Raila Odinga has been a towering figure in Kenyan politics
Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has died at the age of 80, family sources have told the BBC.
Odinga died on Wednesday while receiving medical treatment at a hospital in India.
Indian police told the AFP news agency that he was walking with family members and a personal doctor "when he suddenly collapsed". He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.
In recent weeks, there has been speculation about his health, although family members and political allies had dismissed reports suggesting he was critically ill. Politicians and other leaders, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have been sending their condolences.
A political mobiliser and towering figure in Kenyan politics, Odinga ran unsuccessfully for the presidency five times. He rejected the results on each occasion, often saying that victory had been stolen from him.
He was vindicated by Kenya's highest court after the 2017 elections, when it annulled Uhuru Kenyatta's victory and ordered fresh polls. However, he boycotted the rerun, demanding electoral reforms.
The disputed election of 2007, in which Odinga claimed he was cheated of victory by Mwai Kibaki, led to the biggest crisis in Kenya's history.
Violence erupted around the country, resulting in 1,200 deaths and about 600,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
To resolve the crisis, a power-sharing agreement was brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, leading to the formation of a unity government in which Odinga became prime minister.
He has often reconciled with the incumbent president after contentious elections.
After his most recent defeat in 2022, he later joined President William Ruto in a so-called broad-based government, which brought several of his allies into key positions.
He defended the move as necessary for national unity, coming in the aftermath of watershed nationwide protests last year that culminated in the storming of parliament. Dozens of protesters were killed in confrontations with security officers.
The Ruto administration backed Odinga's bid to become chairperson of the African Union Commission, in elections held earlier this year. Despite strong regional support, he lost to Djibouti's Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Odinga inspired a passionate and loyal following throughout his political career, especially in western Kenya, where he was from.
His supporters called him "Baba" (Father), "Agwambo" (Act of God), and "Tinga" (Tractor) - drawn from his party's symbol during the 1997 elections.
He was widely regarded as a master strategist and mass mobiliser, often drawing huge crowds to his political rallies, and he had a deep ability to connect with ordinary people.
He will be remembered for his unwavering fight for democratic freedoms and human rights.
He was a former political prisoner, and holds the record for being Kenya's longest-serving detainee. His struggle against one-party dictatorship saw him detained twice (from 1982 to 1988 and 1989 to 1991) during the rule of Daniel arap Moi.
He was initially imprisoned for trying to stage a coup in 1982, which propelled him on to the national stage.
Adolescence creator and star Stephen Graham is inviting dads from around the world to share their experiences of raising boys, and what it means to be a man, for a new book called Letters to Our Sons.
Netflix's hit TV series Adolescence explored toxic masculinity and the impact of mobile phones and social media on teenagers and family life.
Graham, whose letter to his own son will be included in the book, told the BBC: "My hope for this book is that it will be a continuation of the message of Adolescence and a tool for fathers to start more conversations with their sons."
The Bloomsbury book will be made up of a collection of letters from fathers from all walks of life, with submissions open from 15 October until 12 January.
In a press statement, Graham added: "After the huge impact of Adolescence, I realised there was a greater need for communication between fathers and sons.
"There is arguably an even bigger disconnect than ever before, and I would love to help create more opportunity for fathers to reach out to their sons and carry on the conversation.
"We want to hear from men of all ages, first-time fathers, absent fathers, fathers who've been there but never truly been there, fathers who've lost and fathers who just want to find a way to say I love you, to tell their sons what they mean to them and to talk openly about what it means to be a man."
Graham is working on the project with psychology lecturer Orly Klein.
The pair will make a donation for every letter published to the charity ManUp? and social enterprise Dad La Soul, two organisations that support young men struggling with mental health. Bloomsbury will also make a donation to ManUp?
Getty Images
Owen Cooper and Stephen Graham were the stars of Adolescence
For several weeks earlier this year, Adolescence dominated the news agenda, and eventually went on to become Netflix's second most watched English-language series ever (after the first season of Wednesday).
The UK government supported Netflix's proposal to make the drama available to schools. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said there was a need to tackle the "emerging and growing problem" the show raised.
Many critics shared the sentiment in their reviews. "If you're a parent to a school-age boy... it will chill your blood," said the Telegraph's Anita Singh.
"It is a drama so quietly devastating that I won't forget it for a very long time."
The show went on to win several Emmy awards in the US. Its young star, Owen Cooper, 15, was named best supporting actor in a limited series for his portrayal of a schoolboy accused of murdering a classmate.
The four-part drama also won best limited series, as well as prizes for its directing and writing, and acting prizes for Stephen Graham and Erin Doherty.
An Israeli couple who were abducted during the Hamas attacks of 2023 have been reunited, two years after they were violently split up.
Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or were kidnapped from the Nova music festival on 7 October. Video of Ms Argamani being dragged away in terror on the back of a motorbike by Hamas gunmen became one of the most widely recognised images of the attacks.
"Two years since the last moment I saw Avinatan, my love. Two years since terrorists kidnapped us, put me on a motorcycle, and tore us apart in front of the whole world," she wrote.
She said she had been held with other women and children inside houses during her captivity, "while Avinatan was only in the tunnels".
"Hamas released videos and signs of life from me, while there was no information at all about Avinatan," the post, in Hebrew, continued.
She said the pair could now begin their recovery.
"We won our personal war and the whole world's fight with us to get to this moment, and now it's time for us to begin our shared journey together," the post said.
Ms Argamani also thanked Trump for his part in bringing the hostages home and helping them "overcome the darkness".
Mr Or's father told Israeli media about the conditions his son had been kept in - food supplies which were "meagre" and a lot of time alone, chained up in tunnels during his 738 days in captivity.
"He's very thin," Yaron Or told reporters, adding that his son had had "no books, no human contact - nothing".
Rhiannon was on the train on her way home from a day out with friends earlier this summer when she was sexually harassed by a group of men
Reports of sexual assaults and harassment on trains have risen by more than a third over the past 10 years, according to data requested by a BBC investigation.
There were 2,661 incidents reported across England, Scotland and Wales last year, where one in 10 were children - with some younger than 13.
Rhiannon Williams said she was sexually harassed on a train earlier this year and recalled: "You can't go anywhere, you can't escape. I had to sit there and put up with it."
British Transport Police has said the rise is a "concern" and will take every allegation "seriously" while the group that represents train companies added operators have a "zero tolerance to sexual harassment".
Data gathered by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request to the British Transport Police found a 37% increase in reports of sexual offences across England, Scotland and Wales since 2015.
Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing.
Rhiannon said she was sexually harassed on a train this summer by a group of drunken men while going home in west Wales after a day out with friends at the seaside resort of Tenby in Pembrokeshire.
"It was uncomfortable and scary," the 18-year-old told the BBC.
Rhiannon's train ordeal was reported to police officers by a fellow passenger and officers are still investigating the incident from earlier this year
"It's a situation of feeling quite cornered. You're on a train, you can't go anywhere, you can't escape. It definitely made me feel trapped."
A witness reported the harassment to the British Transport Police and officers are still investigating the incident, which happened in August.
"It's due to the normalisation of these situations, the attitude that boys will be boys and it's something women should put up with," added Rhiannon, who is from Llanelli.
"It shouldn't be like that, these situations make women feel extremely intimidated and uncomfortable."
Sexual offences can include rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment. Police say harassment is anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or is inappropriate, such as staring, constant questioning or catcalling.
British Transport Police say plain clothes officers patrol stations looking for people "trying to position themselves closer to lone females"
Despite the rise, officers fear sexual assault and sexual harassment on trains and in stations is still underreported - and worry some do not report it to police at all.
Like Maddie Waktare, who said she was sexually assaulted by a man sitting next to her while travelling on a train from London Waterloo.
"It was a busy train, but he was taking up more space than he needed to," said the 30-year-old.
"His body was encroaching onto me which made me feel uncomfortable. It was summer and I was wearing a dress and he ran his hand up the side of my thigh."
Maddie said she froze. "He kept doing it," she added.
Maddie Waktare
Maddie Waktare was on a train from London going to visit family when she said she was sexually assaulted by a male passenger
"I stood up forcefully and glared at him. I was in shock and disbelief. I couldn't believe this had happened to me."
Now Maddie is angry for not reacting.
"I never thought I would be someone who would freeze," she said.
"It made me realise how normalised it is in society. The problem is you don't know what these people are capable of, it starts with something like this and then their crimes can get worse. I should have reported it."
Of those 22,100 reports of sexual offences on trains in the past 10 years, detectives could not identify a suspect in half of the cases.
The UK government has said they have pledged £17m to improve British Transport Police's access to station CCTV to help "ensure offenders are identified and brought to justice more quickly".
Footage of a train conductor being arrested on a station platform after sexually assaulting an 18-year-old female passenger has been released by the British Transport Police as part of the BBC investigation.
Bodycam footage from police shows an officer arresting conductor Nicholas McMurray from a mainline train from London after he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old passenger
Nicholas McMurray was jailed for seven years after being convicted for sexually assaulting a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, on a mainline train between London Paddington and Swansea.
She had been talking on her phone on a journey from Cardiff when Great Western Railway (GWR) train manager McMurray asked to check her train ticket, before adjusting her dress, and sexually assaulting her.
The passenger reported the incident to British Transport Police when she arrived at Swansea Station and McMurray was arrested on the platform.
Officers placed clear bags over his hands to preserve evidence before he was taken to the police station.
The 38-year-old from Swansea was found guilty of sexual assault and assault by penetration at Swansea Crown Court earlier this year and put on the sex offenders register for life.
British Transport Police
CCTV footage from the GWR service between London and south Wales of train manager Nicholas McMurray before he was arrested
GWR said McMurray was immediately removed from duty.
"He resigned with immediate effect during the disciplinary process, where the likely outcome was immediate dismissal," a spokesperson said.
British Transport Police said McMurray had "completely abused his position and took advantage of this young woman".
Sexual offences involving children under 18 have trebled on the trains in the past decade from 146 reports in 2015 to 443 in 2025. In total more than 2,900 reports were made over the past 10 years involving children.
"While any rise in crime figures is a concern, it's important to contextualise that this is down in part to an increase in intelligence-led operations involving plain clothes officers who are specially trained to identify offenders," said Det Ch Insp Nia Mellor of British Transport Police.
Those undercover officers patrol stations looking for "people hanging about not catching trains".
"It's people moving up and down platforms trying to position themselves closer to lone females, or females that may be a bit more vulnerable because of intoxication," said Sgt Morgan Andrews.
Officers also feel men should be more aware of how women may feel about being approached.
It happened to Julia who was on a train with a friend from Bedford to London when she received unwanted attention from a group of men.
"They kept staring and speaking in a different language and it felt like they were planning something," said the 22-year old actress, originally from Switzerland but now living in London.
Julia says unwanted attention from a group of men made her anxious
She said at the end of the train journey the men started to follow them.
"We ran so they couldn't follow us to the tube or follow us home, you don't know what their intentions are," she said.
"I was really anxious. I was scared, I was scared for my friend."
Anyone that experiences or witnesses sexual assault or harassment on the rail network is advised to text the British Transport Police on 61016 with details of the incident, location and time.
