David Norris, who murdered Stephen Lawrence, has been denied parole, the BBC understands.

He sought release during a parole hearing in October, having been jailed in 2012.

Stephen, 18, was stabbed to death in a racist attack in south London in 1993.

Only two of his killers have been convicted, with police always saying six people were involved.

At the parole hearing, Norris admitted he was part of the attack but refused to name the other killers. He had previously denied involvement.

Norris gave evidence via a video link from prison during the public hearing, in which he was bidding for release on licence.

Stephen's mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, said at the hearing that Norris remained a danger to the public and must remain in prison. The justice secretary also opposed Norris's release.

The hearing took place 13 years after Norris was jailed for life, with a minimum sentence of 14 years and three months.

Stephen was stabbed by a gang as he waited at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London.

Witness evidence in the case records that an extreme racist slur was used towards Stephen just before the gang attacked.

In his evidence to the parole hearing, Norris said he was the last person to punch Stephen. He had tried to hit him two or three times and one of his punches connected.

For decades Norris publicly denied involvement in the murder, giving no-comment interviews to police, and claiming he was innocent during his trial.

However, the hearing heard confirmation that he had admitted involvement since being in prison, but denies stabbing Stephen or using a knife.

It also heard Norris continued to use racist language in prison, with him having been recorded in 2022 using the same racial slur that was hurled at Stephen before he was stabbed.

In a prepared statement that Norris read out, he apologised to the Lawrence family and wider black and ethnic community for the "fear" and "horror" his role in the attack had caused.

In a statement read on her behalf at the hearing, Baroness Lawrence said Norris had "killed my son in the most brutal and callous fashion. In doing so he changed my life and life of my family members forever".

She said she could not forgive Norris because he has not "expressed any acceptance, any contrition and certainly has no humanity".

Stephen's father previously told the BBC that Norris should name the other killers before he could be judged to be safe for release from prison.

People needing urgent dental treatment and patients requiring complex care will be prioritised under government plans to improve access to NHS dentists in England.

The proposals could mean a saving of £225 for patients requiring numerous appointments for complicated treatments.

For years, many patients have found it increasingly hard to find a dentist, with some towns in England referred to as "dental deserts", with no access to NHS dentists at all.

The British Dental Association (BDA) said that without more funding and real reform, the plans wouldn't solve current issues.

Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme, health minister Stephen Kinnock said the plans were intended to "prioritise" urgent care.

He said there was "a lot of unnecessary routine care going on" in NHS dentistry services at the moment.

If a patient has "good oral health" he said they don't need to see a dentist "more than about once every two years".

He said the current practice of most patients being offered NHS check-ups every six months was "not the right use" of dentists' time, and added that it was "sucking up a lot of money in NHS dentistry".

Under the current system, which dates back to 2006, dentists are paid for what are called Units of Dental Activity, known as UDAs.

Different procedures - fillings, extractions and more complicated work - are assigned a different number of UDAs.

Dentists who provide NHS care have a contract that says how many UDAs they will carry out each year and are paid accordingly.

But this has meant that more money was available to dentists for carrying out simple check-ups, rather than spending longer with patients who needed more complex, time-consuming care.

For years dentists have been complaining that the contract for NHS work fails to cover the costs of what they're being asked to carry out.

As a result many dentists have been walking away from NHS work – meaning it's increasingly hard for people to access care. There are parts of the country where there is simply no access to NHS dentistry.

'Chronic underfunding'

Under the government plans, there would be new incentives for dentists to offer longer-term treatments for major issues such as gum disease and tooth decay through the NHS.

Currently, a patient with tooth decay in several teeth or severe gum disease - both of which require complex treatment - would need to be treated over multiple appointments, which is costly and time consuming.

But under proposed changes to the dental contract for NHS work, dental practices would be able to offer patients a single comprehensive package of treatment over a longer period, tailored to their needs.

And ministers argue that this could save a patient up to £225 in fees.

Shiv Pabary, chair of the BDA's General Dental Practice Committee said "a dental crisis" had come about directly as a result of the contract put in place in 2006.

"The reforms announced today are trying to tweak a system that's broken."

He added that until the "chronic underfunding" and wider systemic problems were addressed, NHS dentistry would continue to fail to work for "dentists and for patients".

"To try and deliver comprehensive care within the same budget that we have at the moment is going to be hugely challenging."

Mr Kinnock said the government had a "massive issue to fix" in dental care and was negotiating with the BDA on a "radical overhaul" of the NHS dentistry contract.

The government has formally begun the process which will decide the future of the BBC.

It has published a consultation document - or green paper - laying out plans to future-proof the BBC, put it on a sustainable financial footing and bolster trust.

This begins the renewal of the BBC charter - the corporation's rulebook and licence to exist - which expires in 2027.

The culture secretary Lisa Nandy said: "The BBC is fundamental to the health of our nation and we want to make sure that we put it on a firm footing for decades to come.

"We're asking everybody to get involved and play their part in helping to shape its future."

Outgoing BBC director general Tim Davie said in a statement: "We welcome the publication of the government's green paper and the start of the public consultation on the future of the BBC. We urge everyone who cares about the success of the UK's world-leading creative industries to have their say.

"At the BBC, we want change, so we can continue to deliver for the UK for generations to come. We want to secure a public service BBC that is independent, sustainably funded for the long term, and meets our audience's needs."

Former BBC controller of editorial policy, Richard Ayre, described the consultation as "the most encouraging start of a charter process in decades, with the government apparently committed to giving the BBC a sustained and financially sustainable future".

The licence fee brought in £3.8 billion last year. Other funding streams - advertising, subscription and fee reform, including charging wealthier people more - are on the table for now, although many media commentators expect the licence fee to remain, with some changes.

Nandy said: "We're keeping all options open. The only option for funding the BBC that we've ruled out is general taxation and that is because it is essential that the BBC can hold governments of any persuasion to account, including ours, without fear or favour and without being heavily reliant on direct funding from government."

She described the BBC as "an institution that matters deeply to the democratic process in this country and to the health of our nation" and said it "has to have sustainable funding in order to thrive".

But she also acknowledged recent issues at the corporation: "There have been serious concerns about developments at the BBC, including editorial standards and about political interference.

"These aren't new challenges for the BBC. Throughout its history it's had to navigate them, but we believe that through this charter we can strengthen the amount of accountability within the BBC."

Former BBC director general Tony Hall suggested there should be careful consideration of a household tax charged in line with council tax bands.

The government rejects that model. It does, however, accept that public funding of the BBC will remain in some form and Lord Hall suggests an independent body, like a pay review body, to "take the politics out of the licence fee debate".

"Give them the task every three years of reviewing whether the money the BBC has got matches our ambitions for the BBC," he said.

He agrees the licence fee needs to be reformed and made "fairer".

The Reform party wants to scrap the licence fee altogether, while Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, threatened to withdraw support for it earlier this year.

The Liberal Democrats are supportive of the licence fee up until 2027. The Green Party did not specifically mention the BBC in its 2024 manifesto.

There will be a 12-week public consultation and the government is seeking views on how to ensure the BBC commands the public's trust, is accountable to audiences and fully represents communities.

This includes potentially giving the corporation new responsibilities to counter misinformation and disinformation, updating the BBC's mission to put accuracy on the same footing as impartiality and strengthening the BBC's independence, including examining political appointments to the BBC's board.

Labour MPs raised concerns around this issue in Parliament after the recent BBC controversy over the misleading edit of a Donald Trump speech on a Panorama prompted the resignations of the BBC director general and the CEO of News.

Trump is now suing the BBC for defamation over the edit.

Lord Hall told BBC News: "I think trying to take the politics as much as possible out of the organisation would be good. That means really looking carefully at appointments. I don't think there should be any political appointments to the board."

Others argue these appointments (there are five government-appointees on the BBC board including the chairman) ensure accountability and help challenge groupthink.

The BBC has faced a series of controversies in recent months for which it has had to apologise.

These include a documentary about children in Gaza that had to be taken down from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the child narrator was the son of a Hamas official and the failure immediately to remove the punk duo Bob Vylan's set from a Glastonbury live stream after offensive comments were made on stage.

Nandy termed the Labour government "unashamedly supporters of the BBC as an institution, even as we've had serious frustrations with some of the decisions and failings that have taken place at the BBC in recent months".

She said the review of the charter was the chance "to make sure that it can not just survive, but thrive. It's an institution that belongs to us all. If it didn't exist, we would have to invent it".

The consultation will also look at how to devolve more commissioning to the regions and whether there should be a new obligation on the BBC to drive economic growth, build skills and support the UK economy.

The BBC is the only organisation operating under a royal charter with an expiry date. In a speech in November 2024, the BBC chairman Samir Shah said "there are more than 1,000 charter bodies, and I am not aware of any other that needs to be renewed like the BBC".

He asked: "Should we consider the BBC also having a permanent charter like the others?"

The government appears to be consulting on this, with some suggesting the threat of a future Reform government is focusing minds on the uncertainty renewal every decade creates and whether it allows too much political interference.

Ayre said: "It's interesting that the government chooses the word 'future-proof' for the BBC. Can that really mean that they're considering not a 10-year charter, which is the norm, but a sort of self-sustaining charter which will see the BBC continuing in its key position as the national broadcaster for what the government calls decades to come?

"Of course future governments can always try to undo that, but actually a royal charter, it's quite difficult to undo because technically it is the will of the monarch rather than of the government of the day".

Hall said "the great thing about the charter review this time is that I believe the government wants to secure the BBC's future for the long term. It could be a great legacy."

Next year, following the consultation, the government will publish its own vision for the BBC.

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The New South Wales (NSW) premier has strongly rejected criticism of the police response to the attack on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, saying officers acted with "bravery and integrity".

Some witnesses have suggested police were too slow to disarm the two gunmen, who killed 15 people and injured dozens at an event celebrating Hanukkah at Australia's best known beach.

