Some conservative members of Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" movement have reacted angrily to the president's plans to sell weapons to Nato, arguing it is a betrayal of his promise to end US involvement in foreign wars.

On Monday, Trump said he would send weapons to Ukraine via Nato, while also threatening Russia with more tariffs if a deal to end the war is not reached in 50 days.

Republican Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene, a key Trump ally, and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon are among those who have criticised the decision, with Bannon telling his podcast listeners that Ukraine is a "European war".

The White House has emphasised that Europe will pay for the US-made weapons.

In an interview with the New York Times, Greene - an isolationist member of Congress from Georgia who has been one of the most loyal Trump supporters on Capitol Hill - said the move was at odds with what she had promised voters on the campaign trail.

"It's not just Ukraine; it's all foreign wars in general and a lot of foreign aid," she said. "This is what we campaigned on. This is what I promised also to my district. This is what everybody voted for. And I believe we have to maintain the course."

• I'm 'disappointed but not done' with Putin, Trump tells BBC
• Trump unveils Ukraine weapons plan at White House

Trump sought to emphasise that the weapons would be paid for rather than given as direct aid, saying on Monday: "We're not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they're going to be paying for it."

But in a rare public disagreement with the president, Greene expressed scepticism that US taxpayers would ultimately avoid bearing any cost and, in a post on social media, criticised "backdoor deals through Nato".

"Without a shadow of a doubt, our tax dollars are being used," she told the New York Times, arguing that indirect costs such as US training missions and contributions to Nato qualify as US involvement.

"I said it on every rally stage: no more money to Ukraine. We want peace. We just want peace for those people," she said. "And guess what? People haven't changed."

'We still hate it'

One former Trump campaign official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to Politico, said Europe's purchase of the weapons "mitigates" the anger from Trump's isolationist supporters.

"But we still hate it," the official said. "This is not our war, and escalation isn't in America's interest."

Steve Bannon, a former adviser to Trump, said on his War Room podcast that "Ukraine is getting so dangerous".

"It's a European war. Let Europe deal with it," he said. "They have the resources. They have the manpower."

"We're about to arm people we have literally no control over," Bannon said of Ukraine. "This is old-fashioned, grinding war in the bloodlands of Europe - and we're being dragged into it."

In a statement quoted by Politico, White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said that Trump's MAGA base "aren't panicans like the media".

"They trust in Trump, and they know that this president is restoring peace through strength."

The BBC has contacted the White House for comment.

A White House official who spoke to Politico on the condition of anonymity disagreed that the president's base opposed his moves. They pointed to one recent poll that suggested nearly two-thirds of Trump voters support continuing to send arms to Ukraine.

Officials in the Trump administration have also defended the president's decision, with Under Secretary of Defense Elbridge Colby writing on X that Trump's "America First message is that our alliances have to be fair and equitable".

"This is eminently reasonable but was treated for many years as heresy," he added. "Yet now with the historic Nato commitment we see that it can work."

That recent commitment from Nato leaders to ramp up defence spending to 5% of their economic output was praised by Trump supporters on Monday, who argued that even with the new weapons deal Europe was taking on more responsibility for its defence.

And in an exclusive interview with the BBC on Monday, just hours after he met Nato chief Mark Rutte at the White House, Trump said the alliance was now "paying its own bills".

He affirmed his support for the organisation's common defence principle, and said he was "disappointed but not done" with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

The president said that he had thought a deal to end the war in Ukraine was on the cards with Russia four different times.

The UK government set up a secret Afghan relocation scheme after the personal data of thousands of people was inadvertently leaked, it can be revealed.

A dataset containing the details of nearly 19,000 people who applied to move to the UK following the Taliban takeover of the country was released in error by a British defence official in February 2022.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) learned of the breach in August 2023 when some details were anonymously posted on Facebook.

Nearly 9,000 Afghans have arrived in the UK or are en route via the previously secret scheme, which is estimated to have cost £850m.

The existence of this confidential Afghan Response Route, which was established in April 2024, was kept confidential by an injunction but can now be reported following a High Court ruling on Tuesday.

The MoD declined to say how many have been arrested or killed as a result of the data breach.

Defence secretary John Healey is expected to confirm further details in the House of Commons later on Tuesday.

The unauthorised data breach was committed by an unnamed individual at the MoD. The data related to Afghans who worked with international forces following the 2001 invasion of the country.