"No woman or girl should be made to feel uncomfortable during their rail journey," said Det Ch Insp Mellor.
"Unacceptable behaviour on the network has serious consequences and will not be tolerated.
"We are relentless in our pursuit to hold these offenders to account and ensure the railway network is a safe place to be for everyone."
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the UK's train operators, said every allegation will be "taken seriously".
"There's zero tolerance in terms of sexual harassment on our network," said their chief executive Jacqueline Starr.
The UK government has said people should be able to use the rail network "without fearing for their safety".
"A rise in reports does not necessarily mean more incidents are occurring," added a government spokesperson.
"It may reflect that more victims now feel able to come forward because of increased awareness and messaging across the network."
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.
R&B award-winning singer Michael Eugene Archer, known to his fans as D’Angelo, died aged 51 after a battle with cancer, his family said in a statement.
His family said the singer was leaving behind a "legacy of extraordinarily moving music" and asked fans to celebrate “the gift of song that he has left for the world”.
The influential singer was known for pioneering the genre of neo-soul, which blends R&B music with other genres including hip-hop and jazz.
His three albums won him four Grammy awards. The music video for his hit song, Untitled (How Does it Feel), gained mainstream attention after he performed in the one-shot video, naked, belting the song.
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves has acknowledged she is "looking at tax and spending", ahead of her autumn Budget next month.
Reeves said she would "always make sure the numbers add up", in an interview with Sky news against a backdrop of slow economic growth and mounting government debt.
The chancellor has previously hinted at tax rises, and economists have said they expect taxes to go up in the Budget if the chancellor wants to meet her self-imposed rules on borrowing. With this comment, the chancellor has also signalled that spending cuts could be a consideration.
The Budget in November is the moment when the chancellor outlines the UK government's plans for the economy.
Reeves has faced repeated questions about the prospect of tax rises in her Budget.
Some analysts have estimated that the chancellor will have to increase taxes or cut spending to fill a hole in the public finances, estimated to be £20bn-£30bn.
Reeves received the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) assessment of the economy on 3 October.
Now the chancellor's brief comments make more explicit what has been assumed across Westminster for many months – that tax rises in the Budget are inevitable.
It is likely that in the weeks before the Budget, as Reeves learns more about how much money she needs to raise and makes decisions about how to do it, she and other ministers will become more explicit still about the direction of travel.
Speaking to the BBC, Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said he wouldn't speculate on what might be in the Budget.
"The chancellor makes all her decisions on Budget day on 26 November and sets out her package there," Murray said.
"Yes, a budget focuses on tax and spend and we'll set out how we're keeping a tight grip on public spending."
The additional suggestion of spending cuts by Reeves is intriguing - many Labour MPs believe that spending cuts in most areas would be politically unviable after the failed attempts at welfare cuts earlier this year, although the government could promise to cut spending in four or five years.
Reeves told Sky News the effects of Brexit, austerity policies and former Prime Minister Liz Truss's mini-budget had damaged the UK economy.
Sky News reported that when asked how she would deal with the country's economic challenges, Reeves said: "Now, of course, we are undoing some of that damage by the deal that we did with the EU earlier this year on food and farming, goods moving between us and the continent, on energy and electricity trading, on an ambitious youth mobility scheme, but there is no doubting that the impact of Brexit is severe and long-lasting."
The chancellor pledged to keep "taxes, inflation and interest rates as low as possible".
Labour promised in its 2024 manifesto ahead of last year's general election not to increase taxes on "working people", saying the party would not "increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT".
On Monday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the UK was set to be the second-fastest-growing of the world's most advanced economies this year.
But the IMF also predicted the UK will face the highest rate of inflation among G7 nations both this year and next, driven by rising energy and utility bills.
Shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride said needed to get a grip on public spending, rather than raise taxes again.
He said: "Be in no doubt, this tax doom loop is down to the Chancellor's economic mismanagement.
"Under Rachel Reeves we have seen inflation double, debt balloon, borrowing costs at a 27-year high, and taxes up - with more pain on the way in the autumn."
Raila Odinga has been a towering figure in Kenyan politics
Former Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga has died at the age of 80, family sources have told the BBC.
Odinga died on Wednesday while receiving medical treatment at a hospital in India.
Indian police told the AFP news agency that he was walking with family members and a personal doctor "when he suddenly collapsed". He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead.
In recent weeks, there has been speculation about his health, although family members and political allies had dismissed reports suggesting he was critically ill. Politicians and other leaders, including Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, have been sending their condolences.
A political mobiliser and towering figure in Kenyan politics, Odinga ran unsuccessfully for the presidency five times. He rejected the results on each occasion, often saying that victory had been stolen from him.
He was vindicated by Kenya's highest court after the 2017 elections, when it annulled Uhuru Kenyatta's victory and ordered fresh polls. However, he boycotted the rerun, demanding electoral reforms.
The disputed election of 2007, in which Odinga claimed he was cheated of victory by Mwai Kibaki, led to the biggest crisis in Kenya's history.
Violence erupted around the country, resulting in 1,200 deaths and about 600,000 people were forced to flee their homes.
To resolve the crisis, a power-sharing agreement was brokered by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, leading to the formation of a unity government in which Odinga became prime minister.
He has often reconciled with the incumbent president after contentious elections.
After his most recent defeat in 2022, he later joined President William Ruto in a so-called broad-based government, which brought several of his allies into key positions.
He defended the move as necessary for national unity, coming in the aftermath of watershed nationwide protests last year that culminated in the storming of parliament. Dozens of protesters were killed in confrontations with security officers.
The Ruto administration backed Odinga's bid to become chairperson of the African Union Commission, in elections held earlier this year. Despite strong regional support, he lost to Djibouti's Mahmoud Ali Youssouf.
Odinga inspired a passionate and loyal following throughout his political career, especially in western Kenya, where he was from.
His supporters called him "Baba" (Father), "Agwambo" (Act of God), and "Tinga" (Tractor) - drawn from his party's symbol during the 1997 elections.
He was widely regarded as a master strategist and mass mobiliser, often drawing huge crowds to his political rallies, and he had a deep ability to connect with ordinary people.
He will be remembered for his unwavering fight for democratic freedoms and human rights.
He was a former political prisoner, and holds the record for being Kenya's longest-serving detainee. His struggle against one-party dictatorship saw him detained twice (from 1982 to 1988 and 1989 to 1991) during the rule of Daniel arap Moi.
He was initially imprisoned for trying to stage a coup in 1982, which propelled him on to the national stage.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to disarm Hamas "violently" amid moves by the group to reassert control over the Gaza Strip, targeting what it called "collaborators".
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said if Hamas failed to disarm within "a reasonable period of time" then "we will disarm them". He did not say when he expects the group to surrender its weapons.
His comments came as footage circulated online showing a public execution and other displays of force by Hamas fighters in Gaza since the US-brokered ceasefire began last week.
The execution - which BBC Verify geolocated to a junction in central Gaza City - follows Hamas's pledge to crush "lawlessness" in the Strip.
Other verified clips have shown armed men wearing insignia identifying them as members of Hamas's internal security force on patrol and masked fighters firing on unarmed men.
Analysts told BBC Verify that the show of force is at least partially intended to counter armed clans which have increasingly challenged the group's hold on the Strip over the past two years.
Tensions between Hamas and some of the groups it is now fighting stretch back before the war. Some - like the Dughmush clan - have historically been involved in smuggling over the Strip's border with Israel, an expert told BBC Verify. Recent clashes between Dughmush and Hamas left more than 50 people dead, including 12 Hamas members.
Israel has previously said it has supplied weapons to other armed groups in the Strip. One Hamas internal security unit recently pledged to "eradicate gangs and militias" it accused of co-operating "with the enemy".
A clip which emerged on Monday afternoon showed Hamas fighters executing a group of eight men. BBC Verify geolocated the footage to a junction in the central Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City, which had been the focus of a major Israeli ground offensive in recent weeks but is now back under Hamas control after the Israeli military withdrawal.
Fighters - some of whom were wearing body armour and Hamas headbands - could be seen in the footage lining the men up in front of a large crowd, which appeared to include at least one young child.
After forcing the men to their knees, crowds could be heard shouting "collaborator" or "agent".
The assembled fighters then opened fire on the bound men, who fell to the ground. Afterwards, the men fired into the air and shouted "long live the al-Qassam Brigades" - Hamas's military wing.
Another verified video showed masked and armed fighters forcing a man to his knees in the middle of the same Zeitoun junction before shooting him in the leg.
Several other gunshots also rang out, followed by screams, but the footage doesn't show whether others were attacked. In the aftermath of the footage, several armed men stand guard around the injured man, waving away onlookers who witnessed the incident.
It is not clear what prompted the incident, which first emerged online on 10 October. Google image searches returned no earlier results.
Palestinians who spoke to the BBC expressed fear at the public executions.
"Why are people cheering for chaos? A masked man kills another masked man without any proof, without investigation, without a court, without even a waiting period for appeal what do we call this? Resistance? No, this is lawlessness," a lawyer living in Gaza said.
"You can't correct one mistake with another," one activist living in central Gaza Strip added. "Executions without fair trial are a crime. May God guide our people ."
Meanwhile, members of Hamas's internal security force have also been deployed across Gaza City in a show of force by the group.
Two such fighters, sporting the insignia of internal security units and armed with rifles, could be seen in several images geolocated by BBC Verify stationed at a crossroads in Gaza City.
Other shows of force included armed men wielding assault rifles marching through a market in the Zeitoun area followed by a small group waving a Palestinian flag.
"I think what Hamas has been trying to do is mobilise its forces, using its interior ministry forces, to assert and consolidate its control," Professor Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics, told the BBC's Today Programme.
"In the areas where it's Hamas control, Hamas will be able to destroy the various clans and gangs and looters and militias because its forces are more seasoned, more skilled, more determined," he added.
While Hamas has long had simmering rivalries with various armed groups in the Strip, Israel's bombardment of Gaza and the loosening of Hamas's grip on power has allowed some of the clans to grow in strength, analysts say.
"The collapse of other social institutions has increased the appeal of the clan, which can serve as a social network for its members," Yaniv Voller, a senior lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of Kent, told BBC Verify.
"At least some of the clans have been reported to have received weapons and other support from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), to serve as proxies against Hamas," he added.
Some of the militias are also operating in IDF-controlled areas. By analysing videos circulating on social media, BBC Verify identified bases used by two rival groups deep inside IDF controlled territory, including one near the southern city of Rafah, and one near the northern town of Beit Hanoun.
In response to Hamas's re-emergence and the role of its security forces in policing, Trump previously said this did not fall outside the peace agreement.
"[Hamas] do want to stop the problems and they've been open about it, and we gave them approval for a period of time," he told reporters on Monday.
"You have close to 2 million people going back to buildings that have been demolished, and a lot of bad things can happen. So we want it to be – we want it to be safe."
Prof Gerges said that the US and its allies had little choice but to allow Hamas to exhibit some show of force in Gaza if the ceasefire was to have any meaningful impact.
"Without security you cannot deliver aid. Without security you cannot really have life," he said. "The Americans realise that the only force is Hamas and that's the irony."
