Some of the world’s poorest countries have started paying millions to lobbyists linked to Donald Trump to try to offset US cuts to foreign aid, an investigation reveals.
Somalia, Haiti and Yemen are among 11 countries to sign significant lobbying deals with figures tied directly to the US president after he slashed US foreign humanitarian assistance.
Many states have already begun bartering crucial natural resources – including minerals – in exchange for humanitarian or military support, the investigation by Global Witness found.
USAID officially closed its doors last week after Trump’s dismantling of the agency, a move experts warn could cause more than 14 million avoidable deaths over five years.
Emily Stewart, Global Witness’s head of policy for transition minerals, said the situation meant that deal making in Washington could become “more desperate and less favourable to low-income countries”, which had become increasingly vulnerable to brutal exploitation of their natural resources.
Documents show that within six months of last November’s US election, contracts worth $17m (£12.5m) were signed between Trump-linked lobbying firms and some of the world’s least-developed countries, which were among the highest recipients of USAID.
Records submitted under the US Foreign Agents Registration Act reveal some countries signed multiple contracts, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has endured mass displacement and conflict over its mineral wealth for years.
The DRC is primed to sign a mineral deal with the US for support against Rwanda-backed rebels, providing American companies access to lithium, cobalt and coltan.
The DRC – a former top-10 USAID recipient – signed contracts worth $1.2m with the lobbyists Ballard Partners.
The firm, owned by Brian Ballard, lobbied for Trump well before the 2016 US election and was a leading donor to the US president’s political campaign.
Somalia and Yemen signed contracts with BGR Government Affairs – $550,000 and $372,000 respectively.
A former BGR partner, Sean Duffy, is now Trump’s transport secretary, one of myriad links between the US president and the lobbying firm.
The government of Pakistan, a country that struggles with extreme poverty but is extremely rich in minerals, has signed two contracts with Trump-linked lobbyists worth $450,000 a month.
Pakistan is now tied up in deals with multiple individuals in Trump’s inner circle, including the president’s former bodyguard Keith Schiller.
Access to key natural resources has become a priority for Trump, particularly rare earth minerals. These are considered critical to US security, but the global supply chains for them are dominated by China.
Other nations are offering exclusive access to ports, military bases and rare earths in exchange for US support.
Although Global Witness said the revolving door between governments and lobbyists was nothing new, the organisation said it was concerned by the broader, exploitative dynamics driving new deals.
Stewart said: “We’re seeing a dramatic cut in aid, combined with an explicit rush for critical minerals, and willingness by the Trump administration to secure deals in exchange for aid or military assistance.
“Dealmaking needs to be transparent and fair. It is vital to recognise the role that international aid plays in making a safer world for all, and that aid should retain its distinct role away from trade.”
Democrat Josh Cowen is launching a bid by highlighting education and affordability issues in what is already becoming a crowded primary in a tossup Michigan district.
Cowen, an education policy professor at Michigan State University, singled out the school choice and voucher programs pushed by Michigan Republicans like former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos as part of what inspired him to run for Michigan's 7th Congressional District in the central part of the state.
“I'm a teacher, and I have been fighting Betsy DeVos across the country on a specific issue, and that's privatizing public schools,” Cowen said in an interview. “She's been trying to disinvest, defund commitments to kids and families all over the place, and that's actually the same fight as everything that's going on right now — trying to protect investing in health care through Medicaid and other systems — protect jobs.”
Several Democrats have already announced bids against Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Mich.), who flipped the seat last cycle after Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) vacated it to run for Senate. He could be a tough incumbent for Democrats to dislodge and reported raising over $1 million last quarter.
Still, Democrats see the narrowly divided seat as a top pickup opportunity next year, with former Ukraine Ambassador Bridget Brink and retired Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam among the field of candidates running. Cowen brushed off concerns about a contested primary, saying, “They're going to run their campaigns. I'm going to run mine.”
“I am going to be running really hard on the fact that I am in this community. I've been here for 12 years. My kids went to public schools here. My youngest is still there,” he added.
Chinese research ships are studying the seas for science and resources, but the data they gather could also be useful in a conflict with Taiwan or the United States.
James B. Comey, the former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, has a long and contentious history with President Trump, who fired him in 2017.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio denounced Francesca Albanese, a special rapporteur, for investigating Americans and Israelis over the war in the enclave.
Firefighters also battled fires sparked by explosions in the Kyiv region on Wednesday
Ukraine's capital Kyiv is again under a massive overnight Russian drone attack, local officials say, with at least eight people reported injured and fires burning across the city.
Authorities in Kyiv say drone wreckage has hit the roof of a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district.
Footage on social media, as yet unverified by the BBC, shows explosions in the night sky, as air defence units begin repelling the attack. Ukraine's military has also warned of a threat of a ballistic missile attack.
In the early hours of Thursday, morning Kyiv's military administration reported Russian drone strikes in six city districts.
"Residential buildings, vehicles, warehouses, office and non-residential buildings are burning," administration head Tymur Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram.
