Last week, Microsoft and OpenAI renegotiated their contract so that OpenAI is free to buy services from any cloud computing company without Microsoft’s approval.
The brisk theft at the Louvre — which took place in less than 10 minutes — happened in broad daylight with visitors and museum attendants initially present in the gallery.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the testing ordered up in a surprise announcement by President Trump last week would focus on “the other parts” of nuclear weaponry.
More than 36,000 people have fled Sudan’s Kordofan region east of Darfur since Saturday, the UN’s migration agency has said, a week after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took control of the city of El Fasher.
The strategic central area between the country’s Darfur provinces and the Khartoum-Riverine region that includes the capital to the east, has in recent weeks become the latest battleground in the two-year civil war between the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) and the paramilitary group.
An estimated 36,825 people fled five localities in North Kordofan state between 26 October – the day El Fasher fell to RSF – and 31 October, the International Organization for Migration said late on Sunday.
The people, most on foot, headed to Tawila, a town west of El Fasher that is sheltering more than 652,000 displaced people, the UN said.
Residents of North Kordofan on Monday reported a heavy surge in both RSF and army presence across towns and villages in the state.
Both forces are vying for El Obeid, the North Kordofan state capital and a key logistics and command hub that links Darfur to Khartoum, which also hosts an airport.
“Today, all our forces have converged on the Bara front here,” an RSF member said in a video shared by the RSF late on Sunday, referring to a city north of El Obeid. RSF claimed control of Bara last week.
Suleiman Babiker, a resident of Um Smeima, west of El Obeid, told Agence France-Presse that the number of RSF vehicles had increased since the group’s capture of El Fasher. “We stopped going to our farms, afraid of clashes,” he said.
Another resident, requesting anonymity for security reasons, also said “there has been a big increase in army vehicles and weapons west and south of El Obeid” over the past two weeks.
Martha Pobee, assistant UN secretary general for Africa, raised the alarm last week about “large-scale atrocities” and “ethnically motivated reprisals” by RSF in Bara.
She warned of patterns echoing those in Darfur, where RSF fighters have been accused of mass killings, sexual violence and abductions against non-Arab ethnic groups after the fall of El Fasher.
Pope Leo on Sunday appealed for an immediate ceasefire and the opening of humanitarian corridors in Sudan, saying attacks on civilians and hindrances to humanitarian aid “are causing unacceptable suffering”.
Sudan’s ambassador to Egypt, Imadeldin Mustafa Adawi, on Sunday accused RSF of carrying out war crimes in El Fasher. He said the Sudanese government would not negotiate with the paramilitary group and urged the international community to designate it as a terrorist organisation.
Viswashkumar Ramesh breaks down in tears as he talks about the loss of his brother in the crash
The sole survivor of the Air India plane crash, which killed 241 people on board, has said he feels like the "luckiest man" alive, but is also suffering physically and mentally.
Viswashkumar Ramesh walked away from the wreckage of the London-bound flight in Ahmedabad in extraordinary scenes that amazed the world.
He said it was a "miracle" he escaped but told how he has lost everything, as his younger brother Ajay was a few seats away on the flight and died in the crash in June.
Since returning to his home in Leicester, Mr Ramesh has struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), his advisers said, and has been unable to speak to his wife and four-year-old son.
Flames engulfed the Boeing 787 flight when it went down shortly after take-off in western India.
Shocking video shared at the time showed Mr Ramesh walking away from the aftermath with seemingly superficial injuries, as smoke billowed in the background.
Speaking to BBC News, an emotional Mr Ramesh, whose first language is Gujarati, said: "I'm only one survivor. Still, I'm not believing. It's a miracle.
"I lost my brother as well. My brother is my backbone. Last few years, he was always supporting me."
He described the devastating impact the ordeal has had on his family life.
"Now I'm alone. I just sit in my room alone, not talking with my wife, my son. I just like to be alone in my house," Mr Ramesh said.
Watch: The moment Viswashkumar Ramesh walked away from the crash
He spoke from his hospital bed in India at the time, describing how he had managed to unbuckle himself and crawl out of the wreckage, and met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while receiving treatment for his injuries.
Of the passengers and crew killed, 169 were Indian nationals and 52 were Britons, while 19 others were killed on the ground.
A preliminary report into the crash, published by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau in July, said fuel supply to the engines was cut off just seconds after take-off. Meanwhile, an investigation is ongoing and the airline said care for Mr Ramesh, and all families affected by the tragedy, "remains our absolute priority".
This is the first time the 39-year-old has spoken to the media since he has been back in the UK. A documentary crew were also filming in the room.
The BBC had detailed discussions with his advisers around his duty of care before the interview.
When asked about his memories of the day of the crash, he said: "I can't say anything about that now."
'I'm suffering'
Flanked by local community leader Sanjiv Patel and spokesman Radd Seiger, Mr Ramesh said it was too painful to recall the events of the disaster, and broke down during parts of an interview at the home of Mr Patel in Leicester.
Mr Ramesh described the anguish he and his family are now living through.
"For me, after this accident... very difficult.
"Physically, mentally, also my family as well, mentally... my mum last four months, she is sitting every day outside the door, not talking, nothing.
"I'm not talking to anyone else. I do not like to talk with anyone else.
"I can't talk about much. I'm thinking all night, I'm suffering mentally.
He says he suffers pain in his leg, shoulder, knee and back, and has not been able to work or drive since the tragedy.
"When I walk, not walk properly, slowly, slowly, my wife help," he added.
Sanjiv Patel said he was supporting, advising and protecting the family
Mr Ramesh was diagnosed with PTSD while he was being treated in hospital in India but has not received any medical treatment since being back home, his advisers said.
They described him as being lost and broken, with a long journey of recovery ahead, and are demanding a meeting with Air India's executives, claiming he has been treated poorly by the airline since the crash.
"They're in crisis, mentally, physically, financially," Mr Patel said.
"It's devastated his family.
"Whoever's responsible at the highest level should be on the ground meeting the victims of this tragic event, and understanding their needs and to be heard."
'Put things right'
Air India has offered an interim compensation payment to Mr Ramesh of £21,500, which has been accepted, but his advisers say this is not enough to meet his immediate needs.
The family fishing business in Diu in India, which Mr Ramesh ran with his brother before the crash, has since collasped, his advisers said.
Spokesman for the family Mr Seiger said they had invited Air India for a meeting on three occasions, and all three were either "ignored or turned down".
The media interviews were the team's way of reissuing that appeal for the fourth time, he said.
Mr Seiger added: "It's appalling that we are having to sit here today and putting him [Viswashkumar] through this.
"The people who should be sitting here today are the executives of Air India, the people responsible for trying to put things right.
"Please come and sit down with us so that we can work through this together to try and alleviate some of this suffering."
In a statement, the airline, which is owned by Tata Group, said senior leaders from the parent company continue to visit families to express their deepest condolences.
"An offer has been made to Mr Ramesh's representatives to arrange such a meeting, we will continue to reach out and we very much hope to receive a positive response," it said.
