Israel's security cabinet has approved the recognition of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank as the government continues its settlement expansion push.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler who proposed the move alongside Defence Minister Israel Katz, said the decision was about blocking the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are considered illegal under international law.

Saudi Arabia condemned the move. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said Israel's "relentless" settlement expansion fuels tensions, restricts Palestinian access to land, and threatens the viability of a sovereign Palestinian state.

Violence in the occupied West Bank has surged since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, further heightening fears that settlement expansion could entrench Israel's occupation and undermine a two-state solution.

The two-state solution refers to the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, broadly along the lines that existed prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

Since taking office in 2022, the current Israeli government has significantly increased the approval of new settlements and begun the legalisation process for unauthorised outposts, recognising them as "neighbourhoods" of existing settlements.

The most recent decision brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, according to Smotrich.

The approvals come just days after the United Nations said settlement expansion had reached its highest level since 2017.

The latest approvals include the re-establishment of two settlements — Ganim and Kadim — which were dismantled nearly 20 years ago.

In May, Israel approved 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank - the biggest expansion in decades.

The Israeli government also approved plans in August to build more than 3,000 homes in the so-called E1 project between Jerusalem and the Maale Adumim settlement, which had been frozen for decades amid fierce opposition internationally.

Smotrich at the time said the plan would "bury the idea of a Palestinian state".

About 700,000 settlers live in approximately 160 settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now. It is land Palestinians seek for a future independent state.

Settlement expansion has angered Arab nations who have consistently said it undermines prospects for a two-state solution.

It has also raised concerns about the possible annexing of the occupied West Bank.

US President Donald Trump had warned Israel about such a move, telling TIME magazine that Israel would lose all its support from the US if it happened.

In September, the UK - along with other countries including Australia and Canada - recognised a Palestinian state, a significant although symbolic change in government policy.

Israel opposed the move, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying a Palestinian state "will not happen".

Saudi Arabia has surpassed its record for the number of executions carried out annually for a second year in a row.

At least 347 people have now been put to death this year, up from a total of 345 in 2024, according to the UK-based campaign group Reprieve, which tracks executions in Saudi Arabia and has clients on death row.

It said this was the "bloodiest year of executions in the kingdom since monitoring began".

The latest prisoners to be executed were two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug-related offences.

Others put death this year include a journalist and two young men who were children at the time of their alleged protest-related crimes. Five were women.

But, according to Reprieve, most - around two thirds - were convicted of non-lethal drug-related offences, which the UN says is "incompatible with international norms and standards".

More than half of them were foreign nationals who appear to have been put to death as part of a "war on drugs" in the kingdom.

The Saudi authorities have not responded to the BBC's request for comment on the rise in executions.

"Saudi Arabia is operating with complete impunity now," said Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve's head of death penalty for the Middle East and North Africa. "It's almost making a mockery of the human rights system."

She described torture and forced confessions as "endemic" within the Saudi criminal justice system.

Ms Basyouni called it a "brutal and arbitrary crackdown" in which innocent people and those on the margins of society have been caught up.

Tuesday saw the execution of a young Egyptian fisherman, Issam al-Shazly, who was arrested in 2021 in Saudi territorial waters and said he had been coerced into smuggling drugs.

Reprieve says that 96 of the executions were solely linked to hashish.

"It almost seems that it doesn't matter to them who they execute, as long as they send a message to society that there's a zero-tolerance policy on whatever issue they're talking about - whether it's protests, freedom of expression, or drugs," said Ms Basyouni.

There has been a surge of drug-related executions since the Saudi authorities ended an unofficial moratorium in late 2022 - a step described as "deeply regrettable" by the UN human rights office.

Speaking anonymously to the BBC, relatives of men on death row on drugs charges have spoken of the "terror" they're now living in.

One told the BBC: "The only time of the week that I sleep is on Friday and Saturday because there are no executions on those days."

Cellmates witness people they have shared prison life with for years being dragged kicking and screaming to their death, according to Reprieve.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman - who became crown prince in 2017 - has changed the country profoundly over the past few years, loosening social restrictions while simultaneously silencing criticism.

In a bid to diversify its economy away from oil, he has opened Saudi Arabia up to the outside world, taken the religious police off the streets, and allowed women to drive.

