Four people have been arrested by police investigating the cyber-attacks that have caused havoc at M&S and the Co-op.

The National Crime Agency says a 20 year old woman was arrested in Staffordshire, and three males - aged between 17 and 19 - were detained in London and the West Midlands.

They were apprehended on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.

All four were arrested at their homes in the early hours on Thursday. Electronic devices were also seized by the police.

Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said the arrests were a "significant step" in its investigation.

"But our work continues, alongside partners in the UK and overseas, to ensure those responsible are identified and brought to justice," he added.

The hacks - which began in mid April - have caused huge disruption for the two retailers.

Some Co-op shelves were left bare for weeks, while M&S expects its operations to be affected until late July, with some IT systems not fully operational until October or November.

The chairman of M&S told MPs this week that it felt like the hack was an attempt to destroy the business. The retailer has estimated it will cost it £300m in lost profits.

Harrods was also targeted in an attack that had less impact on its operations.

A wave of attacks

M&S was the first to be breached. A huge amount of private data belonging to customers and staff was stolen.

The criminals also deployed malicious software called ransomware scrambling the company's IT networks making them unusable unless a ransom was paid.

The BBC revealed that the hackers had sent an offensive email to the M&S boss demanding payment.

A few days after M&S was breached the Co-op was also targeted by the criminals who broke in and stole the private data of millions of its and staff.

The Co-op was forced to admit that the data breach had happened after hackers contacted the BBC with proof that the firm was downplaying the cyber attack.

The BBC later discovered from the criminals that the company disconnected the internet from IT networks in the nick of time to stop the hackers from deploying ransomware and so causing even more disruption.

Shortly after Co-op announced it had been attacked, luxury retailer Harrods said it too had been targeted and had been forced to disconnect IT systems from the internet to keep the criminals out.

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Romanian police have targeted a gang suspected of being behind a complex scam in which stolen data was used to fraudulently claim millions in tax repayments from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), police have said.

Thirteen people were detained during armed raids around Bucharest, and luxury cars and piles of cash were seized. A fourteenth man was arrested in Preston.

According to HMRC, scammers gained access to the personal data of British taxpayers through a sophisticated phishing operation, which was used to make bogus claims for tax refunds.

HMRC said "millions" was believed to have been stolen without specifying an amount, while Romanian police said over £1m had been taken.

A joint operation between HMRC and Romanian police saw male and female suspects, aged between 23 and 53, arrested during the armed raids.

They were held on suspicion of computer fraud, money laundering and illegal access to a computer system.

A 38-year-old man was arrested in Preston on Thursday. His electronic devices were seized and he was questioned by HMRC officers.

In footage published by Romanian authorities on Thursday, armed police officers were seen searching a large property, where jewellery and large quantities of cash were found.

A joint investigation team - composed of Romanian prosecutors, HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service - was established earlier this year.

HMRC said the organised gang had used stolen data to submit fraudulent claims for PAYE, child benefit and VAT refunds.

It is unclear how many people had their information stolen, but HMRC said it had contacted "around 100,000" customers to inform them they had detected attempts to access their accounts.

Romanian police said scammers accessed the Government Gateway accounts of over 1000 UK taxpayers, and then laundered the stolen funds.

The scammers tricked people into disclosing their security information using various methods, and HMRC stressed that its systems had not been subject to a cyber-attack.

Phishing scams involving HMRC in common: in 2022, the National Cyber Security Centre found it was the government body third most likely to be impersonated by criminals trying to obtain information.

Additional reporting by Mircea Barbu.

If Arpineh Masihi could vote, she would have cast her ballot for Donald Trump. She's a devout supporter of the US president – even now that she's locked up as an illegal immigrant.

"He's doing the right thing because lots of these people don't deserve to be here," Arpineh told the BBC over the phone from the Adelanto immigrant detention centre in California's Mojave Desert.

"I will support him until the day I die. He's making America great again."

Sixty miles (96 km) away in her home in Diamond Bar, a wealthy suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, a Trump flag flies over the family's front yard. Maga hats adorn a shelf next to a family photo album, while the family's pet birds chirp in a cage.

It's a lively home, with three dogs and four young children, and Arpineh's husband and mother are bleary eyed and exhausted with worry, trying to put on brave faces.

"Our home is broken," says Arthur Sahakyan, Arpineh's husband.

'We all make mistakes'

In many ways, Arpineh, 39, is an American success story - a prime example of how the country gives people second, even third chances. Arpineh's mother wells up with tears as she talks about her daughter, who has lived in the US since she was three.

She had a rough patch many years ago, in 2008, when she was convicted of burglary and grand theft and was sentenced to two years in prison. An immigration judge revoked her Green Card, which is a common practice. But because she is a Christian Armenian Iranian, the judge allowed her to remain in the country instead of being deported.

