Police are continuing a manhunt for an asylum seeker who was mistakenly released from prison on Friday, weeks after being jailed for sexually assaulting a schoolgirl in Essex.

Ethiopian national Hadush Kebatu was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre from HMP Chelmsford ahead of a planned deportation on Friday but Justice Secretary David Lammy said the 41-year-old is now "at large" in London.

Lammy said officers from the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police (BTP) and Essex Police were working together to trace Kebatu, who was jailed for 12 months in September.

Sir Keir Starmer described the release as "totally unacceptable".

The prime minister said Kebatu "must be caught and deported for his crimes", adding that police are "working urgently to track him down".

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said the release was a "level of incompetence that beggars belief".

"Conservatives voted against Labour's prisoner release program because it was putting predators back on our streets," she said on X.

The Prison Service has removed an officer from discharging duties while an investigation takes place.

Essex Police said Kebatu boarded a London-bound train at Chelmsford station at 12:41 on Friday.

The force said it was informed by the prison services about "an error" at 12:57 on Friday.

A statement continued: "We understand the concern the public would have regarding this situation and can assure you we have officers working to urgently locate and detain him."

Lammy said he was "appalled" and "livid on behalf of the public".

He continued: "Let's be clear Kebatu committed a nasty sexual assault involving a young child and a woman. And for those reasons this of course is very serious."

A Prison Service spokesperson said: "We are urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error at HMP Chelmsford.

"Public protection is our top priority, and we have launched an investigation into this incident."

Kebatu's arrest in July sparked protests outside The Bell Hotel in Epping, where he had been living after arriving in the UK on a small boat.

In September, Chelmsford Magistrates' Court heard Kebatu tried to kiss a teenage girl on a bench and made numerous sexually explicit comments.

The following day, he encountered the same girl and tried to kiss her before sexually assaulting her. He also sexually assaulted a woman who had offered to help him draft a CV to find work.

During the trial, Kebatu gave his date of birth as December 1986, making him 38, but court records suggested he was 41.

He was found guilty of five offences and sentenced to 12 moths. He was also given a five-year sexual harm prevention order, which banned him from approaching or contacting any female, and ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.

The court heard it was his "firm wish" to be deported.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: "He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken."

A report from His Majesty's Prison and Probation Service said 262 prisoners in England and Wales were released in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 in the previous 12 months.

So many lives in Gaza still hang in the balance.

In different wards of Nasser Hospital lie two 10-year-old boys, one shot by Israeli fire and paralysed from the neck down, another with a brain tumour.

Now that a fragile ceasefire is in place, they are among some 15,000 patients who the World Health Organization (WHO) says are in need of urgent medical evacuations.

Ola Abu Said sits gently stroking the hair of her son Amar. His family says he was in their tent in southern Gaza when he was hit by a stray bullet fired by an Israeli drone. It is lodged between two of his vertebrae, leaving him paralysed.

"He needs surgery urgently," Ola says, "but it's complicated. Doctors told us it could cause his death, a stroke or brain hemorrhage. He needs surgery in a well-equipped place."

Right now, Gaza is anything but that. After two years of war, its hospitals have been left in a critical state.

Sitting by the bedside of her younger brother, Ahmed al-Jadd, his sister Shahd says her brother was a constant comfort to her through two years of war and displacement.

"He's only 10 and when our situation got so bad, he used to go out and sell water to help bring some money for us," she says. A few months ago, he showed the first signs of ill health.

"Ahmad's mouth started drooping to one side," Shahd explains. "One time he kept telling me: "Shahd my head hurts" and we just gave him paracetamol, but later, his right hand stopped moving."

The one-time university student is desperate for her brother to travel abroad to have his tumour removed.

"We can't lose him. We already lost our father, our home and our dreams," Shahd says. "When the ceasefire happened it gave us a bit of a hope that maybe there was a 1% chance that Ahmed could travel and get treated."

On Wednesday, the WHO coordinated the first medical convoy to exit Gaza since the fragile ceasefire began on 10 October. It took 41 patients and 145 carers to hospitals abroad via Israel's Kerem Shalom crossing, with ambulances and buses taking the group on to Jordan. Some have stayed for care there.

The UN agency has called for numbers of medical evacuations to be rapidly increased to deal with the thousands of cases of sick and wounded. It wants to be able to bring out patients through Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt as it has done previously.

However, Israel has said it is keeping the crossing closed until Hamas "fulfils" its commitments under the terms of the Gaza ceasefire deal by returning the bodies of deceased hostages. Israel has kept the Gaza side of the Egyptian border closed since May 2024 when it took control during the war.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, the head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said "the most impactful measure" would be if Israel could allow Gazan patients to be treated in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as happened before the war.

Top EU officials and foreign ministers of more than 20 countries - including the UK - have previously called for this, offering "financial contributions, provision of medical staff or equipment needed."

"Hundreds of patients could be treated easily and efficiently in a short time if this route reopened to the East Jerusalem Hospital Network and the hospitals in the West Bank," says Dr Fadi Atrash, CEO of the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives.

"We can at least treat 50 patients per day for chemotherapy and radiation and even more than that. Other hospitals can do a lot of surgeries," the doctor tells me.

"Referring them to East Jerusalem is the shortest distance, the most efficient way, because we have the mechanism. We speak the same language, we're the same culture, in many cases we have medical files for Gazan patients. They've been receiving treatment in East Jerusalem hospitals for more than a decade before the war."

The BBC asked Cogat, the Israeli defence body which controls Gaza's crossings, why the medical route was not being approved. Cogat said it was a decision by the political echelon and referred queries to the Prime Minister's Office which did not offer further explanation.

After the Hamas-led attacks of 7 October 2023, Israel cited security reasons for not allowing Gazan patients in other Palestinian territories. It also pointed out that its main crossing point for people at Erez had been targeted by Hamas fighters during the assault.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says that in the year to August 2025, at least 740 people, including nearly 140 children, died while on waiting lists.

At Nasser hospital, the director of paediatrics and maternity, Dr Ahmed al-Farra, expresses his frustration.

"It's the most difficult feeling for a doctor to be present, able to diagnose a condition but unable to carry out essential tests and lacking the necessary treatments," Dr al-Farra says. "This has happened in so many cases, and unfortunately, there's daily loss of life due to our lack of capabilities."

Since the ceasefire, hope has run out for more of his patients.

In the past week in the hospital grounds, a funeral took place for Saadi Abu Taha, aged eight, who died from intestinal cancer.

A day later three-year old Zain Tafesh and Luay Dweik, aged eight, died from hepatitis.

Without action, there are many more Gazans who will not have a chance to live in peace.

When Sarel presses record on her phone, there's no script, no set and no meticulous plan for what she's about to say.

"I'm usually wearing my bonnet, no makeup and I just pick up the phone and start yapping," she says.

"I believe in maximum output for minimal effort, so if I have to do more than the bare minimum, I likely won't do it. That's why I just talk to the camera and post."

In only a few years, Sarel's unfiltered style has turned her from an ordinary voice online into one of TikTok's most distinctive personalities, with more than one million followers on the platform.

Famous for her Love Island debriefs, Sarel is among the nominees at the second annual TikTok awards - a celebration of the creators shaping online culture in the UK.

There are 72 nominees across 12 categories including education, beauty, comedy, food and sport. The nominees have a combined following of more than 83 million followers.

From breakout comedians to beauty innovators, this year's nominees include jacket potato entrepreneurs, tap dancing brothers, a bus loving aunty, a BookTok aficionado and a film location fangirl.

Coco Sarel

Sarel can't quite believe that the thing she does most naturally - talking - has gained her millions of followers and likes.

"It's mad people want to watch me yap," she says. But the simplicity of her process is part of the appeal and "you really do see 100% of me on the camera".

Her journey has also taken her beyond the screen, and in 2023 she performed at the Edinburgh Fringe festival with fellow TikTok stars.

"I've got a whole new respect for comedians after doing that," she says. "With content, if people don't like it, they scroll away, but if you bomb on stage, the whole room is looking at you like, 'That's terrible'".

With visibility comes scrutiny, and Sarel says it's not always easy dealing with the darker side of social media.

"The hate is always louder than the love," she says. "Five years ago, I'd clap back in the comments, but I'm 31 now and I'm too tired for that so I just block it out and ignore it."

Because she started sharing later in life, Sarel is still figuring out how much of herself to put online.

"I go off how I feel in the moment, and my audience respects that," she says. "I started off like I was just talking to friends, but now I protect parts of my life I don't want everyone's opinion on."

While social media is full of people turning major life events into months-long content strategies, Sarel isn't interested in that and even significant milestones tend to pass with little fanfare on her feed.

"I recently got married and I did two videos, then I was like, 'Let's talk about The Traitors.' I've got ADHD, so I move on quickly."

Henry Rowley

Best known for his "husky posh girl" sketches, Henry Rowley has become one of TikTok's sharpest comedy voices.

The Leicester-born performer discovered his now signature characters while studying at Bristol University, where he found himself "surrounded by a whole new world of posh" and he couldn't resist turning it into material.

"Some of those posh people were my friends and I found everything they said hilarious, so I started making videos about things they'd say on nights out."

His sketches, which more recently include impressions of Harry Potter characters as if they were Scottish, has earned him more than a million followers on TikTok.

He's also tried to carve a space in stand-up - a move he admits has been challenging.

"It's entirely different doing content and comedy on stage," he says. "Stand-up takes a lot of work and before the Fringe and my tour, there were so many pubs and awful gigs where I did a 20-minute set to zero laughs. It's certainly humbling."

Despite his rising profile, Rowley protects much of his life from the public eye.

"I mainly post characters and sketches so people who follow me don't know that much about me, which is really nice. I like having that balance," he says.

His advice for other people starting out creating content is similar to what most of the nominees said: "Don't try and go viral but instead focus on doing something you are genuinely interested in."

Bemi Orojuogun

If London has an unofficial ambassador for its buses, it might just be Bus Aunty.

Often seen smiling beside a passing double-decker, she's turned her lifelong love of the capital's transport network into a viral celebration of city life.

"My love for buses comes from a long time ago, from the early 90s," she says. "I have always taken a picture of myself with buses and one random day I chose to post one on TikTok and it went viral, and now here we are."

One of her videos, which is nominated for best video of the year, has been viewed amost 50 million times and Bemi now has collaborations with Burberry and Ikea.

The mental health nurse has become one of TikTok's most unexpected success stories and she admits "it's slightly overwhelming that everyone recognises me".

"I get recognised in the streets sometimes and people say, 'Oh, hello, Bus Aunty.' I never thought people would be stopping me in my wildest dreams and it's taken some getting used to."

"To be nominated is amazing," she says of her TikTok Awards nod.

"If I'm nominated, it means I deserve to be here, and I really do love buses and love London and hopefully that shows."

She's also proud to represent a different side of the app's community.

"You're never too old," she says firmly. "I would never have thought I could do TikTok and be nominated for awards, but here I am, having only posted for just over a year.

"Never give up on your dream because what I love about London has got me here."

Jack Edwards

If TikTok has a resident librarian, it's Jack Edwards, who has built a devoted following by sharing his love of reading. But he says his journey into social media stardom began with rejection.

"It was lockdown and I was looking for a job in publishing and no-one wanted to hire me," he recalls. "My inbox was snorkelling in a sea of rejection and every email started with the word unfortunately.

"So I started talking about the books I was reading on social media."

What began as a side project quickly turned into a full-time career, and Edwards ended up leaving the job he'd eventually secured in publishing.

He says his advice to would-be creators is finding what makes their content personal.

"You have so many interests," he explains. "If you were to create a Venn diagram of them all, the crossover in the middle is what you should make content about. For me, the cross-section is books, travel and pop culture."