"There are two officers in critical care... at the moment," Chris Minns said after sustained questioning from reporters. "They weren't shot in the back as they were running away. They were shot in the front."

There have also been questions about whether adequate security was provided before the shooting took place.

"They shoot, shoot, change magazine and just shoot," one witness, Shmulik Scuri, told reporters the day of the assault, adding he thought officers "froze".

Asked about these criticisms, Minns said the "rush to conclusions" about the police operation was "disrespectful".

"They didn't take a backward step. They engaged the gunmen on the footbridge with handguns. The offenders had long range rifles," Minns said.

"If there's any suggestion that NSW Police didn't live up to their responsibilities to the people of this state, it should be rejected because it's not consistent with the facts."

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon avoided questions about how many officers had been deployed to police the event in advance. He told reporters police "regularly patrol that area as we did on that day" and that police presence was based "on the threat that exists at the time".

Australia's security agency has said the younger alleged gunman in the father-son duo, Naveed Akram, had come to their attention in 2019 due to his associations, but that there was nothing to suggest he was a risk of violence.

"Had there been intelligence that there was a particular threat at that location, or to that event, we may have had a different policing response," Commissioner Lanyon said.

NSW Police established Operation Shelter after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel to investigate antisemitic hate crimes. As part of the operation, regular patrols are conducted of high-risk locations. The eastern suburbs of Sydney, including Bondi, which has a significant Jewish population, is a key focus.

Another taskforce, Strike Force Pearl, was set up later to investigate hate crimes in Sydney.

Police received reports of gunfire at a park in Bondi Beach at 18:47 (07:47 GMT) on Sunday. The gunmen carried out a shooting spree that lasted around ten minutes before police shot both men, killing one and critically injuring the other.

Dr Vincent Hurley, a former police officer who lectures on policing at Macquarie University, told the BBC it was "unrealistic" to expect police to be able to know how to react to every possible scenario.

"To respond to a mass shooting and mass killing event like that, there's no training that can be done."

He pointed out that police officers would have initially been reliant on calls to emergency operators "and everyone would have given them a different story".

"Then they have to fight through traffic at Bondi Beach which is a nightmare at the best of times."

At the scene, police would have been confronted with "absolute chaos" as thousands of people attempted to flee.

Individual officers would also have been faced with difficult choices such as whether to stop and render assistance to injured individuals or to go and look for the gunmen, decisions for which there is no protocol.

And even once the offenders had been identified, he says the risk of hurting bystanders in the crossfire would have complicated responses.

"There would be no way as a police officer, I would have drawn my firearm because all of the innocent individuals", he added. "It's not what you see on Netflix."

At least 15 civilians have been confirmed dead in Sunday's shooting attack at Bondi beach.

Many were attending an event to mark the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Authorities have confirmed that two rabbis, a Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims.

This is what we know about those identified so far:

Matilda, 10

Authorities confirmed that a 10-year-old girl, named by her family to local media as Matilda, was among the dead.

Irina Goodhew, who organised a fundraiser for the girl's mother and said she was the child's former teacher, wrote: " I knew her as a bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to everyone around her.'

The Harmony Russian School of Sydney also confirmed that she was one of its students.

"We are deeply saddened to share the news that a former student of our school has passed away in the hospital due to injuries sustained from a gunshot," the school wrote on Facebook.

"Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to her family, friends, and everyone affected by this tragic event … Her memory will remain in our hearts, and we honor her life and the time she spent as part of our school family."

Meanwhile her aunt spoke to ABC news and said that Matilda's sister, who was with her when she was shot, was struggling to come to terms with the loss.

"They were like twins — they've never been separated," she told the ABC.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger

Known as the "Bondi Rabbi", Eli Schlanger, 41, was one of the key organisers of Sunday's event. He was head of the local Chabad mission, an international Hasidic Jewish organisation based in Brooklyn.

The death of the British-born father of five was confirmed by his cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis.

"My dear cousin, Rabbi Eli Schlanger @bondirabbi was murdered in today's terrorist attack in Sydney," Zalman wrote on Instagram. "He leaves behind his wife & young children, as well as my uncle & aunt & siblings … He was truly an incredible guy".

In a post on its website, Chabad said Schlanger's youngest child was just two months old.

"He was the most godly, humane, kind, gracious human being I think I've ever met," Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry, told reporters at Bondi on Monday morning.

Dan Elkayam

The death of French national Dan Elkayam was confirmed by Frances's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

"It's with immense sadness that we have learnt that our compatriot Dan Elkayam was among the victims of the terrorist attack that hit Jewish families gathered on the beach at Bondi in Sydney," he wrote on social media. "We mourn with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and the Australian people."

According to his LinkedIn profile, Elkayam worked as an IT analyst for NBCUniversal and had moved to Australia last year.

He was also a keen footballer, and "an integral member" of our premier league squad, the Rockdale Ilindin Football Club in west Sydney wrote on its Facebook page.

He was "an extremely talented and popular figure amongst team mates. Our deepest and sincerest condolances to Dan's family, friends and all that knew him. He will be missed," the club wrote.

Alexander Kleytman

Alexander Kleytman was a holocaust survivor who came to Australia from Ukraine.

"I have no husband. I don't know where is his body. Nobody can give me any answer," his wife Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside a Sydney hospital late on Sunday.

"We were standing and suddenly came the 'boom boom', and everybody fell down. At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me," she told the Australian.

Chabad wrote on X that Alexander "died shielding her from the gunman's bullets. In addition to his wife, he leaves behind two children and 11 grandchildren."

The couple shared some of their life story with Jewish Care in 2023.

"As children, both Larisa and Alexander faced the unspeakable terror of the Holocaust," the health organisation wrote in its annual report.

"Alex's memories are particularly harrowing; recalling the dreadful conditions in Siberia where he, along with his mother and younger brother, struggled for survival."

Peter Meagher

Former police officer Peter Meagher was working as a freelance photographer at the Hanukkah event when he was killed, his rugby club confirmed.

"For him it was simply a catastrophic case of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time," Mark Harrison, the general manager of Randwick Rugby Club, wrote on its website.

"'Marzo, as he was universally known, was a much loved figure and absolute legend in our club, with decades of voluntary involvement, he was one of the heart and soul figures of Randwick Rugby."

The club said he had spent almost four decades in the NSW Police Force where he was "hugely respected by colleagues".

"The tragic irony is that he spent so long in the dangerous front line as a Police Officer and was struck down in retirement while taking photos in his passion role is really hard to comprehend," the club said.

Reuven Morrison

Reuven Morrison migrated to Australia from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s as a teenager, according to an interview he gave to the ABC exactly a year ago.

"We came here with the view that Australia is the safest country in the world and the Jews would not be faced with such anti-Semitism in the future, where we can bring up our kids in a safe environment," he told the national broadcaster.

Confirming his death, Chabad said that he was a longtime resident of Melbourne, but that he "discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney".

"A successful businessman whose main goal was to give away his earnings to charities dear to his heart, notably Chabad of Bondi," the organisation wrote on X.

Australia's Prime Minister has visited Bondi hero Ahmed al Ahmed in hospital, after the bystander tried to disarm one of the gunmen in the nation's deadliest gun attack since 1996.

"Your heart is strong", PM Anthony Albanese told the father-of-two, later calling him "the best of our country".

The fruit shop owner, who was born and raised in Syria, was shot several times in the shoulder after tackling one of the alleged gunmen. Albanese said Mr Ahmed would "undergo further surgery" on Wednesday.

At least 15 people have been confirmed dead after Sunday's attack in Sydney during an event to mark the first night of Hanukkah.

Police have declared the attack as a terrorist incident targeting the Jewish community.

"He was trying to get a cup of coffee and found himself at a moment where people were being shot in front of him," Albanese said after the bedside visit.

"He decided to take action, and his bravery is an inspiration for all Australians. He is a very humble man."

"At a moment where we have seen evil perpetrated, he shines out as an example of the strength of humanity," the prime minister added.

"We are a brave country. Ahmed al Ahmed represents the best of our country."

He later added: "Ahmed, you are an Australian hero."

There has been nationwide support for the 43-year-old including from US President Donald Trump who commended his courage, and a US billionaire who donated $99,999 (US$ 65,000; £49,000) to Mr Ahmed, calling him a "brave hero".

In the footage, Mr Ahmed is seen hiding behind a parked car before he leaps out.

He runs at the alleged gunman and seizes his weapon, before turning the gun round on him. The suspected attacker then begins to retreat.

Mr Ahmed then lowers the weapon and raises one hand in the air, appearing to show police he was not one of the attackers.

Mr Ahmed's father previously told the BBC that his son was driven to act by his "sentiment, conscience and humanity".

He "saw the victims, the blood, women and children lying on the street, and then acted".

A couple killed in the Bondi Beach shooting tried to stop one of the alleged attackers by grabbing his gun, dramatic dashcam footage shows.

Boris Gurman, 69, and his wife Sofia, 61, courageously stepped in to try and protect others before being shot themselves, their family said in a statement.

Video of the incident shows Mr Gurman, who was retired, wrestling with one of the alleged gunmen and taking the weapon off him, before they both fall onto the road.

Mr Gurman then gets up and appears to hit the suspected attacker with the gun. The attacker is then thought to have got another gun which he used to kill them.

"While nothing can lessen the pain of losing Boris and Sofia, we feel an overwhelming sense of pride in their bravery and selflessness," the family said.

"This encapsulates who Boris and Sofia were - people who instinctively and selflessly tried to help others."

The Gurman couple, who were Jewish, were the first two people killed in Sunday's attack, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

At least 15 people have been confirmed dead in the shooting, which happened during an event to mark the first day of Hanukkah.

In their statement, the family said the couple had been married for 34 years.

"We are heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Boris and Sofia Gurman.

"Boris was a retired mechanic, known for his generosity, quiet strength and willingness to lend a hand to anyone in need.

"Sofia worked at Australia Post and was deeply loved by her colleagues and community.