"We are Christians. She can't go back, there's no way," Arthur says as their 4-year-old daughter runs in and out of the room. He fears her life would be at risk if she is sent back.

But since her release from prison, Arpineh has rebuilt her life, starting a successful business and a family among hundreds of thousands of Iranian immigrants who call Southern California home.

West Los Angeles - often called Tehrangeles - has the largest population of Iranians outside of Iran.

Some, like Arpineh, have been detained in recent weeks, swept up in immigration raids that have put the city on edge. While the majority of those detained in LA come from Mexico, daily updates from the Department of Homeland Security show immigrants from seemingly every corner of the globe have been arrested.

Trump was elected in part because of his promise to "launch the largest deportation programme of criminals in the history" - a promise Arpineh, her husband and mother say they all still believe in.

Yet her family says they have faith that Arpineh will be released, and believe that only hardened, dangerous criminals will actually be deported.

"I don't blame Trump, I blame Biden," Arthur says. "It's his doing for open borders, but I believe in the system and all the good people will be released and the ones that are bad will be sent back."

While many of those detained do not have criminal records, Aprineh is a convicted felon, which makes her a prime target for removal.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment about Arpineh's case.

Arthur says he doesn't know details of the burglary. They spoke briefly about it before they were married and then he forgot about what he considered a youthful indiscretion by his wife.

Instead, he focuses on his wife's good deeds over the last 17 years, volunteering with the local school district and bringing food to firefighters and police.

"We all make mistakes," he says.

'No matter what, we're going to catch you'

So, when ICE phoned Arpineh on 30 June as the family was having breakfast, the couple thought it must be a joke.

But immigration enforcement pulled up to their home 30 minutes later.

Despite signs all over Los Angeles County urging immigrants to "Know Your Rights" and not to open the door to immigration enforcement agents, the couple came outside to speak with the officers.

Arpineh explained how a judge had allowed her to stay in the US because of the situation in Iran, as long as she didn't commit any other crimes, and as long as she frequently checked in immigration officials. Her last check-in was in April, she showed them, presenting her paperwork.

Arthur even invited them into the house, which they declined, he says.

The immigration enforcement agents told her circumstances had changed and they had a warrant for her arrest.

They allowed her to go back inside and say goodbye to her children – aged 14, 11, 10 and 4. The officers told her that if she didn't come back outside, they would get her eventually.

"They told us no matter what we're going to catch you – maybe if you're driving on the street with your kids - so we thought, what we'd been seeing on the news: flash bombs, cornering cars," Arthur says. They didn't want to risk her being violently detained, possibly with their children watching.

"She came and kissed the kids goodbye," he recalls. "She came outside like a champion and said, 'Here I am'."

Arthur asked the immigration officers not to handcuff his wife. They said that wasn't possible, though they agreed to do it on the far side of the vehicle so the couple's children wouldn't see.

"I knew my kids were watching from upstairs," he says. "I didn't want them to see their mom handcuffed."

Arpineh was then taken to a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, a centre used by ICE to process those arrested in the ongoing raids across the region. The building became the centre of sometimes violent anti-ICE protests that riled Los Angeles for weeks.

She says those being held at the building "were treated like animals".

Arpineh told the BBC she was held in a freezing, brightly lit room with 28 other women for three days. They survived on snacks and one bottle of water a day, she says, the women huddling together for warmth, and sleeping on the floor.

Waiting for reprieve

Because Arpineh speaks three languages – Armenian, Spanish and English – she was able to communicate with many of the other women and says they helped each other.

Three days later, she was moved to Adelanto, the privately-run ICE detention centre in the desert northeast of Los Angeles, which has a reputation for harsh, prison-like conditions.

But Arpineh says it's much better than what they faced in downtown LA, now having three meals a day, access to showers and a bed. Though she's heard it's difficult to get medical treatment if you need it, Arpineh is young and healthy.

"But it's still very challenging," she says.

She and her husband say they still have faith in the Trump administration and believe that she will be released.

"I'm not deportable to any country," Arpineh told the BBC from the detention facility.

But that hasn't stopped immigration officials in the past. In February, a group of Iranian Christians who had just crossed the border from Mexico were deported - but to Panama, not Iran.

Arpineh remains hopeful for a reprieve, but she notes that she's felt discouraged, too.

She says she loves America and that she feels American, even if she lacks the paperwork.

She calls her husband collect once an hour so they can share updates on her legal case, though so far there isn't much to share. The older children understand what's happening, but their 4-year-old daughter keeps asking when mommy is coming home, he says.

All four children are US citizens, born and raised in California. The couple believes officials will take that into consideration when deciding Arpineh's fate.

"I have four citizen children. I own a business. I own a property. I own cars," Arpineh says. "I haven't done anything wrong in so many years."

Heartstopper star Joe Locke is to make his West End debut this autumn, in a play about two young men who bond while working night shifts at a warehouse in a rural US town.

