The government has published witness statements submitted in the now-collapsed case against two men accused of spying for China.

Deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins provided three witness statements to prosecutors - one in 2023 and two earlier this year - on whether China had been regarded as a threat to national security at the time of the alleged offences.

Last month, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) unexpectedly dropped charges against the two men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, both of whom deny the allegations.

Mr Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Mr Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act in April 2024, when the Conservatives were in power.

They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.

The director of public prosecutions has said the case collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.

He said while there was sufficient evidence when charges were originally brought against the two men, a precedent set by another spying case earlier this year meant China would need to have been labelled a "threat to national security" at the time of the alleged offences.

The Conservatives have claimed the government did not provide sufficient evidence because it does not want to damage relations with Beijing.

However, the Labour government has argued that because the alleged offences took place under the Conservatives, the prosecution could only be based on their stance on China at the time.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said: "Under this government, no minister or special adviser played any role in the provision of evidence."

The publication of the documents followed pressure from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, who had called for them to be released.

On Tuesday, senior government figures had suggested that the CPS had told them publishing the witness statements would be "inappropriate".

But the CPS later made clear it would not stand in the way if ministers chose to put the government's evidence in the public domain.

Motorists who drive sports utility vehicles (SUVs) or other large vehicles could be charged more to park in Cardiff, if changes to parking permits are approved.

The city would be split into three new zones with resident permits in the city centre scrapped and students entitled to fewer permits.

Students have said they are worried about their safety in the dark if they cannot park near their homes.

The 10-year plan affects residents, commuters and visitors but new permits for carers and NHS workers would be created. A decision will be made by Cardiff council on Thursday but the cost of permits would be decided at a later date.

The plan is aimed at cutting congestion and encouraging people to walk, cycle or use public transport when travelling in and around the city.

It is hoped the plan would also reduce air pollution. Drivers of diesel cars would have to pay a surcharge to encourage them to switch to less polluting vehicles.

Resident permits in the city centre would be scrapped and existing permits would be phased out when the holder moves.

But students Beca Hughes, 19, Anna Griffith, 20 and Erin Parry, 19 said cars are essential for some.

"I think a lot of people are reliant on permits," Beca said.

But she believes fewer students would bring their cars to university if there were fewer permits.

"You notice a lot more people parking on double-yellow lines, you can struggle getting a parking space."

Erin said: "We've got a medical student in our house, so she uses her car to go back and forth to the hospital."

Beca said people may feel unsafe in the dark.

"They might not be guaranteed that safety if they can't park right outside their house," she said.

"You can't really park outside your house you have to park two streets down," said Joe Liston, 19, a sports coach and student.

Joe said he is "not really a fan" or visitor permit allowances being halved for students.

"I think it's a bit unfair really, I need my car for a job, I work in schools as well as being a student, one day I may be in Caerphilly the next in Newport," he said.

"How do you expect me to do that without a car.

"You can't quickly find a train, or I can't really afford to pay for a taxi, there's so many other people who do the same as me."

Cardiff would be split into three zones - known as parking management areas.

• The City and Civic Centre
• The Inner Area
• The Outer Area

Each will have its own rules.

• The City and Civic Centre would have no residential permits
• The Inner Area would be a mix of permits and permitted bays, although not for businesses
• The Outer Area would allow all permits, but the times you would need a permit may vary

'Double-whammy' in car tax and parking charges

"I think they need to have the infrastructure in place," said Kathryn Williams, managing director of KEW Planning consultancy.

She said people may not like the "double-whammy" of being charged more for their SUV, when they are already charged more in car tax.

"Is it going to be a deterrent ? I think people will need to be extremely careful when they're coming into the city," she added.

"I think there'll be concern from retailers and people with businesses in the city centre.

"I don't think the communication around the consultation has been that successful, as somebody who works in the industry, we haven't been notified."

Ms Williams said there needs to be improvements to public transport.

She said: "I think we really need to look at improving things like our bus services, run a little bit longer, bit more frequent, same with the trains.

"I would use the train far more if they ran a bit later."

She added there were "safety issues" with cycling in parts of the city.

"It's a good idea," said Thomas Chu who believes it is right to reduce city centre parking.

He used to pay £120 a month for a parking space for his flat.

"It's not suitable for too many cars around here," he said, adding it would cut pollution as well.

"If we didn't have a car park at our office it would be a real inconvenience," said Georgina Lawrence who works in Cardiff.

But she said she does not commute around Cardiff by car "because it is quite a pain".

"I had quite a shock the other day coming in from west Wales way - the congestion was atrocious," she said.

New carer permits

Under the new parking plan new permit types would be created.

• Essential Service Permits for NHS and council staff.
• Community Permits for places of worship and schools.
• Business Permits - but only in the Outer Area.
• Carer Permits for professional and unpaid carers.

A surcharge would be introduced for motorists with "oversized and highly polluting vehicles", said the council.

Motorists with cars weighing more than 2,400kg, such as large Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) will have to pay more for a permit.

Motorists with cars weighing more than 3,500kg will not be eligible for a permit.

Cardiff council said the new plan would "improve the quality of life for residents and visitors" and would "prioritises blue badge holders".

Motorcyclists would now require a permit to park in resident bays.

If the changes are approved on Thursday, there will be another consultation before they are introduced.

A charity that breeds and trains guide dogs has welcomed its largest litter for three years - 13 puppies affectionately known as "the Baker's Dozen".

The 13 new additions to Guide Dogs HQ in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, have been given bakery-themed names, inspired by sweet and savoury treats.

The boys are Biscuit, Crumble, Bagel, Crumpet, Rye, Tiger and Pretzel, and the girls are Apple, Eccles, Cocoa, Chelsea, Custard and Ginger.

Janine Dixon, breeding and welfare operations lead at Guide Dogs said counting puppies during pregnancy was tricky so staff did not know mum Yori "had quite so many buns in the oven".

The cost of breeding, raising and training each guide dog can go up to £77,000, according to the charity, meaning the Baker's Dozen could cost just over £1m.

Leamington Spa has been a national base for the Guide Dogs charity since the 1940s and is now home to the largest breeding programme for assistance dogs in the world.

Katy Wild-O'Neil, Guide Dogs breeding advisor, said: "We breed 1,300 [dogs] a year so we obviously need lots of dedicated volunteers with that, and we do have some amazing volunteers who will continue to puppy-raise for us."

The 13 puppies will now be allocated to puppy raisers around the UK to help turn them into life-changing guide dogs by 2027.

Puppy raiser Morna Farquhar has helped raise 11 puppies in total for the charity.

She admitted it was "difficult" to give the dogs back after spending a year with them but said: "You do it because you know someone else can have a guide dog.

"So if you give one year of your time, someone can have eight years of a dog to guide them."

The litter is the biggest at Guide Dogs since 2022, when German shepherd Unity surprised the charity with a record-breaking 16 puppies.

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Betting firm Paddy Power is to close 57 shops across the UK and Republic of Ireland, after a review of its high street estate.

It has confirmed that 247 staff are at risk of redundancy, with 128 of those in the UK and 119 in the Republic of Ireland.

A total of 29 shops are to close in the UK, including one in Northern Ireland, with 28 to go in the Republic.

Flutter UKI said affected staff would be "offered redeployment opportunities where possible".

"However, the closures will unfortunately lead to a number of job losses," a spokesperson added.

The firm said it was "consulting closely with colleagues and providing support to those affected by these changes".

A spokesperson said the decision was made in light of increasing cost pressures and challenging market conditions.

"We are continually reviewing our high street estate, but it remains a key part of our offer to customers, and we are seeking to innovate and invest where we can as we adapt to different customer trends and needs," they added.

The family of actress Diane Keaton has thanked fans for their "extraordinary messages of love and support" following the actress's death aged 79.

The Keaton family said in a statement to People magazine that the Oscar winner's death was caused by pneumonia.

Keaton shot to fame in the 1970s for her work in The Godfather films, and also starred in Father of the Bride, Something's Gotta Give, First Wives Club and Annie Hall - for which she won an Academy Award in 1978.

The actress's death in California on Saturday led to an outpouring of tributes from Hollywood legends, including co-stars in some of her most popular films.

"The Keaton family are very grateful for the extraordinary messages of love and support they have received these past few days on behalf of their beloved Diane, who passed away from pneumonia on October 11," read the statement to People magazine, which first reported Keaton's death.

The BBC has asked for comment from the actress's representatives.

Pneumonia is an infection of the lungs that can be caused by many different germs, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some people are considered to be at higher risk due to their age, or if they have any underlying health conditions.

The Keaton family statement also asked that any donations or support be directed to causes that were important to the actress, primarily local food banks or an animal shelter.

Among those who have paid tribute to Keaton in recent days are First Wives Club co-star Goldie Hawn, who said Keaton left "a trail of fairy dust, filled with particles of light and memories beyond imagination". Bette Midler, who co-starred alongside the pair in the film, called Keaton "brilliant, beautiful, extraordinary".

Steve Martin, who starred with Keaton in Father of the Bride alongside Martin Short, reposted an excerpt of a magazine article in which Short is quoted asking: "Who's sexier, me or Steve Martin?"

Keaton replies: "I mean, you're both idiots." In his post, Martin wrote: "Don't know who first posted this, but it sums up our delightful relationship with Diane."

Throughout her more than five-decade career, Keaton starred in dozens of other films including The Family Stone, Because I Said So, And So It Goes, as well as a number of Woody Allen films, like Play It Again, Sam, Sleeper, Love and Death and Manhattan.

For Annie Hall, Keaton won the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award.

Keaton was nominated for three other Oscars throughout her storied career - all in the best actress category - for her work in Something's Gotta Give, Marvin's Room and Reds.

As well as her acting achievements, Keaton was known for her trademark style, and favoured wearing turtlenecks, hats and thick-rimmed eyeglasses.

That style was even referenced in the film Something's Gotta Give, in which Keaton told Jack Nicholson's character that she's "just a turtleneck kinda gal".

OceanGate's Titan submersible imploded on its journey to the wreck of the Titantic because of poor engineering and multiple failures to test the vessel, according to an official report.

Titan imploded in June 2023, killing all five passengers on board including OceanGate's chief executive.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found the engineering process behind the vehicle was "inadequate", resulting in faults which meant it failed to meet strength and durability requirements.

The NTSB said because the firm did not adequately test Titan it did not know its actual strength. It was also unaware it was damaged and should have been removed from service before its last voyage.

Titan disappeared in the North Atlantic as it attempted to dive to the wreck of Titanic which lies some 372 miles from St. John's in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada.

In August, the US Coast Guard released a damning report into the implosion which found that the incident was "preventable" and criticised OceanGate's "critically flawed" safety practices.

Stockton Rush, OceanGate's chief executive, operated the Titan on its final journey.

The passengers, who paid $25,000 each to take part in the dive, deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood and Hamish Harding.

Last Friday Grace Jin Drexel received a text from her father in China, the prominent pastor Jin Mingri, telling her to pray for another pastor who had gone missing.

The text said that the other pastor had been detained while visiting the southern city of Shenzhen.

"Shortly after that, I got a call from my mum. She said she couldn't contact my dad," Ms Jin Drexel, who lives in the US, told the BBC.

Within hours her family realised that Mr Jin had also been caught up in what has been described by activists as China's largest arrest of Christians in decades.

Some now fear that last weekend's roundup of 30 Christians linked to the Zion Church network, which Mr Jin founded, marks the start of what could be a wider crackdown on underground churches.

They point to new laws passed in China which appear aimed at curbing underground church activity, and increasing pressure exerted by authorities on church members in recent months.

Despite being ruled by the atheist Chinese Communist Party, China has a sizeable Christian population. Government figures in recent years have stated there are about 38 million Protestants and nearly six million Catholics.

But these figures likely only account for members of churches registered with the officially approved Catholic Patriotic Association and the Protestant Three-Self Patriotic Movement, which emphasise loyalty to China and the Communist Party.

Rights activists and scholars estimate that tens of millions more Chinese attend unregistered churches, also known as house churches, which do not follow state-sanctioned ideologies.

Many of these churches have been impacted by the Chinese government's attempts to increase its control of religious groups over the years. Church buildings have been demolished and crosses have been removed from public view, while religious material has become more tightly policed, with some Christian apps banned in China.

In 2005 and again in 2018, the government revised and tightened regulations on religious groups, while in 2016, Chinese leader Xi Jinping called for the "sinicisation" of religion.

Underground churches such as Zion were especially affected by the 2018 rules, which required government approval for worshipping in public. Many were forced to stop public activities and turned to holding online services, or simply shut down.

The following years also saw the arrests and sentencing of a few prominent pastors.

In recent months, there have been signs of Chinese authorities once again tightening the screws.

