US President Donald Trump says he will consider allowing Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban to buy Russian oil, in an exemption from sanctions aimed at helping to end the Ukraine war.

Speaking on Friday during Orban's visit to the White House, Trump said an allowance might be made because "it's very difficult for him [Orban] to get the oil and gas from other areas".

The comments come after the US effectively blacklisted two of Russia's largest oil companies last month, threatening sanctions on those that buy from them.

Following the meeting, Hungary's foreign minister wrote on X that the US had given Budapest "a full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas".

Trump added that while Hungary faced unique logistical challenges, including access to a sea that could be used to drill oil, he was "very disturbed" by other European countries that he said continued to buy Russian commodities despite not being landlocked.

Orban, who is one of Trump's closest allies in Europe and who has long resisted EU efforts to pressure Moscow over Ukraine, has defended his energy ties with Russia, saying on Friday that pipelines are neither "ideological" nor "political", but a "physical reality" due to the lack of ports.

He has been using his country's heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas as a means to maintain his good relations with Moscow, as well as a platform upon which he hopes to win re-election next April in Hungary. He has promised "cheap Russian energy" to voters.

Trump and Orban also discussed the war in Ukraine on Friday - their first formal talks since Trump returned to power - including the possibility of holding talks with Putin.

"He [Orban] understands Putin and knows him very well... I think that Viktor feels we're going to get that war ended in the not-too-distant future", Trump said.

The Hungarian leader, meanwhile, said only their two nations truly wanted peace in Ukraine.

"All the other governments prefer to continue the war because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the front line, which is a misunderstanding of the situation."

Trump asked him: "So you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?" To which Orban replied: "You know, a miracle can happen."

Aside from the issue of oil and gas sanctions, Hungary's export-driven car industry has been hit by Trump's tariffs on European goods, adding to an already weak economy.

Despite frequent clashes with EU leaders over migration, democracy, and the rule of law, Trump urged Europe to "respect this leader very, very strongly because he's been right on immigration."

with additional reporting by Nick Thorpe

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to announce a major shake-up of the immigration and asylum system later this month, the BBC has learned.

And she will model some of her new measures on the Danish system – seen as one of the toughest in Europe.

We understand officials have been looking at Denmark's tighter rules on family reunion and restricting most refugees to a temporary stay in the country.

Mahmood wants to reduce incentives that draw people to the UK, while making it easier to expel those with no right to be in the country.

But some in her own party are against going down the Danish route, with one left-wing Labour MP saying it was too "hardcore" and contained echoes of the far right.

At the Labour conference in September, Mahmood promised to "do whatever it takes" to regain control of Britain's borders.

She is impressed that Denmark has driven down the number of successful asylum claims to a 40-year low – with the exception of 2020, amid pandemic travel restrictions.

And we have been told that she dispatched senior Home Office officials to Copenhagen last month to study what lessons could be applied to the UK.

Last week, we also made the journey to Denmark to find out how their immigration system operates.

Mahmood's opposite number Rasmus Stoklund, Denmark's minister for Immigration and Integration, is a member of Labour's sister party the Social Democrats.

He told us: "We have tightened our laws in many ways.

"We return more people back home. We have made it quite difficult to have family reunification in Denmark.

"You will get expelled a lot easier if you commit crimes. And we have made different programmes to help people go back home voluntarily."

There is no indication that the UK government would follow the Danish example of offering substantial sums - as much as the equivalent of £24,000 - for asylum seekers to return their country of origin, including making a contribution to the cost of their children's education.

But the BBC understands some of what Stoklund outlined to us is being closely scrutinised in the Home Office.

In Denmark, refugees who have been personally targeted by a foreign regime are likely to be given protection.

But most people who have been successfully granted asylum when fleeing conflicts are now only allowed to remain in the country on a temporary basis.

When the Danish government decrees that their home country is safe, they can be returned.

Four years ago, 200 refugees from Syria had their residency rights revoked even before the Assad regime fell, although they were not subsequently deported.

For those who have already been in Denmark for a longer period, the length of time necessary to acquire settlement rights has been extended and conditions - such as being in full-time employment - have been added.

Denmark's tighter rules for family reunions have also attracted the interest of UK Home Office officials.

If you are a refugee who has been given residency rights in Denmark, both you and your partner who is applying to join you in the country must be 24 or older.

The Danish government says this is to guard against forced marriages.

The partner in Denmark must not have claimed benefits for three years and also has to put up a financial guarantee - and both partners have to pass a Danish language test.

Refugees who live in housing estates designated as "parallel societies" – that is where more than 50% of residents are from what the Danish government considers to be "non-Western" backgrounds – will not be eligible for family reunion at all.

In September, the UK Home Office suspended new applications under the Refugee Family Reunion scheme, pending the drawing up of new rules.

The pre-September scheme allowed spouses, partners and dependents under 18 to come to the UK without fulfilling the income and English-language tests that apply to other migrants.

Mahmood is unlikely to go as far as Denmark when she announces the UK's replacement rules for family reunions, but it seems likely that she will take steps along a more restrictive route.

For Rasmus Stoklund, tighter immigration and integration rules are about protecting the nature of Danish society.

Denmark is a small country, he says, with a population less than a tenth of the UK's.

"We live peacefully and quietly with each other. I guess you could compare us to the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings.

"We expect people who come here to participate and contribute positively and if they don't, they aren't welcome."

So, picking up on his Tolkein analogy, if the Danes are the Hobbits, who are their enemies, the Orcs?

"Well, I wouldn't call them Orcs but, of course, the biggest challenge we are facing is our lack of ability to expel some foreign criminals."

In Denmark - as in Britain - there is a live political debate on whether the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) makes the expulsion of foreign criminals more difficult.

Like the UK government, Stoklund does not want to leave the ECHR but believes changes could be made.

The Danish government has launched a review into how this could be done and Stoklund agreed he could make common cause with his British counterparts.

"I think it's very positive every time I hear that other countries have the same concerns and are frustrated the same way as many of us in Denmark are."

Mahmood is understood to be keen to meet Stoklund at the earliest opportunity.

For Labour ministers, there are political, as well as practical lessons, to learn from Denmark.

In 2015, the country had a centre-left government in trouble and a right-wing populist party surging in the polls, with immigration increasingly worrying voters.

There are parallels with the UK today, as Reform UK maintains its poll lead over Labour.

Downing Street is interested in how a centre-left party managed to defeat the Danish People's Party, one-time allies of Nigel Farage's UKIP in the European Parliament, to return to power.

Ida Auken, the Social Democrats' environment spokesperson, said adopting a tougher stance on immigration neutralised a toxic issue for the left - and gave it space to pursue progressive policies in other areas.

"For us, it was a licence to operate on the things we want to do.

"We want have a workforce that are educated, that have a social security and we do want to do a green transition.

"And we would never have been able to do this unless we've had those strict migration policies."

Some senior ministers in the UK are thought to find that argument persuasive.

Critics would point out that while there are similarities with the UK, the Danish political and electoral systems are different – as are some of the challenges.

The country is not facing flotillas of small boats arriving from the North Sea or the Baltic.

Danish is not as widely spoken as English, so language requirements are likely to discourage at least some potential refugees.

And while the vast majority of Social Democrat parliamentarians were on board for more hardline policies, there is far more wariness amongst some Labour MPs.

Off the record, some mainstream Labour MPs say they would oppose the transplantation of Danish policies to the UK.

On the left of the party, former frontbencher Clive Lewis argues strongly against going down the Danish route in an effort to outflank Reform UK.

"Denmark's Social Democrats have gone down, what I would call a hardcore approach to immigration." he says.

"They've adopted many of the talking points of what we would call the far right.

"Labour does need to win back some Reform-leaning voters but you can't do that at the cost of losing progressive votes.

"And that's what we're doing at the moment. We're haemorrhaging that support on the centre and the left."

Jo White, who leads a 50-strong group of Labour MPs in "Red Wall" seats in the Midlands and North of England, would like to see ministers go further in a Danish direction.

She argues that Labour pay will pay a heavy political price if it does not adopt policies such as requiring some asylum seekers to contribute to the cost of their stay.

"The consequences are that we go into a general election where Reform will be the biggest challenger in most Labour seats... and we will be annihilated."

"Immigration: the Danish Way" will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 13:30 on Sunday, 9 November, and will be available on BBC Sounds.

Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing party is in a stand-off over £800,000 raised by Zarah Sultana, who is meant to be founding the party with him.

The money was raised when Sultana launched an unauthorised membership scheme for people wanting to join the group currently operating the name Your Party.

Senior figures have accused her of withholding the funds despite publicly agreeing to transfer the money.

A spokesperson for Sultana said she "is in the process of transferring all funds and data" but was conducting "essential due diligence as part of this process".

But the delay has sparked anger among YourParty insiders, who say the funds are essential for its founding conference later this month. A source in the party said it would likely be "forced to reduce delegate numbers" at the event.

The problems stem from a schism in the party caused when Sultana launched a membership portal through its official email account, taking payment and data from an alleged 20,000 people.

The money was held by MoU, a company set up in April to hold donations for the fledgling movement.

Corbyn branded the emails "unauthorised" and urged supporters to cancel direct debits.

The membership portal was later replaced, but not before the dispute escalated into legal threats and accusations of a "sexist boys' club".

The pair have since reconciled.

The plan had been to transfer all the money and data from MoU to Your Party after it was registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September, then wind up the company.

But the money, believed to be around £800,000, has not yet been transferred.

Last week, the founding board of MoU, which included former Labour mayor of North of Tyne Combined Authority Jamie Driscoll, resigned en masse - making Sultana the sole director.

In a joint resignation statement, the three directors insisted they wanted to transfer the funds but Your Party officials had ignored questions about governance and legal liabilities.

Your Party officials have dismissed MoU's complaints as irrelevant and accused it of shifting the goalposts. Officials claimed they sent multiple proposals to move the funds, but were ignored by MoU.

A Your Party spokesman said "We are focused on delivering a successful founding conference for our members.

"While this task is made considerably harder by the continued retention of Your Party funds by MOU Operations Ltd, we will not allow anything or anyone to stop this party from going ahead.

"Working-class people need a party which stands up for them."

A spokesman for Sultana, Sultana, a co-director of Your Party, said: "Zarah is in the process of transferring all funds and data to Your Party, as she has already made clear publicly.

"Obviously, she has a duty to conduct essential due diligence as part of this process."

The row is the latest twist in a turbulent start for the party, which has attracted tens of thousands of members but been dogged by internal disputes over leadership and even the party's name.

Sultana has pushed for the party to be called The Left Party, while Corbyn hinted the name Your Party could stay.

Members will vote on the official name at a founding conference in Liverpool on 29 29 November.

Despite high-profile clashes, Sultana told the BBC the party was a "40-year project" aimed at "running" the government.

Sultana said she hopes to co-lead the new party with Corbyn, but will "throw her hat in the ring" if members opt for a single leader when the party constitution is agreed at conference.

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US President Donald Trump says he will consider allowing Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban to buy Russian oil, in an exemption from sanctions aimed at helping to end the Ukraine war.

Speaking on Friday during Orban's visit to the White House, Trump said an allowance might be made because "it's very difficult for him [Orban] to get the oil and gas from other areas".

The comments come after the US effectively blacklisted two of Russia's largest oil companies last month, threatening sanctions on those that buy from them.

Following the meeting, Hungary's foreign minister wrote on X that the US had given Budapest "a full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas".

Trump added that while Hungary faced unique logistical challenges, including access to a sea that could be used to drill oil, he was "very disturbed" by other European countries that he said continued to buy Russian commodities despite not being landlocked.

Orban, who is one of Trump's closest allies in Europe and who has long resisted EU efforts to pressure Moscow over Ukraine, has defended his energy ties with Russia, saying on Friday that pipelines are neither "ideological" nor "political", but a "physical reality" due to the lack of ports.

He has been using his country's heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas as a means to maintain his good relations with Moscow, as well as a platform upon which he hopes to win re-election next April in Hungary. He has promised "cheap Russian energy" to voters.

Trump and Orban also discussed the war in Ukraine on Friday - their first formal talks since Trump returned to power - including the possibility of holding talks with Putin.

"He [Orban] understands Putin and knows him very well... I think that Viktor feels we're going to get that war ended in the not-too-distant future", Trump said.

The Hungarian leader, meanwhile, said only their two nations truly wanted peace in Ukraine.

"All the other governments prefer to continue the war because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the front line, which is a misunderstanding of the situation."

Trump asked him: "So you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?" To which Orban replied: "You know, a miracle can happen."