Locke is currently filming the forthcoming Heartstopper movie after appearing in three series of the hit Netflix show about two classmates who fall in love, but will take on his new stage role later this year.

The 21-year-old will star in Clarkston, which follows two men in their twenties from opposite ends of the US who meet while working at Costco.

Locke told BBC News he was "so excited" for his West End debut, adding that his new role matched his desire to play "flawed characters... who have a bit of bite".

Clarkston is written by Samuel D Hunter, who is best known for his 2012 play The Whale, which later won Brendan Fraser an Oscar when made into a film.

Producers have not yet announced the venue or run dates for the British production, but told the BBC it would open in a West End theatre in the autumn.

Set in Clarkston, Washington, the play opens with a Costco employee named Chris working night shifts when he meets new hire Jake, a young gay man originally from Connecticut.

Jake has Huntington's disease, a degenerative neurological condition that causes involuntary movements. He ended up in Clarkston by accident after finding himself no longer able to drive during a road trip west.

"He's this city boy in a small place," explained Locke. "Jake has got so many layers to him that really unravel in the play. A lot of the themes are to do with class and the different experiences of the characters."

Chris, meanwhile, struggles with the strained relationship he has with his mother, who is a drug addict.

Locke, who is used to portraying young men grappling with their identity, explained: "I really enjoy characters that have something to them, a bit of bite, a bit of a grey area.

"Everyone is flawed in some ways. And I've been lucky enough in my career so far to play a few flawed characters, and Jake is no different to that. And that's the fun bit, the meaty bit, getting to know these characters - they're good and they're bad."

Hunter noted the play "is fundamentally about friendship and platonic male love, which is something that I feel like we don't see a lot of on stage and screen".

Locke agreed: "Yeah, one of my favourite things about this play is there's a scene where these characters almost build on their platonic relationship and get to a romantic level, and they realise that no, the platonic relationship is what's important, and I think that's really beautiful."

Clarkston, which has previously been performed alongside another of Hunter's plays, Lewiston, received positive reviews from critics when it was staged in the US.

"You feel like you're eavesdropping on intensely private moments of people you don't always like but come to deeply understand," said The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck of a 2018 production.

"Toward the end, there's an encounter between Chris and his mother that is as shattering and gut-wrenching a scene as you'll ever see on stage. But the play ends on a sweet, hopeful note that sends you out of the theatre smiling."

Writing about a different production in 2024, Charles McNulty of the LA Times said: "Clarkston hints that some of our most instructive relationships may be the most transitory. That's one of the beautiful discoveries in Hunter's small, absorbing and ultimately uplifting play."

Anybody who has worked night shifts may relate to the idea that the early hours are a time when people often open up to each other and have have their deepest conversations.

Hunter suggests such an atmosphere results in a "more delicate, more intimate" backdrop.

"I had an experience working in a Walmart when I was a teenager," he recalled, "and I found that places like the break room were so intimate and vulnerable, you're in this very sterilised space so I think the need for human connection is made all the greater."

Hunter had the idea of writing the play when visiting his home town of Moscow Idaho, about 30 miles from Clarkson, and became interested in "the idea that the American West is still kind of young", following the Louisiana Purchase in the early 19th Century.

"The markers of that history are still there," noted Hunter, "but they are right next to things like Costcos and gas stations and mini-malls.

"So it just got me interested in the experiment of the American West and the colonial past, and what that means in 2025."

The new production will be directed by Jack Serio, who has previously directed another of Hunter's plays, Grangeville, with Ruaridh Mollica and Sophie Melville cast in the other two lead roles as Chris and his mother.

Locke has previously appeared on stage at London's Donmar Warehouse, and in a Broadway production of Sweeney Todd.

The actor said being a theatre actor "was the thing I wanted more than anything" when growing up.

"I'm from the Isle of Man," he explained, "and my birthday present every year was a trip to London with my mum to watch a few shows, so it's very full circle to bring my mum to my press night to my West End debut, it's going to be very exciting."

Locke has starred in three seasons of Neflix's Heartstopper since its launch in 2022. The show followed two teenage boys, Charlie and Nick, who fall for each other at secondary school, and their circle of friends. Locke spoke to BBC News while on set, shooting the film adaptation.

"It's going great, we're almost two thirds of the way through shooting now, and everything, touch wood, is going well," he said.

"We're having a great time doing it, it's a really nice closing chapter of the story."

Gugu used to collect her antiretrovirals from a USAID-funded clinic in downtown Johannesburg.

But when President Trump's cuts to aid funding were announced earlier this year, she and thousands of other HIV-positive patients across South Africa suddenly faced an uncertain future.

Gugu was lucky, the clinic where she got the medication that helps suppress her symptoms contacted her before it closed down.

