The UK will begin returning migrants arriving in small boats to France within weeks under a new pilot scheme, Sir Keir Starmer has said.

Under the "one in one out" deal, some arrivals would be detained and returned to France and in exchange the UK would accept an equivalent number of asylum seekers, subject to security checks and provided they had not tried to enter the UK illegally.

Speaking at a press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Sir Keir said the plan would demonstrate that trying to make the Channel crossing would "be in vain".

He did not confirm how many people would be returned or accepted during the pilot.

Asked if the deal would be big enough to act as an effective deterrent, Sir Keir said the pilot would help "break the model" of the people smugglers, and added that it would be ramped up if it was successful.

The migrants accepted by the UK would need to have a connection to Britain, such as family ties.

In a statement released after the press conference, the government said the agreement would be signed "subject to completing prior legal scrutiny in full transparency and understanding with the Commission and EU Member states".

Macron said he was "totally committed" to the plans to tackle small boat crossings.

He also said Brexit had made it harder for the UK to tackle illegal migration arguing that the British people were "sold a lie... which is that the problem was Europe".

During the press conference, the two leaders also announced that their countries would:

• co-ordinate their nuclear deterrents
• strengthen collaboration on supercomputers and AI
• "speed up and accelerate" co-operation on anti-ship missiles.

Announcing the small boats pilot, Sir Keir said: "I know some people will still ask, why should we take anyone in - so let me address that directly.

"We accept genuine asylum seekers because it is right that we offer a haven to those in most dire need.

"But there is also something else, something more practical which is that we simply cannot solve a challenge like stopping the boats by acting alone and telling our allies that we won't play ball."

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the deal would "only return one in every 17 illegal immigrants arriving".

"Allowing 94% of illegal immigrants to stay will make no difference whatsoever and have no deterrent effect."

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said the crossings are "a national security emergency" and in a reference to payments made by the UK to support French policing efforts added: "Frankly the French owe us our money back."

He said he didn't believe the pilot would work, saying: "If we even try to deport people across the Channel, we will run straight into the European Convention on Human Rights."

Both the previous Conservative governments and current Labour one have struggled to stem the numbers coming to the UK in small boats.

The Conservatives had proposed sending arrivals to Rwanda, however the scheme was delayed by legal challenges and the general election was called before it could be implemented.

One of Sir Keir's first acts as prime minister was to scrap the plan, calling it a gimmick.

He said his government would focus instead on tackling the smuggling gangs that organise the crossings.

Numbers have continued to rise, with nearly 20,000 people arriving in the UK in the first half of this year – a 48% increase on the same time period in 2024.

The returns deal is designed as a deterrent to stop the boats. But the announcement of a pilot for a 'one-in-one-out' scheme is just the first step in what could be a very complicated process.

The plan proposes that for each migrant the UK returns to France, another migrant with a strong case for asylum in Britain will come the other way. The Home Office would not speculate on how many people would actually be expelled weekly, noting that the number may vary during the pilot stage of the scheme.

During a press conference Sir Keir Starmer gave with France's President Emmanuel Macron this afternoon, the prime minister also would not be drawn into the details, and said discussing them could undermine "how this will operate".

Details aside, the agreement is likely to encounter legal, political and practical obstacles, and the need to demonstrate 'proof of concept' will not be straightforward.

However, the legal principle behind the idea is broadly sound. The UN Refugee Convention does not allow migrants to choose where they claim asylum, so there is nothing necessarily unlawful about people being sent from Britain to France for processing.

The previous government's Rwanda scheme struggled to get off the ground because the courts were persuaded the East African country was not safe enough to be compliant with the demands of the convention. France, however, would not raise such concerns.

Legal challenges are likely to be about the details of the process. Is the system of selection fair? What might happen to people when they reach France?

One political hurdle will be convincing EU member states that Britain's migrants will not end up back in their territory. Information stored on the EU's Eurodac asylum database, unavailable to Britain since Brexit, might be used to identify migrants who had previously claimed asylum in another European state.

As well as legal challenges regarding returning people to France, there may be practical difficulties in deciding which migrants in France should be sent to the UK. Who will make those decisions and on what basis?

Britain has long resisted the idea that asylum claims can be assessed beyond this country's border, fearing such a facility would become a magnet for migrants seeking a new life across the Channel.

However, there is a precedent for a scheme to identify asylum seekers with a strong case for being awarded refugee status in the UK.