Aside from the issue of oil and gas sanctions, Hungary's export-driven car industry has been hit by Trump's tariffs on European goods, adding to an already weak economy.

Despite frequent clashes with EU leaders over migration, democracy, and the rule of law, Trump urged Europe to "respect this leader very, very strongly because he's been right on immigration."

with additional reporting by Nick Thorpe

A great leader is a huge asset for company, of course, but can anyone be worth $1 trillion?

That is the pay packet Tesla shareholders have approved for Elon Musk, as long as he meets the targets they have set over the next 10 years.

In the meantime he won't collect a salary, but will presumably throw himself into his work with renewed vigour.

He was certainly buzzing with energy as he jigged around the stage at the carmaker's Texas headquarters to rapturous applause, telling the audience that while other shareholder meetings were "snoozefests", Tesla's are "bangers".

Musk has attracted an army of critics, upset that he sided with US President Donald Trump, wielding his chainsaw at government programmes, and wading into politics overseas with explicit support for the far right.

But he has an equally large following of admirers, people who believe in his vision and don't doubt that he can achieve it.

It seems most of his shareholders are in this camp, after they backed his new remuneration package this week.

Of course shareholders signed up, says New York-based financial analyst Dan Ives. If Musk succeeds - and Ives thinks he will - he will have created trillions of dollars worth of shareholder value, ample payback for investors.

Ives sees Musk as a "modern day Albert Einstein, a Thomas Edison".

Without the stupendous pay package, he says, there was a risk that within a few years Musk would have walked away, taking his Artificial Intellgience (AI) initiatives with him.

"Tesla without Musk is like pizza without cheese," he says.

Ives does not own shares in Tesla, but analyses the company for his firm Wedbush Securities and thinks Musk's "ability to go where others are not" means he may well achieve the targets that have been set.

"There's edgy behaviour, there's haters, but a lot of people love that. And that's why he's the richest person in the world.

"Does it help sell cars in Europe? No. But does it help Tesla win the AI race? Yes."

Musk's political activities have prompted a backlash from some customers, including demonstrations outside showrooms earlier this year.

But Matt Britzman at Hargreaves Lansdown in London, who has invested in Tesla, says the impact is a drop in the ocean when it comes to Tesla's earnings.

Far from weighing on the firm's valuation, he reckons around a third of the value of Tesla can be attributed to what he calls the "Musk premium", value that wouldn't be there without him.

"It's a $1.4 trillion company, not based on the current car business. It's a $1.4 trillion business based on expectations of what it can deliver over the next three years."

And a lot of those expectations are fixed on Musk and his record of thinking big and thinking long term, he says.

The potential reward for Musk is as astronomical as his vision for space travel.

With $1 trillion you could buy 20 million Model Y Teslas, at around $50,000 each. Or you could buy yourself a $10m house every day for 250 years, and still have change for furnishing and decorating.

The conditions appear to be very testing, including delivering 20 million Tesla vehicles and one million robots. A million self-driving Robotaxi vehicles will also need to be on the roads.

Tesla's overall market value will need to rise from its current $1.4tn to $8.5tn.

These are "incredibly high milestones", says Ann Lipton, a law professor at the University of Colorado.

However, the board does have "discretion" to decide when some of them have been met, she adds.

"If intervening events prevent him from reaching the goals, the board can deem them met anyway."

So the targets may not turn out to be quite as demanding as they appear.

There is also nothing in the terms, no constraint, that prevents Musk continuing to speak out about politics or anything else.

"Even after the pay package was proposed, he didn't pull back from his political commentary," adds Prof Lipton.

"So it seems to me that this pay package, whatever the goals are, however lofty they may be, they're not going to inhibit him from involving himself in whatever matters he wants to be involved in."

That freedom could pose the biggest risk, according to Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at car sector marketing and software firm Cox Automotive.

Musk is a visionary she says, but he's also unpredictable, and it is possible that his other interests may distract him as they have before, leading him to neglect Tesla, which itself is already a smorgasbord of different businesses and challenges.

"I'm hoping that based on his experience with getting politically involved and how that really hurt some of his brand and sales that he has learned to really focus on this business.

"But that's going to be the board's responsibility," she adds, "to make sure that he stays within the guardrails, and that he does what's right for Tesla."

And if he does, well the sky is the limit, or possibly Mars, for Musk's ambition.

"People laughed when his 2018 pay package was approved," says Prof Lipton. "And he hit those milestones well ahead of schedule."

Two Kurdish men agreed to go undercover for the BBC and expose a network behind illegal High Street businesses because the criminals are causing harm to the reputation of Kurds in the UK, they say.

The two, who we are calling Saman and Ali, are Kurdish reporters who have both lived legally in the UK for years.

The BBC discovered that a Kurdish crime network was running mini-marts, barbershops and car washes the length of Britain, and wanted to find out more about how it operated and who was involved.

Equipped with secret cameras, Saman and Ali posed as Kurdish asylum seekers with no right to work, looking to buy and run a mini-mart from which to sell illegal cigarettes and vapes.

They were able to uncover how easy it is for someone in these circumstances to set up and run a business on the High Street in plain sight. Those involved, we discovered, pay Kurds who have UK citizenship to register the businesses in their names, helping fool the authorities.

Saman and Ali also managed to secretly film one of those at the centre of the network, who claimed that he could erase government fines of up to £60,000 faced by those employing illegal workers.

"I wanted to play a role in uncovering these illegal activities [...] to say loudly that they don't represent us," says Saman, a former asylum seeker himself. Saman entered the country illegally, having fled Kurdistan - a region that straddles the borders of Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria but which is not internationally recognised as a country - because his life was at risk.

The reporters acknowledge that tensions over illegal immigration are high in the UK and say they have both been worried that the investigation could inflame hostilities.

But Ali says that the illegal working "damages the whole Kurdish community" and he feels compelled to "bring it [the criminal network] out into broad daylight".

Separately, Ali says he was concerned the coverage could be seized upon by the far-right.

He says this particularly struck him when he realised that far-right activist Tommy Robinson's Unite the Kingdom march was taking place in London on one of the weekends he was working undercover for the BBC. Placards and flags could be seen at the rally, reading "we want our country back".

Saman and Ali have both been monitoring social media reaction to the BBC investigation from inside the Kurdish community and say it has sparked intense anger for some. One Facebook comment they spotted said: "How can we identify and find [the undercover reporters] to kill them like dogs!"

Another called for their families in Kurdistan to be slaughtered.

They have also read accusations that they were spies for the British government, and traitors to fellow Kurds. "We are not spies, and we have no intention of harming the Kurdish community," Saman says. "Our goal is to expose those who have damaged its reputation. We are proud of our Kurdish identity and deeply concerned about the actions of such individuals."

Ali says he has also come across positive reaction, praising and defending the reporters for exposing wrongdoing and criminality.

He says some young Kurdish men come to the UK having heard they can make money by selling illegal cigarettes.

Reacting to our investigation, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said on Tuesday that these kinds of networks "create an incentive for people to come here illegally". An "urgent investigation" has now been launched by the Home Office, it confirmed.

Ali stresses that a small percentage of Kurds based in the UK are involved: "Maybe a minority in the community are involved in this illicit business - damaging the whole community."

It is difficult to establish the exact size of the UK's Kurdish population - official records tend to log nationality rather than ethnicity. The Kurdish Community Centre in Haringey, London, suggests there are a little more than 500,000.

Most of those seeking asylum say they are fleeing political persecution, according to Ibrahim Avicil from the Refugee Workers Cultural Association (RWCA), a charity that supports refugees and asylum seekers in the UK.

This was the case for our undercover reporter Saman, who, when he first came to the UK, struggled for years. He says he had to live on less than £20 a week while his asylum claim was considered.

Asylum seekers now receive about £49 a week - or £9.95 if they are in accommodation which provides meals, according to Home Office guidance.

"Realistically speaking, this isn't enough to maintain a dignified life," says Mr Avicil from the RWCA.

Because asylum seekers are largely prevented from working, he feels many are open to being exploited and are effectively "forced to work in the illegal market for as low as £3 per hour".

A spokesperson for the Home Office said: "We make no apology for not granting asylum seekers the right to work - doing so would create an incentive for people to come to the UK illegally."

Asylum cases can take years to be resolved with nearly a third taking more than 12 months, according to government figures from the end of March this year.

Saman says working illegally in a car wash, barbershop or mini-mart would have been very easy to do, but he told us he would never have done that.

However, he says that those he met working in illegal mini-marts during his work with the BBC investigation seemed "lost", especially those whose asylum claim has been refused and who were in the appeals process.

"They used all their money to come to the UK, they had their asylum refused and now they've lost everything."

Ali agrees that these people seemed desperate.

"If [they] say you're not allowed to work - but also [you] don't get paid enough to survive - what are you supposed to do? Most people in this situation would do anything."

But they also point out that there are people who they exposed in the criminal network that are not in need - they seem to be motivated by greed.

Shaxawan - a Kurdish man exposed to be a key fixer in the network - drives a BMW, he points out.

"He just wants to get richer and richer. He is exploiting people put in a vulnerable position."

Saman describes these people as "shamelessly and ruthlessly" exploiting the system, and says that "many of these people are clever and find loopholes to deceive" the authorities.

But he is at pains to stress that there is nevertheless a sense of "honour, kindness, and hospitality" in the Kurdish community. He is worried that "now the image of Kurds in Britain is changing and becoming negative".

He says: "I want to show the true image of Kurds and make it clear that we are not involved in these illegal activities."

At least four prisoners released in error are still at large, the BBC has been told.

These are among 262 prisoners in England and Wales mistakenly released in the year to March - up from 115 the previous year.

The new information comes as the government is under increasing pressure after a number of high-profile cases of prisoners being wrongly released.

An Algerian sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison was arrested by police on Friday.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif was one of two men separately released by mistake from the prison in the same week. Both are now back in custody, after William Smith handed himself in on Thursday.

Their releases came after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex late last month.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "The vast majority of offenders released by mistake are quickly brought back to prison, and we will do everything we can to work with the police to capture the few still in the community."

But there has been widespread criticism of the government's handling of the issue.

The unaccounted prisoners reveal "the incompetence of this government", shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said.

"It shouldn't be left to reporters to uncover the facts. [Justice Secretary] David Lammy must finally come clean about how many prisoners have been accidentally released and how many are still at large."

A spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats said "every resource" must go into finding the prisoners.

"This is a disgrace and an omnishambles. It shouldn't have to take the media to inform the public that prisoners are at large after accidental release," Jess Brown-Fuller said.

In a statement, Lammy said: "We inherited a prison system in crisis and I'm appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing.

"I'm determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.

"That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons."

The revelation that four prisoners are still at large after being wrongly released came just hours after Kaddour-Cherif was arrested.

The Algerian national was spotted by a member of the public in the Finsbury Park area of London just on Friday morning.

He was convicted of indecent exposure in November 2024, relating to an incident in March of that year.

He was given an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.

He had been let out of HMP Wandsworth in south London on 29 October, though police said they were not told until Tuesday.

Kaddour-Cherif is understood to have entered the UK legally on a visitor's visa in 2019, but overstayed that and was in the initial stages of the deportation process.

He was released the day after being found not guilty of breaching the sex offenders' register's requirements - but he was still facing other charges and should have remained in custody.

The prison officers' representatives said a clerical error meant there was no warrant from the court to hold him, and he was let go.

It followed a series of prosecutions and court appearances dating back two years.

William Smith, the second man released from HMP Wandsworth in the past week, handed himself back in on Thursday. He had been let go on Monday having been sentenced to prison earlier that day.

Prisons have been in a state of crisis for several years. The population has continued to balloon, with the number of staff not keeping pace with the number of inmates.

Only a hundred or so places were available in male prisons last summer. This triggered the government's emergency release scheme - where some inmates would be freed after serving 40% of their fixed term sentence, rather than the usual 50%. It was implemented to reduce overcrowding and already almost 40,000 inmates have been let out under the scheme.

But this has also had repercussions on the number of mistaken releases.

The government has pledged to build more prisons to ease overcrowding, with projections showing the prison population will continue to grow but this will take time.

Additional reporting by George Wright

I've never heard an audience so silent.

When the credits rolled on a screening of 2000 metres to Andriivka, no-one in the Kyiv cinema moved. Their popcorn and beer were mostly untouched.

The documentary by Mstyslav Chernov is a frontline film so intense you feel like you're trapped in the terrifying trenches alongside the soldiers.

Watching that in Ukraine, a country under fire, the intensity is multiplied.