In May, pastor Gao Quanfu of the Light of Zion Church in Xi'an was detained on charges of "using superstitious activities to undermine the implementation of law". The following month saw several members of the Linfen Golden Lampstand Church in Shanxi sentenced to years in prison for fraud, which rights groups have criticised as false convictions.

Then in September, authorities announced a new online code of conduct for religious personnel, which only allows online sermons to be conducted by licensed groups. This has been widely seen as an attempt to curtail underground churches' online services.

In the last few months, Zion church members have also faced increasing questioning by police officers, Ms Jin Drexel said.

Many in Zion saw the stepped-up pressure as a prelude to a crackdown, but few anticipated it would be as large as it turned out to be, she said.

Last Friday and Saturday, Chinese authorities launched what's been described as a sweeping crackdown across at least 10 cities, including Beijing and Shanghai. Besides Mr Jin who was taken from his main base in Beihai city in Guangxi province, they arrested other pastors, leaders and members of the congregation, according to the church.

The BBC has obtained a copy of what appears to be an official detention notice for Mr Jin, issued by the public security bureau in Beihai. It states that Mr Jin is currently held in the Beihai Number Two prison and that he is suspected of "illegal use of information networks".

The BBC has asked local authorities to confirm the detention.

Some of the arrested church members have since been released, but the majority are thought to still be in detention, with some housed in the same prison as Mr Jin.

Corey Jackson, founder of Christian advocacy group Luke Alliance, said the nationwide scale and co-ordination of the arrests across China were unprecedented.

"We anticipate that this is just the beginning of a larger crackdown," he said, adding that other underground churches in China were now preparing themselves for arrests.

Another Christian advocacy group, Open Doors, said the arrests were significant. "Zion Church was very well known and outspoken and it may have reached the level of organisation that authorities are getting nervous about organised social entities they do not control," a spokesperson said.

He warned that China's "policy of acting against house churches will continue" and that authorities may accuse more church members of fraud and economic crimes "as a strategy of intimidation".

Sean Long, a Zion Church pastor and spokesperson based in the US, said other churches will be targeted as there is "a new wave of religious persecution emerging quickly across China".

He called the latest arrests a "systematic roundup" to "unroot Zion", and quoted the Chinese idiom "killing the chicken to scare the monkeys".

"Zion is the chicken, we are the most influential... it's to scare other Christians and house churches in China."

When asked by the BBC for a response, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in London said: "We would like to stress that the Chinese citizens enjoy freedom of religious belief in accordance with law. Meanwhile, all religious groups and religious activities must comply with the laws and regulations of China."

Earlier this week, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said it "firmly opposes the US interfering in China's internal affairs with so-called religious issues", in response to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's condemnation of the Zion church arrests.

Zion's story began with Jin Mingri, also known as Ezra Jin.

Born in 1969 during the Cultural Revolution in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang, he was a believer in the Chinese state while growing up.

That changed in 1989 when, as a student in the prestigious Beijing University, he began taking part in the pro-democracy movement that was eventually crushed in the Tiananmen Massacre.

While he did not happen to be at Tiananmen on 4 June, the events at the square changed his life. "It was a pivotal moment. For his whole life, he had faith in the state. When that was betrayed, it shattered his entire world view. It was a big come-to-Jesus moment," Ms Jin Drexel said.

At first Mr Jin pursued his new Christian faith at a Three-Self church. In 2002 he moved to the US with his wife and daughter to study at a seminary in California, where his two sons were born.

The family moved back to China in 2007 for Mr Jin to continue his work. But he decided to set up an independent church, said Ms Jin Drexel, as he could no longer accept the Three-Self doctrine which calls for allegiance to the Chinese state. "He couldn't be a pastor there as it was not a God-pleasing church... you can't serve two masters."

Zion began as a small house church in Beijing with just 20 followers. But over the years it expanded and began holding services in a large hall in an office building.

As it grew in influence, so did the scrutiny. In 2018, Chinese authorities asked the church to install CCTV cameras in the building, saying it was for "security".

When it refused, followers began facing what church leaders say was harassment. Later that year, the church was shut down.

An exit ban was imposed on Mr Jin, who was placed under close surveillance. His family was able to leave for the US, as did some other church members such as Mr Long.

Zion then pivoted to what Mr Long called a "hybrid model" where they would hold large online church services coupled with small offline meetings in person. The church grew to about 100 branches across 40 cities in China, and has more than 10,000 followers now.

It is why, while the fate of Mr Jin and the other arrested church members remains uncertain and the possibility of a wider crackdown looms, Mr Long is confident that Zion and China's underground churches will survive.

"Persecution cannot destroy the church," he said. "If you look back to history, where there is repression, there's a revival."

The government has published witness statements submitted in the now-collapsed case against two men accused of spying for China.

Deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins provided three witness statements to prosecutors - one in 2023 and two earlier this year - on whether China had been regarded as a threat to national security at the time of the alleged offences.

Last month, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) unexpectedly dropped charges against the two men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, both of whom deny the allegations.

Mr Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Mr Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act in April 2024, when the Conservatives were in power.

They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.

The director of public prosecutions has said the case collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.

He said while there was sufficient evidence when charges were originally brought against the two men, a precedent set by another spying case earlier this year meant China would need to have been labelled a "threat to national security" at the time of the alleged offences.

The Conservatives have claimed the government did not provide sufficient evidence because it does not want to damage relations with Beijing.

However, the Labour government has argued that because the alleged offences took place under the Conservatives, the prosecution could only be based on their stance on China at the time.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said: "Under this government, no minister or special adviser played any role in the provision of evidence."

The publication of the documents followed pressure from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, who had called for them to be released.

On Tuesday, senior government figures had suggested that the CPS had told them publishing the witness statements would be "inappropriate".

But the CPS later made clear it would not stand in the way if ministers chose to put the government's evidence in the public domain.

Kate Wareing has dedicated her career to helping people who find themselves in a crisis because they have nowhere to live.

It's clearly personal. She worked as a housing officer at the age of 18, remembers sleeping on a sofa herself when a relationship broke up, and now in her early 50s, feels she is only a home owner because of "luck and age".

"Everybody needs the security of a home," she says. And now Kate, who is the chief executive of an Oxfordshire housing association, has an idea that she thinks could help the government with one of its most pressing challenges: how to empty asylum hotels by 2029.

The pledge was made when tensions and anger rose during the summer, in communities where some regard asylum seekers as a threat to local safety.

The cost of putting asylum seekers in local hotels is also "cripplingly expensive," points out Kate - and she makes a bold claim: the cost could be cut from about £54,000 a year to just £4,000, for each asylum seeker, by moving them to social housing.

Instead of paying private contractors to provide hotel rooms, as it does now, she wants the government to pay councils and housing associations to buy more properties, adding them to the nation's social housing stock, to benefit migrants and others in need of a home.

The BBC has been told her proposal has been discussed with several government departments, including the Treasury and the Home Office. Officials are talking to nearly 200 councils about a series of pilot projects, though the Home Office won't give details.

The question is, could it really work - if private companies haven't managed to source enough accommodation for asylum seekers, what's to say a council could?

And would this plan really help to calm the strident public debate, in the wake of the protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping and elsewhere this year - or might it even exacerbate it?

The pandemic fuelled the problem

There is no doubt tensions have been increasing.

In July 2015 a coastguard in Dover told the BBC that two migrants had been rescued from a dinghy just offshore in the Channel. It was so surprising that it made the news.

At that time people typically hid in lorries to get across the Channel. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were fewer lorries and would-be stowaways increasingly began using inflatable boats instead.

Small boat arrivals accounted for a relatively small 4% of total immigration to the UK for the year to June 2025, but the numbers are rising.

The pandemic also rapidly increased the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

Successive administrations have banned asylum seekers from working for their first year in the UK - they didn't want the opportunity for a job to become a "pull factor" - so it falls to the government to support them.

The Conservatives turned to the private sector for help, handing contracts to three companies - Serco, Clearsprings Ready Homes and Mears - to provide beds.

The problem was, they ran out.

Then, as lockdowns struck, hotels emptied, providing a useful source of emergency accommodation. The rooms are, however, more expensive than renting houses. In October 2025, the government was spending £5.5m per day on them.

At one point, under the Conservatives, there were 400 hotels in use but they managed to reduce the number over time.

While Labour has closed three hotels since July 2024, there are still 210, housing around 32,000 people.

'Put them in a camp'

This summer, the argument moved to the streets, with protesters demanding the closure of asylum hotels.

Lorraine Cavanagh, campaigning outside the Britannia Hotel in London's Canary Wharf, told me: "I don't know who they are. They have no background, they have no passports, they are unidentified men who can walk around and do what they want to do with no consequences.

"Their beliefs are not the same as ours. They are coming in and trying to disturb and change things, that we are not used to."

Some protesters have another suggestion: put them in a military camp.

Rakib Ehsan, a senior fellow at the centre-right Policy Exchange think tank, agrees this could be useful on a temporary basis.

"At least they would be somewhat separated from local communities," he says.

Two large former Ministry of Defence sites are currently being used for asylum seekers - Napier Barracks, near Folkestone, and a former RAF base at Wethersfield in Essex.

In 2021 the High Court found Napier Barracks, which is capable of housing 300 male migrants, to be overcrowded and filthy, requiring the government to take action.

The other facility, Wethersfield, which contains bedrooms, recreational areas and places for worship, is being expanded. Eventually more than 1,200 beds will be available.

Residents can come and go, but the High Court was previously told Wethersfield was like a prison. Three migrants bringing a case against the former Home Secretary described "tensions and outbreaks of violence" within its walls.

These "large sites" are not cheap either. The government spent £49m refurbishing Wethersfield, far more than had been estimated.

A programme to open accommodation at RAF Scampton was also abandoned in 2024 after the cost ballooned to £60m.

The public financial watchdog, the National Audit Office, concluded in March 2024 that these large sites would cost even more than hotels.

Questioned by MPs in June 2025, the Environment Minister Angela Eagle said the government was moving away from "asbestos-filled buildings, poisoned land, unexploded ordinance and all those sorts of things on old army bases".

But then in September 2025, Defence Secretary John Healey popped up, during the wave of anti-migrant protests, and revealed he had tasked his planners with identifying more military sites.

Did the need for beds become greater, or did the rhetoric around using barracks for people who claim to be fleeing persecution become more acceptable, as Reform edged up in the opinion polls? Possibly both. Plans are yet to be revealed.

Either way, what the government really needs now, is lots of cheaper, and better places for them to stay.

Private sector problem

Hotels and military bases are used for "emergency accommodation" when there isn't enough so-called "dispersal accommodation" in communities around the country, which often takes the form of Houses in Multiple Occupation, or HMOs.

This is where at least three people "not from the same household", live together, sharing a bathroom and a kitchen.

Three main private contractors use public money to find HMOs on the open market. One, Mears, went on a spending spree across the north-east of England in 2023 and early 2024 buying 221 properties for more than £20m. But many flats and houses are rented from private landlords.

Another provider, Serco, has 1,000 leased properties for asylum accommodation. The third, Clearsprings Ready Homes, has made £187m in the last six years supporting 30,000 migrants, though half of them are in hotels.

So these companies are competing with all of us, and local councils, for suitable properties. Planning applications for HMO status have been rising steadily since 2009, according to the property data company Searchland, though smaller HMOs don't need planning permission.

There can be public opposition to attempts to use HMOs for migrants, just as there is with hotels, which is one factor contributing to a shortage.

Another is that in some areas few rental properties are available at the very low rents the government contracts will pay.

Renting or buying?

This could be seen as a challenge to Kate Wareing's plan for housing associations and councils to provide properties instead. If the three private companies contracted by the government struggle, won't councils and housing associations have the same problem?

"We would shop in a different way," she says.

Often the asylum accommodation companies are looking for the cheapest private rented houses, usually in areas with lots of asylum seekers already, she says, fuelling community tensions.

But councils and housing associations could plan more carefully where to go shopping, she argues, and there are other sources of property they might be able to get hold of more easily.

For example, they could buy up property in housing developments. Builders usually have to offer social housing as part of any new development, in order to get planning permission. There has been a drop in first-time buyers recently.

"We've got builders approaching us asking if we want to buy more homes on some new-build sites than we would normally be being offered," she says, estimating that might make another 5,000 properties available in the next few years.

Her housing authority alone buys 20 a year, and purchases would be spread across the country. Other experts the BBC spoke to thought this was a reasonable target.

In outline, her plan would work like this: the government gives a council or housing association an average of £80,000 to buy and do up a property. They would also need to borrow some money on top of that, but the interest they pay is usually less than a company would.

These properties would be used for current social housing tenants, and when they move out of their existing houses, asylum seekers would move in - after any necessary repairs had been made - with the government paying their rent to the councils and associations to cover their costs.

