Reading view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.

Unite union suspends Rayner's membership over Birmingham bin strikes

BBC 'Breaking' graphicBBC

Unite says it has suspended Angela Rayner from her membership of the union, amid a deepening row over the long-running bin strikes in Birmingham.

The deputy prime minister has been urging striking bin workers to accept a deal to end the dispute, which has seen mountains of rubbish pile up in the city.

The union said it would also re-examine its relationship with Labour after an emergency motion at its conference in Brighton.

Bin collection workers walked out in January, with an all-out strike going on since March. Unite is a major donor to the Labour Party, and has previously donated to Rayner herself.

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.

Two residents die after car crashes into care home

BBC Breaking NewsBBC

Two care home residents have died after a car crashed into the building following a police chase in Sunderland, Northumbria Police has said.

The crash happened at about 21:40 BST on Wednesday when a blue BMW hit Highcliffe Care Home in Witherwack, causing structural damage.

The vehicle had been reported stolen from the Fenham area of Newcastle earlier that evening, police said.

A woman in her 90s and another in her 80s died on Thursday, and eight other residents were taken to hospital with injuries. Two people have been arrested.

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.

Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh says we've become 'dumbed-down machines'

BBC Irvine WelshBBC

Irvine Welsh is pointing up to the second floor of a grey stone building in Leith, the port district of Edinburgh.

As he gets ready to publish a sequel to his 1993 cult novel Trainspotting, the author is showing me the window of the room, with its view over a local park, where he wrote that first book, which later became a hit film starring Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller.

The son of a Leith docker and a waitress - who did a course in electrical engineering, spent time in a punk band and was addicted to heroin as a younger man - Welsh had moved back home to Leith from London and "just started typing". He tells me that before writing Trainspotting he had decided "this is my last chance to do something creative".

Trainspotting follows the lives of a group of heroin-addicted friends in Edinburgh. Violent, often shocking and darkly funny, the book is a picture of the social decay sparked by the decimation of Britain's industrial heartlands. It was Welsh's first novel and sold more than a million copies in the UK alone.

But as he sat typing away, back in the early 90s, he had no idea it would do well. "I just wanted to get it done," he explains. It certainly paid off.

Shutterstock Close up shot from Trainspotting film showing Spud in sunglasses, smiling with pink shirt (Ewen Bremner), Renton sneering in blue T shirt (Ewan McGregor) & Begbie with earring and moustache in bright pink shirt (Robert Carlyle)Shutterstock
Ewen Bremner, Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle starred in 1996's Trainspotting, based on Irvine Welsh's successful book

The book and film tapped so successfully into the cultural zeitgeist that more than 30 years on, you can still book an official Trainspotting tour in Leith. But on a blustery Scottish summer's day, I'm getting a bespoke one from the writer himself, touring some of the key haunts that inspired him.

We head to the so-called Banana Flats, the curved building officially called Cables Wynd House that dominates the Leith skyline and where his character Sick Boy (played by Miller in the film) grows up.

We visit the Leith Dockers' Club where Renton (played by McGregor) goes with his mum and dad and where Welsh remembers hanging out "as a kid and sitting there with lemonade and crisps" and "feeling really sort of resentful" while everyone else was getting drunk.

Adam Walker/BBC Katie Razzall with blond hair, white jacket and trousers talking to Irvine Welsh, bald, in white anorak and jeans outside the Banana flats in LeithAdam Walker/BBC
Katie Razzall talking to Irvine Welsh outside Cables Wynd House, better known as the Banana flats in Leith, which is part of the Trainspotting tour

Welsh's latest return to his characters is called Men in Love. He's previously written follow-up books and a prequel about the Trainspotting gang (he clearly can't get enough of them), but this new novel is set immediately after the first one finished, when Renton has run off with the money he and his friends have made from a big drug deal.

This time, Welsh is exploring what happens when young men start to fall in love and have relationships. He was partly motivated to write it, he says, because "we're living in a world that seems to be so full of hate and poison... I think that it's time we focused more on love as a kind of antidote to all that".

But don't expect saccharine stories of romance - this is Welsh, after all. The cheating, lying, manipulative - and at times, horrifying - behaviour of some of his characters is still much in evidence.

The book even has a disclaimer at the end explaining that because the novel is set in the 1980s, many of the characters "express themselves in ways that we now consider offensive and discriminatory".

Welsh says the publishers insisted on it. "They felt we live in such sensitive times that we need to make that point.

"We live in a much more censorious environment," he continues. While he accepts that misogynist terms in the book including "fat lassie" are hurtful and "there's a good reason why we don't say them", he worries that if the state starts to say "you can't talk about this, you can't talk about that, I think we're on a dangerous road".

The Men in Love story spans into the early 90s. It's being published at a time when Britain is indulging in a bit of 90s nostalgia, with Oasis on tour and Pulp's surprise set at Glastonbury getting rave reviews.

Welsh tells me he "never left" that era, but says younger generations also feel a nostalgia for it because "people had lives then".

He pins some of the blame for cultural change on the internet and social media which has become "a controlling rather than an enabling force".

As someone who understands addiction, Welsh hopes we'll be "more judicious" about using social media in future. He points to the way people have "their phones stuck to their face" while they are moving around.

"If we survive the next 50 years, that's going to look as strange in film as people chain smoking cigarettes did back in the 80s."

Film Four [L-R] Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Renton (Ewan McGregor), Begbie (Robert Carlyle) & Tommy (Kevin McKidd) in a scene from Trainspotting. Cast wearing casual dark tops, except Begbie in red jumper with cigarette - looking at documentFilm Four
[L-R] Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Renton (Ewan McGregor), Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and Tommy (Kevin McKidd) in Trainspotting

He also thinks the internet is making us more stupid. "When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies." He fears we're heading towards "a post-democratic, post-art, post-culture society where we've got artificial intelligence on one side and we've a kind of natural stupidity on the other side, we just become these dumbed down machines that are taking instructions".

Trainspotting's success came in part he says at a time when people were willing to read more challenging, less formulaic books. And as the money rolled in, it gave him the freedom to write.

He's also a DJ and is releasing an album with the Sci-Fi Soul Orchestra to go with his new book. The disco tracks relate to the characters, the storyline and the "emotional landscape" of the novel.

Music is "fundamental" to his writing and he's also "looking for that four-four beat all the time while I'm typing".

He builds a playlist in his head for every character and theme.

Renton's into Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground. Sick Boy also likes Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, New Order, he says.

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh looking to camera in red, white & check T shirt playing the guitarIrvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh has always loved music, saying he "writes in a very musical type of way, looking for that 4-4 beat" when he's typing
Getty Images Irvine Welsh in hat and anorak DJing during Playground Festival 2021 at Rouken Glen Park in GlasgowGetty Images
Irvine Welsh DJing during Playground Festival at Rouken Glen Park in Glasgow in 2021

The aggressive and violent Begbie likes "Rod Stewart and power ballads basically".

The singer recently told The Times that the public should give the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a chance. I wondered if Irvine Welsh thinks that his Trainspotting characters would support that party if they were growing up now.

He pushes back, telling me the Scottish working classes "still have a radical kind of spirit. They're not really there to be the stooge of some public school idiot".

Although later he adds "people are so desperate that they'll go along with anybody who has that rhetoric of change".

Welsh has always been political and, as we walk around the area where he grew up, he describes how Margaret Thatcher ended centuries of shipbuilding in Leith "at a stroke". Five thousand dockers became none, he says.

Henry Robb Ltd/SWNS Black and white photo of Workers in ship at the Henry Robb Ltd Ship Builders in Leith in 1964Henry Robb Ltd/SWNS
Workers at the Henry Robb Ltd Ship Builders in Leith in 1964 - reflecting Leith's proud history of shipbuilding

Trainspotting also resonated, he thinks, because it "heralded the adjustment to people living in a world without paid work. And now we're all in that position".

His argument is that Britain's class system is changing "because of this massive concentration of wealth towards the wealthy".

The working classes already have no money and now the middle classes are being pulled into more and more debt too and are less able to pass on their assets which makes life increasingly insecure.

"We're all members of the Precariat, basically. We don't know how long we'll have paid work if we do have it, and we just don't know how long this will last because our economy, our society is in a long-form revolutionary transformation."

In my time in Welsh's company, we haven't just toured Leith, I've had an insight into his brain, exploding with opinions on everything from our dystopian future, to why the best music was made in the analogue era and even to what would happen if he were offered a knighthood (it's a no, by the way).

When our time's up, he heads into the bar at the Dockers' Club to see a friend he first met at primary school 60 years ago. His old pal jokes to me that he's a plumber while Welsh is a millionaire author. You can see the affection between them.

Trainspotting may have changed Welsh's life entirely. But he's still plugged into the community that shaped him, and the Leith that he turned so spectacularly into fiction.

Men in Love is published on 24 July 2025

UK's first hosepipe ban of 2025 'to last until winter'

BBC Nicola Shaw in a helmet and high vis jacket stood in front of a sewage worksBBC
Yorkshire Water CEO Nicola Shaw accepted a £371,000 bonus last year

A hosepipe ban which has come into force across Yorkshire is expected to last until winter, the head of the region's water company has said.

More than five million householders have been barred from using hosepipes for activities such as watering the garden, washing the car or filling a paddling pool.

It is the first regional ban in the UK this year and comes after months of extremely hot and dry weather across England, with more high temperatures forecast over the weekend.

Nicola Shaw, chief executive of Yorkshire Water, told BBC 5 Live said: "I expect it to last until the winter as that is when the reservoirs will have recharged."

Yorkshire Water said the region had experienced its driest and warmest spring on record, with only 15cm of rainfall between February and June - less than half of what would be expected in an average year.

The company said the restrictions were needed to protect supplies in the face of more dry weather forecast in the coming weeks.

However, the decision has been criticised by some bill payers who expressed frustration at the number of leaks which appear to go unchecked.

In October, the Environment Agency (EA) reported that 21% of Yorkshire Water's supplies were lost due to leakage, higher than the national average of 19%.

The loss in Yorkshire equates to about 260 million litres every day.