As US troops completed their withdrawal in August 2021, the UK government set up Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which was designed to rapidly process applications by people who feared reprisals from the Taliban and move them to the UK.

But it emerged on Tuesday that thousands of those who applied for that scheme had sensitive personal data leaked by a British official.

Arap has already been heavily criticised in the years since it was launched, with a 2022 inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee finding it was a "disaster" and a "betrayal".

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

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Israel says it has bombed Syrian government forces around Suweida, as they entered the predominantly Druze city following two days of deadly clashes between Druze militias and Bedouin tribes.

About 100 people have reportedly been killed since the fighting erupted on Sunday.

Syria's defence minister announced a ceasefire in Suweida on Tuesday morning, saying an agreement had been reached with local dignitaries for security forces to deploy there. However, one Druze spiritual leader urged local fighters to resist.

Later, Israel's prime minister said he had ordered strikes on forces and weapons in the Suweida area because the government "intended to use [them] against the Druze".

Benjamin Netanyahu said he was committed to preventing harm to the Druze in Syria because of their deep ties to those living in Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

This is the first time that Syrian government forces have been deployed to Suweida since Islamist-led rebel forces overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December.

Minority communities are suspicious of the country's new leaders despite their pledges to protect them, and until now the province of Suweida had remained largely under the control of Druze militias which resisted calls to join the government's forces.

Ethiopian government forces "executed" three employees of medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) while they were on a humanitarian mission in Ethiopia's war-hit northern Tigray region four years ago, a senior MSF official has told the BBC.

Raquel Ayora's comments came as MSF released its findings on what it called the "intentional and targeted" killing of the three - a Spanish national and two Ethiopians - at the height of the now-ended conflict in Tigray.

"They were executed," said Ms Ayora, MSF Spain's general director. "They were facing their attackers [and] were shot at very close range… several times."

The BBC has asked the Ethiopian government for a response to the allegation.

MSF said it was releasing its findings as the government had failed to provide a "credible account" of the deaths despite 20 face-to-face meetings over the last four years.

Thirty-five-year-old Spaniard María Hernández Matas, along with 32-year-old Yohannes Halefom Reda and 31-year-old Tedros Gebremariam, were killed on 24 June 2021 while travelling in central Tigray to assess medical needs.

"They were very professional and passionate," Ms Ayora told the BBC.

She added that the three were fully identifiable in MSF vests and their vehicle had the charity's flag and logos on either side when they were shot.

"So, they [Ethiopian troops] knew that they were killing humanitarian aid workers," she said, adding that the team's travel route had also been shared in advance with fighting groups.

The Tigray conflict broke out in 2020 following a massive fall-out between the regional and federal governments, with neighbouring Eritrea entering the war on the side of the Ethiopian National Defence Force (ENDF).

The conflict ended two years later following a peace deal brokered by the African Union (AU). Its envoy, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, put the number of people who died in the conflict at around 600,000.

Researchers said the deaths were caused by fighting, starvation and a lack of health care.

The killings took place at a time when the conflict was intensifying, and Ethiopian and Eritrean troops were becoming increasingly hostile towards aid workers in the region, MSF said in its report.

Ms Matas had been working in Tigray since before the war and "was very much loved" by people in the region, Ms Ayora said.

Her death has been particularly devastating for her mother as she was her only child, the MSF official added.

Mr Tedros was killed soon after his wife had given birth to a baby girl. His widow named the baby Maria, after her father's killed Spanish colleague, Mr Ayora said.

The bodies of Ms Matas and Mr Yohannes were found between 100m (300ft) and 400m from the wreckage of their vehicle.

The body of Mr Tedros, the driver, was found by the vehicle."In line with MSF travel policy, the driver stays close to the vehicle", Ms Ayora said.

The vehicle was shot at multiple times and burned on the main road from the town of Abi Adi to Yech'illa, Ms Ayora said.

Ms Matas and Mr Yohannes were walking when they were shot, she said, adding: "We don't know if they were called for interrogation or they decided to engage with the soldiers."

MSF said it had relied on satellite images, witnesses and publicly available information on the Ethiopian military's movements at the time of the killings to draw its conclusions.

Its investigation placed Ethiopian troops at the "precise location" where the killings occurred, the charity added.

MSF's report quoted witnesses as saying they overhead an officer informing the local commander of an approaching white car and the commander giving an order to shoot.

