An Algerian sex offender who was mistakenly released from prison has been arrested by police.

Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was arrested after being spotted by a member of the public in Islington, London just before 11:30 GMT on Friday.

He had been let out of HMP Wandsworth in south London on 29 October. Police said they were not told about the mistake until Tuesday 4 November.

He was convicted of indecent exposure in November 2024, relating to an incident in March of that year.

He was given an 18-month community order and placed on the sex offenders' register for five years.

The Metropolitan Police said he was spotted by a member of the public near Capital City College on Blackstock Road at 11:23.

Officers responded "immediately" and he was arrested at 11:30, the force added.

He was arrested for being unlawfully at large and on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker in relation to a previous incident.

He is understood to have entered the UK legally on a visitor's visa in 2019, but overstayed that and was in the initial stages of the deportation process.

He was released the day after being found not guilty of breaching the sex offenders' register's requirements - but he was still facing other charges and should have remained in custody.

The prison officers' representatives said a clerical error meant there was no warrant from the court to hold him, and he was let go.

It followed a series of prosecutions and court appearances dating back two years.

Kaddour-Cherif was one of two men separately released by mistake from Wandsworth Prison in the past week.

William Smith handed himself back in on Thursday - after being let go on Monday, the same day he had been sentenced to prison.

Their releases came just weeks after migrant sex offender Hadush Kebatu, who arrived in the UK on a small boat, was mistakenly released from HMP Chelmsford in Essex in late October.

Kaddour-Cherif was found just a three minute walk from where Kebatu was re-arrested on 26 October.

In a statement after Friday's arrest, Justice Secretary David Lammy said: "We inherited a prison system in crisis and I'm appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing.

"I'm determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.

"That is why I have ordered new tough release checks, commissioned an independent investigation into systemic failures, and begun overhauling archaic paper-based systems still used in some prisons."

Conservative Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said Kaddour-Cherif was "just the tip of the iceberg".

He said "immediate action" was needed, "because the British people are being put at risk".

A former British soldier is facing extradition to Kenya in connection with the alleged murder of a 21-year-old woman there in 2012.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) said Robert James Purkiss was arrested in Tidworth, Wiltshire on 6 November and appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

He was arrested by specialist officers from the NCA's National Extradition Unit in connection with the killing of Agnes Manjiru after a warrant was issued in September, the agency added.

Mr Purkiss, 38, told the court he intended to contest the extradition and was remanded into custody ahead of his next appearance at the same court on 14 November.

His lawyers told the court that he "vehemently denies" murder.

Ms Wanjiru's body was discovered in a septic tank near a hotel in the town of Nanyuki, about 124 miles (200km) north of Nairobi, three months after she had gone missing on 31 March 2012. She had a five-month-old baby at the time.

Her body was found near a British army training camp. On the night she was killed, she had reportedly been at a bar with friends where British soldiers were also present.

Ms Wanjiru's niece, Esther Njoki, met the UK's defence minister last month in order to push for Mr Purkiss's extradition.

In a statement issued through Leigh Day, the lawyers acting for Ms Wanjiru's family, on Friday Ms Njoki said: "My family is incredibly relieved to hear that the suspect in my aunt's case has been arrested.

"We have waited so many years for this moment which marks an important step towards finally obtaining justice for our beloved Agnes."

Leigh Day partner Tessa Gregory said: "This is a huge moment for our client and her family who have been fighting for over a decade to obtain justice for Agnes.

"We hope the UK and Kenyan authorities will now work together to ensure that the suspect can face trial in Kenya as quickly as possible."

Ms Wanjiru's family has long accused the British army of covering up her death and the Kenyan authorities of failing to properly investigate the case at the time.

An inquest into her death was opened in 2018 following pressure from Ms Wanjiru's family, as well as Kenyan rights groups and feminists.

In 2019, it concluded that Ms Wanjiru had been unlawfully killed by one or two British soldiers and that she had suffered stab wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Later in 2021, a Sunday Times investigation reported that a British soldier had confessed to colleagues that he killed Ms Wanjiru. The soldier left the army after the incident and reportedly continued to live in the UK.

In 2024, the army announced it was launching an internal review into the conduct of British soldiers in Kenya, including in Nanyuki.

It found 35 suspected cases of soldiers having engaged in sexual exploitation and abuse, including transactional sex, with local women - nine of these being after the army officially banned such conduct in 2022.

Jeremy Corbyn's new left-wing party is in a stand-off over £800,000 raised by Zarah Sultana, who is meant to be founding the party with him.

The money was raised when Sultana launched an unauthorised membership scheme for people wanting to join the group currently operating the name Your Party.

Senior figures have accused her of withholding the funds despite publicly agreeing to transfer the money.

A spokesperson for Sultana said she "is in the process of transferring all funds and data" but was conducting "essential due diligence as part of this process".

But the delay has sparked anger among YourParty insiders, who say the funds are essential for its founding conference later this month. A source in the party said it would likely be "forced to reduce delegate numbers" at the event.

The problems stem from a schism in the party caused when Sultana launched a membership portal through its official email account, taking payment and data from an alleged 20,000 people.

The money was held by MoU, a company set up in April to hold donations for the fledgling movement.

Corbyn branded the emails "unauthorised" and urged supporters to cancel direct debits.

The membership portal was later replaced, but not before the dispute escalated into legal threats and accusations of a "sexist boys' club".

The pair have since reconciled.

The plan had been to transfer all the money and data from MoU to Your Party after it was registered with the Electoral Commission on 30 September, then wind up the company.