"I was one of the people who was able to get their medication in bulk. I usually collect a three-month prescription. But before my clinic closed, they gave me nine months' worth of medication."

She will run out of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in September, and then plans on going to her local public hospital for more.

A former sex worker, the 54-year-old found out she was HIV-positive after she'd quit the industry.

Ten years ago she got a chesty cough, and initially thought it was tuberculosis. She went to a doctor who told her she had a chest infection and treated her for it.

But when the treatment failed, she went to a clinic to get an HIV test.

"By then I already assumed that I was HIV-positive, and I told the nurse this."

She was right, and she has been on ARVs ever since. We're not using her real name at her request.

She currently works as a project coordinator for an NGO.

"We help pregnant sex workers get their ARVs, to ensure their children are born HIV-negative. We also do home visits to make sure that the mothers take their medication on time, and to look after their babies when they go for their monthly check-ups."

Many HIV-positive sex workers in South Africa relied on private clinics funded by the US government's now-defunct aid agency, USAID, to get their prescriptions and treatments.

But most of the facilities closed after US President Donald Trump cut most foreign aid earlier this year.

In a report due to be released on Thursday, the UN body in charge of fighting HIV/Aids does not single out the US, but says that drastic cuts from a number of donors have sent shockwaves around the world, and the "phenomenal progress" in tackling the illness risks being reversed.

"New HIV infections have been reduced by 40% since 2010, and 4.4 million children have been protected from acquiring HIV since 2000. More than 26 million lives have been saved," UNAIDS says, warning that if the world does not act, there could be an extra six million new HIV infections and four million Aids-related deaths by 2029.

Gugu believes that many sex workers could be discouraged from going to public hospitals for their HRVs..

"The problem with going to public hospitals is the time factor. In order to get serviced at these facilities, you have to arrive at 4 or 5am, and they may spend the whole day waiting for their medication. For sex workers, time is money," Gugu says.

She adds that she recently went to her local clinic with some friends to register her details and build a relationship with staff.

"The nurse who attended to us was very rude. She told us there was nothing special about sex workers."

She thinks this could lead to many sex workers defaulting on their medication, "especially because their hospital files contain a lot of personal information, and the concern is that sometimes the nurses at these local clinics aren't always the most sensitive in dealing with this kind of information."

According to the UN, the US cuts to HIV funding could reverse some of the gains made by what has been called one of the most successful public health interventions in history.

Scientists in the UK-based Lancet medical journal last month estimated that USAID funding directly reduced Aids deaths by 65%, or 25.5 million, over the past two decades.

Then-US President George W Bush launched an ambitious programme to combat HIV/Aids in 2003, saying it would serve the "strategic and moral interests" of the US.

Known as the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), it led to the investment of more than $100bn (£74bn) in the global HIV/Aids response - the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in the world.

South Africa has about 7.7 million people living with HIV, the highest number in the world, according to UNAIDS.

About 5.9 million of them receive antiretroviral treatment, resulting in a 66% decrease in Aids-related deaths since 2010, the UN agency adds.

South Africa's government says Pepfar funding contributed about 17% to its HIV/Aids programme. The money was used for various projects, including running mobile clinics to make it easier for patients to get treatment.

The Trump administration's cuts have raised concern that infection rates could spike again.

"I think we're going to start seeing an increase in the number of HIV infections, the number of TB cases, the number of other infectious diseases," Prof Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Johannesburg's Wits University, tells the BBC.

"And we're going to start seeing a reversal of what was essentially a real success story. We were getting on top of some of these things."

Gugu points out that treatment is a matter of life and death, especially for vulnerable populations like sex workers.

"People don't want to default on their ARVs. They're scared that they're going to die if they don't get access to them.

The cuts have also affected research aimed at finding an HIV vaccine and a cure for Aids.

"There's the long-term impact, which is that we're not going to be getting new vaccines for HIV," Prof Morris adds.

"We're not going to be keeping on top of viruses that are circulating. Even with new viruses that might appear, we're not going to have the surveillance infrastructure that we once had."

South Africa has been one of the global leaders in HIV research. Many of the medications that help prevent the virus, and which have benefitted people around the world, were trialled in South Africa.

This includes Prep (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a medication which stops HIV-negative people from catching the virus.

Another breakthrough preventive drug released this year, Lenacapavir, an injection taken twice a year and that offers total protection from HIV, was also tried in South Africa.

In a lab at Wits University's Health Sciences campus, a small group of scientists are still working on a vaccine for HIV.

They are part of the Brilliant Consortium, a group of labs working across eight African countries to develop a vaccine for the virus.

"We were developing a vaccine test to see how well that works, and then we would trial it on humans," Abdullah Ely, an Associate Professor at Wits University, tells the BBC in his lab.

"The plan was to run the trials in Africa based on research carried out by Africans because we want that research to actually benefit our community as well as all mankind."