Brian Allison and his late sister Anne had to come to terms with being given a stranger's ashes instead of their mother's
Brian Allison travelled more than 200 miles from Manchester to Glasgow to scatter his sister's ashes on the family grave.
As he stood at the headstone in St Kentigern's cemetery, where his father, mother and three other siblings already lay, he took a moment to remember Anne.
Her final weeks had been "haunted" by an unexplained mix-up with the ashes of their mother, Patricia, who died in April 2023.
Several months after Patricia's death, at the age of 100, it emerged the family had been given the wrong urn by funeral directors who are now the focus of a major police investigation.
Five members of Brian's family lie in a plot at St Kentigern's cemetery in Glasgow
Brian and Anne discovered the error just days before they planned to return to Scotland to scatter their mother's ashes.
"We had them for five months, then I found out it wasn't my mum, it was a total stranger," said Brian.
"I'd been kissing this total stranger goodnight every night and obviously it's affected my mental health."
The siblings were informed of the error when they contacted Clydebank Crematorium after questioning the lack of paperwork they had received with the urn from the former A Milne Funeral Directors.
Brian said: "Anne called Clydebank Crematorium and we were told [my mum's] ashes were never collected and were still being held there almost a year after her death."
During this time, the family also learned that the bill for Patricia's cremation was still outstanding, despite the pensioner having purchased a funeral plan at the firm's Dumbarton office.
Anne had also taken out a funeral plan with the same company and found hers to be invalid too, prompting her to contact Police Scotland.
Allison family
Patricia Allison, who died aged 100 in 2023, and her daughter Anne, who died this year aged 67
Operation Koine is currently looking into more than 70 reports regarding practices at the firm.
Last summer two women, aged 37 and 55, and a 56-year-old man were arrested in connection with the investigation and released pending further inquiries.
Brian said the need for answers "haunted" his sister after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer last December.
"It affected Anne's health with the cancer because she was worried," he said.
Brian added that the knowledge he would be the one left to pay for her funeral, despite having a plan, weighed on her.
"Even on her deathbed in the hospital, she said to me, 'I'm sorry you've been left with this'."
PA Media
The A Milne Funeral Directors office in Springburn has been closed down
Last month, police issued an appeal for anyone with concerns regarding the handling of cremated remains or pre-paid funeral plans with the former funeral directors - which also ran a premises in Springburn - to contact them.
Det Supt Robert Bowie told BBC Scotland News officers were working through "hundreds of lines of inquiry."
Since that appeal, police confirmed they had "received more reports which are currently being assessed".
PA Media
Det Supt Robert Bowie revealed police have received hundreds of inquiries from people who dealt with the funeral directors
Brian Allison paid thousands of pounds of his own money for Anne's cremation after she died in August.
Her final request was to be brought back to Scotland, but Brian also has a memorial for both his mother and sister at his home in Manchester.
Brian said: "I keep a little shelf in the living room with candles and everything around the both of them.
"So [some of] the ashes I didn't put down today, they'll come back to Manchester and they'll be kept there in the house so that I know I can speak to the two of them."
He added: "I know it sounds strange when you're talking to a dead person but I talk to them every night.
"I say goodnight, I talk to them if I've had a bad day, tell them I love them."
Brian's sister Anne died in August, after he promised to continue their fight for answers
Anne, who was 67 when she died, had moved from Dumbarton to live with Brian following the death of their mother.
He said they had always been close growing up.
Losing both his mother and sister in the last two years has put a strain on the 62-year-old's mental health.
"When I'm at work I leave the mental health side of me at home, but when I'm not working I don't leave the house now."
Brian's final promise to Anne was to continue to fight for answers on what went wrong with the plans she and her mother purchased.
He said: "I'll carry this on until my dying day if I have to, because I think it's all wrong.
"It's not just my mum and my sister. It's all these other innocent people.
"You can't just let it go. To me it's not about the money, it's about respect."
Vets could be made to publish price lists and reveal if they are part of a larger vet group, following an investigation by the UK's competition watchdog into the £6.3bn veterniary sector.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that pet owners pay 16.6% more on average at practices owned by large vet groups than at independent vets.
The regulator has been investigating whether a lack of competition in the sector has contributed to soaring prices.
Wednesday's findings from the CMA are provisional, with interested parties now having until next month to make submissions before a final decision is published next year.
An earlier version of the report, published before the summer, found prices for treatments grew by 60% between 2015 and 2023, compared with inflation of 35% for other general services, according to CMA research.
Other proposed fixes for the sector include price caps on medicines, prescriptions and other services like cremations, as well as a ban on bonuses linked to offering specific treatments.
The UK should be prepared to cope with weather extremes as a result of at least 2C of global warming by 2050, independent climate advisers have said.
The country was "not yet adapted" to worsening weather extremes already occurring at current levels of warming, "let alone" what was expected to come, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) wrote in a letter addressed to the government.
The committee said they would advise that the UK prepare for climate change beyond the long-term temperature goal set out in the Paris Agreement.
The CCC said they had been asked to provide advice on a timeframe for setting adaption scenarios, based on "minimum climate scenarios".
They urged the government to set out a framework of "clear long-term objectives" to prevent further temperature rise, with new targets every five years and departments "clearly accountable" for delivering those goals.
The CCC said they would be able to provide further details on potential "trade offs" in May 2026, when they will release a a major report outlining how the UK can adapt to climate change.
Achieving "net zero" is the world's key target for fighting climate change, which climate scientists have agreed is already making a serious impact around the globe.
The Paris Agreement was signed in 2015, and saw almost 200 countries pledge to try and prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.
As the CCC outlined in their letter, a global warming level of 2C would have significant impact on the UK's weather, with extreme events becoming more frequent and widespread.
They said the UK could expect increased heatwaves, drought and flooding, and wildfire season would likely extend into autumn.
Baroness Brown, chairwoman of the adaptation committee for the CCC, said: "People in the UK are already experiencing the impacts of a changing climate, and we owe it to them to prepare, and also to help them prepare.
"Adaptation in the UK is not keeping up with the increase in climate risk. The impacts on the UK are getting worse and (the government) needs more ambition," she told the BBC's Today programme.
Baroness Brown dubbed the promise "disappointing", and said she hoped that the conservative leader would "reflect on the fact that the act covers both adaption and mitigation".
The UK is already experiencing shifting weather patterns due to climate change, with four official heatwaves confirmed in 2025 across what the Met Office have said was the hottest summer on record.
Rhiannon was on the train on her way home from a day out with friends earlier this summer when she was sexually harassed by a group of men
Reports of sexual assaults and harassment on trains have risen by more than a third over the past 10 years, according to data requested by a BBC investigation.
There were 2,661 incidents reported across England, Scotland and Wales last year, where one in 10 were children - with some younger than 13.
Rhiannon Williams said she was sexually harassed on a train earlier this year and recalled: "You can't go anywhere, you can't escape. I had to sit there and put up with it."
British Transport Police has said the rise is a "concern" and will take every allegation "seriously" while the group that represents train companies added operators have a "zero tolerance to sexual harassment".
Data gathered by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request to the British Transport Police found a 37% increase in reports of sexual offences across England, Scotland and Wales since 2015.
Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing.
Rhiannon said she was sexually harassed on a train this summer by a group of drunken men while going home in west Wales after a day out with friends at the seaside resort of Tenby in Pembrokeshire.
"It was uncomfortable and scary," the 18-year-old told the BBC.
Rhiannon's train ordeal was reported to police officers by a fellow passenger and officers are still investigating the incident from earlier this year
"It's a situation of feeling quite cornered. You're on a train, you can't go anywhere, you can't escape. It definitely made me feel trapped."
A witness reported the harassment to the British Transport Police and officers are still investigating the incident, which happened in August.
"It's due to the normalisation of these situations, the attitude that boys will be boys and it's something women should put up with," added Rhiannon, who is from Llanelli.
"It shouldn't be like that, these situations make women feel extremely intimidated and uncomfortable."
Sexual offences can include rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment. Police say harassment is anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or is inappropriate, such as staring, constant questioning or catcalling.
British Transport Police say plain clothes officers patrol stations looking for people "trying to position themselves closer to lone females"
Despite the rise, officers fear sexual assault and sexual harassment on trains and in stations is still underreported - and worry some do not report it to police at all.
Like Maddie Waktare, who said she was sexually assaulted by a man sitting next to her while travelling on a train from London Waterloo.
"It was a busy train, but he was taking up more space than he needed to," said the 30-year-old.
"His body was encroaching onto me which made me feel uncomfortable. It was summer and I was wearing a dress and he ran his hand up the side of my thigh."
Maddie said she froze. "He kept doing it," she added.
Maddie Waktare
Maddie Waktare was on a train from London going to visit family when she said she was sexually assaulted by a male passenger
"I stood up forcefully and glared at him. I was in shock and disbelief. I couldn't believe this had happened to me."
Now Maddie is angry for not reacting.
"I never thought I would be someone who would freeze," she said.
"It made me realise how normalised it is in society. The problem is you don't know what these people are capable of, it starts with something like this and then their crimes can get worse. I should have reported it."
Of those 22,100 reports of sexual offences on trains in the past 10 years, detectives could not identify a suspect in half of the cases.
The UK government has said they have pledged £17m to improve British Transport Police's access to station CCTV to help "ensure offenders are identified and brought to justice more quickly".
Footage of a train conductor being arrested on a station platform after sexually assaulting an 18-year-old female passenger has been released by the British Transport Police as part of the BBC investigation.
Bodycam footage from police shows an officer arresting conductor Nicholas McMurray from a mainline train from London after he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old passenger
Nicholas McMurray was jailed for seven years after being convicted for sexually assaulting a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, on a mainline train between London Paddington and Swansea.
She had been talking on her phone on a journey from Cardiff when Great Western Railway (GWR) train manager McMurray asked to check her train ticket, before adjusting her dress, and sexually assaulting her.
The passenger reported the incident to British Transport Police when she arrived at Swansea Station and McMurray was arrested on the platform.
Officers placed clear bags over his hands to preserve evidence before he was taken to the police station.
The 38-year-old from Swansea was found guilty of sexual assault and assault by penetration at Swansea Crown Court earlier this year and put on the sex offenders register for life.
British Transport Police
CCTV footage from the GWR service between London and south Wales of train manager Nicholas McMurray before he was arrested
GWR said McMurray was immediately removed from duty.
"He resigned with immediate effect during the disciplinary process, where the likely outcome was immediate dismissal," a spokesperson said.
British Transport Police said McMurray had "completely abused his position and took advantage of this young woman".
Sexual offences involving children under 18 have trebled on the trains in the past decade from 146 reports in 2015 to 443 in 2025. In total more than 2,900 reports were made over the past 10 years involving children.
"While any rise in crime figures is a concern, it's important to contextualise that this is down in part to an increase in intelligence-led operations involving plain clothes officers who are specially trained to identify offenders," said Det Ch Insp Nia Mellor of British Transport Police.
Those undercover officers patrol stations looking for "people hanging about not catching trains".
"It's people moving up and down platforms trying to position themselves closer to lone females, or females that may be a bit more vulnerable because of intoxication," said Sgt Morgan Andrews.