Edwards adds that he's careful about how much of himself he reveals to his audience. "I talk about the books and art I love, but never the people I love," he says.

"But of course when you talk about books, you end up talking about everything from trauma, to politics, to sexuality."

That openness has seen him create a community that stretches far beyond the screen.

"People say, 'Hi' in the street and it's the best thing ever. We have a mini book club right there on the pavement, an instant Jane Austen love-fest, and I know it's so strange but honestly it's really special for me."

Still, internet fame brings its odd moments.

"Sometimes you get a message saying, 'Oh, hi, I just saw you at the urinal,'" he laughs. "Being spotted in those kinds of places never gets normal."

As the clocks go back and the darkness draws in, spare a thought for those living with the longest nights in the UK.

In the depths of winter, Scotland's northern isles will see barely six hours of daylight from morning till night.

In London and the south, people will have about two more hours of light than islanders in Orkney and Shetland.

During these shorter days more than a million people in the UK experience symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder (Sad), according to the Royal College of Psychiatry.

These can include lowered mood, emotional difficulties and feelings of anxiety.

What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?

• Sad is a recurring seasonal depression, common in winter, that is typically brought on by shorter days with reduced hours of daylight.
• It was identified in the early 1980s by Prof Norman Rosenthal, a South African psychiatrist working in the United States, who began using light therapy as a treatment.
• Symptoms of Sad described by the NHS can include low mood, irritability, a loss of interest in everyday activities and feeling sleepy during the day.
• Sufferers can also have feelings of despair, guilt and worthlessness, have difficulty concentrating and a decreased sex drive.

Life in remote locations, in the countryside or on islands, can be particularly challenging in the darker months, says Professor Hester Parr.

She leads the 'Living with Sad' project at the University of Glasgow.

"People with Sad routinely feel very depressed and sluggish," she told BBC Scotland News.

"They find it difficult to socialise because they just don't have the energy and motivation at this time of year.

"We work with those people to provide creative and cultural resources to encourage a more outdoor life, and give tips to build new 'light routines'."

Prof Parr points out that people in rural communities often have limited access to social and medical support to help them through winter.

So for the first time this year, islanders on Orkney are being offered therapeutic lamps to help them cope with Sad and counter the effects of low light.

These will be handed out from libraries as part of 'Wintering Well' boxes.

The lamps come alongside an activity guide and tools to help people develop a routine for good mental health when daylight is in short supply.

Prof Parr says: "We're pitching our resources at an attitudinal shift, a psychological mind-shift towards winter.

"So that we get out and enjoy winter, no matter what the weather.

"We've put that into a book and a CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) course in partnership with a psychiatrist."

Tools in the box include a winter sky frame.

It's a simple cardboard cut-out, that people are encouraged to hold for 10 minutes to observe a small patch of sky, to help lift their mood.

Prof Parr says the UK can also learn from Scandinavian nations where there is "a different cultural attitude to winter".

She says creating an interior light environment that is cosy and comforting can help people cope with Sad.

"We tend to walk into winter thinking it is going to be one long dark season and that's not actually true.

"If we do go outside there are large amounts of daylight available that does help our mental health.

"But it is not just about going outside and getting light, it is about redesigning our interior spaces.

"Using natural light through windows, but also using candles and fun lights to make the winter spaces in our homes more welcoming."

Why are nights longer in the north?

• The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year in the UK - with the fewest hours of daylight and longest night. This year it falls on 21 December.
• In northern Scotland the sun rises later and sets much earlier than southern England based on the Earth's tilt away from the Sun
• On the winter solstice the difference is more than two hours of daylight between the most northern and southern parts of the UK.
• On 21 December at Penzance in Cornwall, the sun will rise at 08:18 and set at 16:21. That's eight hours and three minutes of daylight.
• In Lerwick in Shetland it will rise at 09:08 and set at 14:57 - just five hours and 49 minutes of daylight.

The Orkney scheme is the next step in a project that was piloted in East Dunbartonshire in Scotland last winter.

It's a joint project from the universities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, funded by UKRI (UK Innovation and Research).

About 100 Wintering Well boxes were made available, which were borrowed more than 200 times and renewed 349 times.

Orkney Library's mobile van - known as Booky McBookface - will help distribute the light lamps across the islands.

Former librarian Stewart Bain, now a presenter on Radio Orkney, says the boxes will be welcomed by locals.

He says there is "no denying it can be a dark place" as the clocks go back.

"It's getting to that stage that its dark when I'm going into work, dark when I'm coming home," he says.

"Come the depths of winter it'll be dark after three, at four o'clock pitch black.

"The lack of sunshine combined by the lack of exercise I think can have an impact.

"I think it definitely affects my mood. One of the key things for mental health is being able to get outside for a walk."

Stewart says using the Orkney library system to offer light lamps is the ideal solution.

"It's great as another strand of what the library does," he adds.

"The library is such a good thing for mental health anyway, it might be miserable and grey on Orkney, but you can be transported anywhere within the pages of a book."

In Ireland, libraries in Dublin are also preparing to trial the scheme.

It has also inspired a new five-part series Winter Well on BBC Radio 4.

Prof Parr says the project has found that use of therapeutic lamps, alongside new outdoor routines and "programmatic encouragement" to notice natural light, really does make a difference for people with Sad.

Queen Sirikit, the mother of Thailand's King Vajiralongkorn, has died aged 93.

She passed away "peacefully" in a Bangkok hospital at 21:21 local time (14:21 GMT) on Friday night, according to the Thai Royal Household Bureau.

Sirikit had "suffered several illnesses" while in hospital since 2019, including a blood infection this month, it added.

For more than six decades, Queen Sirikit was married to Thailand's longest-reigning monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died in 2016.

Queen Sirikit suffered a stroke in 2012, after which she was rarely seen in public.

She met her future husband while studying music in Paris, where her father was stationed as Thai ambassador to France.

The couple married on 28 April 1950, just a week before King Bhumibol was crowned in Bangkok.

As a young couple in the 1960s, Queen Sirikit and King Bhumibol travelled around the world, meeting US presidents Dwight Eisenhower, the late Queen Elizabeth II - as well as Elvis Presley.

During that decade, she frequently made international best dressed lists.

In 1980, Queen Sirikit featured in a BBC documentary about the Thai monarchy, called Soul of a Nation.

In the rare interview, she said: "Kings and queens of Thailand have always been in close contact with the people and they usually regard the king as the father of the nation.

"That is why we do not have much private life, because we are considered father and mother of the nation."

She was seen as a key maternal figure for the country, with her birthday marked as Mother's Day.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves should not cut the cash Isa tax-free allowance in the upcoming Budget, a group of MPs has strongly advised.

Cuts to the tax-free allowance were unlikely to have the intended effect of promoting an investment culture in the UK, the Treasury Select Committee said in a report.

Reeves is expected to announce tax rises or spending cuts in next month's Budget, and is reportedly considering changes to cash Isas.

The chancellor said: "My understanding is that the report says that changes to Isas shouldn't be made in isolation of other policies. I'll be setting out any tax changes in the budget in November. And of course we need to get that balance right."

Reeves added: "At the moment, often returns on savings and returns on pensions are lower than in comparable countries around the world, and I do want to make sure that when people put something aside for the future, they get good returns on those savings."

Earlier this year, the chancellor was thought to be mulling a reduction to the allowance for tax-free cash savings in a bid to encourage people to put money into stocks and shares instead and boost the economy.

Those plans were put on hold after strong opposition from banks, building societies and consumer campaigners.

Savers can put up to £20,000 a year in Isas in savings and investments, to protect the returns from being taxed.

The chancellor has said she intends to keep this limit in place, and it can currently be spread across products including cash Isas and stocks and shares Isas.

The proposed change specifically relates to cash Isas, and earlier this month the Financial Times reported the chancellor was considering reducing their tax-free amount to £10,000.

The purpose behind this would be to encourage investment.

The chancellor is facing a Budget shortfall of about £22bn, according to a recent estimate.

She is expected to raise taxes or cut spending in her November Budget in order to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules of not borrowing to fund day-to-day spending and to get government debt falling as a share of national income by the end of this parliament.

Cash Isas are the most widely used type of Isa. A total of £360bn is held in cash Isas across the country.

The committee's report concluded that "cutting the cash Isa allowance is unlikely to incentivise people to invest their cash in stocks and shares".

Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Dame Meg Hillier, said: "This is not the right time to cut the cash Isa limit."

"The Committee is firmly behind the chancellor's ambition to create a culture in the UK where savers are sensibly investing their money and getting better returns through well-informed financial decisions," she said.

"But we are a long way from that point."

Dame Meg said the government should instead focus its efforts on "a comprehensive effort to genuinely improve financial education and establish accessible, high quality financial advice and guidance for people".

"Without this, I fear that the Chancellor's attempts to transform the UK's investment culture simply will not deliver the change she seeks, instead hitting savers and mortgage borrowers."

Reducing the tax-free allowance for cash Isas would likely be unpopular among many savers, particularly older ones who are less willing to take risks with their money.

Instead of cutting the cash Isa tax-free limit, "the focus should be on improving financial literacy ... so that people can make informed decisions with their savings", the committee said.

The report found that cutting the allowance would have negative knock-on effects for consumers, as building societies depend on cash Isas for their mortgage lending.

"If this was reduced, it would mean a less competitive market for financial products and consequently higher prices for consumers," the committee said.

BBC News has contacted the Treasury for comment.

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Caitlin Graham wanted to learn to drive in an automatic car as she hoped the test would be quicker to pass without having to get to grips with a gear box.

But the 22-year-old says she had little choice but to learn in a manual due to any available automatic instructors being more than 20 miles away.

Motorists have seen a quiet shift in how they drive in recent years - with one in three cars on UK roads now an automatic.

A quarter of driving tests in England, Scotland and Wales last year were taken in automatic cars.

The AA says the trend is being driven by the UK's ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars coming in 2030, as elecric cars do not have manual gearboxes.

For new drivers, this presents a dilemma - whether to learn and take their test in an automatic or a manual car.

Boxed in

It is a decision that could affect the rest of their driving lives - pass your test in an automatic and you will forever be boxed into only driving automatics - or indeed electric vehicles. Pass in a manual, and you will have the freedom to pick and choose.

But many young people say it is not a decision they are freely able to make. Some would-be automatic learners have complained about a lack of instructors and the higher cost of lessons.

Others feel the jeopardy of learning in a manual is just too high. With huge competition for driving test slots, and long waits to re-take for those who fail, some young drivers feel learning in an automatic is the only way out of the fail-rebook, fail-rebook doom loop.

When Caitlin moved back home to a "super rural" part of Cumbria after university she was eager to pass her driving test as quickly as possible. There is no public transport in her village and she wanted to get on with finding a job.

But unable to get hold of an automatic instructor she went for manual and passed almost a year after her first lesson. She says it only took her sister, who learned to drive in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, five months to pass in an automatic.

But it is a common misconception that the automatic test is easier - the pass rate for the manual test is higher at 50.4% than automatic at 43.9%, according to Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) figures for the financial year ending 2025.

"People still need to make the right decisions at the right time - make the correct observations at the right time and drive at appropriate speeds," says Stewart Lochrie, chairman of the Approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council (ADIJC).

Cleo Moseley really weighed up the decision. "Automatic felt like the slightly easier option" but "manual lessons were cheaper," she says.

Automatic and electric cars tend to cost more to buy than manuals so instructors charge more to cover this, adds Stewart from the ADIJC.

For the same reason Cleo says: "I also didn't know if I would be able to afford an automatic car at the end."

The 25-year-old from Northumberland has decided to start learning in a manual.

"I did really think about it," she says. "Automatic cars are basically becoming the norm. But I don't see manual cars [being] the majority five, 10, 15 years from now, so I don't think everyone should learn manual."