In 2002, Britain and France jointly worked on a plan to close the Sangatte camp of migrants trying to get to the UK. As part of that arrangement, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) oversaw a registration process conducted by British officials in France, deciding which migrants should be given permission to pursue their asylum claim in Britain.

The details of every aspect of today's Anglo-French arrangement will need to be tested. No wonder officials want the scheme to start small.

And will it work? It is very hard to comprehend how migrants balance the risks and opportunities when deciding whether or not to board a flimsy dinghy.

The pilot scheme being proposed is probably not at a large enough scale to act as a serious deterrent, but officials believe the arrangement has the potential to be a powerful weapon in the battle to stop the boats.

Even if the arrangement can be shown to work, there will then be questions about the cost and practicalities of scaling it up to a level that will make desperate migrants waiting in the Calais camps think again about attempting to cross the Channel.

A police officer has told a jury she was "absolutely terrified" after she was floored with a punch to the face as she tried to arrest an assault suspect at Manchester Airport.

Greater Manchester PC Lydia Ward suffered a broken nose in the incident at the Terminal 2 car park pay station area on 23 July last year.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and his brother, Muhammad Amaad, 26, are accused of assault. Both men, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, deny the allegations.

PC Ward told the trial she remembered "falling on the floor and everything went black" after a "really forceful" blow to her face.

The court heard PC Ward and two colleagues had approached Mr Amaaz at a ticket machine after a report that a male fitting his description had headbutted a customer at Starbucks cafe in T2 arrivals.

The jury has heard Mr Amaaz allegedly resisted, and his brother, Mr Amaad is then said to have intervened as the prosecution claimed they inflicted a "high level of violence" on the officers.

PC Ward said: "I was trying to keep hold of Mr Amaaz's arm and get it behind his back so I could get some cuffs on him."

She said she recalled that PC Zachary Marsden fell or was pushed towards some seats and that Mr Amaaz then kicked out at her colleague.

'Nobody helped'

PC Ward added: "I tried to grab him off so he could stop kicking PC Marsden. All I remember then is that he turned and he punched me straight in the face."

"I can't really remember where it landed but I know where my injuries were. I remember falling on the floor and everything went black."

She told prosecutor Adam Birkby that the blow delivered was "really forceful".

"As I came round, all I could feel was blood pouring out of my nose. I was just thinking he has done something to my nose, face area, I didn't know what has happened."

"I was terrified to be honest. I was absolutely terrified. I had never experienced that level of violence towards me in my life.

"I didn't know who was going to come up at me next. I was scared of going after this male again and being punched in the face again."

She said at one point she pressed her police radio emergency button to call for further assistance but the impact of the punch had knocked the battery out.

PC Ward told the court that other people in the pay station area were "shouting stuff" and "filming on their mobile phones".

She said: "Nobody came to assist. I felt everyone in that room was against us. To be honest, I was terrified."

'Taken by surprise'

Rosemary Fernandes, representing Mr Amaaz, put it to PC Ward that her client was "taken by surprise" at the ticket machine and was "shocked".

She said: "It is important you identify yourselves as police officers, isn't it?"

PC Ward said: "I don't think we had any time to do that. We didn't have any time for rational discussion with this male as it turned violently quickly."

Ms Fernandes said: "I put it to you that the defendant believed he was being attacked from behind and it all happened extremely fast.

"It is the defence's case that he punched you in lawful self-defence on the basis that you were an assailant. Do you have any comment on that?"

PC Ward said: "I don't know how he felt I was an assailant. He turned towards me and punched me in the face.

"He could see I was a police officer and he could see I was a female as well."

Footage from a body-worn video camera was played to the jury which showed a bloodied and crying PC Ward being comforted by a colleague in the aftermath of the incident.

Mr Amaaz is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden and PC Ward, causing them actual bodily harm.

He is also accused of the assault of PC Cook and the assault of Abdulkareem Ismaeil at Starbucks.

Mr Amaad is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden, causing actual bodily harm.

Both men deny the allegations.

The trial continues.

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Prices for all-inclusive family package holidays in some of the most popular desinations have soared over the past year.

But there are ways of saving money if you want to escape abroad. Here are six tips to help keep costs down.

1. Book early for July and August

The price you pay for your accommodation depends on when you book.

July and August are the peak months for summer holidays, not just for Brits but for people in other parts of Europe.