"Bondi locals, together they lived honest, hardworking lives and treated everyone they met with kindness, warmth and respect. Boris and Sofia were devoted to their family and to each other. They were the heart of our family, and their absence has left an immeasurable void."

Witnesses have described Mr Gurman as a "hero".

The woman who owns the dashcam footage told Reuters that Mr Gurman "did not run away - instead, he charged straight toward the danger, using all his strength trying to wrestle away the gun and fighting to the death".

"I can see from my camera that the elderly man was ultimately shot and collapsed. That moment broke my heart," she said.

Another person who said they witnessed the incident told 9News: "He was a hero. He tried, he tried. We need to let his family know.

"Everyone needs to know what he tried, because it was right in the beginning. And he put himself in that face of danger. There were bullets flying already, and he put his self in the face of danger."

Police have described the attack as a terrorist incident targeting the Jewish community.

The other victims killed include a 10-year-old girl, a British-born rabbi, a retired police officer, and a Holocaust survivor.

The ages of the victims range from 10 to 87.

A further 22 people remain in hospital, nine of whom are in a critical condition.

Another bystander named Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, was also hailed a "hero" after he wrestled a gun from one of the attackers. He was shot multiple times and has since undergone surgery for his wounds.

Earlier this week, his father told BBC Arabic his son "saw the victims, the blood, women and children lying on the street, and then acted".

"Ahmed was driven by his sentiment, conscience and humanity," he said.

US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.

Trump has requested billions of dollars in damages, according to court documents filed in Florida.

The BBC apologised to Trump in November, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any "basis for a defamation claim".

Trump's legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech". The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit being filed.

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

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

US President Donald Trump has repeated his criticism of Rob Reiner - after his earlier remarks about the killed Hollywood director, a longtime Trump critic, sparked widespread condemnation.

The US president told reporters the director was "very bad for our country", having earlier written on Truth Social that Reiner's death was linked to "Trump derangement syndrome" - a term he often uses to describe his critics.

Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were found dead at their Los Angeles home on Sunday, and police have arrested their son Nick on suspicion of murder.

They have not suggested any motive in the case, or any evidence that Reiner's politics and criticism of Trump played any role.

In his social media post, which called the couple's deaths "very sad", Trump criticised Reiner, saying: "He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump."

Those comments were widely criticised, including by prominent Republicans.

Kentucky representative Thomas Massie, a Republican who has clashed with Trump since the president returned to the White House in January, wrote on X: "Regardless of how you felt about Rob Reiner, this is inappropriate and disrespectful discourse about a man who was just brutally murdered."

He added: "I guess my elected GOP colleagues, the VP, and White House staff will just ignore it because they're afraid? I challenge anyone to defend it."

Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who was once a staunch supporter of Trump before recently becoming a frequent critic, said that "this is a family tragedy, not about politics or political enemies" and that the murders should be "met with empathy".

Multiple other senior members of Trump's party appeared to distance themselves from the remarks. Senator John Kennedy, a Republican representing Louisiana, said he thought Trump should not have made the comments.

"I think a wise man once said nothing. Why? Because he was a wise man," Kennedy said. "I think President Trump should have said nothing. I think when the president says these sorts of things, it detracts from his policy achievements."

Reiner was a lifelong Democrat and prominent liberal activist, and frequently spoke out against Trump.

In 2017, for example, he called Trump "mentally unfit" for office. And as recently as October, Reiner said he believed Trump was ushering in an age of "full-on autocracy" in the US.

Hours after his social media post, Trump repeated his thoughts on Reiner in comments given in the Oval Office to reporters, describing the director as a "deranged person" who was partly "behind" previous claims of collusion between Russia and Trump's team.

"I was not a fan of Rob Reiner at all, in any way, shape or form," he said.

Trump has in the past criticised political foes after their death.

Following the death of Arizona Senator John McCain - with whom he clashed regularly - in 2019, for example, Trump said he "was never a fan" and "never will be".

In another incident the same year, Trump quipped that the late Democratic lawmaker John Dingell could be "looking up" at him from the grave, a comment which was widely interpreted as a suggestion that Dingell was in hell.

In a statement following the remarks about Dingell, the White House said that the president was "just riffing".

Reiner, who was 78, was known for directing several iconic films in a variety of genres, including This is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, Misery and A Few Good Men.

He married Michele, an actress, photographer and producer, in 1989, later recalling that they met during the making of one of his best-known films, When Harry Met Sally. The couple had three children together - including Nick, 32.

Michele, 68, owned the Reiner Light photography agency and production house.

Pop star Lizzo is celebrating a legal victory after a judge dismissed allegations of fat-shaming from a 2023 lawsuit filed by three of her former dancers.

The singer, whose hits include body positive anthems such as Good As Hell and Juice, marked the development with a video statement posted to her Instagram and TikTok feeds.

"There was no evidence that I fired them because they gained weight," Lizzo said. "They were fired for taking a private recording of me without my consent and sending it off to ex-employees."

While those specific allegations have been dropped, the case against Lizzo and her production company will continue, over claims that three dancers were subject to sexual harassment.

Lizzo's team has called the lawsuit a "fabricated sob story," but a Los Angeles judge ruled that the case could move forward last year.

Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez say they were pressured into attending sex shows and interacting with nude performers between 2021 and 2023.

The claims against Lizzo - whose real name is Melissa Viviane Jefferson - include that she "pressured Ms Davis to touch the breasts" of a dancer in a nightclub in Amsterdam.

Although she initially resisted, Ms Davis eventually acquiesced, "fearing it may harm her future on the team" if she didn't do so, according to court documents.

Other incidents cited in the case include the claim that dancers were asked to eat fruit from the naked bodies of sex club workers.

Over the summer, Lizzo's lawyers appealed the decision to let those claims got to trial, arguing that group outings were part of the singer's creative process and thus should be shielded by First Amendment free speech protections.

In response, a lawyer for the dancers rejected that claim, saying it was not enough to say the sex shows had inspired Lizzo's own performances.

"Under that standard," wrote Ari Stiller, "Johnny Cash could shoot 'a man in Reno just to watch him die' and claim protection if he hoped it would inspire his performance".

Stiller urged the court to allow the claims to proceed to trial.

Lizzo's attorney, Melissa Glass, claimed that Stiller's brief "regurgitates the false accusations from their [original] complaint".

"As was true two years ago, the dancers cannot find a single person to corroborate their meritless claims," she Glass said in a statement to Billboard magazine.

"In contrast, 18 witnesses who worked with Lizzo on the Special tour submitted sworn statements refuting the claims made by Davis, Williams and Rodriguez. We look forward to the Court of Appeals ruling on this matter."

Lizzo has adamantly denied the allegations against her.

"I am very open with my sexuality and expressing myself but I cannot accept or allow people to use that openness to make me out to be something I am not," she said when the claims first emerged in 2023.

In her latest statement, the singer added that the fat-shaming allegations had "haunted" her for the last two years, adding that it had been "devastating to suffer through this in silence".

She also stressed that she has "only encouraged and supported people with bigger bodies and shared my platform with them."

Thanking her lawyers, Lizzo said she intended to keep fighting the lawsuit.

"I am not settling," she said. "I will be fighting every single claim until the truth is out.

The UK unemployment rate in the three months to October has increased to 5.1%, according to official figures.

That marked a rise from 5% for the three months to September.

The estimated number of employees on company payrolls fell by 0.5% in the 12 months to October 2025.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the data reflected a "subdued labour market".

Hope Jezzard's phobia of hospitals was so intense that it seemed inconceivable she would ever work in one. Now, Hope is a midwife who helps mothers overcome their fears.

Hospital phobia, or nosocomephobia, is one of a number of recognised anxiety disorders commonly associated with traumatic childhood experiences.

Hope told BBC Radio 5 Live that her mum was in and out of the hospital during her childhood.

"She nearly died twice and was put on life support. I had to leave her behind and although I knew she was being helped, it felt like I was being separated from her."

When Hope entered her teens and early twenties, any routine appointment would set her heart racing, she says.

"It manifested as feeling very anxious, panicky, being very triggered by smells and noises in hospitals," she says.

John Hawker, a psychotherapist who helps people deal with phobias, says a fear of hospitals is "quite common", often begins in childhood and is triggered by sights, smells and sounds.

"Perhaps when somebody was six weeks old, they were given an injection, and the memory of that injection was the smell of surgical spirit," he says.

"A bit of their brain was triggered by the smell of surgical spirit, and it doesn't matter how much logic that you tried to use to overcome that; they still don't want to walk into the hospital," he says.

'The first few shifts were terrifying'

When Hope, who is from Warwickshire, had to go to hospital appointments during her pregnancies and for the births of her two children, she says the support she received from her midwives inspired her to think about pursuing the same career.

At first her hospital phobia made the idea seem impossible but "over time the desire to try and help people trumped my fear," she says.

She left her job in a coffee shop to study for a degree in Midwifery at Coventry University.

"Going into a hospital was a massive challenge. I had avoided clinical settings for years. The first few shifts were terrifying," she says. "But over time, I became more comfortable."

She credits talking therapy with helping her work through the negative associations she had with hospitals.

"One of the tools I was given was the idea of the compassionate self - treating yourself in the same way you would a friend if they said to you 'I'm terrified to go into a hospital'.

"You might say 'can I come with you, can I hold your hand, would you like to talk beforehand or talk while it's happening?"

She also advised writing down a "stream of consciousness" when feeling overwhelmed by fear.

"Don't try and make sense of it or punctuate it or even make it legible it can be as simple as 'I'm scared I'm going to die'. You can throw it away or keep it and come back to it," she says.

Tips to cope with a fear of hospitals

• Write down your fears - putting them on to paper can give you perspective
• Take someone with you - a trusted person may help you to relax
• Tell hospital staff - They will be better equipped to help you if they know
• Tell your GP - They may refer you to an expert in behavioural therapy, such as a psychologist
• Talking therapy - You can self-refer to this NHS service

Kim Black says she was "absolutely frozen" by her fear of hospitals after being diagnosed with hip dysplasia aged four. She says she developed paediatric medical traumatic stress following multiple surgeries.

