In central London, on land the size of seven football pitches, sits a mansion called Winfield House - the official residence of the US ambassador to the UK.

It may be a stately home but through the years it's been known to throw one hell of a party, especially on 4 July, America's Independence Day. This year's celebration saw Nile Rodgers & Chic headline the building's lawn for thousands of people.

Fashion's elite, sports stars and wartime leaders have all been entertained here. Even in 1825 when the original site was built, according to Winfield's official website, its primary use was for entertainment.

President Donald Trump is spending the first night of his state visit at the 35-room mansion. The Trumps also stayed there in 2019, as did the Bidens and Obamas previously.

"It's not just the home of the ambassador, but it's also a centre of diplomatic hospitality," says Stephen Crisp, formerly the property's head gardener, who worked there for 37 years until his retirement last year.

One thing Winfield isn't, is a tourist attraction. Located inside Regent's Park, it's exclusive and takes planning to get inside. Friends of Regent's Park previously arranged tours of the grounds - but so far this year the ambassador has not granted permission.

From the road outside, the house cannot be seen. It's shrouded in woodland and is very private for central London.

"It's really, really difficult to get in there. I regard it as a feather in my cap that I actually managed to get in," says Viv Ward, Friends of Regent's Park's event manager. He calls the house "magnificent" and is audibly in awe of the grounds.

Tours of Winfield only allow you to see the ground floor, which is basically a "very posh" area for receptions, and the gardens. The first floor is home to the personal apartments of the ambassador.

As a home and the venue of most American receptions, schedules are tight. "It wasn't a case of we would like to come on this date and this time. It was just, you will be allowed to come here on this day," Mr Ward says.

The property boasts the second-largest private garden in central London, says Mr Crisp. It's home to a lawn, paved walkways, sculptures - and there's also space for helicopters to land.

Socialite and heir to the Woolworths fortune, Barbara Hutton, sold Winfield to the US government for a mere dollar in 1946 in an offer described by the then-president Harry S Truman as "most generous and patriotic".

Hutton had bought the house 10 years earlier after it was partly destroyed in a fire. The Crown Estate Commission gave her permission to tear it down and rebuild in the iconic red brick Georgian style that remains today.

She named it after her grandfather, Frank Winfield Woolworth, the founder of the Woolworth shopping chain.

With World War Two about to erupt and her second marriage not going particularly well, Hutton returned to America with her son in 1939. It would later be revealed this is when she met her next husband - actor Cary Grant - who is said to have stayed at the mansion with her.

During the war, Winfield was commandeered by the Royal Air Force balloon barrage unit with officers reportedly playing football in the gardens.

Hutton returned to London to see what was left of it at the end of the war - and after the Germans' bombs. She called her lawyer and requested it be handed over to the US government for repairs - and it's been used as the official residence of ambassadors ever since.

History is in the walls of Winfield. The original building was called St Dunstan's, and according to Friends of Regent's Park, was used for blind veterans of World War One. A charity of the same name still exists today.

Speaking about US presidents, Mr Crisp says: "At some point they all come, at least once." He explains he met Trump and his wife Melania during their previous state visit in 2019, which was "a little bit surreal". They dined at the property with Queen Camilla and King Charles III before he ascended to the throne.

An iconic image of Mikhail Gorbachev - the last Soviet leader - and US President George W Bush may be one of the most famous moments from the house. The pair held a joint news conference there at the G7 summit in 1991.

Politicians have long used it for key moments, including international summits, grand state dinners and bringing together wartime leaders.

Security detail for presidential visits is secure information - often never released. But Mr Ward shares a glimpse into the daily routine at the house.

"The security is unbelievable, I mean for example I used to have to send the embassy a list of attendees," he adds, saying photo ID had to be shown to the armed presence on the gates of Winfield.

And if you want to leave early? An armed officer has to escort you off the premises.

Winfield House has hosted many varied events, says Mr Crisp.

There have been performances by Take That, Duran Duran, the Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran and Bastille, he says, sometimes in the garden and sometimes in the house.

It's also been home to sporting events with the Duke of Sussex attending an Invictus Games reception there. Michelle Obama got stuck in with a sports day event, even doing the tug of the war alongside some famous spectators.

Fashion royalty has also hit the corridors of Winfield. Former Vogue boss Alexandra Shulman co-hosted a London Fashion Week opening party with the ambassador at the time. A Spice Girl was spotted too.

Some of the events would involve "thousands" of guests, Mr Crisp says, with the 4 July parties typically gathering 3,000 or 4,000.

It's a bit of an escape.

"You would never know you're in the centre of the London," Mr Ward says.

