President Donald Trump has revoked security protection for former top US health official Anthony Fauci, who has faced death threats since leading the country's Covid-19 response.

"You can't have a security detail for the rest of your life because you work for government," Trump told reporters, when asked about the decision on Friday. "It's very standard."

This week, Trump also revoked security protections for his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, his former National Security Adviser John Bolton and former envoy Brian Hook, who all faced threats from Iran.

Dr Fauci has now hired his own private security team that he will pay for himself, US media report.

Asked whether he felt responsible for the officials' safety, Trump said on Friday: "They all made a lot of money. They can hire their own security too."

Dr Fauci was previously protected by federal marshals, and then a private security company, which was paid for by the government, according to the New York Times.

One of Dr Fauci's most vocal Republican critics, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, had called for his security to be revoked.

He wrote in a post on X on Thursday that he had "sent supporting information to end the 24 hr a day limo and security detail for Fauci".

"I wish him nothing but peace but he needs to pay for his own limos," he said.

Trump has also revoked the security clearances of 51 intelligence officials who had claimed that Hunter Biden's laptop had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

Under US protocol, former presidents and their spouses are granted security protection for life. But protection for other US officials is decided based on the threat assessment from the intelligence community.

As the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr Fauci faced death threats during and after the coronavirus pandemic, as well as criticism from Republicans over mask mandates and other Covid restrictions.

He led the institute for 40 years, including during Trump's first term. Trump had also awarded presidential commendations to Dr Fauci who served on the Operation Warp Speed task force during the pandemic.

Before leaving office, then-President Joe Biden issued a preemptive pardon for Dr Fauci.

The doctor told US media that he "truly appreciated" Biden for taking action, adding that the possibility of prosecution had created "immeasurable and intolerable distress" on his family.

"Let me be perfectly clear, I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me," he said.

A Bulgarian woman charged with being part of a Russian spy cell operating in the UK has denied knowing that information she gathered would be sent to Russia.

Katrin Ivanova, 33, is accused of spying for Russia in a series of elaborate operations in the UK and Europe.

She allegedly targeted a US military base in Germany and secretly filmed two investigative journalists regarded as enemies of the Russian state.

Jurors have heard there was a risk the journalists could be kidnaped or assassinated.

Giving evidence for the first time, Ms Ivanova denied being a spy.

She accepted following people targeted by the operations, and travelling around Europe, but said she did not know the true purpose of the activity.

She said she believed one operation targeting the investigative journalist Christo Grozev was itself a form of journalism and would reveal to the public that he was corrupt.

"The plan was to try and expose Mr Grozev," she said.

However, no information was ever published and "nothing actually happened", she said.

She said her then-partner Biser Dzhambazov – whom she told the jury she had trusted with her life – asked her to take part in surveillance operations.

"He has been my partner for over 10 years. Why would he do something that's going to hurt me," she said.

The operations were to help Dzhambazov's friend Orlin Roussev, who assisted the couple financially after they first moved to the UK in 2012, Ms Ivanova told the court.

The couple first met Roussev at East Croydon station in 2012, and went for dinner with him at a "posh" restaurant near the Thames, she said.

"I was very impressed with him," she said. "He was someone I always wanted to be. He was a typical hero immigrant story."

Both Dzhambazov and Roussev have already admitted conspiracy to spy for Russia.

Ms Ivanova wiped away tears in the witness box as she described learning how her partner was arrested in bed with the other alleged female spy in this trial, Vanya Gaberova, 30.

Jurors have heard that Dzhambazov and Ms Gaberova were in bed together when the police arrived to arrest them in February 2023.

She said Dzhambazov told her he had a brain tumour and went abroad for treatment. She now believes that was a lie so he could live a "parallel life" with Ms Gaberova.

The trial continues.

The heir to a pie company fortune has been sentenced to life in prison for the "barbaric and cruel" murder of his best friend on Christmas Eve in the house they shared.

Dylan Thomas stabbed William Bush, 23, on 24 December 2023, a total of 37 times with a large kitchen knife and a flick knife.

Thomas, 24, who admitted manslaughter but denied murder, had looked up details of the anatomy of the neck in the hours before the attack in Llandaff, Cardiff.

Thomas is the grandson of Sir Stanley Thomas, who made his fortune with his brother in the south Wales-based family firm Peter's Pies, and who was present in court for the sentencing.

Thomas will serve a minimum term of 19 years before he eligible to be considered for release.

It took jurors three hours to find him guilty of murder in November.

On Friday, Thomas appeared before the court by video link from Ashworth Hospital in Liverpool, where he is being treated for schizophrenia and psychosis.

He sat emotionless, speaking only to confirm he could hear the judge.

Judge Karen Steyn described the murder as a "sustained and ferocious knife attack" on "a young man who had been a firm and loyal friend".

"He was a compassionate, loving, witty and vibrant young man," she said.

"He had a bright future ahead of him."

She said Mr Bush was "senselessly murdered" depriving him of "many, many decades of a happy and fulfilling life".