"We'll have 10 new houses that we can use to relieve some of the needs of our existing residents and then we can also move asylum seekers into any houses that they are vacating," she argues. In the longer term, "there will be 10 more houses to let to the local population or to use for other types of homelessness need."

She calculates an investment of £1.75bn could enable the purchase and renovation of 14,000 to 16,000 homes. The costs of rent would be similar to the cost of the housing benefit asylum seekers are not allowed to claim.

Her analysis was checked by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which has its own model for assessing development opportunities being considered by housing associations. They said it "stood up fine".

'An asylum system in chaos'

Rakib Ehsan of Policy Exchange argues there should be more social housing, but for British citizens not asylum seekers. But Kate Wareing says that under her plan, there would be homes for both.

Rakib Ehsan also emphasises the concerns some people have over public safety, as long as most migrants continue to be young men from "deeply patriarchal societies".

"If we look at the demographic characteristics associated with small boat migrants in particular who went to the UK, they tend to originate from parts of the world which have a very different view when it comes to the treatment of women and girls," he says.

But Kate believes her plan would be politically acceptable, because it makes newly refurbished homes available for local people who need them. Plus she argues asylum seekers could end up sharing a home with others in need, potentially reducing social tensions.

If the government wants to change tack, it has a chance next year, when there is a break point in the 10-year contracts with the three asylum housing providers.

John Perry, policy adviser to the Chartered Institute of Housing says: "That's why this idea has currency. It is very encouraging local authorities appear to want to work with the government."

There is a risk, though, that a version of Kate Wareing's plan would take too long to put into effect, if it is to help the government meet its 2029 deadline.

The Home Office insists the government inherited "an asylum system in chaos" and that it has reduced the backlog of claims by 24%, returned 35,000 people "with no right to be here", and cut hotel spending by over half a billion pounds.

"We are looking at a range of more sustainable, cost-effective and locally led sites including disused accommodation, industrial and ex-military sites, so we can reduce the impact on communities and taxpayers," a spokesperson said.

If the government can meet its pledge to close the asylum hotels, the prize would be saving of £1bn per year, according to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

But failure would give the government's main opponent, Reform, a big stick with which to beat it, at the next election. This issue could help decide the outcome.

Top picture credits: PA Wire/ EPA/Shutterstock

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Fewer than half of BBC viewers who responded to a major questionnaire sent out by the broadcaster think the corporation is effective at being independent from the government.

More than 870,000 members of the public answered questions online about the BBC and its place in society.

While 91% of respondents said it was important for the BBC to be independent from the government of the day, only 43% said they thought it was succeeding effectively in practice. A further 38% said they thought it was ineffective.

BBC director general Tim Davie said the results showed "our audience wants an independent BBC, delivering high-quality programmes and content that they can trust".

The BBC invited audience members to have their say in a series of on-air promotions across TV and radio. It also sent emails to 40 million BBC account holders.

The results of the Our BBC, Our Future questionnaire come after the relationship between the BBC and the government has been in the spotlight.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy appeared to call for Mr Davie's resignation this summer after a string of scandals, including antisemitic comments by punk duo Bob Vylan at Glastonbury being broadcast on iPlayer, and the revelation that a Gaza documentary was narrated by the son of a Hamas official.

In August, former BBC director of news James Harding told the Edinburgh TV Festival that Nandy's involvement in the Bob Vylan scandal was "chilling", and criticised "political interference", or the perception of it, at the BBC.

Last year, BBC chair Samir Shah said there was "an almost perpetual government review over the BBC" as a result of the requirement for ministers to renew the broadcaster's royal charter every 10 years.

Meanwhile, questions about the BBC's independence were raised when former Tory donor and Rishi Sunak's ex-boss Richard Sharp was named BBC chair in 2021. Mr Sharp resigned two years later over his links to Boris Johnson.

Also in 2021, Theresa May's former communications chief Sir Robbie Gibb was appointed to the BBC board.

One other major gap identified by the questionnaire results was the percentage of respondents who felt the BBC should reflect different parts of the UK and the people who live there (76%), and the percentage who felt it actually did (51%).

"These are gaps that will need to be worked on and addressed as a priority as the BBC's future is debated and we plan how to serve the public better," the BBC said.

The questionnaire also found:

• 80% of respondents said it was important for the corporation to offer high-quality digital services, while 78% said the BBC should offer something for everyone
• 82% said it was important to provide a valuable public service, while 76% said it should be an asset for the UK around the world
• 83% said it was important that the BBC continued its mission to inform, educate and entertain
• 78% of respondents said the BBC should offer something for everyone, but only 59% said it was effective at doing so

In his statement, Mr Davie described the response to the questionnaire as "incredible", which he said "shows just how much people care about the BBC".

"I strongly believe the BBC has never been more needed, both in the UK and around the world," he said.

"The results of the questionnaire are clear – our audience wants an independent BBC, delivering high-quality programmes and content that they can trust; that tells the stories that matter to them and that reflect their lives."

Mr Davie thanked those who took part, adding: "We are here to deliver for audiences across the UK and we will be taking everything they have told us with us as we shape the future of the BBC."

'I'd never wear a watch in London any more'

Finding love at Newcastle

'Is this going to be my last session?'

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For almost two decades, rumours have swirled about a handheld Xbox console to rival Nintendo and PlayStation.

Now, it's finally here. The ROG Xbox Ally has been released worldwide, putting an end to the speculation.

It works natively with Xbox's Game Pass subscription service out of the box, meaning members will start off with hundreds of games in their library.

But its big trick is that it's really a portable computer running Windows, meaning most digital PC games people already own will work too - so long as they don't need a keyboard and mouse to play.

It's capable of running most modern games at a decent resolution, although all that tech doesn't come cheap. The handheld costs £499, or £799 for the more powerful ROG Xbox Ally X.

I've had my hands on the console for the past week and my experience has been positive - though the hardware certainly has its hiccups.

So, has it been worth the wait?

What's it like?

You may not be surprised to hear it feels like a handheld Xbox.

The controller that makes up each side of the screen is comfortable to hold. Both thumb sticks have a solid feel to them, and though the face buttons are a bit plastic-y for my taste, the triggers on top of the machine feel great.

So far so good - but what about the games?

The first thing I did with the device was boot up something known for its vibrant colours - 2019's Persona 5 Royal - to see how good the screen looks.

Personally, I thought it looked fantastic.

Tech nerds like me may have had concerns that Microsoft went for an LCD display rather than the top-tier OLED displays.

In English, that means this portable Xbox doesn't have the best screen available on the market, which may seem like a questionable decision considering the price.

But LCD displays have gotten significantly better in recent years, and while it may not have the most vibrant colours possible, I was pretty blown away by how good Persona 5's deep reds looked on the handheld screen.

The game played well too, with no visible stutters or freezes - though this is surely to be expected for something that doesn't have the same graphical demands as modern titles.

Remember, this isn't like buying a game for the Nintendo Switch 2, where you can expect things will work out of the box.

This is much more like buying a game for your home computer.

In other words, you don't know for sure whether a game will work or not.

It's definitely a mark against the handheld, though it's something PC gamers have been used to for years.

As much as this is a handheld Xbox, it could also be described as a portable computer running Windows - all the downsides of PC gaming are present here, but so are the upsides.

For example, Baldur's Gate 3, which is known for being particularly demanding at times, proved a challenge for the device on higher graphics settings, but because it's a PC game I could play around with the graphics settings to make it run smoothly.

The handheld performed admirably with modern games that don't require the best graphics - as you would expect for the price.

For example, I had no issues running some of this year's biggest games such as Hades II, Blue Prince and Hollow Knight: Silksong.

The device also worked well when playing older games - a similar experience I had to the Steam Deck when that launched in 2022 - but funnily enough, my biggest problems came getting some of them to start.

For example, I couldn't get 2001's Sonic Adventure 2 to work properly because of compatibility problems.

Thankfully, the handheld runs Windows 11 - so I knew how to fix the bug.

What games are available?

The ROG Xbox Ally has got a massive library of potential games - many of which you may already own - thanks to being a portable PC.

But this thing was really built for Game Pass, Xbox's subscription service for games.

Game Pass gives access to a massive history of classic games such as Halo, Gears of War and Fable, as well as modern titles including Call of Duty.

With many of these games, you don't need to download to the device - you can stream them over the cloud.

Of course, if a game is being streamed from a Microsoft server somewhere, it isn't asking too much of the device to power it - meaning you can get some spectacular graphics from modern games like Modern Warfare 3 on the handheld.

Meanwhile, there are subscription services from EA and Ubisoft also bundled into Game Pass Ultimate, giving you access to yet more games from the off.

Still, despite Game Pass being front-and-centre on the device, it is not a requirement.

Remember, this system is running Windows 11. That means any game made for PC is going to work here - even if it takes a bit of fiddling to make it run properly.

The harsh reality is that this is not 2001 anymore, when the rumours first started.

Handheld PCs are no longer a rarity, and neither are handheld games machines.

Nintendo has cornered the market with the Switch - one of the best-selling consoles in history - and its Switch 2 has only improved what made the original great.

Sony has its own alternative product in the space, the PlayStation Portal, which can stream games from a connected PlayStation 5, and from the cloud too.

And critically, Microsoft's new device comes three and a half years after Valve entered the PC gaming handheld market with the Steam Deck.

There's no question the ROG Xbox Ally compares well to many of these rivals in the space - but at the price point, you'd expect it to.

Unfortunately, the very thing that makes the Xbox Ally X stand out compared to its rivals - the fact that it natively runs Windows - is at the same time its biggest tension point.

On the one hand, it allows for some fun things. It was entertaining to bring up Copilot while playing a game and ask for advice on what to do next - and to be told in a conversational way to talk to a character on-screen in front of me.

But you have to deal with Windows, which was hardly developed with a games console in mind. I had to sit and wait for several updates to install before I could even play the thing - hardly every child's dream on Christmas morning.

Simply put, it's lacking that bit of extra polish you might expect at a premium price.

But I do think the people Microsoft is targeting with this product are hardly going to be turned away by a lack of polish. Especially as it has no real impact on the games.

The question is whether the allure of Game Pass on-the-go is going to be enough to justify the price of admission.

If the goal was to make something that feels like a handheld Xbox, Microsoft has certainly delivered on its promise - but has it come to market too late?

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The government has published witness statements submitted in the now-collapsed case against two men accused of spying for China.

Deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins provided three witness statements to prosecutors - one in 2023 and two earlier this year - on whether China had been regarded as a threat to national security at the time of the alleged offences.

Last month, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) unexpectedly dropped charges against the two men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, both of whom deny the allegations.

Mr Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Mr Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act in April 2024, when the Conservatives were in power.

They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.

The director of public prosecutions has said the case collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.

He said while there was sufficient evidence when charges were originally brought against the two men, a precedent set by another spying case earlier this year meant China would need to have been labelled a "threat to national security" at the time of the alleged offences.

The Conservatives have claimed the government did not provide sufficient evidence because it does not want to damage relations with Beijing.

However, the Labour government has argued that because the alleged offences took place under the Conservatives, the prosecution could only be based on their stance on China at the time.

Speaking at Prime Minister's Questions earlier, Sir Keir Starmer said: "Under this government, no minister or special adviser played any role in the provision of evidence."

The publication of the documents followed pressure from the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, who had called for them to be released.

On Tuesday, senior government figures had suggested that the CPS had told them publishing the witness statements would be "inappropriate".

But the CPS later made clear it would not stand in the way if ministers chose to put the government's evidence in the public domain.

A posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre accuses the Duke of York of being "entitled - as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright", according to extracts published in the Guardian newspaper.

The book, Nobody's Girl, written by the prominent accuser of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is due to be published next week, almost six months after Ms Giuffre took her own life.

Her book, which calls Epstein a "master manipulator", describes three occasions where she alleges Prince Andrew had sex with her, including at Ghislaine Maxwell's house in London.

It's further embarrassment for Prince Andrew, who reached a financial settlement with Ms Giuffre in 2022, and has always denied any wrongdoing.

Nobody's Child: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, is the testimony of Ms Giuffre, who died by suicide in Australia in April, in a book co-written with author Amy Wallace.

Ms Giuffre, who met Jeffrey Epstein through Ghislaine Maxwell, claimed that she was one of many vulnerable girls and young women who had been sexually exploited by Epstein and his circle of wealthy connections.

The powerful friends were claimed to include Prince Andrew and the extract published in the Guardian gives her account of when they met in London in March 2001, when she was aged 17.

She says the day began by being woken by Ghislaine Maxwell: "It was going to be a special day, she said. Just like Cinderella, I was going to meet a handsome prince!"

When Andrew arrived later she claims that he was asked to guess her age.