"I would do anything not to go to the hospital, anything, I would just completely disassociate or avoid it altogether," she says.

"I once went to hospital actually dragging my leg behind me and I couldn't lift it up because that was how long I waited to go."

Kim now helps people to overcome their hospital phobias and build confidence after major surgery.

"Something that I do with my work is actually help prepare people to advocate for themselves and set up good boundaries when they go in," she says.

She says it helps her to "get ahead of spiralling thoughts" by writing them down.

"When I get to the hospital, I speak directly to whoever comes up to me and I tell them straight away, this is what I'm dealing with."

Mr Hawker says it is possible to combat a fear of hospitals through numerous therapies aimed at helping people detach from distressing memories without having to relive trauma.

"Hopefully overcoming that phobic response will allow somebody to feel much more empowered when they walk into a medical situation," he says.

Hope says putting herself in the environment that made her frightened for short periods gradually helped her to get used to hospitals.

"Now I'm a midwife and there are moments when I just want to run out of there but I've turned a very negative experience as a child into a very positive way to help people as an adult."

Celebrated Hollywood filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, producer Michele Singer Reiner, were found dead in their Brentwood, California, home on Sunday.

Their son Nick Reiner, 32, was arrested in Los Angeles on Sunday and is being held on suspicion of murder. Police have said the couple were victims of homicide.

Rob Reiner, who was known for directing movies such as This is Spinal Tap and When Harry Met Sally, had two sons and a daughter with his wife of 36 years.

Here's what we know about Nick Reiner, their younger son, and the investigation so far.

What happened?

The couple's youngest child, daughter Romy, found their bodies in their home in Brentwood, a celebrity enclave full of mansions, boutique shops and restaurants on the westside of Los Angeles, multiple sources confirmed to the BBC's US media partner CBS News.

The Reiners had suffered multiple stab wounds, CBS News reported. Their cause of death has not officially been released.

When was Nick arrested?

Nick Reiner is currently in custody after being arrested on Sunday, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department records.

He was "booked for murder", Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said on Monday.

In a Monday statement, police said that after their initial homicide investigation at the Reiners' home, it was "further revealed" that Nick Reiner "was responsible for their deaths".

Theories about a possible motive have bounced around social media, with President Donald Trump linking the death of the late director - an outspoken Democrat - to Trump Derangement Syndrome, which has spurred bipartisan condemnation. The president coined the phrase to describe his most persistent and vocal critics.

However, no alleged motive for the killings has been disclosed.

Nick Reiner was located and arrested on Sunday night, police said. He was booked for murder and remains in custody with no bail. LA Country Sheriff's jail records previously said he was being held with bail set at $4m (£3m).

The case will be presented to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office on Tuesday, when prosecutors will decide about filing charges, police said.

Reiner had spoken of his son's struggles

The family openly discussed Nick Reiner's long struggles with substance abuse and an addiction to hard drugs ahead of the release of his semi-autobiographical 2015 film, Being Charlie. The father and son had teamed up to write and direct the movie about a teenager addicted to drugs and his difficult road to recovery.

The Princess Bride director and his wife said that they had felt desperate during their son's struggles, but when he would tell them that a rehab program wasn't working, they didn't always listen and took the word of the professionals treating their son. He was in and out of rehab centres for years and experienced homelessness as a teenager.

"We were so influenced by these people. They would tell us he's a liar, that he was trying to manipulate us. And we believed them," Michele Reiner told the Los Angeles Times in 2015.

Rob Reiner added: "We listened to them when we should have been listening to our son."

The film appeared to provide healing for the family.

Rob Reiner said that by the time they started making the movie their relationship "had gotten so much closer".

Likewise, Nick Reiner told Variety at the time that their relationship grew during the process. Although he loved working with his dad on the film, he added that he wanted to be independent and complete his own projects.

Reiner had four children

Rob Reiner was previously married to late filmmaker Penny Marshall and adopted her daughter, Tracy Reiner, 61.

He met Michele Singer on the set of When Harry Met Sally, and a few years later they had their first son, Jake.

In a 1998 interview with the BBC right before his daughter Romy was born, he reflected on parenthood, saying that his approach to child-rearing was changing and through his experiences with his sons - Jake was six and Nick was four - he was "learning about being a parent".

That same year, Reiner helped pass an initiative to use revenue from cigarette taxes for prenatal and early childhood support programme called California First Five.

"Hopefully what I'm doing is I'm trying to improve the fabric of society by making an investment early on with children," Reiner said, "So that we will have a reduction in crime and teen pregnancy and drug abuse and child abuse."

Almost 90 flights linked to Jeffrey Epstein arrived at and departed from UK airports, some with British women on board who say they were abused by the billionaire, a BBC investigation has found.

We have established that three British women who were allegedly trafficked appear in Epstein's records of flights in and out of the UK and other documents related to the convicted sex offender.

US lawyers representing hundreds of Epstein victims told the BBC it was "shocking" that there has never been a "full-scale UK investigation" into his activities on the other side of the Atlantic.

The UK was one of the "centrepieces" of Epstein's operations, one said.

Testimony from one of these British victims helped convict Epstein's accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell of child sex-trafficking in the US in 2021. But the victim has never been contacted by UK police, her Florida-based lawyer Brad Edwards told the BBC.

The woman, given the name Kate in the trial, was listed as having been on more than 10 flights paid for by Epstein in and out of the UK between 1999 and 2006.

The BBC is not publishing further details about the women in the documents because of the risk this might identify them.

US lawyer Sigrid McCawley said the British authorities have "not taken a closer look at those flights, at where he was at, who he was seeing at those moments, and who was with him on those planes, and conducted a full investigation".

Under the Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act, the deadline to release all US government files on the sex-offender financier is Friday.

But the flight logs were among thousands of documents from court cases and Epstein's estate which have been already made public over the past year, revealing more about his time in the UK, such as trips to royal residences.

The BBC examined these documents as part of an investigation trying to piece together Epstein's activities in the UK.

It revealed that:

• The incomplete flight logs and manifests record 87 flights linked to Epstein - dozens more than were previously known - arriving or departing from UK airports between the early 1990s and 2018
• Unidentified "females" were listed among the passengers travelling into and out of the UK in the logs
• Fifteen of the UK flights took place after Epstein's 2008 conviction for soliciting sex from a minor, which should have raised questions from immigration officials

Although Epstein died in jail in 2019, before his trial on charges of trafficking minors for sex, legal experts have told the BBC a UK investigation could reveal whether British-based people enabled his crimes.

Two months ago the BBC sent the Metropolitan Police, which has previously examined allegations about Epstein's activities in Britain, publicly available information about the UK flights with suspected trafficking victims on board.

Later, we sent the Met a detailed list of questions about whether it would investigate evidence of possible British victims of Epstein trafficked in and out of the UK.

The Met did not respond to our questions. On Saturday, it released a broader statement saying that it had "not received any additional evidence that would support reopening the investigation" into Epstein and Maxwell's trafficking activities in the UK.

"Should new and relevant information be brought to our attention", including any resulting from the release of material in the US, "we will assess it", the Met said.

US lawyer Brad Edwards, who has been representing Epstein victims since 2008, told us "three or four" of his clients are British women "who were abused on British soil both by Jeffrey Epstein and others".

Other victims were recruited in the UK, trafficked to the United States and abused there, he said.

Mr Edwards said he is also representing women of other nationalities who say they were trafficked to the UK for abuse by Epstein and others.

Our analysis shows Epstein used commercial and chartered flights, as well as his private planes, to travel to the UK and to arrange transport for others, including alleged trafficking victims.

More than 50 of the flights involved his private jets, mostly flying to and from Luton Airport, with several flights at Birmingham International Airport, and one arrival and departure each at RAF Marham in west Norfolk and at Edinburgh Airport.

Limited records of commercial and chartered flights taken by Epstein, or paid for by him, show dozens more journeys, mainly via London Heathrow, but also Stansted and Gatwick.

In a number of the logs of Epstein's private planes, including some detailing trips to the UK, women on the flight are identified only as unnamed "females".

"He's absolutely choosing airports where he feels it will be easier for him to get in and out with victims that he's trafficking," said Ms McCawley.

Private aircraft did not have to provide passenger details to UK authorities before departure in the same way as commercial aircraft during the period covered by the documents we examined. The Home Office told us they were "not subject to the same centralised record-keeping".

That loophole was only closed in April last year.

Kate, the British woman who testified against Maxwell, was on some of the commercial flights in the records we examined. She described in court that she had been 17 when Maxwell befriended her and introduced her to Epstein - who then sexually abused her at Maxwell's central London home.

In the 2021 trial, she described how Maxwell gave her a schoolgirl outfit to wear and asked her to find other girls for Epstein. As well as the dozen flights to and from the UK, Kate told the court she had been flown to Epstein's island in the US Virgin Islands, New York and Palm Beach in Florida, where she says the abuse continued into her 30s.

Mr Edwards, her lawyer, told BBC News that even after that testimony, Kate has "never been asked" by any UK authorities any questions about her experience - "not even a phone call".

He said that if British police were to launch an investigation into Epstein's activities and his enablers, Kate would be happy to help.

Prof Bridgette Carr, a human-trafficking expert at the University of Michigan Law School, said trafficking cases usually require many people working together.

"It's never just one bad person," she said. "You don't think about the accountant and the lawyer and the banker - or all the bankers - and all these people that had to implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, be OK with what was happening for it to continue."

There are also questions about how Epstein was able to travel freely to the UK after his 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for sex, which meant he had to register as a sex offender in Florida, New York and the US Virgin Islands.

Epstein was released from prison in 2009 after serving 13 months. Documents suggest Epstein took a Virgin Atlantic flight from the US to London Heathrow in September 2010, just two months after he completed his probation on house arrest.