But the US funding cuts threw their work into doubt.

"When the stop order came, it meant we had to stop everything. Only some of us have been able to get additional funding so we could continue our work. It's set us back months, probably could even be a year," Prof Ely says.

The lab lacks funding to carry out clinical trials scheduled for later this year.

"That is a very big loss to South Africa and the continent. It means that any potential research that comes out of Africa will have to be tested in Europe, or the US," Prof Ely says.

In June, universities asked the government for a bailout of 4.6bn South African rand ($260m; £190m) over the next three years to cover some of the funding lost from the US.

"We are pleading for support because South Africa is leading in HIV research, but it's not leading for itself. This has ramifications on the practice and policies of the entire globe," says Dr Phethiwe Matutu, head of Universities South Africa.

South Africa's Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced on Wednesday that some alternative funding for research had been secured.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust have agreed to donate 1m rand each with immediate effect, while the government would make available 400m rand over the next three years, he said.

This would bring the total to 600m rand, way below the 4.6bn rand requested by researchers.

As for Gugu, she had hoped that by the time she was elderly, a cure for HIV/Aids would have been found, but she is less optimistic now.

"I look after a nine-year-old. I want to live as long as I can to keep taking care of him," she tells the BBC.

"This isn't just a problem for right now, we have to think about how it's going to affect the next generation of women and young people."

You may also be interested in:

• 'My wife fears sex, I fear death' - impacts of the USAID freeze
• 'People will starve' because of US aid cut to Sudan
• What is USAID and why is Trump closing it down?

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

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

At least 15 Palestinians, including eight children and two women, have been killed in an Israeli strike near a medical point in central Gaza, a hospital there says.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the strike hit people queueing for nutritional supplements in the town of Deir al-Balah. Graphic video from the hospital showed the bodies of several children and others being treated for their wounds.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

Another 26 people were reportedly killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, as Israeli and Hamas delegations continued negotiations for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal at indirect talks in Doha.

Despite optimism expressed by the US, which is acting as a mediator along with Qatar and Egypt, they do not so far seem to have come close to a breakthrough.

On Wednesday night, a senior Israeli official told journalists in Washington that it could take one or two weeks to reach an agreement.

The official, who was speaking during a visit to the US by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also said that if an agreement was reached on a 60-day ceasefire, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent end to the war that would require Hamas to disarm. If Hamas refused to disarm, Israel would "proceed" with military operations, they added.

Earlier, Hamas issued a statement saying that the talks had been difficult, blaming Israeli "intransigence".

The group said it had shown flexibility in agreeing to release 10 hostages, but it reiterated that it was seeking a "comprehensive" agreement that would end the Israeli offensive.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,680 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times. More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

Gugu used to collect her antiretrovirals from a USAID-funded clinic in downtown Johannesburg.

But when President Trump's cuts to aid funding were announced earlier this year, she and thousands of other HIV-positive patients across South Africa suddenly faced an uncertain future.

Gugu was lucky, the clinic where she got the medication that helps suppress her symptoms contacted her before it closed down.

"I was one of the people who was able to get their medication in bulk. I usually collect a three-month prescription. But before my clinic closed, they gave me nine months' worth of medication."

She will run out of antiretrovirals (ARVs) in September, and then plans on going to her local public hospital for more.

A former sex worker, the 54-year-old found out she was HIV-positive after she'd quit the industry.

Ten years ago she got a chesty cough, and initially thought it was tuberculosis. She went to a doctor who told her she had a chest infection and treated her for it.

But when the treatment failed, she went to a clinic to get an HIV test.

"By then I already assumed that I was HIV-positive, and I told the nurse this."

She was right, and she has been on ARVs ever since. We're not using her real name at her request.

She currently works as a project coordinator for an NGO.

"We help pregnant sex workers get their ARVs, to ensure their children are born HIV-negative. We also do home visits to make sure that the mothers take their medication on time, and to look after their babies when they go for their monthly check-ups."

Many HIV-positive sex workers in South Africa relied on private clinics funded by the US government's now-defunct aid agency, USAID, to get their prescriptions and treatments.

But most of the facilities closed after US President Donald Trump cut most foreign aid earlier this year.

In a report due to be released on Thursday, the UN body in charge of fighting HIV/Aids does not single out the US, but says that drastic cuts from a number of donors have sent shockwaves around the world, and the "phenomenal progress" in tackling the illness risks being reversed.

"New HIV infections have been reduced by 40% since 2010, and 4.4 million children have been protected from acquiring HIV since 2000. More than 26 million lives have been saved," UNAIDS says, warning that if the world does not act, there could be an extra six million new HIV infections and four million Aids-related deaths by 2029.

Gugu believes that many sex workers could be discouraged from going to public hospitals for their HRVs..