At the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, as society mobilised to defend itself, Ukraine had little capacity for culture. Venues were closed or repurposed, some were attacked, and artists became refugees or soldiers.

Almost four years on, the arts are back - but everything is now permeated by the war.

The change struck me on a recent trip to Kyiv.

I realised that city walls were plastered with two kinds of poster: fundraisers for forces on the frontline - or films, plays and exhibitions about the war.

Andriivka wasn't the only hard hitting film on offer: there were also ads for Kuba and Alyaska, another powerful documentary that follows two female combat medics in a way that manages to be funny, frightening and tragic at the same time.

There was unflinching photography, too.

The old Lenin Museum, now Ukrainian House, was hosting a giant retrospective of the work of documentary photographer Oleksandr Glyadelov.

Stretched over three floors of the spiralling modernist building, his images captured the span of Ukraine's struggle for independence: 35 years trying to wrest itself from Russian control.

In the section devoted to 2022 and beyond, he'd displayed his photos of victims' bodies on the ground to look like graves.

Some I talked to in Kyiv shy away from all of this.

War is their reality: it's what keeps them up at night, with the air defence guns and missile warnings. It's all over their social media feeds and it's in their fears for friends and family who are fighting.

It is the last thing they want more of, on stage or screen.

But others are clearly drawn to it.

Andriivka is Chernov's latest production after his film from besieged Mariupol won an Oscar.

His focus this time is a 2km-long strip of land in eastern Ukraine. The soldiers call it a forest, though it's just a line of scraggy trees separating them from Russian positions. Their mission is to cross it and reclaim Andriivka, hanging Ukraine's national flag on the ruins.

So the men in the trenches dart between foxholes, guided by soldiers in the rear who monitor from drones and warn of any threat they see. They control the real-life troops as in a computer game but their faces are stony, their focus total.

The soldiers' lives depend on them.

When it's over, the audience around me seem stunned.

"Someone I know was in this movie, a soldier, and he died," Yulia shares, when people eventually file out into the foyer.

She says it was a tough watch. "I think we have to do it, though. We can't forget them."

An older man openly admits he'd viewed the film through tears. "Some moments were really, really hard," Taras says.

But he's sure such films are necessary.

"Maybe people will realise that Ukraine needs all the help possible to end this," Taras argues. "So many people have been killed because we refuse to be what we're not. We are not Russian."

It's not only the "serious" arts tackling the war these days. Musicals, the ultimate form of escapism, are in on the act too.

Just over the road from the cinema, I spotted a banner for the latest offering from the Kyiv Opera: Patriot, a rock opera in two acts.

"It's the story of any one of us," the director explains, one that takes the hero on a journey through Ukraine's recent history - from revolution to war.

All the songs are hugely popular anthems of Ukrainian independence so the audience on premiere night whooped along, swept to their feet at times. There were cheers for the policeman on stage in a fat suit doing pelvic thrusts, and the woman in a leotard and tights shredding a portrait of Vladimir Putin.

It was all a million miles from the films watched in silence across the road.

But director Petro Kachanov told me that even musical theatre has a mission now.

"We have to do everything to demonstrate that Russia is our age-old enemy," he was candid. "The Russians are not our brothers. They are killing our people. They want to take away our freedom and we must say this."

His team had pressured him to give the show a happy ending for a public exhausted by four years of open war, but he refused.

"This play is a tribute to those who died in this war," he told me. "And we cannot think about our own comfort when the best sons of Ukraine are dying."

The same ethos is driving the current "explosion" of documentaries.

Since February 2022, TV news channels in Ukraine have towed the official line and told reassuring stories in the name of unity. But independent filmmakers zoom in on the hardship.

"People who want to know truth, they go to the cinema," Olha Birzul is blunt.

She says that role was "born on the Maidan", shorthand for the mass protests in 2014 that eventually swept a pro-Russian president from power.

When crowds occupied Kyiv's main square in 2014, those who could film began recording everything. "So when the full-scale invasion happened, they were ready."

Ultimately, the films they are producing today are heroic tales: the enemy and the cause are clear. But they also expose the harshest of realities of this war and its true cost.

Olha's own husband was killed fighting in 2022 and, for her, such films are a way of recording Ukrainians' sacrifice and honouring their memory.

"It's a form of justice," she says.

"We would really like to watch other movies – maybe some comedies or some drama," is how one filmgoer, Natalia, put it on her way out of a screening of Kuba and Alyaska.

"Of course I don't want to watch these movies, but I have to, like everyone else. Because it's our history and it's our present day."

More than 5,000 US flights were cancelled or delayed on Friday, in the first day of new mandates forcing airlines to reduce air traffic during the government shutdown.

The new rules went into effect on Friday at 40 of the country's biggest airports to ease pressure on air traffic controllers and other federal workers reporting to work without pay amid the historic federal funding impasse.

Essential employees have been calling in sick or taking side jobs to make ends meet since the shutdown started last month.

To manage staffing shortages, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued an emergency order mandating a 4% cut to flights - which will rise to 10% by the end of next week.

The mandate - impacting major travel hubs in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington DC - came down as air traffic controllers had been reporting fatigue during staffing shortages as they work to ensure that US airspace remains safe for passengers, according to the FAA.

Air traffic controllers at the centre of the issue

As essential workers, air traffic controllers are required to continue working without pay during the shutdown - which has become the longest ever in US history.

Continuing to work without pay for more than a month has led many to become ill with stress and forced others to take on second jobs to keep food on the table, unions for the employees have said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told the BBC on Friday that the flight cut mandate has not yet affected international travel due to international agreements that the US has to abide by.

But the chaos at airports could be just beginning. Duffy said in an interview with Fox News that cuts to flights could hit 20% if the government shutdown carries on and air traffic controllers continue to miss work.

Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the controllers are being used as political pawns in the political standoff.

"We know the problems are going to get worse. They're going to increase, and anything that helps improve safety, we 100% stand by ensuring the safety of the American flying public," he told CNN.

Daniels said air traffic controllers are going to continue to show up and "do the job".

"We are going to do everything we can, but what we can't do is somehow, suddenly put money in our own pocket," he said. "We need Congress to open the government."

Beyond air travel, the shutdown has caused unprecedented disruptions across the country, including a pause in funding for food aide programmes.

Long lines fill US airports

Stressed travellers and cancel messages lit up flight status boards on Friday as the emergency order took effect.

As the mandate upended domestic air travel, several airlines began issuing advice for customers. Many carriers - including Delta, United and American Airlines - offered re-booking or change-fee waivers or full refunds, even to those whose flights were not impacted.

Joe Sullivan said he was already in an Uber to Reagan National Airport in Washington DC when he received the notification that his flight to Atlanta, Georgia, was cancelled. He was on his way to his cousin's wedding.

That city's airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, is often cited among the world's busiest and is a hub for Delta Airlines. It was one of the 40 airports that the US government selected to reduce flights.

"I ended up getting rebooked, but not until a flight that's more than 12 hours later the next day," Mr Sullivan said.

He thinks he might still be able to make it to the wedding, landing two hours before the ceremony begins. Other planned activities, though, he will miss.

"I was hoping to catch up with family down there tonight so [it's] a huge inconvenience in that regard," he added. "All I can do is just go home and just sit on the couch and wait for my flight to take off tomorrow."

Some at the airport were plotting other ways to get to their destinations. One woman told the BBC she bought a $300 train ticket - a trip that will take seven hours - in case her hour-long flight is cancelled.

Fellow traveller Ndenisarya Meekins told the BBC that she had to rebook her flight due to her planned trip to New York getting cancelled.

"We have a lot of plans in New York, so it would have been a little bit of a catastrophe if we weren't able to make it up," she said.

Ms Meekins said travelling at this time feels "nerve-wracking" because of the air traffic controller shortage.

"We're trusting that we have what we need to be safe," she said. "You think about these folks that have been working also without pay. We're going to go through security right now, and these are TSA agents who have been going through this process without pay and your heart goes out to them."

For Ariana Jakovljevic, the shutdown-induced travel panic is only one part of the funding gridlock's impact on her life. She is a federal worker who has not been paid because of the shutdown.

"I just graduated college. This is my first real job. I thought I had the golden ticket. I keep hoping stuff will get taken care of," she said.

With air traffic controllers already stretched thin by pre-existing staff shortages, traveller Ben Sauceda said working without pay is not ideal.

"I'm entrusting my life, every time I'm flying, with air traffic controllers," Mr Sauceda said. "They're phenomenal … but right now I'm putting [my life] into the hands of people who aren't getting paid, and that puts a stress on them; when they're trying to figure out how to feed their families.

"We're asking them to be top notch, to protect us," he added. "The stresses that are put on them are incredibly hard.

"The government needs to figure this out."

When will the shutdown end?

It remains unclear when the 38-day shutdown will come to an end - but there has been movement on Capitol Hill with members of Congress.

For the first few weeks of the shutdown, there were few, if any, negotiations happening between Republicans and Democrats.

Now, conversations are happening and both sides seem to think a deal could come to fruition.

On Friday, Democrats offered a potential funding bill. The chances of it passing are slim, though, because it does not have Republican support. A total of 60 votes are needed in the Senate to pass a funding measure and the chamber is split with 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats.

Since the shutdown began, members of the Republican-controlled US Senate have repeatedly voted - to no avail - in favour of the same short-term funding bill to reopen the government with no luck.

Democrats have refused to support the short-term measure on government funding unless Republicans agree to extend healthcare subsidies for low-income Americans. Republicans have resisted, accusing Democrats of holding the government hostage over unrelated policy priorities.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, the chamber's top Republican, told reporters on Friday that work would continue over the weekend to come to a deal. He said senators were instructed to stay in town in case there was legislation to vote on.

The House of Representatives has been out of session since the start of the shutdown.

In recent days, President Donald Trump has started suggesting the shutdown could end by doing away with the Senate's filibuster - a long-standing rule that only requires 60 of the 100 members to approve most legislation.

Removing the rule would allow Republicans to pass a funding bill without Democratic support.

But few senators, Democrat or Republican, support the president's proposal.

That did not stop Trump from pushing for the end of the filibuster again on Friday.

"The United States Senate should not leave town until they have a Deal to end the Democrat Shutdown. If they can't reach a Deal, the Republicans should terminate the Filibuster, IMMEDIATELY, and take care of our Great American Workers," he wrote on Truth Social.

The Conservatives are calling for Sir Keir Starmer to face a standards probe over the appointment of Labour donor David Kogan as England's new football watchdog.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy was found to have "unknowingly" breached public appointment rules by not declaring Mr Kogan's donations to her 2020 Labour leadership campaign before picking him for the job.

The Tories are arguing that the prime minister had "exactly the same conflict of interest" since Mr Kogan had also donated to the prime minister's Labour leadership campaign.

Downing Street dismissed the calls, saying an extensive review by the Independent Commissioner for Public Appointments found no further breaches.

Nandy announced Mr Kogan, a sports rights executive, as the government's preferred candidate to chair the football regulator in April.

But she stepped back from the appointment process the following month, after he revealed to MPs that he had given "very small sums" to her 2020 Labour leadership campaign, as well as that of the now prime minister.

In a report published on Thursday, the commissioner for public appointments, Sir William Shawcross, revealed Mr Kogan had made two donations of £1,450 each to Nandy's campaign, one personally and one through his company.

They were part of total donations worth £33,410 to Labour and the party's candidates in the five years prior to his appointment, the commissioner said.

The two donations to Nandy's campaign were below declaration thresholds set by the Electoral Commission and by Parliament.

But Nandy should have checked if the sports agent had contributed before endorsing him, Sir William said, and taken "any necessary consequential action".

"The fact of the donations was capable of giving rise to a perceived conflict of interest in the appointment process," he added.

Nandy apologised on Thursday, telling the prime minister in a letter: "I deeply regret this error. I appreciate the perception it could create".

Sir Keir has stood by his culture secretary, telling her in reply that she had "acted in good faith", and he "noted the commissioner's findings that the error was unknowing".

'Final approval'

The commissioner did not specify how much money Mr Kogan donated to Sir Keir's 2020 campaign. Electoral transparency records show he separately donated £2,500 to Sir Keir's local Labour branch in May last year.

Nandy was the "formal appointing authority" for the regulator role, but it is listed by the government as one in which the prime minister has a "strong interest"

According to Sir William's report, Mr Kogan's appointment was "cleared" by 10 Downing Street, having been sent for "final approval".

The Conservatives have now asked Sir Laurie Magnus, Sir Keir's ethics adviser, to investigate whether the prime minister's role in Mr Kogan's appointment, and his verdict on Nandy's role, broke ministerial rules on transparency.