Home Office rules at the time said foreign nationals who received a prison sentence of 12 months or more should, in most cases, have been refused entry.

But immigration lawyer Miglena Ilieva, managing partner at ILEX Law Group, told us that US citizens did not usually require a UK visa for short stays, so there was no application process where they would be asked about criminal convictions.

"It was very much at the discretion of the individual immigration officer who would receive this person at the border," she said.

The Home Office said it does not hold immigration and visa records beyond 10 years and added "it is longstanding government policy that we do not routinely comment on individual cases".

During the 1980s, Epstein also used a foreign passport - issued in Austria with his picture and a false name - to enter the UK as well as France, Spain and Saudi Arabia, according to US authorities.

Epstein also listed London as his place of residence in 1985, when he applied for a replacement passport, ABC News has previously reported.

In its statement on Saturday, the Met said it had contacted "several other potential victims" when it examined 2015 allegations by Virginia Giuffre that she had been trafficked for sexual exploitation by Epstein and Maxwell.

Ms Giuffre also said she was forced to have sex with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on three occasions, including when she was 17 at Maxwell's home in London, in 2001. The former prince has consistently denied the allegations against him.

The Met said its examination of Ms Giuffre's claims "did not result in any allegation of criminal conduct against any UK-based nationals" and it concluded that "other international authorities were best placed to progress these allegations".

That decision was reviewed in August 2019 and again in 2021 and 2022 with the same result, it said.

But for lawyer Sigrid McCawley, the message the Met is sending to victims is "that if you come to law enforcement and this is a powerful person you're reporting on… it will not get investigated."

• ​​If you have information about this story that you would like to share, please email ​​epsteininvestigation@bbc.co.uk

Three members of Ben & Jerry's independent board will no longer be eligible to serve in their roles, after the ice cream company introduced a new set of governance practices.

These include a nine-year limit set on board members' terms. Chair Anuradha Mittal, who earlier said she had no plans to resign under pressure, is among those affected.

The move was criticised by the company's co-founder Ben Cohen, who called it a "blatant power grab designed to strip the board of legal authority and independence".

His remarks are the latest in a long-running row between Ben and Jerry's and its owner over the Cherry Garcia maker's social activism and the continued independence of its board.

The BBC understands that Ms Mittal will leave the company immediately, while board members Mr Dodson and Ms Henderson will go at the end of this year.

"Anuradha Mittal, Daryn Dodson, and Jennifer Henderson have served this company with integrity and courage. Over many years, they helped the board make bold, often difficult decisions to uphold Ben & Jerry's social mission," said Mr Cohen.

Ben & Jerry's said the move is aimed "to preserve and enhance the brand's historical social mission and safeguard its essential integrity."

The Vermont-based firm is now owned by The Magnum Ice Cream Company, after a spinoff from Unilever last week that created the world's largest standalone ice cream maker.

A spokesperson for Magnum said the firm wanted to build and strengthen Ben & Jerry's "powerful, non-partisan values-based position in the world".

But Ben & Jerry's would be destroyed as a brand if it remains with Magnum, Mr Cohen told the BBC.

Ben & Jerry's was sold to Unilever in 2000 in a deal which allowed it to retain an independent board and the right to make decisions about its social mission.

Since the sale there have been deepening clashes between the Vermont-based brand and Unilever, with this conflict now inherited by Magnum.

In 2021, Ben & Jerry's refused to sell its products in areas occupied by Israel, resulting in its Israeli operation being sold by Unilever to a local licensee.

Co-founder Jerry Greenfield left Ben & Jerry's in September after almost half a century at the firm, deepening a dispute with parent company Unilever.

In a letter shared on social media by Mr Cohen, Mr Greenfield said Ben & Jerry's had lost its independence after Unilever put a halt to its social activism.

University "cold spots" are developing in some parts of the country, new data analysis suggests, with courses in some subjects no longer available to students in certain regions.

The new data tool, published by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) on Tuesday, showed a sharp decline in students taking French and other language courses in recent years.

But courses in other subjects, like artificial intelligence, showed a rapid rise over the same time period.

Universities have cut courses with low levels of enrolment with the sector facing growing financial challenges, while the government has announced yearly increases in tuition fees to help universities cope with the shortfalls.

The data published by Hesa showed the number of full-time students on courses in French studies had decreased from 9,700 in the 2012/13 academic year, to 3,700 by 2023/2024.

The number of those doing courses in language and area studies also decreased over that period, from 125,900 to 80,100.

The number of full-time students doing German and Scandinavian courses was at 1,400 in 2023/24, down from 3,900 in 2012/13.

But studies in artificial intelligence have skyrocketed over that 12-year period, with 1,800 full-time students in 2012/13, which dipped to just 900 the following year, but has since surged to 9,100 in 2023/24.

Universities grappling with financial deficits have cut courses and staff roles in courses with low student numbers.

In November, students and lecturers protested over the University of Nottingham's decision to suspend its modern languages and music courses, with no new students set to be enrolled beyond 2026.

BBC News has reached out to the university for an update, but at the time a spokesperson said the courses were "unsustainable", with many having fewer than 10 students enrolled, and that no final decision had yet been made.

They have previously said current students on courses at risk of closure would be supported to complete their studies.

Emma Walkers, course leader for modern languages at Bilborough Sixth Form College in Nottingham, said there would be nowhere local for her students to study languages at university if the cuts went ahead.

Publishing its new data tool, Hesa said the latest figures suggested that degree courses in French were no longer available to study in some locations, with student numbers now concentrated in London, Oxford, Bristol and Bath.

But with an increasing number of students wanting to live at home and commute to university to limit the cost of their studies, Emma says some of her students are being left with nowhere to go.

"Often, if a student is moving out of Nottingham, they're going to end up moving to a more expensive city," she said.

"If you're coming from a family which isn't particularly well-off, to then try to go to London or Bath or Bristol is a huge amount of money to try and find."

She said the decline in student numbers for French and other language courses suggests languages are "just not valued at all".

Catherine Richards, principal at East Norfolk Sixth Form College, which sits in another area with relatively low student enrolment numbers in language courses, believes the issue begins long before university.

"The challenge for places at higher education starts in primary school and the encouragement to do languages," she says.

She says schools in her region are offering fewer languages at GCSE, which leads to fewer pupils taking them at A-levels and then going on to study them at university.

In German, she says course entry levels in schools and colleges across the county are so low "that it's not a viable language anymore".

That's a "pity" because of the "great teachers" across the county, she added.

That sentiment is echoed by Prof René Koglbauer, former languages teacher and chair of trustees of the Association for Language Learning (ALL).

He says there are concerns that in regions without language provision at a university level, schools and sixth form colleges could stop offering A-level language courses too.

"If you then drop it at A-level, ultimately students may decide, 'Well, if I can't progress beyond GCSE, I'm not going to take that subject,'" he says.

"You can see the downward spiral."

Many universities now offer "ab initio" undergraduate courses for languages, meaning you can start as a complete beginner - something Prof Koglbauer says has bolstered uptake.

These intensive programmes, along with joint honours options and the introduction of non-European languages like Arabic and Mandarin, are part of the strategy to keep language learning popular for undergraduate students.

But in order to solve the regional "cold spots", Prof Koglbauer says universities may need to approach the issue differently.

He says the sector may "need to think more about working collaboratively and actually pool resources together" to reach students.

The New South Wales (NSW) premier has strongly rejected criticism of the police response to the attack on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, saying officers acted with "bravery and integrity".

Some witnesses have suggested police were too slow to disarm the two gunmen, who killed 15 people and injured dozens at an event celebrating Hanukkah at Australia's best known beach.

"There are two officers in critical care... at the moment," Chris Minns said after sustained questioning from reporters. "They weren't shot in the back as they were running away. They were shot in the front."

There have also been questions about whether adequate security was provided before the shooting took place.

"They shoot, shoot, change magazine and just shoot," one witness, Shmulik Scuri, told reporters the day of the assault, adding he thought officers "froze".

Asked about these criticisms, Minns said the "rush to conclusions" about the police operation was "disrespectful".

"They didn't take a backward step. They engaged the gunmen on the footbridge with handguns. The offenders had long range rifles," Minns said.

"If there's any suggestion that NSW Police didn't live up to their responsibilities to the people of this state, it should be rejected because it's not consistent with the facts."

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon avoided questions about how many officers had been deployed to police the event in advance. He told reporters police "regularly patrol that area as we did on that day" and that police presence was based "on the threat that exists at the time".

Australia's security agency has said the younger alleged gunman in the father-son duo, Naveed Akram, had come to their attention in 2019 due to his associations, but that there was nothing to suggest he was a risk of violence.

"Had there been intelligence that there was a particular threat at that location, or to that event, we may have had a different policing response," Commissioner Lanyon said.

NSW Police established Operation Shelter after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel to investigate antisemitic hate crimes. As part of the operation, regular patrols are conducted of high-risk locations. The eastern suburbs of Sydney, including Bondi, which has a significant Jewish population, is a key focus.

Another taskforce, Strike Force Pearl, was set up later to investigate hate crimes in Sydney.

Police received reports of gunfire at a park in Bondi Beach at 18:47 (07:47 GMT) on Sunday. The gunmen carried out a shooting spree that lasted around ten minutes before police shot both men, killing one and critically injuring the other.

Dr Vincent Hurley, a former police officer who lectures on policing at Macquarie University, told the BBC it was "unrealistic" to expect police to be able to know how to react to every possible scenario.

"To respond to a mass shooting and mass killing event like that, there's no training that can be done."

He pointed out that police officers would have initially been reliant on calls to emergency operators "and everyone would have given them a different story".

"Then they have to fight through traffic at Bondi Beach which is a nightmare at the best of times."

At the scene, police would have been confronted with "absolute chaos" as thousands of people attempted to flee.

Individual officers would also have been faced with difficult choices such as whether to stop and render assistance to injured individuals or to go and look for the gunmen, decisions for which there is no protocol.