Moments later, the commander was allegedly informed that the soldiers had tried to shoot but that the car had turned towards Abi Adi and stopped, at which point the commander gave the order to "go and catch them" and "remove them", the report alleged.

Ms Ayora told the BBC that officials from Ethiopia's Ministry of Justice had verbally informed MSF in mid-2022 that their preliminary investigation showed that government troops were not at the scene of the killing.

However, the officials refused to give this in writing, and the charity kept engaging with the government in order to end "impunity" at a time when an increasing number of aid workers were being killed in conflicts around the world, Ms Ayora said.

More BBC stories on Tigray conflict:

• 'I lost my leg on the way home from school'
• How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded
• The war is over but the rapes continue

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

The US is imposing a 17% tariff on most tomatoes imported from Mexico with immediate effect, the government said.

The duty came into force after the US withdrew from a long-standing agreement with its southern neighbour, arguing that the deal "had failed to protect US tomato growers from unfairly priced Mexican imports".

US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said that "for far too long our farmers have been crushed by unfair trade practices that undercut pricing on produce like tomatoes".

Mexico rejected accusations it had dumped its tomatoes on the US market at low prices and said the popularity of Mexican tomatoes was down to their good quality.

The measure is expected to lead to higher prices at supermarkets and restaurants, such as pizza parlours and Mexican eateries.

Tomato-based pizza sauces and salsas are among the products likely to be most hit.

About 70% of tomatoes consumed in the US are imported from Mexico, according to advocacy group Florida Tomato Exchange.

Backers of the newly imposed tariff argue that it will encourage consumers to buy tomatoes grown in the US, thereby boosting local trade.

But the Mexican economy and agriculture ministry said it would be "impossible to substitute Mexican tomatoes" given the volume imported from Mexico.

The Mexican government said it would try to negotiate a new deal before its producers were hit, but also promised to help Mexican tomato growers find new markets.

US tomato growers first petitioned the US government for help in 1996, arguing that they were being undercut by Mexican growers, whom they accused of dumping their tomatoes in the US at a price lower than their normal value.

In order to protect its tomato growers, the US issued an antidumping order, imposing duties on imported tomatoes in order to make US tomatoes more attractive to consumers.

Since then, the two countries have signed five agreements which suspended those tariffs in exchange for Mexico agreeing to sell their tomatoes at or above a minimum price.

It is the latest of these suspension agreements - signed in 2019 - that the US has now withdrawn from.

The US president has also threatened to impose 30% tariffs on all Mexican goods from 1 August.

Trump said this was because Mexico, in his view, had not done enough to stop North America becoming a "Narco-Trafficking Playground".

Other countries, such as Brazil and China, as well as the EU trading bloc have also been threatened with US tariffs.

The Australian government has won a landmark climate case against residents of islands under siege from the impacts of climate change.

In 2021, community elders Pabai Pabai and Paul Kabai launched legal action against the then-Liberal government for breaching its duty of care to protect the Torres Strait Islands from the impacts of climate change.

But a Federal Court judge dismissed the case and said climate policy was a matter for parliament, not the courts.

The ruling also found that the government did not owe a duty of care to protect the islands from the impacts of climate change.

The Torres Strait Islands - located between far-north Queensland and Papua New Guinea - are made up of about 270 islands, of which only a few dozen are inhabited.

About 4,000 people live on the islands, according to the latest official figures, with 90% identifying as Indigenous.

In their submission, Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai said sea levels in the north of Australia had been rising "significantly higher than the global average".

Between 1993 and 2019, sea levels in the Torres Strait rose by about 6 cm per decade, the court was told.

The court also heard that the islands are home to a "distinctive customary culture known as Ailan Kastom", where the residents have a "unique spiritual and physical connection" to the islands and waters.

The case added that by failing to take greater action against climate change in its emissions targets, the islands' unique culture would be lost, and residents would become climate refugees.

However, Justice Michael Wigney said that while he recognised the "devastating impact" caused to the islands by climate change, current negligence laws in Australia do not allow for compensation where the loss of culture, customs and traditions were the result of a government's policies.

He acknowledged that while "climate change related flooding and inundation events had damaged their sacred sites and the burial grounds of their ancestors", matters of "core government policy" such as emissions targets was "ordinarily to be decided through political processes, not by judges".

He did however recognise that action was needed: "There could be little, if any, doubt that the Torres Strait Islands and their traditional inhabitants will face a bleak future if urgent action is not taken to address climate change and its impacts."

