Thousands of Britons are stranded in Israel and unable to leave, as Iran and Israel continue to attack each other in an intensifying conflict that has been ongoing for days.

The Israeli airspace is closed until further notice and all flights have been grounded, with no sign of an imminent pause in hostilities.

Iran has launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel over the past few days in retaliation for Israeli strikes on its military infrastructure on Friday.

Speaking to the BBC, British nationals spoke of sleepless nights punctuated by the wail of sirens, constant trips back and forth to bomb shelters and the uncertainty of not knowing when they will be able to get home.

Many of those stranded are pressing for the UK government to do more to help them, but the BBC understands that, at this stage, there are no plans for an evacuation.

The UK government has advised against all travel to Israel and told British citizens in the country to follow local guidance.

Deborah Claydon, 41, a teacher from Hertfordshire, flew to Israel last Wednesday for what was supposed to be a three-day trip to attend her cousin's wedding.

She now finds herself trapped in Herzliya on Israel's central coast with her 81-year-old mother, as missiles fly overhead.

Three hours after they returned from the wedding last Thursday evening, "we heard sirens and had to go to the bomb shelter," she told the BBC.

"It was a trip of two halves: from elation to fear."

Every night since, Ms Claydon says she has been woken multiple times by alarms warning of incoming missiles and a count-down to get to a shelter. They are lucky, she says, as their hotel has a well-equipped shelter but "it's scary and a lot of people are panicky".

"I'm staying positive because my mum's here with me," the mother-of-three says. "But it's horrible. I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to be woken up three times a night thinking I might be hit by a missile. I want to get home to my job and my kids."

At least 24 people have been killed in Israel since Friday, according to the Israeli prime minister's office. Iran's health ministry said that as of Sunday, Israeli strikes had killed more than 200 people across the country.

As hostilities entered the fifth day on Tuesday, both countries vowed further retaliation.

Tel Aviv's main international airport was shuttered on Friday and will not open until further notice, authorities have said. All flights to and from Israel have been suspended and thousands cancelled.

Around 40,000 tourists are stuck in the country, Israel's Ministry of Tourism has said. Among them are those who travelled to Tel Aviv for its annual Pride parade, which had been due to take place on Friday but was cancelled after hostilities broke out.

Some people are considering leaving Israel via land crossings to neighbouring Jordan or Egypt and getting flights from there.

On Tuesday, Ms Claydon, along with a group of tourists from other countries, began a long journey by car to the border with Egypt where she plans to travel to Sharm El-Sheik and fly home.

She said it is "too risky" to bring her mother, who will stay with her brother in a neighbouring town.

Speaking to the BBC ahead of the journey, Ms Claydon said she was "terrified".

"It's a very unstable, uncertain situation, not knowing am I safer to go or am I safer to stay? Neither is safe. You don't know when the airport's going to open. Could be days, could be weeks."

For some Britons, travelling by land is an impossibility.

Hannah Lyons-Singer, 43, arrived in Jaffa last Tuesday to care for her father, after he was hospitalised while on holiday in Israel with her mother. A few hours after he was discharged following a heart procedure, "war broke out," she says.

The mother-of-three, from London, said the situation was a strain on her elderly parents, particularly when her father, who is in his eighties, should be recuperating.

"We hear the explosions outside," she told the BBC. "Some of them sound really close. There's been direct hits within a couple of kilometres of us both over the past two nights."

She added that it is "stifling hot" in the shelter.

Ms Lyons-Singer is desperate to get home to her children and her father requires further treatment in the UK, but making the hours-long journey to the border isn't feasible in his current condition.

She has called on the UK Government to better support British citizens to return home.

"There's no guidance other than a warning not to travel to Israel," she says.

"They could be offering secure travel to Egypt or reassuring us that once the airspace opens, they will provide evacuation routes, but they haven't offered us any help at all.

"My fear is that even once the airspace opens, commercial flights may not immediately start again."

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Howard Youngerwood, 79, from London, travelled to Israel earlier this month for his granddaughter's Bar Mitzvah. The Jewish coming-of-age ceremony was cut short when hostilities erupted and they were ordered to evacuate the kibbutz near Jerusalem.

"We are exhausted," he said. "We spend a lot of time - hobbling in my case - getting to the shelters. It is taking a toll, especially when you hear of the casualties."

The retired judge, who has several ailments, including mobility issues, is unable to attempt a land crossing and doesn't consider it a safe option.

Angus Edy, 52, who is stuck in Tel Aviv with his 22-year-old son, Samuel, said the situation was "horrendous" and the "lack of care" shown by the UK government towards stranded Brits "shocking".