"The problem with going to public hospitals is the time factor. In order to get serviced at these facilities, you have to arrive at 4 or 5am, and they may spend the whole day waiting for their medication. For sex workers, time is money," Gugu says.

She adds that she recently went to her local clinic with some friends to register her details and build a relationship with staff.

"The nurse who attended to us was very rude. She told us there was nothing special about sex workers."

She thinks this could lead to many sex workers defaulting on their medication, "especially because their hospital files contain a lot of personal information, and the concern is that sometimes the nurses at these local clinics aren't always the most sensitive in dealing with this kind of information."

According to the UN, the US cuts to HIV funding could reverse some of the gains made by what has been called one of the most successful public health interventions in history.

Scientists in the UK-based Lancet medical journal last month estimated that USAID funding directly reduced Aids deaths by 65%, or 25.5 million, over the past two decades.

Then-US President George W Bush launched an ambitious programme to combat HIV/Aids in 2003, saying it would serve the "strategic and moral interests" of the US.

Known as the President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), it led to the investment of more than $100bn (£74bn) in the global HIV/Aids response - the largest commitment by any nation to address a single disease in the world.

South Africa has about 7.7 million people living with HIV, the highest number in the world, according to UNAIDS.

About 5.9 million of them receive antiretroviral treatment, resulting in a 66% decrease in Aids-related deaths since 2010, the UN agency adds.

South Africa's government says Pepfar funding contributed about 17% to its HIV/Aids programme. The money was used for various projects, including running mobile clinics to make it easier for patients to get treatment.

The Trump administration's cuts have raised concern that infection rates could spike again.

"I think we're going to start seeing an increase in the number of HIV infections, the number of TB cases, the number of other infectious diseases," Prof Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Johannesburg's Wits University, tells the BBC.

"And we're going to start seeing a reversal of what was essentially a real success story. We were getting on top of some of these things."

Gugu points out that treatment is a matter of life and death, especially for vulnerable populations like sex workers.

"People don't want to default on their ARVs. They're scared that they're going to die if they don't get access to them.

The cuts have also affected research aimed at finding an HIV vaccine and a cure for Aids.

"There's the long-term impact, which is that we're not going to be getting new vaccines for HIV," Prof Morris adds.

"We're not going to be keeping on top of viruses that are circulating. Even with new viruses that might appear, we're not going to have the surveillance infrastructure that we once had."

South Africa has been one of the global leaders in HIV research. Many of the medications that help prevent the virus, and which have benefitted people around the world, were trialled in South Africa.

This includes Prep (pre-exposure prophylaxis), a medication which stops HIV-negative people from catching the virus.

Another breakthrough preventive drug released this year, Lenacapavir, an injection taken twice a year and that offers total protection from HIV, was also tried in South Africa.

In a lab at Wits University's Health Sciences campus, a small group of scientists are still working on a vaccine for HIV.

They are part of the Brilliant Consortium, a group of labs working across eight African countries to develop a vaccine for the virus.

"We were developing a vaccine test to see how well that works, and then we would trial it on humans," Abdullah Ely, an Associate Professor at Wits University, tells the BBC in his lab.

"The plan was to run the trials in Africa based on research carried out by Africans because we want that research to actually benefit our community as well as all mankind."

But the US funding cuts threw their work into doubt.

"When the stop order came, it meant we had to stop everything. Only some of us have been able to get additional funding so we could continue our work. It's set us back months, probably could even be a year," Prof Ely says.

The lab lacks funding to carry out clinical trials scheduled for later this year.

"That is a very big loss to South Africa and the continent. It means that any potential research that comes out of Africa will have to be tested in Europe, or the US," Prof Ely says.

In June, universities asked the government for a bailout of 4.6bn South African rand ($260m; £190m) over the next three years to cover some of the funding lost from the US.

"We are pleading for support because South Africa is leading in HIV research, but it's not leading for itself. This has ramifications on the practice and policies of the entire globe," says Dr Phethiwe Matutu, head of Universities South Africa.

South Africa's Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi announced on Wednesday that some alternative funding for research had been secured.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust have agreed to donate 1m rand each with immediate effect, while the government would make available 400m rand over the next three years, he said.

This would bring the total to 600m rand, way below the 4.6bn rand requested by researchers.

As for Gugu, she had hoped that by the time she was elderly, a cure for HIV/Aids would have been found, but she is less optimistic now.

"I look after a nine-year-old. I want to live as long as I can to keep taking care of him," she tells the BBC.

"This isn't just a problem for right now, we have to think about how it's going to affect the next generation of women and young people."

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

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Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has told the BBC his fellow Democrats allowed the US-Mexico border to be "under siege" during Joe Biden's presidency.

In sometimes sharp words, Kerry - who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and a US senator from Massachusetts - said he told Biden the party had "missed" on the issue of immigration for years.