For Uncle Pabai the decision was devastating.

"My heart is broken for my family and my community," he said in statement according to local media.

In his submission to the court, Uncle Pabai - a community leader from Boigu island - described the deep spiritual connection he and other locals have with the land and waters, especially the cemeteries as "talking to my ancestors is a big part of my culture".

"If Boigu was gone, or I had to leave it, because it was underwater, I will be nothing," he wrote in his court submission.

Uncle Paul, the other elder behind the court action, was equally stunned by the findings.

"I thought that the decision would be in our favour, and I'm in shock," he said.

"This pain isn't just for me, it's for all people Indigenous and non-Indigenous who have been affected by climate change. What do any of us say to our families now?"

During earlier court hearings, Uncle Paul had described his childhood memories of Saibai in the 1970s and 1980s when it was a "land of plenty", with an abundance of barramundi and crabs in inland freshwater swamps.

But now, more extreme weather events and higher sea levels meant an increase in saltwater coming inland, and coupled with less rain, the higher salt levels in the swamps have made it impossible for fish and crabs to survive, he said.

He told the court about a seawall - built around 2017 - that was breached by a king tide in 2000, destroying crops and flooding homes.

"If the water keeps on rising, in the way it has in the last 10 years or so, the seawall will not be able to protect Saibai at all," he said in his submission.

"My country would disappear. I would lose everything: my home, my community, my culture, my stories, my identity. Without Saibai, I do not know who I would be," the court heard.

In handing down his decision, Justice Wigney said that while the previous government "paid scant if any regard to the best available science" in setting emissions reductions, the new targets set by Labor were "significantly higher and more ambitious".

In a joint statement following the court decision, Australia's Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen and Minister for Indigenous Australians Malarndirri McCarthy, said they "understand that the Torres Strait Islands are vulnerable to climate change, and many are already feeling the impacts".

"Where the former Government failed on climate change, the Albanese Government is delivering – because it's in the interest of all Australians," the statement said.

Riona Moodley, from the University of NSW's Institute of Climate Risk and Response said while the decision was "definitely a setback" for Torres Strait Islanders, it does not mean the law can not change.

"The reality is that Australian law will need to adapt to meet the challenges of climate change," she told the BBC.

Her colleague Wesley Morgan said the court's finding should also propel greater action from government on its climate policies.

"It must listen to the science telling us we need to be as ambitious as possible in the decade ahead," he said.

Donald Trump makes a habit of calling reporters out of the blue. The US president seems to prefer an off-the-cuff telephone conversation to a sit-down interview on camera.

On Monday evening it was my turn. And I'll be frank with you - I was asleep when the White House rang.

I'd spent the best part of five days believing there was an outside chance I would get an interview with him, to mark a year since the attempt on his life in Butler, Pennsylvania.

My reporting from that shooting had made global headlines and probably caught the president's attention. So I judged that perhaps that connection might be a way of securing a presidential interview - pretty rare things for foreign news organisations in the US.

On Sunday night I was told I was minutes away from the call so my team and I were standing by ready to record, but it didn't come.

By last night, I'd given up on the interview happening and after a long few weeks on the road without a day off, I was exhausted and taking a nap. Then the phone rang.

I blearily answered, and the voice of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt came over the speaker: "Hi Gary, I'm here with the president, here you go."

I dashed into my living room, scrambling for my digital recorder; the line dropped and I thought I'd lost it. But they came back on the line and I spent almost 20 minutes speaking to Trump about everything from that fateful night in Butler, to his frustrations with Vladimir Putin, to his new-found belief in Nato and to his view of the UK.

Here are my five key takeaways from our surprise conversation.

1. Trump shows a different side, touching on Butler

He was very reflective on a couple of things and he sounded pretty vulnerable talking about the assassination attempt - it's clear he's uncomfortable talking about that.

For a president often seen in public shooting from the hip, and loved by his supporters for doing so, there were moments of reflection and some long pauses before answers that are rarely seen.

When asked if the assassination attempt had changed him, the president conveyed a hint of vulnerability as he said he tries to think about it as little as he can.

"I don't like dwelling on it because if I did, it would be, you know, might be life-changing, I don't want it to have to be that."

Elaborating, he said he liked "the power of positive thinking, or the power of positive non-thinking".