He urged city residents to shelter until the air raid siren was lifted.
Overnight, Ukraine's air force reported a threat of Russian drone attacks in a number of regions. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties outside Kyiv.
Russia's military has not commented on the reported latest attack.
In other developments:
Ukraine's emergency service DSNS said late on Wednesday that three people had been killed in a Russian air strike in the town of Kostiantynivka - close to the front line in eastern Ukraine
The US resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, Reuters reported late on Wednesday, days after it halted shipments of some critical arms
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Firefighters also battled fires sparked by explosions in the Kyiv region on Wednesday
Ukraine's capital Kyiv is again under a massive overnight Russian drone attack, local officials say, with at least eight people reported injured and fires burning across the city.
Authorities in Kyiv say drone wreckage has hit the roof of a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district.
Footage on social media, as yet unverified by the BBC, shows explosions in the night sky, as air defence units begin repelling the attack. Ukraine's military has also warned of a threat of a ballistic missile attack.
In the early hours of Thursday, morning Kyiv's military administration reported Russian drone strikes in six city districts.
"Residential buildings, vehicles, warehouses, office and non-residential buildings are burning," administration head Tymur Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram.
He urged city residents to shelter until the air raid siren was lifted.
Overnight, Ukraine's air force reported a threat of Russian drone attacks in a number of regions. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties outside Kyiv.
Russia's military has not commented on the reported latest attack.
In other developments:
Ukraine's emergency service DSNS said late on Wednesday that three people had been killed in a Russian air strike in the town of Kostiantynivka - close to the front line in eastern Ukraine
The US resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, Reuters reported late on Wednesday, days after it halted shipments of some critical arms
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Two other former Tory MPs defected recently too – Anne Marie Morris and Ross Thomson.
Now it is Sir Jake Berry joining Nigel Farage's party.
A man knighted by Boris Johnson.
A man whose son counts Johnson as his godfather.
A man who used to be the chairman of the Conservative Party and who was a Tory minister in three different government departments.
And yet a man who now says this: "If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you'd be hard pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule."
Read that sentence again and consider it was written by someone who was not just a Tory MP for 14 years but a senior one, occupying high office.
Extraordinary.
And this is probably not the end of it – both Reform and Conservative folk I speak to hint they expect there to be more to come.
Tories are trying to put the best gloss on it they can, saying Reform might be attracting former MPs – Sir Jake lost his seat at the last election – but they are losing current MPs.
The MP James McMurdock suspended himself from Reform at the weekend after a story in the Sunday Times about loans he took out under a Covid support scheme.
But the trend is clear: Conservatives of varying seniority are being lured across by Nigel Farage and are proud to say so when they make the leap.
PA Media
Sir Jake Berry was appointed as the Conservative Party chairman by Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister
Reform are particularly delighted that Sir Jake has not just defected but done so by going "studs in" on his former party, as one source put it.
"For us this is really crucial. If you want to join us you need to be really going for the other side when you do. Drawing a proper line in the sand," they added.
They regard Sir Jake's closeness to Boris Johnson as "dagger-in-the-heart stuff" for the Conservatives.
But perhaps the more interesting and consequential pivot in strategy we are currently witnessing is Labour's approach to Reform.
At the very highest level in government they are reshaping their approach: turning their attention away from their principal opponent of the last century and more, the Conservatives, and tilting instead towards Nigel Farage's party.
Again, extraordinary.
It tells you a lot about our contemporary politics that a party with Labour's history, sitting on top of a colossal Commons majority, is now shifting its focus to a party with just a handful of MPs.
Senior ministers take the rise of Reform incredibly seriously and are not dismissing them as a flash in the pan insurgency.
After all, Reform's lead in many opinion polls has proven to be sustained in recent months and was then garnished with their impressive performance in the English local elections in May and their win, on the same day, in the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.
If Labour folk then were still in need of the jolt of a wake-up call, that night provided it.
In their immediate response to Sir Jake's defection, Labour are pointing to Reform recruiting Liz Truss's party chairman and so are inheriting, they claim, her "reckless economics".
But they know the challenge of taking on and, they hope, defeating Reform, will be work of years of slog and will have to be grounded in proving they can deliver in government – not easy, as their first year in office has so often proven.
Not for the first time in recent months, Reform UK have momentum and are making the political weather.
All-inclusive family package holidays from the UK have jumped in price for some of the most popular destinations, including Spain, Cyprus and Turkey.
The average price for a week in Cyprus in August has gone up by 23%, from £950 per person to £1,166, figures compiled for the BBC by TravelSupermarket show.
Of the top 10 most-searched countries, Italy and Tunisia are the only ones to see prices drop by 11% and 4% respectively compared with 2024.
Travel agents say holidaymakers are booking shorter stays or travelling mid-week to cut costs.
The top five destinations in order of most searched are: Spain, Greece, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Portugal. They have all seen price rises.
Trips to the UAE have seen the biggest jump, up 26% from £1,210 in August 2024 to £1,525 this year.