"The Duke of York, who was then 41, guessed correctly: 17. 'My daughters are just a little younger than you,' he told me, explaining his accuracy. As usual, Maxwell was quick with a joke: 'I guess we will have to trade her in soon.'," says her memoir.

Like Epstein, she said she called him "Andy".

There is also an account of the notorious photograph from that evening.

"My mom would never forgive me if I met someone as famous as Prince Andrew and didn't pose for a picture.

"I ran to get a Kodak FunSaver from my room, then returned and handed it to Epstein. I remember the prince putting his arm around my waist as Maxwell grinned beside me. Epstein snapped the photo," she writes.

They went to dinner and then Tramp nightclub, she recalls, saying Andrew was a "bumbling dancer, and I remember he sweated profusely".

"On the way back, Maxwell told me, 'When we get home, you are to do for him what you do for Jeffrey'."

She says of what happened next: "He was friendly enough, but still entitled – as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright."

As has been reported before, she claimed he was "particularly attentive to my feet, caressing my toes and licking my arches". And that later Epstein gave her $15,000 for her time with Andrew.

The book also reports two other occasions on which she alleges she had sex with Andrew - in Epstein's townhouse in New York and on Epstein's private island in the US Virgin Islands.

All three of the claimed meetings with Andrew have been reported in detail before, including in her previous witness statements and accounts, but this brings them together and provides her own perspective.

"Don't be fooled by those in Epstein's circle who say they didn't know what he was doing. Epstein not only didn't hide what was happening, he took a certain glee in making people watch," she writes.

The book also reveals that she was taking tranquilisers to cope with her life working for Epstein.

"Sometimes, when I was really struggling, I took as many as eight Xanax a day," she writes.

She also explained why she didn't leave "Epstein's lair even after we knew what he wanted from us."

"How can you complain about being abused, some have asked, when you could so easily have stayed away? But that stance discounts what many of us had been through before we encountered Epstein, as well as how good he was at spotting girls whose wounds made them vulnerable," she writes.

"Several of us had been molested or raped as children; many of us were poor or even homeless. We were girls who no one cared about, and Epstein pretended to care."

After leaving Epstein, Ms Giuffre had settled in Australia where she lived with her husband and three children. She took her own life at the age of 41.

Epstein had killed himself in jail in New York in while awaiting trial. Ghislaine Maxwell was jailed on charges related to sex trafficking.

Prince Andrew made a financial payment to Ms Giuffre in an out-of-court settlement, after she had brought a civil case against him, and he denies all the accusations made against him.

He refutes Ms Giuffre's claims about having sex with him at the three locations: "I can absolutely categorically tell you it never happened," Andrew said in his BBC Newsnight interview.

"I can tell you categorically I don't remember meeting her at all. I do not remember a photograph being taken and I've said consistently and frequently that we never had any sort of sexual contact whatever," he said.

Prince Andrew has faced challenges over aspects of his own account.

He said he had cut all links with Epstein after seeing him in New York in December 2010, but an email later emerged from February 2011 which suggested Andrew was still in touch, with the promise to "play some more soon".

The Duke of York's office has been contacted for comment.

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Kate Wareing has dedicated her career to helping people who find themselves in a crisis because they have nowhere to live.

It's clearly personal. She worked as a housing officer at the age of 18, remembers sleeping on a sofa herself when a relationship broke up, and now in her early 50s, feels she is only a home owner because of "luck and age".

"Everybody needs the security of a home," she says. And now Kate, who is the chief executive of an Oxfordshire housing association, has an idea that she thinks could help the government with one of its most pressing challenges: how to empty asylum hotels by 2029.

The pledge was made when tensions and anger rose during the summer, in communities where some regard asylum seekers as a threat to local safety.

The cost of putting asylum seekers in local hotels is also "cripplingly expensive," points out Kate - and she makes a bold claim: the cost could be cut from about £54,000 a year to just £4,000, for each asylum seeker, by moving them to social housing.

Instead of paying private contractors to provide hotel rooms, as it does now, she wants the government to pay councils and housing associations to buy more properties, adding them to the nation's social housing stock, to benefit migrants and others in need of a home.

The BBC has been told her proposal has been discussed with several government departments, including the Treasury and the Home Office. Officials are talking to nearly 200 councils about a series of pilot projects, though the Home Office won't give details.

The question is, could it really work - if private companies haven't managed to source enough accommodation for asylum seekers, what's to say a council could?

And would this plan really help to calm the strident public debate, in the wake of the protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping and elsewhere this year - or might it even exacerbate it?

The pandemic fuelled the problem

There is no doubt tensions have been increasing.

In July 2015 a coastguard in Dover told the BBC that two migrants had been rescued from a dinghy just offshore in the Channel. It was so surprising that it made the news.

At that time people typically hid in lorries to get across the Channel. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were fewer lorries and would-be stowaways increasingly began using inflatable boats instead.

Small boat arrivals accounted for a relatively small 4% of total immigration to the UK for the year to June 2025, but the numbers are rising.

The pandemic also rapidly increased the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

Successive administrations have banned asylum seekers from working for their first year in the UK - they didn't want the opportunity for a job to become a "pull factor" - so it falls to the government to support them.

The Conservatives turned to the private sector for help, handing contracts to three companies - Serco, Clearsprings Ready Homes and Mears - to provide beds.

The problem was, they ran out.

Then, as lockdowns struck, hotels emptied, providing a useful source of emergency accommodation. The rooms are, however, more expensive than renting houses. In October 2025, the government was spending £5.5m per day on them.

At one point, under the Conservatives, there were 400 hotels in use but they managed to reduce the number over time.

While Labour has closed three hotels since July 2024, there are still 210, housing around 32,000 people.

'Put them in a camp'

This summer, the argument moved to the streets, with protesters demanding the closure of asylum hotels.

Lorraine Cavanagh, campaigning outside the Britannia Hotel in London's Canary Wharf, told me: "I don't know who they are. They have no background, they have no passports, they are unidentified men who can walk around and do what they want to do with no consequences.

"Their beliefs are not the same as ours. They are coming in and trying to disturb and change things, that we are not used to."

Some protesters have another suggestion: put them in a military camp.

Rakib Ehsan, a senior fellow at the centre-right Policy Exchange think tank, agrees this could be useful on a temporary basis.

"At least they would be somewhat separated from local communities," he says.

Two large former Ministry of Defence sites are currently being used for asylum seekers - Napier Barracks, near Folkestone, and a former RAF base at Wethersfield in Essex.

In 2021 the High Court found Napier Barracks, which is capable of housing 300 male migrants, to be overcrowded and filthy, requiring the government to take action.

The other facility, Wethersfield, which contains bedrooms, recreational areas and places for worship, is being expanded. Eventually more than 1,200 beds will be available.

Residents can come and go, but the High Court was previously told Wethersfield was like a prison. Three migrants bringing a case against the former Home Secretary described "tensions and outbreaks of violence" within its walls.

These "large sites" are not cheap either. The government spent £49m refurbishing Wethersfield, far more than had been estimated.

A programme to open accommodation at RAF Scampton was also abandoned in 2024 after the cost ballooned to £60m.

The public financial watchdog, the National Audit Office, concluded in March 2024 that these large sites would cost even more than hotels.

Questioned by MPs in June 2025, the Environment Minister Angela Eagle said the government was moving away from "asbestos-filled buildings, poisoned land, unexploded ordinance and all those sorts of things on old army bases".

But then in September 2025, Defence Secretary John Healey popped up, during the wave of anti-migrant protests, and revealed he had tasked his planners with identifying more military sites.

Did the need for beds become greater, or did the rhetoric around using barracks for people who claim to be fleeing persecution become more acceptable, as Reform edged up in the opinion polls? Possibly both. Plans are yet to be revealed.

Either way, what the government really needs now, is lots of cheaper, and better places for them to stay.

Private sector problem

Hotels and military bases are used for "emergency accommodation" when there isn't enough so-called "dispersal accommodation" in communities around the country, which often takes the form of Houses in Multiple Occupation, or HMOs.

This is where at least three people "not from the same household", live together, sharing a bathroom and a kitchen.

Three main private contractors use public money to find HMOs on the open market. One, Mears, went on a spending spree across the north-east of England in 2023 and early 2024 buying 221 properties for more than £20m. But many flats and houses are rented from private landlords.

Another provider, Serco, has 1,000 leased properties for asylum accommodation. The third, Clearsprings Ready Homes, has made £187m in the last six years supporting 30,000 migrants, though half of them are in hotels.

So these companies are competing with all of us, and local councils, for suitable properties. Planning applications for HMO status have been rising steadily since 2009, according to the property data company Searchland, though smaller HMOs don't need planning permission.

There can be public opposition to attempts to use HMOs for migrants, just as there is with hotels, which is one factor contributing to a shortage.

Another is that in some areas few rental properties are available at the very low rents the government contracts will pay.

Renting or buying?

This could be seen as a challenge to Kate Wareing's plan for housing associations and councils to provide properties instead. If the three private companies contracted by the government struggle, won't councils and housing associations have the same problem?

"We would shop in a different way," she says.

Often the asylum accommodation companies are looking for the cheapest private rented houses, usually in areas with lots of asylum seekers already, she says, fuelling community tensions.

But councils and housing associations could plan more carefully where to go shopping, she argues, and there are other sources of property they might be able to get hold of more easily.

For example, they could buy up property in housing developments. Builders usually have to offer social housing as part of any new development, in order to get planning permission. There has been a drop in first-time buyers recently.

"We've got builders approaching us asking if we want to buy more homes on some new-build sites than we would normally be being offered," she says, estimating that might make another 5,000 properties available in the next few years.

Her housing authority alone buys 20 a year, and purchases would be spread across the country. Other experts the BBC spoke to thought this was a reasonable target.

In outline, her plan would work like this: the government gives a council or housing association an average of £80,000 to buy and do up a property. They would also need to borrow some money on top of that, but the interest they pay is usually less than a company would.

These properties would be used for current social housing tenants, and when they move out of their existing houses, asylum seekers would move in - after any necessary repairs had been made - with the government paying their rent to the councils and associations to cover their costs.

"We'll have 10 new houses that we can use to relieve some of the needs of our existing residents and then we can also move asylum seekers into any houses that they are vacating," she argues. In the longer term, "there will be 10 more houses to let to the local population or to use for other types of homelessness need."

She calculates an investment of £1.75bn could enable the purchase and renovation of 14,000 to 16,000 homes. The costs of rent would be similar to the cost of the housing benefit asylum seekers are not allowed to claim.

Her analysis was checked by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which has its own model for assessing development opportunities being considered by housing associations. They said it "stood up fine".

'An asylum system in chaos'

Rakib Ehsan of Policy Exchange argues there should be more social housing, but for British citizens not asylum seekers. But Kate Wareing says that under her plan, there would be homes for both.

Rakib Ehsan also emphasises the concerns some people have over public safety, as long as most migrants continue to be young men from "deeply patriarchal societies".

"If we look at the demographic characteristics associated with small boat migrants in particular who went to the UK, they tend to originate from parts of the world which have a very different view when it comes to the treatment of women and girls," he says.

But Kate believes her plan would be politically acceptable, because it makes newly refurbished homes available for local people who need them. Plus she argues asylum seekers could end up sharing a home with others in need, potentially reducing social tensions.

If the government wants to change tack, it has a chance next year, when there is a break point in the 10-year contracts with the three asylum housing providers.

John Perry, policy adviser to the Chartered Institute of Housing says: "That's why this idea has currency. It is very encouraging local authorities appear to want to work with the government."

There is a risk, though, that a version of Kate Wareing's plan would take too long to put into effect, if it is to help the government meet its 2029 deadline.

The Home Office insists the government inherited "an asylum system in chaos" and that it has reduced the backlog of claims by 24%, returned 35,000 people "with no right to be here", and cut hotel spending by over half a billion pounds.

"We are looking at a range of more sustainable, cost-effective and locally led sites including disused accommodation, industrial and ex-military sites, so we can reduce the impact on communities and taxpayers," a spokesperson said.

If the government can meet its pledge to close the asylum hotels, the prize would be saving of £1bn per year, according to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

But failure would give the government's main opponent, Reform, a big stick with which to beat it, at the next election. This issue could help decide the outcome.

Top picture credits: PA Wire/ EPA/Shutterstock

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Australia's tropical rainforests have become the first in the world to release more carbon than they absorb, in a trend linked to climate change, a study has found.

Rainforests are usually regarded as so-called "carbon sinks" as they absorb more emissions than they emit with new trees offsetting the carbon released by dead ones.

But a study looking at data from Queensland forests found that extreme temperatures have caused more tree deaths than growths.