But the money, believed to be around £800,000, has not yet been transferred.

Last week, the founding board of MoU, which included former Labour mayor of North of Tyne Combined Authority Jamie Driscoll, resigned en masse - making Sultana the sole director.

In a joint resignation statement, the three directors insisted they wanted to transfer the funds but Your Party officials had ignored questions about governance and legal liabilities.

Your Party officials have dismissed MoU's complaints as irrelevant and accused it of shifting the goalposts. Officials claimed they sent multiple proposals to move the funds, but were ignored by MoU.

A Your Party spokesman said "We are focused on delivering a successful founding conference for our members.

"While this task is made considerably harder by the continued retention of Your Party funds by MOU Operations Ltd, we will not allow anything or anyone to stop this party from going ahead.

"Working-class people need a party which stands up for them."

A spokesman for Sultana, Sultana, a co-director of Your Party, said: "Zarah is in the process of transferring all funds and data to Your Party, as she has already made clear publicly.

"Obviously, she has a duty to conduct essential due diligence as part of this process."

The row is the latest twist in a turbulent start for the party, which has attracted tens of thousands of members but been dogged by internal disputes over leadership and even the party's name.

Sultana has pushed for the party to be called The Left Party, while Corbyn hinted the name Your Party could stay.

Members will vote on the official name at a founding conference in Liverpool on 29 29 November.

Despite high-profile clashes, Sultana told the BBC the party was a "40-year project" aimed at "running" the government.

Sultana said she hopes to co-lead the new party with Corbyn, but will "throw her hat in the ring" if members opt for a single leader when the party constitution is agreed at conference.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.

"Here we go again."

When Grand Theft Auto 6 was delayed on Thursday, the famous quote from the series perfectly captured the feelings of many video game fans.

Resignation, frustration, déjà vu.

It's the second time maker Rockstar Games has told players they'll have to wait even longer for what is likely to be one of the biggest entertainment releases ever.

The notoriously perfectionist developer has a history of holding on to its blockbusters until it's happy with them, so the news wasn't a complete surprise.

But it has got millions asking what's taking so long, and why.

A timeline

Rockstar Games officially confirmed it was working on GTA 6 in February 2022 and an initial trailer, released almost 18 months later, said it would come out in 2025.

It also revealed that the game features two protagonists - couple Jason and Lucia - and takes place in Leonida, a fictional US state based on Florida.

Rockstar later announced the game had been pushed back, providing an exact date of 26 May 2026.

This got fans excited, especially when some realised it was the date of Bonnie and Clyde's funeral.

The famous outlaw lovers are thought to have provided inspiration for GTA 6's lead characters, and the timing seemed too perfect to pass up.

But in the end, it was. The game has received another delay and a new release date of 19 November 2026.

What's taking so long?

Even Grand Theft Auto is not immune from factors that affect any company making a modern blockbuster video game.

Development has become more expensive, more complex, and the gap between big releases has been widening.

But there are some challenges unique to Rockstar.

The first is hype.

Both of GTA 6's trailers have smashed YouTube viewership records, and it regularly tops lists of the public's most-anticipated games.

Strauss Zelnick, boss of Rockstar's parent company Take-Two Interactive, has said that each new release from the developer needs to wow players.

Rockstar is known for breaking new ground with its games, and its last big release, the western adventure Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR 2), helped to bolster that reputation

It is still widely considered a benchmark for open-world video games due to its depth and obsessive attention to detail, despite coming out in 2018.

The studio's impressive track record is attributed to its famously high standards which, in turn, creates ever-higher expectations for its games.

Maintaining its rep is something Rockstar appears to take seriously - both RDR 2 and 2013's GTA 5 were delayed twice.

And when Mr Zelnick was quizzed on GTA 6's recent delay at a meeting with investors this week, he told them those working on the game were "seeking perfection".

A money-making machine

Another unique factor in Rockstar's case is the continued success of its existing library.

GTA 5 is the second best-selling game of all time, and continues to rack up sales 13 years after release.

It sold 730,000 copies in the UK alone last year, according to the Entertainment Retail Association, while RDR 2 sold 350,000 copies in the same period.

That put both games in 2024's top ten for video game sales.

And then there's GTA Online, the wildly successful multiplayer mode that continues to rank among the world's most-played games every month.

It's been credited with bringing in a big chunk of the $8.9bn (£6.7bn) the series has reportedly made since the release of GTA 5.

Its sequel is expected to be one of the most expensive video games of all time, but Rockstar is still making money from its older titles.

However, Take Two said this week that it had seen an expected decline in GTA Online's numbers.

Experts have previously told BBC Newsbeat that the true success of GTA 6 will be measured by how well it manages to lure current players over to its own online mode.

Will GTA 6 get delayed again?

Where GTA is concerned, there are no guarantees.

Rockstar has previously been accused of forcing employees into "crunch", or mandatory overtime, in order to hit release dates and deadlines.

The practice, which has been employed by other big game developers, has been heavily criticised for keeping workers away from their families and driving them to exhaustion.

Rockstar said at the time no-one was forced to work extra hours but it was always looking at methods to improve the ways it worked.

Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, who published in-depth reports on RDR 2's development, said there appears to be a "real desire" from studio management to avoid crunch on GTA 6.

Earlier this week, 30 employees who were sacked by Rockstar accused it of trying to prevent them from unionising.

The company denied this and accused the workers of committing gross misconduct by sharing confidential information - something the IWGB Game Workers' union has rejected.