And even once the offenders had been identified, he says the risk of hurting bystanders in the crossfire would have complicated responses.

"There would be no way as a police officer, I would have drawn my firearm because all of the innocent individuals", he added. "It's not what you see on Netflix."

At least 15 civilians have been confirmed dead in Sunday's shooting attack at Bondi beach.

Many were attending an event to mark the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Authorities have confirmed that two rabbis, a Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims.

This is what we know about those identified so far:

Matilda, 10

Authorities confirmed that a 10-year-old girl, named by her family to local media as Matilda, was among the dead.

Irina Goodhew, who organised a fundraiser for the girl's mother and said she was the child's former teacher, wrote: " I knew her as a bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to everyone around her.'

The Harmony Russian School of Sydney also confirmed that she was one of its students.

"We are deeply saddened to share the news that a former student of our school has passed away in the hospital due to injuries sustained from a gunshot," the school wrote on Facebook.

"Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to her family, friends, and everyone affected by this tragic event … Her memory will remain in our hearts, and we honor her life and the time she spent as part of our school family."

Meanwhile her aunt spoke to ABC news and said that Matilda's sister, who was with her when she was shot, was struggling to come to terms with the loss.

"They were like twins — they've never been separated," she told the ABC.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger

Known as the "Bondi Rabbi", Eli Schlanger, 41, was one of the key organisers of Sunday's event. He was head of the local Chabad mission, an international Hasidic Jewish organisation based in Brooklyn.

The death of the British-born father of five was confirmed by his cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis.

"My dear cousin, Rabbi Eli Schlanger @bondirabbi was murdered in today's terrorist attack in Sydney," Zalman wrote on Instagram. "He leaves behind his wife & young children, as well as my uncle & aunt & siblings … He was truly an incredible guy".

In a post on its website, Chabad said Schlanger's youngest child was just two months old.

"He was the most godly, humane, kind, gracious human being I think I've ever met," Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry, told reporters at Bondi on Monday morning.

Dan Elkayam

The death of French national Dan Elkayam was confirmed by Frances's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

"It's with immense sadness that we have learnt that our compatriot Dan Elkayam was among the victims of the terrorist attack that hit Jewish families gathered on the beach at Bondi in Sydney," he wrote on social media. "We mourn with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and the Australian people."

According to his LinkedIn profile, Elkayam worked as an IT analyst for NBCUniversal and had moved to Australia last year.

He was also a keen footballer, and "an integral member" of our premier league squad, the Rockdale Ilindin Football Club in west Sydney wrote on its Facebook page.

He was "an extremely talented and popular figure amongst team mates. Our deepest and sincerest condolances to Dan's family, friends and all that knew him. He will be missed," the club wrote.

Alexander Kleytman

Alexander Kleytman was a holocaust survivor who came to Australia from Ukraine.

"I have no husband. I don't know where is his body. Nobody can give me any answer," his wife Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside a Sydney hospital late on Sunday.

"We were standing and suddenly came the 'boom boom', and everybody fell down. At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me," she told the Australian.

Chabad wrote on X that Alexander "died shielding her from the gunman's bullets. In addition to his wife, he leaves behind two children and 11 grandchildren."

The couple shared some of their life story with Jewish Care in 2023.

"As children, both Larisa and Alexander faced the unspeakable terror of the Holocaust," the health organisation wrote in its annual report.

"Alex's memories are particularly harrowing; recalling the dreadful conditions in Siberia where he, along with his mother and younger brother, struggled for survival."

Peter Meagher

Former police officer Peter Meagher was working as a freelance photographer at the Hanukkah event when he was killed, his rugby club confirmed.

"For him it was simply a catastrophic case of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time," Mark Harrison, the general manager of Randwick Rugby Club, wrote on its website.

"'Marzo, as he was universally known, was a much loved figure and absolute legend in our club, with decades of voluntary involvement, he was one of the heart and soul figures of Randwick Rugby."

The club said he had spent almost four decades in the NSW Police Force where he was "hugely respected by colleagues".

"The tragic irony is that he spent so long in the dangerous front line as a Police Officer and was struck down in retirement while taking photos in his passion role is really hard to comprehend," the club said.

Reuven Morrison

Reuven Morrison migrated to Australia from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s as a teenager, according to an interview he gave to the ABC exactly a year ago.

"We came here with the view that Australia is the safest country in the world and the Jews would not be faced with such anti-Semitism in the future, where we can bring up our kids in a safe environment," he told the national broadcaster.

Confirming his death, Chabad said that he was a longtime resident of Melbourne, but that he "discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney".

"A successful businessman whose main goal was to give away his earnings to charities dear to his heart, notably Chabad of Bondi," the organisation wrote on X.

At a meeting of his cabinet at the White House two weeks ago, US President Donald Trump looked around the long room filled with his top advisers, administration officials and aides, and made a prediction.

The next Republican presidential candidate, he said, is "probably sitting at this table".

"It could be a couple of people sitting at this table," he added, hinting at possible electoral clashes to come.

Despite a constitutional amendment limiting him to two four-year terms, his supporters chanted "four more years" at a rally last Tuesday night in Pennsylvania. Trump said at the time that the final three years of his second term amount to an "eternity".

But in the cabinet room last week, when talking about prospects for the 2028 Republican president nomination, he was clear: "It's not going to be me."

The next presidential election may seem a long way off, but Trump's own speculation – and certain frictions within Trump's coalition - suggest that the jockeying to succeed and define the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement after Trump is well under way.

In last month's local elections, the Republican Party lost support among the minority and working-class voters who helped Trump win back the White House in 2024.

Members of his team have feuded over policy. And some, most notably Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have cut loose from his orbit, accusing the president of losing touch with the Americans who gave him power.

There has been speculation about fractures within the Maga base in certain quarters of the international press, as well as at home. On Monday, a headline in The Washington Post asked: "Maga leaders warn Trump the base is checking out. Will he listen?"

The warning signs are there. While Trump has long been known for being in tune with his base, the months ahead will pose a series of challenges to the president and his movement. Nothing less than his political legacy is at stake.

From Vance to Rubio: A team of rivals?

It was all smiles and talk of historic presidential achievements inside the friendly confines of Trump's newly redecorated, gold-bedecked cabinet room two weeks ago.

But the presidential aspirants Trump may have had in mind as he looked around the table hint at just how hard it could be to keep his Maga movement from stretching apart at the seams.

Vice-President JD Vance sat directly across from the president. As his running mate, he is widely considered to be Trump's most likely heir apparent – the favourite of Trump's sons and libertarian Silicon Valley tech billionaires.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on the president's immediate right. The former Florida senator, who competed with Trump for the Republican nomination in 2016, had spent the past 10 years undergoing a Maga transformation.

He has jettisoned his past support for liberalising immigration policy and his hard line on Russia in lieu of Trump's America First foreign policy. But if there is anyone close to an old-guard Republican with influence in Trump's party, Rubio tops the list.

Then there is Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, whose vaccine scepticism and "Make America Healthy Again" agenda have sent earthquakes through the US health bureaucracy; he sat two down from Rubio. The Democrat-turned-independent-turned-Republican is a living embodiment of the strange ideological bedfellows Trump made on his way to re-election last year.

And finally, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, was tucked off to the corner of the table. While the former South Dakota governor is not considered a major presidential contender, her advocacy for aggressive immigration enforcement – including a recent call for a full travel ban on "every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies" – has made her a prominent face of administration's policies.

Each might believe they could, if they chose to run, become Trump's political heir and take control of the political movement that has reshaped American politics over the last decade.

But to paraphrase Benjamin Franklin's comments at the birth of American democracy, whoever wins the Republican nomination will have been given a winning coalition – if they can keep it.

The Republican empire transformed

Of course none of this is guaranteed - nor is it certain that the next generation of Maga leaders will be someone from the president's inner circle. Trump stormed the White House as a political outsider. The next Republican leader may follow a similar path.

"It's going to be up to the next Republican president who follows Trump to set him or herself apart," says former Republican Congressman Rodney Davis of Illinois, who now works for the US Chamber of Commerce.

"But at the same time make sure that you don't go too far away, because clearly it's Donald Trump [who] got elected president twice."

When the November 2028 presidential election rolls around, American voters may not even want someone like Trump. Some public opinion polls suggest that the president may not be as popular as he once was.

A survey by YouGov earlier this month indicated the president had a net approval rating of -14, compared with +6 when he took office again in January. Then there are concerns about the economy and his relentless efforts to push the boundaries of presidential power.

Leadership of Trump's movement still represents the keys to the Republican empire, however, even if that empire has drastically changed in recent years.

"I think the Republican coalition has become fundamentally different over the last few decades," said Davis, who served in Congress from 2013 to 2023. "The Republican coalition that existed when Ronald Reagan was elected is not the Republican coalition anymore."

Back in the 1980s, the Reagan coalition was a fusion of free-market economics, cultural conservatism, anti-communism and international foreign affairs, says Laura K Field, author of Furious Minds: The Making of the Maga New Right.

Trump's party, she continues, was perhaps best described by long-time Trump adviser and current state department official Michael Anton in a 2016 essay advocating for Trump's election. In contrast with the Reagan era, its core principles include "secure borders, economic nationalism and America-first foreign policy".

'Normie Republicans' versus 'the edgelords'

Earlier this month, the conservative Manhattan Institute released a comprehensive survey of Republican voters, shedding more light on the composition of Trump's coalition.

It suggested that 65% of the current Republican Party are what it calls "core Republicans" – those who have supported party presidential nominees since at least 2016. (If they were alive in the 1980s, they may well have voted for Reagan.)

On the other hand, 29% are what the Institute called "new entrant Republicans". It is among those new Republicans that the challenge to the durability of Trump's coalition presents itself.

Only just over half said they would "definitely" support a Republican in next year's mid-term congressional elections.