The lead author of the study, which was published in science journal Nature, said the findings have significant implications for global emissions reduction targets which are partly based on how ecosystems - such as rainforests - can absorb carbon.

"Current models may overestimate the capacity of tropical forests to help offset fossil fuel emissions," said Dr Hannah Carle of the Western Sydney University.

With fewer new trees, the report found that the trunks and branches of dead trees - known as woody biomass - became carbon emitters, rather than carbon absorbers, about 25 years ago.

"Forests help to curb the worst effects of climate change by absorbing some of the carbon dioxide released from burning fossil fuels, but our work shows this is under threat," said Dr Carle.

Dr Carle added that said an increase in trees dying in recent decades was due to climate change such as more extreme temperatures, atmospheric dryness and drought.

Based on 49 years of data from 20 forests in Queensland, the report also found a rise in the number of cyclones and the severity of them was killing more trees and making it harder for new ones to grow.

"We have in this study evidence that Australia's moist tropical forests are the first of their kind globally to to exhibit this [woody biomass] change," Dr Carle said.

"And that's really significant. It could be a sort of canary in the coal mine."

Senior author Patrick Meir also described the results as "very concerning", telling news agency AFP that it was "likely that all tropical forests [would] respond fairly similarly" - but added that more data and research would be needed to make a fair assessment.

Australia, one of the world's biggest polluters per capita, recently announced its new carbon reduction targets, pledging to cut emissions by at least 62% compared to 2005 levels over the next decade.

The country continues to face global criticism for its continued reliance on fossil fuels, with the government allowing one of the country's largest gas projects -Woodside's North West Shelf - to keep operating for another 40 years.

Last month, a new report into the impact of climate change found Australia had already reached warming of above 1.5C and that no community would be immune from "cascading, compounding and concurrent" climate risks.

The UK economy grew slightly in August, according to the latest official figures.

The economy expanded by 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics said, after contracting by 0.1% in July.

The government has made boosting the economy a key priority and pressure is mounting ahead of the Budget next month.

Many economists have been warning that tax rises or spending cuts will be needed to meet the chancellor's self-imposed borrowing rules.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies is projecting Rachel Reeves will need to find £22bn to make up a shortfall in the government's finances, and will "almost certainly" have to raise taxes.

On Wednesday, Reeves said she was "looking at further measures on tax and spending, to make sure that the public finances always add up".

The monthly growth figures can be volatile, and ONS has downgraded July's figure from zero growth to a 0.1% contraction.

The ONS is focusing on growth over a rolling three-month period, and in the three months to August the economy expanded by 0.3% which was a slight improvement on the previous figure.

"Economic growth increased slightly in the latest three months. Services growth held steady, while there was a smaller drag from production than previously," said Liz McKeown, ONS director of statistics.

"Continued strength in business rental and leasing and healthcare were the main contributors to services growth, partially offset by weakness in some consumer facing services, while wholesalers also fared poorly."

At just after half past nine on Wednesday night, the documents appeared on the government's website.

There were three submissions from one of the government's Deputy National Security Advisers, Matthew Collins.

The first one from December 2023, under the Conservatives.

And two more. The second one is dated February 2024, also when the Conservatives were in power and the third August 2025, when Labour were.

But it turns out, we learned in a later hastily published clarification, the date was a year out in that second document and it was actually submitted in February 2025, under Labour – arguably a crucial distinction when one element of the language used is examined.

Firstly, then, to the first document.

It includes lots of detail relating to the specific allegations against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who have always denied the allegations against them and who are not facing any criminal proceedings.

Mr Cash, through his solicitor, has already put out a statement reiterating his innocence and reflecting that he hadn't had "the daylight of a public trial" and adding that he shouldn't have to take part "in a trial by media."

In the first document, Mr Collins sets out that the government at the time saw China as an "evolving and epoch defining challenge". That was the language government ministers were always careful to use at the time.

It adds that the government "will increase our national security protections where Chinese state actions pose a threat to our people, prosperity and security".

There is then a segment that is a little warmer towards Beijing: "We will engage directly with China bilaterally and in international fora so that we leave room for open, constructive and predictable relations."

But it is blunt, too: "The Chinese Intelligence Services are highly capable and conduct large scale espionage operations against the UK and other international partners to advance the Chinese state's interests."

He concludes: "It is my assessment that the suspects' alleged activities were prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK, and the information and material passed would be directly or indirectly useful to the Chinese state."

So, he talks about espionage, he talks about threats and he talks too about being open and constructive.

• Government publishes key witness statements in collapsed China spy case
• The controversy over the collapsed China spy case explained
• Badenoch demands PM address 'unanswered' China spy case questions

Fast forward to February of this year and the language is similar, but it does appear to reflect the change in government and its outlook on relations with China.

Mr Collins says China presents "the biggest state based threat to the UK's economic security" but adds a few paragraphs later "it is important for me to emphasise, however, that the government is committed to pursuing a positive economic relationship with China. The government believes that the UK must continue to engage with international partners on trade and investment to grow our economy while ensuring that our security and values are not compromised."

That word "positive" hadn't featured in the earlier document.

And then in the final submission, from just a few months ago in August of this year, the word "positive" features again, but so does this:

"China's espionage operations threaten the UK's economic prosperity and resilience and the integrity of our democratic institutions."

And, crucially, he points out that between 2021 and 2023, the crucial years under the last government when these allegations relate to, "the UK government publicly articulated…the increasing Chinese espionage threat posed to the UK".

The BBC understands that Mr Collins assumed he had given enough evidence for the prosecution to continue, when he submitted that third and final witness statement.

We are also told that after submitting his first statement, when the Crown Prosecution Service went back to him to ask for further clarification on the threat posed by China, they were not explicitly clear what Mr Collins would have needed to say in order to clear that threshold.

So what can we deduce from all of this?

This government and its Conservative predecessor had a deep and ongoing worry about Chinese espionage. But both also wanted an economic and diplomatic relationship with Beijing.

Labour folk tell me it justifies the prime minister's argument – as punchy a case as could be made was made, within the confines of government policy a few years ago and now.

Some Conservative folk note Mr Collins' language in the submissions since the general election quote language that featured in Labour's manifesto: "We will cooperate where we can, compete where we need to and challenge where we must."

The Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp told me: "This is wholly contrary to what the prime minister has been saying – which is that all of the evidence submitted related to the 2021-2023 period."

We await Downing Street's response.

And one final thing.

There are MPs digesting all of this who are struggling to understand why this case didn't come to court.

It is the Crown Prosecution Service's role to judge the likelihood of securing a conviction and in this instance they didn't think that likelihood was high enough – and it is their job to determine that.

But there is enough in these documents to ensure that element of this debate continues, as well as the approach taken by both the previous government and by this one.

The Cabinet Office has rejected Dominic Cummings' claim that China breached high-level systems used to transfer sensitive government information.

In an interview with the Times, Cummings said China obtained "vast amounts" of "extremely secret" information from the UK intelligence services and parts of Whitehall.

He told the paper the breach was covered up after he was briefed on the compromised data in 2020 while a senior aide to then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

In response, a Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "It is untrue to claim that the systems we use to transfer the most sensitive government information have been compromised."

Cummings said China breached high-level systems used to transfer so-called Strap material, a government classification for highly sensitive intelligence data.

In the interview, he said the compromised information included: "Material from intelligence services. Material from the National Security Secretariat in the Cabinet Office.

"Things the government has to keep secret. If they're not secret, then there are very, very serious implications for it."

He told the newspaper: "The cabinet secretary said, 'We have to explain something; there's been a serious problem', and he talked through what this was.

"And it was so bizarre that, not just Boris, a few people in the room were looking around like this - 'Am I somehow misunderstanding what he's saying?'"

He added: "What I'm saying is that some Strap stuff was compromised and vast amounts of data classified as extremely secret and extremely dangerous for any foreign entity to control was compromised."

Cummings also claimed the breach was covered up.

"If the MPs want to finally have an inquiry about it, I'd be happy to talk about it," he said.

A former government security official told the BBC he was "mystified" by Cummings' claims.

Professor Ciaran Martin became the first chief executive of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre in 2016 and stood down in August 2020.

Speaking on Radio 4's The World Tonight programme, Prof Martin cast doubt on Cummings' claim that the so-called Strap system was breached.

"This is, to the best of my knowledge, categorically untrue," he said. "That would have fallen to the National Cyber Security Centre to lead and there was no such investigation."

Prof Martin added: "China is a consistent and serious cyber security threat… but these systems are entirely different.

"They're built, monitored, secured and operated in an entirely different way than normal internet-based systems.

"It doesn't follow that… they [China] can somehow penetrate these entirely bespoke systems and there wasn't any evidence in 2020 that they did so."

The UK economy grew slightly in August, according to the latest official figures.

The economy expanded by 0.1%, the Office for National Statistics said, after contracting by 0.1% in July.

The government has made boosting the economy a key priority and pressure is mounting ahead of the Budget next month.

Many economists have been warning that tax rises or spending cuts will be needed to meet the chancellor's self-imposed borrowing rules.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies is projecting Rachel Reeves will need to find £22bn to make up a shortfall in the government's finances, and will "almost certainly" have to raise taxes.

On Wednesday, Reeves said she was "looking at further measures on tax and spending, to make sure that the public finances always add up".

The monthly growth figures can be volatile, and ONS has downgraded July's figure from zero growth to a 0.1% contraction.

The ONS is focusing on growth over a rolling three-month period, and in the three months to August the economy expanded by 0.3% which was a slight improvement on the previous figure.

"Economic growth increased slightly in the latest three months. Services growth held steady, while there was a smaller drag from production than previously," said Liz McKeown, ONS director of statistics.

"Continued strength in business rental and leasing and healthcare were the main contributors to services growth, partially offset by weakness in some consumer facing services, while wholesalers also fared poorly."

Warning: This piece contains details that some readers may find distressing

Touma hasn't eaten in days. She sits silently, her eyes glassy as she stares aimlessly across the hospital ward.

In her arms, motionless and severely malnourished, lies her three-year-old daughter, Masajed.

Touma seems numb to the cries of the other young children around her. "I wish she would cry," the 25-year-old mother tells us , looking at her daughter. "She hasn't cried in days."

Bashaer Hospital is one of the last functioning hospitals in Sudan's capital, Khartoum, devastated by the civil war which has been raging since April 2023. Many have travelled hours to get here for specialist care.

The malnutrition ward is filled with children who are too weak to fight disease, their mothers by their bedside, helpless.

Cries here can't be soothed and each one cuts deep.

Touma and her family were forced to flee after fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) reached their home about 200km (125 miles) south-west of Khartoum.

"[The RSF] took everything we owned - our money and our livestock - straight out of our hands," she says. "We escaped with only our lives."

With no money or food, Touma's children began to suffer.

She looks stunned as she recounts their old life. "In the past, our house was full of goodness. We had livestock, milk and dates. But now we have nothing."

Sudan is currently experiencing one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies.

According to the UN, three million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. The hospitals that are left are overwhelmed.

Bashaer Hospital offers care and basic treatment free of charge.

However, the lifesaving medicines needed by the children in the malnutrition ward must be paid for by their families.

Masajed is a twin, she and her sister Manahil were brought to the hospital together. But the family could only afford antibiotics for one child.

Touma had to make the impossible choice – she chose Manahil.

"I wish they could both recover and grow," her grief-stricken voice cracks, "and that I could watch them walking and playing together as they did before.

"I just want them both to get better," Touma says, cradling her dying daughter.

"I am alone. I have nothing. I have only God."

Survival rates here are low. For the families on this ward the war has taken everything. They have been left with nothing and no means to buy the medicines that would save their children.

As we leave, the doctor says none of the children in this ward will survive.

Across the whole of Khartoum, children's lives have been rewritten by the civil war.

What began as an eruption of fighting between forces loyal to two generals – army chief Gen Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemedti – soon engulfed the city.

For two years – until last March when the army retook control - the city was gripped by war as rival fighters clashed.

Khartoum, once a hub of culture and commerce on the banks of the River Nile, became a battlefield. Tanks rolled into neighbourhoods. Fighter jets roared overhead. Civilians were trapped between crossfire, artillery bombardments and drone strikes.

It is in this devastated landscape, amid the silence of destruction, that the fragile voice of a child rises from the rubble.

Twelve-year-old Zaher wheels himself through the wreckage, past burnt-out cars, tanks, broken houses and forgotten bullets.

"I'm coming home," he sings softly to himself as his wheelchair rolls over broken glass and shrapnel. "I can no longer see my home. Where's my home?"

His voice, fragile but determined, contains both a lament for what has been lost and a quiet hope that one day, he may finally go home.

In a building now being used as a shelter, Zaher's mother Habibah tells me about what life was like under RSF control.