For Luke Breaban-Cook the decision was pretty much made for him - he has just passed his test after learning in his parents' manuals.

"They were the only cars available to me," says the 18-year-old from Battle in East Sussex.

"I didn't want to get my own car as it was too expensive," he adds. "Plus I'm moving to London for uni and I'm not planning on driving there."

Luke found clutch control difficult at first. "I stalled once in my test," he says, but he still passed first time.

Luke does nott think every learner should do a manual test: "Even if there is a chance that you might have to drive a manual courtesy car or rental car, that chance is getting smaller and smaller."

For some people with disabilities automatic cars can be more accessible.

David Robinson, who's 29 and from Cardiff, booked his driving test in September and has to wait until February to take it.

He opted to learn in an automatic because he has dyspraxia, which affects movement and coordination.

"It just seemed like a better idea because I didn't want to have to balance the clutch, the brake, the accelerator, check the revs, make sure I'm getting into the right gear," he says.

David hasn't ruled out getting a manual licence in future, but he says he would wait and see what happens after the ban on new petrol and electric cars takes effect in 2030.

"It might be that in five years I don't see the point," he says.

While the number of driving tests in automatic vehicles continues to rise, the vast majority of instructors are still teaching in manual cars," says Stewart from the ADIJC.

"This will change eventually, as the price of EVs continues to decrease, and driving instructors begin to see the commercial advantages of teaching in these kinds of vehicles."

But for now there's a stigma around an automatic-only licence, says motoring journalist and author Maria McCarthy.

"People would say, oh, one day you might need to hire a van or hire a car on holiday and then you'll need to drive a manual.

"But these days when you hire a car or a van, most of them are electric. And how often do people do things like that anyway?"

Caitlin's instructor did eventually buy a second automatic car but at that stage she had "already committed lots of time to manual".

She passed her test in September and now she's behind the wheel of her manual 2018 Volkswagen T-Roc and an hour to her new job in Workington, she has no regrets.

"If I'd had the choice back then an automatic would have been the dream," she says. "But now I'm glad I learned manual because I can drive any car and the insurance is cheaper."

Additional reporting by Connie Bowker

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Friday that the US had carried out another strike against a ship alleged to belong to drug traffickers.

The operation took place in the Caribbean Sea, against a group Hegseth identified as the Tren de Aragua criminal organisation.

Hegseth said "six male narco-terrorists" were on board and killed.

The US has carried out a series of strikes on ships in the region, in what President Donald Trump has described as an effort to curtail drug trafficking.

Hegseth posted a video on X showing the operation. The video begins by showing a boat in a crosshairs, before it explodes into a cloud of smoke.

This is the tenth strike the Trump administration has carried out against alleged drug traffickers since early September. Most have taken place off of South America, in the Caribbean, but on 21 and 22 October it carried out strikes in the Pacific Ocean.

Members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, have raised concerns about the legality of the strikes and the president's authority to order them.

Trump said he has the legal authority to order the strikes, and has designated Tren de Aragua a terrorist organisation.

Strictly stars are gearing up for the contest's annual Icons Week, days after co-hosts Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman shocked fans by announcing they'll be leaving the show.

In a joint statement on Thursday, the pair said they were "always going to leave together and now feels like the right time".

The duo will step down at the end of the current series, with the Christmas special set to be their last show.

Some have speculated the pair may say more about their departure during Saturday's live show. Earlier this week, Winkleman said: "It's best to leave a party before you're fully ready to go."

On Friday, Deadline reported that Winkleman is in advanced talks to host her own chat show. The BBC has not commented.

There's also no hint yet from the BBC on who might take over from Winkleman and Daly on Strictly, and it could be several months before replacements are signed up.

Commentators have been speculating about who would be the right fit for the show and whether it should be a well-established presenter or an up-and-coming star.

Producers could perhaps look to bring in a current or former presenter from sister show, Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two.

The show is currently hosted by singer Fleur East, who participated in Strictly Come Dancing in 2022, and professional dancer Janette Manrara.

Broadcaster Rylan Clark also hosted the spin-off for four years and Radio 2 presenter Zoe Ball hosted it for 10 years.

Some bookmakers have named The One Show's Roman Kemp as their favourite for the Strictly job - with Coral cutting their odds.

Actress Hannah Waddingham, Big Brother co-host AJ Odudu, former Strictly winner Stacey Dooley and Celebrity Traitors' breakout star Alan Carr are among the other names being mooted.

Ladbrokes is also offering odds on Holly Willoughby as a surprise frontrunner, with another ITV star, Alison Hammond also on their list.

Whether BBC bosses want to recruit from within the organisation or look to poach stars from rivals remains to be seen.

Caroline Frost, TV editor of the Radio Times, described Daly and Winkleman as "a formidable presenting duo".

Asked if their departure could potentially mean and end to the show, the TV critic told BBC Breakfast there was no need to "throw the baby out with the bath water" and that a "a rebrand" was more likely.

"It still draws in millions of viewers," she said of Strictly. "It's only bad compared with those extraordinary, phenomenal ratings earlier in its reign.

"But certainly it will be like other programmes we've seen before, Doctor Who, Match of the Day, MasterChef; they've all had opportunities for a rebrand... so this could be one of those shows."

On Saturday evening's show, the 11 remaining couples will take to the ballroom floor to honour music icons from across the decades, with songs by Beyoncé, Harry Styles and Ariana Grande in the mix.

On Sunday night, Hollywood actress Rachel Zegler will also make a guest appearance, performing Don't Cry For Me Argentina in the results show.

But Neighbours star Stefan Dennis will no longer appear after he withdrew from the contest due to injury.

'The end of an era'

Tess Daly began presenting Strictly alongside Sir Bruce Forsyth 21 years ago, while Winkleman joined as a main presenter in 2014.

In a joint statement on Thursday, they said: "We have loved working as a duo and hosting Strictly has been an absolute dream."

Daly and Winkleman have fronted the hit BBC show as it has faced a string of controversies in recent years, relating to the behaviour of some of its professional dancers and celebrity guests.

The BBC's chief content officer, Kate Phillips, called it "the end of an era", and described the pair as "incredible hosts".

Here's who is dancing on Saturday night - and to what:

• Alex and Johannes - Foxtrot to Here You Come Again by Dolly Parton
• Amber and Nikita - Cha Cha Cha to Break Free by Ariana Grande
• Balvinder and Julian - Quickstep to Texas Hold 'Em by Beyoncé
• Ellie and Vito - Salsa to Spice Girls Medley
• George and Alexis - Jive to As It Was by Harry Styles
• Harry and Karen - Argentine Tango to Caught Up by Usher
• Jimmy and Lauren - American Smooth to Purple Rain by Prince
• Karen and Carlos - Rumba to Think Twice by Céline Dion
• La Voix and Aljaž - Salsa to Strong Enough by Cher
• Lewis and Katya - Quickstep to Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash
• Vicky and Kai - Couple's Choice to Fight For This Love by Cheryl

Away from the Tess and Claudia news, the show goes on - with the couples performing routines to songs from their favourite music heroes on Saturday night.

Icons week was introduced last year, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Strictly. The other special weeks in Strictly are: Movies, Halloween, Blackpool and Musicals.

The judges will also be in costume as different icons, but fans will have to watch to find out exactly who they're dressed as.

They will provide their scores before audiences get to vote and have their say.

Doctor Who actress Alex Kingston topped the leaderboard last week with 36 points and, more importantly, was dubbed a "queen" by head judge Shirley Ballas who awarded her a perfect 10 for her Rumba.

Earlier this week, Dennis - who was partnered with professional Dianne Buswell, issued a statement saying he had torn his calf "so significantly" that he had been forced to pull out of the competition.

When I met the Australian actor backstage ahead of the first live show, he told me his main reason for taking part was so he could take his wife out dancing.

And in his statement, he insisted he would still be able to do that.

"I owe both the Strictly family and Dianne a massive debt of gratitude for giving me the opportunity to fulfil my dream of being able to dance with my wife (when my leg is better)," Dennis said.

Dennis won't be replaced in the contest. The series will continue with the pairs who are already in it, putting this year's series on course for three couples in the final.

On Sunday night, the professional dancers will perform a dance paying tribute to pop star Britney Spears.

US actress and singer Zegler, 24, who starred in Jamie Lloyd's revival of Evita in the West End this summer, will sail into the results show to perform the play’s famous song.

But it's not all fun and games. On Sunday night, the two bottom placed couples will go head-to-head in the dreaded dance-off, with both competing for a place in the annual Halloween spectacular next weekend.

Strictly Come Dancing is broadcast live at 18:25 BST on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said "a lot of countries" have offered to be part of an international security force for Gaza - a key part of President Donald Trump's peace plan - but added Israel would have to be comfortable with participants.

Speaking on a visit to Israel, Rubio said talks on forming the International Stabilization Force (ISF) were continuing and that it would come into effect "as soon as it possibly can".

It remained unclear, however, how such a force could be deployed without an understanding with Hamas.

He said the Israel-Hamas ceasefire had made "historic" progress since it began two weeks ago, but warned to expect "ups and downs and twists and turns".

"There is no plan B," he said. "This is the best plan. It's the only plan. And it's one that we think can succeed."

Rubio said conditions had to be created "so that never again will we see what happened on 7 October, so that you can actually be in a place [Gaza] that no longer has elements operating within it that are a threat to Israel or to their own people for that matter".

The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages.

At least 68,280 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel military campaign that followed, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the United Nations as reliable.

Rubio said Hamas will be disarmed, as required by Trump's plan. "If Hamas refuses to demilitarise, it'll be a violation of the agreement and that'll have to be enforced," he said.

"Hamas cannot govern and cannot be involved in governing the future of Gaza," he added.

Rubio's visit caps a week in which senior American officials, including Vice-President JD Vance, came to Israel. It's a sign that Washington is determined to make Trump's plan for Gaza succeed and is concerned that actions by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government might collapse it. In Israeli media, the effort has been described as "Bibi-sitting", a play with the prime minister's nickname.

In recent days, multiple reports have suggested the White House's frustration with the Israeli government, fuelled by the military's deadly response to an attack it blamed on Hamas in Gaza last weekend and the vote in the Israeli parliament towards the annexation of the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, while Vance was visiting.

The Israeli Haaretz newspaper reported that American officials said they would "not tolerate any surprises from Israel that could jeopardise the ceasefire", and that they were expecting advance notice from Israel before any strikes in Gaza. "In practice," the report said, "the US [was] taking over certain security authorities from Israel".

In public, Netanyahu, whose coalition relies on the support of ultra-nationalist ministers, has rejected reports that Washington is making decisions on Israel's behalf, describing the country's relationship as a partnership.

The apparent pressure from the country's most important ally, at a time when Israel faces unprecedented isolation, risks derailing his strategy to frame the war in Gaza as a victory at home. This narrative will be essential in the campaign for the next parliamentary election, which should be held by October 2026.

Both Rubio and Vance tried to strike a positive tone in their public statements – both said they were optimistic the ceasefire would hold – while also acknowledging that the negotiations over the remaining points would be difficult and long.

Those issues include the scale of the Israeli withdrawal, the future governance of Gaza and the formation of the ISF, as well as the disarmament by Hamas, and they offered no indication of how those talks would proceed.

Rubio said there were "a lot of countries" that offered to take part in the ISF. "Obviously, as you put together this force, it'll have to be people that Israel's comfortable, or countries that Israel's comfortable with as well," he added, without elaborating.

This appeared to be a reference to Turkey, which has become a major player in the negotiations, amid reports Israel has vetoed the country's involvement.

The scope of the ISF's mission remains unclear, as countries appear to be concerned with the possibility that its forces might end up confronting Hamas fighters if there is no agreement with the group over the ISF deployment.