Cyprus had the next biggest rise and came in at number nine in terms of search popularity.
The figures are based on online searches, made on TravelSupermarket from 18 April to 17 June, for all-inclusive, seven-night family holidays in August 2024 and 2025.
While this snapshot of data reveals a general trend, costs will vary depending on exactly where a family goes and when they book.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of travel agent industry group Advantage Travel Partnership, said the price rises were down to a number of factors.
"These increases simply keep pace with the broader cost of doing business and reflect the reality of higher operational costs, from increased energy bills affecting hotels, to elevated food costs impacting restaurants and rising wages across the hospitality sector," she said.
But she added the group had seen evidence that some holidaymakers still had money to spend.
Some customers were upgrading to more premium all-inclusive packages and booking more expensive cabin seats on long-haul flights to locations such as Dubai, she said.
Abi Smitton / BBC News
Ellie Mooney said she's spent the last year saving up for her holiday to Turkey
Holiday destinations are a frequent topic of conversation at the hairdressers.
At Voodou in Liverpool, Ellie Mooney talked to us as she got a last-minute trim before jetting off to Turkey.
"We've been going for the past 20 years or so. We normally book a year ahead then save up in dribs and drabs," she said.
Hope Curran, 21, was getting her highlights done and she and her partner had just got back from holiday in Rhodes in Greece.
"We did an all-inclusive trip because it was a bit more manageable, but it's not cheap," she said.
Francesca Ramsden
Nurse Francesca Ramsden says she spends thousands of hours hunting for the best deals
End of life care nurse Francesca Ramsden, 35, from Rossendale, has made it her mission to cut the cost of holidays, saving where she can and hunting for a bargain at every turn.
"My husband is sick of me, he'll ask 'have you found anything yet' and I'll say no, rocking in the corner after looking for 10,000 hours.
"The longest I've booked a holiday in advance is two to three months and I find that the closer you get, the cheaper it is."
She said she spent hours trying to save as much as possible on a May half-term break to Fuerte Ventura for her family of four which came in at £1,600.
She now shares her budgeting tips on social media.
"I've mastered the art of packing a week's worth of clothes into a backpack. I always book the earliest or latest flight I can, and midweek when it's cheaper."
Abi Smitton / BBC News
Travel consultant Luke says people are getting creative to save money
Luke Fitzpatrick, a travel consultant at Perfect Getaways in Liverpool, said people were cutting the length of their holidays to save money.
"Last year we did a lot for 10 nights and this year we've got a lot of people dropping to four or seven nights, just a short little weekend vacation, just getting away in the sun," he said.
He has also seen more people choosing to wait until the last minute to book a trip away.
"People are coming in with their suitcases asking if they can go away today or tomorrow," he added.
"Yesterday we had a couple come in with their passports and we got them on a flight last night from Liverpool to Turkey."
How to save money on your holiday
Choose a cheaper location. A UK holiday eliminates travel and currency costs, but overseas destinations vary a lot too
To decide whether all-inclusive will save you money, first look at local costs for eating out and don't forget about drinks and airport transfers
Travel outside the school holidays if you can
Booking early can help, especially if you have to travel at peak times
Check whether you can get a cheaper flight by travelling mid-week
Haggle. Call the travel agent to see if they can better the price you found online
Choose destinations where the value of the pound is strong. This year that includes Turkey, Bulgaria and Portugal
With doubts circling and pressure increasing, England needed to step up at Euro 2025 - and they did.
A 2-1 defeat by France on Saturday meant the defending champions had catching up to do in Group D.
But England ensured their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals remained intact with a commanding 4-0 victory over the Netherlands.
"Proper England", as midfielder Georgia Stanway had called it earlier this week, returned as Sarina Wiegman's side played with fluidity and creativity.
They were back to their defensive best and Wiegman's positional switches worked a treat.
Wiegman knows what it means to be under the spotlight, having led England to back-to-back major tournament finals.
When you have set that standard, anything less is a disappointment.
England's level dropped dramatically against France which increased scrutiny on Wiegman, who suffered her first defeat at a Euros after winning 12 games in a row over the previous two tournaments.
It was also the first time the reigning women's European champions had lost the first match of their defence at the following finals.
Wiegman admitted the scrutiny was "hard" but she focused on the task in hand.
"I always knew ahead of this tournament that it was a very hard group. It can happen but then you need to win the other games," she said.
"So yes, I was excited, but at the same time I felt a little tense too. I think that's completely normal as you really want to stay in the tournament and you want to win.
"I just had to focus on my job, review well and think about how we could bring people together."
Wiegman has often delivered in the big moments and no manager has won more Euros matches than the Dutchwoman (13 - level with Germany's former manager Tina Theune).
She also boasts the best goals-per-game rate in the competition among managers to take charge of four or more matches, with her sides scoring 40 in 14 games.
Having come under criticism for her decision to start Lauren James in the number 10 role against France - which left England vulnerable defensively - Wiegman made all the right choices against the Netherlands.