The airline told the BBC that this offer was made before the media interviews with Mr Ramesh.
Two-time Oscar winner, Sir Anthony Hopkins tells the BBC that he can't "take credit" for his success
Not many people can say they've been given a private piano recital by Sir Anthony Hopkins.
But that's exactly what happened when our four-strong BBC team went to interview the double Oscar-winning actor in Los Angeles.
We were in the same room as the man who terrified as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs, shattered as a butler in The Remains of The Day and devastated as a dad with dementia in The Father.
An actor who was cast by Oliver Stone as President Nixon because - according to Sir Anthony - the director said "you're nuts like Nixon".
At a grand piano in a hotel in Beverly Hills, as he plays us a piece he calls Goodbye, it's clear an artistic soul exudes from his every pore. Haunting notes of music, lines of poetry and Shakespearean verses cascade out of him.
A private piano recital with Sir Anthony Hopkins
We were meeting because Sir Anthony's publishing his autobiography, We Did OK, Kid, an honest and at times upsetting account of a loner who was bullied and written off as a child in Wales and became one of Britain's finest acting exports.
He puts his success down to sheer luck, telling me: "I couldn't take credit for any of it, I couldn't have planned any of this - and now at 87, about to turn 88, I get up in the morning and I think, 'Hello, I'm still here,' and I still don't get it."
From the outside, it looks less about luck and more about his deep understanding of human emotion, as his performances testify. I ask what makes him such an instinctive actor.
"It's such a miracle being alive," he says.
He finds the complexity of human beings "fascinating... I mean, how can you produce Beethoven, Bach and then Treblinka and Auschwitz?"
Sir Anthony has always understood the duality of being human, and it explains his acting range.
He got his first break on film when the actor Peter O'Toole suggested he audition for the 1968 movie The Lion in Winter, in which O'Toole was playing Henry II.
At that point, Sir Anthony had been a member of Sir Laurence Olivier's National Theatre company for several years. But, he recalls: "I couldn't fit into the British theatre style, I just felt out of it."
He also "didn't want to be standing on stage holding a spear for the rest of my life, in wrinkled tights, I just wanted to have a bit of a life".
He was cast as Richard the Lionheart and couldn't believe that a baker's son from Port Talbot was working with Katharine Hepburn.
The actress, playing his mother Eleanor of Aquitaine, gave him "the best advice I've had" as they rehearsed their first scene together. She told him to "just speak the lines... Don't act, just do it". She also said he was "real good".
Hepburn was right, of course. Some classically trained theatre actors, particularly back then, didn't appreciate how much they needed to adjust their performance for the intimacy of a camera. He did.
He doesn't much care for talking about the craft of acting, or certainly the reverence there can be around it, but he shares his method with me: "Be still. Be economic. Don't act or twitch around, you know, 'showing off' acting... simplify, simplify, simplify'."
Hollywood Pictures
Director, Oliver Stone (L) told a reluctant Sir Anthony that he wanted him to play Nixon because he was "nuts" like President Nixon
His performances stand out because he's an actor of huge emotional depth and psychological insight. Think of him as Dr Treves, the friend and protector of John Hurt's Elephant Man.
Or as Lecter, still for me the most terrifying of characters more than 30 years on. The serial killer is a monster but Sir Anthony understood that less is more, on screen.
Instead of playing Lecter as obviously monstrous, "you go the opposite way, you draw back", he explains. He realised as soon as he had read a few pages of the script that the role was "a life-changer".
He writes in his memoir that he "instinctively sensed how to play Hannibal. I have the devil in me. We all have the devil in us, I know what scares people".
Getty Images
Sir Anthony and Jodie Foster both won Oscars for their roles in The Silence of the Lambs
He tells me he played Lecter still - and deadly. So when he was in character opposite other actors, he decided, "Don't take your eyes off the person. That's terrifying."
He puts on Lecter's metallic rasp for me and appears to enjoy repeating his character's words to Jodie Foster's Clarice. "You're not real FBI," he almost hisses.
"That's scary," he says. He's not wrong. Even in an upmarket LA hotel on a warm autumn afternoon, I'm feeling chilled.
And what about the famous line - "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti", which he follows with that vampire-like hiss?
He explains as a child he'd seen the Hungarian-American actor Bela Lugosi do the same when playing Count Dracula in the 1931 movie. Sir Anthony decided in the moment of filming to copy it and The Silence of the Lambs director, Jonathan Demme, kept it in.
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Bela Lugosi's portrayal of Count Dracula in the 1931 horror film influenced Sir Anthony when playing Hannibal Lecter
What is startling about the memoir is the disconnect between how the world viewed the young actor and how much it was clearly missing about him. He was bullied at school for what other kids saw as his large "elephant" head.
He was slapped around by teachers who deemed him a complete dunce. Even his parents pretty much wrote him off.
He believes it was the making of him. It "gave me a core of anger, resentment and revenge", he says.
But why hadn't they all noticed his talents? This was a child who was given the 10 volume Children's Encyclopaedia when he was six ("I was so captivated, I read every one of them") and became fascinated by astronomy.
A boy who played the piano, made art and loved Dickens and Shakespeare, quoting from them extensively.
A school report in 1955 when he was 17 marked "the turning point" in his life. It was terrible, as usual. "What's going to happen to you?" Sir Anthony recalls his father lamenting. "I said: 'One day, I'll show you, both of you'."
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Sir Anthony, a "little confused boy" by his own recollection, with his father at Aberavon Beach in 1941
Sir Anthony Hopkins
Sir Anthony Hopkins, here in 1953, says he was bullied at school, where teachers thought he was "thick"
He's pleased his parents lived long enough to see him succeed. When he won his first best actor Oscar, for The Silence of the Lambs in 1992, 11 years to the day after his father died, he rang his mother in Wales and said: "I guess I did OK."
But it was a rough ride in the early days. He was an alcoholic who picked fights with directors and others. He wasn't always a good husband to his first two wives. Booze turned him nasty.
"That's the ugly side of alcoholism," he writes. "It brought out a brutal side of me. I'm not proud of it at all."
The anger, he believes, came "from inside, my own insecurities, being bullied at school and all the rest of it. I didn't like authority".
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Sir Anthony (seen with co-star Kate Nelligan) played an alcoholic actor, Theodore Gunge, in the 1974 TV drama The Arcata Promise
Then one night in LA in December 1975, almost 50 years ago, he drove his car while in "a complete alcoholic blackout". When he came to, he realised that he was "out of control" and could have killed someone. He made a phone call to ask for help.
"Suddenly, something said 'it's all over, now you can start living'... the craving left and it's never come back."
At his first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, he had a realisation about everyone else in the room.
"They're all misfits like me. Like all of us. We feel we never belong. We feel self-hatred. All of us are the same. I'm not alone."
It's that feeling of disconnection that shines out of the book.