She added the sentence was "not intended as a measure of the value of Will's life", adding that was "beyond measure".

Speaking in court, Mr Bush's sister Catrin said her brother's life was taken "in the most barbaric and cruel way".

"Will was such a loyal, funny and caring person, he lit up every room he walked into with his cheeky grin," she said.

"My family have been left with a massive hole which will ever be filled."

John Bush, William's father, added their lives had been changed in "a profound and fundamental way".

"Christmas will not be a time of celebration for our family for many years," he said.

Elle Jeffreys, William's girlfriend, told the court she had "lost a future we had both planned and prepared for".

She said he was a big supporter of Arsenal football club and was fit and active, playing golf for his home county of Powys and running the Cardiff Half Marathon with her in 2023.

"Will was the love of my life and meant everything to me," she said.

"He would light up any room he walked in to.

"Life will never be the same without Will."

During the trial, the prosecution told Cardiff Crown Court that Thomas was in a "downward spiral" but in control of his actions at the time of the killing.

He had been arrested weeks earlier for trying to scale the fence at Buckingham Palace and had been released on police bail.

On the morning of the attack, Thomas was driven to Llandaff by his grandmother, Sharon Burton, insisting he wanted to walk his dog, Bruce.

Mrs Burton described him as becoming "more and more agitated" during the journey.

When she parked outside the property, Thomas went in, got the knives, went to Mr Bush's bedroom and stabbed him repeatedly.

The prosecution said passers-by "heard screams of horror" from the house.

Thomas banged on his grandmother's car window and she found Mr Bush on the patio outside.

Thomas called 999 for an ambulance after the attack, claiming his friend had "gone mental" and stabbed him.

But the prosecution told the trial it was "a planned attack" by Thomas on Mr Bush and he "deliberately armed himself with knives and attacked him from behind".

The court was given expert opinion that Thomas had been psychotic for months before the killing.

Jurors heard that he told police officers he was Jesus after his arrest for the killing and offered one police officer a "job with God".

Judge Steyn said: "It must have been particularly terrifying and horrifying for Mr Bush to be attacked in his home, indeed, in his own bedroom by one of his closest friends. He could be heard to scream and cry, and he plainly struggled to fend off your brutal assault."

Orlando Pownall, defending Thomas, offered no personal mitigation on behalf of his client but said there was not a "significant degree of planning or premeditation".

He said Thomas regretted not seeking psychiatric help, adding "opportunities were missed" by people around him before the attack.

Following the sentencing, Chris Evans of the Crown Prosecution Service said the "frenzied attack" was a "shocking" level of violence.

He added Thomas's actions on the lead up to the murder "demonstrated he was thinking clearly and gave an indication of his intention".

Det Con Joanne Harris of South Wales Police added Mr Bush was "killed by someone he regarded as his friend having done nothing to warrant the brutal violence inflicted upon him".

The Thomas family company was launched as Thomas Pies in the 1950s, selling sausage rolls, pies and pasties around the south Wales valleys.

In the 1970s it became Peter's Pies, and is now known as Peter's Food, based in Bedwas in Caerphilly county.

The late Stan Thomas passed on the company to his sons Stan junior - Dylan Thomas's grandfather - and Peter, the former chairman of Cardiff RFC rugby club, who died in 2023. They sold the company in 1988.

News stories about extreme weather affect millions of lives – and that is reflected in huge audiences.

For journalists – they are challenging to cover.

We have the task of putting out information and conveying the seriousness of the situation to the public - and also taking steps to keep ourselves safe.

Red warnings indicate there is a danger to life – and the authorities do not take lightly the decision to issue the alert.

Assessing the risk is part and parcel of our approach to these stories.

• Live updates: 'Once in a generation' storm batters UK and Ireland
• Storm Éowyn leaves thousands without power and water
• How to stay safe and what to do in a power cut

Camera operator Niall Gallagher and I went to Westport on the Atlantic coast of Ireland ahead of the red warning coming into force.

We knew in advance that some of the strongest winds in the UK and Ireland would be felt on the western seaboard.

During the hours of the highest level of alert – it was clearly too dangerous to go out into the open.

The sight and sound of debris crashing onto the ground bore testament to the risk that the national weather service, Met Éireann, and emergency services have been speaking about.

So we set up for live broadcasting in a tunnel, connecting our hotel car park to the street.

It meant we can have a good look at the scenes outside, and get an idea of how ferocious the gales were - while remaining sheltered.

This enabled us to film pictures which sufficiently put across the savagery of the storm, without taking a major safety risk.

• Tens of thousands lose power as Storm Éowyn hits Scotland
• 'Life threatening' storm brings highest winds in 27 years to Northern Ireland
• 93mph wind gusts and schools shut in Wales

After the red warning expired, we made the decision to head out again – to survey the damage, talk more to local people, and assess the scale of the clear-up which communities were facing.

Covering the most intense storm to hit the island of Ireland in many years is a team effort – and we are always reliant on our colleagues in BBC Northern Ireland, who have been gathering material from numerous towns, cities and villages.

