The government has unveiled a new pledge to cut the list of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment in England by nearly half a million over the next year.

The plan, to be announced on Monday, will expand access to Community Diagnostic Centres and surgical hubs, alongside reforms designed to enhance patient choice and tackle inefficiencies.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it would create millions more appointments and "deliver on our promise to end the backlogs".

The British Medical Association (BMA) has welcomed the plan but was sceptical about whether it could be delivered.

The government has billed the plan as an important milestone in a broader effort to reduce the number of people enduring long waits for appointments, procedures and surgeries.

Sir Keir added: "Greater choice and convenience for patients. Staff once again able to give the standard of care they desperately want to."

A key Labour election pledge, now included in the government's six main priorities, is for 92% of patients to begin treatment or be given the all-clear within 18 weeks by the end of this Parliament.

This has been an official NHS target for some time, but has not been met since 2015. Currently, only 59% of patients meet the 18-week target, with three million people waiting longer.

The latest promise is to reach 65% by March 2026, which, according to the government, would reduce the backlog by more than 450,000.

A network of Community Diagnostic Centres, which provide appointments such as scans and endoscopies in local neighbourhoods, will extend their opening hours to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

The aim is to get patients treated more quickly, closer to home and without relying on hospitals. Officials say these centres will provide up to half a million extra appointments each year.

GPs will also be able, where appropriate, to refer patients directly to these centres without requiring a prior consultation with a senior doctor.

More surgical hubs will be created to focus on common, less complex procedures, such as cataract surgeries and some orthopaedic work. These hubs are ring-fenced from other parts of the hospital to ensure operating theatre time is not lost if there are emergency cases.

The new plan says that one million unnecessary appointments per year will be freed up for patients who need them. This will be made possible by abolishing automatic review appointments after treatment and only offering them to patients who request them.

Officials say the extra appointments created will be in addition to what was promised by Labour before the election. That pledge was for 40,000 more appointments per week, or two million a year, to be created within the first year.

This compares with a normal annual total of more than 100 million appointments. Ministers have confirmed that work on this pledge began soon after the election.

Plans for patients to use the NHS App to monitor and book consultations and test results, with greater control over where they are treated, have already been announced. The goal is to make the system more efficient and reduce the number of missed appointments.

NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard said: "The radical reforms in this plan will not only allow us to deliver millions more tests, appointments, and operations, but do things differently too – boosting convenience and putting more power in the hands of patients, especially through the NHS app."

The overall waiting list for NHS appointments, procedures, and surgeries in England stands at just under 7.5 million.

No target level has been set in the plan, but ministers say that the waiting list will inevitably fall as measures to meet the 18-week benchmark take effect.

The funding for NHS England has been set for the upcoming year, but the additional money needed to support extra activity in hospitals will be outlined in the government's spending review later this year.

Professor Phil Banfield, chair of the BMA Council, expressed doubt over whether the plan could be delivered.

"Doctors have been just as frustrated as their patients by the lack of facilities to deliver care and want to bring waiting lists down," he said.

"But the reality is that without the workforce to meet constantly rising demand, we will not see the progress we all hope for."

Ed Argar, Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, said it was the Conservatives who "revolutionised" the diagnostic process by rolling out 160 Community Diagnostic Centres.

He said the government's plan is "another announcement that makes clear after 14 years in opposition, the Labour Party have no new ideas of their own for the NHS – despite promising change".

"Patients cannot wait for more dither and delay from the government who promised so much, and so far have delivered so little," he said.

Liberal Democrat MP and health spokesperson Helen Morgan said the plan for waiting lists could risk "putting hip replacements over heart attacks", unless the "crises" in emergency and social care were addressed.

The Golden Globes were a night to celebrate film, TV, and... love.

Last year, Timotheé Chalamet sent the internet into a frenzy as he piled on the PDA with his girlfriend Kylie Jenner at the ceremony, and this year it was date night again as the pair cosied up throughout the evening.

There was even more love in the air as A Different Man star Sebastian Stan is now officially officially dating Annabelle Wallis. He shouted out that he loved her during his acceptance speech for best actor in a musical or comedy film.

And if that isn't enough romance for you then Zendaya has stolen the show with rumours of a potential engagement. Here's more on that and eight other highlights from the awards ceremony that you may have missed.

1. Is Zendaya engaged?

Zendaya brought her usual effortlessly sleek style to the red carpet but the internet seemed less interested in her burnt orange gown and more about what was on her finger.

The Challengers star was sporting a large diamond ring on the fourth finger of her left hand and some thought it might be a sign that she's engaged.

The 28-year-old has been dating Spider-Man actor Tom Holland for the past four years.

Fans immediately started speculating about their possible engagement, but one pointed out on X: "They're very protective about their relationship, so would she actually wear the ring on the red carpet?"

2. Nikki Glaser is a one-woman fashion show

If you're hosting the Golden Globes, naturally you've got to look the part. For Nikki Glaser that meant a whopping a 10 dresses across the three hour ceremony.

The comedian started off the night wearing a strapless metallic dress on the red carpet before switching to a halter neck silver sequined gown to kick the ceremony off.

• Host Nikki Glaser's best jokes at the Golden Globes

The 40-year-old seemed to use every advert break across the show to switch into something different backstage and some of her other outfits included a sparkly purple dress, a high-slit red gown and a tight-fitting black plunge number.

Our personal favourite outfit? A Wicked-inspired bright pink sequined dress that she wore with a pope's hat as she sang "you're going to be pope-ular".

3. What's it like at The Beverly Hilton?

If you even go to the bathroom at The Beverly Hilton, you're likely to run into a celebrity.

Turn the corner, bam - Melissa McCarthy. Turn another - Jean Smart and the rest of the cast of Hacks.

The hotel in the heart of swanky Beverly Hills had a large security perimeter with barriers, armed guards and patrols, but once a person is inside - it's like a playground for Hollywood's A-list.

Some hunted for drinks, others were wrangled by publicists to interviews and photo shoots with eager journalists.

Roaming around the hotel, Selena Gomez, hot off her film Emilia Pérez winning four awards, was seen with her new fiancé Benny Blanco. He kissed her shoulder as he trailed behind her in an intimate moment.

4. A message to Japanese actors

Shōgun, a series set in 17th century Japan, was a big winner at the Globes, taking home four awards.

Star Hiroyuki Sanada won best male actor in a drama TV series and backstage told the BBC that he hopes the show and their wins could "could break the wall of language" and open "doors much wider" not only for Japanese actors and projects but those across the globe.

His co-star Tadanobu Asano won best male supporting actor in a TV series and clearly shocked, jumped out of his seat and, in Japanese custom, bowed repeatedly - first to those at his table then everyone in the audience and then to the cameras, which had panned to him.

"Wow!" he said when handed the award on stage. He acknowledged that he's a new talent in the US and started off by introducing himself to the crowd.

"Maybe you don't know me, so I'm an actor from Japan and my name is Tadanobu Asano," he said as the crowd laughed.

"I'm very happy!" he shouted through excited laughter, concluding his acceptance speech.

Backstage, he said his message to other Japanese actors: "If I can do this, anyone can."

5. Colin Farrell has fond memories of Andrew Scott

Irish actor Colin Farrell picked up his third Golden Globe, for playing the Batman villain in the HBO series Penguin.

Accepting his speech he mentioned some of the other nominees in his category including fellow Irishman Andrew Scott.

He recalled their first movie together, Drinking Crude, and said: "[Andrew] who I did my first film with 25, 30 years ago. You can't even find it on Betamax. It doesn't exist. But we go back that far."

He added to Scottish actor Richard Gadd, whose experience of stalking and sexual assault inspired the Netflix hit series Baby Reindeer, that "you broke my heart with your work this year".

In his speech, Farrell also spoke about the three hours it took to be fitted with prosthetics to make him the bloated villain in Penguin.

"In the morning, I drank black coffee, listened to 80s music, and I became a canvas for that team's brilliance."

Farrell also said: "Thank you for employing me. And yeah, I guess it's prosthetics from here on out."

Backstage, Mr Farrell acknowledged his lengthy Hollywood career and said despite his win, "I certainly don't consider myself at the top of any pile".

He said after his nearly 30 years acting, he doesn't feel a sense of pride, but rather, just feels "very grateful".

7. Wicked stars try to speak Gen Z

We've all been holding space for Wicked this year and Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum were providing us with our Wizard of Oz fix in classic boomer style.

"People have been calling me Zaddy but I don't know what that means," Goldblum said while Yeoh added that she was just as confused by people telling her that she's been "serving mother".

Despite being clueless to the meaning of the Gen Z language and looking even more baffled as Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande tried to explain the meaning behind these words, they both said they love it.

"Let's see who ate," Goldblum said as he introduced the nominees for a category.

Backstage the cast of Wicked spoke to the BBC about whether there was a future for the Land of Oz in a TV series.

The film's producer Marc Platt joked that the film "is already a show" - on Broadway. Beyond that, though, he said: "It's hard to predict."

Asked by the BBC about the film transcending into a culture phenomenon with countless memes and viral clips, Platt said it speaks to the "timeless" material the film is based on.

"When something becomes a cultural phenomenon, you can't really predict that. It's very exhilarating," he said.

8. Elton's eye sight 'not as bad as it seems'

Sir Elton John joked about his sight loss as he presented the award for best original film score with Brandi Carlile, who he sang the track Never Too Late with

The 77-year-old singer revealed in September that his vision has been affected in his right eye after contracting an infection in the summer.

In December he said he had been unable to watch his own musical, The Devil Wears Prada, due to the infection.

But, on stage he told the audience: "There has been a lot of stories going around about my regressive eyesight, and I just want to reassure everyone it is not as bad as it seems."

"I'm so pleased to be here with my co-host, Rihanna," he joked.

Sir Elton cheered as it was announced that US musician Trent Reznor and English composer Atticus Ross won the award for the musical score for erotic tennis film challengers.

9. 'Brazil is celebrating'

Fernanda Torres's surprise win for best drama actress in the Brazilian political thriller I'm Still Here even surprised her.

She called the win over Hollywood heavyweights - including Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Kate Winslet - both "strange" and "weird".

"I never thought I would win", she said, because there were "so many great performances in English, so this tells so much about the difference in cinema nowadays."

She was asked about the celebrations happening back in her home country of Brazil, with one reporter remarking that it was like she'd won the country the World Cup.

"It is something very patriotic that's happening in Brazil with this film," she said, noting the country was "very happy" thanks to the Golden Globes.

In her acceptance speech she noted that the only other Brazilian actor to be nominated at the Globes was her mother, Fernanda Montenegro.

10. 'Being in your 60s is a golden age'

Several winning actresses tackled the topic of age at the awards.

Demi Moore, 62, noted in her acceptance speech for best film actress in The Substance that she'd spent much of her career believing that while she was successful, she would never receive any major Hollywood accolades.

She said the award reflected the message of the film, a body horror about a woman who trades her body for a younger, more beautiful version of herself.

"I'll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting is in those moments when we don't think we're smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough, or basically just not enough," Moore said.

"I had a woman say to me, just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.

After winning her award, she told journalists backstage about how many women spend much of their lives as caretakers and don't get to spend their energy outward. And now, at 62, she is and "it feels really damn good".

Jodie Foster, who is the same age as Moore, won the award for best actress in a limited series and said the 60s are a "golden age" because there's like "a hormone that happens when suddenly you go, 'Oh, I don't really care about all the stupid things anymore".

She called this era the "most contented moment in my career."

Known to the world as The Vivienne, James Lee Williams was one of the biggest breakout stars of British drag, and it all started with an impression of Donald Trump in 2019 on the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race UK.

Like many of the drag queens on the show, The Vivienne was unapologetically unique and hilariously straight-talking, but she also had something more: pizzazz.

Described by judge Michelle Visage as "the best Snatch Game character in the history of the show", it was The Vivienne's President Trump impression - complete with pouted lips, orange makeup and a floppy blonde wig - in the Snatch Game that won her the show.

That win consolidated The Vivienne's influence in the drag community and her career in the world of TV and musical theatre flourished.

• RuPaul's Drag Race UK star The Vivienne dies aged 32

Bold, glitzy and saucy looks

Giving one of the most memorable performances in the Snatch Game is no easy feat, but The Vivienne's highlights from the show go far beyond her Trump impression as she was responsible for some of the show's most iconic moments.

Having adopted the drag name The Vivienne because of a love for wearing Vivienne Westwood clothing, her weekly outfits on the catwalk were second to none.

On the show, she described her drag style as being "like a Scouse wife who has come into money, she moved to LA and blew it all and then she's had to move back to Liverpool".

Without a contour line out of place and a perfected walk in stilettos, she wooed the judges with her bold, glitzy and saucy looks.

Her 'Queen Elizabeth walking around Balmoral' outfit, which saw her wear a gold poncho and grey knitted skirt with fluffy ducks attached to it, was one of her most memorable.

Combine that with her doing the floss dance in the outfit and she had viewers, fellow contestants and even RuPaul crying with laughter.

In the final she was described by judge Graham Norton as having "it all". Fellow judge Alan Carr added that she had "trademark wit" and delivered a "comedy masterclass" with her impressions of Trump, Margret Thatcher and Kim Woodburn.

The Vivienne went on to be a contestant in the seventh season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars in 2022.

Skating to anthems by gay icons

In January 2023, The Vivienne became the first drag queen to appear on Dancing on Ice and was partnered with American skater Colin Grafton.

She finished in third place behind gymnast Nile Wilson and Joey Essex.

The pair skated to songs by gay icons such as Dolly Parton and Cher and particularly excelled in the movies and musical weeks, whether performing to Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or Don't Cry for Me Argentina.