But the kingdom's human rights record remains "abysmal", according to the US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch, with the high level of executions a major concern. In recent years, only China and Iran have put more people to death, according to human rights activists.

"There's been no cost for Mohammed bin Salman and his authorities for going ahead with these executions," said Joey Shea, who researches Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Watch. "The entertainment events, the sporting events, all of it is continuing to happen with no repercussions, really."

According to Reprieve, the families of those executed are usually not informed in advance, or given the body, or informed where they have been buried.

The Saudi authorities do not reveal the method of execution, although it is believed to be either beheading or firing squad.

In a statement sent to the BBC, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr Morris Tidball-Binz, called for an immediate moratorium on executions in Saudi Arabia with a view to abolition, as well as "full compliance with international safeguards (including effective legal assistance and consular access for foreign nationals), prompt notification of families, the return of remains without delay and the publication of comprehensive execution data to enable independent scrutiny".

Among the Saudi nationals executed this year were Abdullah al-Derazi and Jalal al-Labbad, who were both minors at the time of their arrest.

They had protested against the government's treatment of the Shia Muslim minority in 2011 and 2012, and participated in the funerals of people killed by security forces. They were convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to death after what Amnesty International said were grossly unfair trials that relied on torture-tainted "confessions". UN human rights experts had called for their release.

The UN also condemned the execution in June of the journalist, Turki al-Jasser, who had been arrested in 2018 and sentenced to death on charges of terrorism and high treason based on writings he was accused of authoring.

"Capital punishment against journalists is a chilling attack on freedom of expression and press freedom," said Unesco's Director-General, Audrey Azoulay.

Reporters Without Borders said he was the first journalist to be executed in Saudi Arabia since Mohammed bin Salman came to power, although another journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Last December, UN experts wrote to the Saudi authorities to express concern over a group of 32 Egyptians and one Jordanian national who had been sentenced to death on drugs charges, and their "alleged absence of legal representation". Since then, most of the group have been executed.

A relative of one man put to death earlier this year said that he had told her that people were being "taken like goats" to be killed.

The BBC has approached the Saudi authorities for a response to the allegations but has not received one.

But in a letter dated January 2025 - in reply to concerns raised by UN special rapporteurs - they said that Saudi Arabia "protects and upholds" human rights and that its laws "prohibit and punish torture".

"The death penalty is imposed only for the most serious crimes and in extremely limited circumstances," the letter stated. "It is not handed down or carried out until judicial proceedings in courts of all levels have been completed."

Saudi Arabia has surpassed its record for the number of executions carried out annually for a second year in a row.

At least 347 people have now been put to death this year, up from a total of 345 in 2024, according to the UK-based campaign group Reprieve, which tracks executions in Saudi Arabia and has clients on death row.

It said this was the "bloodiest year of executions in the kingdom since monitoring began".

The latest prisoners to be executed were two Pakistani nationals convicted of drug-related offences.

Others put death this year include a journalist and two young men who were children at the time of their alleged protest-related crimes. Five were women.

But, according to Reprieve, most - around two thirds - were convicted of non-lethal drug-related offences, which the UN says is "incompatible with international norms and standards".

More than half of them were foreign nationals who appear to have been put to death as part of a "war on drugs" in the kingdom.

The Saudi authorities have not responded to the BBC's request for comment on the rise in executions.

"Saudi Arabia is operating with complete impunity now," said Jeed Basyouni, Reprieve's head of death penalty for the Middle East and North Africa. "It's almost making a mockery of the human rights system."

She described torture and forced confessions as "endemic" within the Saudi criminal justice system.

Ms Basyouni called it a "brutal and arbitrary crackdown" in which innocent people and those on the margins of society have been caught up.

Tuesday saw the execution of a young Egyptian fisherman, Issam al-Shazly, who was arrested in 2021 in Saudi territorial waters and said he had been coerced into smuggling drugs.

Reprieve says that 96 of the executions were solely linked to hashish.

"It almost seems that it doesn't matter to them who they execute, as long as they send a message to society that there's a zero-tolerance policy on whatever issue they're talking about - whether it's protests, freedom of expression, or drugs," said Ms Basyouni.

There has been a surge of drug-related executions since the Saudi authorities ended an unofficial moratorium in late 2022 - a step described as "deeply regrettable" by the UN human rights office.