"The situation was very difficult," she says. "We couldn't switch on our lights at night - it was as if we were thieves. We didn't light fires. We didn't move at all at night."

She sits next to her son in a room lined with single beds.

"At any moment, whether you were sleeping or taking a shower, standing or sitting, you find them [the RSF] breathing down your neck."

Many fled the capital, but Zaher and his mother had no means to get out. To survive, they sold lentils on the streets.

Then one morning, as they worked side by side, a drone struck.

"I looked at him and he was bleeding. There was blood everywhere," Habibah says. "I was losing consciousness. I forced myself to stay awake because I knew if I passed out, I would lose him forever."

Zaher's legs were badly damaged. After hours of agony, they made it to hospital .

"I kept praying: 'Please God, take my life instead of his legs,'" she cries.

But doctors could not save his legs. Both had to be amputated just below the knee.

"He would wake up and ask: 'Why did you let them cut my legs?'" She looks down, her face filled with remorse, "I couldn't answer."

Both Habiba and her son weep, tormented by the memory of what happened to them. It is made worse by knowing that prosthetic limbs could give Zaher a chance at his old childhood, but Habiba cannot afford them.

For Zaher, the memory of what happened is too difficult to talk about.

He only shares one simple dream. "I wish I could have prosthetic legs so I can play football with my friends like I used to. That's all."

• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening

Children in Khartoum have been robbed not only of their childhoods but of safe places to play and be young.

Schools, football pitches and playgrounds are now shattered, with broken reminders of a life stolen by conflict.

"It was very nice here," says 16-year-old Ahmed looking around a destroyed funfair and playground.

Printed on his grey, tattered T-shirt is a huge smiley face - the word "smile" emblazoned beneath it. But his reality could not be further from that sentiment.

"My brothers and I used to come here. We played all day and laughed so much. But when I came back after the war, I couldn't believe it was the same place."

Ahmed now lives and works here clearing the debris left by war, earning $50 (£37) for 30 days of continuous labour.

The money helps support him, his mother, grandmother and one of his brothers.

There were six other brothers but, like so many in Sudan who have missing family members, he has lost contact with them. He looks at his feet as he tells us he doesn't know where they are or if any are still alive.

The war has ripped families like his apart.

Ahmed's work reminds him of that nearly daily. "I have found the remains of 15 bodies so far," he says.

Many of the remains found here have since been buried, but there are still some bones lying around.

Ahmed walks across the park and picks up a human jaw. "It's terrifying. It makes me shake."

He shows us another bone and holding it innocently beside his leg, he says: "This is a leg bone, like mine."

Ahmed says he no longer dares to dream of a future.

"Ever since the war began, I have been certain that I was destined to die. So I stopped thinking about what I would do in the future."

The destruction of schools has put the future of children in even more jeopardy.

Millions are no longer being educated.

But Zaher is one of the lucky few. He and his friends attend school in a makeshift classroom set up by volunteers in an abandoned home.

They call out answers loudly, write on the board, sing songs and there are even a few naughty kids messing around at the back of the class.

Hearing the sound of children learning and laughing, in a country where places to be a kid are so limited, is like nectar.

When we ask what childhood should be like, Zaher's classmates answer with innocence still intact: "We should be playing, studying, reading."

But the memory of war is never far away. "We shouldn't be afraid of the bombs and the bullets," interrupts Zaher. "We should be brave."

Their teacher, Miss Amal, has taught for 45 years. She has never seen children so traumatised.

"They've been really affected by the war," she says.

"Their mental health, their vocabulary. They are speaking the language of the militias. Violent curse words, even physical violence. They carry sticks and whips, wanting to hit someone. They have become so anxious."

The damage extends beyond behaviour.

With most families stripped of income, food shortages are biting.

"Some students come from homes with no bread, no flour, no milk, no oil, nothing at all," the teacher says.

And yet, amid despair, Sudan's children cling to fleeting moments of joy.

On a scarred football pitch, Zaher drags himself across the dirt on his knees, determined to play the game he loves most. His friends cheer him on as he kicks the ball.

"My favourite thing to do is football," he says, smiling for the first time.

When asked which team he supports, the answer is immediate: "Real Madrid." His favourite player? "Vinícius."

Playing on his knees is extremely painful and could lead to more infections. But he doesn't care.

Football and his friendships have saved him. They have brought him joy and an escape from his reality. Yet, he dreams of prosthetic legs.

"I wish they would just fix me, so I could walk home and go to school," Zaher says.

Additional reporting by Abdelrahman Abutaleb, Abdalrahman Altayeb and Liam Weir

More BBC stories on the conflict in Sudan:

• My son's whole body is full of shrapnel'
• A pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone: 'I prayed the baby wouldn't come'
• Oil-rich Sudanese region becomes new focus of war between army and rival forces
• Medics under siege: 'We took this photo, fearing it would be our last'
• 'Our children are dying': Rare footage shows plight of civilians in besieged Sudan city

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 government's publication of the advice in the collapsed China spying case came too late for many of the early editions, but the Guardian saw the documents - and says that while the third statement was similar to the language sought by prosecutors, they did not think it was sufficient to allow the case to proceed. The paper says the Director of Public Prosecutions told senior MPs that the statements were "five per cent less than the evidence threshold that was needed." The Times says the documents are likely to intensify questions among MPs about why the prosecution did not go ahead.

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the Guardian that people should take scaremongering about her upcoming budget with a pinch of salt. "Of course we're looking at tax and spending," the Daily Mirror quotes her as saying - in what it calls her "clearest hint yet about her plans." The Times adds that she has vowed to increase taxes on the wealthy, rather than cut public spending. The Daily Mail says she blames Brexit, austerity, Nigel Farage and the Conservatives for the tax hikes; "Is ANY of it your fault, Chancellor?" it asks. The Daily Telegraph notes the International Monetary Fund is projecting that taxes will rise faster in Britain than in any other G7 country over this Parliament.

Many of the papers have been reading the posthumous book by one of Jeffrey Epstein's victims, Virginia Giuffre. The Mail says her memoir - entitled Nobody's Girl - claims Prince Andrew thanked her after an alleged sexual encounter when she was seventeen. The Sun highlights a quote attributed to Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who apparently told her "You did well... the Prince had fun." The paper says Giuffre has damned the Duke of York from beyond the grave. Prince Andrew has always strongly denied the claims against him.

The i Paper says a leaked memo has revealed that Labour plans to slash affordable home targets - in a bid to revive flatlining building levels. The paper says such a move would be needed to help the government meet its pledge to build 1.5 million new homes.

"As if by magic," notes the Guardian, potholes were repaired in a village in Devon ahead of the filming of a new TV adaptation of the Harry Potter books there. "Harry Pothole" is the Telegraph's headline.

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The government is facing questions after a case against two men accused of spying for China collapsed, just weeks before the trial was due to go ahead.

In September, prosecutors unexpectedly dropped the charges, sparking a political row over who was to blame.

The background to the case is complicated - so here we try and walk you through how we got here and the political impact.

What was the case about?

Christopher Cash, a former parliamentary researcher, and Christopher Berry - who have both consistently maintained their innocence - were charged under the Official Secrets Act in April 2024.

They were accused of gathering and providing information prejudicial to the safety and interests of the state between December 2021 and February 2023.

Why did it collapse?

Last week, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the case collapsed because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.

In a rare intervention, Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson, who is the most senior prosecutor in England and Wales, said the CPS had tried to obtain further evidence from the government "over many months" but witness statements did not meet the threshold to prosecute.

He said while there was sufficient evidence when charges were originally brought against the two men in April 2024, a precedent set by another spying case earlier this year meant China would need to have been labelled a "threat to national security" at the time of the alleged offences.

However, some legal experts have questioned whether the CPS would have needed this evidence to go ahead with the prosecution.

What was the political fallout?

Downing Street has insisted the decision to drop charges was made by the CPS, with no ministers or members of the government involved.

The government has maintained that it is frustrated the trial collapsed.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has also sought to shift the focus to the previous Conservative government, which was in power when the alleged offences took place.

He argued the prosecution could only be based on the Tory government's position at that time, when he says China was not designated a "threat to national security".

Current Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has rejected this claim, pointing out that a number of former senior security and legal officials have also questioned the government's argument.

Several former Conservative ministers and advisers have told the BBC there was no official designation of whether a country amounts to a threat.

However, they claim there are hundreds of examples of Chinese activity posing a threat to the UK at the time of the alleged offences, which could have been given as evidence.

The Tories have suggested that the PM's national security adviser Jonathan Powell, who has sought closer relations with Beijing, failed to give the CPS the evidence it needed to secure convictions.

Ministers have insisted Powell had no involvement in the substance or evidence of the case.

Why is this a problem for the government?

Badenoch has accused the government of deliberately collapsing the trial because "the prime minister wants to suck up to Beijing" - something it has denied.

Since last year's general election, Labour has sought closer trade ties with China to help achieve its aim of growing the economy.

Then-Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Powell have all visited the country over the past year.

The government has insisted its approach to China is rooted in the UK's national interests.

However, Badenoch has claimed that following the collapse of the case it seems the PM has been "too weak to stand up to Beijing on a crucial matter of national security".

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If you're the sort of person to get lost in an album, The Last Dinner Party have a treat for you.

On their second record, From The Pyre, the last note of the last song segues perfectly into the opening bars of the first one. They're even in the same key (F major, musicology fans).

When you listen on a loop, it draws you ever deeper into its whirlpool of dreams and nightmares and sex and death.

"That wasn't deliberate, actually, but that's really cool," says guitarist Emily Roberts, when it's pointed it out to her. "Maybe, subconsciously, that's why those songs bookend the album."

As the name suggests, From The Pyre is darker, grubbier, more gothically grandiose than their critically acclaimed debut, Prelude To Ecstasy.

"It felt like there were no limits for what we could do, whether it was a really long guitar solo, or something inspired by a Bulgarian folk choir," says Davies.

"Confidence is the word we've thrown around as we've been writing," agrees singer Abigail Morris. "We'd improved as musicians and as writers, and we wanted to be challenged."

The London-based quintet have every right to be confident. The Last Dinner Party were signed to Island Records in 2022, based on an amateur video of their fourth ever gig.

They soon took over the airwaves with their first single, Nothing Matters: A sexually liberated rock anthem that was more immediate than a vodka shot on an empty stomach.

After winning the BBC's Sound of 2024, they topped the album charts, sold out three nights at London's Hammersmith Apollo and cemented their success by winning best newcomer at the Brit Awards.

Performing at the ceremony, organisers wanted Emily to descend from the rafters, playing Nothing Matters' guitar solo "like the fairy godmother who comes down in a bubble" in David Lynch's Wild At Heart.

"Unfortunately, we ran out of time," the guitarist laughs.

Time is not a commodity the band have enjoyed in abundance. Since 2023, they've played 214 gigs, shot a short film, and graced the front row of Paris Fashion Week. So when on earth did they write their second album?

"We had four months at the start of this year where we didn't really play any shows," says bassist Georgia Davies, "so we were recording then".

"But when people are like, 'When did you write the album?' The answer is basically, over Christmas."

That doesn't paint the full picture, however, says Abigail.

Some of the songs on From The Pyre "have been in the dressing-up box, waiting to come out," since the band formed in 2021.

The Scythe, a sumptuously wounded ballad released as the album's second single, goes even further back.

"I wrote the chorus when I was 16 or 17," says Abigail.

"I knew it was really good, but the rest of the song wasn't right, so I kept it in reserve until the right time."

Abigail originally wrote The Scythe about a teenage break-up. It was only when her sister heard it and commented on the lyrics that she realised it was really a rumination on death.

"My father passed away when I was a teenager," she says, "and that kind of loss takes a long time to get your head around - even when you're in therapy and you're talking about it".

She resisted the temptation to make the lyrics more explicitly autobiographical, reasoning that grief and heartache are intrinsically linked.

"When you have a big heartbreak, in my experience, it's exactly the same bodily response as someone dying, which I think is really crazy. Your body doesn't know the difference. And that's really interesting, I think, to write about in a song."

Perhaps, I suggest, the link is especially strong for someone who's lost a parent at a young age. Every subsequent loss is refracted through that lens.

"Yeah, the body keeps score," she agrees.

"I think if you experience a trauma in your childhood or teenhood, it takes a really long time to repair. You might feel fine and well-adjusted and able to go through life, but you don't respond to things in the same way as someone who hasn't been through those experiences. It's all stored up on a molecular level."

As The Scythe illustrates, From The Pyre is a deeply personal record – even though the band have a tendency to self-mythologise and dress their stories in florid, theatrical outfits.

It's a trait Abigail explores on the opening track, Agnus Dei, which depicts one of her exes as a heavenly apparition, descending from the clouds onto London Bridge.