He writes that his wife Stella believes he is on the autism spectrum which is "likely right, given my proclivity for memorisation and repetition... and my lack of emotionality" but he says he prefers the term "cold fish". I want to know why.
It seems to have begun as a reaction to the bullying and screaming at him through school and National Service.
"I'd just stare them out, and that drove them mad," he recalls. "You withdraw into yourself and think, 'OK you can't hurt me, can you?" It was, he says, his "only defence... and that's a power, you see: I don't care."
Of course, Sir Anthony does care and we talk a little about the state of the world. It's at this point in our interview that he becomes his most passionate. He grew up in Port Talbot surrounded by people who had been impacted, even brutalised, by war.
He played Sir Nicholas Winton, the man who saved hundreds of mainly Jewish children from the Nazis, in the film One Life.
Warner Bros.
In One Life, Sir Anthony played Sir Nicholas Winton, a stockbroker who helped to save nearly 700 mainly Jewish children from the Nazis
When I ask him about whether he worries about increasing polarisation now, he becomes very animated and intense.
"The world has always been a place of utter turmoil. But I think if we go on in this way of hatred... we are dead.
"Nobody's allowed to have an opinion. Nobody can have a different view. That's fascism. And it's insanity."
If he has any advice about it all, it's to say "'Come on, stop this rubbish, beating each other up over ideas. They're only ideas and we're only going to be dead one day'."
Sir Anthony Hopkins' best performances
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Brooks Films
Sir Anthony played President Nixon, but told us that, if offered the role of President Trump, he'd say no
Sir Anthony played the role of Dr Frederick Treves with compassion and said of his character that he "wrestled with his goodness"
I ask him, as he looks back at his long life, what his biggest regrets are and he's quick to answer. "People I've hurt over the years, the stupid things I did."
He's estranged from his only child, his daughter Abigail, who he walked out on when she was just one and he was in the depths of alcoholism.
He writes that "after realising I was unfit as a father for Abigail, I vowed not to have any more children... I couldn't do to another child what I'd done to her".
He has tried to repair their relationship over the years.
Getty Images
Sir Anthony with his daughter, Abigail (here at the premiere of Little Man Tate in Los Angeles in 1991), describes his estrangement as "a tremendous source of pain"
When he took on the role of King Lear in his 80s, in Sir Richard Eyre's 2018 film, Lear's words to his daughter Cordelia struck a painful chord.
He writes in his new book: "The line that hit me harder than perhaps any other I've ever spoken was 'I did her wrong'. Saying those words, I felt deeply, perhaps for the first time in my life, how I had hurt my own daughter.
"I remembered how as a baby she'd lit up when I walked into the room. I remembered how I said goodbye to her the night I walked out. I remembered how I had tried and failed to win her back later. I remembered how I had given up. And as Lear, but also as myself, I began to cry."
He didn't want to talk about it in our interview. Poignantly, in this section of the book, he writes: "I hope my daughter knows that my door is always open to her."
I couldn't help feeling moved reading this. It's as if he is trying to send a message to her, hoping against hope that there might be a reconciliation before it is too late.
Playground Television
Sir Anthony (pictured with Florence Pugh) says playing King Lear made him reflect on the hurt he caused his own daughter, Abigail
At 87, he is looking back, aware he has lived many years longer than he has left to live. "Most of my friends have died, they're gone, God bless them," he says. "I hope to be around a little longer. But even that, I'm thinking, 'oh well, I had a good time'."
He certainly still appears to be having fun. After some early reserve when we first met, he quickly relaxed. When he played the piano, he shared how he had lost two much-loved pianos when his house burnt down in the LA fires earlier this year. "They were all under the rubble".
As we walked through the hotel lobby together, he was spotted by guests and waved happily to them. "I like to say hi because people think actors are special. We're not at all," he smiles.
Reuters
Sir Anthony credits his third wife Stella Arroyave with helping him overcome "feelings of anxiety in a way that set [him] free"
Whatever he says, it was special to spend a few hours in his presence. He's an acting legend who's given us six decades of memorable performances. He's also a genuine heavyweight who is steeped not just in musical knowledge, but culture, history and philosophy.
And we end the interview on a philosophical note - as he recites "They are not long, the days of wine and roses" from an Ernest Dowson poem and muses on the fleeting nature of life.
"What are we doing here, what are we?" he asks. "We can't explain anything about ourselves. We may have fancy ideas, religious ideas, philosophical ideas, scientific ideas... what's that all about? We're nothing finally, and yet we're everything".
We Did OK, Kid by Sir Anthony Hopkins is published on 4 November.
Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday, admitting her role in leaking the video
The former top lawyer in the Israeli military has been arrested, as a political showdown deepens over the leaking of a video that allegedly shows severe abuse of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli soldiers.
Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned as the Military Advocate General of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last week, saying that she took full responsibility for the leak.
On Sunday, the story took a darker turn when she was reported as missing, with police mounting an hours-long search for her on a beach north of Tel Aviv.
She was subsequently found alive and well, police said, but was then taken into custody.
The fallout from the leaked video is intensifying by the day.
Broadcast in August 2024 on an Israeli news channel, the footage shows reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel taking aside a detainee, then surrounding him with riot shields to block visibility while he was allegedly beaten and stabbed in the rectum with a sharp object.
The detainee was subsequently treated for severe injuries.
Five reservists were subsequently charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm to the detainee. They have denied the charges have not been named.
On Sunday, four of the reservists wore black balaclavas to hide their faces as they appeared at a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem along with their lawyers, who demanded the dismissal of their trial.
Adi Keidar, a lawyer from the right-wing legal aid organisation Honenu, claimed his clients were subject to "to a faulty, biased and completely cooked-up legal process".
Anadolu via Getty Images
The leaked surveillance video was filmed at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel
Last week, a criminal investigation was launched into the leaking of the video.
Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi was put on leave while the inquiry took place.
On Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said she would not be allowed to return to her post.
Shortly after that, Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned.
In her resignation letter, she said she took full responsibility for any material that was released to the media from the unit.
"I approved the release of material to the media in an attempt to counter false propaganda against the army's law enforcement authorities," she said.
That is a reference to efforts by some right-wing political figures in Israel to claim that the allegations of severe abuse of the Palestinian detainee had been fabricated.
She added: "It is our duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of acts of violence against a detainee."
After her resignation, Katz issued a fierce condemnation of her conduct.
"Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the army's uniform," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed his defence minister's words on Sunday, saying that the incident at Sde Teiman was "perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment".
Hours later, the first reports began appearing in the Israeli media that Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi was missing, sparking fears that a political scandal had taken a turn towards tragedy.
A massive search effort was launched. Several hours later, she was found "safe and in good health" in the coastal area of Herzliya, Israeli police said.
Overnight, a police spokesperson announced that two people had been arrested on suspicion of "leaking and other serious criminal offences" as part of an investigation.
Israeli media reported that the pair were Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi and the former chief military prosecutor, Col Matan Solomosh.