BBCNI's headquarters at Broadcasting House in Belfast switched to a back-up electricity generator as the busy lunchtime news period approached.

It was a plan to enable the programmes to stay on air, if the wave of power cuts reached the building.

Whether you are in a newsroom or "on the ground" – having a plan B (and often a C and D) is often valuable.

It's never more important than when covering bad weather.

If the pattern of recent times continues, we'll be doing it more frequently in the coming years.

WhatsApp messages seen by the BBC reveal how Southport killer Axel Rudakubana had packages sent to a neighbour's home - one of which contained ingredients to make ricin.

The messages also reveal that his father Alphonse was aware of the deliveries and apologised for them.

In one message seen by the BBC, the father reassured a neighbour who was concerned about the unexplained deliveries that it was "sorted", adding: "He will use our address next time."

A neighbour told the BBC the messages raise questions over whether a crucial opportunity to stop Rudakubana's descent into violence was missed.

The BBC has also established that Rudakubana's parents did not alert local police to the fact the teenager attempted to travel to his former school a week before the Southport attack, where prosecutors now believe he intended to carry out a mass killing.

Details of both incidents come amid ongoing investigations into why red flags that the teenager was planning to kill went unheeded.

The messages seen by the BBC, which are from January 2022, suggest the neighbour believed the parcels which unexpectedly arrived at their home were for Axel Rudakabana. Neighbours now believe the Southport killer was using separate addresses as a decoy.

It is not known whether his father knew what was contained in the packages.

When asked about the deliveries, Merseyside Police said they would not comment on what was an ongoing investigation.

But investigators have previously revealed that Rudakubana took steps to conceal his online purchases and obsessions. He masked his identity while using online retailers to stockpile weapons - including the knife he would use in the dance class attack - and when pursuing his obsession with extreme graphic material.

After the attack in July 2024, police discovered a substance at Rudakubana's home in a sealed box. Tests at Porton Down, the government's biological warfare laboratory, confirmed the substance was ricin, a poison for which there is no antidote.

The search had to be halted because of the danger of the substance, though the court heard there was no evidence it had ever been used.

When the search resumed detectives found a plastic bag containing a variety of seed that is used to produce the poison. The package had been bought under the fake name of "Al Rud" and delivered to a neighbour's address.

Caroline, a former neighbour of Rudakubana's in Banks, Lancashire, told the BBC: "He was clearly ordering seeds and having them delivered to a neighbour, possibly a decoy, so that it couldn't be traced to the address that he was living at."

Alphonse Rudakubana told neighbours in a WhatsApp group that he would have the address amended so it would not happen again.

He wrote: "It's sorted now. These were the last orders, I am told. He will use our address next time. Thanks."

Caroline said she witnessed social workers and police visiting the family about six weeks before the attack. She said she believes neighbours should have been alerted to concerns about Rudakubana.

She also told the BBC her cat needed to be put down after straying into the police forensic tent during the search and began "convulsing and foaming at the mouth".

She believes it came into contact with the ricin. While no toxicology test was carried out on the cat, vets told Caroline they believe the cat had suffered from poisoning

By the time the packages were delivered to neighbours, Rudakubana had already been researching mass murder and genocide online. He was referred to the anti-extremism programme Prevent on three separate occasions between 2019 and 2021 over his interest in school shootings and extreme violence.

A week before he killed three children, Rudakubana attempted to take a taxi to the Range High School in Formby, where he had been expelled from five years earlier for attacking a pupil with a hockey stick and repeatedly taking a knife into class.

Video from the 22 July incident shows him carrying a backpack and wearing the same hooded jumper and surgical mask he would later wear during the attack on the dance class.

On that occasion, his father intervened and pleaded with the taxi driver not to take him. His son got out of the taxi and went back inside their home.

But despite concerns over his son's movements, the BBC has established his father did not call local police.

It is not known how much he knew of his son's intentions that day and the BBC has been unable to speak to Rudakubana's parents, who are believed to be living in a safe house.

Asked about the incident, a spokesman for Lancashire Constabulary, in whose area the Rudakubana family lived, said: "This wasn't reported to Lancashire Police". Merseyside Police, who are still carrying out an investigation, said they could not comment.

The BBC has not established whether the 22 July incident was referred to social care staff.

• How red flags over Southport killer were repeatedly missed

Investigators have previously revealed that Rudakubana's parents did call the police on earlier occasions as they sought help to deal with their son's violent and erratic behaviour.

Between the ages of 13 and 17, Rudakubana - who was diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder - became detached and reclusive. He was known to the police, the youth justice system and mental health services. His parents had also been offered social care help to deal with their son.

Pictures taken by police after his arrest following the dance class attack reveal a scene of chaos inside their family home.

One image shows a cluttered living room, which police believe Rudakubana had been using as his bedroom. Knives, arrows and chemical equipment were found inside the house, with Amazon boxes stacked in the middle of the room.

On four separate occasions, his parents resorted to calling the police as they struggled to cope with their son's behaviour.