Officers also feel men should be more aware of how women may feel about being approached.
It happened to Julia who was on a train with a friend from Bedford to London when she received unwanted attention from a group of men.
"They kept staring and speaking in a different language and it felt like they were planning something," said the 22-year old actress, originally from Switzerland but now living in London.
Julia says unwanted attention from a group of men made her anxious
She said at the end of the train journey the men started to follow them.
"We ran so they couldn't follow us to the tube or follow us home, you don't know what their intentions are," she said.
"I was really anxious. I was scared, I was scared for my friend."
Anyone that experiences or witnesses sexual assault or harassment on the rail network is advised to text the British Transport Police on 61016 with details of the incident, location and time.
"No woman or girl should be made to feel uncomfortable during their rail journey," said Det Ch Insp Mellor.
"Unacceptable behaviour on the network has serious consequences and will not be tolerated.
"We are relentless in our pursuit to hold these offenders to account and ensure the railway network is a safe place to be for everyone."
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the UK's train operators, said every allegation will be "taken seriously".
"There's zero tolerance in terms of sexual harassment on our network," said their chief executive Jacqueline Starr.
The UK government has said people should be able to use the rail network "without fearing for their safety".
"A rise in reports does not necessarily mean more incidents are occurring," added a government spokesperson.
"It may reflect that more victims now feel able to come forward because of increased awareness and messaging across the network."
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.
'Big John' Fisher is known for his viral food reviews
"Big John" Fisher, a British social media star known for his viral fast food reviews, has been detained in Australia over a visa issue.
Famous for his love of Chinese takeaway and signature catchphrase "bosh", Fisher arrived in Western Australia on Tuesday ahead of a tour of the country.
However, in social media posts, he said he would have to cancel his scheduled appearances in Perth and Sydney as he would be deported to London.
Fisher said he was questioned by border officials for four hours, and though his visa was "legit", Australian authorities "weren't happy" that he was going to be working during his visit. It is understood that Fisher entered Australia on an incorrect visa.
A spokesperson for the Australian Border Force said it could not comment on individual cases, due to privacy issues.
"Will explain more when I get home but absolutely gutted," he said. "Sorry, Perth, sorry, Sydney."
In a post on Wednesday morning local time, Fisher complained about his treatment by authorities and said he was spending his 52nd birthday in a detention hotel waiting to be deported.
"I'm still smiling and I still love Australia," he wrote before signing off with his famed slogan "bosh" - a British slang word often used as an enthusiastic exclamation.
In another Instagram story, Fisher wrote that many people had offered to drop food off for him at the hotel, but he was not allowed to receive it.
"Thank you for the gesture but if you have got me food please take to a food bank -Bosh," he wrote.
Fisher's son - British heavyweight boxer Johnny Fisher - confirmed on Instagram that his father would be flown home.
"Rumour has it they are frightened of his express pace bowling ahead of the Ashes," he said.
Fisher, who has previously visited Australia to meet fans, was due to appear at four events in the country this week. His schedule included hosting a "Bucking Bull" challenge at a greyhound race in Sydney and doing a DJ set at a horse racing meet in Perth.
With almost 700,000 followers on Instagram and another half a million on TikTok, Fisher often films himself eating meals and gives a short review that almost always finish with him saying "bosh".
He was recently interviewed on BBC's Newsnight programme about a Chinese takeaway in York which was vandalised. He later visited the takeaway to show his support and posted a review of its food.
The Melodies for Mums classes in south London started in 2017 and now take on more than 400 women a year
Specially designed singing classes are clinically effective at treating mums with postnatal depression, a major three-year study has found. The authors say they could also be cost effective for the NHS at a time when mental health services are under pressure.
At a children's centre in a housing estate in south London a group of 12 young mums sit in a circle on the floor as their babies cry, crawl and sleep on mats in front of them.
But at this music class there are no bells or tambourines and no Wheels on the Bus or Baby Shark.
Instead, the group work through a mix of lullabies, folk and gospel, switching from Spanish to Congolese to Swahili in rounds of four-part harmonies.
The whole session, from the music selection, to the size of the group, to the set up of the room itself, has been carefully designed to treat the symptoms of postnatal depression.
"I can't stress enough how much this was a game changer for me," says Holly, 30, who started the course earlier this year after it was recommended by her care coordinator.
She says she started feeling unwell in her pregnancy after "my hormones, or something, went a bit wrong".
While those symptoms did start to improve after giving birth to her daughter Ettie, she still felt "vulnerable and very anxious".
"Being a new mum is one of the loneliest times, because you're sort of in this insular bubble," she says.
"And at the very first session here, I walked in and I was like, 'oh, this is my safe place'. Like, I'm safe here."
Holly is one of the 400 young mothers a year now attending specially designed singing classes across five London boroughs
Postnatal depression is a common problem, affecting more than one in 10 women within a year of giving birth, according to the NHS.
Symptoms are wide-ranging but can include persistent sadness or low mood, problems looking after yourself, insomnia and withdrawing from other people.
Melodies for Mums started in 2017 as a free weekly class in Southwark, south London, based on earlier research which suggested group singing could reduce stress and anxiety.
It's expanded quickly and now runs face-to-face sessions for 400 women a year in five London boroughs and online classes across the UK.
"We know that women experiencing symptoms of postnatal depression can struggle to connect with their peers," says Yvonne Farquharson, the founder of Breathe Arts Health Research, the non-profit organisation behind the idea.
"So through singing, we're getting them to really look at each other and make that kind of bond and social connection."
New mums often join the programme after it's suggested by their midwife, GP or local authority or find it through social media or word-of-mouth.
There is a screening process to check they will benefit before starting the 10-week course.
A 'long-lasting' impact
In 2019 the sessions became part of a study funded by a £2.6m grant from the Wellcome Trust to research how local arts projects might improve physical and mental health at a larger scale.
The results, published this week in the British Journal of Psychiatry, looked at almost 200 mums with postnatal depression over eight months.
The women were split into two groups with one group assigned the singing course and the other offered more typical support like community play classes.
All the mothers reported a reduction in their symptoms by week 10 but that improvement continued in the singing group for another six months beyond the end of the sessions.
"That's really important because it shows that the singing intervention is not only effective in the immediacy for depression, but it has a long-lasting impact," says Dr Rebecca Bind, a research associate at Kings College London and one of the study's lead authors.
Women in the singing group also had a much lower dropout rate and were more likely to say they found it a good match for their needs and easy to use.
The published paper didn't look specifically at why singing itself seemed to have a beneficial effect. But the researchers have their theories.
"I think part of it was women were in the presence of other mothers who were going through the same kind of experiences, even if they were not necessarily having to talk about it," says Dr Bind.
"And on top of that, the act of singing itself can have a very relaxing effect."
A second stage of the analysis has already taken saliva swabs from women to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Early results suggest that mothers in the singing group saw a "nice steady decline in those levels throughout the intervention period," according to Carmine Pariante, professor of biological psychiatry at Kings College London.
The music classes also helped mums form a bond with their babies which continued after the end of the course as the songs and music were used at home.
Jay, shown with her son Ezra, says a difficult birth had a "huge impact" on her mental health
At the children's centre Jay, holding her young son Ezra, describes postnatal depression as "feeling low when I know I should have been at the happiest point of my life".
"Just being able to be with people who are also struggling, even though that's not the focus of the session [is important]," she says.
"You're there, you're having a great time and singing, but you know that these people are also experiencing what you're experiencing."
Long NHS waiting lists
The organisers stress the singing classes don't have to replace talking therapies or medication.
But they could be either complimentary or a quicker, easier-to-access alternative for some women, at a time when there can be long waits for NHS mental health services.
The Kings College London study found the cost of the music course, at between £126 and £539 per mother and baby depending on how it's measured, was comparable to alternatives such as educational programmes and considerably lower than the cost of group therapy or home visits.
Yvonne Farquharson at Breathe says the arts organisation has now piloted its first singing sessions aimed at young dads.
And it has also been commissioned by the World Health Organization to train teams to roll out the classes in Denmark, Italy, Romania and other countries.
At the children's centre in south London the group talk not only about the friendships they have made, but also about the skills they've picked up over the 10 weeks.
"I have two very small children so things can get very stressful at home," says Stella while holding on tight to a wriggling baby Evie.
"I bring the singing back home with me so now I start humming when things get stressful, and I don't even think about it, it just happens and I can cope."
Melodies for Mums sample tracks:
Arrorró mi niño - Spanish lullaby
Simama Kaa - Swahili folk song
Bele Mama - Cameroonian folk song
Yani Yoni Ya Hu Wey Hey - Native American birthing song
A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line
A quarter of all first-class post was delivered late last year
Royal Mail has been fined £21m after almost a quarter of first-class post arrived late, Ofcom has announced.
It is the third-largest fine the communications watchdog has ever issued and follows its investigation after Royal Mail missed its targets for both first and second-class post in 2024/25.
Ian Strawhorne, director of enforcement at Ofcom, said: "Millions of important letters are arriving late, and people aren't getting what they pay for when they buy a stamp."
Royal Mail said it will "continue to work hard to deliver further sustained improvements to our quality of service".
Royal Mail delivered 77% of First Class mail and 92.5% of Second Class mail on time in the 2024/25 financial year, which was short of its 93% and 98.5% targets.
This is the third time it has been fined over delivery delays in recent years, after Ofcom fined it £5.6m in November 2023 and £10.5m in December 2024.
Ofcom warned fines were "likely to continue" unless it urgently delivers "a credible improvement plan".
Mr Strawhorne said: "Royal Mail must rebuild consumers' confidence as a matter of urgency. And that means making actual significant improvements, not more empty promises."
Ofcom's investigation found the company "breached its obligations by failing to provide an acceptable level of service without justification".
It said the actions taken by Royal Mail to try and reach its targets were "insufficient and ineffective".
The fine, Ofcom said, reflected the "harm suffered by customers" as a result of Royal Mail's poor service.
Under the universal service obligation (USO), Royal Mail is required by law to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week to every address in the UK.
Responding to Ofcom, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: "We acknowledge the decision made by Ofcom today and we will continue to work hard to deliver further sustained improvements to our quality of service.
The spokesperson said that the reduction of second-class deliveries in some areas enabled the company to "drive a step change in quality of service".
Royal Mail has also made changes in recruitment and training and has provided more support in delivery offices, the spokesperson added.
Vets could be made to publish price lists and reveal if they are part of a larger vet group, following an investigation by the UK's competition watchdog into the £6.3bn veterniary sector.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found that pet owners pay 16.6% more on average at practices owned by large vet groups than at independent vets.
The regulator has been investigating whether a lack of competition in the sector has contributed to soaring prices.
Wednesday's findings from the CMA are provisional, with interested parties now having until next month to make submissions before a final decision is published next year.
An earlier version of the report, published before the summer, found prices for treatments grew by 60% between 2015 and 2023, compared with inflation of 35% for other general services, according to CMA research.
Other proposed fixes for the sector include price caps on medicines, prescriptions and other services like cremations, as well as a ban on bonuses linked to offering specific treatments.