Seeing the peace plan through is "not going to be an easy ride", Rubio said. "There are going to be bumps along the road, but we have to make it work."

Counting is due to get under way later in the Irish presidential election.

Voters in the Republic of Ireland went to the polls on Friday to elect the 10th Irish president, who will replace current head of state Michael D Higgins.

There are two contenders to become the next president, but voters had a choice of three candidates - Catherine Connolly, Heather Humphreys and Jim Gavin, whose withdrawal from the race came too late to have his name removed from the ballot paper.

Ballot boxes will open at 09.00 local time on Saturday and the result is due to be announced at Dublin Castle later that evening.

Early unofficial indications have suggested the turnout could potentially struggle to reach the record low of just under 40% recorded in the last presidential election in 2018.

Connolly is an independent politician backed by a number of left-wing parties including Sinn Féin.

She has been a TD (member of parliament) since 2016 and previously worked as a psychologist and barrister. She is from Galway.

Humphreys is the Fine Gael candidate. She was a TD from 2011 to 2024 and served in a number of senior cabinet ministerial positions, including social protection and justice.

She comes from a Protestant background and is from Monaghan.

The votes, which will be counted in each of the 43 constituencies, will be tallied by political parties as soon as boxes open and these will give early indications of the result.

Some 3.6 million people were eligible to vote in the election, which comes to an end after months of campaigning by both candidates.

To get nominated, candidates needed either 20 members of the Oireachtas, the Irish houses of parliament, or four city and county councils, to back them.

Connolly was the first to declare her intention to run last July.

She has the support of a number of left-wing parties, including Sinn Féin, Labour and the Social Democrats as well as independent politicians.

Humphreys was selected to run for Fine Gael after the party's initial candidate, former EU Commissioner Mairead McGuinness, withdrew from the race in August for medical reasons.

A third candidate, Jim Gavin, who was selected by the main coalition party, Fianna Fáil, withdrew from the campaign earlier in October after intense controversy over a 16-year-old rental dispute in which he owed €3,300 (£2,870) to a former tenant.

However, as his withdrawal came after the close of nominations, the law states his name must remain on the ballot paper.

Any votes cast for him will be counted as legitimate and transferred to the two other candidates if necessary.

It's been described as the mineral of the moment.

Millions of us are taking magnesium for a whole range of reasons. Can it help us sleep better? Sort our digestion problems? Give our busy brains a moment of peace?

In the fast-moving world of supplements, it's magnesium's time to shine.

And the industry is booming. The global magnesium market is worth nearly £3bn and that's set to nearly double over the next decade.

In a small factory, nestled in the Yorkshire Dales, huge plastic barrels of white powder are stacked up next to giant whirring machines.

Workers in hazmat suits carefully weigh out magnesium citrate - a compound made by mixing the mineral with citric acid - into shiny, steel containers.

"We are sending our supplies all over the world," Andrew Goring, manager director of Lonsdale Health, explains. "Around the UK, obviously, but also to Australia, parts of Asia, Kuwait, Iraq.

"It's one of our biggest sellers and the market just keeps growing."

He is shouting over the hum of the pill presser, a machine that resembles a Dalek, which pops out dozens of small white magnesium tablets a second.

"Do we actually need it?" I bellow back. "And why now, why has it become so popular?"

"Influencers, social media - that's what's pushing it," Mr Goring explains. "We've known about magnesium and its benefits for years and now, finally, it's mainstream."

I can almost hear the eye roll when I contact Kirsten Jackson, a dietitian who specialises in gut health.

"Clever marketing schemes," Ms Jackson says, "magnesium is involved in areas people are willing to invest in: their sleep, digestion, mental health."

But, she is keen to stress, this does not automatically mean we need supplements to improve those things.

Magnesium is one of several minerals in our bodies. The recommended daily amount for women is 270mg and for men, it's 300mg. We store about 25g.

It might make up less than 1% of us but "it is involved in over 300 different processes", Ms Jackson explains.

It is "especially important for our brain and mood," she says, because it helps nerves send messages properly and supports the building blocks of brain cell membranes.

It also helps balance blood sugar levels, regulate blood pressure, and is an essential player in moving calcium and potassium in and out of our cells, which maintains the rhythm of our heartbeat.

So, surely popping a pill full of the stuff should keep our bodies running smoothly?

It's more complex than that, says Ms Jackson. For a magnesium supplement to work, we need to be lacking the mineral in the first place - and it's difficult to test for any deficiency because the vast majority of our magnesium is stored in our bones and tissues.

But on an individual level, many say the supplement has made a difference.

For Katie Curran, a communications specialist who has worked with some of the biggest fashion brands, sleeping well was something she could only dream about.

"A year ago, I was struggling," she confides. "It would take so long to get to sleep, my brain was racing, and then I would get off only to wake a couple of hours later."

Katie decided to try magnesium glycinate - a combination of magnesium and glycine, an amino acid with limited evidence linking it to better sleep.

After two weeks of taking 270mg a day, she says the noise in her head started to quieten. The racing thoughts slowed down, and she began to feel like she could function again.

"My sleep definitely improved, I had more energy. I became more active. Other things changed in my life, so I can't put it down to just one thing, but I think the magnesium supplements were an important part of the puzzle."

While being deficient in magnesium can definitely affect sleep patterns, there isn't the evidence to say taking supplements will definitely improve your sleep.

Social media is awash with eager supplement-takers, many with posts stamped with "commission paid" in the corner - meaning they could earn money from their story or reel.

According to these influencers, it feels as though there is little magnesium can't help with, as they recommend a variety of different products.

Magnesium is often mixed with other compounds with the aim of helping support various parts of our bodies. For example, magnesium mixed with either L-threonate or glycinate is supposed to target brain health, which helps with sleep and stress relief.

If magnesium is combined with chloride, it is recommended for muscle tension and pre-menstrual cramps, while citrate and oxide blends are aimed at digestion and help with constipation.

The majority of us can probably relate to having at least one of those issues. But as nutritionist Kristen Stavridis stresses, the problem is there is not enough strong evidence to show the majority of these different magnesium supplements have a positive effect on the healthy population.

And even if they did - we would need to be deficient in magnesium in the first place to see a benefit.

"We have supplement companies shouting out at us: 'We are all going to die'," Ms Stavridis says, "'Quick! Take my pill and - hey presto - there's your solution'.

"Many of us are not getting enough magnesium," she continues, "around 10% of men and 20% of women are not getting the recommended daily intake.

"But just taking a supplement is not the answer."

Take sleep health, for example. Ms Stavridis says there are many conflicting studies on whether magnesium supplements really make a difference. Some trials say it can have some benefits, while some randomised controlled trials - the gold standard - are more sceptical.

There is also the added complication of supplements potentially working against each other because of the way they interact in the body.

Taking zinc, for example - a supplement often recommended for peri-menopausal women - can also affect the absorption rate of magnesium.

Basically, Ms Stavridis says, it's a minefield, and not just a simple case of "take this" and you'll be fixed.

She recommends looking at diet first. But if you are thinking about taking magnesium supplements, Ms Stavridis advises taking half the amount recommended on the packet on a daily basis and seeing how you feel.

If healthy people take too much, their kidneys can get rid of it in "expensive urine", but there are still risks, like diarrhoea, vomiting and nausea.

For those with kidney disease, taking magnesium supplements can be dangerous and can cause hypermagnesemia - a potentially life-threatening condition that can leave someone with paralysis or in a coma.

Dietitian Kirsten Jackson also says most people should "100% look at diet first".

Foods like seeds, nuts, whole-grain breads, greens and fruit are good sources of magnesium, she says.

She warns that if you don't regularly consume these types of foods, you're probably also short of other essential nutrients like vitamin C, vitamin K, fibre and prebiotics too.

"One magnesium supplement is not going to sort all that."

Caitlin Graham wanted to learn to drive in an automatic car as she hoped the test would be quicker to pass without having to get to grips with a gear box.

But the 22-year-old says she had little choice but to learn in a manual due to any available automatic instructors being more than 20 miles away.

Motorists have seen a quiet shift in how they drive in recent years - with one in three cars on UK roads now an automatic.

A quarter of driving tests in England, Scotland and Wales last year were taken in automatic cars.

The AA says the trend is being driven by the UK's ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars coming in 2030, as elecric cars do not have manual gearboxes.

For new drivers, this presents a dilemma - whether to learn and take their test in an automatic or a manual car.

Boxed in

It is a decision that could affect the rest of their driving lives - pass your test in an automatic and you will forever be boxed into only driving automatics - or indeed electric vehicles. Pass in a manual, and you will have the freedom to pick and choose.

But many young people say it is not a decision they are freely able to make. Some would-be automatic learners have complained about a lack of instructors and the higher cost of lessons.

Others feel the jeopardy of learning in a manual is just too high. With huge competition for driving test slots, and long waits to re-take for those who fail, some young drivers feel learning in an automatic is the only way out of the fail-rebook, fail-rebook doom loop.

When Caitlin moved back home to a "super rural" part of Cumbria after university she was eager to pass her driving test as quickly as possible. There is no public transport in her village and she wanted to get on with finding a job.

But unable to get hold of an automatic instructor she went for manual and passed almost a year after her first lesson. She says it only took her sister, who learned to drive in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, five months to pass in an automatic.

But it is a common misconception that the automatic test is easier - the pass rate for the manual test is higher at 50.4% than automatic at 43.9%, according to Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) figures for the financial year ending 2025.

"People still need to make the right decisions at the right time - make the correct observations at the right time and drive at appropriate speeds," says Stewart Lochrie, chairman of the Approved Driving Instructors National Joint Council (ADIJC).

Cleo Moseley really weighed up the decision. "Automatic felt like the slightly easier option" but "manual lessons were cheaper," she says.

Automatic and electric cars tend to cost more to buy than manuals so instructors charge more to cover this, adds Stewart from the ADIJC.

For the same reason Cleo says: "I also didn't know if I would be able to afford an automatic car at the end."

The 25-year-old from Northumberland has decided to start learning in a manual.

"I did really think about it," she says. "Automatic cars are basically becoming the norm. But I don't see manual cars [being] the majority five, 10, 15 years from now, so I don't think everyone should learn manual."

For Luke Breaban-Cook the decision was pretty much made for him - he has just passed his test after learning in his parents' manuals.

"They were the only cars available to me," says the 18-year-old from Battle in East Sussex.

"I didn't want to get my own car as it was too expensive," he adds. "Plus I'm moving to London for uni and I'm not planning on driving there."

Luke found clutch control difficult at first. "I stalled once in my test," he says, but he still passed first time.

Luke does nott think every learner should do a manual test: "Even if there is a chance that you might have to drive a manual courtesy car or rental car, that chance is getting smaller and smaller."

For some people with disabilities automatic cars can be more accessible.

David Robinson, who's 29 and from Cardiff, booked his driving test in September and has to wait until February to take it.

He opted to learn in an automatic because he has dyspraxia, which affects movement and coordination.

"It just seemed like a better idea because I didn't want to have to balance the clutch, the brake, the accelerator, check the revs, make sure I'm getting into the right gear," he says.

David hasn't ruled out getting a manual licence in future, but he says he would wait and see what happens after the ban on new petrol and electric cars takes effect in 2030.

"It might be that in five years I don't see the point," he says.

While the number of driving tests in automatic vehicles continues to rise, the vast majority of instructors are still teaching in manual cars," says Stewart from the ADIJC.

"This will change eventually, as the price of EVs continues to decrease, and driving instructors begin to see the commercial advantages of teaching in these kinds of vehicles."

But for now there's a stigma around an automatic-only licence, says motoring journalist and author Maria McCarthy.

"People would say, oh, one day you might need to hire a van or hire a car on holiday and then you'll need to drive a manual.

