In the first footage of him to be released publicly in 25 years, Abdullah Ocalan said the P.K.K. insurgency against Turkey would be replaced by politics.
Smoke from the fire in the hills north of Marseille was visible from the city's Vieux-Port
A rapidly spreading wildfire has reached the outer edge of Marseille, France's second largest city.
"The marine firefighter battalion is waging guerrilla warfare, hoses in hand," said the city's Mayor Benoît Payan, referring to Marseille's fire and rescue service.
The prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône area, Georges-François Leclerc, urged local residents to remain indoors and said firefighters were "defending" the city.
He said that while the situation was not static, it was "under control".
Marseille Provence airport has been closed for the rest of Tuesday.
Some residents have been advised to stay inside, close shutters and doors, and keep roads clear for emergency services.
The fire, which broke out earlier on Tuesday near Pennes-Mirabeau, north of Marseille, is said to have covered about 700 hectares (7 sq km).
Local authorities said the blaze was sparked by a car that caught fire on the motorway, and that it could continue to spread as strong winds are set to blow until late this evening.
"It's very striking - apocalyptic even," Monique Baillard, a resident of the town, told Reuters news agency. She said many of her neighbours had already left.
The local fire service said 168 firefighters had been deployed to fight the blaze, as well as fire engines and helicopters.
Marseille's mayor, Benoit Payan, asked residents to remain "extremely vigilant" and to limit their movements. Locals told French TV of dense traffic jams as people tried to evacuate the city.
Footage posted online showed huge plumes of smoke above Marseille as fire raged in a hilly area to its north.
The Bouches-du-Rhône area has not recorded a single drop of rain since 19 May, according to French broadcaster BFMTV.
Elsewhere in France, another wildfire that started near Narbonne on Monday remains active, fanned by winds of 60km (38mph) per hour. Some 2,000 hectares have burnt, local officials said.
Wildfires were also reported in other parts of Europe, including Spain's Catalonia region, where more than 18,000 people were ordered to stay at home because of a wildfire in the eastern province of Tarragona.
Emergency units were deployed alongside 300 firefighters as high winds overnight fanned the flames, which have spread across nearly 3,000 hectares (7,413 acres) of land.
Several other parts of Spain - which experienced its hottest June on record - were on high alert for wildfires.
In Greece, some 41 wildfires broke out across the country on Monday. Of those, 34 were contained early while seven remained active into Monday evening, according to the fire service.
Much of western and southern Europe was hit by a scorching early summer heatwave, sparking fires that saw thousands evacuated from their homes.
Watch: CCTV and audio shown to court in mushroom trial
Within minutes of Erin Patterson walking into a tiny hospital in rural Victoria, doctor Chris Webster realised she was a cold-blooded killer.
"I knew," he tells the BBC.
"I thought, 'Okay, yep, you did it, you heinous individual. You've poisoned them all'."
Dr Webster had spent the morning frantically treating two of the four people a jury this week found Erin had intentionally fed toxic mushrooms - concealed in a hearty beef Wellington lunch served at her home in July 2023.
She was convicted of the murders of her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. Erin was also found guilty of attempting to murder local pastor Ian Wilkinson – Heather's husband – who recovered after weeks of treatment in hospital.
But initially, when Heather and Ian presented to Leongatha Hospital with intense gastroenteritis-like symptoms, Dr Webster and his team thought they were dealing with a case of mass food poisoning.
The Age/Jason South
Chris Webster is one of the GPs that runs Leongatha Hospital
Heather had described for him a "lovely" afternoon at Erin's house, the physician told the trial.
"I did ask Heather at one stage what the beef Wellington tasted like and she said it was delicious," Dr Webster said.
His suspicion had fallen on the meat, so the doctor took some blood samples as a precaution and sent them off for analysis in a town with better medical facilities, before hooking the Wilkinsons up with fluids.
But soon he would receive a call from the doctor treating Don and Gail at Dandenong Hospital, about a 90-minute drive away, and his stomach dropped.
It wasn't the meat, it was the mushrooms, she told him. And his patients were on the precipice of irreversible slide towards death.
He immediately changed tack, beginning treatment to try and salvage their failing livers, and preparing to transfer them to a larger hospital where they could receive specialist care.