In a letter to Sir Laurie, shadow Cabinet Office minster Alex Burghart wrote: "If Ms Nandy recused herself from involvement in this appointment, shouldn't the prime minister have done the same?

"Isn't the prime minister complicit in exactly the same conflict of interest?"

Mr Kogan was longlisted for the role under the previous Conservative government but the process was paused after last year's general election was called, according to Sir William's report.

The commissioner added that Mr Kogan initially withdrew his application in November last year, before eventually being re-selected for the role as an external candidate.

In a statement on Thursday, Mr Kogan said: "I have cooperated fully throughout the investigation and can now draw a line under the process.

"As the commissioner states, my suitability for the role has never been in question, and at no point was I aware of any deviation from best practice.

"It is now time to move on and get on with the business of setting up the IFR [Independent Football Regulator] so we can tackle the critical and urgent issues facing football."

A Government spokesperson said: "The Chair of the Football regulator was appointed by Ministers in the Department for Culture, Media, and Sports, as set out in the legislation.

"This was the case under the previous Government.

"The Independent Commissioner for Public Appointments reviewed the appointment process extensively and found no breaches aside from those set out in the report."

Nearly five months after a plane crash in India which killed 260 people, the investigation has become mired in controversy – with the country's Supreme Court the latest to weigh in.

Flight 171 was en route to London from Ahmedabad in western India on 12 June. It crashed into a building just 32 seconds after taking off.

An interim report was released in July, but critics argue it unfairly focused on the actions of the pilots, diverting attention away from a possible fault with the aircraft.

On Friday, a judge in India's Supreme Court insisted that nobody could blame the aircraft's captain.

His comments came a week after the airline's boss insisted there was no problem with the aircraft.

During a panel discussion at the Aviation India 2025 summit in New Delhi in late October, Air India's chief executive Cambell Wilson admitted that the accident had been "absolutely devastating for the people involved, for the families of those involved, and the staff".

But he stressed that initial investigations by Indian officials, summed up in a preliminary report, had "indicated that there was nothing wrong with the aircraft, the engines or the operation of the airline".

He added although Air India was working with investigators it was not involved directly.

Because the accident happened in India, the investigation is being led by the country's Air Accident investigation Bureau (AAIB). However, because the aircraft and its engines were designed and built in America, US officials are also taking part.

A month after the accident, the AAIB published a preliminary report. This is standard procedure in major accident investigations and is meant to provide a summary of the known facts at the time of publication.

The report will typically draw on information gleaned from examination of the crash site, for example, as well as basic material downloaded from the flight data recorder. It will not normally make firm conclusions about the cause of the accident.

However, the 15-page report into Air India 171 has proved controversial. This is largely due to the contents of two short paragraphs.

First, it notes that seconds after takeoff, the fuel cutoff switches - normally used when starting the engines before a flight and shutting them down afterwards – had been moved from the "run" to the cutoff position.

This would have deprived the engines of fuel, causing them to lose thrust rapidly. The switches were moved back to restart the engines, but too late to prevent the disaster.

It then says: "In the cockpit voice recording, one of the pilots is heard asking the other why did he cutoff. The other pilot responded that he did not do so."

That indirectly-reported exchange sparked intense speculation about the role of the two pilots, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and his first officer Clive Kunder, who was flying the plane at the time.

A former chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, Robert Sumwalt, claimed the report showed "this was not a problem with the airplane or the engines".

"Did somebody deliberately shut down the fuel, or was it somehow or another a slip that they inadvertently shut off the fuel?" he said during an interview with the US network CBS.

Indian aviation safety consultant Capt. Mohan Ranganathan strongly implied that pilot suicide could have caused the accident, in an interview with the country's NDTV channel.

"I don't want to use the word. I've heard the pilot had some medical history and... it can happen," he said.

Mike Andrews, a lawyer acting on behalf of victims' families, thinks the way in which information has been released has "led people unfairly and inappropriately to blame those pilots without all the information".

"An aircraft like this - that is so complex - has so many things that could go wrong," he explains.

"To seize upon those two very small, decontextualised pieces of information, and automatically blame pilots for suicide and mass murder... is unfair and wrong."

• What we know so far about Air India crash investigation

That view is echoed by Capt. Amit Singh, founder of the Safety Matters Foundation, an organisation based in India that works to promote a safety culture in aviation.

He has produced a report which claims the available evidence "strongly supports the theory of an electrical disturbance as the primary cause of the engine shutdown" that led to the disaster.

He believes an electrical fault may have caused the Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC), a computerised system which manages the engines, to trigger a shutdown by cutting off the fuel supply.

Meanwhile the flight data recorder, he suggests, may have registered the command to shut off the fuel supply, rather than any physical movement of the cutoff switches in the cockpit.

In other words, the switches themselves may not have been touched at all, until the pilots tried to restart the engines.

Capt. Singh has also challenged the way in which the investigation has been carried out in India's Supreme Court.

He told the BBC the way in which the preliminary report was framed was biased because it "appears to suggest pilot error, without disclosing all the technical anomalies that occurred during the flight".

Meanwhile the Supreme Court itself has already commented on the issue.

It has been considering a petition filed by Pushkarraj Sabharwal, the father of Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal. The 91-year-old has been seeking an independent judicial inquiry into the tragedy.

"It's extremely unfortunate, this crash, but you should not carry this burden that your son is being blamed. Nobody can blame him for anything," Justice Surya Kant told him.

A further hearing is expected on 10 November.

'Flat out wrong'

The theory that an electrical fault could have caused the accident is supported by the US-based Foundation for Aviation Safety (FAS).

Its founder is Ed Pierson, a former senior manager at Boeing, who has previously been highly critical of safety standards at the US aerospace giant.

He believes the preliminary report was "woefully inadequate... embarrassingly inadequate".

His organisation has spent time examining reports of electrical issues on board 787s. They include water leaks into wiring bays, which have previously been noted by the US regulator, the Federal Aviation Authority. Concerns have also been voiced in some other quarters.

"There were so many of what we consider electrical oddities on that plane, that for them to come out and to all intents and purposes direct the blame to the pilots without exhaustively going through and examining potential system failures, we just thought was flat out wrong," he says.

He believes there was a deliberate attempt to divert attention away from the plane and on to the pilots.

The FAS has called for wholesale reform of current international air accident investigation procedures, citing "outdated protocols, conflicts of interest and systemic failures that endanger public trust and delay life-saving safety improvements".

'Keeping an open mind'

Mary Schiavo, an attorney and former inspector general at the US Department of Transportation, disagrees that the pilots have been deliberately put under the spotlight.

She thinks the preliminary report was flawed, but only because investigators were under intense pressure to provide information, with worldwide attention focused on them.

"I think they were just in a hurry, because this was a horrific accident and the whole world was watching. They were just in a hurry to push something out," she says.

"Then, in my opinion, the whole world jumped to conclusions and right away was saying, 'this is pilot suicide, this was intentional'.

"If they had to do it over again, I don't think they would have put those little snippets from the cockpit voice recording in," she says.

Her own view is that "a computer or mechanical failure... is the most likely scenario".

International rules for air accident investigations stipulate that a final report should appear within 12 months of the event, but this is not always adhered to. However, until it is published, the true causes of the accident will remain unknown.

A former air accident investigator who spoke to the BBC emphasised the importance of "keeping an open mind", until the process has been completed.

Boeing has always maintained that the 787 is a safe aircraft – and it does have a strong record.

The company told the BBC it would defer to India's AAIB to provide information about the investigation.

GP Dr David Turner no longer sees patients on a Wednesday morning.

Instead, he spends that time sifting through the online appointment requests to work out what each patient needs. Last week there were 84 requests, and the week before it was more than 100.

"It's relentless - you get about two minutes to look at each," Dr Turner says. "We're getting lots of requests we would not have had previously - questions like, 'Should I take this food supplement?' Previously patients would not have bothered GPs with things like that.

"Obviously, the concern is there is something serious buried in there - I know of a practice which only realised at 6:20pm there was a patient that needed an urgent home visit. If they had come through on the phone it would have been recognised straight away."

Dr Turner's Hertfordshire practice started complying with a new government directive to offer online booking across England in September.

The idea is make it easier for patients to book non-urgent appointments or ask questions - and end the 08:00 scramble to get through on telephone lines. But the increased administrative workload for doctors means the practice is now offering fewer appointments overall.

"I'm not sure the government has properly thought this through," Dr Turner says.

His union, the British Medical Association, is so worried it has opened a formal dispute with the government about the new approach, warning GPs are going to be overwhelmed and that could put patients at risk.

This opens the option of the BMA introducing a work-to-rule limiting the number of patients GPs will agree to see.

But how do patients feel? Members of the public told Your Voice, Your BBC News that while the online system is welcome it is being undermined by the long-standing problem of a lack of available appointments.

'There's still no appointments'

Jo, 53, a former finance director for a private hospital who lives in Kent, has tried using the online system - but there have been no slots available.

She has regular contact with her GP surgery as she is on thyroid medication after having half her larynx removed because of a benign tumour.

"My practice is meeting the requirement for online booking, but what's the point if you can't get an appointment?"

However, Jo's dissatisfaction goes further than just getting access.

"I know staff are really busy, but sometimes their attitude is so dismissive and frankly rude," she says. "I went in for a blood test recently and the nurse was so abrupt. They don't realise how frightening it is when you are concerned about your health. If they did, they would show more empathy."

But Jo acknowledges there are other aspects of the digital evolution in the NHS that are improving services. She is able to order repeat prescriptions online and after getting her blood tests done she accessed the results on the NHS app.

"It does make it so much easier for someone like me, but we need to remember not all people are digitally savvy," Jo says. "My dad hasn't got a smartphone - so someone like him won't see the benefit."

This is something feedback to Healthwatch England has found too.

Over the last month it has been monitoring what patients have been reporting to its local branches about the online appointments system. It says while some have reported it has helped speed up bookings, others fear being marginalised because they are not comfortable with the technology.

'GP practices make good money – services should be better'

Rakesh, who lives in Southampton, has had a similar experience to Jo.

"I've tried the online portal and you can book for six weeks in advance, but there are never any slots available. You are then stuck on the phone hoping to get through."

"You have more chance of winning the lottery than seeing a GP," Rakesh says, jokingly.

The 65-year-old says he is lucky though as he remains pretty healthy and does not need to use his GP much.

"I feel sorry for people with health problems who need to see a GP regularly. It's definitely got worse over recent years. I noticed a change after the pandemic - it got much harder to see a GP, certainly in person."

Rakesh, who used to be a merchant shipping captain and now works as a safety auditor in the industry, feels GPs should be doing more to improve access – or at least the GP partners that run the practices.

He points to the profit they make - GP practices are effectively small businesses and the latest available figures show the average partner earns more than £150,000 each year.

"They are very profitable businesses," Rakesh says. "I don't think this is a matter of money."

His displeasure is clear - and it is something many share. The long-running British Social Attitudes survey shows satisfaction with GP care hit its lowest level since records began last year with fewer than a third of people happy with services.

'I get a great service'

Not everyone is dissatisfied though. Stephen's practice introduced online booking a year ago and he has used it three times to great effect.

"Each time, I've got a message back quickly offering an appointment or asking for extra information. On one occasion I even got a same-day appointment," says the 67-year-old, from Chelmsford. "It's so much better than being stuck waiting in a phone queue."

The most recent time Stephen used the online booking system was as a result of pain and weakness in his hand. He was referred for physiotherapy and was able to receive treatment at his local GP practice.

This is part of a nationwide scheme launched by the Conservative government giving practices extra funding to recruit physiotherapists, pharmacists and dieticians.

"It's really convenient," says Stephen. "I've also seen a pharmacist for a medicine review for migraines, and I've had a blood test done there too. In the past we would have had to go to hospital or elsewhere for these."

'Maybe we should start charging to see a GP'

Patricia, who is in her 70s and lives in Surrey, is sympathetic to the pressure on GPs.

She, too, has found it hard to get appointments through the online booking system, but says it is at least easy to use.

"When I last tried to use it there was nothing for weeks, so you still have to rely on getting through on the phone."

Patricia suffers from back problems and needed some medication to control the pain. "It is something that flares up from time to time. I once had to ring 999 and paramedics came out. But they could not issue a prescription - they had to phone up to get one. It all seems so inefficient," she says.

"But I know the service is under tremendous pressure. I think we need to re-think our approach."

Patricia has a house in France and has used GP services there. "You pay small fee to go - and it is so much quicker and easier. It would encourage the public to use services more responsibly. You would need to have some form of means testing. But we pay to see a dentist, why not a GP? It's worth considering."