James started on the right wing, with Manchester United's Ella Toone starting in the number 10 role. They scored three of the four goals on the night.
Jess Carter, who struggled against France at left-back, was moved into central defence, swapping with Alex Greenwood, and England kept a clean sheet.
"The priority was that we wanted to skip and exploit space. The Netherlands pushed up so we wanted to go over them. That worked really well," said Wiegman.
"When you're in their half of the pitch, you can start playing. We had some nice crosses and we spoke about that too.
"[James] came in good positions but she can also do that in midfield. In midfield today we wanted Ella [Toone] because she can make good runs in behind."
The plan worked.
Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema had just eight touches in the first half and the Dutch conceded more than two goals in a single match at a major women's tournament for the first time.
They also managed just four shots against England - their fewest on record (since 2011) at a major tournament.
'That's a proper English performance'
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'That should be three points for England' - James makes it 3-0
England midfielder Keira Walsh said the players "had to acknowledge that sometimes it is a bad day and it was a really bad day against France".
They wanted to put it behind them and do their talking on the pitch, as team-mate Stanway stressed this week.
Striker Alessia Russo felt they produced the "proper England" performance that Stanway had talked about.
"'Proper English' to us means we'll work hard until we can't run any more, stick together and know that we are very dominant on the ball," said Russo.
"We were picking up the ball in right areas and were clinical with our chances. We wanted to return to our roots and we know we're capable of performances like that."
Russo was among the standout performers as she picked up three assists - the first player on record (since 2013) to provide as many in a women's Euros match.
James' double means she has now been directly involved in more goals (eight) than any other European player at the past two major tournaments.
Stanway and Toone impressed in midfield, while Carter thrived in the centre-back role, with Greenwood producing the goods at left-back.
"We can change the structure of the team with so many different players. That's a strength of ours, that each individual player is so good at something," said Lucy Bronze.
"[Greenwood] isn't the fastest player on the pitch and I think she completely marked Chasity Grant out of the game. She was front-footed, she was aggressive.
"Jess Carter was covering her every single minute of the game as well. I think that's a proper English performance."
Carter told BBC Radio 5 Live that the two defenders had felt "isolated" in the defeat by France and they wanted to combat that.
Wiegman made the decision to swap them in training and tested it out.
"I'm not one to question and ask for a reason, I just do the job I'm asked to do," said Carter.
"This game felt the total opposite with Alex and the whole team. She was phenomenal at left-back."
Has optimism been revived?
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Toone and Russo combine for England's fourth
England were one of the pre-tournament favourites and despite defeat by France, qualification for the quarter-finals is in their hands.
If they beat Wales in their final group game, they will qualify for the last eight.
Wiegman admitted the "consequences of the result were huge" against the Netherlands - but it was nothing they did not expect.
"We knew exactly that we were going straight into finals [against strong opposition]," she added.
"Losing the first game, it was not the end of the world but it doesn't put you in the best position.
"We knew we had to perform really well and the team did."
Were England written off too soon? They won Euro 2022 and reached the 2023 World Cup final after all.
"Everybody else was panic stations, but we still needed to win this game whether we beat France or not and we knew that," said Walsh.
"The objective didn't change. We wanted to take the game to them and put things right that we didn't the other day.
"I think we did back up what we said in the media and I think everyone was just on it from the first whistle to the last."
It is hoped the sculpture will be a permanent memorial to the tree's mindless destruction
A piece of the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree which was illegally felled nearly two years ago is to go on permanent display.
The act sparked global condemnation and outrage in September 2023, with two men found guilty of chopping the tree down earlier this year.
Now, people will be able to see and touch part of its trunk at a Northumberland visitor centre near where the tree stood, as a permanent memorial to its mindless destruction is unveiled.
The BBC has been to see what the display looks like - and has had an insight into how it was created.
In a workshop in a tiny village in Cumbria, an idea has been taking shape.
The large shed up an ever-thinning track is where artist Charlie Whinney creates his abstract and beautiful sculptures.
They often feature steam-bent wood that makes my mind boggle when I visit, with its twists and turns.
His curved creations are everywhere I look, and his signature style will now surround the Sycamore Gap trunk.
Artist Charlie Winney has used the Sycamore Gap trunk as a centrepiece for his sculpture
The piece of tree, which is more than 6ft (2m) long, arrived at Charlie's workshop in mid-June, three weeks before its unveiling as part of a permanent exhibition at the Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.
He is preparing the trunk for the metal work that will keep it upright, with the carving and drilling into the base being the only modification he is making to the sycamore itself.
It is nerve-wracking work, he tells me, "because so many people care about it, you don't want to mess it up".
Charlie Whinney took delivery of the trunk in mid-June
The wood cuts smoothly and is "really nice to work with", the artists says, as he attaches a three-pronged metal baseplate that will finally hold the trunk vertical once again.
He is not an emotional person but is "blown away by how huggable it is", he says, before inviting me to try and wrap my arms around the trunk - which, of course, I do.