But what's the most disappointing part of the house? (Disappointing feels like a stretch.) Mr Ward says its driveway is "rather modest" compared to the rest of Winfield.

"It's big enough for big limousines but you couldn't get a brigade of guards walking up and things. It's not like the Mall."

Additional reporting: Grace Dean

Inflation in the year to August remained at 3.8%, according to official figures, after food costs continued to rise.

The pace of price rises matched the inflation rate in July but as some costs such as airfares dropped, food was more expensive with cheese, fish and vegetable prices all rising.

The data emerged as the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee meets to discuss interest rates ahead of an announcement on Thursday.

Inflation remains above the Bank's 2% target but the central bank is not expected to cut borrowing costs.

A former Labour councillor has been charged with blackmail and communications offences, in connection with the Westminster "honeytrap" scandal.

The charge of blackmail relates to alleged unwarranted demands for the phone numbers of up to 12 individuals.

Oliver Steadman, 28, has also been charged with communications offences in relation to the sending of alleged unsolicited indecent images.

Last year a string of men, mostly working in politics, revealed they had received unsolicited, flirtatious WhatsApp messages from people calling themselves "Charlie" or "Abi". In some cases explicit images were exchanged.

Mr Steadman was suspended as a Labour member after the party was notified of his arrest in June 2024.

He resigned as a councillor in Islington, north London the following month.

Malcolm McHaffie, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division, said: "We have decided to prosecute Oliver Steadman with blackmail and five communications offences in relation to a total of five victims working within politics and Westminster.

"This follows an investigation by the Metropolitan Police Service which looked into messages that included alleged unsolicited indecent images sent to a number of people within parliamentary political circles between October 2023 and April 2024 using Whatsapp.

"Our prosecutors have worked to establish that there is sufficient evidence to bring this case to court and that it is in the public interest to pursue criminal proceedings."

Mr Steadman will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 3 November.

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Thousands of Palestinians are continuing to flee Gaza City, a day after Israel said it had begun a major ground offensive aimed at occupying the city.

Amid large-scale bombing overnight, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said al-Ranitisi children's hospital was targeted in three separate attacks, forcing half of its patients and their families to flee.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports. Earlier, it announced that it had struck more than 150 "terror targets" across Gaza City in two days.

Israel says its aim is to defeat up to 3,000 Hamas fighters in what it describes as the group's "last stronghold" and free its hostages.

But the offensive has drawn widespread international condemnation.

The heads of more than 20 aid agencies have called on world leaders to act, saying "the inhumanity of the situation in Gaza is unconscionable" and calling for "urgent intervention".

For days, huge columns of Palestinians have streamed southwards from Gaza City in donkey carts, rickshaws, vehicles strapped high with belongings, and on foot.

Until now, they have been forced to flee down a single coastal road to an Israel-designated "humanitarian area" in al-Mawasi.

But on Wednesday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it would open a second route to leave, down the central Salah al-Din road. It said the route would be open for 48 hours from 12:00 local time (10:00 BST).

Many Palestinians say they are unable to move south due to the rising costs associated with the journey. Some say renting a small truck now costs around 3,000 shekels ($900; £660), while a tent for five people sells for about 4,000 shekels.

Lina al-Maghrebi, 32, a mother of three from the city's Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood, told the BBC: "I was forced to sell my jewellery to cover the cost of displacement and a tent."

"It took us 10 hours to reach Khan Younis, and we paid 3,500 shekels for the ride. The line of cars and trucks seemed endless."

Aid groups, UN agencies and others say the "humanitarian area" they are expected to move to is heavily overcrowded and insufficient to support the roughly 2 million Palestinians who are expected to cram into it.

Some Palestinians who followed the military's orders to evacuate to the zone say they found no space to pitch their tents and so returned north.

The IDF said on Tuesday that around 350,000 people had fled Gaza City, while the UN put the figure at 190,000 since August. Estimates suggest at least 650,000 remain.

As part of its operations, the IDF is reportedly utilising old military vehicles loaded with explosives that have been modified to be controlled remotely.

They are being driven to Hamas positions and detonated, according to Israeli media.

Meanwhile, families of the 48 remaining hostages held by Hamas - 20 of whom are believed to be alive - protested near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem on Tuesday and Wednesday, arguing that the offensive would endanger their loved ones.

"All day long, you boast about killing and destruction," said Macabit Mayer, aunt of hostages Gali and Ziv Berman. "Bringing down buildings in Gaza - who are you bringing these buildings down on?"

"Could it be that you are bringing these buildings down right now on Gali and Ziv and all the souls left there - the living and the deceased?"