"But these days when you hire a car or a van, most of them are electric. And how often do people do things like that anyway?"

Caitlin's instructor did eventually buy a second automatic car but at that stage she had "already committed lots of time to manual".

She passed her test in September and now she's behind the wheel of her manual 2018 Volkswagen T-Roc and an hour to her new job in Workington, she has no regrets.

"If I'd had the choice back then an automatic would have been the dream," she says. "But now I'm glad I learned manual because I can drive any car and the insurance is cheaper."

Additional reporting by Connie Bowker

Britney Spears stared at herself in a mirror, grinning as she grabbed an electric clipper.

Chunks of her long, iconic locks fell to the floor of the Southern California salon. Paparazzi cameras outside documented every second of the now-infamous night in 2007, later following her with her new buzzcut to get a tattoo.

The star said she did it because she felt cornered and humiliated by the paparazzi, who had chased her from the house of her estranged husband, Kevin Federline.

In the midst of an acrimonious and widely publicised custody battle for their two young boys, the Princess of Pop said she acted out in defiance and wanted to give the press "some material". She called it an impulsive decision - one that to her, served as a public rebuke to a world she felt held her to untenable standards.

To her, it was a "desperate move by a desperate person".

But to her estranged husband, it was a wake-up call to "just how far things had spiralled out of control".

Decades later, those moments and the others that went on to define the pop star and her very public unravelling are back in the limelight - but what exactly happened and why depends on who is doing the retelling.

After Spears shared her outlook in her 2023 memoir, The Woman In Me, Federline is now speaking out and sharing his take on their years together in a book released this week, titled You Thought You Knew.

Like Spears, Federline's book details their intimate and chaotic relationship, the mental anguish they both suffered and provides an inside glimpse at the conservatorship battle that dictated much of Spears' life and career. It provides a side-by-side look, a he-said, she-said dissection of their lives.

The Grammy Award winner, 43, has already denounced her ex's memoir, writing on social media that Federline's revelations have been "extremely hurtful and exhausting".

But the dancer-turned-reality TV star says he's releasing You Thought You Knew after years of hesitation because he does not want his children growing up "feeling like they have to explain who their father is".

Federline responds to the stories and accusations that Spears tells in her 2023 tome, in which she describes being financially and emotionally controlled by those closest to her. He contradicts her account at times, levying fresh accusations.

Despite both memoirs offering vastly different accounts at times, both have a similar aim in reframing the public narrative thrust upon them by illuminating the episodes that led to Spears' conservatorship battle, as well as the nationwide movement that freed the pop star in 2021.

Did the conservatorship help or hurt?

In her book, Spears condemned the court-ordered conservatorship, also known as a guardianship, which she was under from 2008-2021. During that time, her father, Jamie Spears, was in control of her finances, career and many aspects of her personal life.

She says that if she was just left to live her life, she would have worked it out.

"Thirteen years went by with me feeling like a shadow of myself. I think back now on my father and his associates having control over my body and my money for that long and it makes me feel sick," she wrote.

But, she added, she resolved to go along with the protracted arrangement "for the sake of my sons," even though "being in it was really hard".

After the conservatorship ended, her father Jamie Spears said it had been "necessary" to protect her, but it was time for her to have control back.

In his recounting, Federline has a different take. Even when the marriage tanked, it wasn't easy for him to "watch her spiral", he writes.

Federline supported the arrangement, arguing that it provided "some semblance of normalcy" for their two boys together. After her psychiatric hold, Federline says he immediately filed for sole custody, but that set into motion a slew of issues that exacerbated Spears' relationship with their children.

His ex, he writes "saw the events in her life through a prism that painted her as the victim, the misunderstood one, the person wronged by everyone around her.

"But from where I stood, she needed help. Whether that was rehab or therapy, I couldn't say for sure," he writes, noting that she was in no state to manage her own affairs and needed some form of oversight or "protective layer".

He adds that he came to find out that there was a lot he didn't know about the conservatorship, and he did not push for answers because part of him "doesn't want to know".

Did the Free Britney movement get it 'wrong'?

Spears has credited the viral Free Britney movement with helping her find the courage to challenge and eventually escape her conservatorship.

"The fact that my friends and my fans sensed what was happening and did all that for me, that's a debt I can never repay," she wrote, thanking them for standing up for her when she couldn't stand up for herself.

But Federline says the movement "got it wrong" and those who are part of it now need to put the same effort into a "Save Britney movement". He shares ominous concerns about how the pop star is currently "racing toward something irreversible" and "getting close to the 11th hour".

The pressure from the Free Britney movement, he alleges, led the judge on her conservatorship case "to ignore the professional reports and cave to public opinion".

"But none of that truly mattered in the end. If Britney believed she was being held against her will, and everything else she's shared since, then that trauma is real for her. And you can't ignore that," he says.

Spears has continued to make headlines with strange and sometimes concerning posts on Instagram. Their boys are grown up but, according to Federline, they have haven't seen their mother much, and they don't really want to. Federline has four additional children, along with the two with Spears.

Federline says he has lost faith that things will ever fully turn around for his ex-wife.

"I still hope that Britney can find peace. Whatever her future holds, I hope it's one where she can finally take control of her own life, on her own terms. This whole saga, twenty years of it, was built on denial. Britney never reached the first step of recovery: admitting there was a problem."

A ghost in their marriage

Spears has laid blame on many people who were once close to her, including two of her exes, Federline and former NSYNC frontman Justin Timberlake.

She accuses both of ruining her ability to "trust people again".

In his own memoir, Federline says he was making a career for himself as a professional dancer who worked with Michael Jackson and NSYNC when he crossed paths with Spears.

The couple had met before, when Federline was dancing on a tour for Spears' opening act.

Federline, for his part, is self-aware, writing that he knows people viewed the Fresno, California, native as "this dude jumped out of his trailer and into Britney's mansion".

But even the day before their wedding, there was a shadow over the relationship, he says.

Federline contends in his book that when he and Spears got together in their early 20s, she had never really moved on from her ex-boyfriend Timberlake, detailing that they had a lot of "unfinished business" and that "it lingered, like a ghost in the background of our relationship".

In her memoir, Spears recounted the pitfalls of her relationship with Timberlake, including him asking her to have an abortion and the public embarrassment that befell her after he accused her of cheating - further heightened when he cast a Spears lookalike in his music video for Cry Me a River.

Their relationship, which lasted from 1999 to 2002, has also been dissected over the years and has come with a public apology from Timberlake, after several documentaries about Spears recast her as a victim in her conservatorship.

Federline says that "there was always something there with Justin that she couldn't let go of". He says Spears even called Timberlake the night before their wedding to get closure.

"Now, looking back... I realise it was deeper than that. She never really got over him," he writes.

Re-igniting an old feud and an army of fans

Federline's memoir has raised the ire of Spears, and her vocal army of online supporters.

James Miller, an activist and Free Britney proponent, says the book will not help the singer.

"Britney does struggle with mental health problems, that's pretty obvious," he told the BBC. "Exploiting her right now really isn't the best time. I don't think there's any alarm to sound."

From breaking out on The Mickey Mouse Club as a child star to dancing with a snake around her shoulders at the MTV Music Video Awards, Spears has lived her whole adult life in the spotlight.

S Mark Young, a professor at the University of Southern California and author of The Mirror Effect: How Celebrity Narcissism is Seducing America, says Federline's book is unlikely to change people's minds about her.

"I think after this coming week, the book will die. Most people who follow Britney will not be moved," he says.

Some have wondered why Federline, 47, has chosen to speak out now.

"No one heals when a book like this is written," Mr Young says.

Mr Miller, and many online, have noted that now that their sons are both over 18, Federline would no longer be receiving a $40,000-per-month payment from the singer to support them.

Federline denies having an ulterior motive beyond wanting to finally share his side of this infamous saga.

In the memoir, Federline says the book was his best chance at sharing his side of the story.

For decades, the media, Spears and her family have mostly told Federline's story, largely leaning into his "bad boy" persona and making him the butt of many late-night jokes.

"This is about finally telling my story," he writes in his book. "My version. In my words. Because everybody else has done it for me. The media. The blogs. The exes. The strangers. The jokes. The headlines. They all had something to say about me. And I stayed quiet."

He denies that he ever "was just coasting off her money" and insists he has always been "out there hustling, grinding, investing - working to build a solid foundation for myself and my kids".

This opportunity was a way for him to finally share his side after decades of stories, gossip, rumours and accusations - which he says he avoided responding to in hopes of giving his family and children "some kind of normal life".

"But silence didn't bring peace," he writes. "It left me choking on the words I never said."

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More than 20 nations supporting Ukraine have pledged to "take Russian oil and gas off the global market" as part of efforts to pressure President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

"We're choking off funding for Russia's war machine," said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, after hosting a summit of the "coalition of the willing" in London.

The UK and US have in recent days sanctioned Russia's two biggest oil companies, while the EU targeted Moscow's liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was also in London, said "pressure" on Russia was the only way to stop the fighting. However, no long-range missile deliveries to Ukraine were announced at the summit.

Zelensky has long argued that US-made Tomahawks and European missiles would help make the war costs heavier for Moscow by hitting key military targets - including oil refineries and weapons depots - deep inside Russia.

But during last week's talks in Washington, US President Donald Trump indicated to Zelensky that he was not ready to supply Tomahawks.

On Thursday, President Putin warned that if "such weapons are used to strike Russian Federation territory the response will be... overwhelming".

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Speaking at a joint press conference after the London summit, Starmer said Putin was "not serious about peace", and therefore Ukraine's allies agreed a "clear plan for the rest of the year" on supporting Ukraine.

The UK prime minister said this also included targeting Russia's sovereign assets to "unlock billions to help finance Ukraine's defence". He gave no further details.

On Thursday, EU leaders agreed to help support Ukraine's "financial needs" for the next two years - but stopped short of agreeing to use frozen Russian assets worth €140bn (£122bn).

Asked about a so-called "reparations loan" for Ukraine funded by the Russian assets, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she hoped a decision would be made by Christmas Eve

In London, the "coalition of the willing" also pledged to strengthen Ukraine's air defences" amid almost daily Russian air assaults on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure.

Zelensky warned that Russia "wants to make the winter cold a tool of torment", adding that "they want to break us".

Further support for Ukraine's energy infrastructure was among the issues discussed at the summit - however, no specific announcements were made.

Ukraine and its western allies have publicly agreed with President Trump's proposal that the fighting should be immediately frozen along the vast front line for negotiations to begin.

Russia has rejected this idea, repeating demands that Kyiv and its allies describe as de facto capitulation by Ukraine.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out an income tax rise in next month's Budget, amid speculation she is considering breaking a key Labour election pledge.

Asked about reports, first published in The Guardian newspaper, that the Treasury is in active discussions over raising the rate, Reeves said she would "continue to support working people by keeping their taxes as low as possible".

Reeves' refusal to rule out a rise does not mean one is inevitable as Chancellors rarely confirm or deny specific tax measures ahead of a Budget.

But her careful language contrasts with comments in September that "manifesto commitments stand" on not raising income tax, National Insurance or VAT.

Labour's 2024 general election manifesto contained a pledge not to raise "the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax".

The party also promised not to increase National Insurance - prompting a row last autumn when it announced a hike in the contributions paid by employers.

Speaking to journalists in Leeds on Friday, Reeves said: "Although I can't talk about individual measures at this stage, I understand that the cost of living is still people's number one concern."

She went on to say that her aim was to "ensure that we continue to support working people by keeping their taxes as low as possible" but that she was still "going through the process" of writing her Budget.

She also said that although the inflation figures this week "came in better than expected" there was "obviously much more to do."

The chancellor has signalled she is likely to focus on wealthy individuals at the Budget, saying "those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share".