He said this had Republicans like Donald Trump to gain political advantage.

The comments, made during an interview with BBC special correspondent James Naughtie, underscore an ongoing debate within his party over whether their pro-immigration policies cost them in recent elections.

Democrats have also wrestled with how they should handle Trump's recent nationwide attempts to detain and deport undocumented migrants

"The first thing any president should say - or anybody in public life - is without a border protected, you don't have a nation," Kerry said. "I wish President Biden had been heard more often saying, I'm going to enforce the law."

Such words have been a familiar refrain for Trump during his time in national politics and were included in the 2024 Republican Party policy platform.

But Democrats - many of whom advocate more relaxed immigration laws and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants - attempted to portray Trump's positions as harsh and discriminatory.

According to Kerry, that was a mistake.

"Trump was right," Kerry said. "The problem is we all should have been right."

In the first six month's of Trump's second term in office, illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border have dropped to near record lows - although the downward trend began during the last year of the Biden presidency, after the Democrat tightened some asylum rules.

The Trump administration has now shifted its focus to identification, detention and deportation of documented migrants across the US, expanding its efforts to include those who have resided in the US for years.

The move has prompted mass demonstrations in some US cities, including Los Angeles, where federal officials have been carrying out some of the most aggressive action.

Over the weekend, armed federal agents and 90 California National Guard troops conducted an operation in the city's MacArthur Park - a gathering place for nearby immigrant communities. The officials swept through the park on foot, horseback and in armoured vehicles.

"To me, this is another example of the administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city," Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, said at an impromptu news conference near the park.

"You can spin it anyway you like, but in my opinion, it's a political agenda of provoking fear and terror."

On Tuesday, Los Angeles and seven other California cities joined a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the federal immigration enforcement actions are unlawful. The state of California has filed a brief supporting the lawsuit.

Rob Bonta, the California attorney general, issued a statement denouncing what he said was a "cruel and familiar pattern of attacks on our immigrant communities by an administration that thrives on fear and division".

The denunciations, and the legal battles, echo the tactics Democrats relied on during Trump's first presidential term, when the Republican policy of separating migrant families that crossed the US-Mexico border generated widespread national outrage.

Such concerns faded, however, and by 2024 stringent immigration enforcement once again became a top Republican talking point.

The Trump administration appears to continue to welcome debate on immigration - an issue where, despite some declining support in recent public opinion polls, they believe they still have the upper hand.

When asked on Wednesday about a push by Democrats in Congress for legislation prohibiting immigration enforcement officers from concealing their identities, Trump said the opposition party had lost its way.

"This is the problem with the Democrats," he said. "They have a lot of bad things going on in their heads. They've lost their confidence and become somewhat deranged."

Democrats are used to derisive criticism from Trump, of course. But some - including party elders like Kerry – are becoming increasingly vocal in arguing that they given Trump an opening to land his political punches.

Reflections is on BBC Radio 4 on 10 July at 09:30 BST.

UK audiences can listen on BBC Sounds, or at this link for international users.

The US Secret Service issued suspensions for six personnel over failings at one of Donald Trump's rallies last year, during which a gunman attempted to assassinate the Republican, an official has confirmed.

Matt Quinn, the service's deputy director, told the BBC's US partner CBS News that the gathering in Butler, Pennsylvania, when Matthew Crooks fired at Trump and killed another attendee, was an "operational failure".

One of Crooks's bullets grazed the ear of Trump, who was then rushed to safety. The attacker was shot dead.

It is not clear when the staff suspensions were formally issued, and US media reports differ on whether or not they have already been served.

Speaking to CBS, Quinn said the staff were given penalties ranging from 10 to 42 days of leave without pay or benefits.

"Secret Service is totally accountable for Butler," he explained. "Butler was an operational failure and we are focused today on ensuring that it never happens again."

Quinn, who was appointed to his role in May this year, added that he was "laser-focused on fixing the root cause of the problem", but his organisation would not "fire our way out of this".

Quinn told CBS a number of improvements had already been made, involving military-grade drones and improved mobile command posts that could now be used by agents in the field.

The identities of the suspended staff and their roles on the day of the attack have not been disclosed.

• Gary O'Donoghue: What I witnessed at Trump rally
• Report identifies 'litany' of failures by Secret Service
• Wife of man killed at Trump rally struggles with loss

The news comes just days before the anniversary of the attack on 13 July 2024. Rally attendee Corey Comperatore was killed and two other people injured.

The incident prompted the resignation of the service's then-director, Kimberly Cheatle.

The Secret Service has been under intense scrutiny for the last 12 months, and has faced sharp criticism from US Congress members.

Last September, a 94-page Senate report found that security failures and lack of communication within the US Secret Service "directly contributed" to the incident, and that many issues remained unaddressed two months later.