• The best Donald Trump impression you’ll probably ever see
• Man sentenced for homophobic attack on The Vivienne

Her jaw-dropping ability to skate perfectly from day one meant not only did she never appear in the bottom two, but she also never appeared lower than third on the leader board.

But it was the week five performance that struck a chord with many as James chose not to perform in drag for the first time, confessing that it made him emotional dancing to Beyonce's Halo "without my armour".

James was widely praised for their decision, with one person on X saying that "'The Vivienne skating as James and not in drag in itself is inspiring".

Channelling the Wicked Witch of the West

Williams starred in a number of theatre shows, most recently in a role that seemed to be the perfect fit - the misunderstood yet strong and compassionate Wicked Witch of the West in the revival of The Wizard of Oz musical.

Starring alongside Aston Merrygold in the UK and Ireland tour, the performer reprised the role in the West End at the Gillian Lynne Theatre last year.

"I don't have many words to say as this is one huge dream," they wrote on Instagram. "Dream big kids."

The Vivienne channelled her Wicked Witch of the West role off-stage in November when she sent heads spinning in her emerald green sequined gown at the European premiere of the Wicked film.

Most recently, she was performing as the Childcatcher on the tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and performed just a week ago in Blackpool.

TV appearances

While The Wizard of Oz was The Vivienne's first theatre role, she was no stranger to TV and was able to successfully build a career in television after RuPaul's Drag Race, appearing in a range of programmes including Hunted, Emmerdale and the Great British Sowing Bee.

Over Christmas, The Vivienne appeared on a celebrity special of BBC's Blankety Blank.

In 2020, the Vivienne starred in a six-part series The Vivienne Takes on Hollywood on BBC Three.

The show saw the drag queen document her travels to Los Angeles in order to make a music video and was complete with her classic Northern humour and zingy one-liners.

Not all drag race contestants and winners have been able to build such a successful brand around themselves despite their humour and flawless looks, which is testament to how The Vivienne's personality shone through in all her work.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could announce his resignation within days, according to media reports.

He is considering stepping down as leader of the governing Liberal Party, which would also bring to an end his nine years as prime minister.

It follows months of pressure from his own MPs. Last month, his finance minister quit, citing disagreements on how to deal with Donald Trump's threat to levy US tariffs on Canadian goods.

Opinion polls suggest Trudeau's Liberal Party trails well behind the Conservatives with a general election looming some time this year.

The Globe and Mail reports that he could announce his intention to quit before he meets his party caucus on Wednesday, to avoid the perception that his own MPs forced him out.

Their sources said it was unclear whether Trudeau would leave immediately or stay on as prime minister until a new leader was selected.

And they stressed he had yet to make a final decision on his future.

Whoever takes over will have to lead the party through an election campaign while also navigating a possible trade war with the US.

The election must take place before October, but a change in leadership of the Liberal Party could increase calls for a snap vote in the coming months.

• Faced with turmoil, a defiant Trudeau hangs on - for now
• Four paths Trudeau can take as political crisis deepens

Trudeau's departure would bring to an end a defining era in Canadian politics.

He unexpectedly swept his party to power in 2015, winning a campaign that began with them in third place.

The fresh-faced young leader, aged 43 back then, promised a new kind of politics centred on an open immigration policy, increased taxes on the wealthy and battling climate change.

But his first term was dogged by scandals. In more recent years, he had been battling sinking popularity as frustration grew with the cost of living and his own style of governing.

More than a dozen of his own MPs have called for him to step down, while polls suggest two-thirds of voters disapprove of him.

Just 26% of respondents in a September Ipsos said Trudeau was their top pick for prime minister, putting him 19 points behind Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.

History is also not on Trudeau's side, with only two prime ministers ever serving four consecutive terms.

Poilievre rose to the top of his party in 2022 on a promise to reduce taxes, tackle inflation and protect individual liberties.

The 45-year-old also rallied support behind the Freedom Convoy truckers protesting about Covid mandates - a blockade that brought Canadian cities including Ottawa to a standstill.

Canada's next prime minister will have to address the threat of tariffs from incoming US President Donald Trump.

He has vowed to impose a 25% tariff on Canadian goods if the country does not secure its shared border to the flow of irregular migrants and illegal drugs.

The "grave challenge" this posed was referred to in the resignation letter of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, who quit hours before she was due to deliver her annual budget.

Trudeau had informed her he no longer wanted her to be his government's top economic adviser.

US President Joe Biden has announced a ban on offshore oil and gas drilling along most of America's coastline, weeks before Donald Trump takes office.

Trump had pledged to massively increase US fossil fuel production.

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Ukraine has launched a fresh offensive in Russia's Kursk region, the Russian Defence Ministry says.

In a statement, the military said efforts to destroy the Ukrainian attack groups are ongoing. Officials in Ukraine have also suggested an operation is under way.

Ukraine first launched its incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August last year, seizing a large chunk of territory.

In recent months, Russian forces have made big gains in the area, pushing the Ukrainians back, but failing to eject them entirely.

In a statement posted on Telegram on Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said: "At around 9am Moscow time, in order to stop the offensive by the Russian troops in the Kursk direction, the enemy launched a counter-attack by an assault detachment consisting of two tanks, one counter-obstacle vehicle, and 12 armoured fighting vehicles."

The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said there "was good news from Kursk Region" and that Russia was "getting what it deserves".

Ukraine's top counter-disinformation official Andriy Kovalenko said in a Telegram post on Sunday: "The Russians in Kursk are experiencing great anxiety because they were attacked from several directions and it came as a surprise to them."

It's unclear whether the offensive is sufficiently large-scale to lead to any significant changes on the frontline.

Kyiv's forces are reportedly suffering from manpower shortages and have been losing ground in the east of Ukraine in recent months, as Russian troops advance.

It comes as the Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched another drone attack on Ukraine overnight.

It said it had shot down 61 drones over Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyy regions

There were no direct hits, but a few houses were damaged in Kharkiv Region by an intercepted drone, the air force said.

In November, Ukraine reported its troops had engaged in combat with North Korean troops in the Kursk region.

The appearance of North Korean soldiers was in response to a surprise attack launched across the border by Ukrainian troops in August, advancing up to 18 miles (30km) into Russian land.

Moscow evacuated almost 200,000 people from areas along the border and President Vladimir Putin condemned the Ukrainian offensive as a "major provocation".

After a fortnight, Ukraine's top commander claimed to control more than 1,200 sq km of Russian territory and 93 villages.

Some of that territory has been regained by Russia but Ukraine still has troops in the Kursk region.

US Vice-President Kamala Harris will on Monday preside over the official certification in Congress of the result of November's presidential election - a contest that she lost to Donald Trump.

The date also marks the fourth anniversary of a riot at the US Capitol, when Trump's supporters tried to thwart the certification of Democratic President Joe Biden's election victory in 2020. Normally the occasion is a mere formality.

Heavy security is in place in Washington DC, and Biden has vowed there will be no repeat of the violence on 6 January 2021 - which led to several deaths.

As lawmakers meet in Washington DC, heavy snow forecast for the American capital could prove disruptive.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has vowed to go ahead with the certification at 13:00 EST (18:00 GMT) in spite of the weather, telling Fox News: "Whether we're in a blizzard or not, we're going to be in that chamber making sure this is done."

As the current vice-president, Harris is required by the US Constitution to officially preside over the certification of the result, after Trump beat her in the nationwide poll on 5 November.

Trump won all seven of the country's swing states, helping him to victory in the electoral college, the mechanism that decides who takes the presidency. It will be Harris's job on Monday to read out the number of electoral college votes won by each candidate.

Trump's second term will begin after he is inaugurated on 20 January. For the first time since 2017, the president's party will also enjoy majorities in both chambers of Congress, albeit slender ones.

• Just how big was Trump's victory?
• What next for Harris, after her bruising election defeat?
• Who has joined Trump's top team?
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Trump's win marked a stunning political comeback from his electoral defeat in 2020, and a criminal conviction in 2024 - a first for a current or former US president.

Amid the dramatic recent presidential campaign, Trump also survived a bullet grazing his ear when a gunman opened fire at one of his rallies in Pennsylvania.

While away from the White House, he has faced a slew of legal cases against him - including over his attempts to overturn the 2020 result, which he continues to dispute.

Following his defeat that year, Trump and his allies made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud - claiming the election had been stolen from them.

In a speech in Washington DC on certification day, 6 January 2021, Trump told a crowd to "fight like hell" but also asked them to "peacefully" make their voices heard.

He also attempted to pressurise his own vice-president, Mike Pence, to reject the election result - a call that Pence rejected.

• What Trump said in speech before riot

Rioters went on to smash through barricades and ransack the Capitol building before Trump ultimately intervened by telling them to go home. Several deaths were blamed on the violence.

Trump's pledges after returning to office include pardoning people convicted of offences over the attack. He says many of them are "wrongfully imprisoned", though has acknowledged that "a couple of them, probably they got out of control".

Conversely, Biden has called on Americans never to forget what happened.

"We must remember the wisdom of the adage that any nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it," Biden wrote in the Washington Post over the weekend.

For Trump's Republican Party, the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune has signalled a desire to move on, telling the BBC's US partner CBS News: "You can't be looking in the rearview mirror."

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My home or business premises is flooded. What should I do?

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Prof Alexis Jay, the former chair of a national inquiry into child sexual abuse, has called for the "full implementation" of reforms set out in her 2022 report, which warned of "endemic" abuse across society in England and Wales.

A campaign group chaired by Prof Jay, called Act on IICSA, said ministers must commit to a "clear timeline" to adopt the recommendations laid out by the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The government says it supports the changes.

The group warned against "politicising" sexual violence and pushed back against "misinformation".

Prof Jay also distanced herself from calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for a new inquiry into grooming gangs.

The IICSA national inquiry was set up in 2015 and carried out 15 investigations, including into grooming gangs and abuse in schools and church settings.

Prof Jay had previously led a landmark local inquiry into widescale abuse in Rotherham, where it was estimated 1,400 children were exploited between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by men of Pakistani heritage.

The IICSA's final report was published in 2022 and set out 20 recommendations it said were necessary to reduce child suffering.

They included setting up a national child protection authority, implementing tighter controls on who can work with vulnerable children, legislating to force tech firms to take stronger action over online abuse material and making not reporting abuse a criminal offence.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Act on IICSA said: "Politicising the issue of sexual violence fails to acknowledge its lifelong impact and hinders the implementation of vital and urgent overhaul to our systems required."

Prof Jay said: "Our mission is not to call for new inquiries but to advocate for the full implementation of IICSA's recommendations."

She has previously said she was "frustrated" at the previous Conservative government's lack of progress in adopting the recommendations, and described its response as "weak", which the Home Office disputed at the time.

On Sunday, Act on IICSA also said recent media coverage of child sexual abuse has highlighted a "troubling trend of misinformation that undermines the true scale of the crisis and the pressing need for reform".

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government was prioritising "getting on with" implementing the recommendations.

Prof Jay's comments came after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called for a national public inquiry into the UK's "rape gangs scandal" on Thursday, which Reform leader Nigel Farage also supports.

The issue of grooming gangs was put back in the spotlight after Home Office minister Jess Phillips rejected Oldham Council's request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation in the town, in favour of a locally-led investigation.

That decision was criticised by senior Tory and Reform figures, while billionaire Elon Musk also fuelled online anger over the move in a series of posts on social media.

More Vietnamese attempted small-boat Channel crossings in the first half of 2024 than any other nationality. Yet they are coming from one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Why, then, are so many risking their lives to reach Britain?

Phuong looked at the small inflatable boat and wondered whether she should step in. There were 70 people packed in, and it was sitting low in the water. She recalls the fear, exhaustion and desperation on their faces. There weren't enough lifejackets to go around.

But Phuong was desperate. She says she had been stuck in France for two months, after travelling there from Vietnam via Hungary, sleeping in tents in a scrubby forest.

Already she had refused to travel on one boat because it seemed dangerously overcrowded, and previously had been turned back in the middle of the Channel three times by bad weather or engine failure.

Her sister, Hien, lives in London, and recalls that Phuong used to phone her from France in tears. "She was torn between fear and a drive to keep going.

"But she had borrowed so much - around £25,000 - to fund this trip. Turning back wasn't an option." So, she climbed on board.

Today Phuong lives in London with her sister, without any legal status. She was too nervous to speak to us directly, and Phuong is not her real name. She left it to her sister, who is now a UK citizen, to describe her experiences.

In the six months to June, Vietnamese made up the largest number of recorded small boat arrivals with 2,248 landing in the UK, ahead of people from countries with well-documented human rights problems, including Afghanistan and Iran.

The extraordinary efforts made by Vietnamese migrants to get to Britain is well documented, and in 2024 the BBC reported on how Vietnamese syndicates are running successful people-smuggling operations.

It is not without significant risks. Some Vietnamese migrants end up being trafficked into sex work or illegal marijuana farms. They make up more than one-tenth of those in the UK filing official claims that they are victims of modern slavery.

And yet Vietnam is a fast-growing economy, acclaimed as a "mini-China" for its manufacturing prowess. Per capita income is eight times higher than it was 20 years ago. Add to that the tropical beaches, scenery and affordability, which have made it a magnet for tourists.

So what is it that makes so many people desperate to leave?

A tale of two Vietnams

Vietnam, a one-party Communist state, sits near the bottom of most human rights and freedom indexes. No political opposition is permitted. The few dissidents who raise their voices are harassed and jailed.

Yet most Vietnamese have learned to live with the ruling party, which leans for legitimacy on its record of delivering growth. Very few who go to Britain are fleeing repression.