This is an idea that has been suggested many times over the past decade, including by former Chancellor and Health Secretary Sir Sajid Javid. A number of European nations have some form of charges, as do Australia and New Zealand. The argument put forward is that it would raise vital funds and - as Patricia argues - encourage more responsible use.

But experts at the King's Fund think tank have argued that the cost of introducing the system coupled with the exemptions that would need to be put in place would mean the "pain is not worth the limited gain".

Challenges remain

The government believes it has the right building blocks in place. Health Minister Stephen Kinnock says the steps being taken are having an effect, pointing out there are now more appointments being booked online than via phone for the first time.

And, after years where the number of GPs has hardly risen despite increasing demand, he also says a relaxation in funding rules has led to an increase in GPs by 2,500 over the past year or so (although some of these are part-time).

"The tools and resources are there to deliver a modernised service fit for the future," adds Mr Kinnock.

But this has not translated - at least yet - to a significant improvement in access. The most up-to-date polling is produced by the Office for National Statistics, which is carrying out monthly surveys on access to NHS care.

It last asked people in late September and early October about their experience over the previous four weeks - this covered a period by which time GP numbers had gone up and when there was already significant access to online booking. While it only became mandatory to offer online booking on 1 October many practices had taken the step before then.

Just over one in five respondents said they were not able to contact their GP practice on the day they first tried - similar to the situation the year before. Although there has been a small reduction in the number not able to get through at all - a year ago it was nearly 5% and now it stands at just over 3%.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne of the Royal College of GPs says it is clear there are still challenges - and she is not convinced it is a given that access will improve in the way the government believes.

She says some practices have struggled to introduce online booking because of outdated IT systems and while the rise in GP numbers was welcome, many thousands more are still needed.

"Practices are telling us that despite patients crying out for appointments they don't have the funding to employ the GPs they need."

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Spoiler warning: This article reveals details from The Celebrity Traitors

By now, you’ll probably know who’s won The Celebrity Traitors.

But some of the other contestants could end up being the real winners from the hit TV series.

Cat Burns, Joe Marler and Nick Mohammed have been widely tipped by industry experts as the names most likely to see the biggest career boost thanks to their appearance on the show.

Compared with the likes of Sir Stephen Fry and Celia Imrie, they were relatively less well known when entering the castle.

But all three have been "magnificently entertaining", and could find themselves facing a string of lucrative offers, TV reporter Siobhan Synnot tells BBC News.

We've been looking at who the breakout stars of the series are - and what might lie ahead for them.

Cat Burns

The singer-songwriter, 25, sailed all the way to the final, her cool-as-a-cucumber persona making her a traitor to be reckoned with.

Burns first got everyone talking during an early task involving a general knowledge quiz, in which she confessed she didn't know who Dame Judi Dench or Dame Helen Mirren were (although she later said she would have recognised their faces).

Celebrity Traitors fans have enjoyed her quick thinking and acting ability, and she managed to slip under the radar for most of the game.

In Thursday night's nail-biting finale, her luck ran out - as she was banished at the roundtable despite making a pinky promise with fellow traitor Alan Carr, who went on to win.

But this is far from the last we've seen of Burns.

Her second album, How To Be Human, has just been released - our colleague, music correspondent Mark Savage, said it showed a softer side to the Traitors star.

She's all over social media (what are we supposed to do without those epic cloaked Cat-Alan videos now the show is over?)

And last weekend, she even made a special performance on another prime-time BBC One show, Sunday night's Strictly results show.

Culture journalist Natalie Jamieson says she hopes Burns can do "whatever she wants next".

"She's a brilliant singer-songwriter already, and no doubt has her own ambitions and career plans - but I'd bet there's still a degree of her being seen by some as 'just' a musician.

"None of us are just one thing, and if her success on Celebrity Traitors broadens the minds of any industry gatekeepers to open doors or create unexpected opportunities, or just ask if she wants to be in the room where something is happening, then Cat can choose if that's what she wants."

Joe Marler

The former rugby union star, 35, has won over a whole new audience beyond sport thanks to his bromance with comedian Joe Wilkinson, his super-sleuthing, balletic bridge balancing and all-round wit.

Speaking about his faithful nemesis on Traitors Uncloaked, traitor Jonathan Ross said of Marler: "I think this show will do him a lot of good because people will see just how funny he is and how smart he is and how likeable he is.

"And that was always there, but it was hidden behind that gruff man mountain exterior."

Along with Wilkinson, Marler was the architect of the epic Big Dog theory involving Ross and Fry.

And rather than fly under the radar, Marler took the risk of spouting his theories openly, and was arguably the most bullish at the roundtables, even managing to ruffle Carr's feathers.

"Joe Marler has undoubtedly become a breakout star of the show due to his authentic personality and deadpan humour," says entertainment reporter Indigo Stafford.

"He also seems to be one of the only faithfuls this season to actually have had a clue who the traitors might be, yet he cleverly managed to conceal how much of a threat he is to them in order to not get eliminated [until the very end].

"I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a huge career boost for him after he left the show."

Marler signed up with talent agency M+C Saatchi earlier this year, and there are already rumours that he is set for more mainstream TV opportunities, which Stafford says would "make sense".

"Having retired from his impressive England rugby career, he will be looking to move on to the next big thing - the world of showbiz," she said.

Meanwhile TV reporter Siobhan Synnot thinks Marler could be heading for next year's Strictly. We can see him doing the Viennese Waltz already.

Nick Mohammed

The comedian and actor has hugely grown his fan base during his appearance on Celebrity Traitors.

He'd already starred in hit TV shows like Ted Lasso and Slow Horses, but despite that, not everyone knew who he was before the show.

While big personalities like Carr and Ross may have immediately stolen the limelight, Nick has gained a cult following due to his whip-smart - and often, spot on - theories, his cool, calm demeanour, and the way he powered through the tasks like a man possessed.

He attracted attention early on when helping Imrie secure the final shield in the first mission, protecting her from murder by digging up her grave.

But it was his incredibly speedy puzzle skills in the Trojan Horse challenge that really caught the eye.

"Celebrity Traitors has introduced him to a whole new audience that are obsessed with his sharp observations and intelligent gameplay. Moving forward, I could totally imagine Nick hosting a new game show," says Stafford.

Synnot agrees: "Nick and his gift for unravelling puzzles may find himself inundated with quiz host offers."

And what's in store for the others...

Burns, Marler and Mohammed aren't the only ones who will see a huge boost from their time on the show.

Since his spectacular win on Thursday, social media has blown up with speculation that Carr could be the next host of Strictly Come Dancing.

The BBC has not commented. But just imagine that. Winning Celebrity Traitors, then landing one of the most coveted roles on British television.

Synnot, for her part, suspects he could end up going in a more unexpected direction.

"Sweaty Alan Carr is a cert for Sure adverts," she says. If you know, you know.

And what for Imrie, the beloved veteran actress who stole the show with her nervous fart in episode three?

"Maybe Pepto Bismol can make a deal for her," jokes Synnot.

You heard it here first.

As you drive into Falmouth, there's still a moat of dirty looking standing water surrounding the town.

On the coastal road, as you slowly push forward in the car, the bow wave breaks and you are hit by the smell of sewage.

Passing cars drive slowly so as to not send the spray through the window.

This part of the historic town was hit badly by Hurricane Melissa. The regional hospital is on the low-lying road that is the western route into its centre.

It was flooded as the water swept across the mangrove and into the facility.

Donna-Marie Hamilton-Wallace, the head of nursing at the hospital, was on duty at the time.

"It was devastating for the patients and the staff, the lower level was flooded because of the storm surge and we had to create a human chain to evacuate them to the higher level," she said. "It was frightening but I'm glad patients and staff are all okay."

I first visited the hospital the morning after the storm hit.

Orderlies were clearing rubble from buildings, without sleep for days facing an insurmountable challenge.

The high winds had ripped off the roof of wards and left infrastructure, like its boiler room, under four feet (1.2m) of water.

Now, 10 days later, I'm back and things are slowly improving.

At least 32 people have died since the storm ravaged Jamaica, causing some $7bn (£5.3bn) in damage, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness said.

Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean were also destroyed when the Category 5 storm pummelled through the region.

• 'No help, no food, no water': Hurricane-hit Jamaican towns desperately wait for aid
• 'We need food, we have no food' - desperation takes hold in Jamaica after hurricane

The heaps of twisted building material and water-damaged equipment is being cleared by men and women from the Royal Navy and Commandos from the Army's Crisis Response Troop.

There are helping hands, too, from a Spanish team who are here to build a field hospital.

Essential for getting scrubs clean and bedding washed, the laundry is still in a terrible state, its roof now just exposed beams. That is the next job for a group of the Commandos, working out how to fix problems with few options that desperately need a solution.

The team inside the boiler room includes local workers and Naomi Pearmine, a Marine Engineer.

Her job as a technician is normally to look after the fuel system, the engines and propulsion of HMS Trent, the Royal Navy offshore patrol vessel that is tasked with helping here in Jamaica.

She normally would not take part in missions like this, but getting the ignition going is key to getting the hospital operational.

Machelle Stubbs, the chief medical officer at the hospital, explained how important it is to get help at this point.

"Many of our staff are still here, working," she said. "Not getting a chance to look after their own personal challenges, that compounds the problems even more. Fortunately we're getting relief from other parts of the island and other international agencies."

• 'No inch here was spared': Hurricane Melissa destroys Jamaica town

Clean-up teams from Jamaica's health ministry came in last weekend, carried in on Jamaica's bright yellow public buses to help their colleagues in need.

But today it is help from abroad that is essential.

HMS Trent was sent to the Caribbean to provide assistance to British Overseas Territories and Commonwealth Nations during hurricane season.

First Lt Jacob Mikurenda is the second in command. He said that for sailors on this deployment it is a chance to put all their skills together in a situation that's different from their normal duty.

For many sailors, this deployment - to provide humanitarian aid and disaster relief - was the first land operation of their careers.

"It's been amazing to see the resilience and the community of the people to recover after the hurricane," Mr Mikurenda said.

The scale of the disaster can be seen in the little details as well as the big ones.

The staff hung sheets on make-shift washing lines running along the walkways to the wards. There are crumpled signs for hospital departments strewn on the ground and medical records drying on a tarpaulin between the admin offices.

Keriesa Bell Cummings the hospital's CEO summed it up: "It's traumatising it really is but as the leader here I have to stay strong."

She has been organising people from around the world - diplomats, helpers from hospitals in other less affected parts of the island and the country's health ministry - to help with the efforts.

Initially she said she was too busy to be interviewed, but then she wanted to express that things were coming back to normal.

"A lot of material support, relief, tools, labour, food, we asked for it and it's now coming," Ms Cummings said.

Communications are still an issue here in Falmouth and our region, but there is hope it gets better in the days to come.

WhatsApp and phone are still patchy, making calls difficult and co-ordination almost impossible.

But this week is better than last, a feeling most Jamaicans are clinging on to.

US President Donald Trump says he will consider allowing Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban to buy Russian oil, in an exemption from sanctions aimed at helping to end the Ukraine war.

Speaking on Friday during Orban's visit to the White House, Trump said an allowance might be made because "it's very difficult for him [Orban] to get the oil and gas from other areas".

The comments come after the US effectively blacklisted two of Russia's largest oil companies last month, threatening sanctions on those that buy from them.

Following the meeting, Hungary's foreign minister wrote on X that the US had given Budapest "a full and unlimited exemption from sanctions on oil and gas".

Trump added that while Hungary faced unique logistical challenges, including access to a sea that could be used to drill oil, he was "very disturbed" by other European countries that he said continued to buy Russian commodities despite not being landlocked.

Orban, who is one of Trump's closest allies in Europe and who has long resisted EU efforts to pressure Moscow over Ukraine, has defended his energy ties with Russia, saying on Friday that pipelines are neither "ideological" nor "political", but a "physical reality" due to the lack of ports.

He has been using his country's heavy dependence on Russian oil and gas as a means to maintain his good relations with Moscow, as well as a platform upon which he hopes to win re-election next April in Hungary. He has promised "cheap Russian energy" to voters.

Trump and Orban also discussed the war in Ukraine on Friday - their first formal talks since Trump returned to power - including the possibility of holding talks with Putin.

"He [Orban] understands Putin and knows him very well... I think that Viktor feels we're going to get that war ended in the not-too-distant future", Trump said.

The Hungarian leader, meanwhile, said only their two nations truly wanted peace in Ukraine.