"If you've ever been to Paris in August there's hardly anyone there, everybody goes to the beach or heads for the mountains," says Sean Tipton, spokesperson for The Travel Association (ABTA), which represents tour operators and travel agents.

"That's when the hotels put their prices up," he says. Therefore, it is usually cheaper to book a holiday aboard for June or September.

If you do have to go during the peak months, Mr Tipton says: "It is generally a good idea to book it as early as you can.

"It can be a bit of a lottery because you can't 100% predict what the demand will be but as a rule of thumb in the majority of cases if you know you're travelling in July, August or over Christmas or Easter, book early."

2. Fly mid-week and early in the morning

The best time to travel is the middle of the week, according to Mr Tipton.

"The weekend is the most expensive time to go because people prefer to fly over the weekend so if you fly mid-week it is generally cheaper," he says.

"Just simple little things like that get the price down."

The same goes for the time of the day you travel.

"It is common sense really," he says. "I don't particularly like getting up at 3am for a 6am flight and I'm not alone in that so those flights will be consequently cheaper."

3. Book a hotel room late

If you have some flexibility around when you can travel, there are some last minute bargains to be had.

Package holiday operators may have booked a lot of hotel space in advance which they may not have been able to sell at the holiday date approaches.

"They'll discount it just to make sure they get something for it," says Mr Tipton.

"Travel agents get sent notifications of last minute good deals so they're a good place to go if you've left it late and you want a good, cheap deal."

Another option is house-swapping. Instead of paying for a hotel or villa, people can register with an online platform which acts as a fixer between homeowners in different countries who want to stay in other's houses.

Justine Palefsky, co-founder and chief executive of Kindred, says that people who register with her site pay only a service and a cleaning fee.

For example, someone booking a seven night stay at a three bedroom house in Majorca would pay a $140 (£103) service fee to Kindred as well as $140 for cleaning before and after a stay in the house.

Ms Hawkes advises that travellers go through a reputable site if they are choosing a house-swap.

"People need to be wary of social media ads at this time of year, advertising cheap holidays because scammers do tend to use those portals to show you images of a wonderful location.

"Then when you book it and do you bank transfer, you find it doesn't exsist," she says.

She recommends doing a reverse image search on websites such as Google to check the images haven't been lifted from somewhere else to promote a home that doesn't exist.

4. Pay in the local currency

Avoid changing money at the airport, says Alastair Douglas, chief executive at TotallyMoney, a price comparison site.

"Airports are normally the most expensive places to change cash," he says.

Instead, change your money well in advance.

Mr Douglas says that if people are worried about exhange rate shifting between booking a holiday and the date of departure they can "hedge their bets" by changing half in advance and half nearer the time.

However, he says that people don't really travel with lots of cash anymore. Most spending is done on cards.

This is a good thing, Mr Douglas says, because it will often allow you to select the local currency which is "probably the thing that will save you the most amount of money".

5. Weigh your bags

Even before you reach your destination, costs can pile up. Make sure you print out your boarding pass ahead of time.

"Some airlines can charge a lot of money just to print out at the airport," says Nicky Kelvin, editor at The Points Guy website. "Not all of them but just be safe."

If you're bringing a small suitcase on board the plane, bear in mind both the weight and the size of the luggage if you have to measure it in a metal sizer at the airport.

If it doesn't fit, you may be charged a fee to check it into the plane's hold.

Ms Hawkes recommends documenting the luggage dimensions an airline provides on its website just in case you have followed them but get to the airport and discover your bag does not fit.

"In that case, if the airline makes you put it in the hold and you've adhered to their website conditions, document everything and make a complaint after," she says.

6. Buy toiletries in advance

Food, drink and toiletries are often more expensive at the airport.

One of the reasons, according to Mr Kelvin, is because of the 100ml onboard liquid rule. While restrictions have recently been relaxed at airports in Edinburgh and Birmingham, it applies everywhere else in the UK.

One way to cut costs is to order your suncream or other toiletries online and pick them up in-store at the airport once you've been through security.

Some retailers allow you to do this, Mr Kelvin tells the BBC's Morning Live programme.

"So it's a double whammy - you're going to save because you're going to get the cheaper online pricing and you're going to avoid the security issue because you're going to pick up your big liquids after."

Another cost-saving tip is to take a water bottle with you. Most airports have free water refill stations.