Nor are the migrants generally fleeing poverty. The World Bank has singled Vietnam out for its almost unrivalled record of poverty reduction among its 100 million people.

Rather, they are trying to escape what some call "relative deprivation".

Despite its impressive economic record, Vietnam started far behind most of its Asian neighbours, with growth only taking off well after the end of the Cold War in 1989. As a result, average wages, at around £230 a month, are much lower than in nearby countries like Thailand, and three-quarters of the 55-million-strong workforce are in informal jobs, with no security or social protection.

"There is a huge disparity between big cities like Hanoi and rural areas," says Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese academic at the Institute of South East Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. "For a majority of workers with limited skills, there is a glass ceiling. Even if you work 14 hours a day you cannot save enough to build a house or start a family."

This was what Phuong felt, despite coming from Haiphong, Vietnam's third-largest city.

Her sister Hien had made it to Britain nine years earlier, smuggled inside a shipping container. It had cost her around £22,000 but she was able to pay that back in two years, working long hours in kitchens and nail salons. Hien married a Vietnamese man who already had British citizenship, and they had a daughter; all three are now UK citizens.

In Haiphong, jobs were scarce after the pandemic and at 38 years old, Phuong wanted what her sister had in London: the ability to save money and start a family.

"She could survive in Vietnam, but she wanted a home, a better life, with more security," explains Hien.

Lan An Hoang, a professor in development studies at Melbourne University, has spent years studying migration patterns. "Twenty to thirty years ago, the urge to migrate overseas was not as strong, because everyone was poor," she says. "People were happy with one buffalo, one motorbike and three meals a day.

"Suddenly a few people successfully migrated to countries like Germany or the UK, to work on cannabis farms or open nail salons. They started to send a lot of money home. Even though the economic conditions of those left behind have not changed, they feel poor relative to all these families with migrants working in Europe."

'Catch up, get rich'

This tradition of seeking better lives overseas goes back to the 1970s and 80s, when Vietnam was allied to the Soviet Union following the defeat of US forces in the south.

The state-led economy had hit rock bottom. Millions were destitute; some areas suffered food shortages. Tens of thousands left to work in eastern bloc countries like Poland, East Germany and Hungary.

This was also a time when 800,000 mainly ethnic Chinese boat people fled the communist party's repressive actions, making perilous sea journeys across the South China Sea, eventually resettling in the USA, Australia or Europe.

The economic hardships of that time threatened the legitimacy of the communist party, and in 1986 it made an abrupt turn, abandoning the attempt to build a socialist system and throwing the doors open to global markets. The new theme of Vietnam's national story was to catch up, and get rich, any way possible. For many Vietnamese, that meant going abroad.

"Money is God in Vietnam," says Lan An Hoang. "The meaning of 'the good life' is primarily anchored in your ability to accumulate wealth. There is also a strong obligation to help your family, especially in central Vietnam.

"That is why the whole extended family pools resources to finance the migration of one young person because they believe they can send back large sums of money, and facilitate the migration of other people."

New money: spoils of migration

Drive through the flat rice fields of Nghe An, one of Vietnam's poorer provinces lying south of Hanoi, and where there were once smaller concrete houses, you will now find large, new houses with gilded gates. More are under construction, thanks, in part, to money earned in the West.

The new houses are prominent symbols of success for returnees who have done well overseas.

Vietnam is now enjoying substantial inflows of foreign investment, as it is considered an alternative to China for companies wanting to diversify their supply chains. This investment is even beginning to reach places like Nghe An, too.

Foxconn, a corporate giant that manufactures iPhones, is one of several foreign businesses building factories in Nghe An, offering thousands of new jobs.

But monthly salaries for unskilled workers only reach around £300, even with overtime. That is not enough to rival the enticing stories of the money to be made in the UK, as told by the people smugglers.

From travel agents to labour brokers

The business of organising the travel for those wishing to leave the province is now a very profitable one. Publicly, companies present themselves as either travel agents or brokers for officially-approved overseas labour contracts, but in practice many also offer to smuggle people to the UK via other European countries. They usually paint a rosy picture of life in Britain, and say little about the risks and hardships they will face.

"Brokers" typically charge between £15,000 and £35,000 for the trip to the UK. Hungary is a popular route into the EU because it offers guest-worker visas to Vietnamese passport holders. The higher the price, the easier and faster the journey.

The communist authorities in Vietnam have been urged by the US, the UK and UN agencies to do more to control the smuggling business.

Remittances from abroad earn Vietnam around £13bn a year, and the government has a policy of promoting migration for work, although only through legal channels, mostly to richer Asian countries.

More than 130,000 Vietnamese workers left in 2024 under the official scheme. But the fees for these contracts can be high, and the wages are much lower than they can earn in Britain.

The huge risks of the illicit routes used to reach the UK were brought home in 2019, when 39 Vietnamese people were found dead in Essex, having suffocated while being transported inside a sealed container across the Channel.

Yet this has not noticeably reduced demand for the smugglers' services. The increased scrutiny of container traffic has, however, pushed them to find alternative Channel crossings, which helps explain the sharp rise in Vietnamese people using small boats.

'Success stories outweigh the risks'

"The tragedy of the 39 deaths in 2019 is almost forgotten," says the cousin of one of the victims, Le Van Ha. He left behind a wife, two young children and a large debt from the cost of the journey. His cousin, who does not want to be named, says attitudes in their community have not changed.

"People hardly care anymore. It's a sad reality, but it is the truth.

"I see the trend of leaving continuing to grow, not diminish. For people here, the success stories still outweigh the risks."

Three of the victims came from the agricultural province of Quang Binh. The headteacher of a secondary school in the region, who also asked not to be named, says that 80% of his students who graduate soon plan to go overseas.

"Most parents here come from low-income backgrounds," he explains. "The idea of [encouraging their child to] broaden their knowledge and develop their skills is not the priority.

"For them, sending a child abroad is largely about earning money quickly, and getting it sent back home to improve the family's living standards."

In March the UK Home Office started a social media campaign to deter Vietnamese people from illegal migration. Some efforts were also made by the Vietnamese government to alert people to the risks of using people-smugglers. But until there are more appealing economic opportunities in those provinces, it is likely the campaigns will have little impact.

"They cannot run these campaigns just once," argues Diep Vuong, co-founder of Pacific Links, an anti-trafficking organisation. "It's a constant investment in education that's needed."

She has first-hand experience, leaving Vietnam to the US in 1980 as part of the exodus of Vietnamese boat people.

"In Vietnam, people believe they have to work hard, to do everything for their families. That is like a shackle which they cannot easily escape. But with enough good information put out over the years, they might start to change this attitude."

But the campaigns are up against a powerful narrative. Those who go overseas and fail – and many do – are often ashamed, and keep quiet about what went wrong. Those who succeed come back to places like Nghe An and flaunt their new-found wealth. As for the tragedy of the 39 people who died in a shipping container, the prevailing view in Nghe An is still that they were just unlucky.

Top image credit: Getty Images

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The new year in politics starts with the bang of a billionaire with a bigger mouth than his bank balance.

Elon Musk has been lobbing almost as many digital darts over the Atlantic as Luke Littler has the real things in the last couple of days.

The world's richest man has been sounding off in the strongest possible terms about the prime minister for almost as long as Sir Keir Starmer has been in Downing Street.

In recent days, the focus has been on child sexual exploitation and Musk's allegation that the prime minister was "complicit in the rape of Britain" when he was Director of Public Prosecutions by failing to deal with the scandal.

I'm told Sir Keir "will not want to get into a food fight with Musk" but will make a robust defence of his time as chief prosecutor.

He is also keen to emphasise the importance of political debate being grounded in verifiable facts and that Musk is making claims that are "blatantly untrue" as one source put it. Sources point, for instance, to those defending the Prime Minister's record as DPP.

Those in government also point to the local inquiries there have been into the abuse and rape of vulnerable young girls by groups of men mainly of Pakistani descent – and the national inquiry conducted by Professor Alexis Jay.

The Conservatives, Reform and Elon Musk have each expressed varying degrees of outrage in recent days that the government has said no to a public inquiry into the scandal.

But few expected this weekend's twist: that within hours of the Reform leader Nigel Farage describing Musk as a "hero" who "makes us look cool," the X owner said Reform needed a new leader as Farage "doesn't have what it takes".

"It's not been the perfect day," said one Reform figure with a splash of understatement and a smile. "We probably do look a bit silly."

Farage's repeated statements distancing himself from the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, appear to be at the heart of the spat.

Reform hadn't seen this coming. Just weeks ago they were talking up the prospect of a big money donation from Elon Musk – but are now trying to put the best spin on things.

"Nigel is not for sale," is how one senior party figure put it to me, saying this showed that the Reform leader was willing to stand up to anybody, including the richest man in the world.

Another said that if Reform were to be treated as a serious political outfit - and remember, Nigel Farage has said he wants to win the next general election - that means robustly and consistently rejecting any association with Robinson, whatever the consequences.

The one politician to attract some praise from Elon Musk, for now at least, is the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, for her calls for a public inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Badenoch sees the scandal as a case study in what she sees as our broken politics.

For Badenoch, 2025 will be a crucial year as she fights to rebuild her party and fights for attention – not easy, when Nigel Farage is around.

She got yet another taste of that over Christmas in a very public row with him over party membership numbers: Badenoch suggested Reform's claim on Boxing Day to have overtaken the Tories' membership numbers were "fake" as their tally was automatically rising.

Reform invited journalists to verify that this was not the case and the Financial Times among others concluded there was "strong evidence" the party's tally was accurate.

In the coming weeks, we can expect to hear from Badenoch about the so-called Policy Commissions she is setting up, and who will lead them.

It will be worth keeping an eye too on the man she beat to the leadership, Robert Jenrick, who hasn't exactly gone quietly.

He is her shadow justice secretary but his willingness to carry on campaigning almost as if the leadership race was still on is irking some senior Tories, who want him to stay in his lane on policy and not stray all over the place talking about whatever he likes.

As for the prime minister, a bruising first six months into office and with noises off at home and abroad, his big hope is delivery.

He is forgoing the usual new year big picture speech as his team feel he did just that with his big speech last month.

Instead, he is focusing on a specific promise: getting hospital waiting lists down in England.

He will do similar style events and visits in the coming weeks on the government's other big promises.

So here goes with politics in 2025.

We are not even a week in and it is proving lively already.

Confidence among UK firms has "slumped" as they face a "pressure cooker of rising costs and taxes", according to a business group.

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said its survey of more than 4,800 firms suggested confidence had fallen to its lowest level for two years.

Nearly two-thirds told the BCC they were worried about taxes following the Budget, which announced a rise in national insurance contributions (NICs) paid by firms from April, and more than half expect to raise prices in the next three months.

A Treasury spokesperson said more than half of employers would either see a cut or no change in their NI bills.

The strength of the UK economy has come under focus following the release of disappointing growth figures just before Christmas.

The latest official data showed the economy had zero growth between July and September, while it contracted during October.

The figures were seen as a blow to the government after it made boosting the economy its top priority.

Labour has promised to deliver the highest sustained economic growth in the G7 group of the world's richest nations.

Businesses have already warned that Budget measures such as the rise in employer NICs, together with the higher National Living Wage, could lead to job cuts and price rises.

Kevin McNamee is chief executive of Denroy Group, a manufacturer of plastic goods based near Belfast that employs 250 people.

He said the combined impact of the changes to the minimum wage and national insurance would cost the company "hundreds of thousands of pounds, it's really significant".

It was "probably inevitable" the prices on some of their goods would have to rise to try to cover the higher costs, he said.

"The focus now will be on boosting productivity, reducing headcount or certainly not adding to the headcount as the business grows and driving that productivity."

He added businesses had been "shocked" by the changes to national insurance.

"It's hard to see how the Budget incentivises businesses to invest to grow, we've had our pockets picked to an extent here."

The BCC collected data from more than 4,800 businesses across the UK between 11 November and 9 December. It said 91% of the firms surveyed were classed as small and medium-sized enterprises, with fewer than 250 employees.

It found 63% of firms were worried about tax. That was the highest level since 2017 when the business group began recording the data, and was up from the previous reading of 48%.

The BCC said confidence had fallen, with 49% of firms expecting sales to increase over the next year. The business group said this was the lowest level since the aftermath of the mini-budget in late 2022.

More than half - 55% - of firms who took part in the survey said they expected to raise their prices in the next three months.

"The worrying reverberations of the Budget are clear to see in our survey data," said Shevaun Haviland, the BCC's director general.

"Businesses confidence has slumped in a pressure cooker of rising costs and taxes.

"Firms of all shapes and sizes are telling us the national insurance hike is particularly damaging. Businesses are already cutting back on investment and say they will have to put up prices in the coming months."

A Treasury spokesperson said: "We delivered a once-in-a-parliament Budget to wipe the slate clean and deliver the stability businesses so desperately need.

"We have ensured more than half of employers will either see a cut or no change in their National Insurance bills, and by capping the rate of corporation tax at the lowest level in the G7, creating pension megafunds and establishing a National Wealth Fund, we are bringing back political and financial stability, creating the conditions for economic growth through investment and reform."

The spokesperson added this was just the start of the government's plans for change which "will make all parts of the country better off".

What should I carry in the car when driving in snow and ice?

How should you prepare your car for driving in snow and ice?

How should you drive in snow and ice?

What should you do if your car gets stuck in snow or ice?

Sub-zero temperatures are hitting the UK just as gas and electricity prices have risen for millions of households.

Energy bills are about 50% higher than pre-Covid levels, leaving many struggling to cover the cost alongside other financial demands.