Since their flight was cancelled on Friday, they have been in and out of shelters. On Monday, after they felt the reverberation of a massive explosion from their shelter at the Gymnasia Isrotel, opposite the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, the hotel announced that it was closing and said they should seek a shelter further underground.

"It seems like the situation is getting more and more and more difficult," he said.

Mr Edy added that they had been phoning the British Consulate every day who had advised them to register for email alerts.

"We even went to the Embassy in person [on Monday] and they wouldn't even speak to us. It's just shocking the lack of care."

The Foreign Office (FCDO) has advised against all travel to Israel due to a "fast-moving situation that poses significant risks" which has "the potential to deteriorate further, quickly and without warning".

Official advice also advises against all travel to Iran.

Tourists from other nations are also stranded. The BBC spoke to the Joyner family, from the US, on Sunday, who were among those wrangling with when and how to attempt to leave.

Poland has said it will begin evacuating around 200 of its citizens in the coming days.

On Monday, deputy foreign minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys said those "stuck as tourists" would leave via Jordan's capital Amman and then fly to Warsaw.

Meanwhile, the German foreign ministry has called on nationals in both Iran and Israel to enter their contact details in an online emergency system. About 4,000 have done so in Israel and about 1,000 in Iran. A spokesperson said there were no current evacuation plans from either country.

But other nations have evacuated its citizens - on Tuesday morning, a Czech government plane landed in Prague carrying 66 people from Israel, the defence minister confirmed.

Some 100,000 Israelis are estimated to be abroad and unable to return to Israel. Authorities have advised Israelis not to attempt land crossings due to security risks and await safer travel options.

Israeli forces have killed more than 51 Palestinians and wounded many more after opening fire near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza, witnesses and rescuers say.

The Hamas-run civil defence agency said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the aid site in Khan Younis. More than 200 people were reportedly injured.

The Israeli military has told the BBC it is looking into the reports.

It is the latest, and potentially the deadliest, of the almost daily shootings that have been taking place recently near aid distribution sites in Gaza.

Witnesses say that Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction to the east of Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians had been gathering in the hope of getting flour from a World Food Programme (WFP) site, which also includes a community kitchen nearby.

A local journalist and eyewitnesses said Israeli drones fired two missiles, followed shortly after by a shell from an Israeli tank positioned between 400 and 500m away from the crowd. The explosions caused many casualties.

The crowd had assembled near a key road leading to the town of Bani Suheila, an area that has seen weeks of ongoing Israeli military operations.

Nasser Hospital, the main functioning medical facility in the area, has been overwhelmed by the number of casualties. It is so overcrowded that the many wounded are lying on the floor as medical staff treat their injuries.

In a statement the IDF said "a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area."

It said it was "aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd's approach" and the incident was under review.

On Monday, the UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Israel was weaponising food and called for an investigation into the shootings near aid sites.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, he said: "Israel's means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza."

At least 14 people have been killed overnight and dozens more wounded in Russian strikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, officials say.

It was one of the largest bombardments of the capital since the beginning of the full-scale invasion more than three years ago.

Ukraine's interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said a total of 440 drones and 32 missiles had been launched at the country.

Meanwhile, Russian air defence units intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones overnight, Moscow's defence ministry said.

The strikes on Kyiv lasted more than nine hours – sending residents fleeing to underground shelters from before midnight until after sunrise.

Officials said a ballistic missile hit a nine-storey apartment building in one district, with a total of 27 districts of the city coming under fire.

"Waking up in utter nightmare: people trapped under rubble and full buildings collapsed," Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko wrote on X.

Klymenko said rescue teams were still working to free people.

Loud explosions rocked the city, along with the rattle of the machine guns used by mobile Ukrainian air defence units to shoot down drones.

More sirens later in the morning disrupted rescue operations in the city, hampering emergency workers searching the rubble for survivors.

Russia has intensified its air attacks against Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, with a tactic of sending large waves of drones and decoys designed to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences.

Kyiv has launched attacks of its own, as direct talks between the warring sides failed to secure a ceasefire or significant breakthrough.

President Volodymyr Zelensky called Russia's most recent wave of strikes "pure terrorism".

He accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of carrying out the large scale strikes "solely because he can afford to continue this war".

"It is bad when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to this," he said, adding: "It is the terrorists who should feel the pain, not normal, peaceful people."

Drone strikes also hit the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing one person and injuring at least 10 others, Klymenko said.

Zelenksy had been hoping to speak with the US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Canada on Tuesday but Trump cut short his stay amid the escalating crisis in the Middle East.

The news will come as a blow to Zelensky and his administration, which had been hoping to secure US support at the conference for Ukraine's strategic and military goals.