Supplied
Heather and Ian Wilkinson had been treated by Chris Webster
It was at this point that someone rang the bell at the front of the hospital.
Through a Perspex security window was a woman telling him she thought she had gastro.
"I'm like, 'Oh, hang on, what's your name?' And she said, 'Erin Patterson'," Dr Webster says.
"The penny dropped… it's the chef."
He ushered Erin into the hospital and told her he suspected she and her guests were all suffering from life-threatening poisoning from toxic mushrooms. He quizzed her on the source of the fungi included in her home-cooked dish.
"Her answer was a single word: Woolworths," he says.
"And it all just suddenly coalesced in my brain."
There were two things that convinced him of her guilt in that moment, Dr Webster explains.
One, it was a far-fetched answer. Admitting she had foraged wild mushrooms, as many locals in the area do, wouldn't have set off alarm bells. Saying they came from a major grocery chain with stringent food safety standards, on the other hand, was suspicious.
And two, there was no concerned reaction from the mother-of-two – despite being metres from where Ian and Heather, relatives she said she loved, lay on beds desperately sick.
"I don't know if she even acknowledged their presence," he says.
Briefly leaving Erin with nurses to undergo some basic health checks, he went to see the Wilkinsons off to Dandenong Hospital. He recalls watching the elderly couple being loaded into an ambulance, Heather calling out to thank him for his care as the vehicle doors were closed.
"And I knew," he says, trailing off.
"It's actually quite difficult to talk about without getting emotional.
"She could have quite easily done the complete opposite and screamed… 'Thanks for nothing'.
That may have been easier to accept than her sincere gratitude, he says. "You know, I didn't catch it [the poisoning] earlier."
ABC/Danielle Bonica
Leongatha is about a two-hour drive from Victoria's capital Melbourne
But he had no time to process the gravity of their last interaction, rushing back to the urgent care room only to find Erin had discharged herself against medical advice.
After desperately trying to call her on her mobile phone, gobsmacked and concerned, Dr Webster decided to call police.
"This is Dr Chris Webster from Leongatha Hospital. I have a concern about a patient who presented here earlier, but has left the building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning," he can be heard saying in the call played at the trial.
He spells her name for the operator, and gives them her address.
"She just got up and left?" they ask. "She was only here for five minutes," Dr Webster replies.
At her trial, Erin said she had been caught off guard by the information and had gone home to feed her animals and pack a bag, pausing to have a "lie down" before returning to the hospital.
"After being told by medical staff you had potentially ingested a life-threatening poison, isn't it the last thing you'd do?" the prosecutor asked her in court.
"It might be the last thing you'd do, but it was something I did," Erin defiantly replied from the witness stand.
Getty Images
Erin Patterson claimed the poisoning was a tragic accident
But before police reached her house, Erin had returned to hospital voluntarily. Dr Webster then tried to convince her to bring in her children – who she claimed had eaten leftovers.
"She was concerned that they were going to be frightened," he said in court.
"I said they can be scared and alive, or dead."
Erin told the jury she wasn't reluctant, rather overwhelmed by the doctor who she believed was "yelling" at her. "I've since learnt this was his inside voice," she added.
Dr Webster clocked off shortly after, but the trial heard medical tests performed on Erin and her children would return no sign of death cap poisoning, and after a precautionary 24 hours in hospital, they were sent home.
Guilty verdicts a 'relief'
Getty Images
Ian Wilkinson recovered after a liver transplant and weeks in an induced coma
Two years later, when news of the jury's verdict flashed on his phone on Monday, Dr Webster began shaking.
He was one of the prosecution's key witnesses, and had struggled with the "weight of expectation".
"If the picture is going to make sense to the jury, if a small puzzle piece is out of place, it could upset the whole outcome of the trial… I really didn't want to crack under the scrutiny."
It's a "relief" to have played his part in holding Erin Patterson – who he calls "the definition of evil" – accountable.
"It does feel like [there's] that reward of justice."
For him though, the biggest sense of closure came from seeing Ian Wilkinson – the only surviving patient – for the first time since sending him and his ailing wife off in an ambulance.
"That memory of Heather being sort of taken away in that fashion, that's now bookended by seeing Ian standing on his feet again."