It is unlikely that the sackings are directly related to the recent delay, but the loss of experienced staff could have an impact on the game's development.

For now, most fans seem happy to wait a little longer for what many of them expect to be the "game of the century".

Whether their patience will pay off, or be wasted, is in the hands of Rockstar.

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

France has advised its citizens in Mali to leave as soon as possible, as Islamist insurgents continue their blockade of the country.

The French foreign ministry advised citizens to depart on commercial flights while they are still available, and to avoid overland travel.

A two-month-old fuel blockade on Mali, imposed by al-Qaeda-affiliated group has upended daily life in the capital, Bamako, and other regions of the landlocked West African country - a former French colony.

France's announcement came as MSC - the world's biggest shipping company - said it was halting its operations in Mali, citing the blockade and deteriorating security.

The jihadist group Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has caused the obstruction by attacking tankers on major highways.

Mali has no coast so all fuel supplies are brought in by road from neighbouring states such as Senegal and Ivory Coast.

Last month, the US embassy in Bamako announced that non-essential diplomatic staff and their families would leave Mali amid the crisis.

It said the fuel disruptions had affected the supply of electricity and had the "potential to disrupt the overall security situation in unpredictable ways".

Mali is currently ruled by a military junta led by Gen Assimi Goïta, who first seized power in a coup in 2020.

The junta had popular support when it took power, promising to deal with the long-running security crisis prompted by a separatist rebellion in the north by ethnic Tuaregs, which was then hijacked by Islamist militants.

The UN peacekeeping mission and French forces had been deployed in 2013 to deal with the escalating insurgency.

Both have left since the junta took over, and the military government has hired Russian mercenaries to tackle the insecurity.

However, the jihadist insurgency has continued and large parts of the north and east of the country remain outside government control.

You may also be interested in:

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

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

European Union naval forces have rescued 24 sailors from a Maltese-flagged oil tanker that was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

The Hellas Aphrodite, carrying petrol from India to South Africa, was seized on Thursday when armed pirates opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades before boarding the vessel.

The crew locked themselves inside a fortified citadel while the attackers took control of the ship.

A Spanish warship, the ESPS Victoria, operating under the EU's anti-piracy mission Operation Atalanta, reached the tanker on Friday afternoon. Special forces boarded the vessel and found all 24 crew members unharmed.

"The crew is safe and no injuries have been reported. Throughout the incident, they remained in the citadel in direct contact with Atalanta," the EU mission said, adding that a "show of force" had prompted the pirates to abandon the ship before the warship arrived.

It added that the threat risk in the area "remains critical" as the pirates are still in the area.

The rescue operation involved a helicopter, drone and surveillance aircraft. Just hours earlier, another ship in the same area was approached by a small speedboat but managed to evade it.

It is the latest in a spate of attacks that have created concern about a resurgence of piracy in the area.

Such activity had declined when international naval patrols and security measures were introduced after peaking more than a decade ago.

However, attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, which have been carried out for the past two years, have led vessels to be diverted through East Africa's Indian Ocean - creating new opportunities for Somali gangs.

There were seven reported incidents of piracy that took place off the coast of Somalia last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau - including three hijackings. It reported only one incident of piracy in 2023.

European Union naval forces have rescued 24 sailors from a Maltese-flagged oil tanker that was attacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia.

The Hellas Aphrodite, carrying petrol from India to South Africa, was seized on Thursday when armed pirates opened fire with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades before boarding the vessel.

The crew locked themselves inside a fortified citadel while the attackers took control of the ship.

A Spanish warship, the ESPS Victoria, operating under the EU's anti-piracy mission Operation Atalanta, reached the tanker on Friday afternoon. Special forces boarded the vessel and found all 24 crew members unharmed.

"The crew is safe and no injuries have been reported. Throughout the incident, they remained in the citadel in direct contact with Atalanta," the EU mission said, adding that a "show of force" had prompted the pirates to abandon the ship before the warship arrived.

It added that the threat risk in the area "remains critical" as the pirates are still in the area.

The rescue operation involved a helicopter, drone and surveillance aircraft. Just hours earlier, another ship in the same area was approached by a small speedboat but managed to evade it.

It is the latest in a spate of attacks that have created concern about a resurgence of piracy in the area.

Such activity had declined when international naval patrols and security measures were introduced after peaking more than a decade ago.

However, attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea, which have been carried out for the past two years, have led vessels to be diverted through East Africa's Indian Ocean - creating new opportunities for Somali gangs.

There were seven reported incidents of piracy that took place off the coast of Somalia last year, according to the International Maritime Bureau - including three hijackings. It reported only one incident of piracy in 2023.

Kim Kardashian has poked fun at critics who savaged her new legal TV drama by posting screen shots of fans deciding to tune in after seeing the terrible reviews.

She plays a divorce lawyer in Disney+ series All's Fair, which was described as "so awful, it feels almost contemptuous" by the Guardian, while the Times declared that it "may be the worst TV drama ever".

She asked her 354 million Instagram followers: "Have you tuned in to the most critically acclaimed show of the year!?!?!? All's Fair streaming now."

The show is currently scoring just 5% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, although it also has a more respectable 66% score from audiences.

'Torn apart'

Kardashian's shared a selection of fans' posts about the show, including one joking about critics realising "their reviews of All's Fair ended up making peple watch and love the show".

The series co-stars Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, Niecy Nash and Teyana Taylor.

Another fan comment, highlighting the line-up, said All's Fair "dares to ask the question 'does a show need to be good?' and the answer is no, it doesn't".