This is what everyone who visits the installation will able to do too.
PA Media
The tree was a much-loved landmark before it was illegally felled in September 2023
"The actual design came from what people said," Charlie says. "They wanted to be able to sit down, so we made some benches, and also pretty much 100% of the people we spoke to said they want to be able to access the tree and touch it."
A public consultation was held to work out what to do with the tree, which included workshops with children and any written contributions people wanted to make.
The much-loved tree had been a part of so many memorable moments for so many people, from marriage proposals to the scattering of ashes.
Charlie Winney makes sculptures from steam-bent wood
Three benches with canopies formed from curved wooden stems and leaves now surround the trunk, the seats inscribed with words taken from people's submissions.
The Northumberland National Park Authority (NNPA) received thousands of emails, letters and messages in visitor books from people talking about the tree, with every one read by staff members.
The authority commissioned Charlie and the Creative Communities art collective, a community interest company which creates sustainable art projects, to deliver an artistic response with the wood.
"It was very important at the beginning when we received the commission to kind of represent people that loved the tree, or knew the tree in life," says Nick Greenall, of the collective.
"It shows by its absence how much it meant to people."
Rosie Thomas helped choose the words to be inscribed on the sculpture's benches
Rosie Thomas, the park's business development director, helped pick out some of the messages that feature in the installation.
"The words that were chosen take you from sorrow, grief, the initial reaction, all the way through to feelings of hope and wishes for the future," she says.
"The really nice thing about the words is that everyone's experience of the tree was different and everybody's experience with this installation will be different too because the route that you take to read the words creates your own individual poem."
The trunk and benches were hidden behind curtains while they were being installed at The Sill, which is just two miles from where the tree had stood.
Tony Gates is delighted to have the trunk back near Hadrian's Wall
For Tony Gates, the chief executive of the NNPA, having the installation revealed to the public on Thursday morning will be a big moment.
The 18 months since the tree was felled have been difficult for everyone, he says.
"Back in September 2023, people felt they'd lost the tree forever and maybe in some ways felt they'd lost those memories of those life events," he says.
"To be sat here today to be part of that tree with this beautiful installation, it gives me a ray of hope for the future, this is a time to look forward and a time for us to repledge to do positive things for nature."
Royal Mail can deliver second-class letters on every other weekday and not on Saturdays to help cut costs, the industry regulator has said.
Ofcom said a reform to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) was needed as people are sending fewer letters each year, so stamp prices keep rising as the cost of delivering letters goes up.
The current one-price-goes-anywhere USO means Royal Mail has to deliver post six days a week, from Monday to Saturday, and parcels on five from Monday to Friday.
Ofcom said Royal Mail should continue to deliver first-class letters six days a week but second class will be limited to alternate weekdays.
"These changes are in the best interests of consumers and businesses, as urgent reform of the postal service is necessary to give it the best chance of survival," said Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director for networks and communications.
However, just changing Royal Mail's obligations will not improve the service, she said.
"The company now has to play its part and implement this effectively."
The regulator is also making changes to Royal Mail's delivery targets.
The company will have to deliver 90% of first-class mail next-day, down from the current target of 93%, while 95% of second-class mail must be delivered within three days, a cut from the current 98.5%.
However, there will be a new target of 99% of mail being delivered no more than two days late to incentivise Royal Mail to cut down on long delays.
Roy Barclay was told to expect a "lengthy sentence" after being found guilty of the murder of Anita Rose
The sun was rising over the village of Brantham in Suffolk when Anita Rose set off for an early morning dog walk. She was a mother of six, and a grandmother of 13. Within an hour, she had been assaulted so brutally that her injuries were akin to those of someone in a head-on car crash. She died four days later.
The man responsible, Roy Barclay, was on a list of Suffolk Police's most wanted criminals but he had managed to avoid being recalled to prison for the past two years by sleeping in makeshift camps.
But despite this, Barclay had left a sizeable digital footprint - using his bank card to order items online and leaving hundreds of reviews on Google Maps.
With all this online activity, how did he manage to evade police and remain free to murder Anita?
Suffolk Police
Anita Rose loved walking her dog over the fields near her home village of Brantham, Suffolk, at sunrise
Anita was an "early bird", her partner Richard Jones said. She loved to walk her springer spaniel Bruce around Brantham, a village where she'd lived for six years and always said she felt safe. The 57-year-old loved watching the sun come up before other people were awake.
On the morning of 24 July last year, Mr Jones and Anita chatted on the phone while she walked. He worked as a lorry driver and would spend time away from home during the week, so the couple would catch up while Anita took Bruce on the first of his three daily walks.
The couple had known each other since they were teenagers and had started dating in 2011 after a chance meeting at a petrol station in Copdock where Anita worked.
The pair's final conversation ended with Anita telling the 59-year-old to "drive safe, I love you".
Within an hour of hanging up, she was found unconscious and severely injured on a track road near a railway line by a cyclist and dog walker.