Every time Aryan Asari heard the sound of an airplane, he would go darting out of the house to look for it.

Spotting planes was something of a hobby for him, his father Maganbhai Asari said. Aryan loved the roaring sound of the engine fill the air and then grow louder as the plane cruised above him, leaving behind chalky threads of contrail in the sky,

But now, the very thought of it makes him sick.

Last Thursday, the 17-year-old had been on the terrace of Mr Asari's house in Ahmedabad city, making videos of airplanes, when an Air India Dreamliner 787-8 crashed right before his eyes and burst into flames, killing 241 on board. Nearly 30 people were also killed on the ground.

The moment was captured by Aryan on his phone.

"I saw the plane. It was going down and down. Then it wobbled and crashed right before my eyes," he told BBC Gujarati in an interview earlier this week.

The video, now a crucial clue for investigators trying to find the cause of the crash, has sent ripples through the news media and put Aryan - a high school student - at the centre of one of the worst aviation disasters in the country's history.

"We have been swamped by interview requests. Reporters have been milling around my house day and night asking to speak to him," Mr Asari told the BBC.

The incident - and what has followed since - has had a "devastating impact" on Aryan, who is traumatised by what he saw. "My son is so scared that he has stopped using his phone," Mr Asari said.

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A retired army soldier, who now works with the city's metro service, Mr Asari has been staying for three years in a neighbourhood close to the airport. He recently moved to a small room located on the terrace of a three-storey building, with a clear view of the city skyline.

His wife and two children - Aryan and his elder sister - live in their ancestral village near the border between Gujarat and Rajasthan states.

"This was Aryan's first time in Ahmedabad. Actually, it was the first time in his life that he left the village," Mr Asari said.

"Whenever I'd call, Aryan would ask if I could spot airplanes from our terrace and I would tell him you could see hundreds of them streaking the sky."

Aryan, he explained, was an aeroplane enthusiast and liked looking at them as they flew in the sky over his village. The idea that he could see them much more closely from the terrace of his father's new home was very appealing to him.

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An opportunity presented itself last week when Mr Asari's daughter, who wants to become a police officer, travelled to Ahmedabad to write the entrance examination.

Aryan decided to accompany her. "He told me he wanted to buy new notebooks and clothes," Mr Asari said.

The siblings arrived at their father's house around noon on Thursday, roughly an hour-and-a-half before the crash.

The family ate lunch together, after which Mr Asari left for work, leaving the children at home.

Aryan stepped out on the terrace and started making videos of the house to show to his friends. That's when he spotted the Air India plane and began filming it, he told BBC Gujarati.

Aryan soon realised that something was not quite right about the aircraft: "It was shaking, moving left and right," he said.

As the plane went on a downward spiral, he kept filming it, unable to grasp what was about to happen.

But when thick smoke filled the air and fire spewed out of the buildings, he finally realised what he had just witnessed.

He sent the video to his father and called him up.

"He sounded so frightened - 'I saw it papa, I saw it crash,' he said to me and kept asking me what would happen to him. I told him to sit tight and not to worry," Mr Asari said. "But he was beside himself in horror."

Mr Asari also asked his son to not share the video further. However, too scared and shocked, Aryan sent it to a few of his friends. "The next thing we knew, the clip was everywhere."

The next few days were a nightmare for the family.

Neighbours, reporters and camera persons flooded Mr Asari's small house day and night, requesting to speak to Aryan. "We could do nothing to stop them," he said.

The family also received a visit from the police, who took Aryan to the station and recorded his statement.

Mr Asari clarified, that contrary to reports, Aryan was not detained, but that police questioned him for a few hours about what he saw.

"My son was so disturbed by then that we decided to send him back to the village."

Back at home, Aryan has resumed school but is "still not feeling like himself. His mother tells me that every time his phone rings, he gets scared", Mr Asari said.

"I know he will be fine with time. But I don't think my son will try looking for airplanes in the sky again," he added.

Additional reporting by Roxy Gagdekar, BBC Gujarati, in Ahmedabad.

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Donald Trump's family business is launching a new Trump-branded phone service, in its latest plan to cash in on the US president's name.

The Trump Organization, which is run by his sons, said it planned to sell a gold-coloured, made-in-America smart phone for $499, along with mobile phone service for a monthly fee of $47.45 - a reference to their father serving as the country's 47th and 45th president.

The announcement was light on details, including the name of the business partner that will run the service and is licensing the name.

Ethics watchdogs said the latest venture represented another means for potential corruption and conflicts of interest.

"It's unbelievable that the Trump family has created yet another way for President Trump to personally profit while in office," said Meghan Faulkner, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).