Reuters
Israeli forces mounted an hours-long search for Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi when she went missing on Sunday
The Sde Teiman incident has been a lightning rod for the division between the left and right in Israel.
On the right, the leaking of the video is denounced as a defamation of the Israeli military, all but amounting to an act of treason.
After Israeli military police went to Sde Teiman to question 11 reservists over the incident in July 2024, far-right protesters - including at least three lawmakers from Netanyahu's governing coalition - broke into the facility to show their support.
On the left, Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi's decision to enable the footage to be released is seen as the one time she lived up to the responsibilities of her post.
The video is regarded by the left as concrete evidence backing up multiple reports of abuse of Palestinian detainees since the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.
Last October, a report by a UN commission of inquiry alleged that thousands of child and adult detainees from Gaza had been "subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence".
Israel's government said it rejected the accusations of widespread ill-treatment and torture of detainees, and insisted that it was "fully committed to international legal standards". It also said it had carried out thorough investigations into every complaint.
The dancer's treatment for stage three breast cancer was depicted in a BBC documentary
Strictly Come Dancing's Amy Dowden has announced she is to undergo "another mastectomy this week".
The 35-year-old said the surgery was "not to treat a new cancer diagnosis" but came following an appointment with her "incredible" medical team, adding that she wanted to be "clear" and "open" with her followers.
In a post on Instagram, accompanied by a video of her stroking her dog, the Welsh star said: "They're [the medical team] confident that, all going well, I can expect a straightforward recovery.
"Once I have healed I look forward to rejoining my Strictly family."
She added that she would "of course" miss not being part of the show as much but would be "watching from home and look forward to cheering everyone on".
"Thank you always for all the support," said Dowden.
The dancer revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in May 2023 after finding a lump in April, the day before going to the Maldives on her honeymoon with fellow professional dancer Ben Jones.
After her diagnosis, Dowden had a mastectomy and underwent chemotherapy, with her treatment preventing her from being able to compete with a celebrity partner on the BBC dancing programme that year.
Dowden documented her cancer experience online, and revealed in February 2024 that "no evidence of disease" was found at her latest health check.
She returned to the dancefloor a few months later, partnered with former JLS star JB Gill.
However, she was forced to pull out of Strictly midway through the 20th anniversary series due to an injury and was replaced by Lauren Oakley.
BBC/PA
The Strictly professional was partnered with former Apprentice contestant Thomas Skinner for the latest season of Strictly Come Dancing
Dowden returned once again in this year's series where she was partnered with former Apprentice contestant and social media star Thomas Skinner, being eliminated in week two.
'I worry about unity' - Southgate on St George's flag
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Gareth Southgate managed England between 2016 and 2024
Published
Former England manager Sir Gareth Southgate says he is "worried about unity" amid a debate about flying the St George's flag.
A growing number of St George's and union jack flags have appeared across England in recent months.
While some people feel the flag-raising is patriotic, others feel it is intimidating.
Southgate, who spent eight years in charge of the Three Lions, stepped down as manager following a Euro 2024 final defeat by Spain.
Though he failed to win silverware with England, he is widely recognised for uniting the country in support of the national side and has now written a book called Dear England: Lessons in Leadership.
On Monday, BBC Breakfast presenter Jon Kay asked Southgate for his opinion on the flags debate, saying: "Some people are proud of them. Some people are questioning the use of them in certain circumstances. What do you think of that flags debate in the context of what you think about patriotism?"
Southgate replied: "I worry about unity. I've seen what we did with the team [England] to unify every community.
"I do think there's more that bonds us all than separates us. We should try and focus more on what brings us together than what separates us."
Salford City's League Two fixture against Oldham Athletic was delayed later that week when two pitch invaders attempted to place a St George's flag inside the centre circle at the Peninsula Stadium.
Far-right group Britain First claimed responsibility for the incident, saying they "teamed up with local Salford patriots" to protest against the "treachery of Gary Neville".
"At any time in history there will always be some disunity under the surface," said Southgate.
"Life is economically tough for a lot of people so I understand why people are disaffected.
"Covid [the pandemic] was a good example where people did shopping for their neighbours, they rallied round one another, that's what British spirit is about."
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Media caption,
Southgate 'very relaxed not being in football at the moment'
Southgate, who was appointed England head coach in November 2016 after an interim spell, earned 57 caps for the Three Lions during his playing career.
The closest the defender came to silverware with the national side as a player was in 1996, when he missed a penalty in a semi-final shootout defeat by Germany at Wembley.
Asked about the importance of failing, Southgate said: "It's one of the certainties of life that things are going to go wrong for you. What I learned from 1996 is that I failed to execute a skill under pressure and that I needed to be better prepared.
"When I went to bed that night I remember thinking: 'I don't know how I'll ever get over this.'
"The whole country was on this carnival of football in 1996 and heading to the final, and I was responsible for us going out.
"But you step outside the house the next day and slowly get over it. People weren't shy of reminding me about it when I played at opposition grounds but there's always a way through these things and you have to find that strength to come through it."
"Run there's a guy stabbing everyone" - witnesses describe attack
Passengers have described blood-covered seats and attempting to protect themselves with a bottle after a mass stabbing on a LNER train left 11 people injured and needing hospital treatment. Two remain in a life-threatening condition.
Police met the Doncaster-London King's Cross train as it made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire shortly before 20:00 GMT.
Alistair Day, who was travelling back to Hertford having watched Nottingham Forest, was on the train when the attack happened - having narrowly missed his original connecting service.
He joined others and hid in the train's buffet carriage as a fellow passenger confronted a man with a knife.
"I was just by the buffet car. It was odd. I was at the end of the carriage. All these kids were running up and I thought it was like a prank - Halloween or students," he said.
"Then they're getting louder and louder any sorts of people with blood on them [appeared] and I thought, 'Oh, bloody hell, this is not good.'
"I saw a guy flailing out - a fracas with arms going everywhere. I didn't see him that well because there were people in front of him.
"My initial thought was I'm going to sit there and try and do something but I changed my mind.
"We all jumped up and everyone kept running but I was next to the buffet car and the guys in the carriage were trying to close up the shutters and everything.
"So I said, no, you've got to let us in here. So I jumped in there - there were about 12 of us in there.
"I was the first one in, so I was in the corner. A young woman who I spoke to afterwards was by the window and the guy was at the window with his knife trying to get in. Obviously we'd locked it by then."
The 24-year-old, from Peckham in south-east London, said: "I was texting my friends about my plans for that night and then people came rushing through from the carriage, running through, saying, 'You need to run, you need to run'.
"At first it didn't really register what was going on.
"And then quickly, I just dropped my stuff and I started running along with them.
"And then I looked back, and I could see this guy - he was quite a tall, black male, and he had a bloodied knife.
"You just looked around and there was blood just everywhere."
'What if we run out of carriages?'
Joe continued: "We kept moving through the train. We could see him behind us coming through.
"The scariest thing was that I knew that because the stops at this stage of the journey are just Stevenage and King's Cross there's quite a lot of big distances between stops.