PA Media
Anita Rose was captured on CCTV walking her dog Bruce on the morning of the fatal attack
During the trial, Ms Island told the court Anita had "laboured breathing" and patches of blood on her face, and was only wearing leggings and a black sports bra, despite leaving the house wearing her pink Regatta jacket.
Mr Tassel described how her dog Bruce was lying "patiently" next to her body with his lead wrapped twice around her leg - this turned out to be something Barclay had also done in 2015, when he attacked a man.
Neuropathologist Dr Kieran Allinson, who treated Anita at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, likened her injuries to those seen in high speed car crashes and said they were consistent with kicking, stamping and repeated impacts to the head.
Google
Roy Barclay was a prolific reviewer of different locations on Google Maps - the red dots show all the locations he reviewed and photographed between 2022 and 2024
In the weeks that followed, Barclay was described during his Ipswich Crown Court trial as having lived in carefully-hidden camps and shaving his head to change his appearance.
He had been wanted by police since 2022, when he breached the terms of his licence by making himself homeless.
After killing Anita, his internet search history showed he had looked up news articles about the attack. He also looked up Anita's partner on social media.
Barclay is also said to have kept some of her belongings - including a pink Regatta jacket - at his makeshift camps.
George King/BBC
Anita Rose was found with serious injuries on a track road in Brantham, Suffolk, in July 2024
In the weeks after Anita's murder, Suffolk Police entered into one of its biggest-ever investigations to find the culprit.
A number of people were arrested and bailed.
Barclay, meanwhile, continued to be a prolific reviewer on Google Maps for hundreds of locations around Suffolk and Essex.
Between 2022 and October 2024, he posted thousands of photos of churches, Amazon lockers, libraries, beaches, council buildings, statues and more - earning himself a 'Level 8' contributor status (the highest being level 10).
One review was of Decoy Pond in Brantham, with photos posted between April and July - the month he murdered Anita a short distance away.
Google
Roy Barclay posted his thoughts on Flatford shortly before being arrested on suspicion of murder
Three months after the murder, his final few Google reviews were about Flatford, a historic area on the Essex-Suffolk border famed for inspiring iconic paintings.
"It's a beautiful, unspoilt rural idyll that somehow exists in its own timelessness, as if awaiting the return of John Constable," wrote Barclay in a review posted in October 2024.
By then he was camping out a mile from where he'd killed Anita - but a chance meeting with a Suffolk Police officer near White Bridge, between Brantham and Manningtree, led to his arrest.
Barclay gave the officer, Det Con Simpson, a fake name, coming across as "quite nervous and quite anxious", the detective said.
Six days later on 21 October, at Ipswich County Library, Barclay was arrested and was subsequently charged with Anita's murder, which he denied.
Crown Prosecution Service
Barclay, who was homeless, lived in makeshift camps he had set up under the Orwell Bridge and in Brantham (pictured)
After his conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service described Barclay as "an individual that… has a history for acting violently so we knew that this was somebody that could act unprovoked in a very violent manner".
The 2015 attack in Walton-on-the-Naze left the victim, 82-year-old Leslie Gunfield, with serious injuries to his head, neck, face and jaw.
Barclay was jailed for 10 years for the assault, but was released on licence after five.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which is responsible for probation services, told the BBC that a recall notice for Barclay was issued quickly following the breach of his licence conditions.
In doing this, finding Barclay became the responsibility of Suffolk Police.
Crimewatch Live
Anita Rose was a mother and grandmother who was very active and loved walking her dog
The force began looking for him in 2022 but did not issue a press release about his wanted status until January 2024. it asked for members of the public to get in touch if they saw him, saying he had "links across Suffolk and Essex".
Just over a month before he murdered Anita, on 10 June, Barclay had left a comment on an online article called 'Fixing Fixed Term Recalls'.
He accused the MoJ of "deliberately" setting up prison leavers "to fail" and "return like a boomerang".
"Is it really any surprise that so many of those on license are on recall within the first year of release?" he wrote.The MoJ has refuted these claims.
Supplied
Former Metropolitan Police detective Hamish Brown believes the murder could have been prevented
Hamish Brown, a former detective inspector who worked for the Specialist Crime Directorate at New Scotland Yard, said his own experience taught him that officers were often not given "huge amounts of time" to investigate wanted suspects.
But in this case, he said, the force would have serious questions to answer.
"Suffolk Police failed in tracking him down, despite him using his bank card and reviewing places on Google.
"I'm surprised Suffolk Police missed this and didn't find him, despite the trail he was leaving.
"The bottom line is it could have been prevented if the police had done their job and gone looking for the person.
"So the police will have to brace themselves and be answerable."
But Paul Bernal, professor of information technology law at the University of East Anglia, believes there would have been a limit to how useful the Google reviews could have been in tracking Barclay down.
"There is absolutely no way a social media or search provider would know that those things are in any way needed in a police investigation," he told the BBC.