The comment added: "We have legendary actresses here giving the worst performances of their careers, it takes a special kind of talent to pull that inability of them. Amazeballs."

• Kim Kardashian tells BBC about leading role in new Disney+ show
• Is All's Fair really the 'worst TV drama ever'?

This is Kardashian's second foray into acting after her casting in 2023's 12th season of American Horror Story, in which she appeared as a publicist, receiving mostly positive reviews.

All's Fair reunites the star with American Horror Story showrunner Ryan Murphy, who was also behind hit series such as Glee and Pose.

The Huffington Post said the show was "torn apart" by critics, with some giving it zero out of five. Its writer Daniel Welsh said: "The glossy sheen of the show and its stacked cast might make you think it's verging on 'so bad it's good' territory, but it's really just a boring dud."

Other critics include Alison Herman, writing in Variety that it is a "clumsy, condescending take on rah-rah girlboss feminism", while the Hollywood Reporter's Angie Han called Kardashian an "appropriately wooden lead for Ryan Murphy's empty, unforgivably dull drama".

But undeterred, the reality star and businesswoman shared fan reactions including one who said they "immediately pressed play" after seeing a post saying the show had debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with a paltry 0%.

She also included a BBC News Instagram post quoting the Daily Telegraph's Ed Power, who wrote: "Ryan Murphy is the high priest of tacky tasteless television, and this year he has outdone himself."

Another fan said: "Some of the worst acting I've ever seen in my life alongside the most predictable storylines and the most ridulous styling. I'm obsessed. I need 14 seasons."

Kardashian ended her post with what is arguably the last laugh.

She shared a screenshot from Disney Hulu, stating that the show is curently the most watched title on Disney+ around the world, ranking first in 28 countries including the US.

For years, Julia Wandelt bombarded Madeleine McCann's parents and siblings with phone calls and messages on WhatsApp and Instagram.

She even turned up on the family's doorstep, posting a letter through their door beginning "Dear Mum".

Wandelt believed she could be Kate and Gerry McCann's missing daughter and spent more than two years trying to gather evidence to reinforce this idea.

DNA tests have proved she is not Madeleine, the three-year-old who disappeared while on a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal, in 2007.

Wandelt has now been found guilty of harassing the McCann family but not guilty of stalking. Her co-accused Karen Spragg - who the prosecution called a conspiracy theorist - was cleared.

Wandelt's actions, the trial at Leicester Crown Court heard, were cruel and unforgiving.

Wandelt, the court heard, began "telling anyone who would listen" she was Madeleine McCann in June 2022.

She claimed she had been abducted and transported to Poland. She amassed a number of supporters on social media, would go on to contact 23 different organisations in the UK, Poland, and Portugal, including police and Interpol, missing persons charities and the Find Madeleine website.

Wandelt then began to investigate ways of contacting the McCann family, the trial heard.

She rang the switchboard of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust claiming to be Madeleine and asked to be put through to Glenfield Hospital, where Mr and Mrs McCann worked.

In a call lasting several minutes, she ended up speaking to the trust's communications manager - telling her she thought she was Madeleine.

The contents of the call were passed on to Operation Grange.

In January 2023, Wandelt got in touch with a Polish charity that helps with historical missing persons cases.

She first said she was a missing German girl, called Inga Gehricke, then Acacia Bishop - a baby from Utah in the US - and finally that she was Madeleine.

By now, media attention began to garner around Wandelt's claims on social media. The court heard Fia Johansson, an American woman, contacted Wandelt in February 2023 after she went public with her claims.

Jurors heard the pair had a WhatsApp phone call before they both flew out to Los Angeles.

Wandelt said Miss Johansson organised interviews for her and she ended up appearing on the Dr Phil show, hosted by Phil McGraw - one of the top chat show hosts in the US - in March 2023. She was unpaid from this appearance.

Wandelt later contacted Mr McCann after finding his work email in June 2023. One email read: "I could be your daughter, it's possible I'm her."

Wandelt then turned her attention to Madeleine's sister Amelie, who was at university, messaging her dozens of times on Instagram.

She told Amelie she had memories of them playing in the McCanns' garden and that she was her "only hope".

"Please don't block me, I never lied about anything," she said in another message.

The contact with Madeleine's sister ended at the start of January 2024, when Wandelt again began targeting Madeleine's mother.

Mr Duck KC, for the prosecution, said Wandelt obtained Mrs McCann's phone number in April 2024 from Portuguese police files published online.

The court heard she contacted Mrs McCann on 60 occasions but did not receive a response. In one message, Wandelt asked her to take a DNA test.

In a voicemail, Wandelt said: "I don't want any money, I just want to talk to you... don't give up on your daughter... call me, please."

The prosecution said Wandelt had been "rebuffed on many hundreds of occasions".

Mrs McCann reported Wandelt to officers working within the Operation Grange investigation. But she did not stop.

In May 2024, Wandelt decided to travel from Poland to the village of Rothley, in Leicestershire, to attend a vigil in an attempt to meet the McCann family. Until this point, her attempts to contact the family had been via phone or social media.

The court heard the McCanns were not present for the vigil, but Wandelt approached the village priest and Mrs McCann's aunt and handed a letter to them.

But before returning to Poland, Wandelt visited Charing Cross police station in London and told officers she was Madeleine.

A DNA sample was taken as a precaution, but it was destroyed after an officer made contact with Operation Grange and discovered that there was no prospect of Wandelt being who she claimed to be.