"All I can give you is your name in lights for ever/ And ain't that so much better/ Than a ring on my finger?" she croons, suggesting that being immortalised in song is vastly preferable to the mundanity of (urgh!) commitment.

"When you put someone in a song, when you make someone a muse, what does that do to them?" she asks. "Is it a gift or a curse to make someone live forever in a song?"

"In a way, mythologising [the relationship] is a way of being in control of the situation, by turning them into something fictional.

"And the more you perform it, the more removed from reality it gets. The details get blurry. You can't remember what was real or what was the fable."

So, is the singer this melodramatic in her real life relationships?

"Oh! Noo-ooo!" she replies, her laughter ripe with sarcasm, as her bandmates deliver a hasty "no comment".

But melodrama is what makes The Last Dinner Party so compelling.

Every song froths and foams with possibility – whether it's the razor sharp guitar riffs that suddenly appear in Second Best, or Abi's vicious put-downs ("Your kindness didn't last beyond a fry-up") in This Is The Killer Speaking.

Woman Is A Tree opens with discordant harmonies, inspired by cult horror show Yellowjackets; while broiling anti-war anthem Rifles ratchets its tempo ever-upwards.

Written by Georgia, the song was originally about the futility of war, but it gained fresh urgency after Israel launched its military action in Gaza – an issue on which the band have been passionately outspoken.

They've called Israel's campaign "inexcusable"; and pulled out of Portsmouth's Victorious Festival after another group was silenced for displaying a Palestinian flag on stage.

Reflecting on the decision, Georgia says the group couldn't countenance "singing Nothing Matters and dancing around in our outfits at a place where a flag is seen as an act of political violence".

"I'm very proud that we [pulled out], because obviously it was financial loss and a massive let down to people, but it was obviously, absolutely the right thing to do."

Guitar hero

Spending time with The Last Dinner Party, it's obvious that on this issue, as on everything else, they're perfectly aligned.

Unlike many bands, there's no imbalance of power, no overbearing personality hoovering up the oxygen. They're a gang, a force to be reckoned with.

Everyone contributes musically, with keyboard player Aurora Nischevi conducting all the orchestral arrangements, and Emily – who holds a first class jazz degree from the Guildhall School – hailed as an "indie guitar hero" for her "venomous solos" and "perfectly judged riffs".

"I don't know about that," she blushes. "Can you send me some of those articles?"

From The Pyre has already received a clutch of four and five star reviews, saying its 10 songs " add a sinister edge to their over-the-top theatrics" that leaves their "peers sounding listless [and] uninspired".

The songs constantly mutate, often stretching out over five minutes, in an implicit rejection of TikTok virality.

"Two minutes isn't long enough," protests Emily.

"We're five people. We each want to put our own stamp on the song. We like contrast in our songs, and dramatic build-ups. We couldn't do that in two minutes. It wouldn't work."

And they promise there's more to come.

"We have a Google Drive with a folder that just says, 'Ideas'," says Abigail.

"And it's full."

President Donald Trump has said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has agreed to stop buying Russian oil, as the US seeks to tighten financial thumbscrews on the Kremlin as part of efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump told reporters he had received assurances from Modi that India would halt its purchases "within a short period of time", which he called "a big stop".

A spokeswoman for the Indian embassy in Washington DC would not comment. The US president has sought to leverage India's purchases of Russian oil in his trade war, but New Delhi has resisted, creating a diplomatic rift.

Oil and gas are Russia's biggest exports, and Moscow's biggest customers include China, India and Turkey.

"Now I've got to get China to do the same thing," Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday.

His administration is also pushing Beijing, and other trading partners, to stop buying oil from Russia, part of a broader push to cut off Moscow's energy funding.

India cannot "immediately" halt oil shipments, Trump said, adding that the shift will be "a little bit of a process, but the process is going to be over with soon".

The Trump administration has imposed 50% tariffs on goods from India, levies that Trump has characterised as punishment against New Delhi for buying Russian oil and weapons.

The tariffs – which took effect in August and are among the highest in the world – include a 25% penalty for transactions with Russia that are a key source of funds for its war in Ukraine.

Modi has for months stood his ground, arguing that India is neutral in the Russia-Ukraine war despite his country's ties with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Indian officials have called the Trump administration's accusations that Delhi profits from Russia's war in Ukraine a double standard, citing ongoing trade with Russia in the US and Europe.

India relies on Russian crude oil, which Delhi has continued to buy at a discount, to support its economy - the fifth largest in the world.

The dispute over Russian oil has strained the relationship between Trump and Modi, although the US president on Wednesday praised the Indian leader as a "great man".

Modi said last week that he spoke with Trump and that they "reviewed good progress achieved in trade negotiations".

A burly bearded man in a blue tunic moved swiftly through grassy stubble on a windswept road in rural Damascus, collecting bones with his bare hands.

He added a jaw to the pile, before gently picking up a skull. Briefly, he kissed it - a moment of tenderness for one of the many victims of Bashar al-Assad. Ten months after Assad was ousted from power last December, in a lightning rebel advance, mass graves are still being uncovered.

The Syrian dictator's legacy is embedded in the soil here - skeletal remains where crops should be. There are now more than 60 grave sites and counting.

One of the latest came to light in al-Otaiba village, in the district of Eastern Ghouta, where a shepherd stumbled on clothing and human remains after straw was burnt off.

The authorities believe as many as 175 bodies were bulldozed into a mass grave in this former opposition stronghold.

They are among the legions of the missing.

More than 181,000 people were forcibly disappeared or arbitrarily detained during the 14 years of Syria's civil war, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights monitoring group. It says 90% were taken by the Assad regime.

The families of the missing are now demanding answers and justice, from the new Syria – which held its first parliamentary election, of a sort, earlier this month.

A "people's assembly" was chosen but not directly by the people. One-third of the seats remain to be filled. The appointees will be hand-picked by Syria's Interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

Depending on your viewpoint in this broken country, and perhaps on your religion or your sect, the election was either a sham or a first step on the road to democracy.

As Syria faces forward, President Sharaa - a jihadi fighter turned head of state - says the missing will remain "a national priority".

Bereaved relatives like Kasim Hamami are counting on that. They can do little else.

We found him digging by the roadside at the mass grave site, pulling secrets from the soil.

As we watched, he uncovered a frayed, brownish jumper covered in dirt. It was a last trace of Samer, his brother, who disappeared aged 21.

"Samer was a civilian," Kasim said softly, "and newly-wed, just 15 days into his marriage. He had nothing to do with armed groups. He didn't fight anybody," he said.

"Ghouta was under a blockade. The regime did not allow in any food. He left because of hunger."

Kasim's three nephews also left with Samer and shared his fate.

They were among around 400 people who set out from Eastern Ghouta on 27 February 2014, hoping to reach another rebel stronghold. On the way, they were attacked by the regime and its allies in Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shia militia backed by Iran.

We know this because they filmed the slaughter and published the footage. The video - widely circulated online - is hard to watch.

It shows a column of people walking along a road, straight into an ambush.

Landmines are detonated along a 300m (985ft) stretch. The explosions are followed by a hail of bullets.

The convoy was mostly men, but included women and children, according to Mohammed Omar Hajjar, the newly appointed public prosecutor for rural Damascus. He believes they were civilians. The regime claimed at the time that the dead were fighters.

We met one of the survivors, who gave us a first-hand account of the attack.

Bilal, a nurse, was back at the mass grave site, glancing around at the sunlit landscape, reliving his darkest night.

"We left at around midnight," he told us. "I walked behind my colleague, 30m apart. After the mines went off, the wounded were screaming. They killed them in cold blood. I could hear two voices, and I could not help."

Bilal says he survived by hiding in a bush until the following day and is speaking out now for those who can't.

"I lost my nephew, friends and relatives. Those who set up the ambush should be held to account," he said.

Will that happen?

Many senior figures from the former regime are on the run, and Hezbollah has been devastated by Israeli attacks, and Israel's war on Lebanon in 2024.

A Syrian judge has issued an arrest warrant, in absentia, for Bashar al-Assad, in relation to other killings. But the former president has found refuge in Russia – which backed him during the civil war.

It's not known if his fate was discussed when President Sharaa held talks with President Putin in Moscow on Wednesday – the former enemies shaking hands in the Kremlin and discussing how to strengthen relations. If Assad was watching, it won't have been easy viewing.

Back home, there is one major change for families he destroyed. They can now share their anguish without risking their lives.

About an hour's drive from the mass grave, we joined a gathering of wives, mothers and daughters of the missing.

They met at a "Truth Tent" - a community-led forum where Syrians lay bare the horrors of the past. In this case the "tent" was a village hall.

More than a hundred women crowded in - so many there weren't enough chairs - many wearing black abayas and headscarves.

They gathered around us, holding out photos of husbands, fathers or sons - men who may live now only in their memory. More photos were hung in rows on the wall.

One woman paused before the display and raised her hand to caress an image.

A softly spoken 18-year-old called Bisan recalled how her father was taken away at gunpoint, when she was just four years old.

"They got my dad, handcuffed him and put him in the van," she said. "He asked them why he was being arrested. One of them pointed a gun against his head. We were so scared. We could not do anything back then. I was young and my mum kept crying."

Her cousin stood alongside as she spoke. Her father was also taken.

Around the room, voices rose and fell in a chorus of harrowing accounts of loved ones snatched from work or home and swallowed by the regime's notorious prison system.

"Prisons were filled with the blood, and lives of the innocent," shouted one woman from the back of the hall. "We spent a lot... sometimes even selling our houses, to pay some dog from the regime for information about our brothers, sons or husbands."

Another woman described being asked to choose between freedom for her son or her husband.

"They took me and my son to the security branch," she said. "They beat us both. They showed me my son on the camera and asked me if I wanted my husband or my son. I said I wanted my son."

The authorities asked her to sign a paper saying her husband was a terrorist, but she refused. "I never saw him carrying a weapon," she said. "He went out demonstrating because he was hungry."

Another veiled woman shouted her demand: execute Bashar al-Assad.

"We will get our rights when he is hanged," she said. "He's to blame for everything. When we cut the head off the snake, we will heal and make peace with each other."

Najwa, one of the organisers, took to the stage to urge the families to be patient.

Her husband Mohammed al-Hallaq was taken in January 2014. She was given his death certificate later that year but has never found his body.

"The son of a pig, Bashar, broke us for 14 years," said Najwa, her voice laden with anger. "The only thing I ask of you: don't give up, don't stop pushing. It's not going to happen overnight."

Some wonder if it will happen at all, including a bereaved father called Mohammed, one of the few men at the meeting. His son, Mazen, who worked at the electricity company, was taken by state security in 2013.

"All this talk is not useful, if we don't get action," he said tearfully. "What we need is for the people who took our sons to be on trial."

There is a now a National Commission for Missing Persons, but it is in its infancy and struggling with a lack of resources - including DNA testing facilities. Syria has only one DNA laboratory.

Ten months after the ousting of Assad, the ranks of the missing are still growing.

Some families are only now coming forward with accounts of loved ones who are long gone.

"We try to manage expectations," says Zeina Shahla, spokesperson for the commission. "We tell the families we have begun but unfortunately it will take years. In every Syrian village, there might be missing persons."

At best their loved ones can expect more years of waiting for truth, or justice, or bones to bury.

Additional reporting by Wietske Burema, Goktay Koraltan, Lana Antaki and Aref Alkrez.

Kate Wareing has dedicated her career to helping people who find themselves in a crisis because they have nowhere to live.

It's clearly personal. She worked as a housing officer at the age of 18, remembers sleeping on a sofa herself when a relationship broke up, and now in her early 50s, feels she is only a home owner because of "luck and age".

"Everybody needs the security of a home," she says. And now Kate, who is the chief executive of an Oxfordshire housing association, has an idea that she thinks could help the government with one of its most pressing challenges: how to empty asylum hotels by 2029.

The pledge was made when tensions and anger rose during the summer, in communities where some regard asylum seekers as a threat to local safety.

The cost of putting asylum seekers in local hotels is also "cripplingly expensive," points out Kate - and she makes a bold claim: the cost could be cut from about £54,000 a year to just £4,000, for each asylum seeker, by moving them to social housing.

Instead of paying private contractors to provide hotel rooms, as it does now, she wants the government to pay councils and housing associations to buy more properties, adding them to the nation's social housing stock, to benefit migrants and others in need of a home.

The BBC has been told her proposal has been discussed with several government departments, including the Treasury and the Home Office. Officials are talking to nearly 200 councils about a series of pilot projects, though the Home Office won't give details.

The question is, could it really work - if private companies haven't managed to source enough accommodation for asylum seekers, what's to say a council could?

And would this plan really help to calm the strident public debate, in the wake of the protests and counter-protests outside the Bell Hotel in Epping and elsewhere this year - or might it even exacerbate it?