The offensive has drawn widespread international condemnation, with UN human rights chief Volker Türk describing it as "totally and utterly unacceptable" and UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper calling it "utterly reckless and appalling".

But US Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared to offer tacit support for Israel's operation during a joint press conference with Netanyahu on Monday.

He said the US preferred a negotiated end to the war, but that "sometimes when you're dealing with a group of savages like Hamas, that's not possible".

It came as a United Nations Commission of Inquiry concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

Among its findings were that Israeli security forces perpetrated sexual and gender-based violence, directly targeted children with the intention to kill them, and carried out a "systemic and widespread attack" on religious, cultural and education sites in Gaza.

Israel's foreign ministry said it categorically rejected the report, denouncing it as "distorted and false".

Israel launched its war 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 64,964 people have been killed by Israel during its campaign since then, almost half of them women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.

With famine having already been declared in Gaza City by a UN-backed food security body, the UN has warmed an intensification of the offensive will push civilians into "even deeper catastrophe".

Former Arsenal footballer Thomas Partey has denied raping two women and sexually assaulting a third woman.

The Ghanaian midfielder pleaded not guilty to five counts of rape and one charge of sexual assault when he appeared at Southwark Crown Court.

The alleged offences took place between 2021 and 2022, when the 32-year-old played for Arsenal. He was charged four days after leaving the north London club, following the expiration of his contract at the end of June.

Mr Partey spoke to confirm his name, date of birth and his not guilty pleas during the hearing.

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When Alan gave his Persian tabby cat, Smokey, its regular flea treatment last year, he thought nothing could go wrong.

The 45-year-old from Preston had used the same brand - Frontline Plus - for years without any trouble. But within hours of applying a new dose he'd bought online, his usually lively tabby was violently ill, vomiting and refusing food or water.

"I bought it from a major online site and the price seemed similar so I didn't suspect anything at the time," Alan told the BBC's Morning Live.

Alan's story comes after the government recently issued an urgent warning about fake veterinary products being sold online.

With vet bills up 60% in the last decade, more owners are turning to the internet to hunt for bargains.

• Watch Alan and Smokey's story on Morning Live

The vet that Alan took Smokey to initially found nothing abnormal, but when his condition deteriorated, scans revealed a blockage in his intestines. Emergency surgery saved his life - at a cost of £3,000 - and tests later confirmed he had suffered a toxic reaction.

Alan returned to the vet with the packaging. At first glance, it looked genuine, labelled as "Gatti" - which Alan assumed might be an Italian version of the medication.

But when the manufacturer was contacted, they confirmed it was counterfeit and laboratory testing found it contained a chemical highly toxic to cats.

"We felt really guilty about the fact we had done this to him," Alan said. "But finding out it was fake medication, we were really angry.

"It's horrific and I had absolutely no idea there was such a thing as fake pet medication."

Helen Barnham works at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), a government team tasked with trying to stop the sale of counterfeit goods.

The team has issued more than 100 seizure notices for the selling of unauthorised animal medicines and supplements, preventing around 18,000 illegal items from reaching consumers.

"Criminals copy these products to make them look like the original and it's all to make money, they don't care about the damage or harm," she explained.

According to the IPO, the online seller who Alan bought the medication from managed to sell 211 batches of suspected counterfeit pet medications and supplements.

"If it's not from a vet or a trusted seller then please be vigilant," Barnham said.

Barnham is urging pet owners to check all pet medicines carefully before using them.

Even if a product looks authentic, there are often subtle clues something is wrong.

Signs that a medicine could be fake

• Poor quality, damaged or flimsy packaging
• Spelling or grammar errors on the label
• Missing instruction leaflets or expiry dates
• Instructions not provided in English
• Suspicious smell, colour or texture
• Tablets or pipettes that look homemade or poorly made
• Unusually low prices or deals that seem too good to be true
• Product names that are slightly misspelled or altered from the original brand

Nina Downing, Vet Nurse from PDSA, a vet charity, says she always recommends only giving your pet medicine which has been prescribed by a vet.

"When fulfilling a prescription online, source them from reputable companies that are on the Register of online retailers, brought to you by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate."

If the medication has any of the above warning signs, you should stop using the product immediately and contact your vet for medical advice.

You should also report it to your local trading standards office and notify the brand manufacturer, who may be able to verify if it's genuine.

When Youngjin looked out of his office window and saw armoured trucks and immigration enforcement officers running around with guns, he was surprised, but not worried.

The young South Korean was certain it had nothing to do with him. He was in the US only for a few weeks on a short-term visa, he thought to himself.