He also recommends taking along your own snacks in lunch boxes, especially handy if you're travelling with children.

A message from US President Donald Trump on Wednesday landed like a grenade in Brazil, bringing the relationship between the two countries to an all-time low.

Trump pledged to impose tariffs on Brazil at a rate as high as 50%. He accused the country of "attacks" on US tech companies and of conducting a "witch hunt" against the far-right former President Jair Bolsonaro, a longstanding ally who is facing prosecution over his alleged role in a plot to overturn the 2022 Brazilian election.

The move follows a fresh round of political sparring between Trump and the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. It further strained a relationship that was already tense.

Trump had earlier threatened members of the BRICS group - of which Brazil is a part - with tariffs, accusing those countries of anti-American positions.

The bloc includes India, Russia and China and has grown to include Iran. It was designed to counterbalance US influence in the world.

• Brazil vows to match threatened Trump tariffs
• Trump accuses Brazil of 'witch hunt' against Bolsonaro

Lula replied to Trump's tariff threat in a post on X, writing that "Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage".

Trump has unleashed a wide-ranging programme of tariffs - or import taxes - since he returned to office in January. He argues that these will boost US manufacturing and protect jobs, though he has also used them to pursue political ends.

This appears to be true in the case of Brazil, too.

Lula's government said it would reciprocate - probably meaning tariffs on American products. But it is not clear how that would happen, or whether Brazil has the economic clout to face the consequences of an escalation.

In the meantime, many Brazilians are asking why Trump has targeted their country and how this new saga might play out.

Defending an old ally

Brazil is one of the relatively few countries that buys more from the US than it sells - a setup which theoretically suits Trump's trade agenda.

Given this imbalance, the tariff threat was seen by many Brazilian analysts and politicians as an overt gesture of support for Jair Bolsonaro, the former president.

This was underscored by Trump's letter, which strongly criticised the Brazilian government and Bolsonaro's ongoing trial in the Supreme Court that centres on an alleged coup attempt two years ago.

Some kind of assistance for Bolsonaro from Trump was already expected by Brazilian politicians - but not on this scale.

On 8 January 2023, hundreds of Bolsonaro's supporters stormed Brazil's Congress, Supreme Court, and the presidential palace - in an apparent attempt to overturn the election won by Lula a few months earlier.

Bolsonaro denies any connection to that event, which was seen by many as a Brazilian version of the attacks on the US Capitol building by Trump's supporters two years before. Trump, too, was investigated in the aftermath of the US riot - and condemned those who tried to prosecute him.

Bolsonaro's supporters have asked for some kind of Trump support for months. His son Eduardo took a leave of absence from Brazil's Congress, where he serves as a representative, and moved to the US. His aim was to rally support for his father from Trump's inner circle and his broader MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement.

In another intervention that was seen as pro-Bolsonaro, Trump also accused the Brazilian government of "insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans", including the censorship of "US Social Media platforms".

As part of an ongoing investigation into the spread of disinformation in the country, Brazil's Supreme Court has, in recent years, ordered the blocking of several social media accounts - many of them belonging to Bolsonaro's supporters.

Boost for Bolsonaro…

Brazil's authorities and businesses are scrambling to calculate the economic impact of the potential tariffs, but the political consequences could also be huge.

The words used by Trump suggest that Bolsonaro has a political proximity with the American president that few Brazilian or Latin American politicians could dream of.

That will be seen as a powerful endorsement for Bolsonaro, who wants to run for president again - despite being banned from doing so until 2030.

Bolsonaro's supporters have made political capital of the tariffs, suggesting that the blame lies firmly with the current president.

"Lula put ideology ahead of economics, and this is the result. The responsibility lies with those in power. Narratives won't solve the problem," said São Paulo Governor Tarcísio de Freitas, a staunch ally.

Despite the apparent positive consequences for Bolsonaro, some analysts and politicians say that Trump's gesture could backfire for him.

The US is Brazil's second most important trade partner, behind only China.

And some of the sectors that could be most affected by a new round of American tariffs are those closely aligned with Bolsonaro's political base - particularly agribusiness. There are growing concerns over the potential impact on Brazilian exports of oranges, coffee, and beef to the US.

… Or lifeline for Lula?

Rather than playing into Bolsonaro's hands, Trump's tariff threat could serve as a lifeline for Lula, who has been struggling with falling popularity rates and difficulties in dealing with Congress.