"All the other governments prefer to continue the war because many of them think that Ukraine can win on the front line, which is a misunderstanding of the situation."

Trump asked him: "So you would say that Ukraine cannot win that war?" To which Orban replied: "You know, a miracle can happen."

Aside from the issue of oil and gas sanctions, Hungary's export-driven car industry has been hit by Trump's tariffs on European goods, adding to an already weak economy.

Despite frequent clashes with EU leaders over migration, democracy, and the rule of law, Trump urged Europe to "respect this leader very, very strongly because he's been right on immigration."

with additional reporting by Nick Thorpe

Nobel Prize-winning American scientist James Watson has died aged 97.

His co-discovery of the structure of DNA opened the door to help explain how DNA replicates and carries genetic information, setting the stage for rapid advances in molecular biology.

But his honorary titles were stripped in 2019 after he repeated comments about race and intelligence. In a TV programme, he made a reference to a view that genes cause a difference on average between blacks and whites on IQ tests.

The death of Watson, who co-discovered the double-helix structure of DNA in 1953, was confirmed to the BBC by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, where he worked and researched for decades.

Watson shared the Nobel in 1962 with Maurice Wilkins and Francis Crick for the DNA's double helix structure discovery.

"We have discovered the secret of life," they said at the time.

His comments on race led to him saying that he felt ostracised by the scientific community.

In 2007, the scientist, who once worked at the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory, told the Times newspaper that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa", because "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".

The comments led to him losing his job as chancellor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

His additional comments in 2019 - when he once again suggested a link between race and intelligence - led the lab to strip his honorary titles of chancellor emeritus, Oliver R Grace professor emeritus and honorary trustee.

"Dr Watson's statements are reprehensible, unsupported by science," the laboratory said in a statement, adding that they effectively reverse his apology.

DNA was discovered in 1869, but researchers had yet to discover its structure, and it took until 1943 before scientists realised that DNA made up the genetic material in cells.

Working with images obtained by King's College researcher Rosalind Franklin, without her knowledge, Crick and Watson were able to construct a physical model of the molecule.

Watson sold his Nobel Prize gold medal at auction for $4.8m (£3.6m) in 2014.

He had said he planned to sell the medal because he was ostracised by the scientific community after his remarks on race.

Four MPs who were suspended from the Labour Party after rebelling against welfare reforms have had their whips restored.

Chris Hinchliff, for North East Hertfordshire, was suspended alongside Neil Duncan-Jordan, MP for Poole, Brian Leishman, MP for Alloa and Grangemouth, and Rachael Maskell, MP for York Central, after they voted against the government's Welfare Reform Bill in July.

The BBC understands they had the whip restored after discussions with chief whip Jonathan Reynolds on Friday.

Hinchliff said: "As ever, my focus remains on serving the communities of North East Hertfordshire and contributing to Labour's historic mission to create a society that puts people and nature before profit."

Prior to their suspensions, all four MPs had rebelled against the government on several occasions.

The group were among 47 Labour MPs who rebelled against the government's proposed cuts to welfare in July and forced ministers to water down their plans.

The rebellion undermined Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's authority, which was weakened after a series of policy reversals, including restoring the Winter Fuel Payment to millions of pensioners.

At the time of their suspension, Starmer said he was "determined" to change the country "for the better".

He said: "Therefore, we have to deal with people who repeatedly break the whip."

Hinchliff said he welcomed the whip back and added he had "constructive discussions" with the new chief whip in recent months.

Duncan-Jordan said he was "glad" have the whip restored.

"I've been part of the Labour and trade union movement for 40 years, so I'm pleased to have had the Labour whip restored today.

"I'll continue working hard for my constituents in Poole and standing up for Labour values - tackling poverty, raising living standards and building a fairer society," he added.

Maskell said she was "grateful" that she had been given the whip back.

"I recognise the heavy responsibility on Labour to repair our public services and economy after 14 disastrous years and above all to lift people out of poverty.

"With 4.5m children living in poverty tonight, I am focused on ensuring they have the very best start in life," she added.

The move comes as the party faces a difficult month in government with growing concern among Labour MPs that taxes will have to rise in the upcoming budget.

Newly elected Labour deputy leader, Lucy Powell, urged the government not to raise taxes in the next budget.

Powell told the BBC the government "should be following through" on its manifesto pledge not to raise income tax, national tax or VAT.

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

A Metropolitan Police sergeant who said a detainee "deserves to be beaten up" has become the sixth officer based at Charing Cross police station to be sacked following a BBC investigation.

Lawrence Hume, a detention sergeant, was dismissed on Friday at an accelerated misconduct hearing, which also heard he used a derogatory term to describe the detainee.

October's Panorama programme showed officers calling for immigrants to be shot, revelling in the use of force and being dismissive of rape claims.

Cdr Simon Messenger said Sgt Hume had "demonstrated a blatant disregard for the protection of the public and the professional standards expected of a serving police officer".

Cdr Messenger told the hearing in south London: "It is right he has been dismissed as we work tirelessly to raise standards and improve the culture across our organisation."

In a six-minute clip, which was played to the panel several times, Sgt Hume also said of the same detainee, "Charge him, send him to prison, throw away the key," adding, "Don't care, deserves to be beaten up don't he."

Panel chairman Cdr Jason Prins found Sgt Hume's behaviour amounted to gross misconduct and dismissed him without notice.

Cdr Prins said the sergeant was "unable to provide a satisfying answer" as to why he had said a detainee deserved to be beaten up.

"He made the comments on two occasions unprompted," Cdr Prins added. "He was in a leadership position responsible for the welfare of detainees."

An allegation that Sgt Hume's comments indicated a clear intention to minimise and not record levels of force used in custody was found to be unproven.

'Scum'

On 28 October, Sgt Clayton Robinson was dismissed after a panel heard he had "trivialised the allegation" of a woman during a rape investigation and "mocked the victim" by singing a song with another officer.

PC Jason Sinclair-Birt was dismissed on 24 October after being secretly filmed "boasting about and revelling in the use of force" on a detainee.

A day earlier, Sgt Joe McIlvenny, PC Philip Neilson and PC Martin Borg were dismissed after allegations of gross misconduct were upheld.

Sgt McIlvenny was filmed being dismissive about a pregnant woman's allegation of rape and domestic violence against her partner and making misogynistic comments.

PC Neilson was recorded referring to an "invasion" of "scum" from the Middle East, and made offensive comments about people from Algeria and Somalia.

Another three officers - PC Sean Park, PC Brian Sharkey and Sgt Steve Stamp - are due to face hearings as part of the Met's accelerated misconduct proceedings in the wake of the 1 October broadcast.

A further allegation against Sgt Hume, that he had failed to challenge or report Sgt McIlvenny's remarks after being informed of them, was also found to be unproven.

Amanda Rowe, director at the police watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct, said Sgt Hume's comments were "unacceptable and completely unprofessional".

She added: "A panel has found that the officer breached the police standards of professional behaviour relating to authority, respect and courtesy, and discreditable conduct, and it's right that he has been dismissed from the force."

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Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing party is in a stand-off over £800,000 raised by Zarah Sultana, who is meant to be founding the party with him.

The money was raised when Sultana launched an unauthorised membership scheme for people wanting to join the group currently operating the name Your Party.

Senior figures have accused her of withholding the funds despite publicly agreeing to transfer the money.

A spokesperson for Sultana said she "is in the process of transferring all funds and data" but was conducting "essential due diligence as part of this process".

But the delay has sparked anger among YourParty insiders, who say the funds are essential for its founding conference later this month. A source in the party said it would likely be "forced to reduce delegate numbers" at the event.

The problems stem from a schism in the party caused when Sultana launched a membership portal through its official email account, taking payment and data from an alleged 20,000 people.

The money was held by MoU, a company set up in April to hold donations for the fledgling movement.

Corbyn branded the emails "unauthorised" and urged supporters to cancel direct debits.

The membership portal was later replaced, but not before the dispute escalated into legal threats and accusations of a "sexist boys' club".

The pair have since reconciled.

The plan had been to transfer all the money and data from MoU to Your Party after it was registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September, then wind up the company.

But the money, believed to be around £800,000, has not yet been transferred.

Last week, the founding board of MoU, which included former Labour mayor of North of Tyne Combined Authority Jamie Driscoll, resigned en masse - making Sultana the sole director.

In a joint resignation statement, the three directors insisted they wanted to transfer the funds but Your Party officials had ignored questions about governance and legal liabilities.

Your Party officials have dismissed MoU's complaints as irrelevant and accused it of shifting the goalposts. Officials claimed they sent multiple proposals to move the funds, but were ignored by MoU.

A Your Party spokesman said "We are focused on delivering a successful founding conference for our members.

"While this task is made considerably harder by the continued retention of Your Party funds by MOU Operations Ltd, we will not allow anything or anyone to stop this party from going ahead.

"Working-class people need a party which stands up for them."

A spokesman for Sultana, Sultana, a co-director of Your Party, said: "Zarah is in the process of transferring all funds and data to Your Party, as she has already made clear publicly.

"Obviously, she has a duty to conduct essential due diligence as part of this process."

The row is the latest twist in a turbulent start for the party, which has attracted tens of thousands of members but been dogged by internal disputes over leadership and even the party's name.

Sultana has pushed for the party to be called The Left Party, while Corbyn hinted the name Your Party could stay.

Members will vote on the official name at a founding conference in Liverpool on 29 29 November.

Despite high-profile clashes, Sultana told the BBC the party was a "40-year project" aimed at "running" the government.

Sultana said she hopes to co-lead the new party with Corbyn, but will "throw her hat in the ring" if members opt for a single leader when the party constitution is agreed at conference.

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In February 1953, two men walked into a pub in Cambridge and announced they had found "the secret of life". It was not an idle boast.

One was James Watson, an American biologist from the Cavendish laboratory; the other was his British research partner, Francis Crick.

Their discovery - of the structure and function of deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA - ranks alongside those of Mendel and Darwin in its significance to modern science.

The full Promethean power of their achievement would slowly emerge over decades of research by fellow geneticists.

It also opened a Pandora's Box of controversial scientific and ethical issues - including human cloning, designer babies and "Frankenstein foods".

Demonstrating that DNA has a three-dimensional, double-helix shape allowed Watson and Crick to unlock the secrets of how cells worked; the means by which characteristics were passed down through generations.

"When we saw the answer we had to pinch ourselves," said Watson. "We realised it probably was true because it was so pretty."

The discovery won them a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962 and a permanent place in the historic ranks of great scientific thinkers.

It also guaranteed that, if they said something controversial, it made headline news.

And Watson had plenty to say, most notoriously speculating about a link between race and intelligence.

When he first suggested that black people are less intelligent, London's Science Museum cancelled a planned lecture - insisting Watson's views went "beyond the point of acceptable debate".

He suggested "when you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them". And he wondered aloud if beauty not only could - but should - be genetically encouraged.

Watson was heavily criticised for saying that women should have the right to abort her unborn child if tests proved it would be homosexual.

He argued he was simply in favour of choice, that it would be equally permissible to favour homosexual offspring and that it was simply natural to want grandchildren.

He alienated many in his own profession, calling many fellow academics "dinosaurs", "deadbeats", "fossils" and "has-beens" in his autobiography, Avoid Boring People.

In 2014, he became the first living recipient of the Nobel Prize to auction off his medal - in part to help fund future scientific discovery. A Russian tycoon bought it for $4.8m (£3m) and promptly gave it back to him.

Early life

James Dewey Watson was born in Chicago on 6 April 1928 to a family who believed in "books, birds and the Democratic Party".

He was the only son of Jean and James, who were descendants of English, Scottish and Irish settlers.

His political interest came from his mother who worked for the Democrats. The basement of their bungalow would be pressed into service as a polling station at election time.

His father's passions were science and bird-watching. Young Watson would accompany his father on birding trips. He learned that science was a discipline demanding careful observation from nature.

This left no place for faith. Brought up a Catholic by his mother, Watson described himself as an "escapee from that religion".

"The luckiest thing that ever happened to me was that my father did not believe in God," he said.

The Great Depression of the 1930s saw his father's salary suddenly cut in half and a dash to the bank to get their remaining savings out in time.

Watson slept in a tiny attic room shared with his younger sister, Betty.

He was a skinny teenager told to go to buy milkshakes to "fatten him up". He was socially awkward and expelled from school for poor grades - his work badly affected by a bout of scarlet fever.

"None of my classmates thought I would amount to much," he recalled.

He did not think of himself as a precocious intellect but he took up a scholarship at the University of Chicago at the tender age of 15.