PA Media Couple of people and dog walk across a stone bridge which is set amongst steep brown sides of a semi-empty reservoir.PA Media
People walk over a bridge that is normally submerged at Baitings Reservoir in Ripponden, West Yorkshire

When pushed on this issue, Ms Shaw, who received a bonus of £371,000 on top of her base salary of £585,000 last year, said she accepted the leakage rate was high but said it "was absolutely one of our priorities".

She added: "We have a lot of water mains across Yorkshire but because they're underground they are subject to some of the problems of the stresses and strains of movement of the soil and when it gets really dry they also break more."

"We've been working really hard on this and we've got less leakage from our pipes than we've ever had in Yorkshire.

"We are getting to fix leaks much quicker than we ever have done before."

Map of the UK showing rainfall levels for March to May of this year versus the long-term average. Almost all of the country has seen much lower rainfall than usual, marked in browns. Only parts of the Shetlands Islands and Cornwall have received more than normal, marked in faint blues.

The ban, which applies to customers across much of Yorkshire, parts of North Lincolnshire and parts of Derbyshire, comes after the Environment Agency declared a drought across the region last month.

Anyone flouting the restriction could be fined up to £1,000.

Ms Shaw, who was said to have turned down a bonus this year ahead of legislation which would have prevented her from receiving it, said businesses were able to continue using hosepipes as normal while restrictions were in place.

"We're asking people to use them for non-essential purposes. Please don't wash your car with a hosepipe, you can absolutely use a bucket.

"Washing your car with a hosepipe will use about a 1,000 litres if you did it for an hour."

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

Related internet links

Chris Brown pleads not guilty to more assault charges

Reuters U.S. singer Chris Brown, who has been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm in what prosecutors said was an "unprovoked attack" on a music producer at the Tape nightclub in central London in 2023, walks outside the Southwark Crown Court in London, Britain, July 11, 2025.Reuters

US singer Chris Brown has arrived at a court in London to enter a plea over two charges relating to an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub two years ago.

The 36-year-old star is accused of causing actual bodily harm to a music producer during an incident that prosecutors have described as "unprovoked".

He is also charged with having an offensive weapon - namely a tequila bottle.

The two charges were added last month to the original charge of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), to which Brown has already pleaded not guilty. The singer will face trial in October 2026.

PA Media R&B singer Chris Brown arrives at Southwark Crown Court, south London, where he is charged over an alleged assault in a London nightclub. The American musician, 36, is accused of causing grievous bodily harm to Abraham Diaw in February 2023. Picture date: Friday July 11, 2025.PA Media
Chris Brown arrived at Southwark Crown Court on Friday morning

The singer arrived at Southwark Crown Court for the latest plea hearing shortly before 09:00 BST on Friday.

Prosecutors have previously said the alleged victim, Abraham Diaw, was standing at the bar of Soho's Tape nightclub on 19 February 2023 when Mr Brown struck him several times with a bottle.

The singer was arrested at the five-star Lowry hotel in Salford, Greater Manchester, last month, after returning to the UK to prepare for a European tour.

He was held in custody for almost a week, before being released after agreeing to pay a £5m security fee to the court.

A security fee is a financial guarantee to ensure a defendant returns to court. Mr Brown could be asked to forfeit the money if he breaches bail conditions.

Under those conditions, Mr Brown must live at an address in the UK while awaiting trial, and was ordered to surrender his passport to police.

However, a plan was put in place allowing him to honour his Breezy Bowl XX world tour dates by surrendering his passport but getting it back when he needs to travel to the gigs.

The first date took place in Amsterdam on 8 June, before a string of stadium and arena shows across the UK and Europe.

Mr Brown is one of the biggest stars in US R&B, with two Grammy Awards, and 19 top 10 singles in the UK - including hits like Turn Up The Music, Freaky Friday, With You and Don't Wake Me Up.

His co-defendant Omololu Akinlolu, a 39-year-old American who performs under the name HoodyBaby, also entered a not guilty plea last month to the charge of attempted grievous bodily harm.

Kurdish PKK burns guns in big step towards ending Turkey conflict

DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP A supporter holds a flag with the face of Abdullah Ocalan, with his face also on the backdrop behind herDELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP
Imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan still commands support among many Kurds

After 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state, the outlawed Kurdish PKK will hold a ceremony on Friday to mark a symbolic first step in laying down its arms.

The disarmament process will start under tight security in Iraqi Kurdistan and is expected to take all summer.

Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has hailed the move as "totally ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country's legs".

Some 40,000 people have been killed since the conflict began, and the PKK is listed as a terror group in Turkey, the US, EU and UK. Its disarmament will be felt not just in Turkey but in Iraq, Syria and Iran.

How and where will the PKK disarm?

A small group of PKK members will symbolically lay down their weapons in a ceremony near Suleymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, before going back to their bases.

For security reasons, the exact location is not being revealed, although it's thought members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition Dem party will be there, even if other major Turkish political parties will not.

Disarmament will then continue over the coming months at points set up with the involvement of the Turkish, Iraqi and Kurdistan regional governments, BBC Turkish has been told.

In a video, the PKK's long-imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, said it was "a voluntary transition from the phase of armed conflict to the phase of democratic politics and law". He has been in solitary confinement on the small prison island of Imrali, south-west of Istanbul, since he was captured in 1999.

Who are the PKK and why has the conflict lasted so long?

Getty Images PKK fighters training in Iraqi KurdistanGetty Images
A fragile ceasefire with the PKK broke down in 2015

This is not the first attempt at peace involving Turkey and the PKK, but this is the best hope so far that the armed struggle that began in 1984 will come to an end.

Originally a Marxist group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party took up arms calling for an independent state inside Turkey.

In the 1990s, they called instead for greater autonomy for Kurds, who make up about 20% of the population.

Ocalan announced a ceasefire in 2013, and urged PKK forces to withdraw from Turkey. The 2015 Dolmabahce Agreement was supposed to bring democratic and language rights for Kurds, but the fragile truce collapsed amid devastating violence, especially in the Kurdish-dominated cities of the south-east, including Diyarbakir.

Turkey's air force targeted PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Several military campaigns have also targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria.

The government in Ankara ruled out further talks until the PKK laid down its arms. That is now on the verge of happening.

Why has the PKK decided to disband?

In October 2024, a prominent nationalist leader and key Erdogan ally called Devlet Bahceli began a process described by the government as "terror-free Turkey". He urged the PKK's imprisoned leader to call for the dissolution of the outlawed group. It could pave the way for his possible release from Imrali island, he suggested.

The Turkish government launched talks with Ocalan via the pro-Kurdish Dem party, and then in February came his historic appeal for the PKK to disband, read out by two Dem MPs who had just returned from a visit to the prison island.

"All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," read Ocalan's letter.

The PKK had been formed primarily because "the channels of democratic politics were closed", he said, but Devlet Bahceli and Erdogan's own positive signals had created the right environment.

The PKK followed Ocalan's lead and declared a ceasefire and later declared that it had "completed its historical mission": the Kurdish issue could now "be resolved through democratic politics".

President Erdogan said it was an "opportunity to take a historic step toward tearing down the wall of terror" and met pro-Kurdish politicians in April.

Why is Ocalan so important?

ANF Seven men - three sitting and four standing - are in front of a camera looking solemn.ANF
Ocalan, in the centre at the front, released a video on Wednesday ahead of Friday's ceremony

As founder of the PKK, Ocalan continues to be reviled by many Turks, even after 26 years in solitary confinement.

And yet he still plays an important role in the eyes of Kurds.

"I think he really has this authority; he is a main symbol for many Kurds, not all," says Joost Jongerden, a specialist on the 41-year conflict at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Two days before the PKK were due to begin disarmament, Ocalan appeared on video for the first time since he was put on trial more than 20 years ago.

Speaking for seven minutes, he addressed the outlawed group: "I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. And I call on you to put this principle into practice."

Ocalan was wearing a branded Lacoste polo shirt, and in an indication of his enduring relevance, the shirt quickly went viral and websites ran out of stock.

What happens next?

Reuters Turkey's President Erdogan looks at the camera Reuters
Turkey's President Erdogan has denied wanting to continue in office when his term runs out

After Friday's ceremony, the scene switches to Turkey's parliament in Ankara where a commission will be set up to make decisions on the next steps for the government.

As the summer recess is around the corner, no concrete decisions are expected for several months, when MPs vote on the commission's recommendations and President Erdogan has the final say.

What happens to Abdullah Ocalan is not yet clear. The government says his conditions in jail could be reviewed as the process unfolds, but any chance of release will be left to the latter stages.

What's in this process for Erdogan?

Erdogan's AK Party has begun work on changing the constitution, and there has been speculation that this would mean Erdogan would be able to run for the presidency again when his final term runs out in 2028.

The AKP and pro-Kurdish Dem party deny there is any link between the peace process and reshaping the constitution, but if Erdogan secures Dem support he would have a far greater chance of pushing through changes.

Erdogan is behind in the polls, but his main opposition rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, is in jail accused of corruption, which he denies, and more opposition mayors have been arrested as part of a crackdown in the past week.

Ukraine to receive US air defence systems, says Trump

Reuters Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stands, visible above the shoulders dressed in a black shirt, his dark hair and beard short and face serious. Behind him is a camouflage-painted missile defence system.Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pictured in a file photo with a US Patriot defence system

US President Donald Trump has said he will send weapons, including Patriot air defence systems, for Ukraine via Nato.

Trump told NBC News that in a new deal, "we're going to be sending Patriots to Nato, and then Nato will distribute that", adding that Nato would pay for the weapons.

His announcement came after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of having a "positive dialogue" with Trump on ensuring that arms arrived on time, particularly air defence systems.

Zelensky said he had asked for 10 Patriot systems, after a surge in Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in the past week.

Speaking in Rome on Thursday, the Ukrainian leader said Germany was ready to pay for two of the Patriots and Norway for one, while other European partners were also prepared to help.

After a phone-call with Russia's Vladimir Putin last week, Trump said he was "not happy" that progress had not been made towards ending the war, and he has since complained that Putin's "very nice" attitude turned out to be meaningless.

During his interview with NBC News, Trump said he would make a "major statement" on Russia on Monday, but did not say what it would be about.