Speaking anonymously to the BBC, relatives of men on death row on drugs charges have spoken of the "terror" they're now living in.

One told the BBC: "The only time of the week that I sleep is on Friday and Saturday because there are no executions on those days."

Cellmates witness people they have shared prison life with for years being dragged kicking and screaming to their death, according to Reprieve.

The de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman - who became crown prince in 2017 - has changed the country profoundly over the past few years, loosening social restrictions while simultaneously silencing criticism.

In a bid to diversify its economy away from oil, he has opened Saudi Arabia up to the outside world, taken the religious police off the streets, and allowed women to drive.

But the kingdom's human rights record remains "abysmal", according to the US-based campaign group Human Rights Watch, with the high level of executions a major concern. In recent years, only China and Iran have put more people to death, according to human rights activists.

"There's been no cost for Mohammed bin Salman and his authorities for going ahead with these executions," said Joey Shea, who researches Saudi Arabia for Human Rights Watch. "The entertainment events, the sporting events, all of it is continuing to happen with no repercussions, really."

According to Reprieve, the families of those executed are usually not informed in advance, or given the body, or informed where they have been buried.

The Saudi authorities do not reveal the method of execution, although it is believed to be either beheading or firing squad.

In a statement sent to the BBC, the UN's special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Dr Morris Tidball-Binz, called for an immediate moratorium on executions in Saudi Arabia with a view to abolition, as well as "full compliance with international safeguards (including effective legal assistance and consular access for foreign nationals), prompt notification of families, the return of remains without delay and the publication of comprehensive execution data to enable independent scrutiny".

Among the Saudi nationals executed this year were Abdullah al-Derazi and Jalal al-Labbad, who were both minors at the time of their arrest.

They had protested against the government's treatment of the Shia Muslim minority in 2011 and 2012, and participated in the funerals of people killed by security forces. They were convicted of terrorism-related charges and sentenced to death after what Amnesty International said were grossly unfair trials that relied on torture-tainted "confessions". UN human rights experts had called for their release.

The UN also condemned the execution in June of the journalist, Turki al-Jasser, who had been arrested in 2018 and sentenced to death on charges of terrorism and high treason based on writings he was accused of authoring.

"Capital punishment against journalists is a chilling attack on freedom of expression and press freedom," said Unesco's Director-General, Audrey Azoulay.

Reporters Without Borders said he was the first journalist to be executed in Saudi Arabia since Mohammed bin Salman came to power, although another journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, was murdered by Saudi agents at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

Last December, UN experts wrote to the Saudi authorities to express concern over a group of 32 Egyptians and one Jordanian national who had been sentenced to death on drugs charges, and their "alleged absence of legal representation". Since then, most of the group have been executed.

A relative of one man put to death earlier this year said that he had told her that people were being "taken like goats" to be killed.

The BBC has approached the Saudi authorities for a response to the allegations but has not received one.

But in a letter dated January 2025 - in reply to concerns raised by UN special rapporteurs - they said that Saudi Arabia "protects and upholds" human rights and that its laws "prohibit and punish torture".

"The death penalty is imposed only for the most serious crimes and in extremely limited circumstances," the letter stated. "It is not handed down or carried out until judicial proceedings in courts of all levels have been completed."

Comedian Bowen Yang is leaving the cast of Saturday Night Live, and will no longer be part of the long-running sketch programme after the latest episode airs.

In a post on Instagram, Yang declined the share the reason for his departure, which comes in the middle of the season, but said he is "grateful for every minute of my time there".

"I loved working at SNL, and most of all I loved the people," wrote Yang, who started in 2018 as a writer for the NBC programme before joining the acting cast.

Yang, 35, is the first Chinese-American staff actor in SNL's history, and has become one of SNL's most prominent cast members in recent years.

In his Instagram post, Yang described the lessons he's learned while working at SNL.

"i learned about myself (bad with wigs). i learned about others (generous, vulnerable, hot)," he wrote.

"i learned that human error can be nothing but correct. i learned that comedy is mostly logistics and that it will usually fail until it doesn't, which is the besssst."

He also thanked other cast members, as well as Lorne Michaels, the long-time producer of the programme.

Yang was behind some of the programme's most memorable characters and parodies, including as the iceberg that sank the Titanic and as disgraced ex-Congressman George Santos.

Yang's final episode, airing on Saturday night, will be hosted by Ariana Grande, one of the stars of the film Wicked: For Good.