The first 999 call was in November 2021 after Rudakubana became "disruptive" when a stranger came to their door.

A few weeks later police were called again after Rudakubana attacked his father and damaged his car during an argument.

There was a serious incident in March 2022 when Rudakubana's mother reported him missing. He was located after a bus driver called 999 to report a teenage passenger was refusing to pay.

When police arrived, they found Rudakubana and discovered he was carrying a kitchen knife. On that occasion, his parents were given advice on securing knives inside the home - but Rudakubana was not charged with a criminal offence.

The final call came in May 2022, when his father reported that an argument had broken out after his son was denied access to a computer.

During a briefing earlier this week, investigators were asked whether they were satisfied his parents had secured the knives inside the home. The officers would not be drawn on that but did say that when the house was searched, the weapons stored under the teenager's bed which included a machete were clearly visible.

The Rudakubana family have not been seen by neighbours in Banks since the attack.

The UK has left open the possibility of following EU rules for food and farm products in order to return to frictionless access to European markets, the trade secretary has said.

Jonathan Reynolds told the BBC such an agreement - which lowers all trade barriers in return for mirroring EU rules and standards - would not cross the government's red lines.

His comments come after EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic told the BBC a new agreement, including so-called dynamic alignment on standards, is possible alongside other areas of pan-European co-operation on customs.

Reynolds met Sefcovic at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.

He said he thanked his EU counterpart for his "incredibly positive" and "helpful" comments. Reynolds add that Sefcovic's tone was in keeping with what the government had already said about a "twin- track strategy" on trade.

"We can improve the terms of trade with the EU in a way which doesn't revisit customs unions or single markets or the arguments of Brexit, and we can do that whilst pursuing closer trade links around the world," Reynolds said.

Labour fought last year's UK general election with a manifesto pledge to lower Brexit-related barriers and red tape for the export of food and farm products to the European Union.

The question has always been how deep such an agreement might be. It could be settled in the coming weeks, though firm decisions have not yet been made.

on Thursday the EU suggested to the BBC that complete eradication of barriers in the sector would be possible if the UK followed relevant EU rules and standards as they change, a process known as "dynamic alignment".

Speaking to the BBC in Davos, Reynolds said that both ideas floated by Sefcovic - a fully fledged veterinary agreement with dynamic alignment - and a pan-European customs plan did not break the government's red lines.

On the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention he said it did not cross red lines because "it is not a customs union".

Asked if a "full-fat veterinary agreement with dynamic alignment" crossed red lines he said: "No, that's part of our manifesto, an SPS agreement, a veterinary agreement."

The Conservatives have voiced anger at reports of a potential new deal on UK-EU trade, with shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel telling MPs that the government was "bending the knee to the EU".

"These latest reports that the government might shackle us to the European Union are deeply concerning, and once again make clear that Keir Starmer and his chums are all too happy to put their ideology ahead of our national interest, no matter the cost," she said.

But the Liberal Democrats have said the government is not doing enough to smooth trade with the EU.

Party leader Sir Ed Davey told the Commons: "It is time for a proper UK-EU customs arrangement so we can strengthen our negotiations with Donald Trump, cut the red tape on our businesses and grow the economy."

Reynolds told the BBC he was preparing the UK's case to avoid potential US tariffs on exports, after President Donald Trump suggested the world could have to pay trillions of dollars to access markets in America.

Visitors to Edinburgh will be charged a tourist tax designed to raise £50m annually, after city councillors voted in favour of the move.

The charge, which mimics those already used in Germany, Spain and Italy, covers hotels, bed and breakfasts, self-catering accommodation as well as rooms and properties let through websites like Airbnb.

City of Edinburgh Council has said the levy of 5% will take effect from 24 July 2026 and the revenue raised will be spent on infrastructure improvements.

But some businesses are concerned that it will put visitors off visiting the city and that it is being rushed in before systems are ready.

Council leader Jane Meagher said it was one of the most important injections of funding in the city for decades, and visitors and residents would quickly see the benefits.

"They will see cleaner streets, they will see quicker removal of graffiti, better environmental improvements, more attractive spaces and better transport connections," she said.

"They will see lots of improvements across the city, not just in the city centre."

She added some of the money would go towards affordable housing, to enable people working in the city to find somewhere to live.

"We're getting strong messages from employers in the hospitality sector that they're struggling to recruit people to jobs because rents and mortgages are so high and they can't afford to live near where they work," she said.

However, there are concerns from some in the business community who say it will mean more administration for them.

Anna Morris, who runs a short-term let in the Newington area of the city, is also concerned it could put people off coming to Edinburgh.

"I think there is a risk that it does affect the competitiveness of Edinburgh as a destination," she said.

"It is quite an expensive destination already. I love Edinburgh, It's a brilliant place to come but people can go wherever they want - abroad and even within Scotland, there are other cities you might choose to go to.

"Everyone is watching what they spend now, and [the tax] is quite high when you think about it so there is a risk there."