There was also a very long pause when I asked him if he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Eventually he replied: "I trust almost nobody to be honest with you."

• I'm 'disappointed but not done' with Putin, Trump says

2. No commitment to US deportation numbers

Turning to domestic American politics, I asked whether the president's plan for mass deportations was working - both in terms of speed, and given that some individuals were being swept up who the president perhaps wouldn't want to see deported.

The president insisted his team had done a "great job" at fulfilling his campaign promises, citing the drastic decrease in migrants crossing into the US from southern neighbour Mexico.

Some of Trump's team have expressed frustration that deportations are being carried out too slowly. When I pushed him on the question of how many deportations in this second presidential term would mark a success, Trump refused to give a figure.

"Well I don't put a number on but I want to get the criminals out quickly, and we're doing that, as you know," he said. "We're bringing them to El Salvador, lots of other places."

3. More frustration with Putin

Trump expressed his frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin - capping off a day in which he threatened to hit Moscow's economy with secondary sanctions if a deal over the war in Ukraine was not reached within 50 days.

Having campaigned on a promise to quickly end the war, Trump seemed perplexed that he had not yet managed to strike an agreement with his Russian counterpart to end the years-long conflict.

He again indicated there was a gap between words and actions on Putin's part: "I thought we had a deal done four times and then you go home, and you see, just attacked a nursing home or something in Kyiv. I said: 'What the hell was that all about?'"

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders have long accused Putin of not being serious about ending the war. To them, feelings of doubt will be nothing new.

But, when I asked Trump whether he had finished with the Russian leader, he continued to leave the door open: "I'm not done with him, but I'm disappointed in him."

• Trump weapons pledge marks major step forward for Ukraine
• Rosenberg: Russia more relieved than rattled by US threat

4. New tone on Nato

I pointed out to Trump that he once suggested Nato was obsolete, and he replied that he now thought the Western military alliance was "becoming the opposite of that".

He was fresh from hosting Nato chief Mark Rutte - a man he seems to be able to work well with. The pair exchanged warm words in front of the world's cameras, and announced that the US would sell weapons to Nato which would then be passed on to Kyiv.

During our call, Trump indicated that he was shaking off his grudge that his country spent proportionately more on defence than its allies.

"It was very unfair because the United States paid for almost a hundred percent of it, but now they're paying their own bills and I think that's much better," he said, appearing to refer to a pledge last month by Nato members to ramp up defence spending to 5% of each country's economic output.

"We changed Nato a lot," he told me.

5. Respect for Starmer and UK

Trump emphasised his respect for the UK and its prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, with whom he last month signed an agreement to remove some trade barriers. "I really like the prime minister a lot, even though he's a liberal," Trump explained.

Trump emphasised that the relationship between the two countries was just as "special" as many Britons like to believe, adding that he believed the UK would fight alongside the US in a war.

He sounded relaxed over perceived slights against him. Although his state visit to the UK later this year will not entail a speech to Parliament, he was not insistent that lawmakers be recalled. "Let them go and have a good time," he said.

Trump labelled his future host King Charles "a great gentleman". He shrugged off a recent speech that was given to Canada's parliament by the monarch that was seen as an endorsement of Canadian sovereignty in the face of Trump's threats.

He even had a joke. "You have many different names you go by," he said. "England, if you want to cut off a couple of areas. And you go UK, and you have Britain and you have Great Britain. You got more names than any other country in history, I think."

Former Match of the Day presenter Gary Lineker has emerged as the BBC's top paid presenter for the eighth year running, the corporation's annual report shows.

Lineker earned between £1,350,000 - £1,354,99 in the last financial year, followed by former Radio 2 breakfast host Zoe Ball on £515,000 - £519,999.

Lineker's salary remained the same as last year's, while Zoe Ball's has dropped from the previous year's £950,000-£954,999, reflecting her departure from the Radio 2 breakfast show to take up a new role fronting Saturday afternoons on the station.

The report comes as the BBC confirmed that several members of staff have been dismissed following a review into the corporation's culture which was published in April.

Samir Shah, chairman of the BBC, acknowledged that over the past year, there had been a "string of revelations" about abuses of power in the workplace.

The comments came following a report on Monday which upheld 45 allegations about TV presenter Gregg Wallace's behaviour on BBC show MasterChef.

Later on Monday, Wallace's co-host John Torode said a separate allegation against him of using racist language had also been upheld, as part of the same inquiry.

