A lady called Amy came and wrapped him up and took him off.

"We spent around an hour getting all the glass out and the porch smelt a bit, but you can imagine."

Amy Blower, team leader at Leicestershire Wildlife Hospital, said it was "a shock" to hear about the crash landing and believed the bird might have been tired and misjudged its descent.

"It's very unusual to be in the middle of a housing estate and flying that late at night.

"Surprisingly, he's just come off with a few minor scrapes and wounds from the glass he's smashed through.

"He had a small laceration to his beak and one just on the left side of his body - but other than that, he was pretty much absolutely fine," she said.

The goose is expected to be released back into the wild after a course of pain medication and antibiotics.

Lynne said she had now boarded up her front door and was arranging a repair through her insurance company.

She said: "I really don't know how it could have gone through that glass and survived.

"The chances of that happening, it's just not what you expect, is it?"

Follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.

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Turkey and sprouts are synonymous with Christmas dinner and this year a rise in the price of both means the festive feast will cost you slightly more at the supermarket.

A typical turkey dinner with all the trimmings will cost about £32.45, according to research done for the BBC - a £1.24 or nearly 4% rise on last year.

It comes after bird flu led to large numbers of turkeys being culled early, while a drier spring and summer hit sprout harvests.

However, the humble but golden potato and parsnip have gone down in price, along with - if you have any room - Christmas pudding and mince pies. Our seasonal snapshot reflects that overall food price rises are beginning to slow down.

The centre piece to the traditional family feast - the turkey - costs £20, for a standard 10lb (4.55kg) frozen one. The same bird was £18.62 last year - that's a 7.37% rise, according to the research from retail tracking platform Assosia.

The ever-divisive Brussels sprouts went up by more than 9% to 94p a bag, it found.

The data is based on prices on 6 December 2025 and the same date in 2024, across own-brand products from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl.

However, every year as supermarkets compete for our Christmas custom many slash the prices of their bags of veg as low as 8p so there are bargains to be had.

The cost of a supermarket shop is now rising much slower than when food prices spiked sharply following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Turkey prices up after bird flu outbreaks

In Potterspury, near Milton Keynes, hundreds of free-range turkeys usually amble around farmer Susan Gorst, pecking at the grass.

But in November, all bird farmers in England were ordered to keep their flocks indoors and many were culled early to limit the spread of bird flu.

She says turkeys eat more feed when they can't graze outdoors so this pushed up her costs. But she says her customers understand she has to pass this on.

"I think people are now generally expecting an increase on most things year on year," she says.

The rising price of turkey "could have been a lot worse," according to John Muff, co-owner of Muff's Butchers in Wirral. He estimates it's up by £1-2 per kilo since last Christmas.

"All year round we've seen price increases, almost on a weekly basis, 5p here, 10p there," he says.

Pork has also gone up in price, with pigs in blankets now £2.59, or 5.3% higher than last year.

John says this didn't surprise him. The cost of making their sausages from scratch has seen a "steady increase throughout the year," he says.

He says "every aspect is going up," from animal feed, energy, transport and wages.

But he thinks higher supermarket prices might be tempting shoppers into a trip to the butchers.

"They're thinking to themselves: If I'm going to pay that sort of price, I may as well come in here and get the proper stuff," he says.

Sprout prices

Whether you celebrate or shun the sprouts at Christmas, the success of this little green veg is highly dependent on the weather.

Alan Steven, a sprout farmer in Fife, says this spring the ground was so dry he had to water his fields before he could plant his seeds - for the first time in 10 years.

He had the cost of irrigating twice more over the summer due to prolonged hot weather.

And so far the winter has been milder which means the sprout plants are more prone to disease, he says.

Spud prices hold steady

The price of root vegetables has remained firmly planted - with no change to the cost of carrots - and potatoes and parsnips just a penny cheaper than last year.

Scott Walker, chief executive of GB Potatoes, said planting and harvesting conditions were favourable this year, but the middle of the season, was "one of the driest in modern memory". The summer was the hottest on record in the UK.

Farmers who didn't have irrigation systems would have suffered and those who could water their crops would have had higher electricity and fuel costs, he says.

"We've had more modest rises than we've had over the past couple of years, but costs have still gone up," he says.

The trouble with potato prices is you never know what you're going to get, says Lucy Munns, a potato farmer in Cambridgeshire.

She said a good price for her potatoes would be £200 a tonne, but she was anticipating prices as low as £80 in December.

Hot spells while potatoes are growing causes them to be oddly shaped and they can be rejected by supermarkets and fish and chip shops, she says.

Pudding and mince pies fall in price

Another side dish which saw a slight dip in price was stuffing mix - dropping 1.32% to 50p for 170g.

And lashings of gravy will also be cheaper this year, with gravy granules dropping 7.35% to 91p for 200-300g.