"So we had no idea how long we were going to be on the train for.
"The thing that was in my mind was we're running through this train now but what if we run out of carriages to run through? What if we reach the end of the train? What happens there?
"It all happened very quickly. I was just in a fight or flight mode really."
Whiskey bottle
Joe Giddens/PA
Olly Foster, a passenger on the train, told the BBC he initially heard people shouting "run, run, there's a guy literally stabbing everyone", and believed it might have been a Halloween related prank.
He said within minutes, people started pushing through the carriage, and he noticed his hand was "covered in blood" as there was "blood all over the chair" he had leaned on.
An older man "blocked" the attacker from stabbing a younger girl, leaving him with a gash on his head and neck, Mr Foster said.
Passengers around him used jackets to try to staunch the bleeding.
He added that the only thing people in his carriage could use against the attacker was a bottle of whiskey, leaving them "staring down the carriage" and "praying" that he would not enter the carriage.
Although it lasted 10-15 minutes in total, Mr Foster says the incident "felt like forever".
Describing the scene when he got off the train, he said: "There were three people bleeding severely. One guy was holding his stomach and there's blood coming from his stomach and going down his leg.
"He was going 'help, help, I've been stabbed'."
PA
The incident prompted a huge response by the emergency services
The train's only other scheduled stop before King's Cross was due to be at Stevenage.
Wren Chambers, who was due to get off in the Hertfordshire town, said they first became aware something was wrong when a man bolted down the carriage with a bloody arm, saying "they've got a knife, run".
Wren said they and a friend ran to the front of the train and saw a man who had collapsed on the floor.
Wren said they felt "stressed and pretty scared" once they knew what was happening, but they were eventually able to get off the train unharmed.
"There was quite a lot of blood on the train, there was some on my bag, some on my jeans," she told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"As soon as the train stopped and people got off most of them ran outside trying to get away from it, because we knew the attacker was still inside on the train."
PA Media
The incident took place at 19:42 on Saturday and British Transport Police (BTP) received reports of multiple stabbings aboard the 18:25 LNER service from Doncaster to King's Cross
London Underground worker Dean McFarlane told the BBC that he saw the train pull into Huntingdon railway station at 20:00 with a passenger bleeding.
He said that on arrival, he saw multiple people running down the platform bleeding, with one man in a white shirt "completely covered in blood".
He said he grabbed people and told them to leave the station, and tried to assist passengers who he believed were having panic attacks.
PA Media
Ten people have been taken to hospital and nine have life-threatening injuries
There will be increased visible patrols at mainline stations over the coming days, the Transport Secretary said
There will be a review of rail security in the UK following a mass stabbing on a train, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has said.
A man has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder after the knife attack on a Doncaster to London service on Saturday night.
Alexander told the BBC the government would "review security arrangements" and respond "swiftly and in a proportionate way".
But she did not think airport scanning technology "is the right solution for stations in the UK".
Questions about passenger safety on the UK's rail network have been raised after a a black British national, who boarded a train at Peterborough station, attacked passengers with a knife.
Eleven people were treated in hospital including a member of train staff who is said to be in a "critical but stable condition".
Anthony Williams, 32, from Peterborough has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder, one count of actual bodily harm and one count of possession of a bladed article, British Transport Police (BTP) said on Monday morning.
Alexander told BBC Breakfast that BTP officers would increase visible patrols at mainline stations over the coming days "because I do understand that people will want to feel reassured following what happened".
"Thankfully incidents like this on the public transport network are very, very rare," she added.
She said the rail network in the UK was a "low crime environment" and for every one million passenger journeys only 27 crimes were committed.
Asked what steps the government would take to improve security on trains, she said: "We are investing in improved CCTV in stations and the Home Office will soon be launching a consultation on more facial recognition technology which could be deployed in stations as well."
Asked about luggage scanners similar to those used in some major train stations abroad she said: "At the moment that type of airport scanning technology I don't think is the right solution for stations in the UK."
Andy Trotter, former British Transport Police Chief Constable told BBC Breakfast Saturday's attack illustrates "people's real concerns about being trapped with an offender or with someone causing disorder".
"I hope this results in a broader review of security, the need for more British Transport Police, the need for more security from the rail companies themselves."
Tim Richards appeared on the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast
The boss of one of the UK's biggest cinema chains says he does not see streaming services and home entertainment as competition.
Tim Richards, the founder and chief executive of Vue International, says film studios tried to "circumvent" cinemas during the pandemic but lost "hundreds of millions of dollars" as a result.
"I think the studios certainly learned that we are in one small ecosystem, we all need each other," he told the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast.
Rival cinema chains have a constructive relationship too, he says: "We are fairly open in terms of trading best practices. We want to have a message that cinemas are a great place to have a good time."
Richards spoke of the turbulence of the last five years for the film industry.
Vue went from having its best year ever in 2019, to being "effectively closed for almost two years" during the Covid-19 pandemic, to grappling with actors' and writers' strikes which shut down production for nearly another year.
While Richards was trying to figure out how to prevent Vue from going under, or from having to lay off any of its staff, streaming services like Netflix saw their subscriber numbers explode.
"I had a singular focus: save the company and save all of our 10,000 employees," he says.
"When you have a mission like that, failure is not really an option, because the consequences are too high."
Even as cinemas began to re-open, industry figures questioned whether the model of film release had changed for good. Films like Marvel's Black Widow saw minimal theatrical runs as streaming platforms tried to push their original productions.
More recently, titles like K-Pop Demon Hunters and The Thursday Murder Club are playing for just a few weeks in cinemas, despite proving to be hugely popular.
But Richards is unfazed. Vue returned to pre-pandemic trading levels this year and is expecting next summer to be the company's biggest ever.
He is emphatic that there will always be an appetite for the big screen: "During the pandemic, there was an increase with subscription services because people had no choice...But that has not continued."
"I have never looked at what happens in the home as being competition...our biggest, most frequent customers are Netflix subscribers or Disney Plus subscribers. People who love movies love movies in all formats."
The Hollywood strikes, too, he says, were a supply issue, not a demand one. "We've never had a demand issue."
Richards clearly knows the ecosystem of films inside out. Before founding Vue (then Spean Bridge Cinemas) in 1999, he was a senior executive at Warner Brothers, operating the studio's own cinema chain, Warner Village. Spean Bridge bought Warner Village's 36 cinemas in 2003, and the Vue brand was born.
"The headline in the business section of the Times was: 'Unknown Bit Player Buys Warner Brothers,'" he recalls with a laugh.
Entertainment industry squeezed
Due to cost-of-living pressures persisting, many parts of the entertainment industry are seeing revenue slow down as people cut back on discretionary spending.
Coupled with this is rising operational costs: an increase in the minimum wage and higher employer national insurance contributions.
"We have done our very, very best to not pass on those costs to our customers," Richards said. "And we haven't. And we've taken a small hit as a consequence, but we're hoping that the volume which we've seen as a consequence will follow it."