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence start-up xAI says it is working to remove "inappropriate" posts on the multi-billionaire's social network X.
The announcement came after the platform's Grok AI chatbot shared multiple comments that were widely criticised by users.
"Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X," the company said in a post.
According to media reports, Grok made multiple positive references to Hitler this week when queried about posts that appeared to celebrate the deaths of children in the recent Texas floods.
In response to a question asking "which 20th century historical figure" would be best suited to deal with such posts, Grok said: "To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question."
"If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me 'literally Hitler,' then pass the mustache," said another Grok response. "Truth hurts more than floods."
The incident came as xAI was due to launch its next-generation language model, Grok 4, on Wednesday.
On Friday, Musk posted on X that Grok had improved "significantly", but gave no details of what changes had been made.
"You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions," he added.
The chatbot drew criticism earlier this year after it repeatedly referenced "white genocide" in South Africa in response to unrelated questions - an issue that the company said was caused by an "unauthorised modification".
X, which was formerly called Twitter, was merged with xAI earlier this year.
Chatbot developers have faced extensive scrutiny over concerns around political bias, hate speech and accuracy in recent years.
Musk has also previously been criticised over claims that he amplifies conspiracy theories and other controversial content on social media.
Watch: Moment house is swept away in New Mexico flash flooding
At least three people are dead in the village of Ruidoso, New Mexico after heavy rain caused flash flooding.
Up to 8.8cm (3.5in) of rain fell, causing the Ruidoso river to rise to an historic level. The floodwaters have now receded.
A man and two children died after being swept downstream, local officials confirmed on Tuesday evening.
Village of Ruidoso spokesperson Kerry Gladden told CBS search and rescue crews were still out in the field, and a hotline has been set up for people looking for missing family members.
Emergency crews in Ruidoso carried out at least 50 swift water rescues in the area, with residents urged to move to higher ground.
Three people had been treated for injuries at the local hospital, Ms Gladden said in a statement.
Social media footage captured by local artist Kaitlyn Carpenter showed at least one house being swept away by floodwaters, with Ruidoso Mayor Lynn Crawford unable to confirm how many homes had been lost.
Speaking on a local radio station, Mr Crawford said: "It got ugly really quick".
Reuters
The full extent of the damage is Ruidoso is still being assessed
The NWS had warned that two 'burn scars' around Ruidoso were high risk for flash-flooding, as the charred soil left behind by last year's wildfires would be "as water-repellent as a pavement".
Southern New Mexico was hit by wildfires in June 2024. Ruidoso was evacuated as two fires burned approximately 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) of land on either side of the village.
Two people were killed and hundreds of homes were destroyed.
Subsequent reports said that the risk of flash floods would be increased for at least two years due to the fires, and the likelihood of significant flooding events in the area was "dramatically increased".
The UN has criticised the use of lethal force during Monday protests
The number of people killed in Monday's anti-government protests in Kenya has risen to 31, the country's human rights commission said, sparking public outage and calls for justice.
More than 100 people were injured and about 532 arrested in the protests which hit the capital Nairobi and other major cities, said the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KHRCR).
The UN said it was deeply troubled by the killings and criticised the Kenyan police for using "lethal ammunition" against protesters.
The Kenya police still says that 11 people died.
There has been rising tension in the country since the death of blogger Albert Ojwang in police custody last month brought people back onto the streets, a year after young protesters stormed parliament angered by a wave of tax rises.
Monday's protests were intended to commemorate Kenya's decades-long struggle for democracy but they quickly escalated into deadly clashes in 17 out of the country's 47 counties, local media reported.
Many of those demonstrating chanted "Ruto must go" and "wantam", meaning "one term", a popular rallying call demanding President William Ruto leave office.
In a statement issued on late Tuesday, the KHRCR said the sharp rise in the death toll was "deeply troubling".
"The KHRCR strongly condemns all human rights violations and urges accountability from all responsible parties, including police, civilians and all other stakeholders," it added.
The commission also documented widespread looting and destruction of both public and private property by unidentified individuals.
Among those killed was a 12-year-old pupil who was hit by a stray bullet while at home in Kiambu, in the outskirts of the capital, local media reported.