FILE PHOTO: OpenAI logo is seen in this illustration taken May 20, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
OpenAI plans to allow a wider range of content, including erotica, on its popular chatbot ChatGPT as part of its push to "treat adult users like adults", says its boss Sam Altman.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Mr Altman said upcoming versions of the popular chatbot would enable it to behave in a more human-like way - "but only if you want it, not because we are usage maxxing".
The move, reminiscent of Elon Musk's xAI recent introduction of two sexually explicit chatbots to Grok, could help OpenAI attract more paying subscribers.
It is also likely to intensify pressure on lawmakers to introduce tighter restrictions on chatbot companions.
OpenAI did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment following Mr Altman's post.
Changes announced by the company come after it was sued earlier this year by parents of a US teen who took his own life.
The lawsuit filed by Matt and Maria Raine, who are the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine, was the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.
The Californian couple criticised the company's parental controls - which it said were designed to promote healthier use of its chatbot - saying they did not go far enough.
The family included chat logs between Adam, who died in April, and ChatGPT that show him explaining he has suicidal thoughts.
Altman said that OpenAI previously made ChatGPT "pretty restrictive to make sure we were being careful with mental health issues".
"We realise this made it less useful/enjoyable to many users who had no mental health problems, but given the seriousness of the issue we wanted to get this right," Mr Altman said.
He said the company has now been able to mitigate the serious mental health risks and have new tools allowing it to "safely relax the restrictions in most cases".
"In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our 'treat adult users like adults' principle, we will allow even more, like erotica for verified adults," he said.
Critics say OpenAI's decision to allow erotica on the platform shows the need for more regulation at the federal and state levels.
"How are they going to make sure that children are not able to access the portions of ChatGPT that are adult-only and provide erotica?" said Jenny Kim, a partner at the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner. "Open AI, like most of big tech in this space, is just using people like guinea pigs."
Ms Kim is involved in a lawsuit against Meta that claims the company's Instagram's algorithm harms the mental health of teen users.
"We don't even know if their age gating is going to work," she said.
In April, TechCrunch reported that OpenAI was allowing accounts in which a user had registered as a minor to generate graphic erotica.
OpenAI said at the time that the company was rolling out a fix to limit such content.
A survey published this month by the nonprofit Centre for Democracy and Technology (CDT) found that one in five students report that they or someone they know has had a romantic relationship with AI.
On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill passed by the state legislature that would have blocked developers from offering AI chatbots companions to children unless the companies could guarantee the software wouldn't breed harmful behaviour.
Mr Newsom said it was "imperative that adolescents learn how to safely interact with AI systems" in a message that accompanied his veto.
At the federal level, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has launched an inquiry into how AI chatbots interact with children.
In the US Senate last month, bipartisan legislation was introduced that would classify AI chatbots as products. The law would allow users to file liability claims against chatbot developers.
Mr Altman's announcement on Tuesday comes as sceptics have been questioning the rapid rise in the value of AI tech companies.
OpenAI's revenue is growing but it has never been profitable.
Rhiannon was on the train on her way home from a day out with friends earlier this summer when she was sexually harassed by a group of men
Reports of sexual assaults and harassment on trains have risen by more than a third over the past 10 years, according to data requested by a BBC investigation.
There were 2,661 incidents reported across England, Scotland and Wales last year, where one in 10 were children - with some younger than 13.
Rhiannon Williams said she was sexually harassed on a train earlier this year and recalled: "You can't go anywhere, you can't escape. I had to sit there and put up with it."
British Transport Police has said the rise is a "concern" and will take every allegation "seriously" while the group that represents train companies added operators have a "zero tolerance to sexual harassment".
Data gathered by the BBC via a Freedom of Information request to the British Transport Police found a 37% increase in reports of sexual offences across England, Scotland and Wales since 2015.
Warning: This story contains details some may find distressing.
Rhiannon said she was sexually harassed on a train this summer by a group of drunken men while going home in west Wales after a day out with friends at the seaside resort of Tenby in Pembrokeshire.
"It was uncomfortable and scary," the 18-year-old told the BBC.
Rhiannon's train ordeal was reported to police officers by a fellow passenger and officers are still investigating the incident from earlier this year
"It's a situation of feeling quite cornered. You're on a train, you can't go anywhere, you can't escape. It definitely made me feel trapped."
A witness reported the harassment to the British Transport Police and officers are still investigating the incident, which happened in August.
"It's due to the normalisation of these situations, the attitude that boys will be boys and it's something women should put up with," added Rhiannon, who is from Llanelli.
"It shouldn't be like that, these situations make women feel extremely intimidated and uncomfortable."
Sexual offences can include rape, sexual assault or sexual harassment. Police say harassment is anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or is inappropriate, such as staring, constant questioning or catcalling.
British Transport Police say plain clothes officers patrol stations looking for people "trying to position themselves closer to lone females"
Despite the rise, officers fear sexual assault and sexual harassment on trains and in stations is still underreported - and worry some do not report it to police at all.
Like Maddie Waktare, who said she was sexually assaulted by a man sitting next to her while travelling on a train from London Waterloo.
"It was a busy train, but he was taking up more space than he needed to," said the 30-year-old.
"His body was encroaching onto me which made me feel uncomfortable. It was summer and I was wearing a dress and he ran his hand up the side of my thigh."
Maddie said she froze. "He kept doing it," she added.
Maddie Waktare
Maddie Waktare was on a train from London going to visit family when she said she was sexually assaulted by a male passenger
"I stood up forcefully and glared at him. I was in shock and disbelief. I couldn't believe this had happened to me."
Now Maddie is angry for not reacting.
"I never thought I would be someone who would freeze," she said.
"It made me realise how normalised it is in society. The problem is you don't know what these people are capable of, it starts with something like this and then their crimes can get worse. I should have reported it."
Of those 22,100 reports of sexual offences on trains in the past 10 years, detectives could not identify a suspect in half of the cases.
The UK government has said they have pledged £17m to improve British Transport Police's access to station CCTV to help "ensure offenders are identified and brought to justice more quickly".
Footage of a train conductor being arrested on a station platform after sexually assaulting an 18-year-old female passenger has been released by the British Transport Police as part of the BBC investigation.
Bodycam footage from police shows an officer arresting conductor Nicholas McMurray from a mainline train from London after he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old passenger
Nicholas McMurray was jailed for seven years after being convicted for sexually assaulting a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons, on a mainline train between London Paddington and Swansea.
She had been talking on her phone on a journey from Cardiff when Great Western Railway (GWR) train manager McMurray asked to check her train ticket, before adjusting her dress, and sexually assaulting her.
The passenger reported the incident to British Transport Police when she arrived at Swansea Station and McMurray was arrested on the platform.
Officers placed clear bags over his hands to preserve evidence before he was taken to the police station.
The 38-year-old from Swansea was found guilty of sexual assault and assault by penetration at Swansea Crown Court earlier this year and put on the sex offenders register for life.
British Transport Police
CCTV footage from the GWR service between London and south Wales of train manager Nicholas McMurray before he was arrested
GWR said McMurray was immediately removed from duty.
"He resigned with immediate effect during the disciplinary process, where the likely outcome was immediate dismissal," a spokesperson said.
British Transport Police said McMurray had "completely abused his position and took advantage of this young woman".
Sexual offences involving children under 18 have trebled on the trains in the past decade from 146 reports in 2015 to 443 in 2025. In total more than 2,900 reports were made over the past 10 years involving children.
"While any rise in crime figures is a concern, it's important to contextualise that this is down in part to an increase in intelligence-led operations involving plain clothes officers who are specially trained to identify offenders," said Det Ch Insp Nia Mellor of British Transport Police.
Those undercover officers patrol stations looking for "people hanging about not catching trains".
"It's people moving up and down platforms trying to position themselves closer to lone females, or females that may be a bit more vulnerable because of intoxication," said Sgt Morgan Andrews.
Officers also feel men should be more aware of how women may feel about being approached.
It happened to Julia who was on a train with a friend from Bedford to London when she received unwanted attention from a group of men.
"They kept staring and speaking in a different language and it felt like they were planning something," said the 22-year old actress, originally from Switzerland but now living in London.
Julia says unwanted attention from a group of men made her anxious
She said at the end of the train journey the men started to follow them.
"We ran so they couldn't follow us to the tube or follow us home, you don't know what their intentions are," she said.
"I was really anxious. I was scared, I was scared for my friend."
Anyone that experiences or witnesses sexual assault or harassment on the rail network is advised to text the British Transport Police on 61016 with details of the incident, location and time.
"No woman or girl should be made to feel uncomfortable during their rail journey," said Det Ch Insp Mellor.
"Unacceptable behaviour on the network has serious consequences and will not be tolerated.
"We are relentless in our pursuit to hold these offenders to account and ensure the railway network is a safe place to be for everyone."
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the UK's train operators, said every allegation will be "taken seriously".
"There's zero tolerance in terms of sexual harassment on our network," said their chief executive Jacqueline Starr.
The UK government has said people should be able to use the rail network "without fearing for their safety".
"A rise in reports does not necessarily mean more incidents are occurring," added a government spokesperson.
"It may reflect that more victims now feel able to come forward because of increased awareness and messaging across the network."
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story you can visit BBC Action Line.
The Red Tractor advert was last shown in 2023 but will now be banned for future use unless it is updated
A TV advert by Red Tractor, the UK's biggest certifier of farm products on supermarket shelves, has been banned for exaggerating the scheme's environmental benefits and misleading the public.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the organisation had provided "insufficient evidence" that its farms complied with basic environmental laws to substantiate the claims in its ad.
Environmental group River Action, which brought the complaint in 2023, said the ruling showed the scheme was "greenwashing" and urged supermarkets to stop using it.
But Red Tractor called the watchdog's decision "fundamentally flawed" and argued that the scheme's focus was animal welfare not environmental standards.
In 2021, Red Tractor aired an advert in which it said: "From field to store all our standards are met. When the Red Tractor's there, your food's farmed with care."
You can watch it below.
Watch: the ad banned by the Advertising Standards Authority
The environmental charity River Action took issue with the ad, which ran for a further two years, and complained to the watchdog that it suggested to consumers that Red Tractor farms will "ensure a high degree of environmental protection".
The charity pointed to a report by the Environment Agency, released in 2020, which looked at how many breaches of environmental law there were on Red Tractor farms in the previous five years. The report concluded that these farms were "not currently an indicator of good environmental performance".
After more than two years of investigation - one of the longest running - the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld the complaint.
It said that Red Tractor had failed to provide "sufficient evidence" that its farms met "basic" environmental laws and had a good environmental outcome to substantiate the claims in the ad.
It also ruled that as a result the advert was "misleading" and "exaggerated" the benefits of the scheme.
River Action welcomed the decision by the ASA and called on supermarkets to act.
"What this shows is that for their environmental credentials Red Tractor has been misleading the public and their supplies," said Amy Fairman, head of campaigns at River Action. "So, we're looking for suppliers like supermarkets to really examine and take stock of what is on their shelves."
She added that challenging such adverts was important because of the pollution risk to the environment from agricultural pollution.
In 2022, the Environment Audit Committee concluded that agriculture was one of the most common factors preventing rivers from being in good health - affecting 40% of them. The risks to the environment include from slurry and pesticide runoff.
