Reporters ask world leaders questions all the time.

No big deal. Right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suddenly the moderator intervenes to change the subject.

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

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

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

Putin returns to my question.

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

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

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

But many European leaders simply don't trust Moscow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Crying wolf?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gun ownership at record high

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What are Australia's current gun laws?

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

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

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

But there are loopholes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fresh reform for gun laws

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

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

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

Other proposals include:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Recreational hunting under spotlight

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

Sajid Akram owned a recreational hunting licence.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mass shootings remain rare in Australia.

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

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

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

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

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

Tragedy is a wake-up call

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

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

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

Mr Browne echoed those sentiments.

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

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

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

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

When are roads likely to be busiest?

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

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

It suggests the following periods may be quieter:

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

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

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

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

You can also check local weather warnings before setting off.

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

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

Are trains, buses and ferries running?

Trains

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Buses and coaches

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

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

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

Transport for London (Tfl)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ferries

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

The final departures on 24 December are:

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

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

What if I'm flying over Christmas?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The CAA recommends that passengers:

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

What if I need a doctor or dentist?

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

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

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

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

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

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

When will pharmacies be open?

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

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

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

• England
• Scotland
• Wales
• Northern Ireland

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

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

What about supermarkets and food delivery services?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reporters ask world leaders questions all the time.

No big deal. Right?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suddenly the moderator intervenes to change the subject.

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

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

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

Putin returns to my question.

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

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

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

But many European leaders simply don't trust Moscow.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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