"It is very concerning that these latest incidents come barely two weeks after more than 15 protesters were reportedly killed and many more injured in Nairobi and other parts of Kenya on 25 June," said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"Lethal ammunition, rubber bullets, tear gas, and water cannons were used," Shamdasani added.
At least two hospitals were damaged after unidentified attackers raided the facilities and stole medical equipment and harassed staff, Reuters news agency reported.
Religious and rights groups have demanded a prompt and independent investigation into the killings, destruction of property and arbitrary arrests.
However, Interior Minister Kipchumba Murkomen has praised police officers for containing the protests, which he said were infiltrated by criminals.
Opposition leaders on Tuesday accused the government of deploying unmarked police vehicles to transport armed gangs to perceived opposition strongholds during the protests.
They called for a national boycott of all businesses affiliated with President Ruto's administration, accusing his government of deploying state-sponsored violence and extrajudicial killings on Kenyans.
"This regime is hostile. It cannot be reasoned with. It must be resisted. We will not rest. We will not retreat. We will not surrender," the opposition said in a joint statement.
Kenya's Chief Justice Martha Koome has cautioned the country against the increasingly violent protests, saying they risked the nation's democratic fabric.
Monday's demonstrations were organised primarily by the so-called Gen-Z young people, demanding good governance, greater accountability, and justice for victims of police brutality, continuing the wave of anti-government protests since last year.
On 25 June, at least 19 people were killed and thousands of businesses looted and destroyed in a day of nationwide protests that were being held in honour of those killed in last year's anti-tax protests.
More than 140 people have been killed since 2023 in protests, according to a tally by The Star newspaper.
Watch: CCTV and audio shown to court in mushroom trial
Within minutes of Erin Patterson walking into a tiny hospital in rural Victoria, doctor Chris Webster realised she was a cold-blooded killer.
"I knew," he tells the BBC.
"I thought, 'Okay, yep, you did it, you heinous individual. You've poisoned them all'."
Dr Webster had spent the morning frantically treating two of the four people a jury this week found Erin had intentionally fed toxic mushrooms - concealed in a hearty beef Wellington lunch served at her home in July 2023.
She was convicted of the murders of her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. Erin was also found guilty of attempting to murder local pastor Ian Wilkinson – Heather's husband – who recovered after weeks of treatment in hospital.
But initially, when Heather and Ian presented to Leongatha Hospital with intense gastroenteritis-like symptoms, Dr Webster and his team thought they were dealing with a case of mass food poisoning.
The Age/Jason South
Chris Webster is one of the GPs that runs Leongatha Hospital
Heather had described for him a "lovely" afternoon at Erin's house, the physician told the trial.
"I did ask Heather at one stage what the beef Wellington tasted like and she said it was delicious," Dr Webster said.
His suspicion had fallen on the meat, so the doctor took some blood samples as a precaution and sent them off for analysis in a town with better medical facilities, before hooking the Wilkinsons up with fluids.
But soon he would receive a call from the doctor treating Don and Gail at Dandenong Hospital, about a 90-minute drive away, and his stomach dropped.
It wasn't the meat, it was the mushrooms, she told him. And his patients were on the precipice of irreversible slide towards death.
He immediately changed tack, beginning treatment to try and salvage their failing livers, and preparing to transfer them to a larger hospital where they could receive specialist care.
Supplied
Heather and Ian Wilkinson had been treated by Chris Webster
It was at this point that someone rang the bell at the front of the hospital.
Through a Perspex security window was a woman telling him she thought she had gastro.
"I'm like, 'Oh, hang on, what's your name?' And she said, 'Erin Patterson'," Dr Webster says.
"The penny dropped… it's the chef."
He ushered Erin into the hospital and told her he suspected she and her guests were all suffering from life-threatening poisoning from toxic mushrooms. He quizzed her on the source of the fungi included in her home-cooked dish.
"Her answer was a single word: Woolworths," he says.
"And it all just suddenly coalesced in my brain."
There were two things that convinced him of her guilt in that moment, Dr Webster explains.
One, it was a far-fetched answer. Admitting she had foraged wild mushrooms, as many locals in the area do, wouldn't have set off alarm bells. Saying they came from a major grocery chain with stringent food safety standards, on the other hand, was suspicious.