BBC News/Tony Jolliffe
Amy Fairman represents environmental charity River Action which campaigns for clean and healthy rivers
But Red Tractor, which assures 45,000 farms in the UK, have pushed back strongly, calling the finding by the ASA "fundamentally flawed".
Jim Mosley, CEO of Red Tractor, told the BBC: "They believe that we have implied an environmental claim. Nowhere in the voiceover or the imagery is any environmental claim actually made."
He argued that the ASA only found a minority of people would think the advert meant Red Tractor farms had good environmental standards, and in fact the scheme is focused on other issues.
"Red Tractor's core purpose is food safety, animal welfare, and traceability. Whilst we have some environmental standards, they are a small part. And as a consequence, we leave that entirely to the Environment Agency to enforce environmental legislation," said Mr Moseley.
When asked if that meant Red Tractor does not know if its farms are complying with environmental law, he said: "Correct".
But many supermarkets do refer to the environmental benefits of Red Tractor farms.
Natalie Smith, Tesco's head of agriculture said last month, on the 25-year anniversary of Red Tractor: "Certification schemes play a key role in providing reassurance for customers, and over the past 25 years, Red Tractor has established itself as a mark of quality, standing for… environmental protection."
On Morrisons' website it states: "100% of the fresh pork, beef, lamb, poultry, milk and cheddar cheese we sell in our stores comes from farms certified by Red Tractor, or an approved equivalent scheme, giving customers assurance… environmental protection."
Both supermarkets were asked if they stood by the Red Tractor logo.
Morrisons did not respond to comment and Tesco referred the BBC to their industry body the British Retail Consortium.
The consortium said that "retailers remain committed to working with Red Tractor", but that the organisation themselves are owners of the scheme.
Christopher Cash (left) and Christopher Berry (right) were both accused of spying for China
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are demanding the Labour government publish the evidence it submitted in the now-collapsed case against two people accused of spying for China.
It follows another public intervention from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), which has made clear it would not stand in the way if ministers chose to put their evidence in the public domain.
On Tuesday, senior government figures had suggested that the CPS had told them to do so would be "inappropriate".
The director of public prosecutions said the case collapsed because evidence could not obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.
This row within a row relates to the three witness statements submitted by Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Collins, on whether China had been regarded as a threat at the time of the alleged offences under the previous Conservative government.
The CPS has now said: "The statements were provided to us for the purpose of criminal proceedings which are now over.
"The material contained in them is not ours, and it is a matter for the government, independently of the CPS, to consider whether or not to make that material public."
Mr Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Mr Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act in April 2024, when the Conservatives were in power.
They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told the BBC: "The government should now urgently release Matt Collins's witnesses statements and the correspondence around them in the interests of full transparency.
"Since this evidence would have been cross-examined in court, it cannot be secret.
"Otherwise, there will be legitimate questions about what exactly the government is hiding."
Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Calum Miller also called on Labour to release the full witness statements.
"If ministers have nothing to hide they have nothing to fear," Miller said. "Failure to come clean will just confirm people's suspicions of a cover-up and that ministers are more worried about cosying up to China than protecting our national security."
On Sunday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wrote to the prime minister asking him to address "unanswered" questions about the collapsed case.
In her letter, Badenoch accused Sir Keir Starmer, or his ministers, of being "too weak to stand up to Beijing on a crucial matter of national security", claiming the government had sought to "appease China".
Jonathan Powell, one of Sir Keir's most senior advisers and political allies, visited China earlier this year
There is every possibility Sir Keir will for the first time face sustained public scrutiny on the case on Wednesday, when he appears at the first Prime Minister's Question time for several weeks, after the parliamentary recess for party conferences.
The Labour leader previously said ministers could only draw on the last government's assessment of China, in which the country was called an "epoch-defining challenge", and his government has maintained it is "frustrated" the trial collapsed.
But there is an exceptionally high bar to prosecuting someone for a second time after an acquittal in court - and it is not possible to do so for people charged under the Official Secrets Act.
That protection against what is known as "double jeopardy" is a basic legal principle that has existed for 800 years.
'We want to raise our children': Life in Gaza after hostages and prisoners released
Hamas has returned the bodies of four more deceased hostages, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said.
The Red Cross retrieved the remains in coffins and handed them over to the Israeli military late on Tuesday night.
The transfer came after Israel warned it would restrict aid into Gaza until Hamas returned the bodies of all 28 deceased hostages. The Palestinian armed group handed back 20 living and four deceased hostages on Monday.
The remains of 45 deceased Palestinians who had been held in Israel were returned to Gaza on Tuesday, the Red Cross said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump's ceasefire plan, which both Israel and Hamas accepted, envisaged the handover of all 48 hostages would be completed by noon on Monday.
While all living hostages were returned, pressure is growing on Hamas and the Israeli government over the remains of 20 hostages which Hamas has not yet repatriated.
Reuters
Red Cross vehicles transport the bodies of deceased hostages who had been held in Gaza
In a statement on Tuesday, the IDF said: "Hamas is required to fulfil its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families and to proper burial."
Israel's defence minister has warned the Palestinian armed group that "any delay or deliberate avoidance will be considered a gross violation of the agreement and will be responded to accordingly".
Israeli officials said they had decided to restrict aid and delay plans to open the Rafah border crossing with Egypt because Hamas had violated the ceasefire deal by failing to turn over bodies of hostages.
Hamas says it has had difficulty locating the dead hostages' remains.
Watch: 'I felt immense happiness and joy', Israelis react to hostage release
A copy of the ceasefire agreement, published by Israeli media last week, appeared to acknowledge that Hamas and other Palestinian factions might not be able to locate all of the bodies within the original timeframe.
An Israeli official has suggested that an international task force will start work to locate the remains of anyone who was not returned.
"A big burden has been lifted, but the job is NOT DONE. THE DEAD HAVE NOT BEEN RETURNED, AS PROMISED! Phase two begins right NOW!!!" Trump said on X.
Almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees were released as part of the 20-point peace plan, touted by the US president as the end of the two-year war.
The first phase of Trump's plan saw the ceasefire come into effect at 12:00 (09:00 GMT) on 10 October.
Reuters
Red Cross vehicles escort a truck transporting the bodies of Palestinians who had been held in Israel during the war
Trump signed the declaration on Monday, alongside the leaders of Egypt and Qatar - the main mediators - and Turkey, which played a significant role in the latter stages of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were among more than 20 world leaders attending - including many from Muslim and Arab countries. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas did not take part.
The plan would see Gaza initially governed by a transitional committee of Palestinian technocrats overseen by the "Board of Peace", before power is eventually transferred to the Palestinian Authority (PA) once it has undergone reforms.
But difficult negotiations will be needed in order to move forward with the latter phases of the plan.
Among the points of contention are the extent and timeline of Israeli troop withdrawal, the disarmament of Hamas, and the future governance of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas has previously said it will not disarm unless a Palestinian state was established - and has rejected the idea of foreign governance in Gaza.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 67,869 people have been killed by Israeli military operations in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
A brown hyena standing beside the ruins of an abandoned diamond mining settlement has earned wildlife photographer Wim van den Heever the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
He set up his camera trap after spotting fresh hyena tracks in the ghost town of Kolmanskop, Namibia. It took him ten years to get the shot, he said.
The brown hyena, the rarest of all hyena species, is primarily nocturnal and tends to live a solitary life. For years, Mr. van den Heever searched the deserted town, finding only traces of the elusive animal.
"I knew they were there, but actually photographing one was just never going to happen," he says he thought.
He was awarded the prize at London's Natural History Museum.
The annual exhibition dedicated to the competition opens at the Natural History Museum on 17 October.
Keep scrolling to explore the full collection of award-winning images.
Andrea Dominizi
Category: Junior Grand Prize and 15- to 17-year-old winner
Title: After the Destruction
Photographer: Andrea Dominizi, Italy
Location: Lepini Mountains, Lazio, Italy
While exploring the Lepini Mountains in central Italy, an area once logged for its old-growth beech trees, Andrea spotted a beetle resting on a cut log beside abandoned machinery.
"This photo shows the story and challenge faced by many animal species: habitat loss," he says. "In this case, it's a beetle that loses the tree and the wood it needs to lay its eggs."
Category winners
Shane Gross
Category: Animals in their Environment
Title: Like an Eel out of Water
Photographer: Shane Gross, Canada
Location: D'Arros Island, Amirante, Seychelles
After weeks of patience, last year's winner, Shane Gross, captured peppered moray eels scavenging for carrion at low tide.
He spent hours enduring the sun, heat, and flies, waiting where dead fish had washed up. Eventually, three eels appeared.
Jamie Smart
Category: 10 Years and Under category
Title: The Weaver's Lair
Photographer: Jamie Smart, UK
Location: Mid-Wales, UK
On a cold September morning, Jamie Smart discovered an orb-weaver spider curled up inside its silken hideaway.
"It's also quite special for me because I get to show something that people are usually afraid of," she says.
Sebastian Frölich
Category: Wetlands: The Bigger Picture
Title: Vanishing Pond
Photographer: Sebastian Frölich, Germany
Location: Platzertal, Tyrol, Austria
Sebastian Frölich visited Austria's Platzertal moorlands, a fragile wetland, to highlight its vital role as a carbon sink and a habitat for diverse wildlife, at a time when Austria has lost 90 per cent of its peat bogs.
Lubin Godin
Category: 11–14 Years
Title: Alpine Dawn
Photographer: Lubin Godin, France
Location: Col de la Colombière, Haute-Savoie, France
During an early ascent, Lubin Godin found an Alpine ibex resting above a sea of clouds. He retraced his steps as the sun broke through and captured the scene before the mist returned.
Ralph Pace
Category: Underwater
Title: Survival Purse
Photographer: Ralph Pace, USA
Location: Monterey Bay, California, USA
Battling strong currents, Ralph Pace captured this image of a swell shark egg case, revealing a glowing embryo, complete with gill slits and a yolk sac.
Swell sharks depend on kelp to lay their leathery eggs, making them vulnerable to kelp forest loss. Researchers believe Monterey Bay's kelp has declined by more than 95 per cent in the past 34 years.
Philipp Egger
Category: Animal Portraits
Title: Shadow Hunter
Photographer: Philipp Egger, Italy
Location: Naturns, South Tyrol, Italy
Philipp Egger observed this eagle owl's nest from afar for more than four years.
Among the world's largest owls, eagle owls are about twice the weight of buzzards. These nocturnal hunters nest on cliffs or in crevices and often return to the same site for many years.
Qingrong Yang
Category: Behaviour: Birds
Title: Synchronised Fishing
Photographer: Qingrong Yang, China
Location: Yundang Lake, Fujian Province, China
Qingrong Yang captured a ladyfish snatching prey just beneath a little egret's beak.
He often visits the lake to document these frenzied feeding moments.
Dennis Stogsdill
Category: Behaviour: Mammals
Title: Cat Amongst the Flamingos
Photographer: Dennis Stogsdill, USA
Location: Ndutu Lake, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania
Caracals are known for their acrobatic leaps to catch birds, but sightings of them hunting flamingos are rare.