If after the Christmas feast you still have appetite for a sweet treat you'll be glad to hear that Christmas pudding and mince pies are cheaper this year.

A pack of six iced mince pies will cost £1.77, which is 2.75% cheaper than in 2024. A standard 400g pudding comes in at £2.35, or a drop of 7.42%.

It's down to falling flour and sugar prices - there is currently a global sugar surplus.

In the UK, falling sugar, jam and chocolate prices contributed to lower inflation rates in December.

How to keep costs down

• Start with a budget: Plan ahead and add up hidden expenses, like tin foil for roasting a turkey.
• Write a food list: Decide on your must haves and what you might not miss.
• Plan your leftovers: A next day meal plan will mean less goes to waste
• Bargain hunt: Look out for online offers as well as yellow sticker items which have been reduced.
• Use your freezer: Christmas foods that freeze well include butter, meat joints and some cheeses like cheddar.
• Join up with friends and family: This means you can buy bigger pack sizes, which are often better value.

Read more from the BBC Food team here

Young people will be hit hardest by successive governments' failure to focus on financial and societal challenges caused by an ageing population, a House of Lords report has suggested.

They will need to plan and prepare to work longer and save more from a much earlier age, the economic affairs committee said.

The report also found that the crisis in adult social care "remains a scandal" which needs to be addressed urgently.

Committee chair Lord Wood of Anfield told the BBC it was a "struggle to find where in government" there was a focus on ageing and the "transformational effects" it was going to have on people.

"Ageing is something that we're just watching happening", he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding: "We know that adaptation is the way forward".

Policies governments have used to address the impact of declining fertility and rising life expectancy in the UK - raising the state pension age or increasing immigration for example - were not adequate solutions on their own, the report said.

Getting more people in their 50s and 60s to stay in or return to work "is key", the committee said, and the government must prioritise incentives to do so.

It also said an ageing population will need more care workers, leaving fewer workers for other parts of the economy.

There is "widespread ignorance" of how much it costs to retire, it said, and the government should consider an education campaign - as well as finding out if the UK's financial services sector is equipped to provide for the population as it ages.

Lord Wood said that the government and financial services industry needs to devise "more innovative ways of getting younger people to think about lives frankly they can't conceive of at the moment - when they're in their eighties and early nineties."

"There's a long time for them to be financially planning for at a time when we know young people are doing less financial planning," he added.

"Raising the state pension age, which saves the government money, but increases pensioner poverty as many people have already stopped working by their sixties, is a red herring.

"To successfully confront this challenge, the approach to financial management of today's and tomorrow's young people will need to change."

TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance has signed a deal with investors to run its business in the US.

But what does this mean for the over 170 million Americans (or so the social media platform claims) who use the app?

The key may lie in how TikTok's recommendation algorithm - the powerful system that curates the platform's For You Page to predict content you might watch - is managed when it changes hands.

Social media industry expert Matt Navarra told the BBC the question will not be whether TikTok survives, but "what version of TikTok survives".

'Safer' but 'less relevant'

Currently, TikTok's system depends on huge amounts of global data and feedback loops, which can change recommendations in an instant.

Under the terms of the deal TikTok's algorithm, which will be licensed by investor Oracle, is set to be retrained on American user data.

Mr Navarra said this could leave the app feeling "safer and sturdier" but also leaving it at a risk of "becoming less culturally essential" as a result.

"TikTok's power has always come from feeling slightly out of control - weird, niche, uncomfortable, sometimes politically sharp content for anyone else or before it goes anywhere else," he said.

"If you start smoothing those edges, you don't just change moderation. I think you change its relevance."

Matching ByteDance's algorithm

Whether the US version will differ from the TikTok so many know and use already may also depend on if it gets "all the new features, security updates and platform improvements" as soon as the international version does, tech journalist Will Guyatt told the BBC.

And computing expert Kokil Jaidka from the National University of Singapore said she expected the things that make the platform popular - such as its short videos and shopping - are likely to "stay intact" as these features are not dependent on the algorithm.

She said the changes might be more subtle and gradual, depending on if the narrower data inputs of the "siloed" US version can match the app's global reach.

"If TikTok is operating with a licensed or partially diluted version of its recommendation algorithm, some of the system's blind spots may start to matter more," she said.

For users, she said this means in practice the US algorithm may "lag in personalisation" and take longer to adapt to viral content.

To experiment or behave?

Oracle is TikTok's longtime cloud computing partner in the United States, and is chaired by Larry Ellison, an ally of President Trump.

Another foreign entity, MGX - an Abu-Dhabi government investment fund - will join it along with private equity firm Silver Lake as the main incoming investors.

Pressure from these investors may also add to the US app feeling "blander" said Mr Navarra.

"I think the real test won't be whether the users leave," he said.

"It will be whether TikTok still feels the place the internet goes to experiment - or if it becomes the place it goes to behave."

Additional reporting by Peter Hoskins.

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