So what can you do to stay warm while keeping costs down?

Prioritise staying safe

Keeping warm over the winter months can help to prevent colds, flu and more serious health problems such as heart attacks, strokes, pneumonia and depression, according to the NHS.

Pensioners, children under the age of five, people with health conditions and those who are pregnant are most at risk.

So, staying safe and healthy must take priority, even when it puts pressure on the finances. That extends to checking gas appliances are safe to use when they may rarely be switched on.

Family, friends and neighbours can play their part by ensuring anyone who is more vulnerable takes care when going out on icy pavements, or is well stocked up with food and medicines at home.

Many charities and councils run warm hubs in locations such as libraries, for those short of money to have somewhere to go - but it is important to take care if walking to these spots in icy or snowy weather.

How to heat your home efficiently

Before having an argument between family or flatmates about the heating, try touring the property to work out how to save energy.

That may include turning off radiators in unused rooms, switching lights off when they are not needed, and not leaving electrical appliances on standby.

Curtains should be open during the day, then drawn at dusk.

Manage your draughts by putting a black bag with scrunched up paper up an unused chimney, or try limiting other draughts around the home. You can easily make your own draught excluders. Cold, hard floors can be covered by a rug if you have one.

Layer up with clothes, safely use a hot water bottle, and make sure you have warm nightwear.

When it comes to heating, there is much debate about whether it is more efficient to keep it permanently on low, rather than switch it on and off when needed.

Experts don't have a clear answer on that, as it often depends on circumstances in the home, but it probably isn't the best option for most people.

Generally, a room temperature between 18C and 21C is ideal for most, but turning it down one degree can save money.

For older people, and those with health conditions, it is best not to let temperatures drop below 18C in rooms used regularly.

Making sure curtains are not sitting in front of radiators will help ensure the heat stays in, as will pushing furniture away from radiators.

Consider fitting radiator reflector panels, although that may be a longer-term job.

Eating, drinking and washing - the cheaper way

It is more important than ever to eat and drink properly, even with little motivation while stuck at home.

Age UK says warming foods, like soup and stews, and hot drinks like tea can help keep you warm. People should try to have at least one hot meal a day and as many hot drinks as possible. Supermarket-branded tins may be cheaper, so keep a close eye on prices. Food banks can also help if you are short of money.

Take care not to overfill the kettle by measuring out what is needed to keep costs down. Batch cooking can also help. Don't forget fruit and vegetables - the latter can be cooked with a steamer on one hob, rather than using different ones.

When washing up, if your hot water is too hot to wash your hands in, then your setting is probably too high so turn the boiler down. Wash clothes at 30C, not 40C.

Keep moving as much as you can between meals. That is likely to help your mental, as well as physical, health.

As tempting as it is to soak in the shower for ages, experts suggest limiting the time to four minutes. A playlist of four-minute songs may help.

Claim all the help you're entitled to

If you are struggling financially, then local councils and energy suppliers should be able to offer some assistance.

In fact, a supplier is obliged to help if you are falling behind on your energy bill.

Anyone on a prepayment meter who can't afford to top up, can ask for a fuel voucher from their supplier, or through their council.

Local authorities may also be able to provide cost-of-living assistance through the household support fund. You can find your local council here.

There are various other grants and benefits which people may be entitled to, but are not claiming. During an extended period of sub-zero temperatures, Cold Weather Payments will be made.

Making a claim might not bring an immediate fix during the current cold snap, but may help during the rest of the winter. Citizens Advice should help navigate what can be claimed.

Grants are available for longer-term work ranging from insulation to upgrading heating systems, but time should be taken researching such work and applicants should stay alert to scams.

How can I keep my baby warm?

How can I keep my pet safe and warm?

Can I walk my dog in cold weather?

How can I dry clothes more cheaply?

What's the best way to de-ice your car?

How can you use plug-in heaters and electric blankets safely?

How can I avoid winter infections?

The Golden Globes were a night to celebrate film, TV, and... love.

Last year, Timotheé Chalamet sent the internet into a frenzy as he piled on the PDA with his girlfriend Kylie Jenner at the ceremony, and this year it was date night again as the pair cosied up throughout the evening.

There was even more love in the air as A Different Man star Sebastian Stan is now officially officially dating Annabelle Wallis. He shouted out that he loved her during his acceptance speech for best actor in a musical or comedy film.

And if that isn't enough romance for you then Zendaya has stolen the show with rumours of a potential engagement. Here's more on that and eight other highlights from the awards ceremony that you may have missed.

1. Is Zendaya engaged?

Zendaya brought her usual effortlessly sleek style to the red carpet but the internet seemed less interested in her burnt orange gown and more about what was on her finger.

The Challengers star was sporting a large diamond ring on the fourth finger of her left hand and some thought it might be a sign that she's engaged.

The 28-year-old has been dating Spider-Man actor Tom Holland for the past four years.

Fans immediately started speculating about their possible engagement, but one pointed out on X: "They're very protective about their relationship, so would she actually wear the ring on the red carpet?"

2. Nikki Glaser is a one-woman fashion show

If you're hosting the Golden Globes, naturally you've got to look the part. For Nikki Glaser that meant a whopping a 10 dresses across the three hour ceremony.

The comedian started off the night wearing a strapless metallic dress on the red carpet before switching to a halter neck silver sequined gown to kick the ceremony off.

• Host Nikki Glaser's best jokes at the Golden Globes

The 40-year-old seemed to use every advert break across the show to switch into something different backstage and some of her other outfits included a sparkly purple dress, a high-slit red gown and a tight-fitting black plunge number.

Our personal favourite outfit? A Wicked-inspired bright pink sequined dress that she wore with a pope's hat as she sang "you're going to be pope-ular".

3. What's it like at The Beverly Hilton?

If you even go to the bathroom at The Beverly Hilton, you're likely to run into a celebrity.

Turn the corner, bam - Melissa McCarthy. Turn another - Jean Smart and the rest of the cast of Hacks.

The hotel in the heart of swanky Beverly Hills had a large security perimeter with barriers, armed guards and patrols, but once a person is inside - it's like a playground for Hollywood's A-list.

Some hunted for drinks, others were wrangled by publicists to interviews and photo shoots with eager journalists.

Roaming around the hotel, Selena Gomez, hot off her film Emilia Pérez winning four awards, was seen with her new fiancé Benny Blanco. He kissed her shoulder as he trailed behind her in an intimate moment.

4. A message to Japanese actors

Shōgun, a series set in 17th century Japan, was a big winner at the Globes, taking home four awards.

Star Hiroyuki Sanada won best male actor in a drama TV series and backstage told the BBC that he hopes the show and their wins could "could break the wall of language" and open "doors much wider" not only for Japanese actors and projects but those across the globe.

His co-star Tadanobu Asano won best male supporting actor in a TV series and clearly shocked, jumped out of his seat and, in Japanese custom, bowed repeatedly - first to those at his table then everyone in the audience and then to the cameras, which had panned to him.

"Wow!" he said when handed the award on stage. He acknowledged that he's a new talent in the US and started off by introducing himself to the crowd.

"Maybe you don't know me, so I'm an actor from Japan and my name is Tadanobu Asano," he said as the crowd laughed.

"I'm very happy!" he shouted through excited laughter, concluding his acceptance speech.

Backstage, he said his message to other Japanese actors: "If I can do this, anyone can."

5. Colin Farrell has fond memories of Andrew Scott

Irish actor Colin Farrell picked up his third Golden Globe, for playing the Batman villain in the HBO series Penguin.

Accepting his speech he mentioned some of the other nominees in his category including fellow Irishman Andrew Scott.

He recalled their first movie together, Drinking Crude, and said: "[Andrew] who I did my first film with 25, 30 years ago. You can't even find it on Betamax. It doesn't exist. But we go back that far."

He added to Scottish actor Richard Gadd, whose experience of stalking and sexual assault inspired the Netflix hit series Baby Reindeer, that "you broke my heart with your work this year".

In his speech, Farrell also spoke about the three hours it took to be fitted with prosthetics to make him the bloated villain in Penguin.

"In the morning, I drank black coffee, listened to 80s music, and I became a canvas for that team's brilliance."

Farrell also said: "Thank you for employing me. And yeah, I guess it's prosthetics from here on out."

Backstage, Mr Farrell acknowledged his lengthy Hollywood career and said despite his win, "I certainly don't consider myself at the top of any pile".

He said after his nearly 30 years acting, he doesn't feel a sense of pride, but rather, just feels "very grateful".

7. Wicked stars try to speak Gen Z

We've all been holding space for Wicked this year and Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum were providing us with our Wizard of Oz fix in classic boomer style.

"People have been calling me Zaddy but I don't know what that means," Goldblum said while Yeoh added that she was just as confused by people telling her that she's been "serving mother".

Despite being clueless to the meaning of the Gen Z language and looking even more baffled as Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande tried to explain the meaning behind these words, they both said they love it.

"Let's see who ate," Goldblum said as he introduced the nominees for a category.

Backstage the cast of Wicked spoke to the BBC about whether there was a future for the Land of Oz in a TV series.

The film's producer Marc Platt joked that the film "is already a show" - on Broadway. Beyond that, though, he said: "It's hard to predict."

Asked by the BBC about the film transcending into a culture phenomenon with countless memes and viral clips, Platt said it speaks to the "timeless" material the film is based on.

"When something becomes a cultural phenomenon, you can't really predict that. It's very exhilarating," he said.

8. Elton's eye sight 'not as bad as it seems'

Sir Elton John joked about his sight loss as he presented the award for best original film score with Brandi Carlile, who he sang the track Never Too Late with

The 77-year-old singer revealed in September that his vision has been affected in his right eye after contracting an infection in the summer.

In December he said he had been unable to watch his own musical, The Devil Wears Prada, due to the infection.

But, on stage he told the audience: "There has been a lot of stories going around about my regressive eyesight, and I just want to reassure everyone it is not as bad as it seems."

"I'm so pleased to be here with my co-host, Rihanna," he joked.

Sir Elton cheered as it was announced that US musician Trent Reznor and English composer Atticus Ross won the award for the musical score for erotic tennis film challengers.

9. 'Brazil is celebrating'

Fernanda Torres's surprise win for best drama actress in the Brazilian political thriller I'm Still Here even surprised her.

She called the win over Hollywood heavyweights - including Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman and Kate Winslet - both "strange" and "weird".

"I never thought I would win", she said, because there were "so many great performances in English, so this tells so much about the difference in cinema nowadays."

She was asked about the celebrations happening back in her home country of Brazil, with one reporter remarking that it was like she'd won the country the World Cup.

"It is something very patriotic that's happening in Brazil with this film," she said, noting the country was "very happy" thanks to the Golden Globes.

In her acceptance speech she noted that the only other Brazilian actor to be nominated at the Globes was her mother, Fernanda Montenegro.

10. 'Being in your 60s is a golden age'

Several winning actresses tackled the topic of age at the awards.

Demi Moore, 62, noted in her acceptance speech for best film actress in The Substance that she'd spent much of her career believing that while she was successful, she would never receive any major Hollywood accolades.

She said the award reflected the message of the film, a body horror about a woman who trades her body for a younger, more beautiful version of herself.

"I'll just leave you with one thing that I think this movie is imparting is in those moments when we don't think we're smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough or successful enough, or basically just not enough," Moore said.

"I had a woman say to me, just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if you just put down the measuring stick.

After winning her award, she told journalists backstage about how many women spend much of their lives as caretakers and don't get to spend their energy outward. And now, at 62, she is and "it feels really damn good".

Jodie Foster, who is the same age as Moore, won the award for best actress in a limited series and said the 60s are a "golden age" because there's like "a hormone that happens when suddenly you go, 'Oh, I don't really care about all the stupid things anymore".

She called this era the "most contented moment in my career."

With his leopard-like spots, Navarro - a male lynx - calls out during mating season as he walks towards a camera trap.

Just short of 100cm (39 inches) in length and 45cm in height, the Iberian lynx is a rare sight. But there are now more than 2,000 in the wild across Spain and Portugal, so you're much more likely to see them than you were 20 years ago.

"The Iberian lynx was very, very close to extinction," says Rodrigo Serra, who runs the reproduction programme across Spain and Portugal.

At the lowest point there were fewer than 100 lynxes left in two populations that didn't interact, and only 25 of them were females of reproductive age.

"The only feline species that was threatened at this level was the sabre tooth tiger thousands of years ago."

The decline of the lynx population was partly down to more and more land being used for agriculture, a rise in fatalities on the roads, and a struggle for food.

Wild rabbits are essential prey for the lynx and two pandemics led to a 95% fall in their number.

By 2005, Portugal had no lynxes left, but it was also the year that Spain saw the first litter born in captivity.

It took another three years before Portugal decided on a national conservation action plan to save the species. A National Breeding Centre for Iberian lynxes was built in Silves in the Algarve.

Here they are monitored 24 hours a day. The aim is twofold – to prepare them for life in the wild and to pair them for reproduction.

Serra speaks in a whisper, because even from a distance of 200m you can cause stress to the animals in the 16 pens where most of the animals are kept.

Sometimes, though, stress is exactly what the lynxes need.

"When we notice a litter is becoming a bit more confident, we go in and chase them and make noise so they are scared again and climb the fences," says Serra. "We're training them not to get close to people in the wild."

That's partly for their own protection, but also so they stay away from people and their animals. "A lynx should be a lynx, not be treated like a house cat."

So the lynxes never associate food with people, they are fed through a tunnel system at the centre.

Then, when the time comes, they are released into the wild.