He said "Nato is going to reimburse the full cost" for the weapons sent on to Ukraine. Nato is funded through the contributions of its members, including the US.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Friday that he had urged countries including Germany and Spain to hand over some of their existing Patriot batteries, as they could reach Ukraine faster.

"We have continued to encourage our Nato allies to provide those weapons... since they have them in their stocks, then we can enter into financial agreements... where they can purchase the replacements."

The US defence department halted some shipments of critical weapons last week, raising concerns in Kyiv that its air defences could run low in a matter of months.

Among the armaments reported to have been placed on pause were Patriot interceptor missiles and precision artillery shells.

Then, as Ukraine was pounded by record numbers of drone attacks this week, Trump said more weapons would be sent: "We have to... They're getting hit very hard now."

Zelensky had appealed for the shipments to resume, describing the Patriot systems as "real protectors of life".

On Tuesday night, Ukraine was hit by a record 728 drones, and the Ukrainian president warned that Russia wanted to increase that to 1,000.

Heat map showing attacks on Ukraine

June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in Ukraine in three years, with 232 people killed and more than 1,300 injured, according to the UN.

Since re-entering the White House in January, Trump has pushed to scale back US support for Ukraine.

The US was the biggest source of military aid to Ukraine between the start of 2022 and the end of 2024, giving $69bn (£54.6bn) in that time period, according to German think tank the Kiel Institute.

Trump has also pressed Nato allies to pledge more of their GDP to the security alliance. Last year, all European Nato members pledged to spend 2% of GDP on defence.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The US has been urging the two countries to reach an agreement to end the war.

Rubio told reporters that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a "frank" conversation on the sidelines of a meeting in Malaysia on Thursday.

Rubio echoed Trump's "frustration at the lack of progress at peace talks", including "disappointment that there has not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict".

He said the two had shared some new ideas about how the conflict could conclude, which he would take back to Trump.

Rubio declined to elaborate on what Trump said would be a "major" announcement about Russia on Monday.

Iran could recover some enriched uranium after US strikes, Israeli official says

Getty Images Satellite Image of Isfahan nuclear facilitiyGetty Images
Isfahan was one of three Iranian nuclear facilities struck by US aircraft and missiles on 22 June

Israel believes that Iran could potentially retrieve enriched uranium buried beneath one of the three facilities struck by US forces last month, according to a senior Israeli official.

Speaking to US reporters, the official said that reaching the enriched uranium at Isfahan would be extremely difficult and any attempt would prompt renewed Israeli strikes.

Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that US air and missile strikes on Iran in June "obliterated" the country's nuclear facilities, even as some US intelligence agencies have taken a more cautious view.

Iran denies seeking to develop nuclear weapons and says its enrichment of uranium is for peaceful purposes.

In a briefing for reporters in Washington, the senior Israeli official - who declined to be named - said that intelligence indicates that much of Iran's enriched uranium is buried at Isfahan, which was struck by submarine-launched cruise missiles during "Operation Midnight Hammer" on 22 June.

The official, however, did not express concern about the assessment, noting that any Iranian attempt to recover the material would probably be detected.

According to the official, Israel's assessment is that Iran's nuclear programme was set back two years.

Trump and members of his administration have been adamant that the Iranian nuclear facilities were completely destroyed.

"As President Trump has said many times, Operation Midnight Hammer totally obliterated Iran's nuclear facilities," White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement sent to US media outlets. "The entire world is safer thanks to his decisive leadership."

The BBC has contacted the White House for further comment.

US intelligence assessments have been more cautious, with a leaked preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency report concluding that while all three sites - at Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan - were heavily damaged, they were not completely destroyed.

In late June, CIA Director John Ratcliffe told US lawmakers that the destruction of Iran's only facility for producing metallic uranium effectively took away Iran's ability to build a nuclear weapon.

International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Rafael Grossi told CBS, the BBC's US partner, that while the three targeted Iranian sites were "destroyed to an important degree", parts are "still standing".

"Frankly speaking, one cannot claim that everything has disappeared, and there is nothing there," Mr Grossi said.

In an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson published earlier this week, Iranian President Mahmoud Pezeshkian said that the facilities were "severely damaged".

"Therefore we don't have any access to them," he said, adding that a full assessment is impossible for now.

Graphic of Iran's main nuclear facilities

Kurdish PKK burns guns in big step towards ending Turkey conflict

DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP A supporter holds a flag with the face of Abdullah Ocalan, with his face also on the backdrop behind herDELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP
Imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan still commands support among many Kurds

After 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state, the outlawed Kurdish PKK will hold a ceremony on Friday to mark a symbolic first step in laying down its arms.

The disarmament process will start under tight security in Iraqi Kurdistan and is expected to take all summer.

Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has hailed the move as "totally ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country's legs".

Some 40,000 people have been killed since the conflict began, and the PKK is listed as a terror group in Turkey, the US, EU and UK. Its disarmament will be felt not just in Turkey but in Iraq, Syria and Iran.

How and where will the PKK disarm?

A small group of PKK members will symbolically lay down their weapons in a ceremony near Suleymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, before going back to their bases.

For security reasons, the exact location is not being revealed, although it's thought members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition Dem party will be there, even if other major Turkish political parties will not.

Disarmament will then continue over the coming months at points set up with the involvement of the Turkish, Iraqi and Kurdistan regional governments, BBC Turkish has been told.

In a video, the PKK's long-imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, said it was "a voluntary transition from the phase of armed conflict to the phase of democratic politics and law". He has been in solitary confinement on the small prison island of Imrali, south-west of Istanbul, since he was captured in 1999.

Who are the PKK and why has the conflict lasted so long?

Getty Images PKK fighters training in Iraqi KurdistanGetty Images
A fragile ceasefire with the PKK broke down in 2015

This is not the first attempt at peace involving Turkey and the PKK, but this is the best hope so far that the armed struggle that began in 1984 will come to an end.

Originally a Marxist group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party took up arms calling for an independent state inside Turkey.

In the 1990s, they called instead for greater autonomy for Kurds, who make up about 20% of the population.

Ocalan announced a ceasefire in 2013, and urged PKK forces to withdraw from Turkey. The 2015 Dolmabahce Agreement was supposed to bring democratic and language rights for Kurds, but the fragile truce collapsed amid devastating violence, especially in the Kurdish-dominated cities of the south-east, including Diyarbakir.

Turkey's air force targeted PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Several military campaigns have also targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria.

The government in Ankara ruled out further talks until the PKK laid down its arms. That is now on the verge of happening.

Why has the PKK decided to disband?

In October 2024, a prominent nationalist leader and key Erdogan ally called Devlet Bahceli began a process described by the government as "terror-free Turkey". He urged the PKK's imprisoned leader to call for the dissolution of the outlawed group. It could pave the way for his possible release from Imrali island, he suggested.

The Turkish government launched talks with Ocalan via the pro-Kurdish Dem party, and then in February came his historic appeal for the PKK to disband, read out by two Dem MPs who had just returned from a visit to the prison island.

"All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," read Ocalan's letter.

The PKK had been formed primarily because "the channels of democratic politics were closed", he said, but Devlet Bahceli and Erdogan's own positive signals had created the right environment.

The PKK followed Ocalan's lead and declared a ceasefire and later declared that it had "completed its historical mission": the Kurdish issue could now "be resolved through democratic politics".

President Erdogan said it was an "opportunity to take a historic step toward tearing down the wall of terror" and met pro-Kurdish politicians in April.

Why is Ocalan so important?

ANF Seven men - three sitting and four standing - are in front of a camera looking solemn.ANF
Ocalan, in the centre at the front, released a video on Wednesday ahead of Friday's ceremony

As founder of the PKK, Ocalan continues to be reviled by many Turks, even after 26 years in solitary confinement.

And yet he still plays an important role in the eyes of Kurds.

"I think he really has this authority; he is a main symbol for many Kurds, not all," says Joost Jongerden, a specialist on the 41-year conflict at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Two days before the PKK were due to begin disarmament, Ocalan appeared on video for the first time since he was put on trial more than 20 years ago.

Speaking for seven minutes, he addressed the outlawed group: "I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. And I call on you to put this principle into practice."

Ocalan was wearing a branded Lacoste polo shirt, and in an indication of his enduring relevance, the shirt quickly went viral and websites ran out of stock.

What happens next?

Reuters Turkey's President Erdogan looks at the camera Reuters
Turkey's President Erdogan has denied wanting to continue in office when his term runs out

After Friday's ceremony, the scene switches to Turkey's parliament in Ankara where a commission will be set up to make decisions on the next steps for the government.

As the summer recess is around the corner, no concrete decisions are expected for several months, when MPs vote on the commission's recommendations and President Erdogan has the final say.

What happens to Abdullah Ocalan is not yet clear. The government says his conditions in jail could be reviewed as the process unfolds, but any chance of release will be left to the latter stages.

What's in this process for Erdogan?

Erdogan's AK Party has begun work on changing the constitution, and there has been speculation that this would mean Erdogan would be able to run for the presidency again when his final term runs out in 2028.

The AKP and pro-Kurdish Dem party deny there is any link between the peace process and reshaping the constitution, but if Erdogan secures Dem support he would have a far greater chance of pushing through changes.

Erdogan is behind in the polls, but his main opposition rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, is in jail accused of corruption, which he denies, and more opposition mayors have been arrested as part of a crackdown in the past week.