This week, reports suggested officials are exploring a mix of measures, including higher taxes on partnerships used by lawyers and accountants.

However, economists say such steps will not raise enough to close the hole in the government's finances, leaving Reeves under pressure to consider more politically sensitive options.

Influential think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says Reeves will "almost certainly" have to raise taxes to make up a £22bn shortfall in the government's finances.

The gap has been driven by the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) decision to downgrade productivity forecasts, wiping out much of the £10bn "headroom" Reeves set aside at the spring statement.

Government borrowing - the difference between public spending and tax income - in September rose to £20.2bn, the highest for that month in five years, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The effective interest rates on UK government debt has fallen sharply, but Reeves has been left with very little room to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules without increasing taxes.

These rules mean her plans must be projected to get government debt falling as a share of national income by 2029-30, and day-to-day government costs must be paid for by tax income rather than borrowing.

If Reeves increases income tax it will be the first rise in the rate since 2010, when Labour introduced a 50% additional rate on incomes over £150,000 which was reduced to 45% by the coalition government.

Currently, Income tax is charged on earnings above the personal allowance of £12,570, which is tax-free.

The basic rate of 20% applies to income between £12,571 and £50,27, while earnings from £50,271 to £125,140 are taxed at the higher rate of 40%. Income above £125,140 is subject to the additional rate of 45%.

These thresholds apply to most taxpayers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while Scotland has a separate system.

The Guardian reported that Treasury officials are in "active discussions" about adding 1p to the basic rate of income tax, which could raise more than £8bn as well - as looking at increasing higher rates for top earners.

The basic rate of income tax has not been raised since the 1970s.

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An asylum seeker has been found guilty of murdering a hotel worker, who he stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver at a railway station.

Deng Chol Majek had denied killing 27-year-old Rhiannon Whyte, who died three days after being attacked at Bescot Stadium station, in Walsall, in October 2024.

The killer was staying at the nearby Park Inn Hotel, where Ms Whyte worked, and staff reported Majek, originally from Sudan, had earlier been staring at her and others, in a "scary" and "spooky" manner.

CCTV captured Majek following Ms Whyte to the station before he fled minutes later. He was then seen dancing and drinking in the hotel car park, behaviour described as "callous" by prosecutors.

Majek denied he was the killer, repeatedly telling the court that CCTV and DNA evidence was wrong. No motive for why he attacked Ms Whyte has ever been established.

He showed no emotion when the jury returned its verdict after a little over two hours of deliberations.

Ms Whyte's mother Siobhan put her head in her hands and started crying when the verdict was read out, while Ms Whyte's two sisters were also in tears.

In a statement outside court, her sister Alexandra, who is now raising Ms Whyte's son, aged only five at the time, said: "Deng Chol Majek stalked, hunted and then preyed on our defenceless Rhiannon, before cornering her and unleashing a vicious attack – and for what purpose?

"She was at work, helping people as she always did, and he chose her for no purpose other than cold-blooded self-gratification."

Alexandra said Majek had stolen a "crucial piece" of her family.

"He took so many opportunities from Rhiannon, she will never watch her son grow up, we will never watch her marry, build a family, buy her first house or learn to drive," she said.

She said getting justice for her sister was not the end of her story and her family would continue to "advocate to evoke change" in her name.

"Many have tried to imply this is about immigration, but these are the choices of one man, not an ethnic group," she added.

Before he was convicted, in a trial that lasted two weeks at Wolverhampton Crown Court, the jury heard Majek travelled to the UK on a small boat, arriving on 29 July 2024.

He was living at the Park Inn Hotel, which was owned by Radisson but was then being managed by Serco as an asylum hotel.

On 20 October 2024 Ms Whyte, who had worked at the hotel for three months, was on a late shift from 15:00 to 23:00 BST.

The court heard that earlier in the day her co-workers noticed Majek staring at her and other colleagues, in a manner described as "intimidating, scary and spooky".

At the end of her shift, Ms Whyte went outside for a vape, before walking across the road to the station to catch a train home.

'Terrified screams'

Majek was seen on CCTV following her from a distance to the station and stalking her over the bridge to platform two.

Ms Whyte had called her friend Emma Cowley, who she had known since they were five, while she was on the way to the station.

During video evidence to the court, Ms Cowley said she heard two "terrified, high pitched" screams and then a long breath, before the phone went dead.

At that point on the deserted station platform, Ms Whyte had been stabbed 23 times, 11 of which penetrated her skull, with one cutting through her brain stem.

Minutes after the attack, she was found slumped in a platform shelter by a member of railway staff, who was assisted by a hotel worker.

Ms Whyte initially survived, but never regained consciousness and died in hospital three days later.

After he launched the attack, Majek was caught on camera walking quickly away from the scene before throwing Ms Whyte's phone into the River Tame.

The murder weapon, believed to be a screwdriver, has never been found.

Less than 90 minutes later, more footage showed Majek dancing at the hotel, while emergency services were still working at the nearby scene.

Prosecutors told the jury Majek's actions after the murder had been "utterly callous".

Despite the figure in the CCTV footage being of a similar build and wearing identical clothing as Majek, the killer repeatedly argued in court it was not him.

He also said other evidence, which included Ms Whyte's DNA under his nails and her blood on his clothing, was wrong.

Because of discrepancies over how old Majek is the judge, Mr Justice Soole, has ordered an age assessment report be drawn up before he is sentenced.

In court, Majek claimed he was aged 19, but prosecutors said they believed him to be in his mid 20s. Establishing accurately how old he is, will have a bearing on how he is sentenced.

'Quiet dignity'

A sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place at the same court on 15 December.

After thanking the jury, the judge referred to the "quiet dignity" Ms Whyte's family had shown throughout the "demanding" two-week trial.

"It is unimaginable and I thank you and admire you for it," he said.

Following Majek's conviction Carla Harris, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Rhiannon Whyte should have been able to go to work and come home safely – but Deng Chol Majek robbed her of her life and future.

"He attacked her for no reason, and callously left her bleeding on a station platform.

"He then appeared to rejoice in his actions, having been caught laughing and dancing on footage an hour later."

Det Ch Insp Paul Attwell, of British Transport Police, said it was very unlikely the motive behind Majek's decision to "launch his savage attack" will ever be known.

He said the killer appeared "completely unbothered, bored even" throughout the trial, much to the distress of Ms Whyte's family.

"It was a brutal, cowardly and unprovoked attack on a vibrant and selfless young woman, who had her whole life ahead of her," Det Ch Insp Atwell said.

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The director of public prosecutions has said the China spy case collapsed because a top national security official could not say the country had been classed as an "enemy" when the Conservatives were in power.

In a letter to MPs, Stephen Parkinson said the unwillingness of Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Collins to say that China had been an active threat to national security between 2021 and 2023 was "fatal to the case".

Parkinson has been under pressure to explain why two men were charged with spying only for the case against them to collapse 16 months later without going to trial.

A political blame game erupted over the case - but the focus has now switched to the role of officials. And government witnesses are expected to query some of the DPP's written evidence when they appear before the parliamentary committee next week.

In April 2024, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act 1911 over allegations that they had passed information to a Chinese intelligence agent.

They were cleared of all wrongdoing in September after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) withdrew its case. Both men always denied wrongdoing.

After weeks of pressure, Parkinson, who is the head of the CPS and director of public prosecutions, has now written a long letter to the national security strategy committee, ahead of appearing before it on Monday.

It sets out his account why Mr Cash and Mr Berry were first charged - and how the case then unravelled.

The men were first arrested in March 2023 on suspicion of offences under the Official Secrets Act - and if the case were to go before a jury, the prosecution would have to prove that the defendants had carried out activity "prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State".

Secondly, a jury would also have to be sure that the UK government had considered between 2021 and 2023 - when the alleged offending occurred - that China was an "enemy".

Prosecutors concluded that they would need to show a jury that China was an "enemy" with the help of expert factual evidence from Matt Collins, the Deputy National Security Adviser (DNSA).

As DNSA, Mr Collins is responsible for coming up with an assessment of threats to the UK's national security.

He began drafting, with advice from his own lawyers and other officials, a statement which had to be solely focused on the then Conservative government's official and publicly disclosable conclusions about the threat, if any, that China posed.

This evidence is separate from any information generated by the intelligence services that remains secret.

The eventual statement went into detail about the activities of Chinese intelligence agencies and how they seek to obtain information about the UK's political workings - but the word "enemy" was removed by the time a final version was completed in December 2023 and shared with Downing Street.

Mr Collins, in his own letter to MPs, said he told police investigating the case he could not call China an "enemy" as this "did not reflect government policy".

In July 2024, a Court of Appeal ruling on the legal definition of enemy, in a separate case concerning Russian interference in the UK, set off alarm bells in the CPS.

It underlined the need to provide a jury with a factual account of why a state could be considered an enemy under the Official Secrets Act - and while the government had provided a clear conclusion about Russia, it had not done so for China.

In his letter to MPs, Parkinson said that ruling meant the CPS and police had to go back to the DNSA to ask him for more evidence about China.

That evidence was essential because prosecutors knew that the defendant's barristers would question whether there was no evidence at all that the UK had regarded China overall as a threat between 2021 and 2023.

In July, the Director of Public Prosecution's team told the Cabinet Office: "To prove the offence, the jury would need to be satisfied so that they were sure that, at the material time, China was an enemy.

"That China was an active espionage threat would not be sufficient without examples which adequately demonstrate the nature and extent of the threat, such as to ground a finding that China was an enemy."

That led to two crunch meetings - which led to the case's collapse.

At the first meeting on 14 August, Mr Collins told the prosecution team that "he would not state in evidence, if asked, that China posed a risk to our national security at the material time, either in open Court or in a private session.

"He would also not accept that China was opposed or hostile to the interests of the United Kingdom at the material time," says Mr Parkinson's letter.

"He would accept, if asked [at trial], that China was not an enemy in the ordinary meaning of the word, and would not answer the question, if asked, whether China is an enemy within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act. He would say that is a matter for the jury."

By a meeting on 9 September this year, Mr Collins had been told that without such evidence, the case would collapse.

Mr Parkinson's letter tells MPs the official reiterated he could not provide the evidence they sought because it would not reflect the former government's position.

"In the conference, the DNSA [Mr Collins] confirmed to counsel that, in relation to the 2021-2023 situation, he would not say that China was an active threat.

"Successive governments had declined to categorise it as such."

Mr Parkinson tells the MPs that given the defence teams knew what Mr Collins had said in his statements, prosecutors were under a duty to call him to give evidence at a trial - and he would be cross-examined.

The CPS could not go to the DNSA and then, on discovering he could not provide the facts prosecutors needed, choose an alternative witness.

[The DNSA's] unwillingness to say that at the material time China was an active threat to national security was fatal to the case," said Mr Parkinson.

Police have launched a manhunt after an asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl was mistakenly released from prison.

Ethiopian national Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was jailed for 12 months over the Epping attack last month.

Justice Secretary David Lammy is reported to be furious over the error.

Prison sources said Kebatu was meant to be sent to an immigration detention centre after serving time in prison but was mistakenly freed.

On 7 and 8 July, Kebatu sexually assaulted the teenager as well as a woman, with the attacks sparking nationwide protests.

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After a night of high drama in Caerphilly, Plaid Cymru is celebrating a stunning by-election victory.

Reform piled on the votes but suffered a setback after "throwing everything" at victory, only to finish second.

Labour is nursing its wounds after a truly appalling result, coming a poor third in a part of the world it has owned for more than a century.

As eyes turn to the full Senedd election in May, and the prospect of an exciting pre-election six months ahead, last night's result raises some key questions about what is clearly now a very different political world in Wales.

How did Plaid Cymru pull it off?

It is difficult to overstate how ecstatic the party, and its leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, will be with Plaid Cymru's victory.