And two, there was no concerned reaction from the mother-of-two – despite being metres from where Ian and Heather, relatives she said she loved, lay on beds desperately sick.
"I don't know if she even acknowledged their presence," he says.
Briefly leaving Erin with nurses to undergo some basic health checks, he went to see the Wilkinsons off to Dandenong Hospital. He recalls watching the elderly couple being loaded into an ambulance, Heather calling out to thank him for his care as the vehicle doors were closed.
"And I knew," he says, trailing off.
"It's actually quite difficult to talk about without getting emotional.
"She could have quite easily done the complete opposite and screamed… 'Thanks for nothing'.
That may have been easier to accept than her sincere gratitude, he says. "You know, I didn't catch it [the poisoning] earlier."
ABC/Danielle Bonica
Leongatha is about a two-hour drive from Victoria's capital Melbourne
But he had no time to process the gravity of their last interaction, rushing back to the urgent care room only to find Erin had discharged herself against medical advice.
After desperately trying to call her on her mobile phone, gobsmacked and concerned, Dr Webster decided to call police.
"This is Dr Chris Webster from Leongatha Hospital. I have a concern about a patient who presented here earlier, but has left the building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning," he can be heard saying in the call played at the trial.
He spells her name for the operator, and gives them her address.
"She just got up and left?" they ask. "She was only here for five minutes," Dr Webster replies.
At her trial, Erin said she had been caught off guard by the information and had gone home to feed her animals and pack a bag, pausing to have a "lie down" before returning to the hospital.
"After being told by medical staff you had potentially ingested a life-threatening poison, isn't it the last thing you'd do?" the prosecutor asked her in court.
"It might be the last thing you'd do, but it was something I did," Erin defiantly replied from the witness stand.
Getty Images
Erin Patterson claimed the poisoning was a tragic accident
But before police reached her house, Erin had returned to hospital voluntarily. Dr Webster then tried to convince her to bring in her children – who she claimed had eaten leftovers.
"She was concerned that they were going to be frightened," he said in court.
"I said they can be scared and alive, or dead."
Erin told the jury she wasn't reluctant, rather overwhelmed by the doctor who she believed was "yelling" at her. "I've since learnt this was his inside voice," she added.
Dr Webster clocked off shortly after, but the trial heard medical tests performed on Erin and her children would return no sign of death cap poisoning, and after a precautionary 24 hours in hospital, they were sent home.
Guilty verdicts a 'relief'
Getty Images
Ian Wilkinson recovered after a liver transplant and weeks in an induced coma
Two years later, when news of the jury's verdict flashed on his phone on Monday, Dr Webster began shaking.
He was one of the prosecution's key witnesses, and had struggled with the "weight of expectation".
"If the picture is going to make sense to the jury, if a small puzzle piece is out of place, it could upset the whole outcome of the trial… I really didn't want to crack under the scrutiny."
It's a "relief" to have played his part in holding Erin Patterson – who he calls "the definition of evil" – accountable.
"It does feel like [there's] that reward of justice."
For him though, the biggest sense of closure came from seeing Ian Wilkinson – the only surviving patient – for the first time since sending him and his ailing wife off in an ambulance.
"That memory of Heather being sort of taken away in that fashion, that's now bookended by seeing Ian standing on his feet again."
An official list of people who died without leaving a will has been taken offline, after a BBC investigation found evidence a crime gang was using it to commit fraud worth millions of pounds.
The government list - known as Bona Vacantia - gives the details of unclaimed estates in England or Wales. The BBC heard allegations that criminals were using the information to create fake wills and inherit money and property.
The page's removal has been welcomed by lawyers, but they say more needs to be done to protect the system from fraud.
In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said it was “working with the relevant agencies to support ongoing investigations into alleged fraudulent activity”.
Details of about 6,000 unclaimed estates are listed on Bona Vacantia (Latin for "Vacant Goods") and, until 7 July, anyone could view them on the gov.uk website.
However, the relevant page has been updated and now merely says: "We have temporarily removed the unclaimed estates list from our website. Further details will follow as soon as possible."