But other European cities where a tourist tax has been introduced - such as Amsterdam - say they have not lost visitors and have seen many benefits.

The Dutch capital now charges 12.5% on top of accommodation bills, raising 265m Euros (£220m) a year.

The deputy mayor Hester van Buren said: "The residents are more tolerant of the tourists because they think they've contributed, and that there are also benefits from the tourists.

"We can clean the city, we can build more infrastructure, we can put money into more affordable housing for the residents so I hope the residents see the profit of it."

One of the areas hoping to benefit from any levy is Edinburgh's only city centre housing scheme, Dumbiedykes.

Jim Slaven, who has been a tenant there for 30 years, said many of the flats were now short-term lets and they lost amenities such as their community centre and shops.

"Housing is one of the major crises in the city and has been in working class areas for many years," he said.

"For years the residents of Edinburgh have been told how many hundreds of millions of pounds come into the city through tourism, so with the visitors' levy it's an opportunity for some money from tourism to be put into public services and infrastructure."

Google has agreed to make "significant changes to its processes" to help tackle fake reviews of UK businesses, the regulator has announced.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says the firm - which accounts for 90% of search in the UK - will attach warnings to companies found to have artificially boosted their star rating.

The worst offenders will have their review function deactivated, meaning they cannot receive any new reviews.

Individuals who repeatedly post fake or misleading reviews will be banned from posting – regardless of where they are in the world.

Sarah Cardell, the Chief Executive of the CMA, said: "The changes we've secured from Google ensure robust processes are in place, so people can have confidence in reviews and make the best possible choices."

The measures only relate to reviews for businesses when searching on Google or on Google maps.

They will not apply to reviews of products.

A spokesperson from Google told the BBC: "Our longstanding investments to combat fraudulent content help us block millions of fake reviews yearly – often before they ever get published.

"Our work with regulators around the world, including the CMA, is part of our ongoing efforts to fight fake content and bad actors."

It is not the first pledge to tackle fake reviews, a problem which artificial intelligence (AI) is exacerbating.

The influence of reviews real and fake is enormous - the CMA estimates £23bn of UK consumer spending every year is "potentially influenced" by online reviews.

Google told the BBC it has already started with its restrictions on businesses and reviews, and the CMA says Google will report to it over the next three years to ensure action is being taken.

After this period, Google will be able to change how it deals with fake reviews to reflect any new changes in technology.

Ms Cardell added: "This is a matter of fairness – for both business and consumers – and we encourage the entire sector to take note."

Amazon and Google have been under investigation by the CMA over fake reviews since June, 2021 – months after the consumer group Which? concluded Google was failing to do enough to combat fake reviews within its business listings.

The CMA has said its investigation into Amazon is ongoing.

A judge has rejected a US mother's challenge to extradition over accusations she murdered two of her children in Colorado and "fled" to London.

Kimberlee Singler's nine-year-old daughter Elianna and seven-year-old son Aden were found dead on 19 December, 2023 in Colorado Springs.

Prosecutors acting on behalf of US officials said Ms Singler, 36, "fled" the US and was arrested in west London 11 days later.

District Judge John Zani told Westminster Magistrates' Court he rejected Ms Singler's challenge against extradition and said the case now passed to the home secretary to decide whether the 36-year-old should be sent back to the US.

Warning: This report contains descriptions of violence against children

In his ruling Judge Zani said he was not convinced that the defendant's rights, particularly her concerns about prison conditions and a possible life sentence without parole, would be infringed on by extradition.

"I am of the firm opinion that the defendant's extradition to the United States of America to face criminal prosecution complies with all of her Convention Rights within the meaning of the Human Rights Act 1998," Judge Zani said.

Ms Singler's legal team has said she intends to appeal against the judge's decision.

Previously, the court heard in September that Ms Singler's alleged crimes were "committed against the backdrop of acrimonious court proceedings" relating to the custody of her children with her ex-husband Kevin Wentz.

Prosecutor Joel Smith said on 19 December 2023 the Colorado Springs Police Department responded to a 911 call reporting a burglary at a Colorado residence at 00:29 local time (06:29 GMT).

When officers arrived at the defendant's address, they found two dead children and a "blood-stained handgun" which was discovered on the floor of the bedroom.

Mr Smith said DNA tests were carried out on the gun and a knife which revealed the presence of mixed profiles matching the children and Ms Singler.

A third child, who has not been named, was found with a serious injury to her neck. She was taken to hospital and survived.

Mr Smith said Ms Singler blamed her husband for the attack, but it was found he had been driving a "GPS-tracked truck" in Denver, giving what the prosecutor described as a "complete and verifiable alibi".

In the days that followed, the third child was moved into foster care and, on Christmas Day, she told her foster carer that Ms Singler had been responsible for the attack and had asked her to lie to police, Mr Smith said.

The prosecutor said the girl was interviewed by police on 26 December, during which time she recounted how the attack had unfolded after the defendant guided all three children into their bedroom.

The police investigation then led to a warrant being issued by Fourth Judicial District Court in El Paso County, Colorado, for Ms Singler's arrest.