An officer from the investigation was instead sent to speak to her and contacted Wandelt the following month, telling her she risked being arrested. She told the officer she would not give up.

The court heard Mrs Spragg reached out to Wandelt after she saw her appear on a YouTube broadcast in September 2024.

The prosecution said Mrs Spragg was a "forthright supporter of the conspiracy theory" that Madeleine's parents were responsible for her disappearance despite "unequivocal evidence to the contrary".

'Causing distress'

Messages between the pair in November 2024 show Wandelt asking about getting DNA from the McCanns. Mrs Spragg replies to say the pair should "go through their bins".

It was from this contact that Wandelt arranged to meet Mrs Spragg in person.

Wandelt flew into East Midlands Airport and the pair travelled to Birstall, where they checked into a hotel.

They then travelled to Rothley where they waited in Mrs Spragg's car with the lights out.

The trial heard Mrs McCann was confronted by Wandelt with a demand for a DNA test. She told the pair "they were causing distress and should leave the property".

As Mrs McCann tried to get into her home, Wandelt "attempted to stop her closing the door".

A letter from Wandelt, beginning "Dear Mum", was posted through the McCanns' front door the next day.

Following a failed attempt to contact Mrs McCann again via WhatsApp, the prosecution said the defendants continued to make plans for Wandelt to return to the UK.

The two women were finally arrested at Bristol Airport on 19 February 2025.

Wandelt was detained after getting off a flight, while Mrs Spragg had been waiting in a car park nearby and was arrested after sending anxious messages inquiring about the whereabouts of her co-accused.

Wandelt denied any intention to harm the McCanns.

Results of the DNA test - taken by Wandelt after she was arrested at Bristol Airport in February - "conclusively proved" she is not Madeleine.

Jurors were told police contacted the defendant about the DNA test on 1 April. Wandelt said she felt this was "disrespectful" as it was April Fool's Day, knowing how long she had been waiting.

Mr Duck KC told the jury Wandelt was "capable of being incredibly manipulative". He said her actions towards the McCanns had been "cruel and unforgiving".

Wandelt, 24, of Lubin, Poland, who has been remanded in custody since February, was sentenced to six months in prison.

Due to her time on remand, she will leave prison but was given a restraining order against the McCann family. Her phones will be forfeited and destroyed as part of her restraining order.

The court was also told Wandelt is likely to be deported following the conclusion of her trial.

Mrs Spragg was acquitted, though the judge Mrs Justice Cutts, also granted a restraining order against her, which bans her from contacting the McCanns for five years.

Follow BBC Leicester on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.

How mild has it been?

Why has it been so warm recently?

When will temperatures start to drop?

What does the weekend hold in store?

More on this story

• Was climate change to blame for the strength of Hurricane Melissa?

  Published
  1 day ago

  

• Rising temperatures threaten UK trees – but these resilient species could help save our forests

  Published
  19 October

  

Tesla boss Elon Musk has been one of the world's richest people for several years now, and that wealth recently went stratospheric when he became the first half-trillionaire.

Despite this, Musk has insisted he leads a largely unglamorous lifestyle. He said in 2021 that he lived in a Texas home valued at $50,000 (£38,000).

His former partner Grimes, with whom he has two children, told Vanity Fair in 2022 that he does not live the extravagant life of excess luxury many assume.

"Bro does not live like a billionaire. Bro lives at times below the poverty line," she told the magazine. Once, she said, he refused to buy a new mattress, despite her side having a hole in it.

While his day-to-day living quarters may not be as lavish as one might expect, he is known to have a love of unique cars, including one that can morph into a submarine. He also has a private jet collection, worth many millions of dollars.

And then there was that small splurge back in 2022, when he bought Twitter for a casual $44bn.

The luxury mansions - that he sold

Musk once had an impressive real-estate portfolio. The Wall Street Journal reported in 2019 that he had spent $100m on seven houses in about seven years - most of them a stone's throw from each other in the prestigious neighbourhood of Bel-Air, California.

Collectively, the properties boasted swimming pools, a tennis court, wine cellar, private library and a ballroom. One was a ranch house once owned by legendary Willy Wonka actor Gene Wilder.

But in 2020, Musk had a change of heart - tweeting that he would be "selling almost all physical possessions" and "will own no house".

"Don't need the cash. Devoting myself to Mars and Earth. Possession just weigh you down," he wrote.

There was one stipulation - that Gene Wilder's house, "cannot be torn down or lose any [of] its soul".

He did indeed sell the three-bedroom property - to Wilder's nephew, Jordan Walker-Pearlman, after giving him a multi-million dollar loan to buy it. But in June 2025, Musk reclaimed ownership, after Mr Walker-Pearlman reportedly fell behind on the repayments.

In 2021, Musk tweeted that his "primary home" was a modest prefabricated house that cost him about $50,000 on the southern tip of Texas, where his aerospace company SpaceX operates - an area that has officially become a city called Starbase.

"It's kinda awesome," Musk said about the humble dwelling.

The following year, Musk said he did not own a home at all, using it as an example of how low his consumption is, despite his enormous wealth.

"I'm literally staying at friends' places," he told head of media organisation TED, Chris Anderson. "If I travel to the Bay Area, which is where most of Tesla engineering is, I basically rotate through friends' spare bedrooms."

This is nothing new - in 2015, then-Google CEO Larry Page told author Ashlee Vance that Musk was "kind of homeless".

"He'll e-mail and say, 'I don't know where to stay tonight. Can I come over?'"

There has been various speculation over the years that Musk is buying up properties around the US, however the home in Texas appears to be the only official house he personally owns.