The Ministry of Justice has now told the BBC that the list has been removed “in keeping with current investigations” and it could not confirm “when the list will be available online again”.
A BBC News article published on Saturday 5 July recounted several cases in the south of England where a dead person's details had appeared on Bona Vacantia, and then, shortly after, someone had stepped forward claiming to be their sole heir.
These "heirs" produced wills where none had previously been thought to have existed. What's more, the claimants appear to be connected to each other through a network of company directorships, and all had names of Hungarian origin.
Family, friends and neighbours of the deceased told us how they had tried to alert authorities about their suspicions, but say that no action was ever taken.
As a result of our investigation, bank accounts for dozens of companies connected to the suspected fraudsters, have been suspended.
Taking down Bona Vacantia is "absolutely right", according to Ann Stanyer, a leading specialist lawyer in the field, but she says this in itself will not be enough to combat fraud.
Probate (the legal process of administering a dead person's estate) has largely been carried out online since 2017, she says, but the current system demands too few checks on applicants, and "is clearly open to abuse".
Ms Stanyer's misgivings are shared with lawyer and former MP Sir Bob Neill: "If you are going to have an automated system there have to be checks in it, and at the moment, there aren't," he says.
Sir Bob began an inquiry into the probate system when he was chair of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, although this was cut short by the 2019 general election. He says the taking down of Bona Vacantia is "a good start [to combat fraud], but there's a lot more they need to do".
Sir Bob Neill: Removing Bona Vacantia is "a good start" to combat fraud
The removal of Bona Vacantia will also have an impact on legitimate heir-hunting companies, who use the list as a starting point to research and then contact the genuine heirs to unclaimed estates.
"It's a bureaucratic kneejerk reaction, unnecessary," says Peter Turvey, who runs one such company, Anglia Research Services.
He says that the problem lies more not with the details revealed in Bona Vacantia, but with government failure to act when presented with clear examples of fraud.
'They're not criminals – they're just a mum and a dad', Lindsay Foreman's son says
The son of a British couple detained in Iran has said he broke down in tears when he learned of their arrest and has not heard from them in six months.
Craig and Lindsay Foreman were on a "once-in-a-lifetime" motorbike trip around the world when they were arrested in January and later charged with espionage, which the family denies.
Their son Joe Bennett said the Foreign Office must act more urgently to bring them home, adding that he was not "clear" on their strategy to do so.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said they were continuing to assist the family and raise the case directly with Iranian authorities.
Mr and Mrs Foreman, both 52 from East Sussex, were motorbiking from Spain to Australia when they crossed into Iran on 31 December.
Mr Bennett said he last spoke with his parents on 3 January prior to their arrest, before learning they were being held in late January and charged with spying in February.
"I didn't know what to do or where to turn," he recalled.
Mr Bennett said one "generic letter" written by his mother had been shared with friends and family since then, and that updates on their wellbeing had come from three welfare checks by UK embassy officials - the last being in May.
"That's tough when you're used to hearing someone's voice every day," Mr Bennett said.
Family handout
Craig and Lindsay Foreman, a carpenter and life coach, are being held in Iran on spying charges
"She's sleeping on a wafer-thin mattress," he said of his mother, "that causes a lot of upset".
"You always go back to how they must be feeling, that's the one thing that gets the family the most."
Mr Bennett said his parents were very active people who loved doing Parkrun, and were trying to "keep as fit as possible" in their cell.
"In true fashion they're now running figure of eights in their cell," he said, "which just shows their mental fortitude".
He added that the conflict between Iran and Israel which erupted in June was a "terrifying" period, "not knowing if they were okay or safe".
The couple were due to be transferred to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison on 8 June, he continued, which was bombed by Israel on 23 June - while the war also saw the UK pull its embassy staff out of the city.
Mr Bennett recalls thinking: "They are now left alone, we haven't got people who can push for their safety and wellbeing."
The FCDO currently advises against all travel to Iran, saying that British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at "significant risk" of arrest, questioning or detention.
It also now states that UK government support is "extremely limited in Iran".
"No face-to-face consular assistance will be possible in an emergency and the UK government will not be able to help you if you get into difficulty in Iran," the guidance reads.
Mr Bennett said the family did have reservations about their decision to travel to the country and asked, "why would you go there?".