Still, he says, the entertainment industry has been "squeezed...and kind of attacked in some instances".
Government decisions have "hurt the people they're trying to help", in his view.
What's the industry's message ahead of the upcoming budget? "Please don't touch [us] again."
And while Richards doesn't believe that streamers are poaching his customers, he says he does worry about "somebody turning right and going to a theme park or a football game or something else".
But it's not a case of teenagers and young adults sitting at home instead of going out: "They're a lot more social than previous generations, and that has shown in our attendance with a lot of our movies."
And what's his own favourite movie?
He responds diplomatically: "I see a lot - a lot - of movies every week.
"But I look at a movie like One Battle After Another. And when I see a movie like that, I have hope for the future because it's such an incredible movie. Original IP, original story, incredibly well done."
Trump announced new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House in April
What may be the biggest battle yet in Donald Trump's trade war is about to begin.
The Trump administration heads to the US Supreme Court on Wednesday, facing off against small businesses and a group of states who contend most of the tariffs it has put in place are illegal and should be struck down.
If the court agrees with them, Trump's trade strategy would be upended, including the sweeping global tariffs he first announced in April. The government would also likely have to refund some of the billions of dollars it has collected through the tariffs, which are taxes on imports.
The final decision from the justices will come after what could be months of poring over the arguments and discussing the merits of the case. Eventually they will hold a vote.
Trump has described the fight in epic terms, warning a loss would tie his hands in trade negotiations and imperil national security. He has even suggested he might take the unprecedented step of hearing the arguments at court in person.
"If we don't win that case, we will be a weakened, troubled, financial mess for many, many years to come," he said.
The stakes feel just as high for many businesses in the US and abroad, which have been paying the price while getting whipped about by fast-changing policies.
Trump's tariffs will cost Learning Resources, a US seller of toys made mostly overseas and one of the businesses suing the government, $14m (£10.66m) this year. That is seven times what it spent on tariffs in 2024, according to CEO Rick Woldenberg.
"They've thrown our business into unbelievable disruption," he said, noting the company has had to shift the manufacturing of hundreds of items since January.
Few businesses, though, are banking on a win at the court.
"We are hopeful that this is going to be ruled illegal but we're all also trying to prepare that it's setting in," said Bill Harris, co-founder of Georgia-based Cooperative Coffees.
His co-op, which imports coffee from more than a dozen countries, has already paid roughly $1.3m (£975,000) in tariffs since April.
A test to Trump's presidential power
In deciding this case, the Supreme Court will have to take on a broader question: How far does presidential power go?
Legal analysts say it is hard to predict the justices' answer, but a ruling siding with Trump will give him and future White House occupants greater reach.
Specifically, the case concerns tariffs that the Trump administration imposed using the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which the White House has embraced for its speed and flexibility.By declaring an emergency under the law, Trump can issue immediate orders and bypass longer, established processes.
Trump first invoked the law in February to tax goods from China, Mexico and Canada, saying drug trafficking from those countries constituted an emergency.
He deployed it again in April, ordering levies ranging from 10% to 50% on goods fromalmost every country in the world. This time, he said the US trade deficit - where the US imports more than it exports - posed an "extraordinary and unusual threat".
Those tariffs took hold in fits and starts this summer while the US pushed countries to strike "deals".
Opponents say the law authorises the president to regulate trade but never mentions the word "tariffs", and they contend that only Congress can establish taxes under the US Constitution.
They have also challenged whether the issues cited by the White House, especially the trade deficit, represent emergencies.
Members of Congress from both parties have asserted the Constitution gives them responsibility for creating tariffs, duties and taxes, as well.
More than 200 Democrats in both chambers and one Republican, Senator Lisa Murkowski, filed a brief to the Supreme Court, where they also argued the emergency law did not grant the president power to use tariffs as a tool for gaining leverage in trade talks.
Meanwhile, last week the Senate made a symbolic and bipartisan move to pass three resolutions rejecting Trump's tariffs, including one to end the national emergency he declared. They are not expected to be approved in the House.
Still, business groups said they hoped the rebuke would send a message to the justices.
'An energy drain like I've never seen'
Three lower courts have ruled against the administration. After the Supreme Court hears arguments on Wednesday it will have until June to issue its decision, although most expect a ruling to come by January.
Whatever it decides has implications for an estimated $90bn worth of import taxes already paid - roughly half the tariff revenue the US collected this year through September, according to Wells Fargo analysts.
Trump officials have warned that sum could swell to $1tn if the court takes until June.
Cafe Campesino
Trip Pomeroy, chief executive of Cafe Campesino, one of the 23 roasteries that owns Cooperative Coffees, on a recent trip to Peru with a partner farmer
If the government is forced to issue refunds, Cooperative Coffees will "absolutely" try to recoup its money, said Mr Harris, but that would not make up for all the disruption.
His business has had to take out an extra line of credit, raise prices and find ways to survive with lower profits.
"This is an energy drain like I've never seen," said Mr Harris, who is also chief financial officer of Cafe Campesino, one of the 23 roasteries that own Cooperative Coffees. "It dominates all the conversations and it just kind of sucks the life out of you."
What could happen next?
The White House says that if it loses, it will impose levies via other means, such as a law allowing the president to put tariffs of up to 15% in place for 150 days.
Even then, businesses would have some relief, since those other means require steps like issuing formal notices, which take time and deliberation, said trade lawyer Ted Murphy of Sidley Austin.
"This is not just about the money," he said. "The president has announced tariffs on Sunday that go into effect on Wednesday, without advance notice, without any real process."
"I think that's the bigger thing for this case for businesses - whether or not that is going to be in our future," he added.
There is no clear sign of how the court will rule.
In recent years it has struck down major policies, such as Biden-era student loan forgiveness, as White House overreach.
But the nine justices, six of whom were appointed by Republicans, including three by Trump,have shown deference to this president in other recent disputes and historically have given leeway to the White House on questions of national security.
"I really do think arguments are available for the Supreme Court to go in all different directions," said Greta Peisch, partner at Wiley and former trade lawyer in the Biden administration.
Adam White, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said he expected the court to strike down the tariffs, but avoid questions like what constitutes a national emergency.
Reuters
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Trump announcing a deal in July
The case has already complicated the White House's trade deals, such as one struck in July with the European Union.
The European Parliament is currently considering ratifying the agreement, which sets US tariffs on European goods at 15% in exchange for promises including allowing in more US agricultural products.
"They're not going to act on this until they see the outcome of the Supreme Court decision," said John Clarke, former director for international trade at the European Commission.
Chocolats Camille Bloch
Swiss chocolatier Daniel Bloch says he is not confident the Supreme Court will resolve the tariff issues facing his business
In Switzerland, which recently downgraded its outlook for economic growth citing America’s 39% tariff on its goods, chocolatier Daniel Bloch said he'd welcome a ruling against the Trump administration.