Yang also had a role in the film, and has starred in previous films including The Wedding Banquet, Fire Island, Bros and the first Wicked film.

For his work on SNL, he has been nominated for five Emmy Awards. He also co-hosts podcast Las Culturistas and is expected to voice a character in the Cat in the Hat animated film due to be released next year.

Mourners in Australia have fallen silent in honour of the victims of the Bondi beach attack.

The memorial was part of a national day of reflection to mark a week since the shooting in which two gunmen opened fire on an event celebrating the Jewish festival of Hannukah.

A 10-year-old girl, a British-born rabbi and a Holocaust survivor were among the 15 people killed during the attack.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was booed when he arrived at the memorial event - an expression of anger by Australia's Jewish community against his government after a rise of antisemitic attacks over the past few months.

As the sun set over Sydney on Sunday evening, a minute's silence was observed at 18:47 (07:47 GMT) - exactly one week since the first reports of gunfire at the famous beach.

There was heavy security at the memorial event. Some cordoned-off areas were guarded by armed riot squad officers who had their faces covered, while a police patrol boat was visible off the coast of Bondi beach.

For many Australians, this level of security is an unfamiliar sight.

A large crowd - many wearing kippas [the Jewish skullcap] or draped in Australian flags - gathered to listen to speeches after the observing the silence.

Bee balloons floated in the wind in honour of the youngest victim of the attack, Matilda - a reference to her nickname, "Matilda Bee".

And later in the ceremony, the crowd sang Waltzing Matilda, the song for which the 10-year-old was named.

Soon, they were chanting the name of another child - Chaya, a 14-year-old who put herself in the firing line to protect a stranger's children. Shot in the leg, she used crutches to take to the stage and urge the nation to be brave and kind.

"If you guys get inspired by one thing, one thing on all this, be the light in that field of darkness," she said.

The event ended with the lighting of the menorah - something the crowds gathered for Hannukah last week couldn't do.

Sunday's memorial was not limited to Bondi beach - or the state of New South Wales. In a nation-wide gesture of "light over darkness", the windowsills of countless homes were lined with candles.

As Albanese arrived for the ceremony, one person in the crowd shouted: "Blood on your hands."

The prime minister looked startled at the hostility, his wife Jodie Haydon grasping his arm in support.

At least one member of the crowd was tackled by police after moving towards the prime minister.

The Jewish community in Australia has repeatedly said this attack was a shock, not a surprise after a rise in antisemitic attacks in Australia since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent military retaliation war launched by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

The overwhelming view is that more could and should have been done to prevent the Sydney attack from happening.

Albanese has acknowledged the criticism, saying "I accept my responsibility for the part in that as prime minister of Australia."

More widely, Albanese has been accused by some of siding with the Palestinians over supporting Israel and the relationship worsened when he moved to recognise the state of Palestine earlier this year.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused him - as well as the leaders of other countries that have recognised a Palestinian state - of rewarding Hamas.

After the Bondi beach attack last Sunday, Netanyahu said Albanese's government "did nothing to stop the spread of antisemitism in Australia".

In contrast to the reception for the Australian prime minister, Chris Minns, the Premier of New South Wales, was praised at the Sydney memorial service as an exemplary leader, partly for the speed with which he admitted government errors in the lead-up to the attack.

He also attended the funerals of several victims this week. Albanese was not invited to some.

"We are deeply sorry." Minns said at the event. "We grieve with you, and with humility, I acknowledge that the government's highest duty is to protect its citizens. And we did not do that one week ago."

The shooting had "highlighted a deep vein of antisemitic hate in our community", Minns said, adding: "This must be confronted."

The president of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, David Ossip, was hailed with loud cheers as he called for a "Royal Commission which goes beyond New South Wales, to get to the bottom of how this catastrophe took place".

Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act. His father Sajid was killed during the attack.

Days after the attack, Prime Minister Albanese announced a raft of measures to crack down on hate speech and incitement to violence.

Before Sunday's ceremonu, he announced a review into the police and national intelligence agencies.

"The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation," Albanese said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group.

He has also said he will reform gun laws and the government has launched a gun buyback scheme - the largest since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, which left 35 people dead and prompted Australia to introduce world-leading gun control measures.