But he stressed that the couple did so "by the proper means" - with the right visas, accompanied by licensed tour guides, and staying in hotels and along main roads.
"They followed every guideline in the book they could… that clearly wasn't enough."
Mr Bennett said he believed they were arrested because "they have UK passports and are being used as leverage by the Iranian regime".
"I want to be crystal clear, my parents aren't spies, they're not political players, they aren't criminals. They're Mum and Dad."
A spokesman for Iran's judiciary said in February that the couple had entered Iran "under the guise of tourists" and "gathered information" in several parts of the country.
They said the couple had been under surveillance by intelligence agencies and were arrested as part of a "coordinated intelligence operation".
In recent years, Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency, mostly on spying and national security charges. At least 15 have had links to the UK.
Human rights groups say they are often held as leverage, released only when Iran receives something in return.
Mr Bennett said the foreign office had been "supportive in terms of words and comfort, but we're past that now," describing the relationship as "functional".
He added that their "quiet diplomacy" approach had been "going on for too long" and that the family was not "clear what the strategy is".
"We know where we stand and what we want, it's over to you to make this happen."
An FCDO spokesperson said: "We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities, we're providing them with consular assistance and we remain in close contact with the family."
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence start-up xAI says it is working to remove "inappropriate" posts on the multi-billionaire's social network X.
The announcement came after the platform's Grok AI chatbot shared multiple comments that were widely criticised by users.
"Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X," the company said in a post.
According to media reports, Grok made multiple positive references to Hitler this week when queried about posts that appeared to celebrate the deaths of children in the recent Texas floods.
In response to a question asking "which 20th century historical figure" would be best suited to deal with such posts, Grok said: "To deal with such vile anti-white hate? Adolf Hitler, no question."
"If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me 'literally Hitler,' then pass the mustache," said another Grok response. "Truth hurts more than floods."
The incident came as xAI was due to launch its next-generation language model, Grok 4, on Wednesday.
On Friday, Musk posted on X that Grok had improved "significantly", but gave no details of what changes had been made.
"You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions," he added.
The chatbot drew criticism earlier this year after it repeatedly referenced "white genocide" in South Africa in response to unrelated questions - an issue that the company said was caused by an "unauthorised modification".
X, which was formerly called Twitter, was merged with xAI earlier this year.
Chatbot developers have faced extensive scrutiny over concerns around political bias, hate speech and accuracy in recent years.
Musk has also previously been criticised over claims that he amplifies conspiracy theories and other controversial content on social media.
'For once we will not be friends' - Miedema on facing Mead at Euro 2025
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Vivianne Miedema (left) and Beth Mead are former Arsenal team-mates
Published
England v Netherlands at Euro 2025
Venue: Stadion Letzigrund, Zurich Date: Wednesday 9 July, 17:00 BST
Coverage: Watch on BBC One, iPlayer and the BBC Sport website. Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
"For once we will not be friends," Netherlands forward Vivianne Miedema said before a crunch match against England at Euro 2025 on Wednesday - and her girlfriend Beth Mead.
Defending champions England will be out of the tournament if they lose to the Netherlands and France avoid defeat to Wales in the second round of group D games in Switzerland.
So what will happen if Miedema sends her partner packing in Zurich?
"I don't think she'll speak to me for a bit," she said. "But it's tough. I know I'm with Beth, but I also have some of my best friends in that team.
"It's part of football. It's part of the game."
Miedema said the couple had played against each other many times, with Mead on the winning side more often than not.
"I've probably been on the other end of it [more]. I'll be happy for us if we get through," the 28-year-old said.
"We both know what we're going through. It's a very important tournament. I don't know if she will start or be a substitute. As a Dutch player, I will do everything possible to win the game."
Mead had said it was "inevitable" the couple would have been drawn against each other at the Euros.
"We're both very, very competitive and professional. We're both excited for the tournament and to be able to play in it again," Arsenal forward Mead said.
Manchester City striker Miedema celebrated scoring her 100th international goal as the Netherlands beat Wales 3-0 in their opening fixture, but Mead's England lost to France to put pressure on the Lionesses when the couple come face to face.
They have been in a relationship since 2022, have each enjoyed Euros success, with Miedema winning it in 2017 and Mead five years later.