A poll released in May suggested that 55% of the Brazilians disapprove of Trump. And a new wave of tariffs is unlikely to shift that sentiment.

Just after Trump's announcement, Lula and other members of the Brazilian left-wing reacted by playing a nationalist tune - talking about sovereignty and trying to blame Bolsonaro for the possible economic consequences of the tariffs.

Even among centrist politicians, the reactions to Trump's threats have been largely negative.

"No citizen, especially representatives elected by the people, can tolerate foreign aggression against Brazil, regardless of the alleged justification. It's time for true patriotism," wrote Alessandro Vieira, a centrist senator who usually has a critical stance against Lula.

Some analysts argue that this could generate a rally-around-the-flag effect for Lula in Brazil's political disputes.

"Even Lula's critics may see Trump's move as an attack on national sovereignty and the independence of the judiciary," said Oliver Stuenkel, a professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank in Washington.

• Trump delays tariffs as the rest of the world plays hardball
• How Trump's allies stoked Brazil Congress attack

Brazil's presidential election in October 2026 is still some way off, but some analysts are already drawing comparisons with Canada, where a right-wing candidate lost this year to a more centrist opponent who openly campaigned against Trump.

Bolsonaro cannot run for president due to his conviction by the Supreme Court, and allies are already disputing which candidate will represent the Brazilian right at the polls.

On social media - where much of the political debate happens - memes of Bolsonaro allies are being shared by the thousands, often with words of criticism. One of these shows probable candidate Tarcísio wearing a Trump MAGA hat.

With his threat of tariffs, Trump has caused a potential storm not only in Brazil's economy - but also its political future.

Who is Caster Semenya?

Everyone agrees: it's getting worse.

The people of Kyiv have, like the citizens of other Ukrainian cities, been through a lot.

After three and a half years of fluctuating fortunes, they are tough and extremely resilient.

But in recent months, they have been experiencing something new: vast, coordinated waves of attacks from the air, involving hundreds of drones and missiles, often concentrated on a single city.

• Deadly new Russian drone and missile attack hits Kyiv

Last night, it was Kyiv. And the week before too. In between, it was Lutsk in the far west.

Three years ago, Iranian-supplied Shahed drones were a relative novelty. I remember hearing my first, buzzing a lazy arc across the night sky above the southern city of Zaporizhzhia in October 2022.

But now everyone is familiar with the sound, and its most fearsome recent iteration: a dive-bombing wail some have compared to the German World War Two Stuka aircraft.

The sound of swarms of approaching drones have sent hardened civilians back to bomb shelters, the metro and underground car parks for the first time since the early days of the war.

"The house shook like it was made of paper," Katya, a Kyiv resident, told me after last night's heavy bombardment.

"We spent the entire night sitting in the bathroom."

"I went to the parking for the first time," another resident, Svitlana, told me.

"The building shook and I could see fires across the river."

The attacks don't always claim lives, but they are spreading fear and eroding morale.

After an attack on a residential block in Kyiv last week, a shocked grandmother, Mariia, told me that her 11-year old grandson had turned to her, in the shelter, and said he understood the meaning of death for the first time.

He has every reason to be fearful. The UN's Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) says June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and over 1,300 injured.

Many will have been killed or wounded in communities close to the front lines, but others have been killed in cities far from the fighting.

"The surge in long-range missile and drone strikes across the country has brought even more death and destruction to civilians far away from the frontline," says Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU.

Modifications in the Shahed's design have allowed it to fly much higher than before and descend on its target from a greater altitude.

Its range has also increased, to around 2,500km, and it's capable of carrying a more deadly payload (up from around 50kg of explosive to 90kg).

Tracking maps produced by local experts show swirling masses of Shahed drones, sometimes taking circuitous routes across Ukraine before homing in on their targets.

Many – often as many as half – are decoys, designed to confuse and overwhelm Ukraine's air defences.

Other, straight lines show the paths of ballistic or cruise missiles: much fewer in number but the weapons Russia relies on to do the most damage.

Analysis by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War shows an increase in Russia's drone and missile strikes in the two months following Donald Trump's inauguration in January.

March saw a slight decline, with occasional spikes, until May, when the numbers suddenly rose dramatically.

New records have been set with alarming regularity.

June saw a new monthly high of 5,429 drones, July has seen more than 2,000 in just the first nine days.