谈不妥就反制 卢拉:并不是说没有美国我们就活不了

德正
2025-07-11T11:34:58.343Z
巴西总统卢拉7月10日晚间接受巴西媒体纪录电视台(Record)采访

(德国之声中文网)“我们将不得不寻找其他合作伙伴来购买我们的产品。巴美贸易占巴西国内生产总值(GDP)的1.7%,并不是说没有美国我们就活不了。”巴西总统卢拉7月10日晚间在接受巴西媒体纪录电视台(Record)采访时这样说道。卢拉还表示,巴西将努力在8月1日关税生效前完成与美国的所有谈判。但如果谈判没有进展,巴西政府将根据国会今年批准的新贸易互惠法采取报复行动。”如果他对我们征收50%的关税,我们也对他们征收50%的关税”,卢拉说。

卢拉在采访中还重申了上周末在里约热内卢金砖国家峰会上发表的言论,称“我们有意在其他国家之间建立一种贸易货币。我没有义务购买美元来与委内瑞拉、玻利维亚、智利、瑞典、欧盟或中国进行贸易。我们可以用我们自己的货币进行贸易。”

在接受Globo电视台采访时,这位左翼领导人也强调,像巴西这样的国家没有义务继续使用美元进行贸易。他还针对美国总统特朗普语气强硬地表示,特朗普必须尊重巴西的主权,不能把其他国家当成自己的国家。

巴西是今年7月7日举行的金砖国家峰会东道主

美国对巴西课征50%关税的“特别理由”

特朗普7月9日公布第二波关税通知信,宣布对8个国家的新关税税率,其中对巴西的关税最高,为50%。新的关税将从8月1日起生效。特朗普在致卢拉的信中还特别提到巴西的国内政治,称巴西不该让前总统博索纳罗(Jair Bolsonaro)受审,“这是猎巫,应该立刻停止!”特朗普此举被视为直接利用进口税干涉别国内政。博索纳罗是特朗普的盟友,目前正面临审判,罪名是在2022年大选失败后试图发动政变,但他坚称自己是受到巴西最高法院的政治迫害。

这封信里还提到巴西最近针对社交媒体公司的裁决,并将此作为从8月1日起对来自巴西的商品征收更高关税的理由之一。

据美联社报道,卢拉本周四已命令外交官,如果特朗普的上述信函真的抵达巴西利亚总统府,就必须将其退回。

美国对巴西存在贸易顺差

美国是巴西第二大贸易伙伴,仅次于中国。彭博经济研究估计,50%的关税可能对巴西经济造成1%的冲击。这些关税可能导致美国从巴西的商品进口总额减少60%,尽管巴西可能会将部分出口转移到其他市场。

特朗普此次针对各国的关税措施的法律依据为1977年《国际紧急经济权力法》(IEEPA)。他在4月份表示,美国持续存在的进出口逆差是一场国家危机。不过,美国对巴西的贸易存在顺差,削弱了对巴西加征关税的部分理由。 美国贸易代表办公室数据显示,2024年美国对巴西商品出口达497亿美元,进口为423亿美元。卢拉在接受采访时表示,过去15年,美国对巴西的货物和服务贸易顺差总额约为4100亿美元。

如何谈判?

本周四(7月10日),巴西政府的部长们在公开讲话中辩称,美国对巴西加征关税背后没有任何经济理由,只有政治动机,鉴于卢拉无权介入博索纳罗在最高法院的案件,谈判余地不大。

卢拉政府的一些成员还认为,特朗普此举实际上是针对巴西加强与其他南方经济体的联系,正如周日在里约热内卢举行的金砖国家峰会上所展现的那样。此外,卢拉再次提到希望在贸易中使用一种替代美元的货币,这个话题也是特朗普不满的原因。博索纳罗的一些盟友声称,卢拉的其他决定,包括批评以色列在加沙的战争,激怒了这位美国总统。

巴西的新团结

美联社指出,特朗普对巴西事务的干涉为这个政治分裂的国家带来了此前缺失的团结感。

经常批评卢拉及其政府的《圣保罗日报》周四在一篇社论中表示,特朗普针对巴西政府的举动是“黑手党式的”,卢拉的反应是正确的。这对该报来说是一个罕见的专题报道。

分析人士还认为,特朗普试图干涉巴西内政,这可能会对正在受审的博索纳罗造成不利影响,并有利于卢拉。卢拉将在2026年参加竞选连任。6月的民调显示,三分之二巴西人不支持卢拉竞选连任。

路易斯安那州立大学历史与国际研究教授、昆西负责任治国研究所成员安德烈·帕格利亚里尼(Andre Pagliarini)“很多人的反应是,这是给卢拉的一份政治礼物。”

今年4月,誓言不会向美国屈服的马克·卡尼当选加拿大总理。特朗普的关税政策以及威胁要让加拿大成为美国第51州的举措,让卡尼领导的自由党重新焕发活力。

独立政治顾问、前巴西部长托马斯·特劳曼(Thomas Traumann)称,特朗普此举将改变巴西明年大选的“格局”。“特朗普让卢拉重回舞台,”特劳曼说道。“这给了卢拉一个说法,让博索纳罗成为任何经济问题的罪魁祸首。”

巴西前总统博索纳罗是特朗普的盟友之一

媒体报道,巴西议员和法官担心,如果这位前总统被定罪,他会试图离开巴西前往美国。博索纳罗的儿子、巴西议员爱德华多·博索纳罗今年3月移居美国。周三晚,他呼吁他的支持者在X上发布“对特朗普总统的感谢”。

在本周四的采访中,卢拉表示,博索纳罗的儿子去美国是去游说特朗普,然后特朗普就写了一封信,谈论最高法院正在审理的案件。“这不是一场政治审判。正在调查的是案件的证据”,卢拉说。

美国国际贸易法院于5月裁定,特朗普在未经国会批准的情况下通过宣布紧急状态来征收关税,超越了其权限。特朗普政府正在对该裁决提出上诉,但反对者计划利用他写给巴西的信函来支持他们的主张。

俄勒冈州民主党参议员罗恩·怀登(Ron Wyden)表示,“特朗普这是公然非法地牺牲经济来解决个人恩怨,这远远超出了他的法律权限。”

(美联社、彭博社)

DW中文有Instagram!欢迎搜寻dw.chinese,看更多深入浅出的图文与影音报道。

© 2025年德国之声版权声明:本文所有内容受到著作权法保护,如无德国之声特别授权,不得擅自使用。任何不当行为都将导致追偿,并受到刑事追究。

Netanyahu’s War

We spoke to the Jerusalem bureau chief about his investigative profile about the Israeli prime minister.

© Eric Lee for The New York Times

Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, D.C.

德语媒体:达赖喇嘛仍是一个敏感话题

null 媒体看中国
2025-07-08T13:41:36.944Z
2025年7月6日,西藏精神领袖达赖喇嘛在流亡地印度达兰萨拉度过九十岁生日。

(德国之声中文网)《新苏黎世报》发表长篇文章写道,周日,西藏宗教领袖达赖喇嘛的九十岁生日庆典活动在印度达兰萨拉举行,印度少数族裔事务部长里吉朱(Kiren Rijiju)也同数千名僧侣、尼姑和信众参加了庆典仪式。《新苏黎世报》写道,达赖喇嘛以及流亡藏人在印度的存在,是导致中印关系紧张的重要因素之一。这篇题为《达赖喇嘛仍是敏感话题》的报道写道:

“1959年,时任印度总理的尼赫鲁(Jawaharlal Nehru)为当时年仅23岁的这位西藏精神领袖提供了政治庇护。尼赫鲁明确表示,做出这一决定,是基于印度人民对达赖喇嘛作为宗教领袖的尊重。尼赫鲁提供庇护的前提条件是:达赖喇嘛及其追随者在印度流亡期间不得从事任何针对北京的政治动员。1988年,尼赫鲁的继任者拉吉夫·甘地(Rajiv Gandhi )更是正式承认了西藏是中国的一部分。

尽管如此,达赖喇嘛在印度的存在,长期以来一直令中印关系呈现紧张。过去几十年来,印度接收了大约15万名藏人,他们定居于达兰萨拉及印度其他地区。如今,许多藏人已移民海外,使印度流亡藏人的人数已经减少至大约6.6万人。尽管在对藏人提供支持的问题上,印度从未有过动摇,但德里方面近年来也会更多地顾及中国对西藏议题的敏感。

这一点也体现在围绕达赖喇嘛转世问题的讨论中。在90岁生日来临前夕,达赖喇嘛表示,他的继任者将由他创立的一个基金会指定。达赖喇嘛强调,除了该基金会,任何人都无权插手寻找其转世灵童的事务。此前他也曾表示,自己死后将会‘在自由世界’转世。这一立场同中国政府在选择达赖喇嘛继任者方面拥有最终决定权的主张形成鲜明对比。

在这场关于转世问题的讨论中,印度部长里吉朱最初公开支持达赖喇嘛的立场。里吉朱表示:‘只有达赖喇嘛及其宗教机构才有权决定这一事务。’对此,中国外交部立即警告印度不要干涉中国内政。印度政府也随即做出澄清,表示印度方面在信仰和宗教问题上并不持立场。”

《新苏黎世报》的报道指出,印度方面显然不想让中印紧张关系再度升级,毕竟双边的边界冲突刚刚出现缓解迹象,而且印度也不希望中方加大对巴基斯坦的支持力度。

在90岁生日来临前夕,达赖喇嘛表示,他的继任者将由他创立的一个基金会指定。

“在达赖喇嘛转世问题上,印度尽力避免与中国发生争执。达赖喇嘛90岁寿辰之际,尽管印度总理莫迪发函祝贺,并称达赖喇嘛是‘爱、慈悲、耐心和道德修养的永恒象征”,但他并未就转世问题发表任何意见。尽管如此,莫迪的举动仍引起了中国的不满。 中国外交部一位发言人表示,第十四世达赖喇嘛‘打着宗教幌子图谋将西藏从中国分裂出去’,并称印度必须承认西藏问题对中国的高度敏感性,应避免进一步干涉中国内政。”

 

“无需为尊者达赖喇嘛的健康状况担心”

《科隆城市报》以《世界上最受爱戴的僧侣》为题写道,西藏宗教领袖达赖喇嘛的九十岁寿辰不仅收到了来自世界各地的祝福,也引发了有关其转世问题的激烈讨论。

“随着达赖喇嘛九十岁生日的到来,有关其转世问题的各类猜测也纷纷登场。不过,这类猜测大多缺乏根据,毕竟这是一个极其复杂的问题:根据一项预言,现任达赖喇嘛被认为是总共十七个转世中的第十四世。不过,早在2014年,现任达赖喇嘛就曾表示,并不一定非要有人成为他的转世。如果真有继任者,那么他的转世一定会出现在‘自由世界’里,而绝不会出现在中华人民共和国境内。长期以来,中国共产党一直将非暴力抵抗运动的象征性人物达赖喇嘛视为眼中钉肉中刺。有鉴于此,专家们普遍认为,一旦现任达赖喇嘛离世,中国就会立即推出他们自己选定的第15世达赖喇嘛。可以肯定的是,现任达赖喇嘛离世之际,一场混乱将在所难免。