Mr Smith said Ms Singler was arrested in the Chelsea area of west London on 30 December.

It is not for the court in London to carry out a criminal trial. However, at the same hearing in September, Ms Singler's defence barrister Edward Fitzgerald told the court she "denies she is responsible for the death of her two young children and the attempted murder of her third child".

"She is innocent," he said.

Did the hero Prince slay the tabloid dragon? Or to quote one of its most memorable headlines, was it The Sun Wot Won It?

The dust is still settling on the settlement of Prince Harry's epic legal battle against News Group Newspapers.

Had the trial gone ahead, Prince Harry would have alleged he had been the victim of unlawful newsgathering by NGN journalists between 1996 and 2011 - and that its leaders covered up wrongdoing by destroying evidence - something that the company denied. But the eight-week trial didn't happen because the two sides suddenly settled.

He's scored an apology for intrusion by The Sun, including NGN accepting that there was unlawful information gathering by private investigators working for the newspaper.

NGN has not admitted unlawful activity by journalists or editors - and the settlement means a judge won't now have to decide if there was, as the Duke's team alleges, a corporate cover-up of wrongdoing - a claim NGN vehemently denied and said it would fight at trial.

The space between those positions, in which both sides will feel they won something, is now the battleground.

The question is how far, realistically, can a campaign around historical events go? Is this week a reboot of investigations or, in fact, the final chapter?

The main focus of pressure and lobbying will be the police - because campaigners believe Scotland Yard didn't go far enough in its previous investigations, missing opportunities to widen its focus beyond wrongdoing at The News of the World.

'Dossier' being prepared

Speaking to the BBC on Friday, actor Hugh Grant - who said the financial risks forced him to settle, with The Sun's owners last year - said the police's job was not done "by any means" - and suing the newspapers was never going to get at the full truth.

So all eyes will be on Lord Tom Watson, the former Labour deputy leader, who NGN admits was placed under surveillance by News of the World journalists in 2009.

The last remaining claimant alongside Prince Harry, he says a dossier will go to the Metropolitan Police.

The Met for its part says there is no active criminal investigation into alleged newspaper wrongdoing.

That statement also means there's no current probe into the separate Mirror Group titles, despite a judge ruling in 2023 that they had used phone hacking to get information on Prince Harry.

So why no investigation?

The police aren't ruling one out, but Sir Mark Rowley, the Met's commissioner, told LBC radio on Friday that they would need to see something "radically new".

And that's because Scotland Yard takes the view that it carried out a huge investigation 10 years ago.

Team Harry believe this is profoundly myopic. While some of their planned evidence for the NGN trial had come from the police, his lawyers also obtained new documents from NGN itself under rules for a fair trial.

Could that be new evidence? Let's take the example of the records of the myriad of payments to private investigators.

Team Harry and Watson would have sought to prove at a trial that many were for unlawful activity. On one level you can see that would arguably fit a test of something radically new.

But, in its defence, News Group would have argued that none of this proved journalists or anyone else at the Sun knew information was being unlawfully gathered - far short of a whiff of a criminal enterprise.

What this single episode we had been expecting to see at the trial shows is how each allegation against NGN would have been fought rather than conceded. And if the police knock on the company's door with its truncheon, they are likely to face a similarly robust response.

And that's why the thrust of Lord Watson's promised dossier to the police will become important. It will have to say something really big. And in the absence of a court finding - that challenge becomes larger still.

Other bodies could in theory act. Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee investigated phone-hacking allegations in 2011. It's likely to face calls to review the evidence of NGN CEO Rebekah Brooks and others - evidence that NGN will stand by because there's been no finding in court of unlawful activity by journalists, editors or executives.

There's also the Information Commissioner's Office. It had a role in the origins of this story, investigating privacy and data breaches by private investigators. The ICO says it has no plans to reopen or review this investigation.

The government has already ruled out launching "Leveson 2", the second leg of the public inquiry promised by David Cameron. It was meant to investigate "unlawful or improper conduct" across tabloids and whether the police, put simply, had turned a blind eye to it because they had been corrupted by getting too close to journalists who may have been paying them off. But it never happened.

Labour in government won't revisit it because too much time has passed.

South London singer Lola Young's unflinchingly honest hit Messy has reached number one in the UK after a two-month climb, and she's been nominated for a Brit Award. Now she's made a breakthrough, this could be her year.

Lola Young jumps into a car, laughing uncontrollably as she flashes a brand new set of shiny gold teeth.

"I just got grills fitted," she explains once she's regained her composure. "But they're like so intense, so you're rocking with this today, and a lisp."

She's been running a few minutes late for the interview and this explains why - so she can finish getting her dental jewellery accessories fitted, with which she seems extremely pleased.

The screen suddenly freezes. The car she's in is somewhere in the US and the reception has cut out.

Young made her US TV debut on Jimmy Fallon's talk show the night before, which followed a whirlwind trip to Australia, and she'll soon set off on a sold-out European tour. She's talking on Zoom as her manager drives her to the next stop on her schedule.