Labour may reasonably point out that Plaid has long had a presence here, but this was a Senedd seat the late Hefin David won with 46% of the vote in 2021 and a constituency that has always been Labour in Cardiff Bay and Labour-owned for more than 100 years at Westminster.

Plaid Cymru successfully presented itself as the vehicle for change from a deeply unpopular Labour UK government and a Welsh Labour party that's been ruling the roost since Tony Blair's landslide victory in 1997.

Aided by opinion polling showing Labour on the slide and Reform on the rise, Plaid Cymru was able to frame the by-election as straight choice between itself and Nigel Farage's party.

Plaid's challenge has long been to break out of its traditional Welsh-speaking heartlands in north and west Wales.

Parking the potentially divisive issue of independence for Wales, front and centre under previous leader Adam Price, has been part of the solution,

Ap Iorwerth is downplaying independence for now, promising to publish a plan for Welsh independence - but not within the first term of a Plaid-led government.

The party campaigned in this by-election for a better funding deal for Wales from Westminster, attracting jobs and improving healthcare - nothing to scare the horses.

Expect a similar approach for the 2026 election.

The momentum is clearly with Plaid Cymru now, the question is whether it can maintain that between now and May.

Where does Labour go from here?

The result for Labour's Richard Tunnicliffe is abysmal.

A Labour loss was widely expected, so a victory for the party would have been astonishing, but that does not diminish the significance or nature of this defeat.

There are, naturally, caveats. By-elections are frequently different beasts from full elections, Caerphilly voters might behave differently in just a few short months.

But this close to that full Senedd election, Labour appear to be in deep in the mire.

Crucially, last night's result goes with the grain of everything we have been hearing about the trouble Labour is in across Wales - from pollsters, voters, rival parties and even figures within the party itself.

Welsh Labour figures blame Sir Keir Starmer for their Caerphilly woes rather than First Minister Eluned Morgan.

They want more muscular efforts to distinguish her Welsh administration from his.

Others call for a "big retail offer" to capture voters' imagination come May.

It is beginning to look desperate. Could the real game be about limiting Labour losses, rather than expecting to be the biggest party in Cardiff Bay?

Might Labour's best hope be to win enough seats in six months time to give it the option of joining a Plaid-Labour Welsh government as junior partner, perhaps with some Greens and Liberal Democrats - a "progressive coalition" to keep Reform out?

How big a setback is the result for Reform?

There are no prizes for coming second in first-past-the-post, but capturing 36% of the vote after winning just 2% in 2021 is no mean feat.

Reform UK is developing an increasingly sophisticated campaign machine and will have learned from this experience.

Interesting trends were at play in Caerphilly.

The Nigel Farage media show, when it comes to town is great at capturing attention and so it was here.

But did the Farage fireworks, appearing to dominate the discourse, in some ways, aid Plaid campaigners' efforts to urge Labour voters to back them to stop Reform?

Reform figures say they still expect to win the coming Senedd election.

Whether or not this is the case, anything like this result in May would mean a major Reform presence in Cardiff Bay under a new, proportional system.

What does Caerphilly mean for the Senedd election?

It is the start of what is likely to be the most exciting six months in Welsh politics most of us can remember.

The record turnout of 50.43% suggests that, when you introduce some jeopardy into the mix, voters do become engaged.

The message of change, mixed with some voters being motivated to back Plaid to stop Reform, proved the winning formula for Plaid Cymru this time.

Devolved elections, let's be frank, haven't been the most exciting experiences over the past couple of decades.

Whatever happens between now and May's Senedd election, it will not be boring!

Waitrose has reversed its decision not to offer paid work to an autistic man after initially saying he had to stop stacking shelves at the store where he had volunteered for four years.

In July, Frances Boyd asked whether her 28-year-old son Tom Boyd could be given a job at the supermarket in Cheadle Hulme, Greater Manchester, but her request was eventually rejected by Waitrose head office.

On Thursday, rival chain Asda said it wanted to offer Tom paid shifts at its Cheadle Hulme store.

Responding to Waitrose's U-turn, Frances said: "We are going to think about it and decide whether it is in Tom's best interests to return... and are having further discussions with Waitrose."

'We are investigating'

A spokesman for Waitrose said: "We'd like to welcome Tom back, in paid employment, and are seeking support from his family and the charity to do so.

"We hope to see him back with us very soon.

"We care deeply about helping people into the workplace who might otherwise not be given a chance.

"As such, we warmly welcomed Tom and his support worker into our Cheadle Hulme branch to gain experience and build his confidence.

"We have policies in place to support volunteering, and are investigating what's happened in Tom's situation."

Frances said she had been "overwhelmed" by how people had responded to her talking about her son's experiences.

Tom, who has limited communication skills, was praised for his work ethic by managers.

"He gave over 600 hours of his time purely because he wanted to belong, contribute, and make a difference," said his mum.

Frances praised and thanked staff at Waitrose's Cheadle Hulme store for supporting him, adding: "They included him and were absolutely brilliant.

"I think he was just under the radar - all was running smoothly until it went to head office."

Tom and his mum have been backed by Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham.

He posted on X that Tom had received "truly terrible" treatment and promised to "support him to find another placement that works".

Burnham said the Greater Manchester Combined Authority "would encourage all employers - including Waitrose - to sign up to our brand new Bee Neuroinclusive Code of Practice".

Speaking with Frances, who broke the news of Tom's Asda job offer on BBC Radio Manchester, the Labour mayor said: "Good on you for raising awareness because we need a huge awareness campaign here."

She accepted his offer to become an advocate for the campaign.

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Labour suffered its first parliamentary defeat in Caerphilly for 100 years as Plaid Cymru claimed victory in the Welsh Parliament by-election.

Nigel Farage's Reform pledged to "throw everything" at the campaign but could only finish second to Plaid's Lindsay Whittle, who took 47% of the vote with a majority of 3,848.

The result saw a swing of 27% from Labour, which has held the seat in Westminster since the 1920s and in the Senedd since it began at the turn of the century.

Whittle promised to work like "a Trojan for every man, woman and child" and said he was proud to call Caerphilly his home.

Celebrating victory outside the town's castle he said: "I believe the world is watching Wales, an emerging nation starting to control our lives again."

Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, who hopes to form the next Welsh government at May's Senedd election, said the party can "now win in any part of Wales" but was "taking nothing for granted".

"It is a momentous win, a historic win for Caerphilly, for Plaid Cymru and for the story of Welsh politics," he added.

Plaid Cymru, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding over the summer, is seen as being on the centre-left of Welsh politics.

Achieving Welsh independence has long been an article of faith for activists.

But ap Iorwerth is downplaying independence for now, promising a plan but not in the first term of any Plaid-led government.

Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan told BBC Wales she had spoken to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Friday morning and said he understood he "has a responsibility to help us out in Wales" following the party's humiliation.

She admitted it was a "bad result for Labour" but insisted she would not resign.

Whittle, a former Caerphilly council leader and councillor for almost 50 years, paid an emotional tribute to the late Caerphilly Member of the Senedd (MS) Hefin David, whose death triggered the by-election, saying his "kindness" was the "guiding spirit" of his campaign.

In his overnight victory speech to jubilant supporters, Whittle said: "Listen Westminster, this is Caerphilly and Wales telling you we want a better deal."

Ap Iorwerth said Caerphilly voters had "chosen hope over division, and progress over the tired status quo, and backed Plaid Cymru's positive, pro-Wales vision".

Turnout was just over 50% - higher than 2021's 44% in Caerphilly - compared to the national average for a Senedd vote has never been over 50%.

Reform won only 495 votes four years ago but ended in battle with Plaid Cymru, coming second with 36% of the vote.

Labour's Richard Tunnicliffe won just 11% of the vote and came third.

The constituency was visited by a series of senior figures from the party in the last few days, including Farage, who campaigned in Caerphilly on Thursday.

Despite the result Llŷr Powell said he thought Reform would form the next Welsh government.

"We've got more people turning out to vote now when they've got a party they believe in."

On Friday, Farage predicted May's Senedd election would be a "two-horse race between Reform UK and Plaid Cymru".

"The total collapse of the Labour vote to Plaid was to a party that people know well and to a popular local politician," he wrote on social media.

Labour had held Caerphilly since the National Assembly, as the Welsh Parliament - or Senedd - was then called, opened in 1999.

The result leaves the party two seats short of a majority, making it harder for it to govern ahead of a crucial vote on its budget in January.

It has already begun talks with opposition leaders in an effort to work out how it can get through its spending plans on the NHS, education and other services.

Morgan congratulated the Plaid Cymru candidate and said the by-election was held "in the toughest of circumstances and in the midst of difficult headwinds nationally".

She said Labour had heard "the frustration on doorsteps" and insisted the party was "listening, we are learning the lessons and we will be come back stronger".

Whatever happens next, Caerphilly has written itself into the pages of Welsh political history as 100 years of Labour rule came crashing down.

We are about to find out if this result is an eye-opening anomaly or a genuinely new chapter.

Read more analysis from Wales political editor Gareth Lewis here

Prince Andrew's banner bearing his coat of arms has been removed at Windsor Castle as the controversy continues over his links to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The flag, linked to his membership of the Order of the Garter, which the prince gave up last week, was on display inside St George's Chapel but is no longer hanging there.

Last Friday, Andrew announced he would also no longer use his royal titles, including Duke of York, after the publication of a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre revived claims about his ties to Epstein.

The prince is under increasing pressure to lose further privileges, including the formal removal of his titles and his residence at Royal Lodge in Windsor.

The book, Nobody's Girl, was written by Ms Giuffre before she died earlier this year. She accused the prince of sexually assaulting her - allegations Prince Andrew has strenuously denied.

Prince Andrew's banner, which he was given when he became a Knight of the Garter (KG) in 2006, had been hanging in the quire - the area where clergy and the choir sit for services.

A virtual tour of the area available on the website for St George's Chapel shows it still hanging near the door leading into the quire. It is not known when the tour was created.

However, the banner has now been removed and only three now hang in the space. It is thought it was taken down earlier in the week.

The Order of the Garter is the oldest and most senior order of chivalry in Britain and includes other senior members of the royal family and those said to have contributed notably to public life.

Current non-royal members include former prime ministers Sir Tony Blair and Sir John Major.

Prince Andrew is facing scrutiny over his Royal Lodge home in Windsor Great Park, where he has paid a "peppercorn rent" for more than 20 years.

The government this week refused to give MPs time to debate Prince Andrew's titles or taxpayer-funded home, despite growing pressure for scrutiny.

The Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, has said it is "actively" looking into media reports that Prince Andrew tried to obtain personal information about Ms Giuffre through his police protection.

On Friday, it emerged the prince was paid tens of thousands of pounds by British businessman linked to a wealth management company which ripped off pension savers.

Documents from the High Court in London showed Andrew received £60,500 from a British businessman, Adrian Gleave in December 2019, a few weeks after the BBC Newsnight interview which led to his withdrawal from public life.

As break-up albums go, Lily Allen's new record West End Girl is one for the history books.

Written and recorded in just 10 days, it's a real-time account of her shock, grief, confusion and anger, as her four-year marriage to actor David Harbour fell apart, amid accusations of infidelity.

In interviews, Allen has stressed the lyrics aren't necessarily the gospel truth - because she "wasn't sure what was real, and what was in my head" as she processed the end of the relationship.

But critics have lavished praise on the record, calling it a "jaw-dropping" and "brutal" act of "personal exorcism", while praising Allen's gift for melody, on songs that span flamenco, bossa nova, and "infectious pop".

'Rooted in darkness'

West End Girl is the star's first album in seven years, following 2018's Mercury Prize-nominated No Shame.