2008年,西藏精神领袖达赖喇嘛访德期间,在纽伦堡受到民众的热烈欢迎。

面对这种可能出现的‘两位达赖喇嘛相互竞争”的局面,有人提出了一个违背传统的设想:本名拉莫顿珠(Lhamo Thondup)、法号丹增嘉措(Tenzin Gyatso)的现任达赖喇嘛应在有生之年亲自指定下一任达赖喇嘛。然而,这一设想很快就被西藏流亡政府首脑奔巴次仁(Penpa Tsering)明确否定。他表示,这种所谓的‘降生’模式(Emanation)并不符合传统,信众也不会接受这种做法。奔巴次仁说:‘以90岁的高龄来看,我认为尊者目前的身体状况非常好,我们完全无需为他担心。’ 

达赖喇嘛本人也表示,他希望自己还能活上很多年,以便继续为众生服务。他依旧每天在黎明前起床,先是念经和冥想,随后一边吃早餐一边了解世界大事。据其身边人透露,达赖喇嘛并不会刻意回避世界上的负面消息,而是会坚持以善的力量与之对抗。例如,他会就全球性的未来议题发声,谴责当今破坏环境的粗暴行为,并呼吁加强气候保护。 

然而,毕竟年事已高,现在达赖喇嘛的出访频率已经大不如前,因此各大报章有关他的报道也越来越少。上世纪90年代,每逢达赖喇嘛出席各类宗教活动,都会吸引大量的民众,并会在德国等地的各大媒体引起巨大的轰动效应。 ”

 

摘编自其他媒体的内容,不代表德国之声的立场或观点。

DW中文有Instagram!欢迎搜寻dw.chinese,看更多深入浅出的图文与影音报道。

© 2025年德国之声版权声明:本文所有内容受到著作权法保护,如无德国之声特别授权,不得擅自使用。任何不当行为都将导致追偿,并受到刑事追究。



欧盟调查TikTok将个人数据传回中国

德正
2025-07-11T10:40:13.281Z
欧盟对TikTok罚款加调查双管齐下

(德国之声中文网)位于爱尔兰旨在保护数据隐私的欧盟监管机构表示,已对TikTok将欧洲用户的个人数据传输到中国服务器的行为展开调查。本周五,北京方面否认要求企业“非法”收集和存储用户个人信息。

中国外交部发言人毛宁周五在例行记者会上回应称:“我可以告诉你的是,中国政府高度重视并依法保护数据隐私和安全。从来没有、也不会要求企业或个人以违法的形式采集或存储数据。”

她表示:“我们希望欧方切实尊重市场经济和公平竞争原则,为各国企业提供公平、公正和非歧视的营商环境。”

法新社报道指出,多年来,TikTok这家社交媒体巨头一直受到西方政府的关注,原因是担心中国可能利用个人数据进行间谍活动或舆论宣传。

然而,TikTok坚称,它从未收到过中国当局索要欧洲用户数据的任何请求。

今年5月,TikTok因将个人数据传输至中国,被欧盟数据保护委员会处以5.3亿欧元罚款。当时,TikTok先是告诉监管机构,它并未将欧洲用户的数据存储在中国,而只是由中国员工远程访问这些数据。可后来TikTok改口称,确实有部分数据被存储在中国的服务器上。

监管机构那时回应称将考虑采取进一步的监管行动,而目前对TikTok展开的新调查,便是以上考虑的结果。

欧盟监管机构指出,此次调查的目的是确定TikTok是否遵守了《通用数据保护条例》(GDPR)中相关的义务,包括这些传输是否合法。

TikTok在全球拥有15亿用户,是中国科技巨头字节跳动的子公司。

(综合报道)

DW中文有Instagram!欢迎搜寻dw.chinese,看更多深入浅出的图文与影音报道。

© 2025年德国之声版权声明:本文所有内容受到著作权法保护,如无德国之声特别授权,不得擅自使用。任何不当行为都将导致追偿,并受到刑事追究。

罗马举行乌克兰重建会议 承诺百亿欧元


2025-07-11T10:14:53.857Z
罗马的乌克兰重建会议合影

(德国之声中文网)包括乌总统泽连斯基在内的政治领导人出席会议。会议之际,基辅再次遭到严重的无人机和导弹袭击。泽连斯基在会议开幕时表示,这是“彻头彻尾的恐怖主义”。

意大利总理梅洛尼以及德国总理默茨以本国在二战废墟中重建为例,表示乌克兰也可以浴火重生。

梅洛尼在开幕式上表示:“我想,我们应该为今天取得的成果感到骄傲——各国、各国际组织、金融机构、地方政府、经济界以及公民社会。”

她补充说:“今天的会议上,我们共同作出总计超过100亿欧元的承诺。”

意大利举行的这次会议是自2022年2月俄罗斯入侵邻国乌克兰以来的第四次类似会议,主旨是动员国际社会对乌克兰的支持。

罗马会议上也宣布,包括意大利、德国、法国、西班牙在内的10个欧洲国家加入了新近发起的一项出口担保机制,旨在鼓励更多欧盟企业与乌克兰开展贸易。

与此同时,欧委会拨款23亿欧元(约合27亿美元),作为更广泛框架的一部分,用于援助乌克兰。欧委会主席冯德莱恩表示,这笔款项预计将调动多达100亿欧元对乌克兰的投资。

冯德莱恩还宣布,创建一项新的股权基金,用于乌克兰重建,由欧洲投资银行以及法国、德国、意大利和波兰支持,旨在在2026年以前筹集另外5亿欧元。

冯德莱恩表示:“我们确确实实地在参与乌克兰的未来。”

默茨向特朗普发出呼吁

德国总理默茨在会议开幕之际,向华盛顿以及特朗普发出热烈的呼吁:“和我们站在一起,和欧洲人站在一起。我们志同道合,都寻求一个稳定的世界政治秩序。”

与会的美国特使凯洛格(Keith Kellogg)以德语回应说:“我们在这里。”

泽连斯基周四晚些时候表示,获得了美国恢复运送武器的时间表。他同时称赞美国派代表出席乌克兰重建会议。

与此同时,美国总统特朗普向NBC电视台表示,他将于周一发表就俄罗斯的重要声明。特朗普在接受该电视台电话采访时表示:“我对俄罗斯感到失望,不过我们会看看未来数周会发生什么。”

(路透社、美联社、德新社)

DW中文有Instagram!欢迎搜寻dw.chinese,看更多深入浅出的图文与影音报道。

© 2025年德国之声版权声明:本文所有内容受到著作权法保护,如无德国之声特别授权,不得擅自使用。任何不当行为都将导致追偿,并受到刑事追究。

War crimes being committed in Sudan, ICC believes

Reuters A woman covered by a beige headscarf sits on a blanket, surrounded by five young children in colourful clothing, with braided hair. They are sitting amid piles of fabric, clothing and matting, under makeshift tents that have been propped up by small trees.Reuters
12 million people have been displaced by the conflict in western Sudan

There are "reasonable grounds" to believe war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed in western Sudan, said the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the United Nations Security Council on Thursday.

Targeted sexual violence against women and girls of specific ethnicities was named as one of the most disturbing findings to emerge from the ICC probe on crimes committed in Darfur.

War broke out between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, leading to what the UN calls "devastating civilian casualties".

ICC Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan said it was "difficult to find appropriate words to describe the depth of suffering" in the region.

The UN Security Council gave the ICC a mandate to investigate and prosecute crimes in Darfur two decades ago, with the body opening multiple investigations into war crimes and genocide committed in the region from July 2002 onwards.

The ICC launched a fresh probe in 2023 after civil war broke out once again, interviewing victims who had fled the most recent iteration of the conflict to neighbouring Chad.

Ms Khan described an "inescapable pattern of offending", and stressed that the team were working to translate such crimes into evidence for the court.

Allegations of war crimes have persisted throughout the past two years, and in January 2025 the US determined that the RSF and allied militias had committed a genocide.

The RSF has denied the claims, and said it was not involved in what it describes as a "tribal conflict" in Darfur.

Reports from the UN indicate that conditions in Darfur have continued to worsen, with hospitals and humanitarian convoys suffering targeted attacks, and food and water deliberately withheld.

Civilians in the capital city of El-Fasher have been cut off from aid entirely due to armed encirclement by RSF forces, and an outbreak of cholera across conflict zones poses a serious threat to already scarce water supplies.

An escalating famine has gripped the region, with the UN's children's agency (Unicef) reporting that more than 40,000 children were admitted for treatment due to severe acute malnutrition between January and May 2025 – more than double the number admitted in the same period last year.

"Children in Darfur are being starved by conflict and cut off from the very aid that could save them," said Sheldon Yett from Unicef.

In the past two years, more than 150,000 people have died in the conflict and approximately 12 million have fled their homes, but Ms Khan warned that "We should not be under any illusion - things can still get worse."

Nigeria has 'enough problems' and can't take deportees from US, minister says

Anadolu via Getty Images Nigeria's Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar in Russia in 2024.Anadolu via Getty Images
"We already have over 230 million people," says Yusuf Tuggar

Nigeria's foreign minister says the country will not bow to pressure from the Trump administration to accept Venezuelan deportees from the US, following visa curbs and threats of tariff hikes.

Yusuf Tuggar told privately-owned Channels TV that Nigeria had "enough problems" of its own and would not host foreign prisoners from the US.

"We already have over 230 million people," the minister said.

"You will be the same person that will castigate us if we acquiesce to accepting Venezuelan prisoners into Nigeria," he added.

"It will be unfair for Nigeria to accept 300 Venezuelan deportees," he said, suggesting that the recent visa curbs on Nigerian travellers by the US was not "reciprocal" but a pressure tactic.

Earlier this week, the US Department of State said as part of a "global reciprocity realignment", nearly all non-immigrant and non-diplomatic visas issued to citizens of Nigeria, as well as those of Cameroon and Ethiopia, would now be single-entry and valid for only three months.

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has threatened to hit countries which side with the policies of the Brics alliance that go against US interests with an extra 10% tariff.