Trump has said he has put his business interests in a trust, which is managed by his children. The White House has maintained he acts on the interests of all Americans.

But Ms Faulkner said the latest venture raised familiar issues, including whether the new business will win customers from people hoping to influence Trump and how the president will craft policies and regulation for an industry in which his family now has a stake.

The Trump Organization did not respond to questions about its business partner and criticisms about potential ethics issues.

In announcing its plans, it said "hard-working Americans deserve a wireless service that's affordable, reflects their values, and delivers reliable quality they can count on".

It pitched a policy of "discounted" international calls to families with members serving outside the US in the military.

The announcement said the mobile service would have customer support staff based in the US to answer questions, as well as the gold-coloured phone, which is currently available for pre-order.

Trump's net worth has more than doubled

The deal is an extension of a business strategy that Trump embraced long before his presidency, striking deals to sell his name to hoteliers and golf course operators in exchange for fees and royalties.

But the opportunities to profit from his brand have expanded since he entered politics a decade ago.

On his most recent financial disclosure, Trump reported making more than $600m last year, including millions from of items such as Trump-branded bibles, watches sneakers and fragrances.

Forbes in March estimated his net worth was $5.1bn, more than double than a year earlier.

It said the surge was due in part to the president's "diehard following", which is credited with helping to prop up the value of Trump's social media company that runs the Truth Social platform, which accounted for roughly half his wealth last year.

The mobile phone market in the US is currently dominated by three major players: AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, which all offer phone service starting at less than $40 a month.

There are also a growing number of smaller firms paying to use those networks to target niche groups of potential customers, by offering lower prices or tailored plans.

The largest of those companies, which are known as mobile virtual network providers, have less than 10 million subscribers, according to a 2024 report by the Federal Communications Commission.

Mint Mobile, which was backed by Ryan Reynolds, was sold to T-Mobile for $1.35bn in 2023. At the time, one analyst estimated the service had roughly two million to three million subscribers.

The actor had a 25% stake in the business, giving him a potential pay out of about $300m.

Doctors treating Colombian presidential hopeful Miguel Uribe Turbay have warned that he is in an "extremely critical condition" after being shot in the head 10 days ago.

Uribe underwent emergency surgery on Monday to stem a bleed to the brain, according to a hospital statement.

His wife said that the hours after the operation would be critical and asked Colombians to pray for his recovery.

The June 7 attack on Uribe has shocked Colombians, who turned out in their tens of thousands to attend silent protests held across the country on Sunday.

"Miguel continues to fight for his life like never before," his wife, María Claudia Tarazona, said outside Santa Fe hospital, where he is being treated.

"We need all the prayers and words of love. It's love is keeping him alive."

The 39-year-old conservative senator, who was seeking his party's nomination for the 2026 presidential election, was shot three times at an event in the capital Bogota.

A teenage suspect was arrested as he was fleeing the scene. The 15-year-old has been charged with attempted murder and pleaded not guilty.

A man accused of providing the shooter with the gun has also been detained as well as a woman suspected of providing "logistical support" for the attack.

However, police are still trying to determine the possible motive for the attack and who may have ordered it.

The brazen attack on the politician - in broad daylight as he was giving a speech in a middle-class neighbourhood in Bogota - has brought back memories of the turbulent decades of the 1980s and 90s in Colombia, when several presidential candidates and influential Colombian figures were assassinated.

Uribe's own mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped by Los Extraditables in 1990 - an alliance created by leading drug lords.

She was held hostage by them for five months before being shot dead during a botched rescue attempt.

Uribe often cited her as his inspiration to run for political office "to work for our country".

Los Extraditables, who have said they would prefer a grave in Colombia to a prison cell in the US, abducted and attacked renowned Colombians in an attempt to force the government at the time to overturn its extradition treaty with the US.

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has signed into law an amendment that will allow, once again, civilians to be tried in a military court under certain circumstances.

A previous law permitting such trials was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in January.

Before that ruling, civilians could be taken to a military tribunal if they had been found with military equipment like guns or army uniforms. Activists had complained that the law was used to persecute government critics.

Parliamentarians passed the amendment last month amid a heavy police presence and a boycott by opposition lawmakers, who argued that it violated the ruling by the country's highest court.

In January, the judges said that the military courts were neither impartial nor competent to exercise judicial functions, the International Society for Human Rights reported at the time.

The amendment appears to try and address some of the issues.

It says that those presiding over the tribunals should have relevant legal qualifications and training. It also says that while performing their legal functions they should be independent and impartial.

But civilians can still be transferred if found with military hardware.

"The law will deal decisively with armed violent criminals, deter the formation of militant political groups that seek to subvert democratic processes, and ensure national security is bound on a firm foundational base. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!," army spokesperson Col Chris Magezi wrote on X after the bill was passed by MPs.