Travelling the world and in high demand, but making time to get a full set of solid gold teeth grills fitted - she's living a proper pop star's life.

And she is now a proper pop star. After several years of almost making it - she sang on the 2021 John Lewis advert, was on the BBC Sound of 2022 list and had glowing reviews for her two albums - Messy has given her a bona fide hit.

The song became inescapable at the end of 2024 and completed its climb to the top of the charts on Friday.

The 24-year-old is the first current British artist to have a UK number one since Chase and Status and Stormzy in August, the youngest to do so since Dave in 2022, and the youngest British woman to score a chart-topper since Dua Lipa in 2017.

Her number one came a day after she was nominated for best pop act at the Brit Awards.

"The response has been amazing and it's been really exciting to see all the love that Messy has been receiving," says Young, speaking earlier in the week.

"I love the song, it's a song I wrote that's really personal and really important to me. So I'm really happy that it's resonating so much."

Messy was released on her second album This Wasn't Meant For You Anyway last May.

Its trajectory was supercharged when superstar US influencers Sofia Richie Grainge and Jake Shane posted a 14-second TikTok clip of themselves dancing to its chorus. Young's song has now been used in 1.3 million videos on the platform - from Kylie Jenner lip-syncing as a dog, to a viral clip of an old woman vaping and holding a pint alongside the caption "94 and still messy".

The singer would like to point out that the track's success is not simply down to TikTok, however.

"That's not necessarily how it blew up. I would like to say that the song was blowing up before TikTok, and it was having its moment elsewhere. A lot of things contributed to the success.

"The TikTok thing is great. I don't make music for Tiktok. I make music for myself and for my fans, but the Sofia Richie thing is just one element of how well it did in every aspect.

"But yeah, it's been great to see every side of it."

Contradictions

The track was indeed starting to gain traction before finding TikTok virality, and has only done so well because it is more than a mere meme.

Its lyrics, about never being good enough for someone whatever you do, have connected deeply with fans. "I want to be me, is that not allowed?" she implores.

"I guess it's because the song speaks to so many people in terms of, I'm talking about the idea that there's two sides of a person, the contradictions," Young says.

The song captures how it is "to basically feel like you're not enough for somebody and also in turn not enough for yourself".

Amid the craziness of its success, there's some relief that she has now reached the next level in her career.

"I mean, I feel like it's the right time," the 24-year-old says after reconnecting the call. "It's been a minute, but also it does feel like the right time for me."

Grit and charisma

Like Messy, many of her tracks are one-sided conversations - mainly with an unseen, unreasonable and unsuitable man (or woman).

When it was released, the Observer said the album had "a winning combination of zingers and vulnerability", and the Telegraph said it showed "all of the grit and charisma of a seasoned artist".

Other songs continue the theme of double-edged romance. Wish You Were Dead is about a relationship that veers between being affectionate and volatile; while in Big Brown Eyes, Young gets weak-kneed when a lukewarm love interest insults her.

Unlike some artists, there's little need to ask Young what her songs are about - the stories are laid out in her raw and razor-sharp lyrics.

But how real are the situations and scenarios about which she sings?

"Pretty real. As real as it gets, to be honest," she replies.

"I just write from my own experience and they're very real. They're all the things that I've been through, all situations I've had, and all experiences I've had."

The honesty of her songwriting sets her apart from many other artists, but she says she knows no other way.

"I don't think about it. Music is the only place I can be dead honest," she says. "Not that I'm a liar...

"But I feel like that's my outlet, the place I can be the most honest. I never really think about it. It doesn't feel like a difficult thing to do, or something that feels like I'm baring my soul or anything. It's just I've always done that in my music."

The album ends with an equally candid spoken-word outro, in which she says the LP was written to help her accept and love herself, and to realise she doesn't need "no ugly man (or woman)".

"I haven't got there yet but I will," she says on the track.

'Different angle' on Brat

Young is managed by two men who separately worked with Amy Winehouse and Adele, and Young has something in common with those two artists in her combination of fragility and front.

To that, she adds the conversational tone of Lily Allen and the modern pop sensibility and chaotic energy of Charli XCX.

Young's breakthrough coincided with the reign of Charli's Brat ethos, which she defined as "a girl who is a little messy, likes to party, maybe says dumb things sometimes, feels herself, and has a breakdown but parties through it".

Young feels an affinity with that. "I massively do, and I think it's that thing of empowered women who like to party and be themselves, and that's really important to me," she says.

"I guess I come from a different angle - of a less heightened version of that, I guess. It would be more like, 'I don't really give a [care], but I also really do'. That's what I guess I stand by a little bit more."

Bratpop season will stretch further when Young releases her next album later this year. It is nearly finished and will "dig deeper" than the last, she says. How much deeper can she really dig?

"Quite a lot," she says. "There's quite a lot more to say. There's a lot of other topics and things that have happened to me, and things that I've gone through that I want to discuss with people.

"But also things that are a little bit less about love, and about other things that I've gone through."