The pandemic fuelled the problem

There is no doubt tensions have been increasing.

In July 2015 a coastguard in Dover told the BBC that two migrants had been rescued from a dinghy just offshore in the Channel. It was so surprising that it made the news.

At that time people typically hid in lorries to get across the Channel. But during the Covid-19 pandemic, there were fewer lorries and would-be stowaways increasingly began using inflatable boats instead.

Small boat arrivals accounted for a relatively small 4% of total immigration to the UK for the year to June 2025, but the numbers are rising.

The pandemic also rapidly increased the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.

Successive administrations have banned asylum seekers from working for their first year in the UK - they didn't want the opportunity for a job to become a "pull factor" - so it falls to the government to support them.

The Conservatives turned to the private sector for help, handing contracts to three companies - Serco, Clearsprings Ready Homes and Mears - to provide beds.

The problem was, they ran out.

Then, as lockdowns struck, hotels emptied, providing a useful source of emergency accommodation. The rooms are, however, more expensive than renting houses. In October 2025, the government was spending £5.5m per day on them.

At one point, under the Conservatives, there were 400 hotels in use but they managed to reduce the number over time.

While Labour has closed three hotels since July 2024, there are still 210, housing around 32,000 people.

'Put them in a camp'

This summer, the argument moved to the streets, with protesters demanding the closure of asylum hotels.

Lorraine Cavanagh, campaigning outside the Britannia Hotel in London's Canary Wharf, told me: "I don't know who they are. They have no background, they have no passports, they are unidentified men who can walk around and do what they want to do with no consequences.

"Their beliefs are not the same as ours. They are coming in and trying to disturb and change things, that we are not used to."

Some protesters have another suggestion: put them in a military camp.

Rakib Ehsan, a senior fellow at the centre-right Policy Exchange think tank, agrees this could be useful on a temporary basis.

"At least they would be somewhat separated from local communities," he says.

Two large former Ministry of Defence sites are currently being used for asylum seekers - Napier Barracks, near Folkestone, and a former RAF base at Wethersfield in Essex.

In 2021 the High Court found Napier Barracks, which is capable of housing 300 male migrants, to be overcrowded and filthy, requiring the government to take action.

The other facility, Wethersfield, which contains bedrooms, recreational areas and places for worship, is being expanded. Eventually more than 1,200 beds will be available.

Residents can come and go, but the High Court was previously told Wethersfield was like a prison. Three migrants bringing a case against the former Home Secretary described "tensions and outbreaks of violence" within its walls.

These "large sites" are not cheap either. The government spent £49m refurbishing Wethersfield, far more than had been estimated.

A programme to open accommodation at RAF Scampton was also abandoned in 2024 after the cost ballooned to £60m.

The public financial watchdog, the National Audit Office, concluded in March 2024 that these large sites would cost even more than hotels.

Questioned by MPs in June 2025, the Environment Minister Angela Eagle said the government was moving away from "asbestos-filled buildings, poisoned land, unexploded ordinance and all those sorts of things on old army bases".

But then in September 2025, Defence Secretary John Healey popped up, during the wave of anti-migrant protests, and revealed he had tasked his planners with identifying more military sites.

Did the need for beds become greater, or did the rhetoric around using barracks for people who claim to be fleeing persecution become more acceptable, as Reform edged up in the opinion polls? Possibly both. Plans are yet to be revealed.

Either way, what the government really needs now, is lots of cheaper, and better places for them to stay.

Private sector problem

Hotels and military bases are used for "emergency accommodation" when there isn't enough so-called "dispersal accommodation" in communities around the country, which often takes the form of Houses in Multiple Occupation, or HMOs.

This is where at least three people "not from the same household", live together, sharing a bathroom and a kitchen.

Three main private contractors use public money to find HMOs on the open market. One, Mears, went on a spending spree across the north-east of England in 2023 and early 2024 buying 221 properties for more than £20m. But many flats and houses are rented from private landlords.

Another provider, Serco, has 1,000 leased properties for asylum accommodation. The third, Clearsprings Ready Homes, has made £187m in the last six years supporting 30,000 migrants, though half of them are in hotels.

So these companies are competing with all of us, and local councils, for suitable properties. Planning applications for HMO status have been rising steadily since 2009, according to the property data company Searchland, though smaller HMOs don't need planning permission.

There can be public opposition to attempts to use HMOs for migrants, just as there is with hotels, which is one factor contributing to a shortage.

Another is that in some areas few rental properties are available at the very low rents the government contracts will pay.

Renting or buying?

This could be seen as a challenge to Kate Wareing's plan for housing associations and councils to provide properties instead. If the three private companies contracted by the government struggle, won't councils and housing associations have the same problem?

"We would shop in a different way," she says.

Often the asylum accommodation companies are looking for the cheapest private rented houses, usually in areas with lots of asylum seekers already, she says, fuelling community tensions.

But councils and housing associations could plan more carefully where to go shopping, she argues, and there are other sources of property they might be able to get hold of more easily.

For example, they could buy up property in housing developments. Builders usually have to offer social housing as part of any new development, in order to get planning permission. There has been a drop in first-time buyers recently.

"We've got builders approaching us asking if we want to buy more homes on some new-build sites than we would normally be being offered," she says, estimating that might make another 5,000 properties available in the next few years.

Her housing authority alone buys 20 a year, and purchases would be spread across the country. Other experts the BBC spoke to thought this was a reasonable target.

In outline, her plan would work like this: the government gives a council or housing association an average of £80,000 to buy and do up a property. They would also need to borrow some money on top of that, but the interest they pay is usually less than a company would.

These properties would be used for current social housing tenants, and when they move out of their existing houses, asylum seekers would move in - after any necessary repairs had been made - with the government paying their rent to the councils and associations to cover their costs.

"We'll have 10 new houses that we can use to relieve some of the needs of our existing residents and then we can also move asylum seekers into any houses that they are vacating," she argues. In the longer term, "there will be 10 more houses to let to the local population or to use for other types of homelessness need."

She calculates an investment of £1.75bn could enable the purchase and renovation of 14,000 to 16,000 homes. The costs of rent would be similar to the cost of the housing benefit asylum seekers are not allowed to claim.

Her analysis was checked by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which has its own model for assessing development opportunities being considered by housing associations. They said it "stood up fine".

'An asylum system in chaos'

Rakib Ehsan of Policy Exchange argues there should be more social housing, but for British citizens not asylum seekers. But Kate Wareing says that under her plan, there would be homes for both.

Rakib Ehsan also emphasises the concerns some people have over public safety, as long as most migrants continue to be young men from "deeply patriarchal societies".

"If we look at the demographic characteristics associated with small boat migrants in particular who went to the UK, they tend to originate from parts of the world which have a very different view when it comes to the treatment of women and girls," he says.

But Kate believes her plan would be politically acceptable, because it makes newly refurbished homes available for local people who need them. Plus she argues asylum seekers could end up sharing a home with others in need, potentially reducing social tensions.

If the government wants to change tack, it has a chance next year, when there is a break point in the 10-year contracts with the three asylum housing providers.

John Perry, policy adviser to the Chartered Institute of Housing says: "That's why this idea has currency. It is very encouraging local authorities appear to want to work with the government."

There is a risk, though, that a version of Kate Wareing's plan would take too long to put into effect, if it is to help the government meet its 2029 deadline.

The Home Office insists the government inherited "an asylum system in chaos" and that it has reduced the backlog of claims by 24%, returned 35,000 people "with no right to be here", and cut hotel spending by over half a billion pounds.

"We are looking at a range of more sustainable, cost-effective and locally led sites including disused accommodation, industrial and ex-military sites, so we can reduce the impact on communities and taxpayers," a spokesperson said.

If the government can meet its pledge to close the asylum hotels, the prize would be saving of £1bn per year, according to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

But failure would give the government's main opponent, Reform, a big stick with which to beat it, at the next election. This issue could help decide the outcome.

Top picture credits: PA Wire/ EPA/Shutterstock

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The chancellor should be "bold" in next month's Budget or risk future spending cuts and tax rises, an influential think tank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) is projecting Rachel Reeves will need to find £22bn to make up a shortfall in the government's finances, and will "almost certainly" have to raise taxes.

Finding this amount would allow the government to maintain the £10bn of headroom it has built into the system - but the IFS says there is a "strong case" for trying to increase it beyond this amount.

IFS director Helen Miller said the lack of a bigger buffer brought with it instability, and could leave the chancellor "limping from one forecast to the next".

"A key challenge is ensuring that fiscal groundhog day doesn't become a twice-yearly ritual," Ms Miller said.

She said the position the chancellor finds herself in was "to a large extent, a situation of her own making".

"When choosing to operate her fiscal rules with such teeny tiny headroom, Ms Reeves would have known that run-of-the-mill forecast changes could easily blow her off course," Ms Miller added.

The think tank pointed to rising borrowing costs, weaker growth forecasts and spending commitments made since the spring as reasons for the government's tight position.

It said Reeves needs to make up that shortfall so she can meet her own fiscal rules, which she has called "non-negotiable".

The two main rules are:

• Not to borrow to fund day-to-day public spending by the end of this parliament
• To get government debt falling as a share of national income by the end of this parliament

Ms Miller added that the "constant obsession with the headroom" was a distraction from important debates on how policy could bolster economic growth and the reform of the tax system.

Speaking on Wednesday, Reeves gave the strongest indication to date that she is planning to raise taxes in the Budget.

The IFS's green budget looks ahead to some of the decisions the government will have to make in its 26 November Budget. The report is funded by the Nuffield Foundation and produced in association with Barclays.

In a chapter of its report published last week, the IFS urged said Reeves could raise tens of billions of pounds a year more in revenue without breaking manifesto promises, but this would not be straightforward.

During last year's election, Labour said they "will not increase National Insurance, the basic, higher, or additional rates of Income Tax, or VAT" - which the IFS flags as the simplest ways to raise revenue.

President Donald Trump has confirmed reports he authorised the CIA to conduct covert operations inside Venezuela - and said he was considering strikes targeting drug cartels there.

US forces have already conducted at least five strikes on suspected drug-carrying boats in the Caribbean in recent weeks, killing 27 people. UN- appointed human rights experts have described the raids as "extrajudicial executions".

Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump said the US "is looking at land" as it considers further strikes in the region.

Trump has sought to increase pressure on President Nicolas Maduro, who the US and others do not recognise as Venezuela's rightful leader following disputed elections.

The increased US military presence in the region has raised fears in Caracas of a possible attack.

According to the New York Times, Trump's authorisation would allow the CIA to carry out operations in Venezuela unilaterally or as part of any wider US military activity.

It remains unknown whether the CIA is planning operations in Venezuela, or whether those plans are being kept as contingencies.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Trump was questioned about the New York Times report.

"Why did you authorise the CIA to go into Venezuela?" a reporter asked.

"I authorised for two reasons really," Trump said in a highly unusual acknowledgement from a US commander-in-chief about a spy agency whose activities are typically shrouded in secrecy.

"Number one, they [Venezuela] have emptied their prisons into the United States of America."

He added: "And the other thing are drugs. We have a lot of drugs coming in from Venezuela, and a lot of the Venezuelan drugs come in through the sea, so you get to see that, but we're going to stop them by land also."

The president declined to answer when asked whether the CIA authorisation would allow the agency to topple Maduro, for whom the US has offered a $50m (£37m) bounty.

"Wouldn't it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?" he said.

While Maduro's government has not commented on the CIA authorisation directly, Vice-President Delcy Rodriguez struck a defiant tone on television on Wednesday.

He said "let no aggressor dare because they know that here is the people of [Venezuelan liberator Simón] Bolívar, that here is the people of our ancestors with their swords raised to defend us under any circumstance".

In the most recent US strike on Tuesday, six people were killed when a boat was targeted near Venezuela's coast.

On Truth Social, Trump said that "intelligence confirmed the vessel was trafficking narcotics, was associated with illicit narcoterrorist networks, and was transiting along a known" drug-trafficking corridor.

As has been the case in previous strikes, US officials have not specified what drug-trafficking organisation was allegedly operating the vessel, or the identities of those aboard.

The strikes form part of a larger military effort to pressure Maduro's government, which has included the positioning of significant air and naval assets in the region as well as about 4,000 troops.

In a leaked memo recently sent to US lawmakers and reported by US media outlets, the administration said it had determined it was involved in a "non-international armed conflict" with drug-trafficking organisations.

US officials have alleged that Maduro himself is part of an organisation called the Cartel of the Suns, which it says includes high-ranking Venezuelan military and security officials involved in drug trafficking.

Maduro has repeatedly denied the claims, and Venezuela's government has condemned the strikes.

(With additional reporting from Ione Wells)