Then the armed agents burst into his room and ordered him outside. They handcuffed him, before attaching chains to his waist and ankles, and loaded him onto a bus bound for a detention centre.

"I panicked and my mind went blank. I felt sick," he told the BBC, now back home in South Korea.

"I couldn't understand why I was being treated like this."

Youngjin is one of more than 300 Korean workers who were detained in the US state of Georgia earlier this month, in one of the largest immigration raids of Donald Trump's presidency to date. He and others interviewed for this article didn't want to reveal their real names in order to protect their identity.

'Helicopters and drones… people with guns'

US officials initially claimed the workers had been in the country illegally on incorrect visas, but eventually the two sides struck a deal allowing them to leave voluntarily without any penalties, so they could return to work there in the future.

Most of the workers were in the US temporarily, helping to build an electric car battery plant run by two South Korean companies, Hyundai and LG – part of a US push to get foreign companies to invest and manufacture more in the states.

LG said that many of its employees who were arrested had various types of visas or were under a visa waiver programme. And so they were especially shocked by the raid.

"We just came out for a brief break and I could see a lot of people, officials with guns. As Koreans, we just thought they were here to arrest criminals, but then, they suddenly started arresting us," said Chul-yong, who was also detained that day.

He said they tried to explain who they were, but they were terrified: "There were helicopters and drones, armoured vehicles… people with guns."

There were some officers pointing guns at workers, he claimed. "You know those red lasers that come out of those guns? It was so shocking that some people were shivering in fear."

Even those who managed to share their visa details said they were arrested. "I thought everything would be cleared up but instead, they suddenly shackled us," said Mr Kim, another worker detained, who only wanted to reveal his last name.

Chul-yong said there was a shackle around his ankles and another around his waist, connected to handcuffs. "It was so tight, I couldn't touch my face with my hands."

They all said they had no idea why this was happening, or where they were being taken. "I later learned that I was detained at the Folkston ICE Processing Center," added Chul-yong, a software engineer. He had been planning to stay for about a month but was arrested on his sixth day there.

'It was freezing... the water smelt like sewage'

Youngjin, an engineer and sub-contractor for LG, was scheduled to be there for five weeks to train staff to operate some of the specialist high-tech equipment.

The 30-year-old was shaking, still visibly upset, as he described to the BBC being taken to the detention centre and locked in a room with 60-70 other people.

"I had a panic attack. I just stood there trembling," he said. The room was freezing, and the new detainees were not given blankets for the first two days, he added.

"I was wearing short sleeves, so I put my arms inside my clothes and wrapped myself in a towel to try to stay warm at night," he said. "The worst part was the water. It smelt like sewage. We drank as little as possible."

The bunk beds were all taken, Chul-yong said, by the time he arrived, leaving him and others to find any empty spot to rest, even an empty desk where they could put their head down.

"We tried to sleep anywhere, really. It was really cold. There were people who found packaged bread, heated it up in the microwave, hugging it throughout the night."

For the first few days, Youngjin had no idea how long he would be held for. He feared it might be months. Only after some of the workers were able to meet lawyers and consular staff, did they realise their government was working with the US authorities to get them released.

"Even the US side feels it may have gone a bit too far," South Korea's chief trade negotiator told reporters after returning from the US. Seoul says it is now investigating potential human rights violations during the raid by US authorities.

Trump acknowledged the need to have specialists from overseas train up US workers, and according to South Korean officials, US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau has expressed his "deep regrets" over the incident.

Still, it has shaken relations between the US and South Korea, usually close allies, especially since it came hard on the heels of a trade deal in which South Korean companies pledged to invest $350bn in the US.

Mr Kim believed his work was permitted by his B-1 visa - and argued it made no sense for the authorities to detain hundreds of people without clarifying their roles in the factory.

Younjin, who was in the US on a 90-day visa waiver programme, is adamant he did nothing illegal. "I only attended meetings and gave training presentations," he said, explaining this was within the scope of the waiver. "My trust in the US has been deeply shaken. I don't think it's a trustworthy partner for South Korea."

Although back with his family, the engineer is still struggling to process what happened to him. When he saw them at the airport after arriving home on Friday night, he said he smiled and hugged them, but felt nothing.

"It was like I was hollow inside. It wasn't until my mum cooked me dinner that night that it really hit me, and I cried for the first time."

And he only leaves the house for short outings. "When I'm outside, if I smell something similar to the prison, I start trembling and get short of breath, so I don't go outside for long now," he said.

Chul-yong says he, too, has been struggling with the experience. "We all came out of the arrival gate smiling, but now that I think of it, I was close to tears," he says, recalling his return home last week. "Saying this makes me tear up."