His business Chocolats Camille Bloch is absorbing about a third of the cost of new tariffs on kosher chocolate that his firm has exported to the US for decades, aiming to blunt price increases and maintain sales. That decision has wiped out profits for the unit and is not sustainable, he said.
He hopes Trump will reconsider his tariffs altogether, because "that would be easiest".
"If the court were to make the tariffs go away of course we would see that as a positive sign," he said. "But we don't trust that that will bring the solution."
Many of us moan about calling call centres, but would dealing with AI be an improvement?
Ask ChatGPT whether AI will replace humans in the customer service industry, and it will offer a diplomatic answer, the summary of which is "they will work side by side".
Humans though, are not so optimistic.
Last year, the chief executive of Indian technology firm Tata Consultancy Services, K Krithivasan, told the Financial Times that AI may soon mean that there is "minimal need" for call centres in Asia.
There is currently a lot of hype around "AI agents". That is the term given to AI systems that can operate more autonomously and make decisions.
They could turbo-charge current non-AI chatbots, known as "rule-based chatbots", which can only answer a set list of questions.
My own recent experience with parcel delivery firm Evri's chatbot illustrates the existing, non-AI state of play.
My parcel had not arrived, and Ezra (the name of the chatbot), offered to "get this resolved straight away".
It asked for a tracking reference, and after I had typed that in, it told me that my parcel had been delivered.
I could request proof of delivery, and when I did so it showed me a photo of the package… at the wrong front door. And there was no option to advance the conversation after this "evidence" was shown.
In response, Evri tells the BBC it is investing £57m to further improve the service.
"Our intelligent chat facility uses tracking data to suggest the most helpful responses and ensure the customer's parcel is delivered as soon as possible, if this has not happened as scheduled," it says.
"Our data confirms the vast majority of people get the answers they need from our chat facility, first time, within seconds. We're always reviewing feedback to ensure our services are as helpful as possible, and we continue to make enhancements on a rolling basis."
On the flipside, rival parcel delivery firm DPD had to disable its less rule-bound AI chatbot after it criticised the company and swore at users.
Getty Images
Companies around the world are adding AI to their existing chatbots
Getting the balance right between being on brand and genuinely helping customers is a tricky one for businesses to grapple with as they migrate to AI.
Some 85% of customer service leaders are exploring, piloting or deploying AI chatbots, according to Gartner. But it also found that only 20% of such projects are fully meeting expectations.
"You can have a much more natural conversation with AI," says Garner analyst Emily Potosky.
"But the downside is the chatbot could hallucinate, it could give you out-of-date information, or tell you completely the wrong thing. For parcel delivery I would say rules-based agents are great because there are only so many permutations of questions about someone's package."
Resources and money are among the key reasons businesses may be considering the move from human to AI customer service. But Ms Potosky points out that it isn't a given that AI will be cheaper than human agents.
"This is a very expensive technology," she says.
The first thing that any business wanting to replace humans with AI will have to do is ensure that they have extensive training data.
"There's this idea that knowledge management becomes less important because generative AI can solve the fact that their knowledge is not particularly well organised, but actually the opposite is the case," adds Ms Potosky.
"Knowledge management is more important when deploying generative AI."
Joe Inzerillo, chief digital officer at software giant Salesforce, tells the BBC that call centres provide fertile training grounds for AIs, particularly ones that have been moved to low-cost areas such as the Philippines and India.
This is because a lot of staff training will have been done, which the AI can also learn from.
"You have a huge amount of documentation, and that's all really great stuff for the AI to have when it is going to take over that first line of defence," he says.
Salesforce's AI-powered customer service platform, AgentForce, is currently being used by a range of customers from Formula 1, to insurance firm Prudential, restaurant-booking website Open Table, and social media site Reddit.
Mr Inzerillo says that when Salesforce first put the platform through its paces it learned some valuable lessons about how to make the AI seem more human-like.
"While a human might say 'sorry to hear that', the agent just opened a ticket," says Mr Inzerillo.
So the AI was trained to show more sympathy, especially when a customer has a problem.
Salesforce also found that not allowing the agent to talk about competitors proved problematic.
"This backfired when customers asked legitimate questions about integrating Microsoft Teams with Salesforce," says Mr Inzerillo. "The agent refused to help because Microsoft appeared on our competitor list."
The firm subsequently replaced that rigid rule.
Salesforce has ambitious plans for the continuing rollout of its AI agents, and so far it claims that they are a hit with its customers. It also says that the vast majority of customers, 94%, are choosing to interact with AI agents when given the option.
"We've seen customer satisfaction rates that are in excess of what people get with humans – then AI can unlock the next level of customer service," says Mr Inzerillo.
It has also meant that the firm has cut customer service costs by $100m, but he was keen to play down recent headlines that suggest this has led to 4,000 jobs being slashed.
"A very large percentage of those people got redeployed in other areas around customer service."
Fiona Coleman
Fiona Coleman says there will always be times when she wants to speak to a human
Fiona Coleman runs QStory, a firm which is using AI to offer human call centre workers more flexibility in their shift patterns. Its customers include eBay and NatWest.
While she sees the value in AI improving working conditions, she is not sure the technology can ever replace humans entirely.
"There are times where I don't want to have a digital engagement, and I want to speak to a human," she says.
"Let's see what it looks like in five years' time - whether an AI can do a mortgage application, or talk about a debt problem. Let's see whether the AI has got empathetic enough."
The use of AI in customer service could, in fact, already be facing a backlash.
Legislation currently proposed in the US to move off-shore call centres back to America also requires businesses to disclose the use of AI, and transfer a caller to a human if asked to do so.
Meanwhile, Gartner predicted that by 2028 the EU may mandate what is called 'the right to talk to a human" as part of its consumer protection rules.
Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned on Friday, admitting her role in leaking the video
The former top lawyer in the Israeli military has been arrested, as a political showdown deepens over the leaking of a video that allegedly shows severe abuse of a Palestinian detainee by Israeli soldiers.
Maj Gen Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned as the Military Advocate General of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) last week, saying that she took full responsibility for the leak.
On Sunday, the story took a darker turn when she was reported as missing, with police mounting an hours-long search for her on a beach north of Tel Aviv.
She was subsequently found alive and well, police said, but was then taken into custody.
The fallout from the leaked video is intensifying by the day.
Broadcast in August 2024 on an Israeli news channel, the footage shows reserve soldiers at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel taking aside a detainee, then surrounding him with riot shields to block visibility while he was allegedly beaten and stabbed in the rectum with a sharp object.
The detainee was subsequently treated for severe injuries.
Five reservists were subsequently charged with aggravated abuse and causing serious bodily harm to the detainee. They have denied the charges have not been named.
On Sunday, four of the reservists wore black balaclavas to hide their faces as they appeared at a news conference outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem along with their lawyers, who demanded the dismissal of their trial.
Adi Keidar, a lawyer from the right-wing legal aid organisation Honenu, claimed his clients were subject to "to a faulty, biased and completely cooked-up legal process".