Jon A Juárez
Category: Photojournalism
Title: How to Save a Species
Photographer: Jon A Juárez, Spain
Location: Ol Pejeta, Nanyuki, Laikipia County, Kenya
After years following the BioRescue Project, Jon A. Juárez witnessed a breakthrough in rhino conservation, the first successful transfer of a rhino embryo to a surrogate mother.
Though the foetus of the southern white rhino, pictured here, did not survive due to infection, the milestone proved that IVF could work for rhinos, bringing scientists closer to saving the critically endangered northern white rhino.
In heavy rain, Quentin Martinez followed a flooded path to a pool in a forest clearing and captured the metallic sheen of lesser tree frogs gathering to breed.
Javier Aznar González de Rueda
Category: Photojournalist Story
Title: End of the Round-up
Photographer: Javier Aznar González de Rueda, Spain
Location: USA
Across the US, Javier Aznar González de Rueda explored society's conflicted views of rattlesnakes from deep respect to fear and persecution.
Location: Torndirrup National Park, Western Australia
Georgina Steytler showcased the gum-leaf skeletoniser caterpillar's strange tower of discarded head capsules. Each moult leaves a capsule behind, forming a stack thought to confuse predators.
Audun Rikardsen
Category: Oceans: The Bigger Picture
Title: The Feast
Photographer: Audun Rikardsen, Norway
Location: Kvænangen Fjord, Skjervøy, Norway
During a polar night in Norway, Audun Rikardsen photographed gulls swarming around a fishing vessel, trying to catch fish trapped in nets.
He aims to highlight the conflict between seabirds and the fishing industry. Many birds drown in purse seine nets each year.
Chien Lee
Chien Lee has been awarded first place in the Plants and Fungi category
Category: Plants and Fungi
Title: Deadly Allure
Photographer: Chien Lee, Malaysia
Location: Kuching, Sarawak, Borneo, Malaysia
Some carnivorous pitcher plants reflect UV light as part of their display, using colour, scent and nectar to lure prey. To illustrate this, Chien Lee used a long exposure and UV torch.
Luca Lorenz
Category: Rising Star
Title: Watchful Moments
Photographer: Luca Lorenz, Germany
Location: Germany
While Luca Lorenz was photographing mute swans on an urban lake, a coypu photobombed his frame.
Location: Ibbenbüren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
On a city bridge, Simone Baumeister photographed an orb-weaver spider silhouetted against traffic lights. By reversing one of the six glass elements in her lens, she created the kaleidoscopic effect, framing the spider.
Fernando Faciole
Category: Impact Award Winner 2025 & Highly Commended, Photojournalism
Title: Orphan of the Road
Photographer: Fernando Faciole, Brazil
Location: CETAS (Centro de Triagem de Animais Silvestres), Belo Horizonte, Brazil
At a rehabilitation centre in Brazil, Fernando Faciole photographed an orphaned giant anteater pup trailing its caregiver.
His aim is to show the consequences of road collisions, a major threat to these animals.
Alexey Kharitonov
Alexey Kharitonov is the winner of the Portfolio Award category
Category: Portfolio Award
Title: Visions of the North
Photographer: Alexey Kharitonov, Israel/Russia
Location: Russia
A recently frozen lake in Svetlyachkovskoye Swamp reveals snow-dusted dark circles etched with crack-like veins.
Using a drone, Alexey Kharitonov captures the rapid transition from summer to winter across taiga forests and Arctic tundra.
When Jess Smith uploaded a photo of herself into an AI image generator this summer, she wasn't expecting a social experiment.
The former Australian Paralympic swimmer wanted to vamp up her headshot and uploaded a full-length photo of her and prompted it really specifically that she was missing her left arm from below the elbow.
But ChatGPT couldn't create the image she was asking for and despite various prompts, the results were largely the same - a woman with two arms or one with a metal device to represent a prosthetic.
She asked the AI why it was so hard to create the image and it said it was because it didn't have enough data to work with.
"That was an important realisation for me that of course AI is a reflection of the world we live in today and the level of inequality and discrimination that exists," she says.
Smith recently tried to generate the image again on ChatGPT and was amazed to find it could now produce an accurate picture of a woman with one arm, just like her.
"Oh my goodness, it worked, it's amazing it's finally been updated," she tells the BBC. "This is a great step forward."
Jessica Smith
Jess Smith found that ChatGPT was able to generate this image of her recently
It might not sound like a big deal, but for millions of people with disabilities, this shift matters.
"Representation in technology means being seen not as an afterthought, but as part of the world that's being built," Jess says.
"AI is evolving, and when it evolves with inclusion at its core, we all benefit. This is more than progress in tech it's progress in humanity."
A spokesperson for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, said it had recently "made meaningful improvements" to its image generation model.
They added: "We know challenges remain, particularly around fair representation, and we're actively working to improve this - including refining our post-training methods and adding more diverse examples to help reduce bias over time."
Naomi Bowman
AI edited Naomi's eye even though she didn't request for this to be done
While Smith’s disability is now reflected with AI, Naomi Bowman, who only has sight in one eye, is still experiencing a similar problem.
She asked ChatGPT to blur the background of a picture but instead it "changed my face completely and evened out my eyes".
"Even when I specifically explained that I had an eye condition and to leave my face alone; it couldn't compute," she says.
Naomi initially found it funny but says "it now makes me sad as it shows the inherent bias within AI".
She is calling for AI models to be "trained and tested in rigorous ways to reduce AI bias and to ensure the data sets are broad enough so that everyone is represented and treated fairly".
Some concerned about AI‘s environmental impact have criticised the creation of images on ChatGPT.
Professor Gina Neff of Queen Mary University London told the BBC that ChatGPT is "burning through energy", and the data centres used to power it consume more electricity in a year than 117 countries.
Awkward conversations
Experts say bias in artificial intelligence often reflects the same blind spots that exist in wider society and it's not just disabilities that are unrepresented.
Abran Maldonado, chief execuive of Create Labs, a US-based company that builds culturally aware AI system, says diversity in AI starts with who's involved in training and labelling the data.
"It's about who's in the room when the data is being built," he explains. "You need cultural representation at the creation stage."
Not everything is represented on the internet correctly and Maldonado adds that if you don't consult the people with lived experiences then AI will miss them.
One well known example was a 2019 US government study which found that facial recognition algorithms were far less accurate at identifying African-American and Asian faces compared to Caucasian faces.
Despite living with one arm, Jess doesn't see herself as disabled, saying the barriers she faces are societal.
"If I use a public toilet and the tap has to be held down, that impacts my ability, not because I can't do it, but because the designer hasn't thought about me."
She believes there is a risk of the same oversight happening in the world of AI, systems and spaces built without considering everyone.
When Jess shared her original experience on LinkedIn, someone messaged her to say his AI app would create an image of a woman with one arm.
"I tried to create it and the same thing happened, I couldn't generate the image," she says.
She told the person, but they never replied to her and she says that's typical of conversations around disability.
"The conversation is too awkward and uncomfortable so people back away."
The Melodies for Mums classes in south London started in 2017 and now take on more than 400 women a year
Specially designed singing classes are clinically effective at treating mums with postnatal depression, a major three-year study has found. The authors say they could also be cost effective for the NHS at a time when mental health services are under pressure.
At a children's centre in a housing estate in south London a group of 12 young mums sit in a circle on the floor as their babies cry, crawl and sleep on mats in front of them.
But at this music class there are no bells or tambourines and no Wheels on the Bus or Baby Shark.
Instead, the group work through a mix of lullabies, folk and gospel, switching from Spanish to Congolese to Swahili in rounds of four-part harmonies.
The whole session, from the music selection, to the size of the group, to the set up of the room itself, has been carefully designed to treat the symptoms of postnatal depression.
"I can't stress enough how much this was a game changer for me," says Holly, 30, who started the course earlier this year after it was recommended by her care coordinator.
She says she started feeling unwell in her pregnancy after "my hormones, or something, went a bit wrong".
While those symptoms did start to improve after giving birth to her daughter Ettie, she still felt "vulnerable and very anxious".
"Being a new mum is one of the loneliest times, because you're sort of in this insular bubble," she says.
"And at the very first session here, I walked in and I was like, 'oh, this is my safe place'. Like, I'm safe here."
Holly is one of the 400 young mothers a year now attending specially designed singing classes across five London boroughs
Postnatal depression is a common problem, affecting more than one in 10 women within a year of giving birth, according to the NHS.
Symptoms are wide-ranging but can include persistent sadness or low mood, problems looking after yourself, insomnia and withdrawing from other people.
Melodies for Mums started in 2017 as a free weekly class in Southwark, south London, based on earlier research which suggested group singing could reduce stress and anxiety.
It's expanded quickly and now runs face-to-face sessions for 400 women a year in five London boroughs and online classes across the UK.
"We know that women experiencing symptoms of postnatal depression can struggle to connect with their peers," says Yvonne Farquharson, the founder of Breathe Arts Health Research, the non-profit organisation behind the idea.
"So through singing, we're getting them to really look at each other and make that kind of bond and social connection."
New mums often join the programme after it's suggested by their midwife, GP or local authority or find it through social media or word-of-mouth.
There is a screening process to check they will benefit before starting the 10-week course.
A 'long-lasting' impact
In 2019 the sessions became part of a study funded by a £2.6m grant from the Wellcome Trust to research how local arts projects might improve physical and mental health at a larger scale.
The results, published this week in the British Journal of Psychiatry, looked at almost 200 mums with postnatal depression over eight months.
The women were split into two groups with one group assigned the singing course and the other offered more typical support like community play classes.
All the mothers reported a reduction in their symptoms by week 10 but that improvement continued in the singing group for another six months beyond the end of the sessions.
"That's really important because it shows that the singing intervention is not only effective in the immediacy for depression, but it has a long-lasting impact," says Dr Rebecca Bind, a research associate at Kings College London and one of the study's lead authors.
Women in the singing group also had a much lower dropout rate and were more likely to say they found it a good match for their needs and easy to use.
The published paper didn't look specifically at why singing itself seemed to have a beneficial effect. But the researchers have their theories.
"I think part of it was women were in the presence of other mothers who were going through the same kind of experiences, even if they were not necessarily having to talk about it," says Dr Bind.
"And on top of that, the act of singing itself can have a very relaxing effect."
A second stage of the analysis has already taken saliva swabs from women to measure levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
Early results suggest that mothers in the singing group saw a "nice steady decline in those levels throughout the intervention period," according to Carmine Pariante, professor of biological psychiatry at Kings College London.
The music classes also helped mums form a bond with their babies which continued after the end of the course as the songs and music were used at home.
Jay, shown with her son Ezra, says a difficult birth had a "huge impact" on her mental health
At the children's centre Jay, holding her young son Ezra, describes postnatal depression as "feeling low when I know I should have been at the happiest point of my life".
"Just being able to be with people who are also struggling, even though that's not the focus of the session [is important]," she says.
"You're there, you're having a great time and singing, but you know that these people are also experiencing what you're experiencing."
Long NHS waiting lists
The organisers stress the singing classes don't have to replace talking therapies or medication.
But they could be either complimentary or a quicker, easier-to-access alternative for some women, at a time when there can be long waits for NHS mental health services.