Star salaries

As usual, the BBC's annual report does not paint the full picture of what star presenters at the BBC earn.

A huge number are not listed because the corporation does not have to make public the salaries of stars who are paid through its commercial arm BBC Studios or via independent production companies.

• The stars you won't see on the BBC salaries list

Lineker signed off from his final edition of Match of the Day in May after 26 years in the hot seat and officially left the BBC.

He had been due to remain with the BBC to front coverage of the men's FA Cup and the World Cup, but in the end, left the corporation completely after apologising for sharing a social media post that included an illustration considered antisemitic.

His salary is still included in the BBC's latest annual report as he's only just left, but next year he will no longer be included.

Zoe Ball hosted her final Radio 2 breakfast show in December after six years in the slot, and earlier this year took up her new Saturday afternoon role.

Elsewhere, director general Tim Davie's salary has gone up by £20k from last year (£527) to £547k, representing a 3.8% pay rise.

The BBC's licence fee is set by the culture secretary Lisa Nandy.

This year income generated by the licence fee increased from £3.7 to £3.8bn after inflation.

The report stated there was a drop in the number of households paying for the licence fee, from 23,131,000 in 2024 to 22,772,000 in 2025 - a drop of 359,000.

This represents a decline of 1.56%, compared with last year's figure of 1.26%.

That number is holding up fairly well, declining less quickly than might be expected given the competition from streaming services.

The report also revealed 50% of UK adults think the BBC is effective at providing news and current affairs that is impartial, an uptick of 5% on last year's 45% of those surveyed.

A further 63% of UK adults think the BBC is effective at providing news and current affairs is accurate, compared to last year's 59%.

The number of adults using BBC services weekly last year declined slightly from 75% to 74%, though 70% of under 16s use BBC services including TV, iPlayer, radio and online content on a weekly basis.

Of those platforms, iPlayer is the fastest growing platform for long-form content.

The report also showed that 10 out of 10 of Christmas Day top shows were from the BBC - but that includes King's speech which is also broadcast on other channels.

The BBC's annual report comes in the wake of a series of controversies faced by the corporation. As well as Masterchef, they include Glastonbury and the decision to broadcast Bob Vylan's set.

Earlier this year, a documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, was pulled from iPlayer after it emerged its 13-year-old narrator was the son of a Hamas official.

On Monday, a report concluded the documentary breached editorial guidelines on accuracy.

It stated the BBC bears "some responsibility" for "not being sufficiently proactive" in the early stages of the project, and for a "lack of critical oversight of unanswered or partially answered questions" - although the the party with most responsibility for this failure".

The UK government set up a secret Afghan relocation scheme after the personal data of thousands of people was inadvertently leaked, it can be revealed.

A dataset containing the details of nearly 19,000 people who applied to move to the UK following the Taliban takeover of the country was released in error by a British defence official in February 2022.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) learned of the breach in August 2023 when some details were anonymously posted on Facebook.

Nearly 9,000 Afghans have arrived in the UK or are en route via the previously secret scheme, which is estimated to have cost £850m.

The existence of this confidential Afghan Response Route, which was established in April 2024, was kept confidential by an injunction but can now be reported following a High Court ruling on Tuesday.

The MoD declined to say how many have been arrested or killed as a result of the data breach.

Defence secretary John Healey is expected to confirm further details in the House of Commons later on Tuesday.

The unauthorised data breach was committed by an unnamed individual at the MoD. The data related to Afghans who worked with international forces following the 2001 invasion of the country.

As US troops completed their withdrawal in August 2021, the UK government set up Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap) scheme, which was designed to rapidly process applications by people who feared reprisals from the Taliban and move them to the UK.

But it emerged on Tuesday that thousands of those who applied for that scheme had sensitive personal data leaked by a British official.

Arap has already been heavily criticised in the years since it was launched, with a 2022 inquiry by the Foreign Affairs Committee finding it was a "disaster" and a "betrayal".

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

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More English regions are expected to join the North West and Yorkshire in an official drought on Tuesday after yet another hot and dry spell of weather.

The announcement is likely to come after the National Drought Group – which manages preparations for dry conditions in England – meets on Tuesday morning.

Declaring a drought means that water companies put in place their plans to manage water resources. That can involve hosepipe bans, but not always.

Droughts are driven by natural weather patterns, but climate change and our growing use of water are raising the risks of water shortages, the Environment Agency says.