Cars that are out of this world

While Musk does not spend big on property, cars are a different matter.

As the owner of Tesla, it's not surprising that he has a large collection of unusual, and in some cases extraordinary, vehicles.

They have included a Ford Model T, the 20th Century car credited with being the first affordable vehicle, revolutionising the motor industry.

Others were a 1967 Jaguar E-Type Roadster, which Musk is said to have coveted since he was a child; a 1997 McLaren F1, which he crashed and spent a lot of money repairing before selling; and a Tesla Roadster, which was the first Tesla model to go on sale and was famously fired into space by Musk in 2018.

The most unusual, however, is the 1976 Lotus Esprit driven by James Bond in the 1977 film The Spy Who Loved Me.

In the film, the car, nicknamed Wet Nellie, could transform into a submarine. Musk bought the car in an auction in 2013 for almost $1m with the aim of making its submarine transformation capabilities a reality once more.

Flying to work

Musk has admitted that planes are another thing he is happy to splurge on, but insists it is to do with his dedication to his work.

"If I don't use the plane, then I have less hours to work," he said in the 2022 TED interview.

Among the private jets in his collection are a number of Gulfstream models, which cost tens of millions of dollars each.

He uses them to travel between SpaceX and Tesla sites in the US, as well as for international travel.

Unconventional philanthropy?

Musk has donated billions of dollars in shares to charities, according to US regulatory documents, and has pledged many millions to various causes. But his philanthropy has been criticised.

The New York Times last year called it "haphazard and largely self-serving - making him eligible for enormous tax breaks and helping his businesses".

His charitable organisation, the Musk Foundation, says on its website that it is "dedicated to advancing humanity's progress through ground-breaking scientific research, technological innovation, and ambitious endeavours that push the boundaries of what is possible".

But the New York Times reported that the foundation fell short of the amount it was required to give away for three years in a row. The paper, which saw the foundation's tax filings, also found that many of its donations went to organisations with links to Musk.

Elon Musk, and the Musk Foundation have been contacted for comment.

When asked about philanthropy and charitable causes in the past, Musk appeared to be sceptical of traditional charitable gifts.

"I think if you care about the reality of goodness instead of the perception of it, philanthropy is extremely difficult," he told Chris Anderson in 2022.

To Musk, the very existence of his business ventures is philanthropic: "If you say philanthropy is love of humanity, they are philanthropy," he insisted.

Tesla is "accelerating sustainable energy", he said, while Space X "is trying to ensure the long-term survival of humanity" and Neuralink "is trying to help solve brain injuries and existential risk with AI".

A former Israeli hostage who was released last month has told Israeli TV that he was sexually assaulted during his two years in captivity in Gaza.

In an interview with Channel 13's Hazinor programme, Rom Braslavski, 21, described being stripped naked and tied up by members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ).

"It was sexual violence, and its main purpose was humiliation. Its goal was to humiliate me, to crush my dignity," he said.

He is the first man held hostage to allege publicly that he was sexually assaulted.

Warning: This article contains details some readers may find disturbing.

Rom Braslavski was on leave from his service as a soldier in the Israeli military and was working as a security guard at the Nova music festival when Hamas and allied Palestinian armed groups attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others as hostages.

Israel responded to the attacks by launching a military campaign in Gaza that has killed more than 68,800 people, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Four weeks ago, Mr Braslavski was among the last 20 living Israeli hostages who were released under a US-brokered ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

In the interview with Channel 13, broadcast late on Thursday, Mr Braslavski said his treatment by PIJ deteriorated rapidly after he had refused to convert from Judaism to Islam in March this year, which was also when the previous ceasefire collapsed.

He said he was kept blindfolded for three weeks, had stones pushed into his ears to limit his hearing, and had his rations of food and water reduced.

Then, he added, his captors received what they described as an order to torture him.

Mr Braslavski said they tied him up, punched him, and whipped him with a metal cable – and that this was repeated several times a day.

"I entered into a loop, which I doubted I would come out of alive," he recalled.

In August 2025, PIJ posted a video in which Mr Braslavski was seen crying and saying that he had run out of food and water, was unable to stand or walk, and was "at death's door".

Following the publication of the video, Mr Braslavski told Channel 13, his captors also began to sexually assault him.

"They stripped me of all my clothes, my underwear, everything. They tied me up from the... When I was completely naked I was wiped out, dying without food and I prayed to God: 'Save me, get me out of this already'," he said.

When asked whether his captors did "more things like that", Mr Braslavski replied: "Yes. It's hard for me to talk about this part specifically. I don't like to talk about it. And it's hard. It was a horrific thing."

He added: "You just pray to God for it to stop. And while I was there, every day, every beating, every day, I'd say to myself: 'I survived another day in hell. Tomorrow morning, I'll wake up to another hell. And another hell'."

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Mr Braslavski had shown "extraordinary courage in sharing the horrors of his captivity, including a horrific sexual assault he endured".

"The world must understand the scale of the crimes committed by the terrorists in Gaza, heinous cruelty, sexual violence, and abuse," he wrote on X.

At least four women held as hostages have spoken publicly about alleged incidents of sexual abuse against themselves or fellow captives, according to Reuters.

A PIJ official told Reuters news agency that Mr Braslavski's allegation of sexual assault was "incorrect", without elaborating.

The UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict said in March 2024 that she and a team of experts had found "convincing information" of rape and sexualised torture being committed against some hostages in Gaza. They also found reasonable grounds to believe that sexual violence occurred in multiple locations, including rape and gang rape, during the 7 October attacks. Hamas said the report's findings were "baseless".