Anadolu via Getty Images
The leaked surveillance video was filmed at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel
Last week, a criminal investigation was launched into the leaking of the video.
Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi was put on leave while the inquiry took place.
On Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz said she would not be allowed to return to her post.
Shortly after that, Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi resigned.
In her resignation letter, she said she took full responsibility for any material that was released to the media from the unit.
"I approved the release of material to the media in an attempt to counter false propaganda against the army's law enforcement authorities," she said.
That is a reference to efforts by some right-wing political figures in Israel to claim that the allegations of severe abuse of the Palestinian detainee had been fabricated.
She added: "It is our duty to investigate whenever there is reasonable suspicion of acts of violence against a detainee."
After her resignation, Katz issued a fierce condemnation of her conduct.
"Anyone who spreads blood libels against IDF troops is unfit to wear the army's uniform," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed his defence minister's words on Sunday, saying that the incident at Sde Teiman was "perhaps the most severe public relations attack that the State of Israel has experienced since its establishment".
Hours later, the first reports began appearing in the Israeli media that Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi was missing, sparking fears that a political scandal had taken a turn towards tragedy.
A massive search effort was launched. Several hours later, she was found "safe and in good health" in the coastal area of Herzliya, Israeli police said.
Overnight, a police spokesperson announced that two people had been arrested on suspicion of "leaking and other serious criminal offences" as part of an investigation.
Israeli media reported that the pair were Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi and the former chief military prosecutor, Col Matan Solomosh.
Reuters
Israeli forces mounted an hours-long search for Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi when she went missing on Sunday
The Sde Teiman incident has been a lightning rod for the division between the left and right in Israel.
On the right, the leaking of the video is denounced as a defamation of the Israeli military, all but amounting to an act of treason.
After Israeli military police went to Sde Teiman to question 11 reservists over the incident in July 2024, far-right protesters - including at least three lawmakers from Netanyahu's governing coalition - broke into the facility to show their support.
On the left, Gen Tomer-Yerushalmi's decision to enable the footage to be released is seen as the one time she lived up to the responsibilities of her post.
The video is regarded by the left as concrete evidence backing up multiple reports of abuse of Palestinian detainees since the Hamas-led 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel.
Last October, a report by a UN commission of inquiry alleged that thousands of child and adult detainees from Gaza had been "subjected to widespread and systematic abuse, physical and psychological violence, and sexual and gender-based violence amounting to the war crime and crime against humanity of torture and the war crime of rape and other forms of sexual violence".
Israel's government said it rejected the accusations of widespread ill-treatment and torture of detainees, and insisted that it was "fully committed to international legal standards". It also said it had carried out thorough investigations into every complaint.
"I can't go on anymore... I know that I made mistakes," Carlos Mazón said
The president of Spain's Valencia region, Carlos Mazón, has resigned after months of pressure over his handling of flash floods last year.
A total of 229 people died in towns in the Valencia region on 29 October 2024, with a further eight dying in neighbouring regions, in Spain's worst natural disaster for decades.
Many in Valencia blamed Mazón for the scale of the tragedy because of how he and his government responded that day.
It emerged that the regional president had spent nearly four hours in a restaurant with a journalist, Maribel Vilaplana, while the floodwater was wreaking havoc and he did not attend emergency meetings during much of the day.
Mazón's government also failed to issue an emergency alert to the phones of Valencia residents warning them of the floods and providing advice until after 20:00, by which times dozens of people had already died.
"I can't go on anymore... I know that I made mistakes, I acknowledge it and I will live with them for the rest of my life," Mazón said as he announced his decision, adding that he should have cancelled his schedule for that day to take charge of the crisis.
"I have said sorry and I say it again, but none of [the mistakes] were due to political calculation or bad faith."
Polls had shown that the vast majority of people in Valencia wanted Mazón, of the conservative People's Party (PP), to step down because of his management of the floods.
Monthly protests were held demanding his resignation, most recently on 25 October, when an estimated 50,000 people turned out on the streets of Valencia. Mazón had been making fewer public appearances in recent months because of the abuse he received from members of the public.
However, his insistence on attending the memorial service for victims on the first anniversary of the tragedy last week angered relatives of those who died and a number of them barracked him during the ceremony.
Getty Images
Thousands of people marched in Valencia last month carrying banners demanding the resignation of Mazón
Mazón seemed shaken by the experience, which appeared to prompt his decision to resign.
His announcement came the same day that Maribel Vilaplana, the journalist with who he had lunch on the day of the floods, testified before a judge who is investigating possible negligence.
According to Spanish media reports, Vilaplana told the magistrate that Mazón "was constantly texting on his phone" and that at one point he received "a lot of calls".
Mazón will continue as a member of the regional parliament, meaning he will have immunity from prosecution.
During his resignation announcement, Mazón criticised the left-wing central government of Pedro Sánchez, accusing it of blocking aid to his region "purely to cause us political damage".
Mazón has become an increasingly problematic figure for the PP over the last year, with concerns that his unpopularity threatened to undermine the party's electoral prospects not just in the Valencia region but nationwide.
However, his replacement has been complicated by the fact that the PP relies on the parliamentary support in the region of the far-right Vox. That party, which has been gaining ground on the PP in polls there, will have to agree to his successor.
Namewee is known for his satirical songs and music videos
Popular Malaysian rapper Namewee has been charged with illegal drug use and possession, local media reported on Monday, quoting Kuala Lumpur police.
Namewee, who pleaded not guilty to both charges, has been released on bail after being arrested last month, authorities said.
The 42-year-old is known for his satirical songs and music videos about taboo topics in Malaysia, from obscenity to religion to China's censorship.
In an Instagram post on Sunday, Namewee denied using or carrying drugs.
"The truth will be out when the police report is released," he wrote.
Kuala Lumpur police chief Fadil Marsus said that Namewee was arrested on 22 October in a hotel room, where they found pills believed to be ecstasy - also known as MDMA.
Namewee later tested positive for illicit substances - including amphetamines, methamphetamine, ketamine, and THC - and was remanded for two days, Fadil said in a statement.
If convicted of drug possession, he could be jailed up to five years and caned.
A police official told local media that Namewee had been in the same hotel at the same time as Iris Hsieh, a Taiwanese influencer who was found dead in her hotel room bathtub.
Namewee wrote on Instagram that he felt "deeply sorry" about Hsieh's death. The ambulance had taken "nearly an hour" to arrive at the scene, he wrote.
He said that he had remained silent as the case was under investigation - though it's unclear if he's referring to his drug charges or Hsieh's death.
He also claimed that he has received "blackmail" in recent days but would "fight to the end".
Namewee has long courted controversy with his music.
In 2016 he was arrested in Malaysia for his music video Oh My God, which was filmed at various places of worship around the country. Critics said the song insulted religious sensitivities.
In 2021, he released the song Fragile, which poked fun at Chinese nationalists and touched on politically sensitive topics like the sovereignty of Taiwan and the persecution of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. The song went viral for Mandarin-speaking audiences but was banned by China.
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