The National Drought Group is made up of the Environment Agency, government, Met Office, water companies and others.

There are no official droughts in Wales and Northern Ireland at the moment. Scotland does not declare droughts but monitors "water scarcity".

Parts of eastern Scotland are in "moderate" scarcity – the second most extreme category – which means there is "clear" environmental impact.

In England there is no single definition of drought, but it is ultimately caused by a prolonged period of low rainfall, which has knock-on effects for nature, agriculture and water supplies.

England had its driest spring in more than 100 years, followed by three heatwaves in quick succession for some areas in June and July.

That intense warmth has drawn even more moisture out of the soil.

So while it may be raining where you live today, it's unlikely to be enough to bring water levels back to normal across the country.

The Environment Agency (EA) declares droughts in England based on reservoir levels, river flows and how dry the soil is, alongside long-term weather forecasts.

"We certainly expect more regions to enter drought status," said Richard Thompson, deputy director of water resources at the EA, adding that further details would be announced later on Tuesday.

In a "reasonable worst-case scenario" - where regions get 80% of their long-term average rainfall - another five regions across central and southern England could enter drought status by September, joining Yorkshire and the North West, according to the EA.

Current long-term forecasts suggest roughly normal levels of rainfall over the next few months, however.

If further droughts are declared, it does not automatically mean that hosepipe bans will be put in place, but these can often follow.

Some regions, such as parts of Kent and Sussex, have already declared hosepipe bans, but are not in drought status.

The EA warned last month that England's water supplies could face a shortfall of six billion litres a day by 2055 without dramatic action, driven by rising temperatures, population growth and other factors.

Climate change is expected to lead to drier summers on average, while more intense heatwaves mean more water can be lost via evaporation.

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Savers with cash in low-interest accounts will be blitzed with offers to invest their money instead, under government plans.

Banks will send savers details of stocks and shares investments and there will be an advertising campaign to raise awareness, the Treasury said.

In a series of proposals by Chancellor Rachel Reeves, a scheme that encourages the provision of low-deposit mortgages will also be made permanent.

Reeves is delivering two major speeches on Tuesday, as the government and chancellor aim to rebound from bruising blows on welfare and the winter fuel U-turn.

"We need to double down on our global strengths to put the UK ahead in the global race for financial businesses, creating good skilled jobs in every part of the country and helping savers' money go further," said Reeves, ahead of her Mansion House speech to City leaders.

The Treasury had already shelved any immediate plans to make changes to cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas).

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

However, there is a plan in the Treasury to encourage people to invest for better returns, which would also boost growth in the UK economy.

But the value of investments can go down as well as up, and savers have tended to be cautious over the risks involved. In the newly-announced Treasury proposals, there is a potential for some of the warnings to be watered down.

The Treasury said there would be a "review of risk warnings on investment products to make sure they help people to accurately judge risk levels".

The move is part of reforms designed to boost financial services in the UK, known as the Leeds Reforms.

However, there may be concern that encouraging letters and messages from banks to encourage investing might be seized upon by fraudsters who could also send fake investment claims to new investors.

Mortgage backstop

In a speech in Leeds, the chancellor said she wanted to boost investment, and also help first-time buyers.

For some time, banks and building have had a backstop from the government to ensure they continue to give low-deposit mortgages to first-time buyers.

The chancellor said that scheme will be made permanent, a promise made in the Labour manifesto.

This comes after the Bank of England announced a looser cap on riskier mortgage lending, which the government says could help 36,000 more people buy a home over its first year.

If you live in north-west England or Yorkshire, you are already in an official state of drought, the Environment Agency says, and people living in other English regions could follow if the dry weather continues.

Those of us in eastern Scotland or parts of Wales are also seeing low water levels, according to water companies there.

Drought can affect different aspects of our lives and the environment. It can make it harder for farmers to grow crops, do harm to nature and mean you have to change how you use water.

So how is your area doing and how close are you to a drought? Here's a look at what's happening around the country, including our rain, rivers and reservoirs.

One of the driest springs on record

There is no single definition of drought or water scarcity - the measure in Scotland - but a long period of low rainfall is needed.

And it rained less than normal across almost all of the UK between March and May, the UK's sixth driest spring since records began in 1836.

So there has been less moisture to top up our rivers, reservoirs and rocks below the ground.