With production in Russia ramping up, some reports suggest Moscow may soon be able to fire over 1,000 missiles and drones in a single night.

Experts in Kyiv warn that the country is in danger of being overwhelmed.

"If Ukraine doesn't find a solution for how to deal with these drones, we will face great problems during 2025," says former intelligence officer Ivan Stupak.

"Some of these drones are trying to reach military objects - we have to understand it - but the rest, they are destroying apartments, falling into office buildings and causing lots of damage to citizens."

For all their increasing capability, the drones are not an especially sophisticated weapon. But they do represent yet another example of the vast gulf in resources between Russia and Ukraine.

It also neatly illustrates the maxim, attributed to the Soviet Union's World War Two leader Joseph Stalin, that "quantity has a quality of its own."

"This is a war of resources," says Serhii Kuzan, of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre.

"When production of particular missiles became too complicated - too expensive, too many components, too many complicated supply routes – they concentrated on this particular type of drone and developed different modifications and improvements."

The more drones in a single attack, Kuzan says, the more Ukraine hard-pressed air defence units struggle to shoot them down. This forces Kyiv to fall back on its precious supply of jets and air-to-air missiles to shoot them down.

"So if the drones go as a swarm, they destroy all the air defence missiles," he says.

Hence President Zelensky's constant appeals to Ukraine's allies to do more to protect its skies. Not just with Patriot missiles – vital to counter the most dangerous Russian ballistic threat – but with a wide array of other systems too.

On Thursday, the British government said it would sign a defence agreement with Ukraine to provide more than 5,000 air defence missiles.

Kyiv will be looking for many more such deals in the coming months.

The original Birkin bag, which set the template for arguably the most coveted accessory in fashion history, has been bought for €8.6m (£7.4m; $10.1m), becoming the most valuable handbag ever sold at auction.

The black leather bag was made for singer Jane Birkin in 1985 after she spilled her belongings while sitting next to the boss of luxury fashion house Hermès on a flight.

She asked why they didn't make bigger bags, so he sketched out the design for a new, more practical but still highly desirable item on the aeroplane's sick bag.

The prototype he made was sold to a private collector from Japan at Sotheby's in Paris on Thursday, far surpassing the $513,000 (£378,000; €439,000) previous record sale.

The auction house said there was an "electrifying" 10-minute bidding war between "nine determined collectors".

Morgane Halimi, Sotheby's global head of handbags and fashion, said the price was a "startling demonstration of the power of a legend and its capacity to ignite the passion and desire of collectors seeking exceptional items with unique provenance, to own its origin".

She added: "The Birkin prototype is exactly that, the starting point of an extraordinary story that has given us a modern icon, the Birkin bag, the most coveted handbag in the world."

The €8,582,500 total includes commission and fees. Sotheby's did not publish a pre-auction estimate.

• The icon who inspired the Birkin bag

After creating the bag for the Anglo-French singer and actress, Hermès put the bag into commercial production, and it remains one of the most exclusive status symbols in fashion.

Some styles cost many tens of thousands of dollars and have waiting lists of years, with owners including celebrities like Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez.

The original has some unique features, such as Birkin's initials on the front flap, a non-removable shoulder strap, the nail clippers she kept attached to the strap, and marks where she put stickers for causes she supported, such as Médecins du Monde and Unicef.

Birkin, who died in 2023 at the age of 76, owned the original bag for a decade and donated it to an auction to raise funds for an Aids charity in 1994.

It was later bought by Catherine Benier, who has a luxury boutique in Paris, who owned it for 25 years before selling it on Thursday.

Sotheby's said the previous record price for a handbag was set by a White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28 in 2021.

A senior Ukrainian intelligence officer has been gunned down in broad daylight in Kyiv, officials have said.

The agent of the domestic Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was shot several times in a car park after being approached by an unidentified assailant who then fled the scene, footage circulated on social media shows.

The spy agency did not identify the victim, though Ukrainian media outlets have named him as Colonel Ivan Voronych.

The SBU is primarily concerned with internal security and counter-intelligence, akin to the UK's MI5. But since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, it has also played a prominent role in assassinations and sabotage attacks deep inside Russia.

Sources within Ukraine's security services have previously told the media - including the BBC - that they were behind the killing of the high-ranking Russian Gen Igor Kirillov in December 2024.