Genetics determines where they end up, to diminish the risks of inbreeding or disease. Even if a lynx was born in Portugal it might be taken to Spain.

Pedro Sarmento is responsible for reintroducing the lynx in Portugal and has studied the Iberian lynx for 30 years.

"As a biologist there are two things that strike me when I'm handling a lynx. It's an animal with a fairly small head for its body and extraordinarily wide paws. That gives them an impulse and ability to jump which are rare."

The breeding programme and the return of the lynx have been hailed as great successes, but as their numbers climb there may be problems too.

As lynxes are often released on private land in Portugal, the organisers of the reproduction programme have to reach an agreement with the owners first.

Where the animals go after that is up to them, and although there have been some attacks on chicken coops, Sarmento says there have not been many.

"This can lead to uneasiness within locals. We've been strengthening the coops so lynxes can't access them, and in some cases we keep monitoring the lynxes and scare them off if needed."

He recounts the story of Lítio, one of the first lynxes released in Portugal.

For six months Lítio stayed in the same area but then the team lost track of him.

He eventually made his way to Doñana, a national park in southern Spain where he had come from originally.

As Lítio was sick, he was treated and then returned to the reproduction team in the Algarve.

Within days of his release from the centre he began heading back to Doñana, swimming across the Guadiana river to reach Spain.

For a time he disappeared, but eventually he was brought back to the Algarve.

When he was released for a third time, Lítio did not venture back to Spain but instead he walked 3km (two miles), found a female and never moved again.

"He is the oldest lynx we have here, and he's fathered plenty of cubs ever since," says Sarmento.

Three decades after Spain decided to save the lynx, the species is no longer endangered, and Sarmento hopes it'll reach a favourable conservation status by 2035.

For that to happen, the numbers need to reach 5,000-6,000 in the wild.

"I saw the species disappearing. It's surreal that we're in a place where we can see lynxes in nature or through camera trapping almost daily," says Sarmento.

The reproduction team are not being complacent and there are risks involved in their work. Last year 80% of lynx deaths took place on the roads.

For now, though, they feel confident the Iberian lynx has been saved.

The government has unveiled a new pledge to cut the list of patients waiting more than 18 weeks for NHS treatment in England by nearly half a million over the next year.

The plan, to be announced on Monday, will expand access to Community Diagnostic Centres and surgical hubs, alongside reforms designed to enhance patient choice and tackle inefficiencies.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it would create millions more appointments and "deliver on our promise to end the backlogs".

The British Medical Association (BMA) has welcomed the plan but was sceptical about whether it could be delivered.

The government has billed the plan as an important milestone in a broader effort to reduce the number of people enduring long waits for appointments, procedures and surgeries.

Sir Keir added: "Greater choice and convenience for patients. Staff once again able to give the standard of care they desperately want to."

A key Labour election pledge, now included in the government's six main priorities, is for 92% of patients to begin treatment or be given the all-clear within 18 weeks by the end of this Parliament.

This has been an official NHS target for some time, but has not been met since 2015. Currently, only 59% of patients meet the 18-week target, with three million people waiting longer.

The latest promise is to reach 65% by March 2026, which, according to the government, would reduce the backlog by more than 450,000.

A network of Community Diagnostic Centres, which provide appointments such as scans and endoscopies in local neighbourhoods, will extend their opening hours to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

The aim is to get patients treated more quickly, closer to home and without relying on hospitals. Officials say these centres will provide up to half a million extra appointments each year.

GPs will also be able, where appropriate, to refer patients directly to these centres without requiring a prior consultation with a senior doctor.

More surgical hubs will be created to focus on common, less complex procedures, such as cataract surgeries and some orthopaedic work. These hubs are ring-fenced from other parts of the hospital to ensure operating theatre time is not lost if there are emergency cases.

The new plan says that one million unnecessary appointments per year will be freed up for patients who need them. This will be made possible by abolishing automatic review appointments after treatment and only offering them to patients who request them.

Officials say the extra appointments created will be in addition to what was promised by Labour before the election. That pledge was for 40,000 more appointments per week, or two million a year, to be created within the first year.

This compares with a normal annual total of more than 100 million appointments. Ministers have confirmed that work on this pledge began soon after the election.

Plans for patients to use the NHS App to monitor and book consultations and test results, with greater control over where they are treated, have already been announced. The goal is to make the system more efficient and reduce the number of missed appointments.

NHS England Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard said: "The radical reforms in this plan will not only allow us to deliver millions more tests, appointments, and operations, but do things differently too – boosting convenience and putting more power in the hands of patients, especially through the NHS app."

The overall waiting list for NHS appointments, procedures, and surgeries in England stands at just under 7.5 million.

No target level has been set in the plan, but ministers say that the waiting list will inevitably fall as measures to meet the 18-week benchmark take effect.

The funding for NHS England has been set for the upcoming year, but the additional money needed to support extra activity in hospitals will be outlined in the government's spending review later this year.

Professor Phil Banfield, chair of the BMA Council, expressed doubt over whether the plan could be delivered.

"Doctors have been just as frustrated as their patients by the lack of facilities to deliver care and want to bring waiting lists down," he said.

"But the reality is that without the workforce to meet constantly rising demand, we will not see the progress we all hope for."

Ed Argar, Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, said it was the Conservatives who "revolutionised" the diagnostic process by rolling out 160 Community Diagnostic Centres.

He said the government's plan is "another announcement that makes clear after 14 years in opposition, the Labour Party have no new ideas of their own for the NHS – despite promising change".

"Patients cannot wait for more dither and delay from the government who promised so much, and so far have delivered so little," he said.

Liberal Democrat MP and health spokesperson Helen Morgan said the plan for waiting lists could risk "putting hip replacements over heart attacks", unless the "crises" in emergency and social care were addressed.

By the end of Monday, Justin Welby will have symbolically laid down his ceremonial staff and relinquished his role as Archbishop of Canterbury.

After spending little time in public since his resignation, Mr Welby is expected to spend his final day leading the Church of England privately at his London base of Lambeth Palace.

His duties will then mainly pass to the Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, until a permanent successor is appointed, a process that is expected to take several months.

It comes as many important changes are being debated by the Church, including on safeguarding - the issue linked to Mr Welby's resignation and one that has led to questions about Mr Cottrell.

On Monday, the feast of Epiphany in the Christian calendar, Mr Welby will attend two services at Lambeth Palace, a Eucharist at lunchtime and Evensong later in the day.

Though his office has not disclosed who will join him at these services, it is expected that he will lay down his crozier at the evening event then formally end his time as archbishop at midnight.

Mr Welby resigned over the Church's handling of the sadistic abuser, John Smyth, who a recently published report said perpetrated brutal sexual, physical and mental abuse against more than 120 boys and young men since the late 1970s.

The report said Mr Welby had "personal and moral responsibility" and that he "could and should have done more" in the case.

After initially resisting calls to step down, he resigned on 12 November saying he did so "in sorrow with all victims and survivors of abuse".

But in early December, abuse victims reacted with "disgust" at a short farewell speech Mr Welby gave at the House of Lords, in which he made jokes. Mr Welby apologised the following day.

Mr Welby did not give a Christmas Day sermon at Canterbury Cathedral and did not broadcast a New Year's Day message, as he usually would through the BBC.

Lambeth Palace said he would not be giving any interviews before leaving his role, which he is doing on Monday on his 69th birthday. He steps down exactly a year earlier than expected.

• Survivors call for further resignations
• Why did an abuse scandal lead to Welby's resignation?
• Church covered up 'abhorrent' abuse, report finds

From midnight on Sunday, some of his duties in London will be carried out by the Bishop of London Sarah Mullally and those in his Canterbury diocese by the Bishop of Dover Rose Hudson-Wilkin.

The bulk of his responsibilities will be carried out by Mr Cottrell, who has himself faced calls to step down over his handling of an abuse case.

Last month, a BBC investigation revealed that in 2010, days after he became Bishop of Chelmsford, Mr Cottrell was told about multiple historical sex abuse allegations against a priest in his charge, David Tudor.

He was also told that the Church and local council had banned Tudor from being left alone with children.

Mr Cottrell said in a statement: "The situation with David Tudor was an awful situation to live with and to manage."

"I want victims and survivors to know that everything was done to understand, assess and manage the risk," it continued.

But under Mr Cottrell, Tudor twice had his contract in the senior post of area dean renewed and in 2015 was made honorary canon of Chelmsford Cathedral.

Tudor was only suspended in 2019 when a new police investigation was launched. Archbishop Cottrell says he acted as soon as he was legally able to.

Although he is taking on the duties of Mr Welby, Mr Cottrell will continue to be based at Bishopthorpe Palace in North Yorkshire. He is expected to be de facto leader of the Church of England until at least the summer.

The 17-member panel that will select the next Archbishop of Canterbury has yet to be formalised. For the first time it will include five members based in the Anglican Church abroad.

This tumultuous period for the Church leadership comes at a time of threats that could fracture the Church at both home and abroad.

Domestically, the issue of blessings for same-sex unions has led to acrimony between different factions within the Church.

Though the option for members of clergy to carry out such blessings was passed in a vote at its national assembly, many remain vehemently opposed to such a move, believing it to be against fundamental Church teaching.

But conversely, some have been upset that there have not been steps taken towards full marriage equality in the Church of England, giving gay couples the same rights in the Church as heterosexual couples.

Work on deciding what form a same-sex union blessing might take in the Church is currently being worked on and some progressives are concerned that the upheaval at the top of the institution might contribute to derailing that.

There have been similar concerns voiced about work on racial justice and on climate action, work that was being ushered through by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

South Korea's suspended president Yoon Suk Yeol remains defiant in his newly-fortified residence, with the arrest warrant over his short-lived martial law order set to expire on Monday.

Yoon's security team, which stopped investigators arresting him on Friday, installed barbed wire and barricaded the compound with buses over the weekend, to prevent another attempt.

Yoon had ignored multiple summonses to appear for questioning on insurrection and abuse of power charges, before investigators showed up at his residence - only to call off their operation after a six-hour standoff with the presidential security service.

Investigators may try to extend their warrant. They told the BBC they have asked the police to execute it, in the hope their efforts carry more weight.

Public anger has spiralled in recent weeks, as thousands of protesters braved heavy snow over the weekend, both in support of and against Yoon.

South Korea has been in crisis for the past month, ever since Yoon tried to impose martial law citing a threat from the North and "anti-state forces". The fallout continues as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Seoul, seeking to stabilise ties ahead of a Donald Trump presidency.

A looming deadline

Time has almost run out for the investigators leading the criminal case against Yoon.

Yoon's lawyers have claimed that his arrest warrant was "illegal" as the anti-corruption investigators did not have the authority to oversee a case as serious as insurrection.

The presidential security team has cited this as a reason for blocking Yoon's arrest - along with the fact that Yoon remains a sitting president until the constitutional court rules on his impeachment.

"For the PSS, whose primary mission is the absolute safety of the president, to comply with the execution of an arrest warrant amidst ongoing legal disputes would be tantamount to abandoning its duty," security service chief Park Jong-joon said on Sunday.

Mr Park denied accusations that his team was serving as a "private militia" for Yoon.

Yoon's lawyers, who on Monday filed complaints against investigators over the arrest attempt, said Yoon has been "practically detained in his residence".

They also filed an injunction against the warrant, which was rejected by the court, and then said they were considering appealing the decision.

Meanwhile, acting president Choi Sang-mok has resisted the opposition's calls to sack key security officials obstructing the arrest.

The BBC understands that opposition lawmakers had asked investigators to try arresting Yoon again, but "more firmly and with sufficient means".

Investigators could also apply for a new detention warrant, which has to be approved by a judge. That would allow Yoon to be detained for up to 20 days, while an arrest warrant only allows him to be held for 48 hours.

But without a change to either the situation or their approach, it seems unlikely investigators or police will be able to make the arrest.

As seen last Friday, they may again be blocked by the presidential security service which formed a "human wall" to protect Yoon. He himself has vowed to "fight to the end", dividing public opinion and spurring on his supporters, who have been demonstrating for days outside his home.

The tense standoff has also raised urgent questions about the robustness and effectiveness of South Korea's political and legal institutions.

Diplomatic headwinds

The situation also has consequences beyond domestic politics.

Up until last month, the Biden administration had sung Yoon's praises, delighted by his willingness to work with Washington to tackle the security threats posed by North Korea and China. The US put a lot of effort into helping South Korea repair its strained relations with Japan, so the three countries could address these issues together.

Mr Blinken's ongoing visit to Seoul, where he will meet South Korean foreign minister Cho Tae-yul on Monday, therefore comes at a difficult time for these two allies.

Yoon did not tell the US about his plans to impose martial law, meaning Washington did not have the chance to dissuade him and was unprepared for the chaos that ensued.

Blinken will not want to be drawn on the current political situation. He will instead want to focus on preserving the trilateral cooperation between Seoul, Washington and Tokyo beyond Biden's tenure.

Speaking during a joint presser on Monday, Blinken said the US had "full confidence" in South Korea's institutions, and reaffirmed the US government's "unwavering support for the Korean people as they work tirelessly to uphold those institutions".

"Over the past four decades Korea has written one of the most powerful, inspiring democratic stories in the world," Blinken said.

Korea's democracy has been tested in recent weeks - just as American democracy has faced challenges throughout our history. But you are responding by demonstrating your democratic resilience."

But it's hard to disentangle the domestic and geopolitical situations. South Korea could be months away from electing a new president, and that leader may well want to break with Yoon's foreign policies.

Trump, who enters the White House in a fortnight, will also pursue his own agenda.

Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi in Seoul

The Golden Globe Awards take place later, with Emilia Pérez, Conclave, Anora and The Brutalist in the running for the top prizes.

Film acting nominees include Zendaya, for tennis drama Challengers, and Timothée Chalamet for his starring role in Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are both up for their roles as sorcery students in Wicked, the musical adaptation of the hit stage show, while Daniel Craig is nominated for 1950s romance Queer, Demi Moore is up for body horror The Substance, and Nicole Kidman for erotic drama Babygirl.

Kate Winslet has two nominations - for Lee, a film about war photojournalist Lee Miller, and for her leading TV role in political satire The Regime. Selena Gomez is also up for two - for the film Emilia Pérez, about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, and TV mystery comedy Only Murders in the Building.

The event marks the first major ceremony of the film awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on 2 March.

The Globes will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, beginning at 01:00 GMT on Monday for UK audiences.

A win at the Globes can help boost a film's profile at a crucial time, when Bafta and Oscar voters are preparing to fill in their nomination ballots.

But the Globes is a much less formal event than the Academy Awards, with celebrities generally in a good mood after the Christmas break, ready to mingle over a few drinks and have fun with their acceptance speeches.

The main film contenders:

• 10 nominations - Emilia Pérez
• 7 - The Brutalist
• 6 - Conclave
• 5 - Anora, The Substance
• 4 - Challengers, A Real Pain, Wicked, The Wild Robot
• The Golden Globe nominees in full

Baby Reindeer, Shogun and The Bear are among the shows competing in the TV categories.

In recent years, the voting body behind the Globes has expanded and diversified its membership and brought in a new code of conduct.

The changes follow a scathing investigation by the LA Times in 2021 which exposed various ethical lapses, such as voters accepting "freebies" from studios and PR agencies lobbying for nominations.

Which films are nominated at the Globes?

The Golden Globes split their film categories by drama and comedy/musical, which allows them to nominate more movies and hand out more prizes than other ceremonies.

The film with the most nominations is Emilia Pérez, a largely Spanish-language musical about a dangerous cartel leader who wants to quit the world of crime and live a new life as a woman.

However, several of its 10 nominations are in the same categories - with two nods in best original song and two in best supporting actress.

Other contenders in the musical/comedy category include Anora, the story of a New York stripper who falls for the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.

The Substance, which sees a woman trade her body for a younger, more beautiful version of herself is also nominated, along with A Real Pain, about two cousins travelling across Poland after the death of their grandmother.

In the drama category, acclaimed historical epic The Brutalist follows a Hungarian architect who tries to build a new life for himself in America following World War Two.

It's up against Conclave, based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, which depicts a group of gossipy and scheming cardinals who gather in Rome to select the new Pope.

Nickel Boys, about two young men forced to attend a reform school in 1960s Florida, and September 5, which dramatises the terror attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics from the perspective of the sports journalists who covered it, are also in the running.

The other drama contenders include the sandy sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two and A Complete Unknown, about Bob Dylan’s rise to fame in the 1960s.

Blockbusters including Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, Inside Out 2, Gladiator II and The Wild Robot will compete for the cinematic and box office achievement award, which was introduced last year to recognise more mainstream films.

Dune: Part Two was not submitted in that category despite its huge financial success, reportedly because the film's producers wanted Globe voters to focus on its artistic merits.

That means if members want to vote for the film, they will have to do so in the main categories.

Which actors are in the running?

There's a much higher chance of an actor being nominated at the Globes, where there are 36 slots available, than at the Oscars, which have 20.

As a result, the Globes are able to lean in to big celebrity names, ensuring their ceremony is well attended by A-listers, not all of whom will necessarily go on to score an Oscar nomination.

British acting nominees this year include Daniel Craig (Queer) Kate Winslet (Lee), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) Hugh Grant (Heretic), Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door) and Felicity Jones (The Brutalist).

They are joined by stars including Angelina Jolie (Maria), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Demi Moore (The Substance), Glen Powell (Hit Man), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) and Zendaya (Challengers).

There are two pop stars in the race - with Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez) both in the running for best supporting actress.

Other well-known nominees include Amy Adams (Nightbitch), Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) and Denzel Washington (Gladiator II).

The supporting actor category will see two former Succession stars go head to head - Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice).

Strong's co-star Sebastian Stan has two nominations - one for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice and one for A Different Man.

But some of the strongest contenders this awards season aren't necessarily Hollywood A-listers, such as relative newcomer Mikey Madison (Anora), Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Brazil's Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) and Russian actor Yura Borisov (Anora).

Away from the top categories, other notable nominees include singer Robbie Williams in the best original song category, for Forbidden Road, from his biopic Better Man.

Two of this year's winners have already been announced: Viola Davis will take home the Cecil B DeMille Award, for outstanding contribution to film, while Ted Danson will be honoured with the Carol Burnett Award, for excellence in television.

Who is hosting the Golden Globes?

The Globes have traditionally had excellent taste in hosts, regularly enlisting an acerbic personality to make cutting jokes about the A-list guests.

They are continuing that model this year with US comic Nikki Glaser, who gave a barnstorming performance at The Roast of Tom Brady last summer.

Glaser said she was "absolutely thrilled" to be hosting the Globes, adding she was looking forward to getting a "front row seat" at "one of my favourite nights in television".

"It's one of the few times that show business not only allows, but encourages itself to be lovingly mocked (at least I hope so). (God I hope so)," she said in a statement.

"Some of my favourite jokes of all time have come from past Golden Globes opening monologues when Tina [Fey], Amy [Poehler] or Ricky [Gervais] have said exactly what we all didn't know we desperately needed to hear.

"I just hope to continue in that time-honoured tradition (that might also get me cancelled). This is truly a dream job."

How to watch the Golden Globes

US viewers can watch the show live on the CBS network, which is airing the Globes as part of a five-year deal.

It will also stream on Paramount+ with Showtime. The ceremony starts at 01:00 GMT and usually lasts between three and four hours.

UK viewers without a VPN can expect to see highlights on social media, YouTube and news bulletins on Monday morning.

A senior Hamas official has shared with the BBC a list of 34 hostages that the Palestinian group says it is willing to release in the first stage of a potential ceasefire agreement with Israel.

It is unclear how many hostages remain alive.

Among those named are 10 women and 11 older male hostages aged between 50 and 85, as well as young children that Hamas previously said had been killed in an Israeli air strike.

A number of hostages that Hamas says are sick are also included on the list.

Reports from Hamas-run Gaza say Israeli air strikes killed more than 100 people there at the weekend.

The Israeli prime minister's office denied reports that Hamas had provided Israel with a list of hostages.

Ceasefire negotiations resumed in Doha, Qatar, over the weekend, but the talks do not appear to have made significant progress yet.

A Hamas official told Reuters news agency any agreement to return Israeli hostages would depend on a deal for Israel to withdraw from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire or end to the war.

"However, until now, the occupation continues to be obstinate over an agreement over the issues of the ceasefire and withdrawal, and has made no step forward," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Earlier, Hamas posted a video of 19-year-old Israeli captive Liri Albag urging her government to make a deal.

She was captured along with six other female conscript soldiers at the Nahal Oz army base on the Gaza border during Hamas's attack on 7 October 2023.

On that day Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.

Israel's military campaign to destroy Hamas had killed at least 45,805 people in Gaza as of Saturday, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The same source says Israeli air strikes killed 88 people in Gaza on Saturday itself while on Sunday, Reuters news agency quoted health sources as saying a further 17 had died in four separate Israeli attacks on the territory.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that its air force had attacked more than 100 "terrorist" sites across the Gaza Strip over the weekend, killing dozens of Hamas militants.

Heavy snow and freezing rain are set to bring considerable disruption across the UK, with an amber weather warning now in force.

Parts of northern England, the Midlands and Wales are forecast to be among the worst hit as adverse weather pushes northwards throughout the night, possibly bringing 20-40cm (7.8-15.7in) of snow in some places.

The Met Office has warned of hazardous travel conditions and told motorists it is "safer not to drive". Power cuts are possible and some rural communities could get cut off.

Less severe yellow weather warnings are also in force covering other areas, including Scotland, Northern Ireland and southern parts of England.

The amber weather warnings in place are:

• A warning for snow and freezing rain covering most of Wales and central England, including the Midlands and the north-west cities of Liverpool and Manchester, until noon on Sunday
• A separate warning for snow covering most of northern England including Leeds, Sheffield and the Lake District from 21:00 GMT on Saturday to midnight on Sunday.

• Your striking pictures of snow and frost across UK

Amber warnings are more serious than yellow warnings and indicate a possible risk to life due to severe weather, as well as more significant travel disruption.

Much of England and Wales is covered by a separate yellow warning for snow and freezing rain into Sunday, though there is uncertainty over how disruptive the adverse weather could be, with milder temperatures forecast.

Most of Northern Ireland, as well as an swathe of northern Scotland, are also covered by yellow warnings for snow and ice.

Prof Liz Bentley, chief executive of the Royal Meteorological Society, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that freezing rain occurs when droplets fall onto surfaces at temperatures below zero degrees and instantly freeze, causing a "glazed ice" on the ground.

• Why does Britain face flight chaos during bad weather?
• What are cold weather payments and who can get them?
• How to keep babies warm during cold weather and other winter tips
• How to drive in snow and icy weather
• How do cold weather health alerts work?
• Does the UK get less snow than it used to?

Snowfall began in western parts of England on Saturday evening, and a zone of wet weather will continue to move northwards across England and Wales overnight, turning readily to snow as it interacts with the cold air that is sitting across the UK.

The heaviest snow is expected in higher parts of Wales, the Midlands and northern England with up to 30-40cm possible over the mountains of north Wales, the Peak District and the Pennines.

At lower levels some disruptive snow is likely but in places this will mix with rain - falling on cold surfaces, leading to the threat of ice.

Cumbria Police said on Saturday afternoon that it had received numerous calls about a multiple-vehicle collision on Wrynose Pass in the Lake District.

Road users in England's north have been warned up to 25cm of snow could hit parts of the network including the A66 Old Spittal, A628 Woodhead Pass and M62 at Windy Hill.

Eastern parts of Northern Ireland could also see a little snow overnight with up to 10cm possible over the hills.

Snow and ice will also affect parts of southern and eastern Scotland through the early hours, with wintry showers in northern Scotland also giving the chance of slippery conditions.

Across southern counties of England and southern Wales any snow is likely to turn back to rain as milder air pushes in - temperatures in parts of south west England could be as high as 12C by the end of the night.

On Sunday further snow is expected to accumulate across parts of northern England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, where it will remain cold.

Heavy rain will be more of an issue across Wales, central and southern England where milder conditions will develop.

Fresh yellow weather warnings will also come into force in some areas on Sunday.

Heavy rain and thawing snow could lead to flooding in some parts of north-west England and Wales, while localised snow and ice warnings cover parts of Scotland where it will remain cold.

Temperatures are forecast to dip again from Monday, and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) amber cold weather health alerts for all of England remain in place.

You can keep up to date with BBC Weather forecasts online and on the app.

Join the BBC Weather Watchers community here.

The Golden Globe Awards take place later, with Emilia Pérez, Conclave, Anora and The Brutalist in the running for the top prizes.

Film acting nominees include Zendaya, for tennis drama Challengers, and Timothée Chalamet for his starring role in Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown.

Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are both up for their roles as sorcery students in Wicked, the musical adaptation of the hit stage show, while Daniel Craig is nominated for 1950s romance Queer, Demi Moore is up for body horror The Substance, and Nicole Kidman for erotic drama Babygirl.

Kate Winslet has two nominations - for Lee, a film about war photojournalist Lee Miller, and for her leading TV role in political satire The Regime. Selena Gomez is also up for two - for the film Emilia Pérez, about a Mexican drug lord who changes gender, and TV mystery comedy Only Murders in the Building.

The event marks the first major ceremony of the film awards season, which culminates with the Oscars on 2 March.

The Globes will be held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles on Sunday evening, beginning at 01:00 GMT on Monday for UK audiences.

A win at the Globes can help boost a film's profile at a crucial time, when Bafta and Oscar voters are preparing to fill in their nomination ballots.

But the Globes is a much less formal event than the Academy Awards, with celebrities generally in a good mood after the Christmas break, ready to mingle over a few drinks and have fun with their acceptance speeches.

The main film contenders:

• 10 nominations - Emilia Pérez
• 7 - The Brutalist
• 6 - Conclave
• 5 - Anora, The Substance
• 4 - Challengers, A Real Pain, Wicked, The Wild Robot
• The Golden Globe nominees in full

Baby Reindeer, Shogun and The Bear are among the shows competing in the TV categories.

In recent years, the voting body behind the Globes has expanded and diversified its membership and brought in a new code of conduct.

The changes follow a scathing investigation by the LA Times in 2021 which exposed various ethical lapses, such as voters accepting "freebies" from studios and PR agencies lobbying for nominations.

Which films are nominated at the Globes?

The Golden Globes split their film categories by drama and comedy/musical, which allows them to nominate more movies and hand out more prizes than other ceremonies.

The film with the most nominations is Emilia Pérez, a largely Spanish-language musical about a dangerous cartel leader who wants to quit the world of crime and live a new life as a woman.

However, several of its 10 nominations are in the same categories - with two nods in best original song and two in best supporting actress.

Other contenders in the musical/comedy category include Anora, the story of a New York stripper who falls for the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.

The Substance, which sees a woman trade her body for a younger, more beautiful version of herself is also nominated, along with A Real Pain, about two cousins travelling across Poland after the death of their grandmother.

In the drama category, acclaimed historical epic The Brutalist follows a Hungarian architect who tries to build a new life for himself in America following World War Two.