A separate report by a UN commission of inquiry in March 2025 concluded that Israel had "increasingly employed sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinians", including "forced public stripping and nudity, sexual harassment including threats of rape, as well as sexual assault". Israel called the allegations "unfounded".

Last week, the former top lawyer in the Israeli military resigned after saying she was responsible for the leaking of a video that purportedly shows soldiers abusing a Palestinian detainee at a base in Israel last year. The detainee was treated for severe injuries after allegedly being stabbed in the rectum. Five soldiers have been charged over the incident.

Four people have been detained by French police after protesters set off flares during a concert by the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on Thursday night.

Clashes broke out in the auditorium during one of three disruptions to the performance by conductor Lahav Shani and pianist Sir Andras Schiff.

The concert, which featured a programme of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky, had already been criticised by a French union for the performing arts, and pro-Palestinian activists had called for a boycott.

However, Culture Minister Rachida Dati strongly defended freedom of creativity as a French value and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said nothing could excuse the "serious disturbances in the hall".

Ticket-holders tried to disrupt the concert three times including twice with a flare, the Philharmonie de Paris said in a statement. At one point concertgoers said the hall became filled with smoke.

Video filmed inside the Pierre Boulez auditorium showed one man brandishing a flare as he walked down steps in a seating area. He was confronted by spectators and clashes broke out.

"The troublemakers were removed and the concert, which had to be interrupted, resumed and came to a peaceful conclusion," the venue said, adding that it was taking legal action.

The disruption prompted an angry response from government figures on Friday, with Laurent Nuñez firmly condemning the incidents and praising police for their rapid response.

But Manon Aubry, a European Parliament member for the radical left France Unbowed, refused to condemn the disruption on French TV, arguing that the orchestra's artists "represent the Israeli state [which] commits war crimes".

Ahead of the concert, pro-Palestinian activists had pushed for its cancellation. Although the CGT-Spectacle union, which represents workers in the performing arts, did not go that far. It had called on the Philharmonie de Paris to "remind its audience of the extremely serious accusations levelled against [Israel's] leaders" and saw the concert as "an attempt at normalisation by the State of Israel".

Rachida Dati said nothing justified a call for a cultural boycott and said there was "no excuse for antisemitism".

The Israel Philharmonic's star conductor, 36-year-old Lahav Shani, was at the centre of another controversy in September when the organisers of the Flanders Festival in the Belgian city of Ghent cancelled his performance with the Munich Philharmonic, citing "insufficient clarity" on his attitude towards the Israeli government.

Its decision was criticised by both the Belgian and German governments and days later Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever attended a Munich Philharmonic concert with Lahav Shani conducting in the German city of Essen.

Condemning Thursday night's disruption, the Philharmonie de Paris said that "regardless of people's opinions, it is utterly unacceptable to threaten the safety of the public, staff and artists... bringing [violence] into a concert hall is extremely serious".

The Belgian government has told the BBC it is urgently trying to acquire drone defences after a sighting forced its main airport near Brussels to close temporarily.

Flights were paused at Zaventem airport on Thursday night, after drones were spotted nearby. They were also seen in other locations, including a military base.

"At first, drones flying over our military bases were seen as our problem," Defence Minister Theo Francken said. "Now it has become a serious threat affecting civilian infrastructure across multiple European countries."

Francken said several European allies have offered assistance, and he had accepted help from the German military which is providing anti-drone defences.

About 3,000 passengers of Brussels Airlines were affected by the disruptions, and the carrier said it faced "considerable costs" from cancelling or diverting dozens of flights.

"EU compensation schemes don't apply here," Joelle Neeb of Brussels Airlines told the BBC.

"But we do have an obligation to make sure passengers get to their final destination as soon as possible by offering refunds of alternative flights, as well as covering their hotels and transport."

She added that drones were a "new threat" and as such, the airline was adapting its contingency plans.

"When our main airport is closed even for just 30 minutes, that has a big impact and we need to act fast."

Drone sightings have caused major flight disruptions across Europe in recent months, including in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Some officials have blamed "hybrid warfare" by Russia, but the Kremlin has denied it has anything to do with it.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius also alleges Moscow's involvement, suggesting these latest sightings could be linked to European Union discussions to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine.

The controversial plan would see Kyiv receive a €140bn loan, but with the money being held in a Belgium-based bank, Euroclear. Brussels is nervous that it could be legally forced to pay Moscow back once the war in Ukraine ends.

Belgian security services also suspect Russia, but Francken admits there is currently no accompanying evidence.

In fact, amongst all the European finger pointing, there is no public proof suggesting Russia is responsible for these disruptions.

Suspicions are nevertheless being fuelled by more serious airspace incursions that Moscow has recently carried out in Eastern Europe, involving fighter jets and larger attack drones.

The Kremlin's likely goals are to both test European defences, as well as try to distract the bloc from supporting Ukraine, which is still on the receiving end of its invasion.

Additional reporting by Bruno Boelpaep.

Explosions have been heard near the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, a day after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) said it would agree to a humanitarian ceasefire.

Residents in Khartoum, which is controlled by the army, told the AFP news agency that they were woken overnight by the sound of drones and explosions.

The blasts appeared to take place near a military base and a power station in the early hours of Friday morning, the residents said.

The RSF has not addressed these accounts, but Sudan's military-led government said it would be wary of agreeing to a truce as the group did not "respect" ceasefires.