Earlier this year, Gen Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow - an incident the Kremlin blamed on Kyiv. Ukraine's security services have never officially admitted responsibility for the deaths.

Neither the SBU nor the Kyiv Police gave a possible motive for the shooting.

The Ukrainian capital's police force said in a statement that officers arrived at the scene to find a man's body with a gunshot wound.

It said officers were working to identify the assailant and that "measures are being taken to detain him".

The SBU said it was taking "a comprehensive set of measures to clarify all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice".

CCTV footage - which has been verified by the news agency Reuters - shows a man in jeans and a dark t-shirt exiting a building in the southern Holosiivskyi district shortly after 09:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Thursday.

As he walks to a nearby car while holding a plastic bag and a holdall, another man can be seen running towards him.

Online news site Ukrainska Pravda reports that the assailant had used a pistol and had shot the SBU officer five times, citing unnamed sources.

The apparent assassination follows what Ukraine described as the largest Russian aerial attack on Tuesday, when 728 drones and 13 cruise or ballistic missiles struck cities across the country.

Overnight into Thursday, a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital killed at least two people and injured 16 others.

The strikes - which hit eight districts across the city - involved 18 missiles and 400 drones, officials said. Russia has been repeatedly accused of targeting civilian areas.

Meanwhile, fighting on the front line continues, with Russian forces slowly making advances in western Ukraine and retaking control of the part of Russia's Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise offensive last summer.

Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.

Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the more than three-year-long war have faltered, with US President Donald Trump becoming increasingly impatient with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The number of school suspensions and exclusions in England has reached its highest level since 2006, Department for Education figures show.

There were 954,952 suspensions in state schools in 2023/24 - a 21% increase on the previous year - while exclusions also rose 16% to 10,885.

While secondary school pupils comprised most suspensions, more than 100,000 were primary age - a number that has grown significantly.

A suspended pupil must stay out of school for a fixed period of up to 45 days per school year, while those excluded are permanently removed. Individual pupils often account for more than one period of suspension.

The government says it is tackling the root causes of poor behaviour and is intensively supporting 500 schools with the worst behaviour.

Persistent disruptive behaviour was the most common reason pupils were sent home, accounting for half of all suspensions and 39% exclusions.

Nearly half of the suspensions were among pupils getting support for special educational needs - who were three times more likely to be suspended than their classmates.

Children on free school meals were also overrepresented, making up a quarter of the school population but 60% of suspensions.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders' union NAHT, said schools alone could not address the causes of poor behaviour.

"Schools have a duty to provide a safe environment for all pupils and only use suspensions and exclusions when other options to ensure this have been exhausted," he said.

"The reasons for disruptive behaviour often lie beyond the school gates and have their roots in wider challenges, including everything from poverty to access to support with special educational needs and mental ill-health."

The vast majority of suspensions - nine in 10 - occurred at secondary schools, with Year 9 having the highest rate.

But primary-age suspensions rose too, up 24% on the previous year.

The vast majority (88%) of pupils who were excluded at primary school were getting support for special educational needs, compared with 46% of excluded secondary school pupils.

Research from charity Chance UK, which supports families of excluded children in London, suggests that 90% of children who are excluded at primary school fail to pass GCSE English and maths.

Sophie Schmal, the charity's director, said Thursday's figures revealed a "very concerning picture" - particularly the rise in primary school suspensions.

"Early intervention has to mean early. We can't wait until these children are teenagers to tackle this."

Sarah - not her real name - is a mum of one in London. Her six-year-old son was suspended several times within his first few weeks at primary school for hitting other pupils and throwing things in class.

She said that even after school staff agreed that her son showed signs of autism, he continued to be sent out of class regularly and suspended, which made him feel "isolated".

"Since he was three years old, my son has been labelled as the naughty and difficult kid when all he really needed was help," she said.

"I sought help as soon as I recognised that he needed additional support. But rather than helping me immediately, they waited until it was an emergency."

Sarah eventually managed to move her son to a different mainstream school where he is getting more support, she said.

Responding to the figures, early education minister Stephen Morgan said the Labour government had "wasted no time in tackling the root causes of poor behaviour", including offering mental health support in every school and expanding free school meals.

He pointed to its new attendance and behaviour hubs, which will directly support the 500 schools that "need the most help".

"We're also continuing to listen to parents as we reform the SEND system, while already putting in place better and earlier support for speech and language needs, ADHD and autism," Morgan added.