It's up against Conclave, based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, which depicts a group of gossipy and scheming cardinals who gather in Rome to select the new Pope.

Nickel Boys, about two young men forced to attend a reform school in 1960s Florida, and September 5, which dramatises the terror attack on the 1972 Munich Olympics from the perspective of the sports journalists who covered it, are also in the running.

The other drama contenders include the sandy sci-fi sequel Dune: Part Two and A Complete Unknown, about Bob Dylan’s rise to fame in the 1960s.

Blockbusters including Deadpool & Wolverine, Twisters, Inside Out 2, Gladiator II and The Wild Robot will compete for the cinematic and box office achievement award, which was introduced last year to recognise more mainstream films.

Dune: Part Two was not submitted in that category despite its huge financial success, reportedly because the film's producers wanted Globe voters to focus on its artistic merits.

That means if members want to vote for the film, they will have to do so in the main categories.

Which actors are in the running?

There's a much higher chance of an actor being nominated at the Globes, where there are 36 slots available, than at the Oscars, which have 20.

As a result, the Globes are able to lean in to big celebrity names, ensuring their ceremony is well attended by A-listers, not all of whom will necessarily go on to score an Oscar nomination.

British acting nominees this year include Daniel Craig (Queer) Kate Winslet (Lee), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) Hugh Grant (Heretic), Tilda Swinton (The Room Next Door) and Felicity Jones (The Brutalist).

They are joined by stars including Angelina Jolie (Maria), Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), Demi Moore (The Substance), Glen Powell (Hit Man), Timothée Chalamet (A Complete Unknown) and Zendaya (Challengers).

There are two pop stars in the race - with Ariana Grande (Wicked) and Selena Gomez (Emilia Pérez) both in the running for best supporting actress.

Other well-known nominees include Amy Adams (Nightbitch), Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing) and Denzel Washington (Gladiator II).

The supporting actor category will see two former Succession stars go head to head - Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Jeremy Strong (The Apprentice).

Strong's co-star Sebastian Stan has two nominations - one for playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice and one for A Different Man.

But some of the strongest contenders this awards season aren't necessarily Hollywood A-listers, such as relative newcomer Mikey Madison (Anora), Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón (Emilia Pérez), Brazil's Fernanda Torres (I'm Still Here) and Russian actor Yura Borisov (Anora).

Away from the top categories, other notable nominees include singer Robbie Williams in the best original song category, for Forbidden Road, from his biopic Better Man.

Two of this year's winners have already been announced: Viola Davis will take home the Cecil B DeMille Award, for outstanding contribution to film, while Ted Danson will be honoured with the Carol Burnett Award, for excellence in television.

Who is hosting the Golden Globes?

The Globes have traditionally had excellent taste in hosts, regularly enlisting an acerbic personality to make cutting jokes about the A-list guests.

They are continuing that model this year with US comic Nikki Glaser, who gave a barnstorming performance at The Roast of Tom Brady last summer.

Glaser said she was "absolutely thrilled" to be hosting the Globes, adding she was looking forward to getting a "front row seat" at "one of my favourite nights in television".

"It's one of the few times that show business not only allows, but encourages itself to be lovingly mocked (at least I hope so). (God I hope so)," she said in a statement.

"Some of my favourite jokes of all time have come from past Golden Globes opening monologues when Tina [Fey], Amy [Poehler] or Ricky [Gervais] have said exactly what we all didn't know we desperately needed to hear.

"I just hope to continue in that time-honoured tradition (that might also get me cancelled). This is truly a dream job."

How to watch the Golden Globes

US viewers can watch the show live on the CBS network, which is airing the Globes as part of a five-year deal.

It will also stream on Paramount+ with Showtime. The ceremony starts at 01:00 GMT and usually lasts between three and four hours.

UK viewers without a VPN can expect to see highlights on social media, YouTube and news bulletins on Monday morning.

The new year in politics starts with the bang of a billionaire with a bigger mouth than his bank balance.

Elon Musk has been lobbing almost as many digital darts over the Atlantic as Luke Littler has the real things in the last couple of days.

The world's richest man has been sounding off in the strongest possible terms about the prime minister for almost as long as Sir Keir Starmer has been in Downing Street.

In recent days, the focus has been on child sexual exploitation and Musk's allegation that the prime minister was "complicit in the rape of Britain" when he was Director of Public Prosecutions by failing to deal with the scandal.

I'm told Sir Keir "will not want to get into a food fight with Musk" but will make a robust defence of his time as chief prosecutor.

He is also keen to emphasise the importance of political debate being grounded in verifiable facts and that Musk is making claims that are "blatantly untrue" as one source put it. Sources point, for instance, to those defending the Prime Minister's record as DPP.

Those in government also point to the local inquiries there have been into the abuse and rape of vulnerable young girls by groups of men mainly of Pakistani descent – and the national inquiry conducted by Professor Alexis Jay.

The Conservatives, Reform and Elon Musk have each expressed varying degrees of outrage in recent days that the government has said no to a public inquiry into the scandal.

But few expected this weekend's twist: that within hours of the Reform leader Nigel Farage describing Musk as a "hero" who "makes us look cool," the X owner said Reform needed a new leader as Farage "doesn't have what it takes".

"It's not been the perfect day," said one Reform figure with a splash of understatement and a smile. "We probably do look a bit silly."

Farage's repeated statements distancing himself from the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley Lennon, who calls himself Tommy Robinson, appear to be at the heart of the spat.

Reform hadn't seen this coming. Just weeks ago they were talking up the prospect of a big money donation from Elon Musk – but are now trying to put the best spin on things.

"Nigel is not for sale," is how one senior party figure put it to me, saying this showed that the Reform leader was willing to stand up to anybody, including the richest man in the world.

Another said that if Reform were to be treated as a serious political outfit - and remember, Nigel Farage has said he wants to win the next general election - that means robustly and consistently rejecting any association with Robinson, whatever the consequences.

The one politician to attract some praise from Elon Musk, for now at least, is the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, for her calls for a public inquiry into child sexual abuse.

Badenoch sees the scandal as a case study in what she sees as our broken politics.

For Badenoch, 2025 will be a crucial year as she fights to rebuild her party and fights for attention – not easy, when Nigel Farage is around.

She got yet another taste of that over Christmas in a very public row with him over party membership numbers: Badenoch suggested Reform's claim on Boxing Day to have overtaken the Tories' membership numbers were "fake" as their tally was automatically rising.

Reform invited journalists to verify that this was not the case and the Financial Times among others concluded there was "strong evidence" the party's tally was accurate.

In the coming weeks, we can expect to hear from Badenoch about the so-called Policy Commissions she is setting up, and who will lead them.

It will be worth keeping an eye too on the man she beat to the leadership, Robert Jenrick, who hasn't exactly gone quietly.

He is her shadow justice secretary but his willingness to carry on campaigning almost as if the leadership race was still on is irking some senior Tories, who want him to stay in his lane on policy and not stray all over the place talking about whatever he likes.

As for the prime minister, a bruising first six months into office and with noises off at home and abroad, his big hope is delivery.

He is forgoing the usual new year big picture speech as his team feel he did just that with his big speech last month.

Instead, he is focusing on a specific promise: getting hospital waiting lists down in England.

He will do similar style events and visits in the coming weeks on the government's other big promises.

So here goes with politics in 2025.

We are not even a week in and it is proving lively already.

One of the UK's most promising new guitar bands, English Teacher, have kicked off the countdown of the top five on the BBC's annual list of music's rising stars.

The Leeds quartet have been voted in fifth place in BBC Radio 1's Sound of 2025 poll – with a panel of 180 music industry experts choosing them as one of the acts with "the best chance of mainstream success" in the next 12 months.

They got well on their way last year. In September, the band beat pop stars like Charli XCX and CMAT to win the Mercury Prize for their debut album, This Could Be Texas.

The record deals in sharp portraits of life in sleepy northern towns, where the background hum of racism, loneliness and deprivation is thrown into sharp relief by sublime scenery and lifelong friendships.

Their music, meanwhile, is constantly surprising – full of shifting time signatures, needle-point guitar riffs and soaring melodies that are simultaneously odd and captivating.

"We never really set out with an aim to create something specific," says guitarist Lewis Whiting. "But, that's the fun part, right? Trying to make something new and interesting."

They say the acclaim they've received so far still doesn't feel real. "Where we come from, this just doesn't happen," says frontwoman Lily Fontaine.

"I keep telling people that I feel like I'm living in a simulation."

"It does feel dream-like," adds Whiting.

"Best year of my life, craziest year of my life."

Over the last 12 months, the group have played more than 100 gigs in 16 countries, rising steadily up festival bills as they go, and surviving on "willpower, laughter and Red Bull".

Along the way, they told journalists their origin story more times than they care to count. Eventually, they got tired of the "boring" reality (they met studying music at Leeds Conservatoire) and started inventing less prosaic stories.

"We said we were distant relatives who met at a wedding 20 years ago in Leeds," laughs Fontaine.

"They put us at the odd table. We were sort of like the outcasts," adds Whiting, continuing the story.

"But we really clicked," says Fontaine. "We started talking about Shakira and how we wanted to be like her, then they played Hips Don't Lie at the disco and we said, 'We should start a band'."

English Teacher, it should be noted, sound nothing like Shakira. They started out as a dream-pop outfit called Frank and, after the addition of Whiting on guitar, began to lean into a more angular, post-punk sound.

Key references include Radiohead, Sonic Youth and Pavement. "But, famously, we don't agree on our favourite bands," says Whiting.

The quartet released their first single, The World's Biggest Paving Slab, in 2020.

Like many of their songs, it draws inspiration from Fontaine's hometown of Colne in Lancashire, where the titular paving stone resides outside the town hall.

The lyrics reference a host of local heroes – from Life On Mars actor John Simm to novelist Charlotte Bronte – juxtaposing the colour and vigour of the town's history against the social problems it faces in the current day.

It's an itch she continues to scratch throughout the band's catalogue, addressing social deprivation and political mismanagement ("Can the river stop its banks from bursting? / Blame the council, not the rain") alongside themes of identity, self-doubt and emotional turbulence.

Incredibly, she only started writing relatively recently. As a teenager, she'd been in a wedding band with her friend, playing Amy Winehouse and Adele covers. She didn't consider composing until she applied for university.

"I wrote my first song for the audition," she recalls. "It was awful, but it worked. I got a place to study singing and performance, but I very quickly switched to composition, because I was suddenly spending all my time writing songs."

Defying convention

During that period, English Teacher's members – completed by drummer Douglas Frost and bassist Nicholas Eden – circled each other on Leeds' live music scene, playing with various other bands before settling on their current line-up.

Their breakthrough came with the 2021 single R&B, where Fontaine addresses the challenge of being a woman of colour fronting an indie band: ("Despite appearances, I haven't got the voice for R&B").

It's a perception she struggled with herself as a teenager, frustrated that she wasn't capable of "the kind of the vocal runs that the black singers I looked up to were able to do".

As a frontwoman, she developed her own style – a droll mixture of sprechgesang and her fluttering, airy upper register. But she still encountered prejudice.

"There'd be times where I told people that I made music, and they'd give a certain expression when I said that it was guitar music or it was indie music," she says.

"There were a lot of small comments after gigs. People would come up and say, 'Oh, that's not what I was expecting at all'," adds Whiting.

Fontaine is careful not to make too big an issue of it. "I think I've got a lot of privilege, because I'm quite a light skinned woman of colour," she says.

"I think if I was dark skinned it would be even harder - but it did affect me, not seeing people who looked like me in bands.

"I think it made me start a band later in life. Maybe I would have started when I was a teenager, and not when I was leaving university."

English Teacher's early songs gained an audience during the first wave of the Covid pandemic – which meant they didn't get to play a gig together until the lockdown ended.

Their first show was as part of an all-day mini festival in May 2021, where the audience still had to be seated and socially distanced.

"Those first gigs were kind of jarring," Whiting recalls. "It was quite strange because everything up 'til then felt very online, which doesn't feel as tangible. And then when you go and play a gig, it's like, 'Yeah, this is actually going somewhere.'"

"We were so nervous, too," says Fontaine. "I feel like it was only late into 2023 that we really found our confidence."

By that point, they were deep into recording their debut album with Italian producer Marta Salogni (Bjork, Depeche Mode, MIA) – including new, more polished versions of R&B and The World's Biggest Paving Slab.

The band say they put "immense pressure" on themselves to perfect the record, fixating on its push-pull dynamics, adding extra layers of context, and experimenting with new instruments.

"It was an intense time in our personal lives, trying to get it finished and out. We gave a lot to it," says Whiting.

"Recording your first album is just a huge opportunity," continues Fontaine. "I think we were very aware of that."

The hard work paid off.

Record Collector Magazine called This Could Be Texas "one of the most confident and charismatic debuts in years". The Mercury Prize judges said the band's "winning lyrical mix of surrealism and social observation... displays a fresh approach to the traditional guitar band format".

The quartet are endearingly amazed that anyone paid attention at all.

"I wasn't sure that it would connect with people, because the lyrics are quite specific to the area I grew up in," says Fontaine.

Instead, it was the bigger themes – of leaving home and finding your place in a world that's "going up in flames" – that helped them find an ever-growing audience.

On The World's Biggest Paving Slab, Fontaine mockingly describes herself as "the world's smallest celebrity" – a lyric that's rapidly becoming obsolete.

"I'm not the smallest, but certainly not the biggest," she laughs.

"In the alphabet of celebrity, I'm probably on the X-list."

One act from the BBC Sound of 2025 top five will be revealed on Radio 1 and BBC News every day this week, culminating with the winner on Friday.

Prof Alexis Jay, the former chair of a national inquiry into child sexual abuse, has called for the "full implementation" of reforms set out in her 2022 report, which warned of "endemic" abuse across society in England and Wales.

A campaign group chaired by Prof Jay, called Act on IICSA, said ministers must commit to a "clear timeline" to adopt the recommendations laid out by the Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA). The government says it supports the changes.

The group warned against "politicising" sexual violence and pushed back against "misinformation".

Prof Jay also distanced herself from calls from the Conservatives and Reform UK for a new inquiry into grooming gangs.

The IICSA national inquiry was set up in 2015 and carried out 15 investigations, including into grooming gangs and abuse in schools and church settings.

Prof Jay had previously led a landmark local inquiry into widescale abuse in Rotherham, where it was estimated 1,400 children were exploited between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by men of Pakistani heritage.

The IICSA's final report was published in 2022 and set out 20 recommendations it said were necessary to reduce child suffering.

They included setting up a national child protection authority, implementing tighter controls on who can work with vulnerable children, legislating to force tech firms to take stronger action over online abuse material and making not reporting abuse a criminal offence.

In a statement issued on Sunday, Act on IICSA said: "Politicising the issue of sexual violence fails to acknowledge its lifelong impact and hinders the implementation of vital and urgent overhaul to our systems required."

Prof Jay said: "Our mission is not to call for new inquiries but to advocate for the full implementation of IICSA's recommendations."

She has previously said she was "frustrated" at the previous Conservative government's lack of progress in adopting the recommendations, and described its response as "weak", which the Home Office disputed at the time.

On Sunday, Act on IICSA also said recent media coverage of child sexual abuse has highlighted a "troubling trend of misinformation that undermines the true scale of the crisis and the pressing need for reform".

Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the government was prioritising "getting on with" implementing the recommendations.

Prof Jay's comments came after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called for a national public inquiry into the UK's "rape gangs scandal" on Thursday, which Reform leader Nigel Farage also supports.

The issue of grooming gangs was put back in the spotlight after Home Office minister Jess Phillips rejected Oldham Council's request for a government-led inquiry into historical child sexual exploitation in the town, in favour of a locally-led investigation.

That decision was criticised by senior Tory and Reform figures, while billionaire Elon Musk also fuelled online anger over the move in a series of posts on social media.

More Vietnamese attempted small-boat Channel crossings in the first half of 2024 than any other nationality. Yet they are coming from one of the world's fastest-growing economies. Why, then, are so many risking their lives to reach Britain?

Phuong looked at the small inflatable boat and wondered whether she should step in. There were 70 people packed in, and it was sitting low in the water. She recalls the fear, exhaustion and desperation on their faces. There weren't enough lifejackets to go around.

But Phuong was desperate. She says she had been stuck in France for two months, after travelling there from Vietnam via Hungary, sleeping in tents in a scrubby forest.

Already she had refused to travel on one boat because it seemed dangerously overcrowded, and previously had been turned back in the middle of the Channel three times by bad weather or engine failure.

Her sister, Hien, lives in London, and recalls that Phuong used to phone her from France in tears. "She was torn between fear and a drive to keep going.

"But she had borrowed so much - around £25,000 - to fund this trip. Turning back wasn't an option." So, she climbed on board.

Today Phuong lives in London with her sister, without any legal status. She was too nervous to speak to us directly, and Phuong is not her real name. She left it to her sister, who is now a UK citizen, to describe her experiences.

In the six months to June, Vietnamese made up the largest number of recorded small boat arrivals with 2,248 landing in the UK, ahead of people from countries with well-documented human rights problems, including Afghanistan and Iran.

The extraordinary efforts made by Vietnamese migrants to get to Britain is well documented, and in 2024 the BBC reported on how Vietnamese syndicates are running successful people-smuggling operations.

It is not without significant risks. Some Vietnamese migrants end up being trafficked into sex work or illegal marijuana farms. They make up more than one-tenth of those in the UK filing official claims that they are victims of modern slavery.

And yet Vietnam is a fast-growing economy, acclaimed as a "mini-China" for its manufacturing prowess. Per capita income is eight times higher than it was 20 years ago. Add to that the tropical beaches, scenery and affordability, which have made it a magnet for tourists.

So what is it that makes so many people desperate to leave?

A tale of two Vietnams

Vietnam, a one-party Communist state, sits near the bottom of most human rights and freedom indexes. No political opposition is permitted. The few dissidents who raise their voices are harassed and jailed.

Yet most Vietnamese have learned to live with the ruling party, which leans for legitimacy on its record of delivering growth. Very few who go to Britain are fleeing repression.

Nor are the migrants generally fleeing poverty. The World Bank has singled Vietnam out for its almost unrivalled record of poverty reduction among its 100 million people.

Rather, they are trying to escape what some call "relative deprivation".

Despite its impressive economic record, Vietnam started far behind most of its Asian neighbours, with growth only taking off well after the end of the Cold War in 1989. As a result, average wages, at around £230 a month, are much lower than in nearby countries like Thailand, and three-quarters of the 55-million-strong workforce are in informal jobs, with no security or social protection.

"There is a huge disparity between big cities like Hanoi and rural areas," says Nguyen Khac Giang, a Vietnamese academic at the Institute of South East Asian Studies-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. "For a majority of workers with limited skills, there is a glass ceiling. Even if you work 14 hours a day you cannot save enough to build a house or start a family."

This was what Phuong felt, despite coming from Haiphong, Vietnam's third-largest city.

Her sister Hien had made it to Britain nine years earlier, smuggled inside a shipping container. It had cost her around £22,000 but she was able to pay that back in two years, working long hours in kitchens and nail salons. Hien married a Vietnamese man who already had British citizenship, and they had a daughter; all three are now UK citizens.

In Haiphong, jobs were scarce after the pandemic and at 38 years old, Phuong wanted what her sister had in London: the ability to save money and start a family.

"She could survive in Vietnam, but she wanted a home, a better life, with more security," explains Hien.

Lan An Hoang, a professor in development studies at Melbourne University, has spent years studying migration patterns. "Twenty to thirty years ago, the urge to migrate overseas was not as strong, because everyone was poor," she says. "People were happy with one buffalo, one motorbike and three meals a day.

"Suddenly a few people successfully migrated to countries like Germany or the UK, to work on cannabis farms or open nail salons. They started to send a lot of money home. Even though the economic conditions of those left behind have not changed, they feel poor relative to all these families with migrants working in Europe."

'Catch up, get rich'

This tradition of seeking better lives overseas goes back to the 1970s and 80s, when Vietnam was allied to the Soviet Union following the defeat of US forces in the south.

The state-led economy had hit rock bottom. Millions were destitute; some areas suffered food shortages. Tens of thousands left to work in eastern bloc countries like Poland, East Germany and Hungary.

This was also a time when 800,000 mainly ethnic Chinese boat people fled the communist party's repressive actions, making perilous sea journeys across the South China Sea, eventually resettling in the USA, Australia or Europe.

The economic hardships of that time threatened the legitimacy of the communist party, and in 1986 it made an abrupt turn, abandoning the attempt to build a socialist system and throwing the doors open to global markets. The new theme of Vietnam's national story was to catch up, and get rich, any way possible. For many Vietnamese, that meant going abroad.

"Money is God in Vietnam," says Lan An Hoang. "The meaning of 'the good life' is primarily anchored in your ability to accumulate wealth. There is also a strong obligation to help your family, especially in central Vietnam.

"That is why the whole extended family pools resources to finance the migration of one young person because they believe they can send back large sums of money, and facilitate the migration of other people."

New money: spoils of migration

Drive through the flat rice fields of Nghe An, one of Vietnam's poorer provinces lying south of Hanoi, and where there were once smaller concrete houses, you will now find large, new houses with gilded gates. More are under construction, thanks, in part, to money earned in the West.

The new houses are prominent symbols of success for returnees who have done well overseas.

Vietnam is now enjoying substantial inflows of foreign investment, as it is considered an alternative to China for companies wanting to diversify their supply chains. This investment is even beginning to reach places like Nghe An, too.

Foxconn, a corporate giant that manufactures iPhones, is one of several foreign businesses building factories in Nghe An, offering thousands of new jobs.

But monthly salaries for unskilled workers only reach around £300, even with overtime. That is not enough to rival the enticing stories of the money to be made in the UK, as told by the people smugglers.

From travel agents to labour brokers

The business of organising the travel for those wishing to leave the province is now a very profitable one. Publicly, companies present themselves as either travel agents or brokers for officially-approved overseas labour contracts, but in practice many also offer to smuggle people to the UK via other European countries. They usually paint a rosy picture of life in Britain, and say little about the risks and hardships they will face.

"Brokers" typically charge between £15,000 and £35,000 for the trip to the UK. Hungary is a popular route into the EU because it offers guest-worker visas to Vietnamese passport holders. The higher the price, the easier and faster the journey.

The communist authorities in Vietnam have been urged by the US, the UK and UN agencies to do more to control the smuggling business.

Remittances from abroad earn Vietnam around £13bn a year, and the government has a policy of promoting migration for work, although only through legal channels, mostly to richer Asian countries.

More than 130,000 Vietnamese workers left in 2024 under the official scheme. But the fees for these contracts can be high, and the wages are much lower than they can earn in Britain.

The huge risks of the illicit routes used to reach the UK were brought home in 2019, when 39 Vietnamese people were found dead in Essex, having suffocated while being transported inside a sealed container across the Channel.

Yet this has not noticeably reduced demand for the smugglers' services. The increased scrutiny of container traffic has, however, pushed them to find alternative Channel crossings, which helps explain the sharp rise in Vietnamese people using small boats.

'Success stories outweigh the risks'

"The tragedy of the 39 deaths in 2019 is almost forgotten," says the cousin of one of the victims, Le Van Ha. He left behind a wife, two young children and a large debt from the cost of the journey. His cousin, who does not want to be named, says attitudes in their community have not changed.

"People hardly care anymore. It's a sad reality, but it is the truth.

"I see the trend of leaving continuing to grow, not diminish. For people here, the success stories still outweigh the risks."

Three of the victims came from the agricultural province of Quang Binh. The headteacher of a secondary school in the region, who also asked not to be named, says that 80% of his students who graduate soon plan to go overseas.

"Most parents here come from low-income backgrounds," he explains. "The idea of [encouraging their child to] broaden their knowledge and develop their skills is not the priority.

"For them, sending a child abroad is largely about earning money quickly, and getting it sent back home to improve the family's living standards."

In March the UK Home Office started a social media campaign to deter Vietnamese people from illegal migration. Some efforts were also made by the Vietnamese government to alert people to the risks of using people-smugglers. But until there are more appealing economic opportunities in those provinces, it is likely the campaigns will have little impact.

"They cannot run these campaigns just once," argues Diep Vuong, co-founder of Pacific Links, an anti-trafficking organisation. "It's a constant investment in education that's needed."

She has first-hand experience, leaving Vietnam to the US in 1980 as part of the exodus of Vietnamese boat people.

"In Vietnam, people believe they have to work hard, to do everything for their families. That is like a shackle which they cannot easily escape. But with enough good information put out over the years, they might start to change this attitude."

But the campaigns are up against a powerful narrative. Those who go overseas and fail – and many do – are often ashamed, and keep quiet about what went wrong. Those who succeed come back to places like Nghe An and flaunt their new-found wealth. As for the tragedy of the 39 people who died in a shipping container, the prevailing view in Nghe An is still that they were just unlucky.

Top image credit: Getty Images

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Ukraine has launched a fresh offensive in Russia's Kursk region, the Russian Defence Ministry says.

In a statement, the military said efforts to destroy the Ukrainian attack groups are ongoing. Officials in Ukraine have also suggested an operation is under way.

Ukraine first launched its incursion into Russia's Kursk region in August last year, seizing a large chunk of territory.

In recent months, Russian forces have made big gains in the area, pushing the Ukrainians back, but failing to eject them entirely.

In a statement posted on Telegram on Sunday, Russia's defence ministry said: "At around 9am Moscow time, in order to stop the offensive by the Russian troops in the Kursk direction, the enemy launched a counter-attack by an assault detachment consisting of two tanks, one counter-obstacle vehicle, and 12 armoured fighting vehicles."

The head of Ukraine's presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said there "was good news from Kursk Region" and that Russia was "getting what it deserves".

Ukraine's top counter-disinformation official Andriy Kovalenko said in a Telegram post on Sunday: "The Russians in Kursk are experiencing great anxiety because they were attacked from several directions and it came as a surprise to them."

It's unclear whether the offensive is sufficiently large-scale to lead to any significant changes on the frontline.

Kyiv's forces are reportedly suffering from manpower shortages and have been losing ground in the east of Ukraine in recent months, as Russian troops advance.

It comes as the Ukrainian Air Force said Russia launched another drone attack on Ukraine overnight.

It said it had shot down 61 drones over Kyiv, Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, and Khmelnytskyy regions

There were no direct hits, but a few houses were damaged in Kharkiv Region by an intercepted drone, the air force said.

In November, Ukraine reported its troops had engaged in combat with North Korean troops in the Kursk region.

The appearance of North Korean soldiers was in response to a surprise attack launched across the border by Ukrainian troops in August, advancing up to 18 miles (30km) into Russian land.

Moscow evacuated almost 200,000 people from areas along the border and President Vladimir Putin condemned the Ukrainian offensive as a "major provocation".

After a fortnight, Ukraine's top commander claimed to control more than 1,200 sq km of Russian territory and 93 villages.

Some of that territory has been regained by Russia but Ukraine still has troops in the Kursk region.