Jamie Niblock/BBC
Anita's eldest daughter, Jess, addressed the media outside Ipswich Crown Court
Speaking after the jury found Barclay guilty, Anita's family stood on the court steps and spoke of the changes they said "need to be made within the probation service and justice system".
"We need make sure our communities are safe and criminals are taken back to prison when they break the terms of their probations," her eldest daughter Jess said.
"They cannot remain at large - there's too much at stake."
'Definitive answers'
Suffolk Police confirmed it would conduct a voluntary partnership review which would look at how the force and the probation service handled the search for Barclay.
"It will look closely at the information sharing processes and how the organisations collaborated," said assistant chief constable Alice Scott.
"This review will be a thorough assessment and scrutiny of the processes concerning Barclay.
"It will be expedited as soon as possible so we can provide clear and definitive answers for Anita's family."
Additional reporting by Jodie Halford and Laura Foster.
On the night last month that he and 34 other young people were arrested in the Togolese capital, Lomé, for coordinating an anti-government demonstration, Bertin Bandiangou said gendarmes beat him with ropes and slapped him. The next morning he was tortured while a commanding officer filmed proceedings.
He was lucky to get out alive: at least 10 people have been killed by security officials since protests began in June calling for the resignation of the small west African country’s president, Faure Gnassingbé.
“From this bitter experience, it is clear that the Togolese regime is prepared to commit the worst atrocities to retain power,” said Bandiangou, a 24-year-old student union president at the University of Lomé.
With the exception of a three-month period in 2005, Togo has been ruled by the Gnassingbés since 1967, when Faure Gnassingbé’s father, Gnassingbé Eyadéma, took power in a bloodless coup.
In February, the government hosted a flamboyant $34m memorial service for Eyadéma, who died in 2005. Observers said the ceremony, attended by five former African presidents, served as a lavish statement of the dynasty’s enduring power.
Then in May, Gnassingbé’s power was further consolidated when he was sworn in as “president of the council of ministers”, a new post that is not subject to term limits. The swearing-in was the culmination of a process that began in March last year when parliament amended the constitution, without a referendum, to do away with presidential elections – a move described by the Touche Pas à Ma Constitution coalition as “a coup against the Togolese people”.
The price of dissent
Though the memorial service and constitutional changes struck a nerve with young people in Togo who want political change, the spark for the recent protests was the arrest of Tchala Essowè Narcisse, a popular rapper known as Aamron, on 26 May.
Aamron has built a following on TikTok, and his songs denounce corruption, economic stagnation and state neglect. His arrest followed a satirical call for a mobilisation to mark Gnassingbé’s birthday.
According to Célestin Kokou Agbogan, his lawyer and the president of Togo’s Human Rights League, Aamron was arrested without a warrant and held incommunicado for 10 days. A video clip then surfaced in which, appearing disoriented, he claimed the state had labelled him mentally unstable and had detained him in a psychiatric facility in Zébé, just outside Lomé.
Agbogan said no official charges had been filed. The opposition alliance Dynamics for Majority of the People condemned the arrest as “unlawful, unjustified, and driven by political motives” and has called for Aamron’s immediate and unconditional release.
In the days after his disappearance, fans flooded social media with clips of his defiant lyrics. Then they took to the streets of Lomé, barricading roads, burning tyres and chanting “Libérez Aamron!” and “Togo Libre!”
“Since Faure Gnassingbé became president, any opinion that does not praise him is seen as a crime,” Bandiangou said. “He systematically imprisons all dissenting voices. Aamron’s arrest was … one too many.”
Bandiangou said his aim was to mobilise people in an attempt to end the practice of arbitrary imprisonment and allow political prisoners to regain their freedom.
Protesters have paid a steep price for their dissent: more than 100 have been arrested since June, and some are still missing. Amnesty International said last week it had interviewed victims and witnesses who described a series of abuses by security forces against demonstrators, including acts of torture.
On 1 July, the Economic Community of West African States urged restraint and called for dialogue. Otherwise, international reaction has been muted, drowned out by geopolitical crises elsewhere.
Nevertheless, diaspora communities and human rights groups are attempting to ramp up pressure on the regime, demanding sanctions and diplomatic scrutiny.
‘Our message was clear’
Experts say beneath the anger at the constitutional changes lies a deeper well of frustration over corruption and nepotism that has been exacerbated by a scarce jobs market and a rise in the cost of living.
Protests have erupted periodically for decades – usually over delayed elections, term extensions and heavy-handed crackdowns – but there are signs that discontent is widening.
Civil society groups and opposition parties held demonstrations on three consecutive days in late June over a planned pan-Africanist conference – later cancelled – that they claimed would whitewash the latest power grab, while protests have also broken out in recent weeks over electricity price rises.
“Young people are exasperated by shortsighted and aimless governance, and by being held hostage by a regime incapable of providing the population with the basic necessities of life,” said Bandiangou. “Our message is clear: we no longer want a regime that imprisons our dreams and has terrorised an entire people for nearly six decades.”