He put it down to "my mother knowing the dean of admissions".

Intellectual flowering

University freed him from complicated social hierarchies of school life where popularity and physical stature were critical. It provided the environment where a brilliant but awkward teenager could thrive.

Watson thought of majoring in ornithology, the study of birds, but changed to genetics - influenced by Erwin Schrodinger's book What is Life?

He described the University of Chicago as an "idyllic academic institution" where he was "instilled with the capacity for critical thought and an ethical compulsion not to suffer fools who impeded his search for truth".

The prevailing scientific wisdom was that genes were proteins able to replicate themselves. The presence of DNA was dismissed as something "stupid" simply there to support the protein.

Watson became fascinated by the new technique of diffraction whereby X-rays were bounced off atoms to reveal their inner structures.

He became convinced that DNA had a structure of its own and was determined to find it. He thought the place to do that was England.

At Cambridge, he met Francis Crick, a physicist by training with "extraordinary conversational ability" and "the loudest laugh I have ever known".

They began constructing large-scale models of possible structures for DNA and trying to fit them to the available evidence. In one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time, not all of this evidence was their own.

Watson and Crick were in a race with another team at King's College London. Their rivals were Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin. They got on well with him and appallingly badly with her.

Rosalind Franklin

Wilkins corresponded with the Cambridge pair, sometimes exchanging his thoughts and insights.

But Franklin was different. She was the most experienced chemist and an expert in diffraction.

She, alongside her student Raymond Gosling, would take photographs of the patterns made by X-rays as they bounced off DNA molecules.

Watson and Crick found Franklin "hostile" and thought she jealously guarded her research and worked in isolation.

They were dismissive and sniped about her appearance, but Watson wasn't above taking a look at her work when Wilkins offered. Franklin was not asked for her permission.

The key evidence was Photo 51.

It shows a fuzzy pattern of X-rays that fascinated the Cambridge pair. They threw themselves into a frenzy of model building, testing each theory against the new information.

From this, they deduced that DNA must have a three-dimensional, double-helix structure - like a twisted ladder with rungs formed of alternating salt and phosphate groups.

Their key conclusions were that, if separated, each strand provided a template for creating the other and that the order of the "rungs" was a code.

If you can understand that code, they reasoned, you can unpick the wonders of life.

Nobel Prize

Wilkins wrote to his rivals to congratulate them on winning what had, at times, been a bitter race.

When he was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize for Medicine - alongside Watson and Crick - Franklin did not accompany them.

Her life was cut short by ovarian cancer at just 37.

According to the rules of the Nobel committee, only the living could be honoured. Her fans felt Franklin had been cheated twice.

Later Watson and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to Harvard. He became professor of biology and had two sons - one of whom suffered from schizophrenia.

Then he took over the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State - an ailing institution which he was credited with turning into one of the world's foremost scientific research institutes.

In 1968, his account of the race to discover the structure of DNA, The Double Helix, was published.

It is a painful examination of the story. It rakes over the personalities, controversies and bitterness from his point of view. He considered calling the book Honest Jim.

But for all Professor Watson's academic achievements, his later career was overshadowed by his controversial public statements.

In 1990, the journal Science wrote that "to many in the scientific community, Watson has long been something of a wild man, and his colleagues tend to hold their collective breath whenever he veers from the script".

At a conference in 2000, Watson proved it right.

He floated the idea that black people might have larger libidos than whites. His lecture argued that melanin, which gives skin its colour, boosted the sex drive.

"That's why you have Latin lovers," he told the delegates. "You never have an English lover, only an English patient."

He suggested that humanity might screen out the stupid people by genetic testing. Then he gave an interview that put the biggest dent in his reputation.

While promoting his autobiography, Watson spoke to the Sunday Times.

The piece quoted him as "gloomy about the prospect of Africa" because "our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really".

Watson went on to admit this "hot potato" was difficult to address and his hope was that everyone was equal.

However, he said, "People who have to deal with black employees find this not true".

He later apologised but his research institute stripped him of executive power and kicked him upstairs as chancellor emeritus.

James Watson spent the rest of his life continuing to raise money for medical research, often shamelessly reaching for the heart strings.

"Nothing attracts money like a quest for the cure to a terrible disease," he said.

He never stopped causing waves, warning that "Viagra is fighting evolution".

Men, he also argued, should store sperm in their teens to avoid an increased possibility of fathering children with developmental difficulties.

He repeated his views on the link between race and intelligence in a 2019 documentary, after which the scientific community revoked his remaining honorary positions.

He will be remembered as the "Godfather of DNA", the man who unravelled the secrets of life, and a world-class controversialist who often put his foot in his mouth.

An Algerian sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison has been arrested by police.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was arrested after being spotted by a member of the public in Islington, London just before 11:30 GMT on Friday.

He had been let out of HMP Wandsworth in south London on 29 October. Police said they were not told about the mistake until Tuesday 4 November.

He was convicted of indecent exposure in November 2024, relating to an incident in March of that year.

He was given an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.

The Metropolitan Police said he was spotted by a member of the public near Capital City College on Blackstock Road at 11:23.

Officers responded "immediately" and he was arrested at 11:30, the force added.

He was arrested for being unlawfully at large and on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in relation to a previous incident.

He is understood to have entered the UK legally on a visitor's visa in 2019, but overstayed that and was in the initial stages of the deportation process.

He was released the day after being found not guilty of breaching the sex offenders' register's requirements - but he was still facing other charges and should have remained in custody.

The prison officers' representatives said a clerical error meant there was no warrant from the court to hold him, and he was let go.

It followed a series of prosecutions and court appearances dating back two years.

Kaddour-Cherif was one of two men separately released by mistake from Wandsworth Prison in the past week.

William Smith handed himself back in on Thursday - after being let go on Monday, the same day he had been sentenced to prison.

Their releases came just weeks after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex in late October.

Kaddour-Cherif was found just a three minute walk from where Kebatu was re-arrested on 26 October.

In a statement after Friday's arrest, Justice Secretary David Lammy said: "We inherited a prison system in crisis and I'm appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing.

"I'm determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.

"That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons."

Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said Kaddour-Cherif was "just the tip of the iceberg".

He said "immediate action" was needed, "because the British people are being put at risk".

A former British soldier is facing extradition to Kenya in connection with the alleged murder of a 21-year-old woman there in 2012.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Robert James Purkiss was arrested in Tidworth, Wiltshire on 6 November and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

He was arrested by specialist officers from the NCA's National Extradition Unit in connection with the killing of Agnes Manjiru after a warrant was issued in September, the agency added.

Mr Purkiss, 38, told the court he intended to contest the extradition and was remanded into custody ahead of his next appearance at the same court on 14 November.

His lawyers told the court that he "vehemently denies" murder.

Ms Wanjiru's body was discovered in a septic tank near a hotel in the town of Nanyuki, about 124 miles (200km) north of Nairobi, three months after she had gone missing on 31 March 2012. She had a five-month-old baby at the time.

Her body was found near a British army training camp. On the night she was killed, she had reportedly been at a bar with friends where British soldiers were also present.

Ms Wanjiru's niece, Esther Njoki, met the UK's defence minister last month in order to push for Mr Purkiss's extradition.

In a statement issued through Leigh Day, the lawyers acting for Ms Wanjiru's family, on Friday Ms Njoki said: "My family is incredibly relieved to hear that the suspect in my aunt's case has been arrested.

"We have waited so many years for this moment which marks an important step towards finally obtaining justice for our beloved Agnes."

Leigh Day partner Tessa Gregory said: "This is a huge moment for our client and her family who have been fighting for over a decade to obtain justice for Agnes.

"We hope the UK and Kenyan authorities will now work together to ensure that the suspect can face trial in Kenya as quickly as possible."

Ms Wanjiru's family has long accused the British army of covering up her death and the Kenyan authorities of failing to properly investigate the case at the time.

An inquest into her death was opened in 2018 following pressure from Ms Wanjiru's family, as well as Kenyan rights groups and feminists.

In 2019, it concluded that Ms Wanjiru had been unlawfully killed by one or two British soldiers and that she had suffered stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Later in 2021, a Sunday Times investigation reported that a British soldier had confessed to colleagues that he killed Ms Wanjiru. The soldier left the army after the incident and reportedly continued to live in the UK.

In 2024, the army announced it was launching an internal review into the conduct of British soldiers in Kenya, including in Nanyuki.

It found 35 suspected cases of soldiers having engaged in sexual exploitation and abuse, including transactional sex, with local women - nine of these being after the army officially banned such conduct in 2022.

Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing party is in a stand-off over £800,000 raised by Zarah Sultana, who is meant to be founding the party with him.

The money was raised when Sultana launched an unauthorised membership scheme for people wanting to join the group currently operating the name Your Party.

Senior figures have accused her of withholding the funds despite publicly agreeing to transfer the money.

A spokesperson for Sultana said she "is in the process of transferring all funds and data" but was conducting "essential due diligence as part of this process".

But the delay has sparked anger among YourParty insiders, who say the funds are essential for its founding conference later this month. A source in the party said it would likely be "forced to reduce delegate numbers" at the event.

The problems stem from a schism in the party caused when Sultana launched a membership portal through its official email account, taking payment and data from an alleged 20,000 people.

The money was held by MoU, a company set up in April to hold donations for the fledgling movement.

Corbyn branded the emails "unauthorised" and urged supporters to cancel direct debits.

The membership portal was later replaced, but not before the dispute escalated into legal threats and accusations of a "sexist boys' club".

The pair have since reconciled.

The plan had been to transfer all the money and data from MoU to Your Party after it was registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September, then wind up the company.

But the money, believed to be around £800,000, has not yet been transferred.

Last week, the founding board of MoU, which included former Labour mayor of North of Tyne Combined Authority Jamie Driscoll, resigned en masse - making Sultana the sole director.

In a joint resignation statement, the three directors insisted they wanted to transfer the funds but Your Party officials had ignored questions about governance and legal liabilities.

Your Party officials have dismissed MoU's complaints as irrelevant and accused it of shifting the goalposts. Officials claimed they sent multiple proposals to move the funds, but were ignored by MoU.

A Your Party spokesman said "We are focused on delivering a successful founding conference for our members.

"While this task is made considerably harder by the continued retention of Your Party funds by MOU Operations Ltd, we will not allow anything or anyone to stop this party from going ahead.

"Working-class people need a party which stands up for them."

A spokesman for Sultana, Sultana, a co-director of Your Party, said: "Zarah is in the process of transferring all funds and data to Your Party, as she has already made clear publicly.

"Obviously, she has a duty to conduct essential due diligence as part of this process."

The row is the latest twist in a turbulent start for the party, which has attracted tens of thousands of members but been dogged by internal disputes over leadership and even the party's name.

Sultana has pushed for the party to be called The Left Party, while Corbyn hinted the name Your Party could stay.

Members will vote on the official name at a founding conference in Liverpool on 29 29 November.

Despite high-profile clashes, Sultana told the BBC the party was a "40-year project" aimed at "running" the government.

Sultana said she hopes to co-lead the new party with Corbyn, but will "throw her hat in the ring" if members opt for a single leader when the party constitution is agreed at conference.

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"Here we go again."

When Grand Theft Auto 6 was delayed on Thursday, the famous quote from the series perfectly captured the feelings of many video game fans.

Resignation, frustration, déjà vu.

It's the second time maker Rockstar Games has told players they'll have to wait even longer for what is likely to be one of the biggest entertainment releases ever.

The notoriously perfectionist developer has a history of holding on to its blockbusters until it's happy with them, so the news wasn't a complete surprise.

But it has got millions asking what's taking so long, and why.

A timeline

Rockstar Games officially confirmed it was working on GTA 6 in February 2022 and an initial trailer, released almost 18 months later, said it would come out in 2025.

It also revealed that the game features two protagonists - couple Jason and Lucia - and takes place in Leonida, a fictional US state based on Florida.

Rockstar later announced the game had been pushed back, providing an exact date of 26 May 2026.

This got fans excited, especially when some realised it was the date of Bonnie and Clyde's funeral.

The famous outlaw lovers are thought to have provided inspiration for GTA 6's lead characters, and the timing seemed too perfect to pass up.

But in the end, it was. The game has received another delay and a new release date of 19 November 2026.

What's taking so long?

Even Grand Theft Auto is not immune from factors that affect any company making a modern blockbuster video game.

Development has become more expensive, more complex, and the gap between big releases has been widening.

But there are some challenges unique to Rockstar.

The first is hype.

Both of GTA 6's trailers have smashed YouTube viewership records, and it regularly tops lists of the public's most-anticipated games.

Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive, has said that each new release from the developer needs to wow players.

Rockstar is known for breaking new ground with its games, and its last big release, the western adventure Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR 2), helped to bolster that reputation

It is still widely considered a benchmark for open-world video games due to its depth and obsessive attention to detail, despite coming out in 2018.

The studio's impressive track record is attributed to its famously high standards which, in turn, creates ever-higher expectations for its games.

Maintaining its rep is something Rockstar appears to take seriously - both RDR 2 and 2013's GTA 5 were delayed twice.

And when Mr Zelnick was quizzed on GTA 6's recent delay at a meeting with investors this week, he told them those working on the game were "seeking perfection".

A money-making machine

Another unique factor in Rockstar's case is the continued success of its existing library.

GTA 5 is the second best-selling game of all time, and continues to rack up sales 13 years after release.

It sold 730,000 copies in the UK alone last year, according to the Entertainment Retail Association, while RDR 2 sold 350,000 copies in the same period.

That put both games in 2024's top ten for video game sales.

And then there's GTA Online, the wildly successful multiplayer mode that continues to rank among the world's most-played games every month.

It's been credited with bringing in a big chunk of the $8.9bn (£6.7bn) the series has reportedly made since the release of GTA 5.

Its sequel is expected to be one of the most expensive video games of all time, but Rockstar is still making money from its older titles.

However, Take Two said this week that it had seen an expected decline in GTA Online's numbers.

Experts have previously told BBC Newsbeat that the true success of GTA 6 will be measured by how well it manages to lure current players over to its own online mode.

Will GTA 6 get delayed again?

Where GTA is concerned, there are no guarantees.

Rockstar has previously been accused of forcing employees into "crunch", or mandatory overtime, in order to hit release dates and deadlines.

The practice, which has been employed by other big game developers, has been heavily criticised for keeping workers away from their families and driving them to exhaustion.

Rockstar said at the time no-one was forced to work extra hours but it was always looking at methods to improve the ways it worked.

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who published in-depth reports on RDR 2's development, said there appears to be a "real desire" from studio management to avoid crunch on GTA 6.

Earlier this week, 30 employees who were sacked by Rockstar accused it of trying to prevent them from unionising.

The company denied this and accused the workers of committing gross misconduct by sharing confidential information - something the IWGB Game Workers' union has rejected.

It is unlikely that the sackings are directly related to the recent delay, but the loss of experienced staff could have an impact on the game's development.

For now, most fans seem happy to wait a little longer for what many of them expect to be the "game of the century".

Whether their patience will pay off, or be wasted, is in the hands of Rockstar.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

European Union naval forces have rescued 24 sailors from a Maltese-flagged oil tanker that was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

The Hellas Aphrodite, carrying petrol from India to South Africa, was seized on Thursday when armed pirates opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades before boarding the vessel.

The crew locked themselves inside a fortified citadel while the attackers took control of the ship.

A Spanish warship, the ESPS Victoria, operating under the EU's anti-piracy mission Operation Atalanta, reached the tanker on Friday afternoon. Special forces boarded the vessel and found all 24 crew members unharmed.

"The crew is safe and no injuries have been reported. Throughout the incident, they remained in the citadel in direct contact with Atalanta," the EU mission said, adding that a "show of force" had prompted the pirates to abandon the ship before the warship arrived.

It added that the threat risk in the area "remains critical" as the pirates are still in the area.

The rescue operation involved a helicopter, drone and surveillance aircraft. Just hours earlier, another ship in the same area was approached by a small speedboat but managed to evade it.

It is the latest in a spate of attacks that have created concern about a resurgence of piracy in the area.

Such activity had declined when international naval patrols and security measures were introduced after peaking more than a decade ago.

However, attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, which have been carried out for the past two years, have led vessels to be diverted through East Africa's Indian Ocean - creating new opportunities for Somali gangs.

There were seven reported incidents of piracy that took place off the coast of Somalia last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau - including three hijackings. It reported only one incident of piracy in 2023.

Kim Kardashian has poked fun at critics who savaged her new legal TV drama by posting screen shots of fans deciding to tune in after seeing the terrible reviews.

She plays a divorce lawyer in Disney+ series All's Fair, which was described as "so awful, it feels almost contemptuous" by the Guardian, while the Times declared that it "may be the worst TV drama ever".

She asked her 354 million Instagram followers: "Have you tuned in to the most critically acclaimed show of the year!?!?!? All's Fair streaming now."

The show is currently scoring just 5% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, although it also has a more respectable 66% score from audiences.

'Torn apart'

Kardashian's shared a selection of fans' posts about the show, including one joking about critics realising "their reviews of All's Fair ended up making peple watch and love the show".

The series co-stars Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Niecy Nash and Teyana Taylor.

Another fan comment, highlighting the line-up, said All's Fair "dares to ask the question 'does a show need to be good?' and the answer is no, it doesn't".

The comment added: "We have legendary actresses here giving the worst performances of their careers, it takes a special kind of talent to pull that inability of them. Amazeballs."

• Kim Kardashian tells BBC about leading role in new Disney+ show
• Is All's Fair really the 'worst TV drama ever'?

This is Kardashian's second foray into acting after her casting in 2023's 12th season of American Horror Story, in which she appeared as a publicist, receiving mostly positive reviews.

All's Fair reunites the star with American Horror Story showrunner Ryan Murphy, who was also behind hit series such as Glee and Pose.

The Huffington Post said the show was "torn apart" by critics, with some giving it zero out of five. Its writer Daniel Welsh said: "The glossy sheen of the show and its stacked cast might make you think it's verging on 'so bad it's good' territory, but it's really just a boring dud."

Other critics include Alison Herman, writing in Variety that it is a "clumsy, condescending take on rah-rah girlboss feminism", while the Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han called Kardashian an "appropriately wooden lead for Ryan Murphy's empty, unforgivably dull drama".

But undeterred, the reality star and businesswoman shared fan reactions including one who said they "immediately pressed play" after seeing a post saying the show had debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a paltry 0%.

She also included a BBC News Instagram post quoting the Daily Telegraph's Ed Power, who wrote: "Ryan Murphy is the high priest of tacky tasteless television, and this year he has outdone himself."

Another fan said: "Some of the worst acting I've ever seen in my life alongside the most predictable storylines and the most ridulous styling. I'm obsessed. I need 14 seasons."

Kardashian ended her post with what is arguably the last laugh.

She shared a screenshot from Disney Hulu, stating that the show is curently the most watched title on Disney+ around the world, ranking first in 28 countries including the US.

For years, Julia Wandelt bombarded Madeleine McCann's parents and siblings with phone calls and messages on WhatsApp and Instagram.

She even turned up on the family's doorstep, posting a letter through their door beginning "Dear Mum".

Wandelt believed she could be Kate and Gerry McCann's missing daughter and spent more than two years trying to gather evidence to reinforce this idea.

DNA tests have proved she is not Madeleine, the three-year-old who disappeared while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

Wandelt has now been found guilty of harassing the McCann family but not guilty of stalking. Her co-accused Karen Spragg - who the prosecution called a conspiracy theorist - was cleared.

Wandelt's actions, the trial at Leicester Crown Court heard, were cruel and unforgiving.

Wandelt, the court heard, began "telling anyone who would listen" she was Madeleine McCann in June 2022.

She claimed she had been abducted and transported to Poland. She amassed a number of supporters on social media, would go on to contact 23 different organisations in the UK, Poland, and Portugal, including police and Interpol, missing persons charities and the Find Madeleine website.

Wandelt then began to investigate ways of contacting the McCann family, the trial heard.

She rang the switchboard of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust claiming to be Madeleine and asked to be put through to Glenfield Hospital, where Mr and Mrs McCann worked.

In a call lasting several minutes, she ended up speaking to the trust's communications manager - telling her she thought she was Madeleine.

The contents of the call were passed on to Operation Grange.

In January 2023, Wandelt got in touch with a Polish charity that helps with historical missing persons cases.

She first said she was a missing German girl, called Inga Gehricke, then Acacia Bishop - a baby from Utah in the US - and finally that she was Madeleine.

By now, media attention began to garner around Wandelt's claims on social media. The court heard Fia Johansson, an American woman, contacted Wandelt in February 2023 after she went public with her claims.

Jurors heard the pair had a WhatsApp phone call before they both flew out to Los Angeles.

Wandelt said Miss Johansson organised interviews for her and she ended up appearing on the Dr Phil show, hosted by Phil McGraw - one of the top chat show hosts in the US - in March 2023. She was unpaid from this appearance.

Wandelt later contacted Mr McCann after finding his work email in June 2023. One email read: "I could be your daughter, it's possible I'm her."

Wandelt then turned her attention to Madeleine's sister Amelie, who was at university, messaging her dozens of times on Instagram.

She told Amelie she had memories of them playing in the McCanns' garden and that she was her "only hope".

"Please don't block me, I never lied about anything," she said in another message.

The contact with Madeleine's sister ended at the start of January 2024, when Wandelt again began targeting Madeleine's mother.

Mr Duck KC, for the prosecution, said Wandelt obtained Mrs McCann's phone number in April 2024 from Portuguese police files published online.

The court heard she contacted Mrs McCann on 60 occasions but did not receive a response. In one message, Wandelt asked her to take a DNA test.

In a voicemail, Wandelt said: "I don't want any money, I just want to talk to you... don't give up on your daughter... call me, please."

The prosecution said Wandelt had been "rebuffed on many hundreds of occasions".

Mrs McCann reported Wandelt to officers working within the Operation Grange investigation. But she did not stop.

In May 2024, Wandelt decided to travel from Poland to the village of Rothley, in Leicestershire, to attend a vigil in an attempt to meet the McCann family. Until this point, her attempts to contact the family had been via phone or social media.

The court heard the McCanns were not present for the vigil, but Wandelt approached the village priest and Mrs McCann's aunt and handed a letter to them.

But before returning to Poland, Wandelt visited Charing Cross police station in London and told officers she was Madeleine.

A DNA sample was taken as a precaution, but it was destroyed after an officer made contact with Operation Grange and discovered that there was no prospect of Wandelt being who she claimed to be.

An officer from the investigation was instead sent to speak to her and contacted Wandelt the following month, telling her she risked being arrested. She told the officer she would not give up.

The court heard Mrs Spragg reached out to Wandelt after she saw her appear on a YouTube broadcast in September 2024.

The prosecution said Mrs Spragg was a "forthright supporter of the conspiracy theory" that Madeleine's parents were responsible for her disappearance despite "unequivocal evidence to the contrary".

'Causing distress'

Messages between the pair in November 2024 show Wandelt asking about getting DNA from the McCanns. Mrs Spragg replies to say the pair should "go through their bins".

It was from this contact that Wandelt arranged to meet Mrs Spragg in person.

Wandelt flew into East Midlands Airport and the pair travelled to Birstall, where they checked into a hotel.

They then travelled to Rothley where they waited in Mrs Spragg's car with the lights out.

The trial heard Mrs McCann was confronted by Wandelt with a demand for a DNA test. She told the pair "they were causing distress and should leave the property".

As Mrs McCann tried to get into her home, Wandelt "attempted to stop her closing the door".

A letter from Wandelt, beginning "Dear Mum", was posted through the McCanns' front door the next day.

Following a failed attempt to contact Mrs McCann again via WhatsApp, the prosecution said the defendants continued to make plans for Wandelt to return to the UK.

The two women were finally arrested at Bristol Airport on 19 February 2025.

Wandelt was detained after getting off a flight, while Mrs Spragg had been waiting in a car park nearby and was arrested after sending anxious messages inquiring about the whereabouts of her co-accused.

Wandelt denied any intention to harm the McCanns.

Results of the DNA test - taken by Wandelt after she was arrested at Bristol Airport in February - "conclusively proved" she is not Madeleine.

Jurors were told police contacted the defendant about the DNA test on 1 April. Wandelt said she felt this was "disrespectful" as it was April Fool's Day, knowing how long she had been waiting.

Mr Duck KC told the jury Wandelt was "capable of being incredibly manipulative". He said her actions towards the McCanns had been "cruel and unforgiving".

Wandelt, 24, of Lubin, Poland, who has been remanded in custody since February, was sentenced to six months in prison.

Due to her time on remand, she will leave prison but was given a restraining order against the McCann family. Her phones will be forfeited and destroyed as part of her restraining order.

The court was also told Wandelt is likely to be deported following the conclusion of her trial.

Mrs Spragg was acquitted, though the judge Mrs Justice Cutts, also granted a restraining order against her, which bans her from contacting the McCanns for five years.

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