Brics is an alliance of 11 developing nations designed to challenge the political and economic power of the West. They are: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, as well as Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Nigeria is not a full member of Brics but it became the ninth partner country of the alliance in January.

Mr Tuggar said the threat of tariff hikes did not "necessarily have to do with us participating in Brics.

"You have to also bear in mind that the US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prison," he added.

"It will be difficult for a country like Nigeria to accept Venezuelans prisoners into Nigeria. We have enough problems of our own, we cannot accept Venezuelan deportees to Nigeria, for crying out loud," he concluded.

Los Angeles Times via Getty Image People protest against immigration raids earlier this month.Los Angeles Times via Getty Image
There is an outcry in the US at large-scale immigration raids

Instead, he said Nigeria was looking "to do deals with the US" because the country "possesses" a lot of gas, critical minerals and rare earths needed by American tech companies.

When further asked what Nigeria was doing to reach a diplomatic solution, the minister said the country was discussing with the US and resolving differences.

Mr Tuggar's claim comes after the Wall Street Journal quoted internal documents and sources as saying the Trump administration was pushing the leaders of Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Gabon and Guinea-Bissau to accept migrants deported by the US whose home countries refuse them or are slow to take them back.

Trump also appeared to allude to this during the meeting with the five leaders on Wednesday.

"I hope we can bring down the high rates of people overstaying visas, and also make progress on the safe, third-country agreements," he said during opening remarks.

Liberia's foreign minister denied receiving such communication from Washington.

You may also be interested in:

Getty Images/BBC A woman looking at her mobile phone and the graphic BBC News AfricaGetty Images/BBC

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

Mystery interstellar object could be oldest known comet

ESO/O. Hainaut ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week. 
ESO/O. Hainaut
ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week.

A mystery interstellar object spotted last week by astronomers could be the oldest comet ever seen, according to scientists.

Named 3I/Atlas, it may be three billion years older than our own solar system, suggests the team from Oxford university.

The preliminary findings were presented on Friday at the national meeting of the UK's Royal Astronomical Society in Durham.

"We're all very excited by 3I/Atlas," University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins told BBC News. He had just finished his PhD studies when the object was discovered.

He says it could be more than seven billion years old, and it may be the most remarkable interstellar visitor yet.

3I/Atlas was first spotted on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, when it was about 670 million km from the Sun.

Since then astronomers around the world have been racing to identify its path and discover more details about it.

Mr Hopkins believes it originated in the Milky Way's 'thick disk'. This is a group of ancient stars that orbit above and below the area where the Sun and most stars are located.

The team believe that because 3I/ATLAS probably formed around an old star, it is made up of a lot of water ice.

That means that as it approaches the Sun later this year, the energy from the Sun will heat the object's surface, leading to blazes of vapour and dust.

That could create a glowing tail.

The researchers made their findings using a model developed by Mr Hopkins.

"This is an object from a part of the galaxy we've never seen up close before," said Professor Chris Lintott, co-author of the study.

"We think there's a two-thirds chance this comet is older than the solar system, and that it's been drifting through interstellar space ever since."

Later this year, 3I/ATLAS should be visible from Earth using amateur telescopes.

Before 3I/Atlas soared into view, just two others had been seen. One was called 1I/'Oumuamua, found in 2017 and another called 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.

Astronomers globally are currently gearing up to start using a new, very powerful telescope in Chile, called the Vera C Rubin.

When it starts fully surveying the southern night sky later this year, scientists expect that it could discover between 5 and 50 new interstellar objects.

Texans did not immediately receive flood alerts after request, audio reveals

Watch: Drones and dogs help in Texas rescue

Texas officials are facing mounting questions about when Kerrville's residents were notified about deadly flash floods that killed 96 locals, with over 160 others still missing.

Asked about a possible police radio failure at a press conference on Thursday - almost a week after 4 July flooding - Kerrville Police community services officer Jonathan Lamb said, "I don't have any information to that point."

The questioning followed a tense exchange the day before when reporters asked officials repeatedly about a possible lag in emergency communications.

Early Friday, the Guadalupe River rose several metres in a matter of minutes, after an estimated 100bn gallons of rain.

At least 120 people have died in the Texas Hill Country flash floods. Kerr County, which includes Kerrville, absorbed the brunt of the devastation, with 96 confirmed deaths, including 36 children, many of whom attended a nearby Christian camp.

Kerr County officials have been pressed on the various reasons behind the tragedy.

According to an audio recording obtained by an ABC News affiliate, a firefighter located upstream from Kerrville asked the Kerr County Sheriff's Office to alert nearby residents about the rising water around 04:22 local time on 4 July.

But, ABC News reported, Kerr County officials did not notify residents until nearly six hours later, after hundreds of people had been engulfed in floodwater.

The first alert from Kerr County's CodeRED system did not arrive until roughly 90-minutes later, the news outlet reported.

"The Guadalupe Schumacher sign is underwater on State Highway 39," the firefighter said in the dispatch audio obtained by ABC News. "Is there any way we can send a CodeRED out to our Hunt residents, asking them to find higher ground or stay home?"

"Stand by, we have to get that approved with our supervisor," a Kerr County Sheriff's Office dispatcher replied.

Officials were asked during a press conference on Wednesday about any delays in emergency communications.

Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said he was first notified around the "four to five area", and said prior to that "we're in the process of trying to put a timeline".

"That's going to take a little bit of time," he continued. "That is not my priority this time."

He said he was instead focused on locating those missing and identifying victims. Over 160 people were still listed as missing on Thursday morning, including five campers and one counselor from Camp Mystic.

Getty Images The exterior view of a Kerr County home damaged by historic flooding on 4 JulyGetty Images

Kerr County officials say they have not rescued anyone alive since the day of the floods.

Weather alerts preceded the storm. The National Weather Service sent several about rain and possible flooding starting Thursday afternoon, and the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) activated state resources because of flooding concerns.

Officials have cited lack of cell phone service, no sense of the storm's intensity and public desensitisation to such alerts in the flood-prone area, as reasons some did not evacuate.

President Donald Trump signed a federal disaster declaration at the request of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. This enabled the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy to Central Texas and open a disaster recovery centre in Kerr County.

Rescue efforts included over 2,100 responders on the ground, private helicopters, drones, boats and cadaver-detecting dogs. They are searching for the missing and the dead buried beneath mounds of mud-soaked debris.

"These large piles (of debris) can be very obstructive, and to get deep into these piles is very hazardous," Lt Colonel Ben Baker of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department said on Wednesday.

"It's extremely treacherous, time consuming. It's dirty work. It's the water still there. So, we're having to go layer by layer, peeling these off, to make those recoveries," he said.

Justin Bieber stands on business with surprise new album

Getty Images ustin Bieber performs on day three of Sziget Festival 2022 on Óbudai-sziget Island on August 12, 2022 in Budapest, Hungary.Getty Images

Canadian singer Justin Bieber has surprised fans by releasing a new album titled Swag.

The record features 20 songs with track names including Dadz Love, Devotion and Therapy Session and follows online concern for the singer's mental health after a confrontation with paparazzi.

Promotional pictures shared by the singer feature his wife, Hailey Bieber, and their son - at points being held over his head.

Fellow artists and fans have reacted with glee to the new music, which comes four years after Bieber's last album, Purpose.

With a run time of just under an hour, the once-teen-icon turned megastar collaborates with a host of rappers on Swag including Sexxy Red, Cash Cobain and Gunna.

Its title appears to hark back to the singer's 2012 hit Boyfriend, featuring the line "swag, swag, swag, on you".

American rapper Big Sean was among the famous names to welcome the news of the album's release, commenting on the singer's Instagram post "Yes!!!!".

@lilbieber Justin Bieber stands with his back to the camera in a black and white image. Next to him is his wife Hailey Bieber holding a baby. The word "SWAG" is written on the right hand side of the image. Rolling hills are pictured in the distance.@lilbieber

The album drop also comes on the back of fans' worries for Bieber's mental health. In recent months, the singer has shared multiple posts online about the intrusion of paparazzi in his personal life.

One video, filmed on Father's Day when he confronted a photographer, shows the singer saying "I'm a dad. I'm a husband. You're not getting it. It's not clocking to you. I'm standing on business."

The video was widely circulated and remixed online. Now, it not only features as part of the promotion of the singer's new album, but is sampled in one of its songs, Butterflies.

Bieber's marriage has also been under the spotlight recently after another controversial social media post. The singer celebrated his wife featuring on the cover of Vogue with a social media post detailing an argument between them.

The lyrics of Daisies, the second song on Swag, appear to allude to the couple's relationship with "falling petals do you love me or not" and "you said forever babe, did you mean it or not?"

Other song titles on the album seem to touch on religious themes including Devotion, Soulful and Forgiveness, in keeping with Bieber's Christian faith.

Allow Instagram content?

This article contains content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. You may want to read  and  before accepting. To view this content choose ‘accept and continue’.

Reeves disappointed after economy unexpectedly shrinks

Getty Images People walk to work as the sun rises on a city landscapeGetty Images

The UK economy shrank unexpectedly in May, according to latest official figures.

The economy shrank by 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics said, the second month in a row it has contracted.

Economists had expected GDP to grow by 0.1%.

The fall in economic output was mainly driven by a drop in production, the ONS said.

Mystery interstellar object could be oldest known comet

ESO/O. Hainaut ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week. 
ESO/O. Hainaut
ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week.

A mystery interstellar object spotted last week by astronomers could be the oldest comet ever seen, according to scientists.

Named 3I/Atlas, it may be three billion years older than our own solar system, suggests the team from Oxford university.

The preliminary findings were presented on Friday at the national meeting of the UK's Royal Astronomical Society in Durham.

"We're all very excited by 3I/Atlas," University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins told BBC News. He had just finished his PhD studies when the object was discovered.

He says it could be more than seven billion years old, and it may be the most remarkable interstellar visitor yet.

3I/Atlas was first spotted on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, when it was about 670 million km from the Sun.

Since then astronomers around the world have been racing to identify its path and discover more details about it.

Mr Hopkins believes it originated in the Milky Way's 'thick disk'. This is a group of ancient stars that orbit above and below the area where the Sun and most stars are located.