Firefighters also battled fires sparked by explosions in the Kyiv region on Wednesday
Ukraine's capital Kyiv is again under a massive overnight Russian drone attack, local officials say, with at least eight people reported injured and fires burning across the city.
Authorities in Kyiv say drone wreckage has hit the roof of a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district.
Footage on social media, as yet unverified by the BBC, shows explosions in the night sky, as air defence units begin repelling the attack. Ukraine's military has also warned of a threat of a ballistic missile attack.
In the early hours of Thursday, morning Kyiv's military administration reported Russian drone strikes in six city districts.
"Residential buildings, vehicles, warehouses, office and non-residential buildings are burning," administration head Tymur Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram.
He urged city residents to shelter until the air raid siren was lifted.
Overnight, Ukraine's air force reported a threat of Russian drone attacks in a number of regions. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties outside Kyiv.
Russia's military has not commented on the reported latest attack.
In other developments:
Ukraine's emergency service DSNS said late on Wednesday that three people had been killed in a Russian air strike in the town of Kostiantynivka - close to the front line in eastern Ukraine
The US resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, Reuters reported late on Wednesday, days after it halted shipments of some critical arms
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Firefighters also battled fires sparked by explosions in the Kyiv region on Wednesday
Ukraine's capital Kyiv is again under a massive overnight Russian drone attack, local officials say, with at least eight people reported injured and fires burning across the city.
Authorities in Kyiv say drone wreckage has hit the roof of a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district.
Footage on social media, as yet unverified by the BBC, shows explosions in the night sky, as air defence units begin repelling the attack. Ukraine's military has also warned of a threat of a ballistic missile attack.
In the early hours of Thursday, morning Kyiv's military administration reported Russian drone strikes in six city districts.
"Residential buildings, vehicles, warehouses, office and non-residential buildings are burning," administration head Tymur Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram.
He urged city residents to shelter until the air raid siren was lifted.
Overnight, Ukraine's air force reported a threat of Russian drone attacks in a number of regions. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties outside Kyiv.
Russia's military has not commented on the reported latest attack.
In other developments:
Ukraine's emergency service DSNS said late on Wednesday that three people had been killed in a Russian air strike in the town of Kostiantynivka - close to the front line in eastern Ukraine
The US resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, Reuters reported late on Wednesday, days after it halted shipments of some critical arms
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Two other former Tory MPs defected recently too – Anne Marie Morris and Ross Thomson.
Now it is Sir Jake Berry joining Nigel Farage's party.
A man knighted by Boris Johnson.
A man whose son counts Johnson as his godfather.
A man who used to be the chairman of the Conservative Party and who was a Tory minister in three different government departments.
And yet a man who now says this: "If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you'd be hard pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule."
Read that sentence again and consider it was written by someone who was not just a Tory MP for 14 years but a senior one, occupying high office.
Extraordinary.
And this is probably not the end of it – both Reform and Conservative folk I speak to hint they expect there to be more to come.
Tories are trying to put the best gloss on it they can, saying Reform might be attracting former MPs – Sir Jake lost his seat at the last election – but they are losing current MPs.
The MP James McMurdock suspended himself from Reform at the weekend after a story in the Sunday Times about loans he took out under a Covid support scheme.
But the trend is clear: Conservatives of varying seniority are being lured across by Nigel Farage and are proud to say so when they make the leap.
PA Media
Sir Jake Berry was appointed as the Conservative Party chairman by Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister
Reform are particularly delighted that Sir Jake has not just defected but done so by going "studs in" on his former party, as one source put it.
"For us this is really crucial. If you want to join us you need to be really going for the other side when you do. Drawing a proper line in the sand," they added.
They regard Sir Jake's closeness to Boris Johnson as "dagger-in-the-heart stuff" for the Conservatives.
But perhaps the more interesting and consequential pivot in strategy we are currently witnessing is Labour's approach to Reform.
At the very highest level in government they are reshaping their approach: turning their attention away from their principal opponent of the last century and more, the Conservatives, and tilting instead towards Nigel Farage's party.
Again, extraordinary.
It tells you a lot about our contemporary politics that a party with Labour's history, sitting on top of a colossal Commons majority, is now shifting its focus to a party with just a handful of MPs.
Senior ministers take the rise of Reform incredibly seriously and are not dismissing them as a flash in the pan insurgency.
After all, Reform's lead in many opinion polls has proven to be sustained in recent months and was then garnished with their impressive performance in the English local elections in May and their win, on the same day, in the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.
If Labour folk then were still in need of the jolt of a wake-up call, that night provided it.
In their immediate response to Sir Jake's defection, Labour are pointing to Reform recruiting Liz Truss's party chairman and so are inheriting, they claim, her "reckless economics".
But they know the challenge of taking on and, they hope, defeating Reform, will be work of years of slog and will have to be grounded in proving they can deliver in government – not easy, as their first year in office has so often proven.
Not for the first time in recent months, Reform UK have momentum and are making the political weather.
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