The two sides have been embroiled in a civil war that has killed at least 150,000 people and forced 12 million others from their homes since it erupted in April 2023.

This week a UN-backed global hunger monitor confirmed that famine conditions were spreading in conflict zones.

On Friday, drones were heard not only in Khartoum, but also 300km (186 miles) north of the city, in the military-controlled town of Atbara.

"Anti-aircraft defences shot them down, but I saw fires breaking out and heard sounds of explosions in the east of the city," a resident there told AFP.

The day before, the RSF announced it had agreed to a humanitarian truce proposed by the US, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

The four countries put forward the plan in September - and said it should be followed by a permanent ceasefire and a transition to civilian rule.

At the time the Sudanese government rejected "foreign interference" and any attempts that equated it with a "racist terrorist militia that relies on foreign mercenaries".

It is not clear if the proposal has been modified since then.

But during a press conference on Friday, Sudan's ambassador to South Africa said it was too early for his country to agree to the plan.

"From our experience, we had many truces at the beginning of the war but every time there was no respect from [the RSF]," Osman Abufatima Adam Mohammed said.

"They use these truces to move to new areas and make moves against the government."

The ambassador opposed the UAE's presence at the ceasefire talks, repeating his government's allegation that the Gulf nation was supplying the RSF with weapons and foreign fighters.

UN experts say accusations of such military support are credible, but the UAE has denied all involvement with the RSF.

The RSF and the military have agreed to ceasefire proposals before, but none have stuck.

This time, the RSF waited until it had finally seized el-Fasher, a key city that it had been blockading for 18 months, before announcing it was on board with the truce.

Now that the paramilitary group has consolidated control over el-Fasher and, consequently, the vast wider western region of Darfur, it may have greater leverage in future ceasefire negotiations.

But the RSF is also facing an international backlash against widespread reports of mass killings and sexual violence during the fall of el-Fasher, which it has denied.

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

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

The safety of Kenyans caught up in post-election violence in neighbouring Tanzania must be guaranteed, Kenya's foreign minister has told his Tanzanian counterpart.

Kenyan citizens are living in fear in Tanzania after being reportedly targeted in a brutal crackdown on the protests that followed last week's disputed election.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan won the poll with 98% of the vote - and in her inauguration speech condemned the violence and blamed foreigners for stoking the unrest.

Kenya's Foreign Affairs Minister Musalia Mudavadi said the rights of some Kenyans had been violated and that "formal reports" had been submitted to the Tanzanian authorities "for appropriate action".

During a phone conversation, Mudavadi said he had told Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo that concerns would be "addressed through the established diplomatic and consular channels".

But he had reaffirmed "the importance of safeguarding the rights, safety, and dignity" of Kenyans living in Tanzania.

In May, Mudavadi had said that about 250,000 Kenyans lived, worked or did business in Tanzania.

The Tanzanian government has come under intense international scrutiny for allegedly using excessive force to quell post-election protests, which reportedly left hundreds of people dead.

It has sought to downplay the scale of the violence and has dismissed the number of deaths given by the opposition as greatly exaggerated.

Earlier a Tanzanian police spokesman said the country had intelligence that some foreigners had crossed the border through illegal points "with the intention to commit crimes, including causing unrest".

Several families in Kenya have expressed concern for the safety of their relatives in Tanzania, following reports that some Kenyans have been killed, injured, or detained, while others are nursing injuries allegedly inflicted by Tanzanian security officers.

Kenyan human rights activist Hussein Khalid urged the government to take urgent measures to protect them, saying that Tanzanian authorities were using Kenyans as "scapegoats for the atrocities committed by police against Tanzanians".

"Kenyans in Tanzania are not safe. They are being targeted and harassed," Mr Khalid told Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper.

John Ogutu, a Kenyan teacher working in Tanzania's main city of Dar es Salaam, was shot dead by police while on his way to buy food, his older sister told the BBC.

But rights groups say his body can not be traced for repatriation and burial.

On Tuesday, a doctor at Muhimbili Hospital in Dar es Salaam told the BBC that vehicles marked "Municipal Burial Services" had been collecting bodies of those believed to have died in the protests.

Kenya's foreign affairs ministry has now asked relatives of Kenyans who may be in distress in Tanzania to share their names, addresses and emergency contacts.

It acknowledged rising public concern over the government's perceived slow response in tracing Kenyans possibly affected by the Tanzanian unrest and said it was taking steps to ensure all nationals abroad were accounted for.

Reports say many Kenyans, especially those working in private schools, are now fleeing Tanzania after the government warned employers not to engage people without work permits.

Election observers say the polls fell short of democratic standards, but the government insists the election was fair and transparent.

President Samia faced little opposition with key rival candidates either imprisoned or barred from running.

Her inauguration ceremony was held at a military parade ground in the capital, Dodoma, instead of a stadium as in previous years. It was closed to the public but was shown live on state TV.

She first came into office in 2021 as Tanzania's first female president following the death of President John Magufuli - and was initially praised for easing political repression, but the political space has since narrowed.

Tanzania and Kenya, which are both part of the Economic African Community, have experienced periodic political and economic tensions.

In May diplomatic relations were strained over Tanzania's treatment of Kenyans who had gone to Dar es Salaam to observe the treason trial of opposition leader Tundu Lissu.

Several of them were deported while prominent Kenyan activist Boniface Mwangi, along with Ugandan activist Agather Atuhaire, went missing and were later reported to have been tortured and sexually mistreated.

More about Tanzania from the BBC:

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

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