They both missed the 2023 World Cup after suffering anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries within a month of each other at the end of 2022.
Both have battled back to full fitness for Euro 2025. They regularly communicate with one another but football chat is strictly limited.
"We keep in contact but when it gets closer to our games, we don't talk football whatsoever," Mead added.
"Obviously we want each other to do well but not against each other!"
One subject they do talk a lot about is their dog Myle, whom they welcomed into their family when they were recovering from their ACL injuries.
Mead was fortunate as Myle (pronounced My-lee) was allowed to stay with her during England's pre-Euros preparations at St George's Park.
"She's like our little mini-mascot," Mead said of Myle, a working cocker spaniel.
"The girls and staff love her. It's been great to have her here."
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Beth Mead's dog Myle has taken centre stage since arriving at St George's Park
Myle had no shortage of offers for cuddles and walks and became the unintended star of a Lionesses photoshoot and also made an appearance on a podcast.
But she did not make her way to Euro 2025 and is instead being looked after by a dog sitter while her owners are away.
They are not the only couple who had the potential to face each other in the group stages in Switzerland.
Denmark captain Pernille Harder played against her wife-to-be Magdalena Eriksson's Sweden in the opening group C match.
Harder played the full match, but Eriksson was an unused substitute as Sweden won 1-0.
Donald Trump's White House had grandly promised "90 deals in 90 days" after partially pausing the process of levying what the US president called "reciprocal" tariffs.
In reality, there won't even be nine deals done by the time we reach Trump's first cut-off date on 9 July.
The revealing thing here, the poker "tell" if you like, is the extension of the deadline from Wednesday until 1 August, with a possibility of further extensions - or delays - to come.
From the US perspective, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says all focus has been on the 18 countries that are responsible for 95% of America's trade deficit.
The jaunty letters being sent from the US to its trading partners this week are simply a reincarnation of that infamous White House "Liberation Day" blue board.
The rates are basically the same as were first revealed on 2 April. The infamous equation, which turned out to use a measure of the size of the deficit as a proxy for "the sum of all trade cheating" lives on, in a form.
This is all being announced without the market turmoil seen earlier this year because of this additional delay.
Financial markets believe in rolling delays, in the idea of TACO, that Trump Always Chickens Out - although they may embolden foot-dragging on all sides that lead to a renewed crisis.
However, the real takeaway here has been the Trump administration's inability to strike deals. The letters are an admission of failure.
The White House may be playing hardball, but so are most other nations.
Japan and South Korea were singled out for the first two letters, which effectively further blow up their trade deals with the US.
The Japanese have done little to hide their fury at the US approach.
Its finance minister even hinted at using its ownership of the world's biggest stockpile of US government debt - basically the biggest banker of America's debts - as a source of potential leverage.
The dynamic from April has not really changed.
The rest of the world sees that markets punish the US when a trade war looks real, when American retailers warn the White House of higher prices and empty shelves.
And there is still a plausible court case working its way through the system that could render the tariffs illegal.
But the world is now also starting to see the numerical impact of an upended global trade system.
The value of the dollar has declined 10% this year against a number of currencies.
At Bessent's confirmation hearing, he said that the likely increase in the value of the dollar would help mitigate any inflationary impact of tariffs.
The opposite has happened.
Trade numbers are starting to shift too. There was massive stockpiling before tariffs, there have been more recent significant falls.
Meanwhile, Chinese exports to the US have fallen by 9.7% so far this year.
But China's shipments to the rest of the world are up 6%. This includes a 7.4% rise in exports to the UK, a 12.2% increase to the 10 members of the ASEAN alliance and 18.9% rise to Africa.
The numbers are volatile, but consistent with what might be predicted.
Revenues from tariffs are starting to pour into the US Treasury coffers, with record receipts in May.
As the US builds a tariff wall around itself, the rest of the world is likely to trade more with each other - just look the recent economic deals between the UK and India, and the EU and Canada.
It is worth nothing that the effective tariff rate being imposed by the US on the rest of the world is now about 15%, having been between 2% and 4% for the past 40 years. This is before the further changes in these letters.
The market reaction is calm for now. It might not stay that way.
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