But opposition leader Bobi Wine said the law would be used against him and others.

"All of us in the opposition are being targeted by the act," he told the AFP news agency.

The Uganda Law Society, a professional body that represents the country's lawyers, has said it will "challenge the constitutionality" of the amendment.

For years, activists had argued that the military courts were being used by the government to silence dissidents, with people alleging that evidence had been planted.

"If you are a political opponent then they will find a way of getting you under the military court and then you know your fate is sealed... once there, justice will never visit your door," human rights lawyer Gawaya Tegulle told the BBC's Focus on Africa podcast in February.

He added that people can spend years in detention on remand as the courts await decisions from senior military figures, which may never come, and those who are tried and found guilty face harsher penalties than in civilian courts.

A recent high-profile case followed November's arrest of long-time leading opposition figure Kizza Besigye. He was picked up in neighbouring Kenya, taken across the border and then charged in a military court with possession of pistols and attempting to purchase weapons abroad, which he denied.

Those charges were dropped, and replaced with others, when his case was transferred to a civilian court following the Supreme Court ruling.

Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, described the verdict as the "wrong decision", adding that "the country is not governed by the judges. It is governed by the people."

He had previously defended the use of military courts saying that they dealt with the "rampant activities of criminals and terrorists that were using guns to kill people indiscriminately".

He said that civilian courts were too busy to "handle these gun-wielding criminals quickly".

More Uganda stories from the BBC:

• How Besigye disappeared in Kenya and ended up in military court
• How an ex-rebel has stayed in power for more than 30 years
• Muhoozi Kainerugaba - Uganda's ambitious tweeting general

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

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Israeli forces have killed more than 51 Palestinians and wounded many more after opening fire near an aid distribution site in southern Gaza, witnesses and rescuers say.

The Hamas-run civil defence agency said Israeli troops fired on crowds near the aid site in Khan Younis. More than 200 people were reportedly injured.

The Israeli military has told the BBC it is looking into the reports.

It is the latest, and potentially the deadliest, of the almost daily shootings that have been taking place recently near aid distribution sites in Gaza.

Witnesses say that Israeli forces opened fire and shelled an area near a junction to the east of Khan Younis, where thousands of Palestinians had been gathering in the hope of getting flour from a World Food Programme (WFP) site, which also includes a community kitchen nearby.

A local journalist and eyewitnesses said Israeli drones fired two missiles, followed shortly after by a shell from an Israeli tank positioned between 400 and 500m away from the crowd. The explosions caused many casualties.

The crowd had assembled near a key road leading to the town of Bani Suheila, an area that has seen weeks of ongoing Israeli military operations.

Nasser Hospital, the main functioning medical facility in the area, has been overwhelmed by the number of casualties. It is so overcrowded that the many wounded are lying on the floor as medical staff treat their injuries.

In a statement the IDF said "a gathering was identified adjacent to an aid distribution truck that got stuck in the area of Khan Younis, and in proximity to IDF troops operating in the area."

It said it was "aware of reports regarding a number of injured individuals from IDF fire following the crowd's approach" and the incident was under review.

On Monday, the UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Israel was weaponising food and called for an investigation into the shootings near aid sites.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Monday, he said: "Israel's means and methods of warfare are inflicting horrifying, unconscionable suffering on Palestinians in Gaza."

Yellow heat health alerts have been issued for most of England with temperatures set to soar across the country later this week.

Yorkshire and The Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands, East England, the South East, the South West and London are all covered by the alert which comes into force at 12:00 BST on Wednesday and lasts until 18:00 on Sunday.

The alert is the lowest behind amber and red on the UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) alerting system, but warns of possible impacts on health and social services.

Temperatures are set to be as high as 26C in London on Tuesday, with an area of high pressure building across the UK likely to bring the first heatwave of 2025 during the week.

All of the affected areas excluding Yorkshire and the Humber have been given a risk score of 10 out of a possible 16, meaning "significant impacts are possible" due to high temperatures.

The UKHSA's website says this includes a possible rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions, while younger age groups could also be affected.

An increase in demand for health services is likely, it said, and there is a risk the heat could affect the ability of people working in hospitals and care homes to deliver services.

Internal temperatures in hospitals, care homes and independent accommodation could also pose a risk to vulnerable people, it said.

Yorkshire and the Humber's score of seven means that only minor impacts are likely.

According to the Met Office, Tuesday will see cloudy weather with patches of rain in southern Scotland, the east of Northern Ireland, northwest England and northwest Wales.