According to the survey, the new entrants are younger, more diverse and more likely to hold views that break with traditional conservative orthodoxy. They hold comparatively more left-leaning views of economic policy, they tend to be more liberal on immigration and social issues, and they may also be more pro-China or critical of Israel, for example.

Jesse Arm, vice-president of external affairs at the Manhattan Institute, told the BBC in an email: "A lot of the conversation about the future of the right is being driven by the loudest and strangest voices online, rather than by the voters who actually make up the bulk of the Republican coalition."

Perhaps not surprisingly, the so-called new entrant Republican voters are significantly less supportive of some of Trump's would-be heirs. While 70% of core Republicans have positive views of Rubio and 80% for Vance, just over half of new entrants feel that way about either.

Other findings could be more concerning for Republicans.

More than half of new entrants believe the use of political violence in American politics "is sometimes justified" – compared to just 20% among core Republicans.

It also suggests they may be more likely to be tolerant of racist or anti-Semitic speech and more prone to conspiratorial thinking – on topics like the moon landings, 9/11 and vaccines.

Trump was able to attract these voters into his coalition. The question is whether he and his political heirs can keep them there – or if they even want to.

"The real takeaway is not that these voters will 'define' the post-Trump GOP, but that future Republican leaders will have to draw clear lines about who sets the agenda," argues Mr Arm.

"The heart of the party remains normie Republicans, not the edgelords that both the media and the dissident right are strangely invested in elevating."

Clashes in the conservative ranks

The divides revealed in the Manhattan Institute poll helps explain some of the most notable frictions within the Trump coalition over the past few months.

The Trump-Greene feud that culminated in the latter's resignation from Congress began with her backing of a full release of the government files connected to the Jeffrey Epstein underage sex-trafficking case – long a source of conservative conspiracy theories.

It broadened, however, into a critique of Trump's Middle East policy and accusations of his failure to address cost-of-living and healthcare concerns for low-income American voters.

An earlier high-profile Maga split erupted over Trump's economic policy, with billionaire Elon Musk, a strong supporter and member of Trump's inner circle at the start of the year, going on to condemn certain tariffs and government spending policies.

The president has, for the moment, largely tried to stay out of another bitter clash within conservative ranks over whether Nick Fuentes, a far-right political commentator and Holocaust denier, is welcome within the conservative movement.

It's a dispute that has roiled the influential Heritage Foundation and pitted some powerful right-wing commentators against each other.

According to Ms Field, those who follow Trump may find it a difficult conflict to avoid. "Nick Fuentes has a huge following," she says. "Part of how the conservative movement got the energy and power that they've got is by peddling to this part of the Republican Party."

In the halls of the Republican-controlled Congress, some signs of friction with the president's agenda are showing. Despite White House lobbying, it couldn't stop the House from passing a measure mandating release of the Epstein files.

The president has also been unable to convince Senate Republicans to abandon the filibuster, a parliamentary procedure Democrats in the minority have been able to block some of Trump's agenda.

Meanwhile, Trump's party has been stumbling at the polls, with the Democrats winning governorships in Virginia and New Jersey last month by comfortable margins.

In dozens of contested special elections for state and local seats over the past year, Democrats have on average improved their margins by around 13% over similar races held in last November's national elections.

The future of Trumpism

All of this will be front of mind for Republicans ahead of the 2026 mid-term congressional elections - and it will do little to ease the concerns held by some that, without Trump at the top of the ticket, their coalition will struggle to deliver reliable ballot-box victories.

Yet even a defeat next year – or in 2028 – is unlikely to mark the end of Trumpism.

The ascent by Trump's Maga movement to the pinnacle of American power has been far from a smooth one. It includes a mid-term rout in 2018 and Trump himself losing in 2020, before his re-election last November.

But the changes that Trump has wrought within the Republican Party itself appear to be foundational ones, according to Ms Field. His Maga coalition builds on strains of populist movements in the US that date back decades or more – from Barry Goldwater's insurgent presidential campaign in 1964 to the Tea Party protests during Barack Obama's presidency.

"These things are not coming out of nowhere. They are forces in American politics that have been underground for a while, but have been just kind of fermenting."

The old Republican order, she argues, is a relic of the past.

"The Trump movement is here to stay and there's no real likelihood of the old establishment returning with any sort of clout - that much is clear."

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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The UK unemployment rate in the three months to October has increased to 5.1%, according to official figures.

That marked a rise from 5% for the three months to September.

The estimated number of employees on company payrolls fell by 0.5% in the 12 months to October 2025.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the data reflected a "subdued labour market".

The US military says it has carried out strikes on three boats it has accused of trafficking drugs in the Pacific Ocean, killing eight people.

The US Southern Command posted footage of the strikes on social media and said the vessels were "transiting along known narco-trafficking routes... and were engaged in narco-trafficking".

More than 20 vessels in the Pacific and the Caribbean have been targeted in recent months, killing at least 90 people, as part of President Donald Trump's escalating campaign against gangs he accuses of transporting drugs in the region.

Some experts say the strikes could violate laws governing armed conflict.

The first attack by the US - on 2 September - has drawn particular scrutiny as there was not one but two strikes, with survivors of the first killed in the second.

Several legal experts have told BBC Verify that the second strike on the alleged Venezuelan drug boat by the US military was probably illegal, and would likely be considered an extrajudicial killing under international law.

A former chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court told the BBC that the US military campaign more generally fell into the category of a planned, systematic attack against civilians during peacetime.

In response, the White House said it had acted in line with the laws of armed conflict to protect the US from cartels "trying to bring poison to our shores... destroying American lives".

The Trump administration has accused Venezuela of funnelling narcotics into the US and has intensified its efforts to isolate President Nicolas Maduro in recent months.

Thousands of troops and the USS Gerald Ford have been positioned within striking distance of Venezuela.

On 10 December, US forces seized an oil tanker off the Venezuelan coast, which it claimed was being used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran in an "illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations".

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil called the seizure "international piracy" and has claimed Trump wants Venezuela's energy resources.

The South American nation - home to some of the world's largest proven oil reserves - also accuses Washington of seeking to steal its resources.

The New South Wales (NSW) premier has strongly rejected criticism of the police response to the attack on a Jewish festival at Bondi Beach, saying officers acted with "bravery and integrity".

Some witnesses have suggested police were too slow to disarm the two gunmen, who killed 15 people and injured dozens at an event celebrating Hanukkah at Australia's best known beach.

"There are two officers in critical care... at the moment," Chris Minns said after sustained questioning from reporters. "They weren't shot in the back as they were running away. They were shot in the front."

There have also been questions about whether adequate security was provided before the shooting took place.

"They shoot, shoot, change magazine and just shoot," one witness, Shmulik Scuri, told reporters the day of the assault, adding he thought officers "froze".

Asked about these criticisms, Minns said the "rush to conclusions" about the police operation was "disrespectful".

"They didn't take a backward step. They engaged the gunmen on the footbridge with handguns. The offenders had long range rifles," Minns said.

"If there's any suggestion that NSW Police didn't live up to their responsibilities to the people of this state, it should be rejected because it's not consistent with the facts."

NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon avoided questions about how many officers had been deployed to police the event in advance. He told reporters police "regularly patrol that area as we did on that day" and that police presence was based "on the threat that exists at the time".

Australia's security agency has said the younger alleged gunman in the father-son duo, Naveed Akram, had come to their attention in 2019 due to his associations, but that there was nothing to suggest he was a risk of violence.

"Had there been intelligence that there was a particular threat at that location, or to that event, we may have had a different policing response," Commissioner Lanyon said.

NSW Police established Operation Shelter after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel to investigate antisemitic hate crimes. As part of the operation, regular patrols are conducted of high-risk locations. The eastern suburbs of Sydney, including Bondi, which has a significant Jewish population, is a key focus.

Another taskforce, Strike Force Pearl, was set up later to investigate hate crimes in Sydney.

Police received reports of gunfire at a park in Bondi Beach at 18:47 (07:47 GMT) on Sunday. The gunmen carried out a shooting spree that lasted around ten minutes before police shot both men, killing one and critically injuring the other.

Dr Vincent Hurley, a former police officer who lectures on policing at Macquarie University, told the BBC it was "unrealistic" to expect police to be able to know how to react to every possible scenario.

"To respond to a mass shooting and mass killing event like that, there's no training that can be done."

He pointed out that police officers would have initially been reliant on calls to emergency operators "and everyone would have given them a different story".

"Then they have to fight through traffic at Bondi Beach which is a nightmare at the best of times."

At the scene, police would have been confronted with "absolute chaos" as thousands of people attempted to flee.

Individual officers would also have been faced with difficult choices such as whether to stop and render assistance to injured individuals or to go and look for the gunmen, decisions for which there is no protocol.

And even once the offenders had been identified, he says the risk of hurting bystanders in the crossfire would have complicated responses.

"There would be no way as a police officer, I would have drawn my firearm because all of the innocent individuals", he added. "It's not what you see on Netflix."

US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BBC over an edit of his 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.

Trump has requested billions of dollars in damages, according to court documents filed in Florida.

The BBC apologised to Trump in November, but rejected his demands for compensation and disagreed there was any "basis for a defamation claim".

Trump's legal team accused the BBC of defaming him by "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech". The BBC has not yet responded to the lawsuit being filed.

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Thousands of drivers could have speeding fines cancelled after a fault saw some cameras falsely triggered on English A roads and motorways.

National Highways said it had found 2,650 wrongful speed camera activations since 2021 due to a delay between cameras and variable speed signs.

Affected drivers will be contacted by police and be reimbursed for any fines while points will be removed from their licences where needed.

Not all camera activations are enforced, so not all of the wrongful activations will have resulted in fines.

National Highways apologised for the error and chief executive Nick Harris said a fix for the issue has been identified.

"Safety is our number one priority… All drivers should continue observing the posted speed limits as normal. Anyone who has been impacted will be contacted by the relevant police force," he said.

National Highways, which runs England's motorways, blamed an "anomaly" in how variable speed cameras were interacting with signs on some A roads and motorways.