The team believe that because 3I/ATLAS probably formed around an old star, it is made up of a lot of water ice.

That means that as it approaches the Sun later this year, the energy from the Sun will heat the object's surface, leading to blazes of vapour and dust.

That could create a glowing tail.

The researchers made their findings using a model developed by Mr Hopkins.

"This is an object from a part of the galaxy we've never seen up close before," said Professor Chris Lintott, co-author of the study.

"We think there's a two-thirds chance this comet is older than the solar system, and that it's been drifting through interstellar space ever since."

Later this year, 3I/ATLAS should be visible from Earth using amateur telescopes.

Before 3I/Atlas soared into view, just two others had been seen. One was called 1I/'Oumuamua, found in 2017 and another called 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.

Astronomers globally are currently gearing up to start using a new, very powerful telescope in Chile, called the Vera C Rubin.

When it starts fully surveying the southern night sky later this year, scientists expect that it could discover between 5 and 50 new interstellar objects.

Trainspotting's Irvine Welsh says we've become 'dumbed down machines'

BBC Irvine WelshBBC

Irvine Welsh is pointing up to the second floor of a grey stone building in Leith, the port district of Edinburgh.

As he gets ready to publish a sequel to his 1993 cult novel Trainspotting, the author is showing me the window of the room, with its view over a local park, where he wrote that first book, which later became a hit film starring Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller.

The son of a Leith docker and a waitress - who did a course in electrical engineering, spent time in a punk band and was addicted to heroin as a younger man - Welsh had moved back home to Leith from London and "just started typing". He tells me that before writing Trainspotting he had decided "this is my last chance to do something creative".

Trainspotting follows the lives of a group of heroin-addicted friends in Edinburgh. Violent, often shocking and darkly funny, the book is a picture of the social decay sparked by the decimation of Britain's industrial heartlands. It was Welsh's first novel and sold more than a million copies in the UK alone.

But as he sat typing away, back in the early 90s, he had no idea it would do well. "I just wanted to get it done," he explains. It certainly paid off.

Shutterstock Close up shot from Trainspotting film showing Spud in sunglasses, smiling with pink shirt (Ewen Bremner), Renton sneering in blue T shirt (Ewan McGregor) & Begbie with earring and moustache in bright pink shirt (Robert Carlyle)Shutterstock
Ewen Bremner, Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle starred in 1996's Trainspotting, based on Irvine Welsh's successful book

The book and film tapped so successfully into the cultural zeitgeist that more than 30 years on, you can still book an official Trainspotting tour in Leith. But on a blustery Scottish summer's day, I'm getting a bespoke one from the writer himself, touring some of the key haunts that inspired him.

We head to the so-called Banana Flats, the curved building officially called Cables Wynd House that dominates the Leith skyline and where his character Sick Boy (played by Miller in the film) grows up.

We visit the Leith Dockers' Club where Renton (played by McGregor) goes with his mum and dad and where Welsh remembers hanging out "as a kid and sitting there with lemonade and crisps" and "feeling really sort of resentful" while everyone else was getting drunk.

Adam Walker/BBC Katie Razzall with blond hair, white jacket and trousers talking to Irvine Welsh, bald, in white anorak and jeans outside the Banana flats in LeithAdam Walker/BBC
Katie Razzall talking to Irvine Welsh outside Cables Wynd House, better known as the Banana flats in Leith, which is part of the Trainspotting tour

Welsh's latest return to his characters is called Men in Love. He's previously written follow-up books and a prequel about the Trainspotting gang (he clearly can't get enough of them), but this new novel is set immediately after the first one finished, when Renton has run off with the money he and his friends have made from a big drug deal.

This time, Welsh is exploring what happens when young men start to fall in love and have relationships. He was partly motivated to write it, he says, because "we're living in a world that seems to be so full of hate and poison... I think that it's time we focused more on love as a kind of antidote to all that".

But don't expect saccharine stories of romance - this is Welsh, after all. The cheating, lying, manipulative - and at times, horrifying - behaviour of some of his characters is still much in evidence.

The book even has a disclaimer at the end explaining that because the novel is set in the 1980s, many of the characters "express themselves in ways that we now consider offensive and discriminatory".

Welsh says the publishers insisted on it. "They felt we live in such sensitive times that we need to make that point.

"We live in a much more censorious environment," he continues. While he accepts that misogynist terms in the book including "fat lassie" are hurtful and "there's a good reason why we don't say them", he worries that if the state starts to say "you can't talk about this, you can't talk about that, I think we're on a dangerous road".

The Men in Love story spans into the early 90s. It's being published at a time when Britain is indulging in a bit of 90s nostalgia, with Oasis on tour and Pulp's surprise set at Glastonbury getting rave reviews.

Welsh tells me he "never left" that era, but says younger generations also feel a nostalgia for it because "people had lives then".

He pins some of the blame for cultural change on the internet and social media which has become "a controlling rather than an enabling force".

As someone who understands addiction, Welsh hopes we'll be "more judicious" about using social media in future. He points to the way people have "their phones stuck to their face" while they are moving around.

"If we survive the next 50 years, that's going to look as strange in film as people chain smoking cigarettes did back in the 80s."

Film Four [L-R] Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Renton (Ewan McGregor), Begbie (Robert Carlyle) & Tommy (Kevin McKidd) in a scene from Trainspotting. Cast wearing casual dark tops, except Begbie in red jumper with cigarette - looking at documentFilm Four
[L-R] Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Renton (Ewan McGregor), Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and Tommy (Kevin McKidd) in Trainspotting

He also thinks the internet is making us more stupid. "When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies." He fears we're heading towards "a post-democratic, post-art, post-culture society where we've got artificial intelligence on one side and we've a kind of natural stupidity on the other side, we just become these dumbed down machines that are taking instructions".

Trainspotting's success came in part he says at a time when people were willing to read more challenging, less formulaic books. And as the money rolled in, it gave him the freedom to write.

He's also a DJ and is releasing an album with the Sci-Fi Soul Orchestra to go with his new book. The disco tracks relate to the characters, the storyline and the "emotional landscape" of the novel.

Music is "fundamental" to his writing and he's also "looking for that four-four beat all the time while I'm typing".

He builds a playlist in his head for every character and theme.

Renton's into Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground. Sick Boy also likes Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, New Order, he says.

Irvine Welsh Irvine Welsh looking to camera in red, white & check T shirt playing the guitarIrvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh has always loved music, saying he "writes in a very musical type of way, looking for that 4-4 beat" when he's typing
Getty Images Irvine Welsh in hat and anorak DJing during Playground Festival 2021 at Rouken Glen Park in GlasgowGetty Images
Irvine Welsh DJing during Playground Festival at Rouken Glen Park in Glasgow in 2021

The aggressive and violent Begbie likes "Rod Stewart and power ballads basically".

The singer recently told The Times that the public should give the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a chance. I wondered if Irvine Welsh thinks that his Trainspotting characters would support that party if they were growing up now.

He pushes back, telling me the Scottish working classes "still have a radical kind of spirit. They're not really there to be the stooge of some public school idiot".

Although later he adds "people are so desperate that they'll go along with anybody who has that rhetoric of change".

Welsh has always been political and, as we walk around the area where he grew up, he describes how Margaret Thatcher ended centuries of shipbuilding in Leith "at a stroke". Five thousand dockers became none, he says.

Henry Robb Ltd/SWNS Black and white photo of Workers in ship at the Henry Robb Ltd Ship Builders in Leith in 1964Henry Robb Ltd/SWNS
Workers at the Henry Robb Ltd Ship Builders in Leith in 1964 - reflecting Leith's proud history of shipbuilding

Trainspotting also resonated, he thinks, because it "heralded the adjustment to people living in a world without paid work. And now we're all in that position".

His argument is that Britain's class system is changing "because of this massive concentration of wealth towards the wealthy".

The working classes already have no money and now the middle classes are being pulled into more and more debt too and are less able to pass on their assets which makes life increasingly insecure.

"We're all members of the Precariat, basically. We don't know how long we'll have paid work if we do have it, and we just don't know how long this will last because our economy, our society is in a long-form revolutionary transformation."

In my time in Welsh's company, we haven't just toured Leith, I've had an insight into his brain, exploding with opinions on everything from our dystopian future, to why the best music was made in the analogue era and even to what would happen if he were offered a knighthood (it's a no, by the way).

When our time's up, he heads into the bar at the Dockers' Club to see a friend he first met at primary school 60 years ago. His old pal jokes to me that he's a plumber while Welsh is a millionaire author. You can see the affection between them.

Trainspotting may have changed Welsh's life entirely. But he's still plugged into the community that shaped him, and the Leith that he turned so spectacularly into fiction.

Men in Love is published on 24 July 2025

Plans for cash Isa changes on hold after backlash

Getty Images Woman wearing striped shirt looking at bills while sitting at laptop in her homeGetty Images

There will be no immediate changes to cash Individual Savings Accounts (Isas), the BBC understands.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves was widely expected to announce plans to reduce the £20,000 tax-free allowance.

The move was aimed at encouraging more investment in stocks and shares, which the goverment says it will still focus on.

"Our ambition is to ensure people's hard-earned savings are delivering the best returns and driving more investment into the UK economy," a Treasury spokesperson said.

The Treasury is expected to continue to talk to banks, building societies and investment firms about options for reform.

An Isa is a savings or investment product that is treated differently for tax purposes.

Any returns you make from an Isa are tax-free, but there is a limit to how much money you can put in each year.

The current £20,000 annual allowance can be used in one account or spread across multiple Isa products as you wish.

'We have a hosepipe ban but water leaking down our streets'

BBC A water leak on a busy main road which has been cordoned off with a Yorkshire Water sign stating We're looking after our pipesBBC
In Rotherham, business owners have highlighted a leak on Greasbrough Road which has remained unfixed for two weeks

Millions of people are facing restrictions on water use as the UK's first regional hosepipe ban of 2025 comes into force. Despite Yorkshire Water saying it has cut leakage by 15% in recent years, bill payers say they are frustrated at the number of leaks which appear to go unchecked.

"It's literally going out of that hole and straight into a drain," said Neela Patel.

The business owner said water has been pouring along Greasbrough Road, in Rotherham, for two weeks.