Sunny spells and showers are expected in northern parts of the UK, and after a locally grey start further south, there will be some very warm sunshine.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a woman who was found with stab wounds at a house in east London following a suspected a gas explosion.

The Met Police and London Fire Brigade were called to reports of a blast with a person trapped inside a terraced house on Dumont Road, Stoke Newington, just before 05:00 BST.

The woman, 46, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 44-year-old man arrested on suspicion of murder was taken to hospital with slash wounds. His condition is not life-threatening, the Met Police said.

Two children aged seven and nine were also taken to hospital as a precaution, although they are not believed to have been inside the property at the time of the explosion.

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Patients who film their own medical treatment for TikTok or Instagram could be putting themselves and NHS staff at risk, the Society of Radiographers (SoR) has warned.

The trade union's annual conference heard that more patients were videoing their procedures on mobile phones, often without asking permission.

This could distract staff or make them feel uncomfortable and anxious, the society said.

Sharing material on social media also risks publicising the private medical data of other people who may be in the same room or area of the hospital.

"I had one patient whose relative started filming while I was trying to set up," said Ashley d'Aquino, a therapeutic radiographer from London.

"It wasn't the right time - I was trying to focus on delivering the treatment."

Ms d'Aquino, who is also a local union representative, said she had recently been contacted by other colleagues in a similar situation.

"We had a member of staff who agreed to take photos for a patient," she said.

"When the patient handed over her phone, the member of staff saw that the patient had also been covertly recording her, to publish on her cancer blog."

Most NHS staff wear identity badges and their names and job titles may be visible on videos posted online.

The union said another of its members, a department assistant from the south coast of England, was inserting a cannula as part of a cancer procedure, when the patient's 19-year old daughter started filming on her phone.

"She thought it would be entertaining on social media but she didn't ask permission," said the member of staff.

"I spent the weekend afterwards worrying: did I do my job properly? I know I did, but no-one's perfect all of the time," she added.

"I don't think I slept for the whole weekend."

NHS 'needs policies'

Ms d'Aquino said there were valid reasons for patients to record the audio of medical consultations - so they could listen back to the detail, for example.

"The difficulty is that our phones have become so much a part of our day-to-day life that recording and sharing has become second nature," she added.

Dean Rogers, the director of strategy at the SoR, is calling for NHS trusts to have clear policies in place that stop patients from filming without permission.

"As healthcare professionals, we need to think: does that recording breach the confidentiality of other patients? Does it breach our ability to deliver care?" he said.

"There are hospital trusts that have very good policies around patients taking photos and filming procedures but this is something all trusts need to have in place."

Prof Meghana Pandit, co-national medical director at NHS England, said it was vital that, if patients want to record any part of NHS care, they discuss it with staff first and it remains for their personal use only.

"Recording other patients inadvertently and without their permission risks breaching patient confidentiality – the information and treatment provided to other patients on NHS premises should never be recorded, let alone posted to social media," she added.

Plans to pedestrianise parts of Oxford Street will move forward "as quickly as possible", the mayor of London has said.

City Hall claims two thirds of people support the principle of banning traffic on one of the world's busiest streets, with Sir Sadiq Khan adding that "urgent action is needed to give our nation's high street a new lease of life".

Vehicles would be banned from a 0.7-mile (1.1km) stretch between Oxford Circus and Marble Arch, with further potential changes towards Tottenham Court Road.

Adam Hug, Westminster City Council's Labour leader, said the plan "was not the council's preferred outcome" but "it is now important for Oxford Street's future to move forward together".

Detailed proposals for traffic on Oxford Street, which sees an average of half a million visitors each day, will be consulted on later this year.

'Elephant in the room'

Tim Lord, chair of the Soho Society, said key questions remained unanswered, including about "traffic diversion and the impact of moving 16 bus routes into narrow, congested one-way streets in Marylebone and Fitzrovia".

He said: "No convincing plan has ever been presented; London is already a very slow city and will get worse.

"The elephant in the room is that Oxford Street's problems are to do with the quality and attractiveness of the retail offering, which is diminished by rents which are too high and which only ever increase."

He added that there were questions about bicycles and "equality of access for bus and taxi users" and "people with kids and heavy shopping or with mobility restrictions".

A previous consultation showed support for the scheme from local business owners (19%) and residents (34%) lagged behind visitors (62%).

In 2018, Westminster City Council - then led by the Conservatives - blocked the mayor's plans to pedestrianise the street, citing a lack of support from residents.

In 2022, the same council was widely mocked for a doomed attempt to entice visitors back to the area with the Marble Arch Mound, which opened incomplete, over budget and led to resignations.

The mayor's latest proposals depend on him obtaining permission from Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner in her role as secretary of state for housing, communities and local government to establish a new mayoral development corporation, which would provide planning powers.