Trail hunting is set to be banned in England and Wales as part of a new animal welfare strategy to be published by the government on Monday.

The practice sees an animal-based scent trail laid for dogs to follow rather than a real animal, while a group of hunters follows the pack on horseback.

It has remained legal since the 2004 hunting ban came into force, because it does not explicitly involve the killing of animals.

However the government, which made a manifesto commitment to bring in the ban, says the practice is being used as a "smokescreen" for the hunting of wild animals.

• Government 'committed' to banning trail hunting
• Trail hunters call sport 'vital' amid ban threat

Hunting with hounds has been a tradition in parts of the UK for centuries, but the 2004 Hunting Act placed restrictions on the practice.

The act banned the use of dogs to hunt wild mammals - including foxes, hares, deer and mink - across England and Wales.

Trail hunting involves laying a trail using a rag soaked in animal scent which hounds can chase. The intention is to replicate the pursuit across the countryside, without the need to kill animals.

In April, anti-hunting group the League Against Cruel Sports said that nearly 1,600 incidents, including 397 reports of foxes being chased, were recorded nationwide during the last hunting season.

The chief executive of the Country Alliance, Tim Bonner, said revisiting the issue of trail hunting was "completely unnecessary".

He said: "It is unbelievable that the government wants to waste more parliamentary time on hunting.

"This issue was settled 20 years ago as far as Labour was concerned but it does not seem to be able to leave it alone."

Mr Bonner also spoke about the Labour party's relationship with rural constituents, adding: "People across the countryside will be shocked that after Labour's attack on family farms and its neglect of rural communities it thinks banning trail hunting and snares used for fox control are a political priority."

The British Hound Sports Association (BHSA) has previously said trail hunts are "vital" to rural communities as they not only bring in money into the rural economy, but also support mental and physical wellbeing.

Ministers will consult on the details of the ban in the new year.

The minister for animal welfare, Baroness Hayman said the government would start work on implementing the plans.

"In our manifesto we said we would ban trail hunting, and that's exactly what we'll do.

"There are concerns that trail hunting is being used a smokescreen for the hunting of wild animals, and that's not acceptable.

"We are working out the best approach to take the ban forward and will run a consultation to seek views in the new year".

Trail hunting is already banned in Scotland. Hunting with dogs remains legal in Northern Ireland.

More than 800 migrants in 13 boats crossed the English Channel on Saturday, according to Home Office data.

The figure is a record for a December day in recent years, and is believed to be due to a backlog of people wanting to get across to Kent because of recent bad weather.

It takes the total for the year to 41,455 people, surpassing 2024, when there were 36,816 for the entire year.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The number of small boat crossings are shameful and the British people deserve better."

The 803 migrants were brought ashore at Dover by Border Force and RNLI vessels.

While the number of people making the dangerous journey across the Channel has risen more swiftly in 2025 than recent years, the yearly total has still not surpassed that of 2022, when 45,755 arrived.

The government statement added: "This Government is taking action. We have removed almost 50,000 people who were here illegally, and our historic deal with the French means those who arrive on small boats are now being sent back."

Weather forecasts

Charities supporting migrants in Calais say there was an unusually high number of people in the makeshift camps in northern France for this time of year, wanting to get to the UK.

That follows a recent period of 28 days when no small-boat crossings were possible because of windy conditions in the Channel.

Saturday was extremely calm at sea, and the smugglers - adept at studying the weather forecasts - were quick to load large groups of people onto overloaded dinghies.

The English Channel is one of the most dangerous and busiest shipping lanes in the world.

Many migrants come from some of the poorest and most chaotic parts of the world, and many ask to claim asylum once they are picked up by the UK authorities.

The Government meanwhile continues efforts to grasp the so-called "upstream" causes of the migration crisis, including through work with neighbouring countries.

Just this week, Germany passed a new law which could see people smugglers face up to 10 years in prison for trying to bring migrants to the UK.

The law change, which will come into force before the end of the year, aims to give more powers to law enforcement and prosecutors, and boost information sharing between the UK and Germany.

It follows a deal agreed between the two countries in December last year to tackle illegal migration, including taking action to remove smugglers' advertising on social media.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said: "This major change in German law is the result of our close partnership working to tackle illegal migration and organised immigration crime.

"We will continue to ramp up our international co-operation to strengthen our own border security."

Additional reporting by PA Media.

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