It meant a delay of around 10 seconds between cameras and relevant variable speed signs, meaning some drivers were incorrectly identified as speeding after the limit had changed.

The body said the 2,650 incidents since 2021 represent fewer than two each day, compared with more than 6 million activations of speed cameras on the affected roads over the same period.

It said the anomaly has impacted 10% of England's motorways and major A roads.

It is working with police to check activations and promised nobody will now be wrongly prosecuted.

Meanwhile, police forces have stopped issuing fines from variable cameras until they have confidence in their accuracy.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "We apologise to anyone who has been affected. Safety was never compromised, and we are working with policing to ensure nobody is incorrectly prosecuted in future.

"Enforcement is still in place, and the public can remain confident that only motorists who break the rules will be penalised."

The UK and South Korea have finalised a trade deal which the government says will create thousands of jobs and bring billions into the British economy.

British industries including pharmaceuticals, car manufacturing, alcohol and financial services are expected to benefit from an extension to the current tariff-free trade on most goods and services.

The deal is the fourth such agreement struck by the Labour government, following deals with the EU, US and India — none of which have had a material impact on the UK's economy so far.

South Korean culture, including music, cosmetics and food, has become much more popular in the UK in recent years.

Trade minister Chris Bryant announced the deal in Samsung's flagship store in London on Monday night, accompanied by his Korean counterpart Yeo Han-koo.

Under the deal, 98% of trade will continue to be tariff free, the same terms that the EU has with South Korea, and which the UK maintained temporarily after Brexit.

The UK's agreement with South Korea was set to expire in January 2026, but the new agreement will protect £2bn of UK exports from an increase in tariffs.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the deal was "a huge win for British business".

"This deal making trade even easier between us will help boost the economy - supporting jobs and growth which will be felt all over the country," he said.

Bryant said the deal would give "cast-iron protections to our key industries to speed up economic growth as part of our Plan for Change".

South Korea is the UK's 25th largest trading partner, according to the Department for Business and Trade. In the 12 months to the end of June this year, it accounted for 0.8% of the UK's total trade.

Over that same 12-month period, official figures show UK exports to South Korea fell 16.4% and South Korean exports to the UK fell 10.8%.

South Korea's trade minister told the BBC that South Korea and Britain's economies "are complimentary", and denied that the fall in trade between the nations suggested the relationship wasn't as important as it used to be.

Han-koo said the new agreement was more about reducing non-tariff barriers, such as making rules around product origin more business friendly, and creating new digital and investment protections.

"So these two economies can win by cooperating closer through this kind of framework," he added.

Han-koo also said Britain can serve as a gateway for South Korea in its trade with Europe, while South Korea can serve as a gateway to Asia for British companies.

The South Korean deal is the latest in a series of post-Brexit trade agreements, but the independent budget forecaster, the OBR, has so far deemed deals done with those larger partners as unlikely to make a measurable impact on the UK economy by 2030.

The government has said that its various trade agreements struck this year will grow the British economy by creating jobs and cutting red tape for small businesses.

But its own assessment showed that the deal with India will only increase GDP by between 0.11% and 0.14%.

That deal in particular was criticised for potentially undercutting British workers.

India is the UK's 10th-largest trading partner, accounting for 2.5% of British trade.

'Great news'

UK companies including Bentley Motors, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and Guinness owner Diageo welcomed the news of the South Korean deal.

Frank-Steffen Walliser, chairman and chief executive of Bentley Motors, said that South Korea is a key market for the company and the wider luxury vehicle market.

"To secure immediate ongoing access to South Korea and a positive long term trade deal, is great news. Smooth international trade is vital to UK automotive business growth."

Diageo's interim chief executive Nik Jhangiani said it would "help satisfy the growing demand from South Korean consumers" for Guinness, which is canned in Runcorn, Cheshire.

Emily Weaver Roads, interim international director at the Scotch Whisky Association, said the Asia-Pacific region was the largest regional market by value for whisky.

"The reduction of trade barriers in the Republic of Korea will further enhance Scotch Whisky's access to an important market, especially for single malts."

US President Donald Trump says he has asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to "consider" releasing Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon who was earlier this week found guilty under the city's controversial national security law.

"I feel so badly," Trump told reporters. "I spoke to President Xi about it and I asked to consider his release."

The UK similarly called for the 78-year-old to be "immediately released", with UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemning the ruling, calling it a "politically motivated persecution".

Lai, who is a British citizen, has been in jail since December 2020 and is due to be sentenced early next year. He faces a maximum term of life in prison.

Trump made the brief comment to reporters at the White House on Monday - but did not specify when he had brought Lai's case up to Xi.

"He's an older man and he's not well. So I did put that request out. We'll see what happens, okay?," he said.

His comments come after a Hong Kong court on Monday found Lai guilty of colluding with foreign forces.

The verdict was welcomed by Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee, who said that Lai's actions had "damaged the country's interests and the welfare of Hong Kongers", but rights groups called it "a cruel judicial farce".

"He has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression," UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had told Parliament on Monday, calling for Lai's "immediate release".

She added that the Foreign Office has summoned the Chinese Ambassador to "underline our position in the strongest terms", adding that it was "heartbreaking that such a violation of a British man's rights could occur in Hong Kong".

China's foreign ministry had earlier on Monday dismissed criticisms of Lai's trial, describing them as "brazen defamation and smearing of the judicial system in Hong Kong".

Lai was on Monday convicted under the city's controversial national security law - which rights groups say is used to crush dissent, but which Beijing defends as essential for the city's stability.

He was also convicted of publishing seditious material on Apple Daily under a separate colonial-era law.

His detention and conviction have drawn concern from rights groups and foreign leaders, who have long called for his release.

His children have voiced serious concerns about Lai's deteriorating health in prison, with Sebastien telling the BBC earlier this year that given his father's age and health, he could "die in prison".

US President Donald Trump says he has asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to "consider" releasing Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy tycoon who was earlier this week found guilty under the city's controversial national security law.

"I feel so badly," Trump told reporters. "I spoke to President Xi about it and I asked to consider his release."

The UK similarly called for the 78-year-old to be "immediately released", with UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper condemning the ruling, calling it a "politically motivated persecution".

Lai, who is a British citizen, has been in jail since December 2020 and is due to be sentenced early next year. He faces a maximum term of life in prison.

Trump made the brief comment to reporters at the White House on Monday - but did not specify when he had brought Lai's case up to Xi.

"He's an older man and he's not well. So I did put that request out. We'll see what happens, okay?," he said.

His comments come after a Hong Kong court on Monday found Lai guilty of colluding with foreign forces.

The verdict was welcomed by Hong Kong's chief executive John Lee, who said that Lai's actions had "damaged the country's interests and the welfare of Hong Kongers", but rights groups called it "a cruel judicial farce".

"He has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression," UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper had told Parliament on Monday, calling for Lai's "immediate release".

She added that the Foreign Office has summoned the Chinese Ambassador to "underline our position in the strongest terms", adding that it was "heartbreaking that such a violation of a British man's rights could occur in Hong Kong".

China's foreign ministry had earlier on Monday dismissed criticisms of Lai's trial, describing them as "brazen defamation and smearing of the judicial system in Hong Kong".

Lai was on Monday convicted under the city's controversial national security law - which rights groups say is used to crush dissent, but which Beijing defends as essential for the city's stability.

He was also convicted of publishing seditious material on Apple Daily under a separate colonial-era law.

His detention and conviction have drawn concern from rights groups and foreign leaders, who have long called for his release.

His children have voiced serious concerns about Lai's deteriorating health in prison, with Sebastien telling the BBC earlier this year that given his father's age and health, he could "die in prison".

The government has launched a new taskforce it says will help women "enter, stay and lead" in the UK tech sector.

Led by technology secretary Liz Kendall, it will see female leaders from tech companies and organisations advise the government on how to boost diversity and economic growth in the industry.

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, recently suggested women accounted for only 22% of those working in IT specialist roles in the UK.

Ms Kendall said the Women in Tech group would "break down the barriers that still hold too many people back".

"When women are inspired to take on a role in tech and have a seat at the table, the sector can make more representative decisions, build products that serve everyone," she said.

BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, warned in December the amount of women working in the UK tech sector still lagged far behind men.

It said the government should look to help close the gender gap in order to meet its ambitious AI goals.

"We cannot create high-trust, high-integrity AI systems if the profession behind them is missing out on the talents and perspective of half the population," said chief executive Sharron Gunn.

Ms Kendall will lead the taskforce alongside Anne-Marie Imafidon, founder of Stemettes, who has been appointed as the Women in Tech Envoy.

Dr Imafidon, who passed A-level computing aged 11 and received a Master's Degree in Maths and Computer Science from the University of Oxford aged 20, has sought to encourage more young women into careers in Stem - science, technology, engineering and maths.

She told the BBC her role would build on more than a decade of work to establish greater equality for - and representation of - women.

But now, amid what she called "a fourth industrial revolution", was a key moment to "be part of shifting who is making those decisions for what comes next".

"This isn't just about having women being the driving force and building the technology, but this is about building technology that benefits everybody," she said.

'Equality long overdue'

The government said the taskforce will advise on ways to make the tech sector more representative and "ensure the UK accesses the full talent pool, market opportunities, and innovation capacity needed for economic growth".

BT Group boss Allison Kirkby, Revolut chief executive Francesca Carlesi and Dr Hayaatun Sillem, chief executive of the Royal Academy of Engineering, are among its 15 founding members.

It also includes TUC assistant general secretary Kate Bell, director of public policy at Uber Emma O'Dwyer, and Sue Daley, director of technology and innovation at industry group techUK.

"Entry routes, career progression to leadership, and access to capital are just some of the barriers women in tech still face today," Ms Daley said.

"Achieving gender equality is long overdue, and I am honoured to join the Women in Tech taskforce alongside Liz Kendall and several inspiring women from across the industry, working together to chart a path forward for true gender equality."

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