Sir Sadiq said: "We want to rejuvenate Oxford Street; establish it as a global leader for shopping, leisure and outdoor events with a world-class, accessible, pedestrianised avenue.

"This will help to attract more international visitors and act as a magnet for new investment and job creation, driving growth and economic prosperity for decades to come."

'Roared back to life'

Mr Hug said: "Since the mayor's new approach was made public last autumn, Westminster has worked pragmatically and productively with the Greater London Authority to ensure that the plan for Oxford Street more closely meets the needs of businesses, visitors and residents.

"Since 2022, Oxford Street has roared back to life after the pandemic. Such is the level of retail confidence that existing brands have spent £118m refitting their stores in the last 12 months alone, according to Savills."

City Hall Conservative Alessandro Georgiou AM said: "We are concerned that the mayor is driving coach and horses through the plan drawn up by Westminster Conservatives, which had the popular support of residents and businesses, in order to secure himself even a shred of a positive legacy after last week's disastrous Spending Review.

"The mayor's polling claims to show how strongly Londoners feel about this issue, but he has yet to make a cogent case for why he needs to take power away from local councils in order to achieve this rather than working with them.

"We will continue to hold the mayor to account on his empty proposals, and encourage him to be clearer with the public about the impacts on congestion, public safety and disabled access, as well as how much his plans will cost."

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The US Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to revive the long-running copyright trial over his hit song Thinking Out Loud.

On Monday, the court refused to hear an appeal from Structured Asset Sales (SAS), which claimed Sheeran's song copied Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On, in which it has a copyright interest.

The move ends a decade-long legal battle, including two separate plagiarism trials, both of which ruled in Sheeran's favour.

"It's a huge relief," said Amy Wadge, who co-wrote Thinking Out Loud with Sheeran in 2014. "It's been rolling news under my life for 10 years but, yes, it's done."

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the Welsh songwriter said the copyright trials had "haunted" her for the last 10 years.

"The absolute truth is that song changed my life. I didn't have a hit until I was 37 and that was the one.

"I was able to feel like I'd had a hit for a year and then all of a sudden it felt like the wolves were surrounding.

"It was incredibly frightening."

Thinking Out Loud is one of the biggest songs of Sheeran's career. It spent more than two years in the UK singles chart, racking up 4.8 million sales in the UK, and won song of the year at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

Gaye's boudoir ballad, which was a number one hit in the US, was co-written with singer-songwriter Ed Townsend, who died in 2003.

Townsend's family first accused Sheeran and Wadge of copyright infringement in 2016, seeking $100m (£73m) in damages.

In court, Sheeran's team accepted that the two songs share a similar syncopated chord pattern.

However, they characterised the chords as the "building blocks" of pop music, which had been used in dozens of songs before and since Let's Get It On was recorded in 1973.

A New York jury ruled in Sheeran's favour in 2023, after which the star spoke about his decision to fight the case in court, rather than settle.

"I am not and will never allow myself to be a piggy bank for anyone to shake," he told reporters.

SAS, which was founded and run by investment banker David Pullman, also has a stake in Townsend's copyright, and sued Sheeran and Wadge separately in 2018.

After losing that case, SAS launched a series of appeals, including demands for a re-hearing, which was denied.

SAS was then left with the option of appealing to the Supreme Court, which it did in March.

But the court agreed with earlier findings that the chord progression and harmonic rhythms in Gaye's song are too commonplace to be legally protected.

"And no reasonable jury could find that the two songs, taken as a whole, are substantially similar in light of their dissimilar melodies and lyrics," Judge Michael Park wrote for the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.

Wadge said the ruling had ended "10 long years" of uncertainty.

"It was certainly a financial threat, but there was also... this huge existential threat of what it meant for the world of songwriting I always felt the weight of that.

"People would tell me that everyone was looking at this case and I knew that had [SAS] been successful it really would have caused a huge issue for creativity in general," she added. "It was a big responsibility."

After the 2023 trial, Wadge and Sheeran both got tattoos containing a phrase from the judge's verdict: "Independently created".

Asked if she would do the same again, Wadge laughed, saying: "My husband might have a bit of a problem with another tattoo."

The songwriter added that she hasn't been able to speak to Sheeran since the verdict, as he's currently on tour in Europe, but she added: "I'm quite sure at some point we'll be able to sit down and say, 'Thank goodness'."

When North Korea's new warship capsized into the sea during its launch last month, it made international headlines. News organisations followed every development, from its successful refloating to its relaunch last Friday.

But why such interest, given there were no casualties, and the damage to the hull appeared relatively minor?