The attack was also described as preventable in another report, published in December, by a House of Representatives taskforce. That paper identified the main lapse as being a failure to secure the rooftop from which Crooks opened fire.

Trump, who was successfully re-elected in November, was provided with heightened security in the aftermath of the attack - ensuring that he received protection at a level above what is typical for a presidential candidate.

In September, he was again rushed to safety by Secret Service agents after a second would-be gunman lurked in bushes at Trump's golf course in Florida. The FBI described this, too, as an apparent assassination attempt.

The suspect in that second incident was detained.

Four people have been arrested by police investigating the cyber-attacks that have caused havoc at M&S and the Co-op.

The National Crime Agency says a 20 year old woman was arrested in Staffordshire, and three males - aged between 17 and 19 - were detained in London and the West Midlands.

They were apprehended on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.

All four were arrested at their homes in the early hours on Thursday. Electronic devices were also seized by the police.

Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said the arrests were a "significant step" in its investigation.

"But our work continues, alongside partners in the UK and overseas, to ensure those responsible are identified and brought to justice," he added.

The hacks - which began in mid April - have caused huge disruption for the two retailers.

Some Co-op shelves were left bare for weeks, while M&S expects its operations to be affected until late July, with some IT systems not fully operational until October or November.

The chairman of M&S told MPs this week that it felt like the hack was an attempt to destroy the business. The retailer has estimated it will cost it £300m in lost profits.

Harrods was also targeted in an attack that had less impact on its operations.

A wave of attacks

M&S was the first to be breached. A huge amount of private data belonging to customers and staff was stolen.

The criminals also deployed malicious software called ransomware scrambling the company's IT networks making them unusable unless a ransom was paid.

The BBC revealed that the hackers had sent an offensive email to the M&S boss demanding payment.

A few days after M&S was breached the Co-op was also targeted by the criminals who broke in and stole the private data of millions of its and staff.

The Co-op was forced to admit that the data breach had happened after hackers contacted the BBC with proof that the firm was downplaying the cyber attack.

The BBC later discovered from the criminals that the company disconnected the internet from IT networks in the nick of time to stop the hackers from deploying ransomware and so causing even more disruption.

Shortly after Co-op announced it had been attacked, luxury retailer Harrods said it too had been targeted and had been forced to disconnect IT systems from the internet to keep the criminals out.

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The UK faces a "rising" and unpredictable threat from Iran and the government must do more to counter it, Parliament's intelligence and security committee has warned.

The call comes as it publishes the results of a major inquiry which examined Iranian state assassinations and kidnap, espionage, cyber attacks and the country's nuclear programme.

The committee, which is tasked with overseeing Britain's spy agencies, has raised particular concern over the "sharp increase" in plots against opponents of the Iranian regime in the UK.

"Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals and UK interests," said Lord Beamish, committee chair.

"Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity and its intelligence services are ferociously well-resourced with significant areas of asymmetric strength."

He added: "Iran is there across the full spectrum of all the kinds of threats we have to be concerned with."

The committee accuses the government of focusing on "crisis management" and "fire-fighting" with Iran, as well as on its nuclear programme, at the expense of other threats.

It says the national security threat from Iran requires more resourcing and a longer-term approach.

"Whilst Iran's activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and – crucially – unpredictable."

The report was published on Thursday as part of the committee's inquiry into national security issues relating to Iran. It covers events up to August 2023, when the committee finished taking evidence.

It has previously been read by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who was sent a copy in March, and circulated among UK intelligence organisations to give them the opportunity to check accuracy and request redactions on national security grounds.

According to the committee, the government is required to provide its response within 60 days of publication.

The committee examines the policies, expenditure, administration and operations of UK intelligence organisations including MI5, MI6, and GCHQ.

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At least 15 Palestinians, including eight children and two women, have been killed in an Israeli strike near a medical point in central Gaza, a hospital there says.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the strike hit people queueing for nutritional supplements in the town of Deir al-Balah. Graphic video from the hospital showed the bodies of several children and others being treated for their wounds.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

Another 26 people were reportedly killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, as Israeli and Hamas delegations continued negotiations for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal at indirect talks in Doha.

Despite optimism expressed by the US, which is acting as a mediator along with Qatar and Egypt, they do not so far seem to have come close to a breakthrough.

On Wednesday night, a senior Israeli official told journalists in Washington that it could take one or two weeks to reach an agreement.

The official, who was speaking during a visit to the US by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also said that if an agreement was reached on a 60-day ceasefire, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent end to the war that would require Hamas to disarm. If Hamas refused to disarm, Israel would "proceed" with military operations, they added.

Earlier, Hamas issued a statement saying that the talks had been difficult, blaming Israeli "intransigence".

The group said it had shown flexibility in agreeing to release 10 hostages, but it reiterated that it was seeking a "comprehensive" agreement that would end the Israeli offensive.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,680 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times. More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

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