If that lack of rainfall continues for a long time, it can strain the water supplies that serve our homes and businesses.

In June there was slightly more rainfall than average for the UK overall, but with a big difference between east and west.

Parts of Northern Ireland, western Scotland, Wales and south-west England saw wetter conditions than usual. But most of central and eastern England and Scotland saw dry weather continuing.

Long-term forecasts suggest drier than average conditions through much of July and possibly August too.

That would further increase the risk of drought.

Drier rivers for most of the UK

Monitors in rivers show us how they are flowing. At the end of May these river flows were below normal for about three-quarters of monitored sites around the UK.

About one in five experienced "exceptionally low" flows.

Provisional June data doesn't look much better.

River flows at the end of last month were about the same as - or even below - previous drought years of 1976, 2011, 2018 and 2022 for many eastern, central and southern regions, said Lucy Barker, hydrologist at the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.

Exceptionally low reservoirs in north England

Reservoirs are a crucial part of water supplies in northern England, Scotland and Wales.

At the end of May, England's reservoirs were at their lowest combined levels for the time of year in records going back more than 30 years.

Reservoir levels in the North East and North West were exceptionally low - an important factor for drought being declared in Yorkshire and the North West.

The main reason for this is, of course, the lack of rain, but a small number reservoirs can be affected by other factors.

Normally at this time of year, Scottish reservoirs are 85% full. Last week they were at 79%, according to Scottish Water. They are even lower in eastern Scotland.

In Wales, most are around normal, although the reservoirs serving Mid and South Ceredigion in west Wales are below average, Welsh Water said.

Reservoir levels are about average in Northern Ireland, according to NI Water.

A more mixed picture underground

Much of south-east England relies more heavily on groundwater than reservoirs.

Groundwater originates as rainfall and is naturally stored beneath the surface in the pore spaces and fractures in rocks. Rocks that store lots of groundwater are called aquifers.

It accounts for a third of England's water supply, though this is much higher in the south and east.

That is down to the UK's varied geology, which affects how much water can be stored in the ground.

Water can flow more quickly through some rock types than others, sometimes taking years to respond to current conditions.

This is the case for parts of south and east England, which is why these regions are currently closer to normal.

These groundwater stores "respond more slowly to changes in the climate than rivers which is why they provide a useful buffer during periods of drought," said Prof Alan MacDonald of the British Geological Survey.

It is why groundwater droughts in the South generally take a longer time to develop but can be longer-lasting if they do occur.

What are the consequences of the dry weather?

People and nature are already feeling the effects.

"It's quite shocking that we are still only [in early] July," Rachel Hallos, deputy director of the National Farmers' Union, told BBC News.

"It's like it's the end of August when you look at the ground."

With this little rain, farmers have had to get water onto their crops using irrigation.

That has made things more expensive for them and means there is even less water to go around.

There is widespread concern about the months ahead, Mrs Hallos added.

"What am I going to have to harvest? What am I going to have to feed my livestock over winter?"

And then there is the impact on wildlife.

A spokesman from the bird protection charity RSPB said that a big challenge has been making sure enough water is getting to key wetland habitats so that birds have safe places to nest.

"We need to be thinking about making our sites more resilient to climate change, as these periods of prolonged dry weather become the norm."

And it's not just water-loving birds that are having a hard time. Even in our gardens, common visitors like blackbirds can struggle to find worms and insects on our parched lawns, the RSPB says.

Is climate change to blame?

Droughts are complex phenomena, driven by a mix of natural and human causes.

The Met Office expects the UK to experience drier summers on average in future as the world warms, though there has been no clear trend so far.

But rising temperatures can play a more fundamental role by sapping moisture from the soil via evaporation.

"A warmer atmosphere is thirstier for moisture and this can mean water in the soil, rivers and reservoirs are depleted more effectively, leading to more rapidly onsetting droughts, heatwaves and wildfires," said Richard Allan, professor of climate science at the University of Reading.

But there are other factors that determine whether dry conditions lead to water shortages, including how we use water.

As part of plans to address water shortages, the government is planning nine new reservoirs for England by 2050, in addition to one under construction at Havant Thicket in Hampshire.

But the Environment Agency has warned that measures to tackle water leaks and control water demand - potentially including hosepipe bans and more smart meters - may be needed in England too.

Water companies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also said they were taking steps to secure future supplies.

Additional reporting by Dan Wainwright and Christine Jeavans

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