The intrigue has less to do with the failure itself and more with how Kim Jong Un reacted.

Kim immediately denounced the failure as "a criminal act" that "could not be tolerated", saying it had damaged the country's "dignity". He ordered that the ship be restored immediately, and those responsible be punished. Four party officials were subsequently arrested.

This furious outburst, followed by the ship's swift repair, teaches us a lot about the North Korean regime, whose moves are often so difficult to decipher.

First, it reveals how serious North Korea is about building a nuclear-armed navy.

Despite having a nuclear arsenal, which is growing in size and sophistication, and an enormous standing army, North Korea's navy is considered greatly inferior to those of its enemies - South Korea, Japan and the United States - who have some of the most powerful naval fleets in the world.

"Kim Jong Un believes nuclear weapons are the only way he can protect his country, and yet all it has at sea is an old submarine and some small support ships," said Choi Il, a retired South Korean navy captain.

Therefore, almost since the start of his reign, Kim has prioritised building a modern and powerful navy, equipped with nuclear weapons.

This warship is a key first step towards this goal. It is one of two destroyers North Korea has built over the past year, the first of which launched successfully in April. Weighing 5,000 tonnes, they are by far the biggest warships North Korea has, and are capable, in theory, of firing nuclear short-range missiles.

According to Mr Choi, who now heads South Korea's Submarine Research Institute, it is extremely rare for a destroyer of this class to capsize during its construction and launch, given the advanced technology required to build one.

This would therefore have been "a very embarrassing incident" for Kim Jong Un, he said, as it "highlights the limitations of North Korea's shipbuilding".

Worse still, this flagship project failed in front of his eyes. Kim was attending the ship's launch ceremony, along with his daughter and a crowd of spectators.

"North Korea is obsessed with showing off. I imagine they were planning a whole series of performances, so of course Kim couldn't help but be furious", Mr Choi added.

But experts in North Korea propaganda believe there is far more to Kim Jong Un's outburst than raw anger and humiliation.

Choosing to publicise the capsizing in the way he did was a deliberate political strategy, they say, and shows Kim is shifting away from the regime's tendency to conceal unpleasant truths.

Rachel Minyoung Lee from the Washington-based Stimson Centre, who has analysed North Korean propaganda for decades, explained how this has become a core pillar of Kim's propaganda strategy.

Before Kim came to power, and even in the early years of his rule, the regime would hide anything negative as a way to control the narrative.

But as information has started to spread more freely in North Korea, it has become harder to cover up such major incidents.

"The leadership decided it was almost silly to try and hide what people already knew, and much more effective to show people they were dealing with problems," Ms Lee said.

"Now, when there's a problem, you publicise it, you call out those responsible, and demonstrate to people that if you don't do your job, you will be held accountable. And in doing so, you let everyone know that the government and the leadership are doing their jobs well".

In the case of the warship, this strategy appears to have worked remarkably effectively. The repairs were completed ahead of schedule, in just over three weeks, defying the expectations of naval experts.

"The rapid relaunch shows how even a failure can be turned into a political success," said Kim Dong-yup, an assistant professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.

But he and others say Kim has used this incident not just to project success but to strengthen people's loyalty to the regime and its ideology – another consistent feature of his rule.

The ship capsized as it was launched sideways from the dock into the sea – a complicated maritime manoeuvre – and part of the bow got stuck on the launching ramp. But rather than present this as a technical failure, Kim Jong Un claimed the incident was caused by "absolute carelessness and irresponsibility."

In contrast, he praised a worker who died during the ship's construction, for "putting his blood and sweat" into the project.

"They turned his death into a symbol of devotion, to strengthen people's loyalty," said Professor Kim Dong-yup.

Rather than present Kim Jong Un as an infallible god as was the case for his father and grandfather, they elevated the loyal worker, he said. "This is a big shift in North Korea's governing technique and shows Kim Jong Un's astonishing ability to adapt and control the narrative".

The biggest takeaway for Ms Lee, the propaganda expert, is that "the North Koreans achieve whatever they set out to do."

"They set this goal of having a nuclear armed navy, and now they're demonstrating they're on their way to achieving that".

No-one thought they could build the destroyers in just over a year, or repair this damage in less than a month, but they have, Ms Lee added, much like they did with their nuclear and missile programme despite the world's initial scepticism.

The retired navy captain Mr Choi agreed. "People may look at this episode and laugh, and think 'oh, North Korea is so far behind', but they're making significant progress", he said.

Most concerning, say he and others, is that Kim Jong Un is intent on transforming his navy from one that is limited to patrolling its own seas into one that will be able to sail the world's oceans and launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes.

"We must be vigilant and prepare accordingly," he said.

Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi.