US-Ukraine talks will be held in Saudi Arabia next week, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said, expressing hopes that it will be "a meaningful meeting".

The Ukrainian leader, who will be in the Gulf kingdom but not take part in the talks, said Kyiv was working to reach a "fast and lasting" peace.

US President Donald Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, said the American team wanted to discuss a "framework" for peace to try to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Last Friday, Zelensky and Trump were involved in a public clash at the White House - during which Trump said Zelensky was not ready to end the fighting. The US proceeded to pause military aid to Ukraine and stop sharing intelligence.

The Ukrainian president has expressed regret about the incident and tried to repair relations with the US - the country's biggest military supplier.

On Thursday, Witkoff said Trump had received a letter from Zelensky that included an "apology" and "sense of gratitude".

"Hopefully, we get things back on track with the Ukrainians, and everything resumes," Witkoff said.

Zelensky has been under strong US pressure to make concessions ahead of any peace talks, while the Ukrainian president has been pushing for firm security guarantees for Kyiv.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and now controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.

• Zelensky's conciliatory letter to Trump suggests he's out of options
• How the Trump-Zelensky talks collapsed in 10 fiery minutes
• Timeline of Trump and Zelensky's fraying relationship
• What pausing US intel means for Ukraine

Zelensky announced the US-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia in a series of posts on social media, after attending Thursday's crisis summit in Brussels where European Union leaders endorsed plans for a boost in defence spending.

"Ukrainian and American teams have resumed work, and we hope that next week we will have a meaningful meeting," he wrote on X.

"Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first moment of the war, and we have always stated that the war continues solely because of Russia."

Zelensky urged the global community to put more pressure on Moscow so it "accepts the need to end" the war.

He also made an apparent reference to a truce plan outlined earlier this week by French President Emmanuel Macron, which proposed a ceasefire in the air and at sea, and an end to attacks on energy and other civilian infrastructure.

Russia has not publicly commented on the French proposals.

On Thursday, Putin said Moscow was seeking a peace "that would ensure calmness for our country in the long-term perspective.

"We don't need anything that belongs to others, but we won't give up anything that belongs to us either," the Kremlin leader added.

Russia annexed Ukraine's southern Crimea peninsula in 2014, and claims another four Ukrainian regions in the south-east as its own - although Moscow doesn't fully control them.

Ukraine and its European allies have in recent weeks expressed alarm over what many on the continent see as Donald Trump's overtures to Russia.

Trump vowed during the US election campaign to bring the war to an end quickly, and preliminary US-Russian talks were held in Saudi Arabia last month - without European or Ukrainian representatives present.

The US's decision to halt its military aid Ukraine has been cast by Trump administration officials as a means of getting Kyiv to co-operate with the US-led peace talks.

Any corresponding pressure the US has been putting on Moscow to make concessions has not been made public.

US President Donald Trump has said Mexico will not be required to pay tariffs on goods that come under the trade pact between the two countries and Canada until 2 April.

Trump has not confirmed if the suspension also applies to Canada, but Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said earlier on Thursday he was hopeful the reprieve would apply to both of America's neighbours.

The latest move is the second climbdown in two days from Trump on his tariffs.

On Wednesday he said he would temporarily spare carmakers from 25% import taxes just a day after they came into effect.

Lutnick told CNBC the temporary exemption of tariffs for car part imports from Canada and Mexico could be extended to all products that are part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

The USMCA was established during Trump's first term of office. Its 34 chapters covered cars, dairy and lumber amongst other things, and the agreement included a review every six years.

On Thursday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that Mexico would be exempt until 2 April.

"After speaking with President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico, I have agreed that Mexico will not be required to pay Tariffs on anything that falls under the USMCA Agreement," he said.

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King Charles III is launching a personal playlist of music that lifts his sprits and brings back important memories, including Bob Marley, Kylie Minogue and Grace Jones.

He was photographed at Buckingham Palace for the music project, the King's Music Room, with an "on air" sign on the desk of the royal DJ.

A video trailer shows the band for the changing of the guard outside the palace playing Bob Marley's Could You Be Loved, in a project to celebrate music from Commonwealth countries.

"So this is what I particularly wanted to share - songs which have brought me joy," the King said.

"Throughout my life, music has meant a great deal to me," the King says in the video launching the project, which is a partnership with Apple Music.

"I know that is also the case for so many others.

"It has that remarkable ability to bring happy memories flooding back from the deepest recesses of our memory, to comfort us in times of sadness, and to take us to distant places.

"But perhaps, above all, it can lift our spirits to such a degree, and all the more so when it brings us together in celebration.

"In other words, it brings us joy."

The full choice of tracks, with more royal commentary, will be published on Monday, for Commonwealth Day.

As well as as reggae from Marley and dance music from Minogue, there are expected to be contributions from Nigerian-American singer-songwriter Davido and British singer-songwriter Raye.

Marley's message

The King saw Raye at a concert at a Christmas market at the former Battersea Power Station, where Apple has its London headquarters.

The project is intended to be a different approach to Commonwealth Day, which sees the Royal Family gathering for a service in Westminster Abbey.

It will reflect the King's musical interests through his life, ranging from 1930s crooners to Afrobeat stars.

He is also expected to share anecdotes about some of the artists and reveals why the songs help form the soundtrack to his life.

"This seemed such an interesting and innovative way to celebrate this year's Commonwealth Day," the King said.

He has a longstanding interest in Marley and has visited the singer's former home in Jamaica, which has been turned into a museum.

And outside the palace windows, the band played Marley's message: "Don't let them change ya, oh! Or even rearrange ya! Oh, no!"

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A widow whose husband was caught up in the Post Office Horizon scandal is calling for compensation payments for victims to be speeded up after she received her husband's offer of redress days after he passed away.

Terry Walters, who was 77, died last month after years of ill health. He was one of the former sub-postmasters who took the Post Office to court in the landmark case led by Sir Alan Bates, which helped expose the scandal.

Despite submitting a claim for full financial redress more than a year ago, he died without receiving all the money he was owed.

The government says it has doubled the amount of payments made to former sub-postmasters.

Days after losing Terry, his widow Janet received a letter making an offer of compensation – far below the amount the couple had claimed.

She describes the offer as a "slap in the face," and says it's prompted her to share their story publicly for the first time.

"Enough is enough."

Terry used redundancy money to take over the Hockley Post Office in Stockport in 2005. But less than two years later he was suspended for alleged shortfalls. He was never allowed back behind his counter again and his contract was terminated the following year for thousands of pounds of losses that didn't exist.

He and his wife Janet had to sell their home and have been living in rented accommodation ever since.

"To have a big institution such as the Post Office come along and accuse you of doing something – it was devastating," says Janet, "and humiliating."

Now, ahead of Terry's funeral, Janet has decided to share their story – and is urging the government to make sure others who are still waiting for compensation are paid quickly.

"Enough is enough" she says. "We've lived on promises all this time," she adds. "17 years out of somebody's life is a long time."

There are no official figures for how many victims have died before receiving full compensation but according to The Times the number had reached more than 250 early last year.

Terry had received an interim payment, which Janet says helped them manage as his health declined. But she insists that Terry would have been "over the Moon," had he lived to receive his full compensation. She believes that receiving the money in the years before Terry's health declined could have made a huge difference to their quality of life.

"We could have done the things we had wanted to do all these years, buy a proper home perhaps, treat ourselves to a nice holiday, go out and do things."

According to the most recent figures, in the scheme created to provide redress for those in the original Group Litigation Order, 227 of 492 eligible claimants are still waiting for full and final compensation.

The government says 407 offers have been made of the 425 people who have so far made full claims.

With so many others still waiting for their full compensation, Janet now says she's considering writing to His Majesty, King Charles.

"There must be someone in a high authority that can say, well, it's time this was finished," she says, "so people have a chance to move on with their lives."

Janet says she will only scatter Terry's ashes when his compensation is paid in full even though she knows the process will likely take many more months to settle.

A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said:

"We are sorry to hear of Terry's death and our thoughts are with Janet and the rest of his family and friends.

"We have doubled the amount of payments under this Government to provide postmasters with full and fair redress."

She added, "We are also making offers to 89% of GLO claimants within 40 working days of receipt of a full claim, with over half of eligible claimants having now settled their claim."

Pamela Bach, the former Baywatch actress and ex-wife of David Hasselhoff, has died aged 62.

Bach was found at home in the Hollywood Hills on 5 March after she died by suicide, said the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office.

She met Hasselhoff while acting with him on the set of TV series Knight Rider, and the two married in 1989. She went on to star alongside him on lifeguard TV drama Baywatch before their divorce in 2006.

"Our family is deeply saddened by the recent passing of Pamela Hasselhoff," Hasselhoff said in a statement.

"We are grateful for the outpouring of love and support during this difficult time but we kindly request privacy as we grieve and navigate through this challenging time."

Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Bach began acting in the 1970s. She and Hasselhoff have two daughters together.

Her acting credits included soap opera The Young and the Restless, Cheers, The Fall Guy, T.J. Hooker, Superboy and Viper.

Her daughter, Hayley Amber Hasselhoff, posted a photo of her parents on Instagram, with a white star, in apparent tribute to her mother.

In Bach's last Instagram post, published on New Year's Eve, she wrote about being excited to welcome 2025.

She said she was also excited to watch her granddaughter, London, "grow and seeing her smile light up my world is truly the greatest blessing".

"May 2025 be filled with beautiful moments, laughter, and all the blessings your hearts can hold," she continued.

"Here's to a year of making cherished memories, spreading joy, and embracing every precious moment!"

Bach's representative, Sharon Kelly, told TMZ she was shocked by her death.

"My heart goes out to her family, her beautiful daughters and granddaughter who Pamela constantly gushes about and loves so dearly," she said.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised you can visit the BBC's Action Line pages, or contact Samaritans.

If you're in the US, call 988, or contact Lifeline.

A private US company will attempt to land a spacecraft close to the Moon's South Pole on Thursday, carrying scientific instruments including a hopping robot and the first lunar mobile communications antenna.

Intuitive Machines is working with US space agency Nasa to look for evidence of water and ice on the lunar surface.

Lunar landings are very difficult, and the company will be hoping for a smooth touchdown after its first craft landed on its side last year.

The spacecraft Athena is currently orbiting the Moon and will attempt to land at 1730GMT (1230EST).

Athena is aiming to land 100 miles (160km) from the South Pole in an area of the lunar highlands called Mons Mouton.

If all goes well, the craft will have 10 days to complete scientific observations and measurements.

The instruments on board include a jumping robot called Micro Nova Hopper or Grace, which will leap and fly across the Moon's surface to reach a large crater that is in permanent shade.

The hopper should be released from the main spacecraft in coming days and fly up to 100m in altitude.

It will travel up to 1.2 miles (2km) and after five leaps, it should land inside the crater with a camera to take the first images of the interior.

The crater is in permanent shadow from the Sun's rays, so it has very low temperatures and is considered an ideal place to look for ice.

Intuitive Machines, who made the hopper, say it can travel to places that other machines, like robots with wheels, can't reach or would take a very long time to get to.

"These hoppers are really suited to the lunar environment because there's no atmosphere there, practically speaking, so doing a series of controlled leaps is a great way to move around," says Prof Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist with the Open University.

The IM-2 mission is also carrying three scientific instruments made by Nasa.

A drill called Trident will churn up rocks to reach the surface under the Moon to see if there is evidence of ice.

Then an instrument called a mass spectrometer will analyse any gases that are released.

And a type of antenna mast developed with Nokia should also be planted on the Moon that uses the same 4G cellular technology as on Earth.

The mission is part of Nasa's long-term goal to take humans back to the lunar surface, as the agency hopes to send astronauts in 2027 with the Artemis programme.

"This is another step towards assessing the viability of the lunar South Pole as a place to go and set up future bases for humans," says Prof Barber.

Experts want to explore options for building settlements and find out if there are reserves of water that could provide drinking water and potentially be turned into oxygen.

"A lot of planning of future exploration is being predicated on the presence of water ice, but if you want to use it, you need to know where it is and how much there is," says Prof Barber.

Nasa is partnering with a range of private companies that transport spacecraft and instruments to the Moon. It says this is cheaper than developing and blasting off their own missions.

Intuitive Machines successfully landed a craft called Odysseus on the Moon in February last year, but it tipped over during the descent, meaning not all the scientific work could be carried out.

Space agencies globally are competing to build human settlements on the Moon in a race to exploit resources and advance scientific understanding of other worlds.

In the US, the Moon mission is seen as a stepping stone for the longer-term and much more ambitious goal of human settlement on Mars.

The IM-2 mission could also help to answer broader questions about why there is ice in the inner solar system, closer to the Sun's warming rays.

"The permanently shadowed regions on the Moon are kind of a store and archive of ancient water that might have been delivered to the Earth-Moon system after their formation," explains Prof Mark Fox-Powell at the Open University.

A hospital trust is investigating reports staff may have "inappropriately" accessed the medical records of the three people killed in the Nottingham attacks.

Barnaby Webber and Grace O'Malley-Kumar, both 19, and Ian Coates, 65, were stabbed to death by Valdo Calocane in the city in June 2023.

Dr Manjeet Shehmar, medical director at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, said the trust was investigating "concerns that members of staff may have inappropriately accessed the medical records" of the three victims.

He said the families had been informed of the investigation and would be updated.

"The families of Ian, Grace, and Barnaby have already had to endure much pain and heartache and I'm truly sorry that this will add further to their suffering," Dr Shehmar said.

"Through our investigation, we will find out what happened and will not hesitate to take action as necessary."

The claims of the medical records being accessed inappropriately were first reported by the Daily Mirror.

Calocane was sentenced to a hospital order in January 2024 after admitting manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

In February it was announced that a judge-led public inquiry into the attacks would take place "within weeks".

A private US company will attempt to land a spacecraft close to the Moon's South Pole on Thursday, carrying scientific instruments including a hopping robot and the first lunar mobile communications antenna.

Intuitive Machines is working with US space agency Nasa to look for evidence of water and ice on the lunar surface.

Lunar landings are very difficult, and the company will be hoping for a smooth touchdown after its first craft landed on its side last year.

The spacecraft Athena is currently orbiting the Moon and will attempt to land at 1730GMT (1230EST).

Athena is aiming to land 100 miles (160km) from the South Pole in an area of the lunar highlands called Mons Mouton.

If all goes well, the craft will have 10 days to complete scientific observations and measurements.

The instruments on board include a jumping robot called Micro Nova Hopper or Grace, which will leap and fly across the Moon's surface to reach a large crater that is in permanent shade.

The hopper should be released from the main spacecraft in coming days and fly up to 100m in altitude.

It will travel up to 1.2 miles (2km) and after five leaps, it should land inside the crater with a camera to take the first images of the interior.

The crater is in permanent shadow from the Sun's rays, so it has very low temperatures and is considered an ideal place to look for ice.

Intuitive Machines, who made the hopper, say it can travel to places that other machines, like robots with wheels, can't reach or would take a very long time to get to.

"These hoppers are really suited to the lunar environment because there's no atmosphere there, practically speaking, so doing a series of controlled leaps is a great way to move around," says Prof Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist with the Open University.

The IM-2 mission is also carrying three scientific instruments made by Nasa.

A drill called Trident will churn up rocks to reach the surface under the Moon to see if there is evidence of ice.

Then an instrument called a mass spectrometer will analyse any gases that are released.

And a type of antenna mast developed with Nokia should also be planted on the Moon that uses the same 4G cellular technology as on Earth.

The mission is part of Nasa's long-term goal to take humans back to the lunar surface, as the agency hopes to send astronauts in 2027 with the Artemis programme.

"This is another step towards assessing the viability of the lunar South Pole as a place to go and set up future bases for humans," says Prof Barber.

Experts want to explore options for building settlements and find out if there are reserves of water that could provide drinking water and potentially be turned into oxygen.

"A lot of planning of future exploration is being predicated on the presence of water ice, but if you want to use it, you need to know where it is and how much there is," says Prof Barber.

Nasa is partnering with a range of private companies that transport spacecraft and instruments to the Moon. It says this is cheaper than developing and blasting off their own missions.

Intuitive Machines successfully landed a craft called Odysseus on the Moon in February last year, but it tipped over during the descent, meaning not all the scientific work could be carried out.

Space agencies globally are competing to build human settlements on the Moon in a race to exploit resources and advance scientific understanding of other worlds.

In the US, the Moon mission is seen as a stepping stone for the longer-term and much more ambitious goal of human settlement on Mars.

The IM-2 mission could also help to answer broader questions about why there is ice in the inner solar system, closer to the Sun's warming rays.

"The permanently shadowed regions on the Moon are kind of a store and archive of ancient water that might have been delivered to the Earth-Moon system after their formation," explains Prof Mark Fox-Powell at the Open University.

Nigel Farage has hit back at one of his own MPs after he said Reform UK remains a "protest party led by the Messiah" under his leadership.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Great Yarmouth MP Rupert Lowe questioned Farage's approach to leading the party and said he would need the "right people" around him to "deliver the goods".

Responding in an interview on TalkTV, Farage said Lowe was "completely wrong".

Farage added that Reform UK was a "positive party" - and insisted his loyal following was a "good thing".

"We've got a lot of development to do, but we're absolutely not a protest party," Farage told the programme.

When asked why Lowe had gone public with his remarks, Farage said: "Perhaps he wants to be prime minister. Most people in politics do."

He added: "His comments are wrong, we are making gigantic strides."

Reform UK won five seats in last year's general election and more than four million votes, the third-largest vote share of any party.

Lowe's comments are the first example of a Reform UK MP appearing to openly criticise Farage since the general election last July.

When asked about Farage's potential to become prime minister, Lowe told the Daily Mail: "It's too early to know whether Nigel will deliver the goods. He can only deliver if he surrounds himself with the right people.

"Nigel is a fiercely independent individual and is extremely good at what we have done so far. He has got messianic qualities. Will those messianic qualities distill into sage leadership? I don't know."

Lowe also suggested he could leave Reform UK if the party did not change before the next general election.

Lowe said: "We have to change from being a protest party led by the Messiah into being a properly structured party with a frontbench, which we don't have. We have to start behaving as if we are leading and not merely protesting."

'Not serious'

On TalkTV, Farage was asked if Lowe would be a Reform UK MP at the next election.

Farage said: "I hope so, but he seems to be taking a tone that says he might not accept us, but there you are."

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the "internecine warfare at the top of Reform just goes to show that their MPs are more concerned with their own egos, and advancing their personal ambitions, rather than standing up for the British people".

He said the row showed Reform is "not serious, and will always put self-interest above our national interest".

The Great Yarmouth MP has been outspoken on social media and in January, American businessman Elon Musk appeared to tout Lowe as a potential successor to Farage.

The US billionaire said Farage did not "have what it takes", after the Reform UK leader distanced himself from far-right activist Tommy Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

Five members of a German far-right group have been jailed for plotting to overthrow the government and kidnap its health minister.

Four of the group were described as "ringleaders" of a "terrorist organisation" which planned to use violence to trigger civil war-like conditions in Germany.

The group had planned to kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach - an advocate of strict Covid-19 measures during the pandemic - and to kill his bodyguards if necessary.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the defendants had posed "an enormous threat" to national security.

The Koblenz higher regional court heard the group came together in January 2022 and devised a plan which included a sabotage attack to disable the power grid.

The group - made up of four men aged between 46 and 58 and a 77-year-old woman - had hoped they would be joined by disgruntled members of the security forces.

Four defendants described as ringleaders were sentenced to between five years and nine months and eight years in jail by a court in western Germany.

A fifth defendant received a two year and 10 month sentence following the almost two-year trial.

The identities of the five people convicted have not been publicly disclosed.

The group were associated with Citizens of the Reich whose followers believe the German Empire, which collapsed in 1918, continues to exist. Investigators say it was led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, a German aristocrat.

They are also said to have taken inspiration from the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, which is associated with some Donald Trump's supporters in the US.

After the verdict, Lauterbach - of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) - thanked the police and said the state had shown "it can defend itself against violent conspiracy theorists".

Faeser said: "The violent plans for a coup, for attacks on the electricity infrastructure, for the kidnapping of Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and for the killing of his bodyguards have shown an enormous threat."

She added that security services "take the threats posed by the Citizens of the Reich scene seriously and "we are protecting our democracy".

The sentencing follows several trials targeting far-right groups linked to Citizens of Reich which reject the legitimacy of the modern German state.

A man has been found guilty of raping his ex-girlfriend in an attack in which he murdered her, her sister and their mother with a crossbow and a knife.

Louise Hunt, 25, and Hannah Hunt, 28, suffered fatal crossbow bolt injuries at the family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, in July 2024, while Carol Hunt was stabbed to death.

Kyle Clifford, 26, of Enfield, north London, admitted the murders but denied raping Louise, but a jury convicted him at Cambridge Crown Court.

The lead detective in the case said he did not think "this is the case of a spurned lover in any way".

Warning: This article contains details that some people may find distressing

Louise had ended the relationship with Clifford two weeks earlier, and told him in a message, "Take care of yourself".

"He simply couldn't deal with what he perceived to be a dent to his pride," said Det Ch Insp Nick Gardner.

"He then sought to control the situation, in terms of weapons purchases; the cold, calculating way in which he lay in wait in the house for [Louise]."

Judge Mr Justice Bennathan said Clifford's crimes were "dreadful" and "almost unspeakable".

The women were the wife and daughters of BBC horse racing commentator John Hunt.

The trial heard that in the days leading up to the murders, Clifford bought a crossbow online, and a replica Glock air pistol from a shop in Essex.

Prosecutors also said "violent misogyny" promoted by social media influencer Andrew Tate "fuelled" his attacks.

He searched for Tate's podcast less than 24 hours before the murders.

Prosecutors said he arrived at the family home at 14:32 BST on 9 July, under the guise of dropping off Louise's belongings, before stabbing Carol, 61.

Screams and banging sounds were heard from the property.

Clifford attacked Louise, a dog groomer who had been working in a pod in the garden, as she entered the home at 16:13, before taping her ankles and wrists - and eventually raping her - in a horrific onslaught that lasted nearly three hours.

The former soldier stopped during the attack to send a text message to Louise's father using her phone, asking him, "What time are you home?"

When she arrived, Hannah screamed at Clifford "What is wrong with you?" - and managed to message her partner "He's tying us up" in the minutes before she was also fatally shot.

Clifford fled the scene and was arrested by firearms officers in a cemetery near his Enfield home the following afternoon - but only after he had shot himself in the chest, paralysing him.

When he was finally deemed fit to be interviewed by police on 16 September, he said "Sorry" and "What I have done is atrocious."

On 22 January, he pleaded guilty to the murders.

His rape trial - which lasted only three days this week - heard he searched "horse racing today" on the day of the killings to check whether their father was working.

Jurors were also told he hid his relationships with other women from Louise while they were dating, and was signed up to dating apps Hinge and Bumble.

Applause and cries of "Yes!" could be heard in the public gallery when the jury returned its unanimous verdict after less than an hour of deliberations.

One woman pumped her fists and another wept.

Lisa Kiff, a senior Crown prosecutor, said: "His crimes are among the very worst I have encountered in my career."

Det Ch Insp Gardner said he did not know why Clifford contested the rape charge.

"He knew the game was up. I have no idea why he failed to plead. The jury saw through his lies."

Clifford is due to be sentenced on Tuesday.

After the murders in July, Mr Hunt confided in his ITV colleague Matt Chapman, and said "make the most of every day".

He later said every message of support he had received was "like a hug".

Lucy Manning, special correspondent at Cambridge Crown Court

Clifford bought the crossbow online. Questions will be raised about their easy purchase but this is also about those who choose to use weapons to attack and murder women.

What is sadly unsurprising, but is still devastating, is yet again innocent women are the victims of male violence in their own homes, by someone they knew.

Clifford was an ex-boyfriend whose response to rejection was to rape and murder.

He didn't give evidence and didn't appear at court.

Instead he made the Hunt family sit through the horrific evidence, and the details of the "violent, sexual act of spite" Louise Hunt had to endure for three hours in her own home.

Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.

A four-year-old girl who died following a suspected arson attack at a house in Manchester has been named by police as Lesma-Rose Wibier.

Emergency services were called to the property on Gateshead Close in the Rusholme area of the city at about 12:30 GMT on Sunday.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said a 44-year-old woman known to Lesma-Rose, initially detained on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life, had now been re-arrested on suspicion of murder.

Paying tribute to Lesma-Rose, her family said: "Lesma-Rose was the star of the family. Anyone who knew her knew she was the most beautiful girl inside and out."

Lesma-Rose's family added: "She always had a smile on her face and could put the same on others.

"She was such a smart and intelligent girl in her own unique ways, and she will be deeply missed by anyone who was blessed to meet her."

The arrested woman has been detained under the Mental Health Act and is awaiting further assessment.

Lesma-Rose's family have asked for privacy at this time, GMP said.

A force spokesperson said they were awaiting the results of a post-mortem examination by a Home Office pathologist to determine the cause of Lesma-Rose's death.

A private US company will attempt to land a spacecraft close to the Moon's South Pole on Thursday, carrying scientific instruments including a hopping robot and the first lunar mobile communications antenna.

Intuitive Machines is working with US space agency Nasa to look for evidence of water and ice on the lunar surface.

Lunar landings are very difficult, and the company will be hoping for a smooth touchdown after its first craft landed on its side last year.

The spacecraft Athena is currently orbiting the Moon and will attempt to land at 1730GMT (1230EST).

Athena is aiming to land 100 miles (160km) from the South Pole in an area of the lunar highlands called Mons Mouton.

If all goes well, the craft will have 10 days to complete scientific observations and measurements.

The instruments on board include a jumping robot called Micro Nova Hopper or Grace, which will leap and fly across the Moon's surface to reach a large crater that is in permanent shade.

The hopper should be released from the main spacecraft in coming days and fly up to 100m in altitude.

It will travel up to 1.2 miles (2km) and after five leaps, it should land inside the crater with a camera to take the first images of the interior.

The crater is in permanent shadow from the Sun's rays, so it has very low temperatures and is considered an ideal place to look for ice.

Intuitive Machines, who made the hopper, say it can travel to places that other machines, like robots with wheels, can't reach or would take a very long time to get to.

"These hoppers are really suited to the lunar environment because there's no atmosphere there, practically speaking, so doing a series of controlled leaps is a great way to move around," says Prof Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist with the Open University.

The IM-2 mission is also carrying three scientific instruments made by Nasa.

A drill called Trident will churn up rocks to reach the surface under the Moon to see if there is evidence of ice.

Then an instrument called a mass spectrometer will analyse any gases that are released.

And a type of antenna mast developed with Nokia should also be planted on the Moon that uses the same 4G cellular technology as on Earth.

The mission is part of Nasa's long-term goal to take humans back to the lunar surface, as the agency hopes to send astronauts in 2027 with the Artemis programme.

"This is another step towards assessing the viability of the lunar South Pole as a place to go and set up future bases for humans," says Prof Barber.

Experts want to explore options for building settlements and find out if there are reserves of water that could provide drinking water and potentially be turned into oxygen.

"A lot of planning of future exploration is being predicated on the presence of water ice, but if you want to use it, you need to know where it is and how much there is," says Prof Barber.

Nasa is partnering with a range of private companies that transport spacecraft and instruments to the Moon. It says this is cheaper than developing and blasting off their own missions.

Intuitive Machines successfully landed a craft called Odysseus on the Moon in February last year, but it tipped over during the descent, meaning not all the scientific work could be carried out.

Space agencies globally are competing to build human settlements on the Moon in a race to exploit resources and advance scientific understanding of other worlds.

In the US, the Moon mission is seen as a stepping stone for the longer-term and much more ambitious goal of human settlement on Mars.

The IM-2 mission could also help to answer broader questions about why there is ice in the inner solar system, closer to the Sun's warming rays.

"The permanently shadowed regions on the Moon are kind of a store and archive of ancient water that might have been delivered to the Earth-Moon system after their formation," explains Prof Mark Fox-Powell at the Open University.

Dogs that are constantly hungry and prone to being overweight share a common bit of biology with some obesity-prone humans.

This is what UK scientists have discovered - identifying a genetic source of many labradors' - and some people's - tendency to overeat.

Researchers found that changes in a particular gene, one of the building blocks of biological code that produces the blueprint for how our bodies work, alters the chemical signals that tell our brains we've had enough to eat.

The scientists say their findings, published in the journal Science, reveal something "powerful" about the biology of obesity risk.

"By studying dogs, we've honed in on some interesting new biology here," explained lead researcher Dr Eleanor Raffan from the University of Cambridge's department of physiology, development and neuroscience.

She added that the discovery showed that "owners of slim dogs are not morally superior - and the same is true of slim people".

"If you have a high genetic risk of obesity, you're prone to gaining weight unless you put a huge effort into not doing so. And those with low genetic risk just don't have to work so hard."

This canine-human biological link came from the researchers' examination of the genetics of 250 labradors. The team looked for pieces of genetic code that were common in overweight dogs.

They picked out one gene in particular - called DENND1B - that was associated with a higher body mass in the labradors. And when they searched through a library of genetic information from thousands of humans, they discovered that the same gene was associated with a higher body mass in people, too.

Before this study of labrador genetics, Dr Raffan said, "no one suspected that gene had anything to do with obesity".

The gene interferes with a brain signalling pathway that helps regulate our appetite.

Dr Raffan explained: "It alters the predisposition to weight gain because it's tweaking a system that is involved in regulating how hungry we feel and how much energy we burn off."

The findings could help in the future development of new drugs to tackle obesity. But the scientists say they reveal how much harder people - and owners of dogs - with this genetic predisposition have to work to offset its effects.

Another member of the research team, Alyce McClellan, from Cambridge University added that the results emphasised "the importance of fundamental brain pathways in controlling appetite and body weight".

• Weight loss drugs may boost health in many ways
• Why fat labradors can blame their genes

The discovery adds to a developing picture of those pathways and the biological driving forces behind overeating.

A group of weight loss drugs, that includes Ozempic, target some of this biology, and have exploded in popularity in recent years.

What we've identified here is a different pathway [from the one targeted by those drugs]," explained Dr Raffan.

"But it all speaks to the same important bit of biology, which is that obesity is not about having low willpower.

"It's about the fact that some people are prone to weight gain because they have a genetic risk which increases their responsiveness to food and their appetite.

"This goes for dogs and humans alike - they have a genetic drive to overeat."

Passengers and crew members had to overpower a 17-year-old who got onto a plane with a shotgun and ammunition in Australia.

It happened as the aircraft prepared to take off from Avalon Airport, near Melbourne, ahead of a flight bound for Sydney on Thursday afternoon carrying about 160 people.

Police believe the teenager got onto the airport tarmac by breaching a security fence, before climbing the front steps to the plane.

Footage published by Australian outlet 7News showed the suspect being restrained by a passenger, while a member of ground crew and a pilot removed a utility belt containing tools that the suspect was carrying.

The pilot can also be seen kicking the shotgun away from the teen, who is wearing a fluorescent jacket.

"How is this possible?" someone onboard can be heard saying in the footage.

Victoria Police said the 17-year-old, who is from the nearby Ballarat area, was being held in custody.

Superintendent Michael Reid told reporters that passengers had noticed the teen was carrying a gun as he climbed the steps up to the plane.

"The male was overpowered by three of the passengers, at least," he said.

Supt Reid said the local force was in contact with counterterrorism police but that it was too early to establish a motive.

"No doubt this would have been a very terrifying incident for the passengers," he said, while commending the "bravery" of those who had overpowered the suspect.

Barry Clark, one of the passengers, told Australian public broadcaster ABC that the teen appeared to be dressed like an airport worker and was "agitated".

He said: "All I could do was get the gun out of the way... and then put him in a hold and throw him to the ground until the police came."

No one was injured during the incident, police said. Investigators located a car and two bags belonging to the suspect nearby.

Avalon Airport is exclusively served by Jetstar, a budget airline operated by Qantas.

In a statement to the BBC's US partner CBS News, the company said it was working with authorities to investigate the incident.

"We know this would have been a very distressing situation," a statement read. "We are sincerely grateful to the customers who assisted our crew to safely manage the situation."

Avalon Airport CEO Ari Suss said the airport had reopened.

Former soldier Kyle Clifford raped and murdered Louise Hunt, and killed her sister Hannah and mother Carol in attacks described by police as "barbaric". What happened and what has emerged since?

Warning: This article contains details that some people may find distressing

Days before the attacks, Louise had ended an 18-month relationship with Clifford.

She told Clifford, who she had met through a dating app, it was "sucking the life out of me".

Her family were relieved. They did not like the way Clifford treated Louise, finding him disrespectful, arrogant, rude and "odd".

He had hidden relationships with other women from Louise, and went on a dating site moments after receiving the message ending theirs.

But less than a fortnight later, Louise, Hannah and Carol were dead, murdered by Clifford who had armed himself and tricked his way into the family home in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

Senior investigating officer Det Ch Insp Nick Gardner said Clifford's behaviour "appears to have escalated at an unprecedented rate", and he "plotted a meticulously planned attack on Louise and members of her family".

Six days before the murders, Clifford, now 26, legally purchased a crossbow online, along with a cocking device and six bolts, for £350.

He also bought a specialist butchering knife, rope, petrol cans and duct tape, and ordered an air pistol, which never arrived.

The day before the killings, Clifford searched YouTube for a podcast from influencer and self-proclaimed misogynist Andrew Tate.

When Clifford arrived at the family's home in Ashlyn Close, a cul-de-sac, at lunchtime on 9 July, he checked the driveway to see how many vehicles were there.

He then searched for "horse racing today" on his phone.

Police believe he was trying to establish if Louise's father John, a BBC racing commentator, was at home.

About 40 minutes later, Carol, 61, answered the door to Clifford, who pretended he wanted to return some of Louise's possessions.

"He also asks Carol if John is home," said Det Ch Insp Gardner.

"Once inside, he attacks Carol, killing her with the knife he had concealed in his bag."

Meanwhile, Louise, 25, who ran a dog-grooming business, was working in a pod in the garden.

"She is completely unaware of the assault inflicted on her mother, just metres away in the family home," said the officer.

Clifford returned to his Seat Ibiza car to collect the crossbow, and went back into the house.

An hour later, Louise entered the house, where Clifford was waiting. He restrained and raped her.

He then waited more than two hours, even texting John using Louise's phone to ask when he would be home.

Once Hannah, 28, had returned home, he killed Louise with the crossbow.

Hannah, still in her beautician's workwear, entered and went upstairs, at first unaware of the horror unfolding.

Shortly afterwards, she texted her partner, urging him to call police.

Clifford then shot her with the crossbow and fled. Fatally wounded, Hannah managed to call 999.

But when emergency services arrived a few minutes later, they were unable to save her, and her sister and mother were dead.

Police later found the petrol cans empty in the boot of Clifford's car.

His thumbprint was found on one of three bottles of vodka on a sideboard in the Hunts' home, and he had also searched on the internet whether alcohol was flammable.

Although no fire was started, the prosecution said he had "clearly contemplated the use of fire at some point in order to destroy evidence".

Det Ch Insp Gardner said the killings were "barbaric" and a "completely unnecessary use of violence simply due to a break-up that [Clifford] should have handled better".

What followed was "the most significant" manhunt in Hertfordshire Police's recent history, according to local commander Ch Supt Jon Simpson.

Timeline of 9 July

• 09:54 BST: Clifford goes to a garden centre with his mother, father and niece
• 13:07: He drives the 20 miles from his home in Enfield, north London, to the Hunts' home in Bushey
• 13:37: He arrives near their home, checks the driveway and searches for "horse racing today" on his phone
• 14:32: Carol answers the door to Clifford. Once inside, he kills her with the knife concealed in his bag. Louise, unaware of the assault, is working in the pod in the garden
• 15:07: Clifford goes back to his car and collects the crossbow, hiding it under a blanket
• 16:12: Louise enters the house, where Clifford is waiting. Using duct tape, he restrains and rapes her. He then texts John using Louise's phone to ask when he will be home
• 18:50: Clifford shoots Louise with the crossbow around the time Hannah arrives home. Hannah, unware of what has happened, enters and goes upstairs
• 18:52: Hannah texts her partner, telling him to call police. Two minutes later, Clifford shoots her and leaves with the crossbow. Fatally injured, Hannah calls 999 but dies shortly after
• 19:10: Emergency services arrive at the house. Carol and Louise Hunt are found dead and unsuccessful resuscitation attempts are made on Hannah

The force took the unusual step of telling the public Clifford was believed to have a crossbow, and made a direct appeal to him.

Specialist search teams and armed police officers were brought in to track him down.

Nearly 24 hours later, he was found in a cemetery near his family's Enfield home.

But as officers approached, he shot himself with the crossbow, leaving him paralysed from the chest down.

"If this was an attempt to end his own life, he left it until the last possible opportunity and meant that the officers that approached him were exposed to a huge amount of risk," said Ch Supt Simpson.

"Despite this, in the moments following his detention, they worked to save his life."

• A list of organisations in the UK offering support and information with some of the issues in this story is available at BBC Action Line

Clifford spent weeks in hospital under police guard, before he could eventually be interviewed - but his "no comment" answers gave officers little help.

Det Ch Insp Gardner said Clifford had shown a "complete inability and unwillingness... to actually deal with [the break-up] appropriately".

He added: "Many other routes - become a better person - he knew were available to him, but he failed to do so and chose the course he did."

Clifford had previously admitted murdering the three women, false imprisonment and possessing offensive weapons, but denied rape.

However, he opted not to attend his trial at Cambridge Crown Court, either in person or via video.

During the hearing, details of Clifford's viewing of a video by Andrew Tate emerged.

Tate had described women as "intrinsically lazy" and said there was "no such thing as an independent female".

The prosecution had suggested Clifford had been motivated by the same sort of "violent misogyny promoted by Tate".

However, the defence argued this material had too vague a link and was far too prejudicial.

The judge agreed it was of limited relevance and of "great possible prejudice", and that it should not be put before the jury.

The court heard Louise had told friends Clifford had a "nasty temper" and behaved in an "aggressive manner".

Louise made a note on her phone five days before the murders, setting out how Clifford was "racist", had "commented he did not like transgender people" and had used "belittling language".

In the days before the killings, Clifford had searched for how to buy a crossbow and had accessed pornography, prosecutor Alison Morgan KC said.

This included a video of former HMP Wandsworth prison officer Linda De Sousa Abreu, who admitted having sex with a prisoner last year.

She said his violent intentions were shown "through the use of weapons and his sexual preoccupations".

Clifford had attempted to rekindle his relationship with Louise, but was rebuffed, she said.

"This rejection angered the defendant," she said.

"He was angry at Louise, but also at the Hunt family generally, as he correctly assumed that friends and family members had advised Louise to end the relationship with him."

In the absence of the jury, the prosecution argued the fact that Clifford had "a number of sexual relationships" with other women showed contempt and a lack of respect toward Louise.

Jurors were shown footage of Clifford at the garden centre on the day of the murders, during which he received a call, which went to voicemail, from another woman he was in a relationship with.

Clifford had been a trooper in The Queen's Dragoon Guards, but left the Army after two years in 2022, without seeing active service.

His only previous interaction with police had been in relation to a small drugs matter and a fight he was involved in, and he was not known to the force for domestic violence.

He is not the only murderer in his family, however. His older brother Bradley was jailed in 2018 for killing a moped rider after his "prized" Ford Mustang was damaged.

Neighbours in Enfield told the BBC how the family "kept themselves to themselves".

Meanwhile, John Hunt and his surviving daughter Amy have said their devastation "cannot be put into words".

"They've shown immense bravery to work with us throughout this period," said Det Ch Insp Gardner.

"Essentially they've lost over half of their family and it's impossible for anyone to truly fathom how that would impact on those individuals, but they've been nothing short of exceptional with me and my team... and I'd like to thank them for that."

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A UK-based aid worker said he, his friends and colleagues were "so lucky to be alive" after they narrowly escaped a Russian missile attack on a hotel in Ukraine on Wednesday night that left at least four dead.

Karol Swiacki, a Polish national and founder of the Bournemouth-based charity Ukraine Relief, was at the Central Hotel in Kryvyi Rih having dinner with friends when the missile struck.

"We are all safe we didn't have a scratch, it is incredible," Mr Swiacki told BBC News, adding "we still don't know how we survived this, honestly."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that more than 30 people were wounded in the attack and rescuers were still at the scene.

The charity worker - who has previously won a BBC award - is in Ukraine carrying out aid relief work including delivering sports equipment and renovating a school for 550 children.

He is also visiting shelters and orphanages with Ukraine Relief's trustee, Marc Edwards - a British national who now lives in the US.

The duo were having dinner with friends at the hotel restaurant at the time of the strike. The dining party included two US volunteers, two workers from a Ukrainian charity foundation, a young boy and his pregnant mother.

"We'd just put our stuff in our rooms and went to eat with our local Ukrainian contacts and the cell phone alarm went off so we ran to the shelter," said Mr Edwards.

Mr Swiacki added: "We took two steps and there was a big boom, absolute nightmare, everything just within seconds changed into a very apocalyptic news screams, alarms."

• Live coverage and analysis

Video sent by Mr Swiacki to the BBC showed smoke filling the restaurant with half-eaten meals and takeaway boxes on tables.

"There was so much stuff that we couldn't see where we were going," said Mr Swiacki.

Mr Edwards confirmed that the blast "took out all the windows" and they had to climb out of the restaurant through a broken window.

The duo went back into the hotel to see if anyone else was hurt, and retrieve some of their belongings.

They also went outside to look for their vehicles, which were "full of aid" but were "all destroyed", Mr Edwards said.

Mr Swiacki's van, which he had parked outside the hotel, was "smashed completely to pieces".

"We heard some noises we don't want to hear again. Somebody was trapped under the rubble next to our van and didn't make it. Someone was hit from shrapnel and didn't make it. I'm numb," he said.

Mr Swiacki described the scene as "crazy, absolutely nightmare".

He said the restaurant was on the ground floor, and believes that it is the only room - or at least one of the few rooms - that didn't collapse.

The men are still in Kryvyi Rih and despite the shock of the explosion, Mr Swiacki said he has not been deterred him from continuing his aid work in Ukraine.

"I will never stop helping people after this," he said.

The attack happened ahead of a European security summit on Wednesday which Zelensky is attending.

Reacting to it, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it showed "why Ukraine needs defence capabilities: to protect human lives from Russian terror".

Caroline Darian, the daughter of Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot, is pressing charges against her father, accusing him of drugging and raping her - something he has always denied.

Last December, Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in jail for drugging his ex-wife, Gisèle, raping her and inviting dozens of men to also abuse her over nearly a decade.

Pelicot filmed the rapes of his wife, collecting hundreds of videos he neatly catalogued on a hard disk.

Among them were also two photos of his daughter, in which Ms Darian, 46, says she is clearly unconscious, sleeping in an unfamiliar position and wearing underwear she doesn't recognise.

Dominique Pelicot has offered conflicting explanations for the photos, but has always denied sexually assaulting his daughter.

Ms Darian has long said the photos are proof her father also drugged and raped her.

"I know that he drugged me, probably for sexual abuse. But I don't have any evidence," she told the BBC in January, when she also talked about the shock of being shown those pictures by police for the first time.

The heated courtroom exchanges between Ms Darian and her father were some of the most dramatic in the 16-week trial that shocked France and the world. "I never touched you, never," Pelicot pleaded to his daughter during one session. "You are lying!" Ms Darian shouted back.

Ms Darian has previously said she felt she was the trial's "forgotten victim" as, unlike in her mother's case, there was no record of the abuse she is convinced was inflicted upon her.

She told Elle France earlier this week that the charges she is pressing against her father were "symbolic" but "in line with what I have said since the start: that I am a victim of chemical submission [drug-facilitated assault] but was never recognised as such".

She has hired lawyer Florence Rault to represent her.

For many years, Ms Rault has been fighting for justice for two women who were the victims of violent ordeals in the 1990s.

One, a young property agent known by the pseudonym Marion, was the victim of an attempted rape in 1999, which Pelicot has admitted to.

The other - also an estate agent in her 20s - was raped and murdered in 1991. Pelicot is currently being investigated over that case, but has always denied any involvement.

Ms Darian said she saw similarities between her and Marion. "We look strangely alike. She is blonde, her hair is bobbed, we were born the same year... I wanted to meet her lawyer and hear all the details," she told Elle France.

In her police complaint, which was quoted by French media, Ms Rault lamented that Ms Darian had never been offered gynecological examinations nor had she been tested for the drugs Pelicot used on his wife.

Ms Rault said the investigation had only focused on Gisèle Pelicot and that her client had been treated as a "peripheral victim". She asked the authorities to launch a fresh "serious and in-depth" inquiry.

Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, told French media that Ms Darian's decision to press charges was "unsurprising given her statements and beliefs during the Avignon trial".

She also said that the prosecutors in Avignon, in south-eastern France, said there were insufficient "objective elements" to accuse Pelicot of raping and using chemical submission on his daughter.

Forty-nine men were sentenced in December alongside Dominque Pelicot. All were found guilty of at least one charge - rape or sexual assault - against Gisèle Pelicot.

Seventeen initially said they would appeal the charges against them, but seven of those have since changed their minds.

Those who decide to press ahead with their appeals will go on trial at the end of the year in Nîmes, southern France.

The first trial - which lasted from September to December 2024 - garnered worldwide attention thanks to Gisèle Pelicot's decision to waive her anonymity and open the trial to the public and the media.

Conservative peer Lord Hamilton has apologised after saying the Jewish community should "pay for their own" Holocaust memorial because they have "an awful lot of money".

The former minister said his comments in a House of Lords debate on plans for a memorial near Parliament were "insensitive" but "not intended to be antisemitic".

A Conservative Party spokesman condemned the comments as "completely unacceptable" and "flagrantly antisemitic".

Responding to calls for him to be suspended from the parliamentary party, leader Kemi Badenoch said: "I have intervened in the situation. Lord Hamilton misspoke and he's apologised and I think that should be the end of the matter."

Speaking during a debate on legislation to allow a Holocaust memorial and learning centre to be built in Westminster, with public funds used to pay for it, Lord Hamilton said: "I do not understand why the government have volunteered taxpayers' money, when there is so little of it, to finance this.

"The Jewish community in Britain has an awful lot of money. It has a lot of education charities that would contribute towards this. I do not understand why they should not pay for their own memorial."

Challenged by Lord Austin that the memorial was "for everybody" not just the Jewish community, Lord Hamilton added: "I take that point, but the driving forces behind putting up this memorial are the Jewish people in this country.

"They are people who have property everywhere. I do not see why they should not fund it."

The former minister under Margaret Thatcher and John Major withdrew his comments the following day and said in a statement: "My remarks were not intended to be antisemitic and I apologise unreservedly.

"With retrospect having read my comments, I realise that my remarks were insensitive and I apologise. I intend to meet with groups from the Jewish community in order to better understand how to communicate about issues affecting British Jews."

His original remarks were criticised by the Antisemitism Policy Trust, who said they were "ill-judged, racist and false".

During the debate, Conservative peer Lord Finkelstein said: "The Holocaust is not something that is just about the Jews."

He added that Lord Hamilton's comments were "probably a pretty eloquent contribution as to why we need this memorial - and near Parliament".

Former Labour MP and crossbench peer Lord Austin described the remarks as "disgusting racism" and called on the Conservative Party to take "proper action".

"The Tories were quick to demand Labour took action on antisemitism and quite right too," he wrote on social media.

"But they must now do the same themselves."

Plans for a Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens in Westminster were first announced under Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron in 2016.

A bill to remove restrictions on the memorial being built in the gardens and to allow public funds to be used for it is currently making its way through Parliament.

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A support service that lets young people text for help when they're in an emergency mental health crisis has now had three million conversations, with 2,000 messages arriving each day.

The Prince of Wales visited the project in west London which provides 24/7 free text message support for young people with problems, including suicidal thoughts, but who would be unlikely to pick up a phone to talk.

The Shout service responds to emergency messages seeking help, which might come in emojis and text speak, and often late at night.

Among the volunteers staffing this service, designed to be accessible for a digital generation, is Ben West, whose brother Sam committed suicide in 2018.

"How amazing is it, from my point of view, after what Sam went through and losing Sam, to be able to sit there and tell someone texting they're not on their own any more," said Ben.

"We're going to come up with a plan together, and we can spend some time chatting and we can get you to a place where you're more in control.

"I've had conversations where people have told me something they've never told anybody else before in their lives. It's a privilege to be on the other end of that," said Ben, one of 2,000 current volunteers responding to texts to "Shout 85258".

Prince William met Ben and other young advisers to the project, hearing about helping young people who might have been reluctant to try other mental health services.

"Young people much prefer to talk via text, it's become their language anyway... they find it much more accessible and much less intimidating to text someone than speak on the phone," said Ben.

The Shout helpline was launched in 2018 by Mental Health Innovations, a charity set up by the Royal Foundation, reflecting the prince's longstanding interest in mental health, having helped set up the Heads Together project.

Prince William was himself a volunteer on the text helpline, after receiving training, during the Covid pandemic, saying his first shift was "terrifying".

"Some of those conversations lived with me for quite a long time afterwards, and you always say to yourself, 'Did I give enough, did I do enough, did I find the right answer?'" said Prince William.

"It's more than just a text line, it's life saving," said the prince. He was told that on 35,000 occasions emergency services had intervened directly when people getting in touch seemed to be in imminent danger.

The text message helpline makes it easier for those already struggling to share their feelings. "Sam, my brother, was really embarrassed about his diagnosis of depression, for him it felt like a flaw and something to hide," said Ben, who since his brother's suicide has campaigned to improve mental health services.

There are other at-risk groups who can also use the service, who might otherwise be reluctant to speak about their feelings, including middle-aged men.

Victoria Hornby, chief executive of Mental Health Innovations, said there has been an increase in the "severity" of the problems faced by those seeking help, since the scheme was first launched in 2018.

The percentage of messages from people with suicidal thoughts has risen from 25% to 37%, she said,

Among the other reasons for getting in touch was about low mood, stress, relationship problems, self-harming, loneliness and issues such as body image or tensions about sexuality.

There has also been a significant increase in calls for help from a younger age group, those aged 13 and under, which she said seemed to be part of a growing sense of anxiety and pressure on children's lives.

Sunday night is the single busiest time for calls, she said, reflecting the pressures people feel before going into the new week, whether at school, college or work.

It's a moment when a text message exchange, away from other people, can be the way to get help, she said: "You can't be overheard. For some people having to say out loud things that are incredibly difficult, that can stop people from reaching for help."

The text helpline is merging with another support service aimed at young people, the Mix, and there is an aim for a wider range of support services, including peer-to-peer mentoring and counselling.

Prince William spoke of the importance of support after that initial contact and education services to help people before their problems are too overwhelming.

"Prevention is really important, before things go spiralling down," he said.

A report into the project by Imperial College London said such digital services could help tackle the waiting times for help with mental health problems, with 1.5 million waiting for treatment, including 100,000 children and young people.

The report said that two thirds of those who had got in touch with Shout had felt calmer from the exchange.

"We've saved lives. It's an amazing feeling. I just wish this service existed when Sam needed it, someone like me, to talk to. Had that existed then who knows what might have happened," said Ben.

The Beija-Flor samba school has been crowned winner of Rio de Janeiro's celebrated carnival parade competition.

Thousand gathered at the city's giant Sambadrome arena to watch the top 12 samba schools battle it out for this year's title.

Beija-Flor was crowned winner on Wednesday for the 15th time, narrowly beating second-placed Grande Rio.

Its performance was an homage to its late director, Luiz Fernando Ribeiro do Carmo, better known as Laíla, who died in June 2021 with Covid-19.

While the overarching theme of Beija-Flor's parade was a tribute to its late director, it also featured floats with pyrotechnic displays and dancers dressed as devils.

The performances are judged over 10 categories by a total of 40 judges.

One of the top 12 samba schools competing for the title was Paraíso do Tuiuti, whose dancers paraded in exuberant feathers.

Among the incredible variety of costumes and performances, Vila Isabel's ghosts clad completely in white were a counterpoint to the kaleidoscopic costumes typical of Rio's carnival.

Performers from the Grande Rio samba school, which came a close second behind Beija-Flor, kept a watchful eye on the parade.

Mocidade delighted spectators with a giant puppet.

Many of the Mocidade's dancers wore futuristic costumes, inspired by its theme song, which this year was entitled Back To The Future - There Are No Limits Dreaming.

Imperatriz came third this year with a parade which included revellers adorned with gold and white skulls.

Portela samba school paid tribute to the legendary Brazilian musician Milton Nascimento. The 82-year-old singer-songwriter waved at the crowd during the parade.

Despite their impressive floats, Unidos de Padre Miguel came last this year and therefore will not be competing in the top tier in 2026.

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From speeches watched by millions to a position as her party's deputy leader at Westminster, Mhairi Black appeared to be one of politics rising stars.

However, away from the House of Commons the SNP MP was "flailing through life" and became ill through depression and anxiety, she has told the BBC.

Black believes it was only through a "life-changing" diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) that she was able to regain control of her life.

The former Paisley and Renfrewshire South representative also said her party's performance at last year's general election, where the party dropped from 48 MPs to eight, was due to "self-inflected" woes.

Black stood down as an elected politician in 2024 after nine years, having first won her seat aged just 20.

She said her decision came after years in a "toxic" and "bullying" environment that was "consuming my entire life", with her mental health suffering badly until she was diagnosed with ADHD around 2018.

"Everything was fried - my body, my mind was emotionally fried," she told the BBC's Scotcast podcast.

The interview comes ahead of the release of a new BBC documentary, Mhairi Black: Being Me Again.

She said: "I couldn't go out without throwing up. I would have panic attacks everywhere I went.

"I didn't understand what was going on and why I was feeling like this, I'm just beating myself up more, because I'm thinking, well, everybody else is managing to get into work okay. Why are you the one that can't cope with it?"

The documentary - which will air on BBC Scotland at 21:00 on Sunday and is available on iPlayer from Friday - shows her discussing the condition and her last year at Westminster.

She describes how anxiety became depression, and saw her take time off from Westminster duties - a decision that brought criticism for her attendance record at parliament and holding a lack of surgeries in her constituency.

"Westminster didn't have a capacity for signing off, so it looked to the rest of the world like I've no been turning up, when in actual fact I was in the foetal position in my house," she says.

For Black, the diagnosis of ADHD has had a "life-changing" impact on her life.

She told Scotcast: "It was massive because it felt as though someone had just handed me the instruction manual for my own brain, and suddenly I was able to think like, I'm not mad, I'm just wired differently.

"It allowed me to stop beating myself up so much because there were times when I would struggle to do things that other folk do effortlessly."

Black compares the condition to the BBC's Sherlock series, where Benedict Cumberbatch's famous detective would use his "mind palace" to work out cases.

"It feels like there's constantly three conversations in my head – and a song," she laughs.

However, Black told Scotcast she decided not to go public with her diagnosis at the time as it "would get used against me" in Westminster - an aggressive culture that her wife Katie was surprised by.

She recalls: "When she [Mhairi] started telling me about her experiences since being in parliament, I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing.

"It was very different to what I'd believed. I was surprised how isolated she was."

Black recounts seeing punch-ups and bullying during her time as an MP, and although she raised concerns with her party, the support offered was not enough.

She said: "I think leadership at all levels have been aware of people who've been unhappy with how they've been treated, and I imagine most people would agree that we could be better at how we handle it."

Elected as the SNP dominated the Scottish vote, her departure from Westminster came on a night when, in her own words, "the SNP got an absolute doing".

Black felt the SNP's poor result happened due to "in-fighting that was spilling out into the public domain".

She added that this was not helped by power being centred around leader Nicola Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell who was the party's chief executive.

She said: "The reason that I think it spilled out into the public was because a lot of people had hit their limit because they felt like their voices weren't being listened to within the party.

"There were a lot of folk who weren't comfortable with the idea of the chief executive and the leader of the party basically being a couple in one house."

Black added she believed the SNP worked best when on the left politically, and that if the views of current deputy Kate Forbes became party policy there would be a "mass exodus" of members.

Forbes is known for her conservative views on issues such as gay marriage, abortion and trans rights.

Black was a headline act from her first days in Parliament, when her initial Commons speech saw her decry poverty and was viewed 10 million times within days.

It came after a whirlwind time when she overturned Douglas Alexander's majority in 2015, as part of an SNP surge that saw the party take nearly every constituency in Scotland.

Black had been energised by the independence referendum in 2014, which she calls a "magical" time.

Defeat in the independence vote "felt like a death" she says, but within months she was standing for election - a time that saw social media posts she made as a teenager resurface, including declarations of love for Smirnoff Ice and views on football.

"The way it was twisted to make her out be a drunken, bigoted wee lout was one of the worst times of my life," recalls her father.

It did not hurt her at the polls though, and she carried that bluntness into her Westminster career.

'I get death threats all the time'

However, a vulnerability was underneath the surface - at one point the documentary shows a stuffed panda bear given to her by her mum to keep her company in London.

In 2018 she spoke at length about the abuse she had suffered online, repeating some of the many foul-mouthed slurs sent to her about her appearance and sexuality, including that you "can't put lipstick on a pig" and that she was "too ugly to be raped".

"It's difficult to describe how you can feel so alone and unsafe and under attack with nothing more than your phone sitting there," she reflects.

"I get death threats all the time but there was one in particular where the police came to my flat down in London and the house up in Scotland.

"It was like two in the morning and the phrase used was a 'an imminent death threat'.

"I don't know what I've done to make you viscerally hate me that much."

Since politics she has performed a one-woman show at the Edinburgh festival and spent time talking about politics on various TV shows and podcasts.

There does not appear to be any second guessing about her decision to stand down though, as she enjoys a walk with her dog in the new documentary.

"People deserve a representative that wants to be there and I don't think that's me anymore. I've done my bit," she says.

"Doing something normal on a Tuesday, going for a walk with my wee best pal, is much better than running around Westminster."

• From Friday, 7 March, watch former SNP MP Mhairi Black talk politics, neurodiversity and stand-up comedy in this very personal film on the BBC iPlayer.

So in the end Charles de Gaulle was right.

As president of France in the 1960s, it was he who launched the policy of French strategic independence.

Of course, he said, Americans were more our friends than Russians are. But the US too had interests. And one day their interests would clash with ours.

In the world of today, his warnings have never seemed more clairvoyant.

From his principle of superpower detachment, De Gaulle conjured the notion of France's sovereign nuclear deterrent – whose existence is now at the centre of debates over European security.

France and the UK are the only two countries on the European continent who have nuclear weapons. Currently France has just short of 300 nuclear warheads, which can be fired from France-based aircraft or from submarines.

The UK has about 250. The big difference is that the French arsenal is sovereign – i.e. developed entirely by France – whereas the UK relies on US technical input.

On Wednesday President Emmanuel Macron aired the idea that France's deterrence force (force de frappe) could – in this highly uncertain new era - be associated with the defence of other European countries.

His suggestion drew outrage from politicians of the hard right and left, who say that France is considering "sharing" its nuclear arsenal.

That – according to government officials as well as defence experts – is a falsification of the argument. Nothing is to be "shared".

According to Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu, the nuclear deterrent "is French and will remain French – from its conception to its production to its operation, under a decision of the president."

What is under discussion is not more fingers on the nuclear button. It is whether France's nuclear protection can be explicitly extended to include other European countries.

Until now French nuclear doctrine has been built around the threat of a massive nuclear response if the president thought the "vital interests" of France were at stake.

The limits of these "vital interests" have always been left deliberately vague – ambiguity and credibility being the two watchwords of nuclear deterrence.

In fact French presidents going back to De Gaulle himself have all hinted that some European countries might de facto already be under the umbrella. In 1964 De Gaulle that France would consider itself threatened if, for example, the USSR attacked Germany.

So in one way there is nothing new in Macron suggesting a European dimension to France's deterrent.

What is new, according to defence analysts, is that for the first time other European countries are also asking for it.

"In the past when France has made overtures [about extending nuclear protection], other countries were reluctant to respond," says Pierre Haroche of the Catholic University of Lille.

"They didn't want to send out the signal that they did not have complete faith in the US and Nato."

"But Trump has clarified the debate," Mr Laroche says. "It's not that the Americans are talking of removing their nuclear deterrent – let's be clear, that does not seem to be on the table right now."

"But the credibility of US nuclear dissuasion is not what it was. That has opened the debate, and led the Germans to look more favourably on the idea of coming under a French and/or British umbrella."

Last month the likely next German chancellor Friedrich Merz surprised the country's partners by saying it might be the moment for discussion with Paris and London on the subject.

How a French or Franco-British European nuclear deterrent might operate is still far from clear.

According to Mr Haroche, one option might be to position French nuclear-armed planes in other countries, such as Germany or Poland. The decision to press the trigger would still rest entirely with the French president, but their presence would send a strong signal.

Alternatively, French bombers could patrol European borders, in the same way they regularly do French borders today. Or airfields could be developed in other countries to which French bombers could quickly deploy in an emergency.

Numbers are an issue. Are 300 French warheads enough against Russia's thousands? Maybe not – but in an alliance with the UK 300 become 550. Also (to repeat the point) the American nuclear deterrent is still in theory in place. There are US nuclear bombs in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.

Another question is whether to reformulate the French nuclear doctrine so as to state unambiguously that "vital interests" cover European allies too.

Some say there is no need, because the strategic vagueness that exists already is part of the very deterrent.

But Mr Haroche says there is a political dimension to stating more clearly that France will use its arsenal to defend other European countries.

"If the US is to be less present, then European countries will be depending much more on each other. Our strategic world becomes more horizontal," he says.

"In this new world it is important to build trust and confidence among ourselves. For France to signal it is prepared to take on risk in support of others – that helps create a solid front."

The daughter of pandemic fundraiser Captain Sir Tom Moore has said she deeply regrets a charity being set up in his name.

Hannah Ingram-Moore said the decision almost "derailed" the family's life but claimed "nothing dishonest" happened.

The World War Two veteran became a household name during the first Covid-19 lockdown, raising £38.9m for NHS charities after walking up and down his driveway in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire.

Mrs Ingram-Moore and her husband became directors of the Captain Tom Foundation, but the Charity Commission has since said they misled the public by benefitting personally from the charity.

The government regulator said the family refused to donate any of the £1.47m received for three Capt Sir Tom books, despite assurances that part of it would be passed to the charity.

In her first interview with the BBC since the inquiry, she maintained her father wanted the family to benefit from the deal.

But she admitted: "It didn't need to be set up as a charity, we could have continued that legacy without it, because what it's done is all but completely derailed our lives.

"It was set up with my father's name and that is our deepest regret."

The former business consultant is due to write and publish three books, which she says are about grief, loneliness and resilience.

The inquiry

Capt Sir Tom raised £38.9m for NHS Charities Together in 2020. This money did not form part of the Charity Commission inquiry.

The foundation was subsequently set up and Mrs Ingram-Moore and her husband became directors.

Grants of £160,000 were given to four charities by the foundation in its first year, but it paid more than £162,000 in management costs in the same period.

The Charity Commission took issue with the book agreement and £28,000 that Mrs Ingram-Moore was paid for deals with Virgin Media.

It also criticised the couple for not consulting trustees about a spa complex built at their home.

Investigators said in November that she and her husband displayed a "pattern of behaviour" in which they benefited personally, and the public would "understandably feel misled".

Speaking to BBC Three Counties Radio's Justin Dealey, Ms Ingram-Moore disputed the report but said it would have taken too much time and money to contest the findings.

"We gracefully bowed out and said we'll have to accept what they say, even though we know it not to be true and get on with our lives," she said.

The commission concluded the family's actions did not represent criminal behaviour and it did not pass any findings to the police.

The book deal

The publisher Penguin, and promoter Carver PR, said the family gave repeated assurances that part of the book deal advance would be used to set up and fund the foundation.

A press release, marketing materials and the prologue of Capt Sir Tom's memoir, all stated that the books would be used to support or raise money for the foundation.

Mrs Ingram-Moore said her father signed the deal with Penguin Random House through his agent and wanted the cash to go to the family.

"He was of very sound mind - he wanted us to benefit and he chose where to put it. It was his money," she said.

"He wanted to ensure that we lived well, that we had future income, because he could see that Covid had been quite devastating to our business."

Mrs Ingram-Moore said that after fees were taken into account, the family received £800,000 from the book deal - most of which was spent on legal costs.

She insisted some of the proceeds went to charity, but declined to say how much.

"There is nothing dishonest about what happened," she insisted.

"The book said it would support the launch [of the foundation] and it did. There was never a specific amount of money required.

"I'm sorry they feel misled, I genuinely am, but there was never any intent to mislead. If there was any misleading it wasn't our doing."

Experienced charity professional Jack Gilbert was chief executive of the foundation, and he told the BBC he was "gobsmacked" by questionable practices he uncovered.

A donation

Charity Commission chief executive David Holdsworth urged the Ingram-Moores to "follow through" and "donate a substantial amount to the charity".

Mrs Ingram-Moore refuted that more money was owed.

"That's just a way to try and reverse engineer the fact they want to us to be guilty of something," she said.

"They know absolutely that all the obligations, that were made, were fulfilled in numerous ways and with significant amounts of money.

"They didn't ask my father, that's my point. There was a year in which they could have said to him: 'Oh, Capt Tom we thought much more money was coming'."

Public speculation

Capt Sir Tom died in February 2021 aged 100, with coronavirus.

He become ill not long after his family took him on holiday to Barbados.

Mrs Ingram-Moore said public speculation over his death "was profoundly hurtful".

"There were memes of me doing despicable things to my father. There were people saying that we should all die in our beds," she recalled.

"By the time he died, there was then speculation of, 'oh, it's because we took him here, he got it from here, he got it from there, it's because we neglected him'.

"What I wanted to do was shout from the highest building, 'no, we took care of him'.

"We at all cost made sure he was safe."

She said she worried that the public wrongly assumed the £38.9m raised for NHS charities was tampered with.

"For anyone who thinks that there was any question that we could have touched it: Number one, we could not have. And number two, we would not have. And number three, we did not."

A new chapter

Mrs Ingram-Moore is due to release a self-published book this year entitled Grief: Public Face, Private Loss.

She plans a second book about resilience, and then an autobiography in 2026.

Business clients no longer wanted to work with her, she said, forcing her to pursue a new career as an author.

"Here I am as a woman who's worked predominantly in male-dominated businesses all my life successfully - now nobody thinks that that's worth anything," she said.

"It's devastating."

She claimed her autobiography would reveal "a lot that happened behind the scenes that no-one has ever known".

"There are some things that I think I will have to take to my grave with me."

Asked what her father would have thought of what has happened to her family since his death, Mrs Ingram-Moore said: "He would have lost faith in humanity.

"He would feel that it was so unjust. He would be devastated for us."

In July 2023, the Captain Tom Foundation announced it was not actively seeking donations or making payments.

This year, it changed its name to the 1189808 Foundation.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Charity Commission said: "Our rigorous investigation found repeated instances where Hannah and Colin Ingram-Moore's actions blurred the boundaries between their private interests and those of the charity.

"We stand by the findings of our inquiry, which are based on robust evidence."

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A private US company will attempt to land a spacecraft close to the Moon's South Pole on Thursday, carrying scientific instruments including a hopping robot and the first lunar mobile communications antenna.

Intuitive Machines is working with US space agency Nasa to look for evidence of water and ice on the lunar surface.

Lunar landings are very difficult, and the company will be hoping for a smooth touchdown after its first craft landed on its side last year.

The spacecraft Athena is currently orbiting the Moon and will attempt to land at 1730GMT (1230EST).

Athena is aiming to land 100 miles (160km) from the South Pole in an area of the lunar highlands called Mons Mouton.

If all goes well, the craft will have 10 days to complete scientific observations and measurements.

The instruments on board include a jumping robot called Micro Nova Hopper or Grace, which will leap and fly across the Moon's surface to reach a large crater that is in permanent shade.

The hopper should be released from the main spacecraft in coming days and fly up to 100m in altitude.

It will travel up to 1.2 miles (2km) and after five leaps, it should land inside the crater with a camera to take the first images of the interior.

The crater is in permanent shadow from the Sun's rays, so it has very low temperatures and is considered an ideal place to look for ice.

Intuitive Machines, who made the hopper, say it can travel to places that other machines, like robots with wheels, can't reach or would take a very long time to get to.

"These hoppers are really suited to the lunar environment because there's no atmosphere there, practically speaking, so doing a series of controlled leaps is a great way to move around," says Prof Simeon Barber, a lunar scientist with the Open University.

The IM-2 mission is also carrying three scientific instruments made by Nasa.

A drill called Trident will churn up rocks to reach the surface under the Moon to see if there is evidence of ice.

Then an instrument called a mass spectrometer will analyse any gases that are released.

And a type of antenna mast developed with Nokia should also be planted on the Moon that uses the same 4G cellular technology as on Earth.

The mission is part of Nasa's long-term goal to take humans back to the lunar surface, as the agency hopes to send astronauts in 2027 with the Artemis programme.

"This is another step towards assessing the viability of the lunar South Pole as a place to go and set up future bases for humans," says Prof Barber.

Experts want to explore options for building settlements and find out if there are reserves of water that could provide drinking water and potentially be turned into oxygen.

"A lot of planning of future exploration is being predicated on the presence of water ice, but if you want to use it, you need to know where it is and how much there is," says Prof Barber.

Nasa is partnering with a range of private companies that transport spacecraft and instruments to the Moon. It says this is cheaper than developing and blasting off their own missions.

Intuitive Machines successfully landed a craft called Odysseus on the Moon in February last year, but it tipped over during the descent, meaning not all the scientific work could be carried out.

Space agencies globally are competing to build human settlements on the Moon in a race to exploit resources and advance scientific understanding of other worlds.

In the US, the Moon mission is seen as a stepping stone for the longer-term and much more ambitious goal of human settlement on Mars.

The IM-2 mission could also help to answer broader questions about why there is ice in the inner solar system, closer to the Sun's warming rays.

"The permanently shadowed regions on the Moon are kind of a store and archive of ancient water that might have been delivered to the Earth-Moon system after their formation," explains Prof Mark Fox-Powell at the Open University.

A UK-based aid worker said he, his friends and colleagues were "so lucky to be alive" after they narrowly escaped a Russian missile attack on a hotel in Ukraine on Wednesday night that left at least four dead.

Karol Swiacki, a Polish national and founder of the Bournemouth-based charity Ukraine Relief, was at the Central Hotel in Kryvyi Rih having dinner with friends when the missile struck.

"We are all safe we didn't have a scratch, it is incredible," Mr Swiacki told BBC News, adding "we still don't know how we survived this, honestly."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Telegram that more than 30 people were wounded in the attack and rescuers were still at the scene.

The charity worker - who has previously won a BBC award - is in Ukraine carrying out aid relief work including delivering sports equipment and renovating a school for 550 children.

He is also visiting shelters and orphanages with Ukraine Relief's trustee, Marc Edwards - a British national who now lives in the US.

The duo were having dinner with friends at the hotel restaurant at the time of the strike. The dining party included two US volunteers, two workers from a Ukrainian charity foundation, a young boy and his pregnant mother.

"We'd just put our stuff in our rooms and went to eat with our local Ukrainian contacts and the cell phone alarm went off so we ran to the shelter," said Mr Edwards.

Mr Swiacki added: "We took two steps and there was a big boom, absolute nightmare, everything just within seconds changed into a very apocalyptic news screams, alarms."

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Video sent by Mr Swiacki to the BBC showed smoke filling the restaurant with half-eaten meals and takeaway boxes on tables.

"There was so much stuff that we couldn't see where we were going," said Mr Swiacki.

Mr Edwards confirmed that the blast "took out all the windows" and they had to climb out of the restaurant through a broken window.

The duo went back into the hotel to see if anyone else was hurt, and retrieve some of their belongings.

They also went outside to look for their vehicles, which were "full of aid" but were "all destroyed", Mr Edwards said.

Mr Swiacki's van, which he had parked outside the hotel, was "smashed completely to pieces".

"We heard some noises we don't want to hear again. Somebody was trapped under the rubble next to our van and didn't make it. Someone was hit from shrapnel and didn't make it. I'm numb," he said.

Mr Swiacki described the scene as "crazy, absolutely nightmare".

He said the restaurant was on the ground floor, and believes that it is the only room - or at least one of the few rooms - that didn't collapse.

The men are still in Kryvyi Rih and despite the shock of the explosion, Mr Swiacki said he has not been deterred him from continuing his aid work in Ukraine.

"I will never stop helping people after this," he said.

The attack happened ahead of a European security summit on Wednesday which Zelensky is attending.

Reacting to it, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it showed "why Ukraine needs defence capabilities: to protect human lives from Russian terror".

About 20 countries are interested in joining a "coalition of the willing" to help Ukraine, according to UK officials.

It is not thought every one of the countries, which are largely from Europe and the Commonwealth, would necessarily send troops but some could provide other support.

The plan, spearheaded by the UK and France, was set out by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at this weekend's summit of 18 European and Canadian leaders, and would work to uphold any ceasefire in Russia's war on Ukraine.

Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said such a move "can't be allowed" because it would amount to the "direct, official and unveiled involvement of Nato members in the war against Russia".

It comes as Kyiv attempts to mend relations with Washington after the US paused its military aid to Ukraine and intelligence sharing in a bid to bring President Zelensky to the negotiating table.

Speaking on a visit to a defence firm in Merseyside, Sir Keir said it would be a "big mistake" to think that "all we've got to do is wait for a deal now" between Ukraine and Russia, which US President Donald Trump claims to be attempting to broker.

The PM said it would be crucial that "if there is a deal - and we don't know there will be - that we defend the deal", which meant ensuring Ukraine was "in the strongest position".

But the PM stressed that defence plan should be made "in conjunction with the United States... it's that ability to work with the United States and our European partners that has kept the peace for 80 years now".

It is understood a meeting of officials was held on Tuesday to discuss providing security guarantees following any peace deal.

British officials said it was "early days" but welcomed what they described the expressions of interest in joining a "coalition of the willing" as a "highly positive step".

The Prime Minister's Deputy Official Spokesman said the government had been "very clear that it is for Europe and for the UK to step up and I think you are seeing evidence of that consistently."

The UK and France have proposed a one-month truce "in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure", backed up by a coalition of supportive western countries, but this has been rejected by Russia.

The UK announced a £1.6bn missile deal for Ukraine on Sunday and has now signed another deal with an Anglo-American security firm Anduril, to provide Ukraine with more advanced attack drones.

Defence Secretary John Healey is preparing for talks with his US counterpart Pete Hegseth in Washington DC as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the latest deal, worth nearly £30m and backed by the International Fund for Ukraine.

Healey said: "The UK has already provided more than 10,000 drones to Ukraine's armed forces, which have proved vital in disrupting Russian troop advances and targeting positions behind the front line.

"With a £2.26bn loan from seized Russian assets, plus £1.6 billion worth of air defence missiles announced for Ukraine in the last week, the UK is continuing to show leadership in securing a lasting peace for Ukraine."

The deal will see Kyiv supplied with cutting-edge Altius 600m and Altius 700m systems - designed to monitor an area before striking targets that enter it - to help tackle Russian aggression in the Black Sea.

The announcement comes amid concerns that the US move to halt intelligence-sharing with Ukraine will affect the country's ability to use western weaponry and deprive it of advanced information about incoming threats.

'Clear and present danger'

In Brussels, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, held an emergency defence summit as the EU grapples with the prospect of Trump reducing security assistance for Europe.

Proposing an 800 billion euro (£670 billion) defence package, von der Leyen said this was a "watershed moment", adding: "Europe faces a clear and present danger and therefore Europe has to be able to protect itself, to defend itself, as we have to put Ukraine in a position to protect itself and to push for a lasting and just peace."

European Union leaders met Zelensky, who thanked them for their support, and said: "We are very thankful that we are not alone. These are not just words, we feel it."

Turkey indicated Thursday it could play a part in peacekeeping efforts, while Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin said Irish troops could be involved in peacekeeping but would not be deployed in any "deterrent force".

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has also said he is "open" to sending troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers.

On Thursday Russia rejected calls for a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova telling reporters: "Firm agreements on a final settlement are needed. Without all that, some kind of respite is absolutely unacceptable."

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A girl who was killed when a car crashed on to a pitch where she was playing football was a "force of nature", her family has said.

Poppy Atkinson, 10, was fatally struck by the vehicle while attending a training session at Kendal Rugby Club in Cumbria on Wednesday evening.

Her family described her as the "focal point of their lives".

She was determined to be a professional footballer and play for Manchester United, they said.

An eight-year-old girl, also from Kendal, was injured and taken to hospital for treatment.

Cumbria Police arrested a 40-year-old man from Lancaster on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving but said there was "no indication to suggest that this incident was a deliberate act".

Poppy's family said their lives revolved around the "small, petite and beautiful" girl's love for football, adding: "Many who know her, and who know her determination to improve and win, had no doubt she would achieve her goal to one day to play for Manchester United."

"She was a force of nature. She was so special, she was too good for this world.

"Poppy touched so many lives, it was easy to see why, her energy, character, spirit and passion for football was infectious and touched huge numbers of people.

"The hole in our lives and so many around us that Poppy leaves is enormous, we will never be whole again."

Nick Turley, the headteacher of Old Hutton CE Primary School, where Poppy was a pupil, said the community was devastated.

"Poppy was someone who brought joy, light and happiness to all she did," he said, adding: "She had a wonderful sense of humour and a deep love of life.

"Our prayers will remain with Poppy's family and as a school community we will do all we can to support them."

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