Speaking to Perfect Magazine earlier this week, Allen said she had continued writing in the intervening years, but had struggled to feel "emotionally attached" to the material.

"I just didn't think it was any good," she said, before confessing: "It's easier to write funny things that are rooted in darkness or anger or... terminal hatred."

West End Girl marries all of those emotions to pithy, witty storytelling that's been Allen's trademark since her debut, Alright, Still in 2006.

Narratively, it begins with the singer falling in love, moving to New York with her two daughters, and setting up home in "a nice little rental near a sweet little school".

But the first signs of trouble begin when she's cast in a West End Play (Allen received a Laurence Olivier nomination for her stage debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story, in 2021).

"That's when your demeanour started to change," she sings, as clouds gather over the breezy musical backdrop. "You said that I'd have to audition, I said 'You're deranged'".

As the album progresses, the relationship continues to sour.

Her husband disappears for weeks on end, and Allen reluctantly accepts the conditions of an open marriage.

"He had an arrangement, be discreet and don't be blatant / There had to be payment, it had to be with strangers."

It all blows up when she realises he isn't playing by the rules. She finds text messages and secret Instagram accounts, and confronts one of her husband's extra-marital partners, demanding: "Is it just sex or is there emotion?"

In one of the album's most brutal scenes, Allen, or the character she is portraying, visits an apartment where she believed her husband was practising karate, only to discover a room scattered with sex toys and "a shoebox full of handwritten letters from brokenhearted women".

When she finally ends the relationship, she's bewildered and wounded by his indifference, wondering over and over, "why won't you beg for me?"

It's only on the two final tracks where she accepts the need to move on and burn her bridges.

"I will not absorb your shame, it's you who put me through this," she sings over a stripped-bare beat on Let You W/in. "I can walk out with my dignity if I lay my truth out on the table."

'Sharp, pithy pop'

It is "a brutal, tell-all masterpiece," said The Independent's Hannah Ewens in a five star review.

"This musical of deceit and suffering puts her in the starring role, seizing control of her narrative and holding little back."

"Despite the heartache, or perhaps because of it, she sounds artistically reinvigorated," argued Adrian Thrills in the Daily Mail, awarding the album four stars.

"There's a touch too much auto-tune on her voice at times, but no doubting her ability to convey raw emotion with sharp, pithy pop."

It's a "victorious comeback" that represents the star "at her very best", said the NME's Ali Shutler.

"There's a lot of grief and misery [but] Allen's always had a knack for making devastation sound exciting."

"Anyone who's been betrayed will welcome the bravery of her honesty," wrote Helen Brown in The Telegraph, "while no doubt counting their blessings not to live in the emotionally detached celebrity world of sad sex and lonely mansions."

"It's hard not to wonder whether West End Girl is going to get the reception it deserves," noted The Guardian's Alexis Petridis, calling it a "great pop album regardless of the subject matter".

"Perhaps some listeners will view it as too personal to countenance. Or perhaps fans who have grown up alongside Allen, now 40, will find something profoundly relatable in the story it has to tell."

The musician has been careful to clarify that some of the songs are written "in character", saying that the lyrics "could be considered autofiction" - a genre that combines autobiography and fiction.

Harbour has also been circumspect about the end of the marriage. "I'm protective of the people and the reality of my life", he told GQ magazine in April.

"There's no use in that form of engaging [with tabloid news] because it's all based on hysterical hyperbole."

West End Girl will no doubt fuel a renewed tabloid frenzy. Heck, I've just spent 800 words summarising Allen's account.

But in her own words, the album was necessary. At the start of the year, she took time off her hit BBC podcast Miss Me? to deal with her spiralling mental health and checked into rehab.

"The feelings of despair that I was experiencing were so strong," she told Vogue.

"The last time that I felt anything like that, drugs and alcohol were my way out, so it was excruciating to sit with those [feelings] and not use them."

Writing West End Girl, it seems, was her way of coping, of healing and, just maybe, of settling scores.

"If what you're doing isn't provocative, what's the point?" she told Perfect Magazine. "And if it's not scary, what's the point? I'm not here to be mediocre.

"My strength is my ability to tell a story. And so I'm going to lean into that. I have to. It's all I have."

A drug dealer who organised a Russian-ordered arson attack on a warehouse providing aid to Ukraine has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Dylan Earl, 21, admitted a National Security Act offence over the attack on industrial units in Leyton, east London, on 20 March 2024.

He was jailed alongside five other men for their part in the plot.

An investigation by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command found Earl, from Leicestershire, was working under the instruction of Russian mercenary Wagner Group, who are proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation. The case is the first to be brought under the National Security Act 2023.

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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The number of 16-24 year olds in England reporting symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, has more than tripled in a decade, BBC analysis of NHS data has found.

The condition is now the second-most widespread mental health disorder for young adults, according to statistics from a major NHS England survey.

"OCD, I like to think of it as a bully, it attacks everything, everything you care about, everything you love," says Sophie Ashcroft.

"A lot of people do associate OCD with cleanliness, and being clean, and getting all your socks in a certain order. It's so much more than that."

The 22-year-old is one of a number of young people and their families to have contacted us through Your Voice, Your BBC News explaining how they can't access NHS treatment for their symptoms.

Those who could get seen spoke of a shortage of expert staff and effective treatments.

The average referral time figure for young people to be seen at a national OCD centre in London was 41 weeks last year, nearly three times as long as it was five years previously.

The government told us it was "turning services around", hiring 8,500 extra mental health workers, delivering more talking therapies and providing better access to help through the NHS App. It also said it was expanding the rollout of mental health support teams in schools.

Sophie sometimes struggles to leave her home because she feels compelled to repeat small tasks - such as getting into the shower or cleaning her teeth - to dispel intrusive or distressing thoughts.

"If I had a bad thought during the day, it would ruin the rest of my day. I'd think something bad was gonna happen," she tells us.

'Behind closed doors it's sheer panic'

The people who have contacted BBC News say lives have been devastated, with some families who haven't been able to get NHS help telling us they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on private care.

Charities insist there is an OCD crisis and say the figures should be a wake-up call for the government.

OCD symptoms can affect adults and children, and can begin as early as six years old - but they are often triggered during puberty and early adulthood.

Sophie's symptoms first appeared when she was aged nine, she says, but it was a decade later, when a close friend died, that things became a lot worse.

To dispel troubling thoughts, she says it led her to repeat actions again and again - things most people would consider mundane and would do without a second thought.

"It's something telling me you have to do that again, you have to hug that person again, and it just takes over," says Sophie. "It's such an awful, awful feeling."

Despite all this, Sophie has just finished drama school. "I'm really, really good at hiding it, but behind closed doors it's sheer panic," she explains.

About 370,000 young people in England reported OCD symptoms in the financial year 2023/24, our analysis of the latest NHS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (June 2025) has found.

That is more than three times the number from 2014, when the figure stood at around 113,000.

It means OCD is now second in the list of named mental health disorders - placing it and other anxiety disorders well ahead of depression:

• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 7.6%

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) 5.7%

• Phobias 4.8%

• Depressive episodes 3.8 %

Why is OCD on the rise among young people?

Improved awareness of the condition has likely contributed to people seeking help, say experts - but, according to charities and many of those with OCD, societal problems, combined with the pressure of social media, are the main driver for the reported rise.

Leigh Wallbank, chief executive of charity OCD Action, describes many young people's lives as a "pressure pot".

"They're facing financial issues, educational issues, global issues - the environment is such a big issue," she tells us. "I think of them living in this pressure pot, and then underneath that, giving heat to this pressure pot, is social media."

The Covid-19 pandemic also played a part, says Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and influencing at the mental health charity, Mind.

The pandemic put a "particular and unique strain" on people with OCD, with disruption to routine, an inversion of social norms and a hyperfocus on hygiene, he says.

"Barriers to social interaction, including treatment and support services, meant that many coping mechanisms were disrupted or unavailable for an extended period of time," he adds.

NHS help for OCD patients includes specialist talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - which can include Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

Through ERP patients are helped to manage their anxiety by gradually being exposed to their fears, while preventing them from performing their usual compulsive behaviours.

Medication is also offered - usually a type of antidepressant.

But not everyone can access these treatments.

Sophie was told by her GP that it is likely she does have OCD - but, two years on, she still hasn't received an appointment to see a specialist for a formal diagnosis.

In the meantime, her GP has referred her for a limited course of CBT which comes to an end soon. Sophie says she is "absolutely petrified" of what the future holds.

Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action is critical of the government for failing to collect regular quarterly data on obsessive compulsive disorder, and outcomes for patients who have it, as it does for many other conditions.

Without data, says the charity, the NHS is blind to the real scale of OCD, the success of treatments and who is being left behind.

We asked health officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland if they knew the number of young people with OCD symptoms, but they all said they do not collect that information.

'The system could not, or would not, provide help'

A mum from the south of England, who wants to remain anonymous, told us her autistic daughter first showed signs of OCD when she was 10 years old. Her daughter is now 17 and the OCD is severe, she says.

"My daughter has gone from being a scholarship-winning student, to being sectioned multiple times."

Some specialist treatment has been offered to the teenager, but her mum tells us her daughter is often too unwell to leave the house to attend appointments, or even take her medication.

"The impact on [all] our children, and us, is devastating. Our lives have been decimated not just by the illness, but by a system that could not, or would not, provide the help she needed, when she needed it."

The mother says the UK is failing in its treatment of young people with severe OCD. There are not enough specialists, beds or treatment options, she believes.

Children and adolescents with OCD across England can receive treatment at a national centre at the Maudsley Hospital in London.

However, the average wait time for a referral to the service rose from 15 weeks in 2020, to 41 weeks in 2024, according to a response to the BBC's Freedom of Information Act request.

But the hospital trust says that wait time is being cut.

Ade Odunlade, chief operating officer for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said: "We have worked incredibly hard to reduce delays and have lowered the average wait for assessments to around 20 weeks.

"We empathise with anyone who has had to wait for their assessment as we know how difficult that is."

The trust says it has now been able to secure additional funding which will allow them to employ further staff and drive down the waiting list even further.

It expects an approximate wait for assessment of about 12-16 weeks by early Spring 2026, it told us.

But even when people can access all the available help, it is sometimes not enough.

Graham and Marie Fuller, from Norwich, contacted the BBC to say their daughter had been hospitalised with OCD aged 12.

They described a revolving-door pattern of going backwards and forwards between NHS services for different treatments, with their daughter improving and then repeatedly relapsing.

After years of their daughter struggling with the condition, the family then decided to go to Texas to try a rare and radical procedure.

Their daughter, who is now 20, underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery - where electrodes are implanted in the brain to deliver electrical impulses to help manage OCD symptoms.

The treatment is approved by US regulators, but in the UK the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says DBS can only be used for research studies, because there is not enough evidence on how safe or effective the practice is for OCD.

Having a loved one with OCD "has taken its toll on all of us, but we had to do all we could to help", says Marie, explaining how, before undergoing DBS, her daughter had discussed going to Switzerland to end her life.

Marie says her daughter is now back at university, though she concedes it is still early days in terms of the success of the treatment.

• OCD information and support from BBC Action Line

The UK's health guidelines for obsessive compulsive disorder are 20 years old - they are currently being reviewed by NICE. In 2019, it was agreed that policy around OCD treatment needed to reflect updated technologies and possible new drugs.

But for Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action she says better funding is imperative if young people are to get the help they need.

"Policymakers and the government need to invest in OCD services. [OCD] is preventable and it is a crisis that can be changed."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the government had inherited a broken NHS with mental health services suffering following years of neglect - adding that funding was now being boosted by £688m.

But people with OCD such as Sophie are scared about what the future holds.

The limited course of CBT that she's been prescribed is coming to an end and she fears a return of her symptoms.

"What am I going to do? What if it happens again?"

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