And seeing himself in news reports on TV has not been easy. "You couldn't see my face, but you could recognise my body. So my family and friends all knew that it was me."

He thinks most of the workers have "had enough" and may not return. But he says he has no choice.

"This is what I do. I've been doing this for 30 years. I've put my life into this work," he adds.

"If I can't do this, what can I do? How will my family live?"

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The report is intended to be detailed and damning, presenting evidence it says shows that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. It says that Israel has breached the Genocide Convention that was passed in 1948 by the newly established United Nations. The word genocide, and the convention that defined it as a crime, were directly inspired by the genocide of six million Jews by Nazi Germany.

Israel denies all allegations that its conduct in Gaza has broken the treaties and conventions that make up the laws of war and international humanitarian law. It justifies its actions as self-defence, in protection of its citizens and to force the release of the hostages taken by Hamas and Islamic Jihad on 7 October 2023, around 20 of whom are believed still to be alive.

The Israelis and their American allies are certain to dismiss the report, which was compiled by a commission of inquiry set up by the UN Human Rights Council.

Israel's foreign ministry denounced it as "distorted and false", accusing the three experts on the commission of serving as "Hamas proxies" and relying "entirely on Hamas falsehoods, laundered and repeated by others" that had "already been thoroughly debunked". Israel and the US are boycotting the Council, which both countries say is biased against them.

But the findings of the report will feed into the growing international condemnation of Israel's conduct, which is also coming from Israel's traditional western allies as well as the Gulf Arab monarchies that normalised relations with Israel in the Abraham Accords.

Next week at the UN General Assembly in New York, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Canada and others are due to join the majority of UN members by recognising the sovereignty of an independent Palestinian state.

The move will be more than symbolic. It will change the debate about the future of the conflict that began more than a century ago when Zionist Jews from Europe came to settle in Palestine. Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, has condemned recognition as antisemitic, and a reward for Hamas terrorism.

He says the Palestinians will never have independence in any part of the land between the river Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea, as a Palestinian state would put Israelis in danger. Israeli religious nationalists believe the land was granted to the Jewish people alone by God.

Genocide is defined in the 1948 convention, as the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group – in this case, Palestinians in Gaza.

The report details actions against Palestinians inside Gaza and in jails inside Israel.

Among a long list of accusations is Israeli targeting of civilians that it has a legal obligation to protect, and the imposition of "inhumane conditions causing the death of Palestinians, including the deprivation of food, water and medicines". That is a reference to the blockade that has produced a famine as well as widespread starvation, according to the IPC, the international body that assesses food emergencies.

The new UN report also details forced displacement, currently happening in Gaza City after the Israeli military, the IDF, ordered all civilians there to move south. Around one million people are believed to be affected. Israel's offensive is gathering pace, with air strikes and the destruction of many buildings, including high rises that are symbols of Gaza City, which the IDF calls Hamas "terror towers".

The report also says that Israel has imposed "measures intended to prevent births". That refers to an attack on Gaza's largest fertility clinic that reportedly destroyed around 4000 embryos and 1000 sperm samples and unfertilised eggs.

As well as the results of military action, the UN report singles out three Israeli officials for inciting genocide.

They are Yoav Gallant, then the defence minister, who said on 9 October 2023 that Israel was fighting "human animals". Like Prime Minister Netanyahu, Gallant already faces an arrest warrant for war crimes from the International Criminal Court.

Netanyahu is also accused of incitement by comparing the Gaza war to the story of the Jewish fight against an enemy known as Amalek. In the bible God tells the Jewish people to eliminate all the Amalek men, women and children, as well as their possessions and their animals.

The third official singled out is President Isaac Herzog, who in the first week of the war condemned Gaza's Palestinians for not rising up against Hamas. He said on 13 October 2023 that "it's an entire nation out there that is responsible".

Legally, it is hard to prove the crime of genocide. The people who framed the Genocide Convention, and interpretations made by the ICJ in more recent cases deliberately set a high legal bar.

At the International Court of Justice in The Hague, South Africa has brought a case that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians. It will take several years for the case to be adjudicated.

But with the war in Gaza continuing and perhaps escalating further with the current Israeli offensive, the UN report is going to deepen international divisions about the war.

On one side are countries who demand an immediate end to the killing and destruction in Gaza, and condemn the famine caused by Israel's siege. They include the UK and France.

On the other are Israel, and the United States. The administration of President Donald Trump continues to provide vital military aid and diplomatic cover without which the Israelis would struggle to continue the war in Gaza and its bombing campaigns elsewhere in the Middle East.