The Kings College London study found the cost of the music course, at between £126 and £539 per mother and baby depending on how it's measured, was comparable to alternatives such as educational programmes and considerably lower than the cost of group therapy or home visits.
Yvonne Farquharson at Breathe says the arts organisation has now piloted its first singing sessions aimed at young dads.
And it has also been commissioned by the World Health Organization to train teams to roll out the classes in Denmark, Italy, Romania and other countries.
At the children's centre in south London the group talk not only about the friendships they have made, but also about the skills they've picked up over the 10 weeks.
"I have two very small children so things can get very stressful at home," says Stella while holding on tight to a wriggling baby Evie.
"I bring the singing back home with me so now I start humming when things get stressful, and I don't even think about it, it just happens and I can cope."
Melodies for Mums sample tracks:
Arrorró mi niño - Spanish lullaby
Simama Kaa - Swahili folk song
Bele Mama - Cameroonian folk song
Yani Yoni Ya Hu Wey Hey - Native American birthing song
A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line
The US has struck another vessel off the coast of Venezuela, killing six people, President Donald Trump has said.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the vessel belonged to "narcoterrorists" and that it was "trafficking narcotics."
This is the fifth strike of its kind by the Trump administration on a boat accused of trafficking drugs on international waters since September. In total, 27 people have been reported killed, but the US has not provided evidence or details about identities of the vessels or those on board them.
Some lawyers have accused the US of breaching international law, and neighbouring nations like Colombia and Venezuela have condemned the strikes.
In his Truth Social post, Trump said "intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known" route for smuggling.
He also posted an aerial surveillance video showing a small boat on water that is struck by a missile and explodes.
Trump did not specify the nationality of those on board, or what drug smuggling organisation they are suspected of belonging to. He added that no US military personnel were injured.
The strike comes after a recent leaked memo sent to Congress, and reported on by US media, that said the administration determined the US was in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug cartels.
The US has positioned its strikes on alleged drug-trafficking vessels as self-defence, despite many lawyers questioning their legality.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
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Speaking to the Israeli parliament, Trump declared "the historic dawn of a new Middle East"
Donald Trump's quick trip to Israel and Egypt was the victory lap he wanted.
Anyone watching the speeches he made in Jerusalem and Sharm el-Sheikh, could see a man luxuriating in his power - enjoying the applause in Israel's parliament, and in Egypt, basking in the fact that so many heads of state and government had flown in.
One veteran diplomat in the room said it looked as if Trump saw the role of the world leaders there as extras on his film set.
Trump's message assembled at Sharm was, in effect, that he had created a historical turning point.
"All I've done all my life is deals. The greatest deals just sort of happen… That's what happened right here. And maybe this is going to be the greatest deal of them all," he said.
Observers might also have had the impression from the speeches that the job is done. It is not.
Without question, Trump can claim credit for the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal. Qatar, Turkey and Egypt used their leverage with Hamas to force it to accept.
That made it a joint effort, but Trump's role was decisive.
Without his push to demand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's agreement to terms that he had previously rejected, the deal would not have been signed.
It helps to recognise what the deal is – and what it isn't.
The agreement was for a ceasefire and an exchange of hostages for prisoners. It is not a peace agreement, or even the start of a peace process.
The next phase of the Trump 20-point plan requires an agreement filling in the gaps of the framework which declares that the Gaza Strip will be demilitarised, secured and governed by a committee including Palestinians.
It will report to a Board of Peace chaired by President Trump. Significant work needs to be done on the detail needed to make that happen.
The Gaza agreement is not a route map to peace in the Middle East, the ultimate and so far, unreachable destination.
Reuters
Netanyahu called Trump the "greatest friend" Israel had ever had in the White House
Just as seriously, there is no evidence of the political will necessary to make a real peace deal. Most wars end with exhausted belligerents making some kind of agreement. The war in Gaza has become one of those, if as Trump has declared, it really is over.
The other way to end a war is with a total victory that lets the winners dictate the way ahead. The best example is the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany in 1945.
Before 9 September, when Netanyahu ordered a missile strike on Qatar he seemed to still be intent on crushing Israel's enemy so comprehensively, that Israel would be able to dictate the future of Gaza.
The strike infuriated Trump.
Qatar is one of America's key allies in the region, and the site of the biggest US military base in the Middle East. It is also a place where his sons have been doing lucrative business. Trump dismissed Netanyahu's justification that the target, which was missed, was the Hamas leadership, not Qatar.
For Trump, America's interests come before Israel's. He is not like Joe Biden, who was prepared to accept harm to America's position in the region as the necessary price for supporting Israel.
CCTV captures moment of Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Doha
Trump is back in Washington DC. Diplomats say the Americans realise that getting the detail sorted out is vital and will not happen quickly. The problem is that they might not have enough time.
Ceasefires always get violated in their early stages. The ones that survive tend to be based on a tight agreements, made by warring parties who have decided that their best option is to make them work.
The danger is that the Gaza ceasefire lacks those underpinnings. Only 24 hours after Israelis and Palestinians, for very different reasons, shared joy and relief that hostages, prisoners and detainees were home, cracks are appearing in the ceasefire.
Hamas has, so far, returned only four of the bodies of the 28 hostages who were killed during their incarceration. Its explanation is that it is very hard to find their graves in the sea of rubble that Israel has created in Gaza.
Israel's patience is thin.
The fate of the bodies of the hostages will become a bigger and bigger issue in Israel if their remains are not repatriated.
On Tuesday evening, it was reported that Israel will not reopen the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Wednesday and will reduce the flow of aid into the territory until Hamas finds the bodies and sends them home.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) still occupies 55% of the Gaza Strip. This morning its soldiers killed Palestinians who they said were approaching their forces. Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza told the BBC that seven people were killed in two incidents.
It could be that the IDF is still observing the rules of engagement that it was using before the ceasefire. They order troops to watch two imaginary lines around their positions. If one is crossed, they fire warning shots. If Palestinians continue to approach their positions and cross a second imaginary line, IDF troops can shoot to kill.
A big problem with the system is that Palestinians do not know where the lines are. It is crowd control with live fire.
As for Hamas, it is reasserting its power.
Its men, armed and masked are back on the streets. It has attacked rival armed clans, some of which have been protected by the IDF. Videos have circulated of Hamas killing blindfolded and kneeling men who they have accused of collaborating with the Israelis.
The grisly videos of extra-judicial executions in the street send a message to any Palestinians who want to defy them that they should not dare - and to the outside world that Hamas has survived Israel's onslaught.
Reuters
Gaza City has been reduced to grey rubble
Point 15 of the Trump plan for Gaza says the US "will work with Arab and international partners to develop a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) to immediately deploy in Gaza". Raising and deploying that force will be impossible if the ceasefire is not solid. Potential contributors will not send in their troops to use force to disarm Hamas.
Hamas has hinted it might give up some heavy weapons but will not be disarmed. It has an ideology of Islamic resistance to Israel, and knows that without weapons its Palestinian enemies will come for revenge. Netanyahu has threatened that if no-one else will do it, Israel will finish the job. Hamas's weapons have to go, he has said, the "easy way or the hard way".
Trump has proclaimed that his Gaza deal, as it stands, will end generations of conflict between Arabs and Jews over the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. He insists too that it will lead to a broader peace across the Middle East.
If he really believes that the job of making peace is done, then he is deluding himself. Just trying needs sustained focus, hard diplomatic work and a decision by the two sides in the fight that the time has come to make painful sacrifices and compromises. To make peace, other dreams have to be jettisoned.
Past American presidents have also believed that they can make peace in the Middle East. Trump will discover that peace is not made just because a president, however powerful, decides that it is going to happen.
Some migrants coming to the UK will need to speak English to an A-level standard under tougher new rules set to be introduced by the government.
Applicants will be tested in person on their speaking, listening, reading and writing at Home Office-approved providers, with their results checked as part of the visa process.
The changes, which come into force from 8 January 2026, form part of wider plans to cut levels of immigration to the UK outlined in a white paper in May.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: "If you come to this country, you must learn our language and play your part."
Those applying for skilled worker, scale-up and high potential individual (HPI) visas will be required to reach B2 level - a step up from the current B1 standard which is equivalent to GCSE.
"This country has always welcomed those who come to this country and contribute," Mahmood said.
"But it is unacceptable for migrants to come here without learning our language, unable to contribute to our national life."
To come to the UK on the skilled worker visa, migrants have to work for a government-approved employer and earn at least £41,700 a year, or the "going rate" for their type of work, whichever is highest.
The scale-up visa is open to migrants coming to work for a fast-growing UK business. Migrants can apply for a high potential individual visa if they have been awarded a qualification from a top global university within the last five years.
According to the British Council, which offers English language courses, learners who achieve B2 level can "understand the main ideas of complex texts on concrete or abstract topics."
They can express themselves "fluently and spontaneously" and communicate comfortably with other English speakers. They can also produce "clear, detailed text on many subjects and explain a complex viewpoint".
Further English language requirements for other visa routes and family dependants are expected to be introduced in due course, Home Office Minister Mike Tapp told Parliament on Tuesday.
The prime minister previously said the changes outlined in the white paper would make the UK's immigration system "controlled, selective and fair".
Home Office estimates suggest the measures could reduce the number of people coming to the UK by up to 100,000 per year.
Net migration to the UK - total permanent arrivals minus total permanent departures - fell to 431,000 in 2024, down almost 50% on the total in 2023, when it reached a record high of 906,000.
Other measures in the white paper include cutting the time period international students can stay in the UK to find a graduate job after their course ends from two years to 18 months, which will take effect from January 2027.
Students will also have to meet higher financial requirements, raised to £1,171 per month outside London (from £1,136) for up to nine months.
Further plans in the White Paper include, the immigration skills charge for UK employers to pay when sponsoring foreign workers on specific visas has also been increased to £480 per person per year for small organisations or charities, and to £1,320 for medium and large organisations.
This is raised from £364 and £1,000 respectively.
As part of the government's efforts to attract highly skilled people to the country, the HPI route will be expanded. The number of migrants on the visa is expected to double from 2,000 to 4,000, but there will be a cap of 8,000 applications each year.
The Global Talent visa, for high achievers in technology, arts and academia fields has also been expanded to include winners of more prestigious prizes.
Dr Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the government faced a "trade-off" between "ensuring migrants speak good English and enabling employers to recruit workers who are expected to bring economic benefits."
Many graduate jobs already require language skills above A-level standard, she said.
The new language requirements will have "more impact in middle-skilled jobs involving technical and manual skills, where employers sometimes do not require high language proficiency".
R&B award-winning singer Michael Eugene Archer, known to his fans as D’Angelo, died aged 51 after a battle with cancer, his family said in a statement.
His family said the singer was leaving behind a "legacy of extraordinarily moving music" and asked fans to celebrate “the gift of song that he has left for the world”.
The influential singer was known for pioneering the genre of neo-soul, which blends R&B music with other genres including hip-hop and jazz.
His three albums won him four Grammy awards. The music video for his hit song, Untitled (How Does it Feel), gained mainstream attention after he performed in the one-shot video, naked, belting the song.
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