"They've put a few cones up but I've not seen much work done so we're not sure what's going on.

"We just want it resolved, they've put a hosepipe ban on and it's just flowing out of there."

Fellow shop owner John Smallwood said everyone in the area had reported it, calling it "ridiculous" to impose restrictions on customers while water was being wasted in this way.

"They came and stopped the traffic, caused a lot of havoc and not been back," he said.

"It's just a tonne of water going down the drain."

The hosepipe ban applies to customers across much of Yorkshire, parts of North Lincolnshire and parts of Derbyshire.

It prohibits the use of a hosepipe for activities such as watering the garden, washing the car or filling a paddling pool. Anyone flouting the restriction could be fined up to £1,000.

Dean Majors A man with grey hair and a beard, wearing sunglasses, takes a selfie next to a flooded area of road with the leak point marked in blue. Dean Majors
Dean Majors in Skipton has reported numerous leaks in the area

Dean Majors, a massage therapist from Skipton, North Yorkshire, said he had reported a leak outside his home on Canal Street at the end of June.

He said water had been pooling outside his house, with some passing down a drain and through an overflow pipe into the nearby canal.

"It just got worse and worse and every time any traffic came through, water just splashed down the overflow."

Mr Majors also reported a leak outside his business, The Backcave, last May, with the residual water so deep that he floated rubber ducks on it.

He said the leak outside his home was fixed on Thursday, joking that the company had remembered his duck stunt.

Dean Majors A silver car with Yorkshire Water branding on the side parked outside a house in Skipton with a water leak on the street outside. Dean Majors
Yorkshire Water says it does understand customers' frustrations

Carol Lilleker, from Laughton-en-le-Morthen, near Dinnington in South Yorkshire, said water has been leaking from beneath a manhole cover in the village since 27 June.

She said despite several calls to Yorkshire Water it has not been repaired and "thousands of gallons of water" must have been lost.

"We reported it. Our neighbours across the road reported it. The school's reported it. Several other people have reported it," she said.

"We're going to have a hosepipe ban on Friday, which is understandable - we can understand the reasons why that's going to happen - but it's a bit much when thousands and thousands of gallons of water are flowing past our houses and nobody seems to be doing anything."

Water leaking from a hole which has been cordoned off on a main road
Customers remain concerned at the time it takes to repair leaks

In West Yorkshire, Kevin Baker said he had noticed a significant leak on Green Hill Road, in Armley, Leeds, six weeks ago.

"They came along, put traffic lights on, dug a hole, scratched their heads and went away and it's been pouring out ever since."

He said having passed it on Thursday he noticed a digger was there and hoped that meant it was finally being dealt with.

Having had a leak at his homes that Yorkshire Water charged him for, he said it was incredibly frustrating.

"It just felt like no action was taken on top of the frustration that they can charge me an exorbitant amount of money for what was a very small leak on my system."

Dry cracked earth at Baitings Reservoir in Ripponden, West Yorkshire
The ban on using hosepipes comes after a long, dry spell and falling reservoir levels across Yorkshire

Yorkshire Water said it understood how "frustrating leaks are" for its customers.

"Leakage is the lowest it has ever been in Yorkshire, and it's something that we work on all year round," a spokesperson said.

"We reduced leakage by 15% over the last five years, and will be spending £38m over the next five years to continue bringing the number of leaks down."

It said it had dedicated more resources to reducing leaks and had recruited 100 extra leakage inspectors to "help us find and fix leaks faster".

It said its team fix on average 334 leaks every week and prioritise those losing the most water.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.

Related internet links

In the country with the world's lowest birth rate, fertility clinics are booming

Getty Images Close-up of a baby's hand grabbing a silver baby shoe. The baby is wearing a furry sweater.Getty Images
South Korea, home to the world's lowest birth rates, is seeing a fertility industry boom

When she started in vitro fertilisation (IVF) last November, Kim Mi-ae knew it would be a gruelling test of patience - something she had already endured when she conceived her first child three years ago.

But what shocked her this time around were the "crazy" waits at the fertility clinic.

"When I went in January, it felt like everyone had made a New Year's resolution to have a baby! Even with a reservation, I waited over three hours," says the 36-year-old Seoul resident.

While South Korea continues to struggle with the world's lowest birth rates, fertility clinics are in growing demand - a bright spot in the country's demographic crisis.

Between 2018 and 2022, the number of fertility treatments carried out in the country rose nearly 50% to 200,000. Last year, one in six babies in Seoul were born with the help of fertility treatment.

Underpinning the boom, experts say, is a shift in attitudes about family planning.

"We have a young generation… that is used to being in control of its life," says Sarah Harper CBE, professor in Gerontology at the University of Oxford. That control, she adds, may come in the form of single women freezing their eggs or couples trying IVF when they can't conceive.

"Whereas in previous generations there was a greater acceptance that whether you conceive or not can be a bit haphazard, now we have Korean women saying, 'I want to plan my life.'"

Getty Images Backview of children and parents sitting and standing in front of colourful arcade machines, in a brightly lit mall.Getty Images
In 2024, South Korea's birth rate rose for the first time in nine years

This is good news for South Korea's government, which is trying to lift the country out of a demographic crisis. One in five people in South Korea are now aged 65 or above. As a proportion of the country's total population, there have never been fewer babies.

The country has repeatedly broken its own record for having the world's lowest birth rate: 0.98 babies per woman in 2018, 0.84 in 2020 and 0.72 in 2023. If this trend continues, experts warn the population of 50 million could halve in 60 years.

But recently there is reason for cautious optimism: instead of another record low, South Korea's birth rate rose slightly to 0.75 in 2024 - its first increase in nine years.

"It's a small bump, but still a meaningful one," says Seulki Choi, a professor at the Korea Development Institute's School of Public Policy and Management.

It is too early to tell whether this is the start of a much-needed reversal or just a blip. The country's birth rate remains far below the global average of 2.2. But many like Dr Choi are cautiously optimistic.

"If this trend holds, it could signal a longer-term shift," says Dr Choi. "We need to watch how young people's attitudes toward marriage and parenthood are changing."

A baby bump

For years, having children was the last thing on Park Soo-in's mind. She was mostly busy at work, often only clocking off from her advertising job at 04:00.

"I was in a company with endless overtime, so it wasn't even something I could realistically consider," says the 35-year-old.

Things started to change after she got married two years ago. She landed a new job with better hours - and friends around her started having babies.

"Seeing and interacting with their kids made it feel less overwhelming," she said. "And watching my husband take initiative, doing research on pregnancy and childbirth and showing real effort, gave me confidence that we could do this."

When Ms Park and her husband had trouble conceiving, they looked to fertility treatments. Many others are doing the same, fuelling projections that the burgeoning industry could be worth more than $2bn by 2030.

"This is actually an important signal for policymakers that there are still some women who want to start families but are facing … barriers to doing so," says Jennifer Sciubba, president and CEO of the non-profit Population Reference Bureau in Washington, DC.

"More than anything, this is a sign that people are unable to fulfil their desires to have children."

Jang Sae-ryeon A woman injecting a substance with a syringe on her belly. She is standing in front of a counter, which is strewn with medical products.Jang Sae-ryeon
South Korean women are on average 33.6 years old by the time they have their first child

Difficulty conceiving is just one barrier. At the heart of South Korea's population woes are a raft of social and financial pressures - from patriarchal norms that place most childcare responsibilities on women to long work hours and high education costs - which discourage many young people from having children.

For some, however, those dreams have merely been delayed. More than half of South Koreans say they want kids but can't afford them, according to a UN report. And by the time South Korean women have their first child, their average age is 33.6 - among the highest in the world.

"Looking back, it might have been better to start earlier," says Ms Park. "But realistically… now actually feels like the right time. In my late 20s, I just didn't have the financial capacity to think about marriage or kids."

The same goes for Ms Kim, who spent three years saving up for marriage and another four for a child.

"People spend their youth studying, job hunting, and spending money to prepare for life. And by the time they're ready to settle down, it's often late," she says. "But the later you wait, the harder it gets [to become pregnant], physically and emotionally."

Bumps in the road

For those who opt for IVF, the process of trying to conceive also becomes much more expensive.

"It's hard to say exactly how much IVF costs because it varies so much by person and cycle," says Ms Kim. "It's a huge and unpredictable expense that can really affect your finances."

As part of concerted efforts to boost its birth rate, South Korea's government has expanded its support for fertility treatments. Seoul now subsidises up to 2 million Korean won ($1,460; £1,100) for egg-freezing and 1.1 million won for each IVF treatment.

But even with government subsidies, Ms Kim says she spent more than 2 million won in January for IVF - mostly on out-of-pocket items that subsidies do not cover, such as supplements and additional tests.

And with less than half of IVF cycles ending in success, the costs can stack up quickly.

This has been the case for Jang Sae-ryeon in the southwestern Jeolla province. The 37-year-old started fertility treatment two years ago and has done five IVF cycles, each of which cost her around 1.5 million won.

Jang Sae-ryeon A woman, wearing a blue shirt, stares at the camera. Jang Sae-ryeon
Despite the financial and cultural pressures she faced while undergoing IVF, Jang Sae-ryeon still dreams of having children

"I wish things worked out after just one or two tries, but for most people, that's not the case," she says. "Without money, you simply can't move forward. That's the reality. And I think that's the most frustrating part."

Equally challenging, women say, are the workplace pressures they face when they commit to a demanding IVF schedule.

While South Korean companies offer several days of leave for fertility treatment, women say that in reality it is difficult to utilise them. Ms Kim says she underwent IVF for her first child without taking leave at all. Ms Jang, meanwhile, says her colleagues asked her to postpone her treatment.

"It made me feel like IVF and a full-time job just don't mix," says Ms Jang. "So I quit. But once I left, I struggled financially. That led to another cycle of quitting and job-hunting again."

Such financial and cultural pressures may have dampened many South Koreans' dreams of having children, but not Ms Jang's. She still gets teary when she recalls two pregnancies from early in her marriage - both of which ended in miscarriages.

"You know how they say when you have a child, you feel a love that's limitless?" she says. "I think having a child that resembles both of us and creating a family together is one of the greatest forms of happiness a person can feel."

❌