Now that Messy's cleaned up, we can expect to see more of Young, and her shiny teeth.

A woman has been jailed for 10 years for the manslaughter of her four sons who died in a house fire while she was out shopping.

Deveca Rose, 30, had left her two sets of twins alone when a fire ripped through their terraced house in Sutton, south-west London, on 16 December 2021.

Four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath and Leyton and Logan Hoath, three, were unable to escape the locked house and died under a bed.

Rose was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter following a trial at the Old Bailey last autumn.

She was cleared of a single count of child cruelty.

The family had been living in a house with "rubbish all over the floor and human excrement", the trial heard.

A fire investigation report concluded the blaze had been started by either a discarded cigarette or upturned tealight and spread due to the rubbish on the floor.

Sentencing Rose, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said that none of the shopping she had gone out to buy on the day of the fire was "essential or vital".

This was a "deeply tragic" case with the lives of four young children "gone in just a few moments through an intense fire," Judge Lucraft said.

"You will have to live with the knowledge you bear responsibility for the deaths of your four children."

During the sentencing hearing Rose sat in the dock with an anorak hood over her head and wearing headphones - her defence barrister said this was for medical reasons.

The court heard victim impact statements from the family of the children describing the effect of the tragedy on them.

In a statement read on his behalf their father, Dalton Hoath, described it as the "worst day of his life" when he lost his four "beautiful boys".

"Their lives had only just begun," he said. "It was every parent's nightmare - I am devastated."

The children's great-grandmother Sally Johnson cried as she told the court: "They were my life. I now feel so empty."

She said the only comfort at this time of distress and sadness was that "they are now all together forever and need never be alone again".

Ms Johnson finished by stating she would like to use the children's favourite word "Why? Just why?".

At her trial Rose had suggested someone called "Jade" was with the children when she went out, said Judge Lucraft.

"The true position was that you left four boys aged four or under on their own," he said.

In mitigation, Laurie-Anne Power KC said that Rose had "asked for help and it was not forthcoming".

Her four children were "loved and cherished" and "looked after by her and her alone, while struggling with what are described by experienced psychiatrists as complex psychiatric mental health needs".

"She should not be punished any further than she has been for the lies she has told," Ms Power said.

Although Rose's mental health had some influence on her actions, the judge said he did not find her responsibility was substantially reduced.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Hamas is expected to hand over to Israel the names of four hostages to be released on Saturday under the Gaza ceasefire deal.

It is thought they will be soldiers and civilians, all female.

They will be freed in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

It will be the second exchange since the ceasefire came into effect last Sunday. Three hostages and 90 prisoners were released in the first swap.

The ceasefire halted the war which began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 47,200 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says.

Hamas is also expected to provide information about the remaining 26 hostages due to be released over the next five weeks.

This includes the Bibas family - two parents and two children, one of whom, Kfir, was 10 months old when taken captive and is the youngest hostage. It is unclear if this information will include the names or just the number of living or dead hostages.

• What we know about the ceasefire in Gaza
• Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel

The prisoners who will be released are of a more serious category than those freed in the first exchange. They will include those who have killed, some of whom are serving sentences of more than 15 years.

Israel has insisted that no-one who was involved in the 7 October attacks will be freed.

The ceasefire deal was reached after months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, led by the US, Qatar and Egypt.

It will be implemented in three stages, with the second stage due to begin six weeks into the truce. About 1,900 Palestinian prisoners will be released during the first stage in exchange for 33 hostages. Israeli forces will also begin withdrawing from positions in Gaza and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians will be able to return to areas they had fled or been forced from.

The ceasefire is meant to lead to a permanent end to the war in Gaza.

Ninety-one hostages taken on 7 October 2023 are still held in Gaza. Fifty-seven of them are assumed by Israel to still be alive. Three others - two of whom are alive - have been held for a decade or more.

Princess Anne says she has no memory of the accident that put her in hospital with concussion last summer.

It was believed to be caused by a horse, but the Princess Royal says she recalls "nothing" of the incident on her Gatcombe Park estate that led to a five-night hospital stay.

Speaking to the Press Association on a trip to South Africa, she said it had taught her that "every day is a bonus".

The princess, who will be 75 later this year, also ruled out retirement, saying: "It isn't really an option".

There was uncertainty last June about what had happened to her when she was treated in hospital for what Buckingham Palace described as "minor injuries and concussion".

Her medical team had described her injuries as being consistent with the type of impact from a horse's legs or head.

Princess Anne says she has no memory of the incident on her Gloucestershire estate: "No, nothing."

"I know where I thought I was going and that was to go to the chickens, no, nothing to do with horses."

Seeing the chickens was "my regular visit, I don't have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way.

"It just reminds you, shows you - you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover."

Emergency services had been called to the estate after the accident and the princess was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

She had to temporarily step down from royal duties while she recovered, missing a planned trip to Canada and the Japanese state visit to the UK.

Princess Anne commented on realising she might have had a near miss with more serious problems.

"You're jolly lucky... if you can continue to be more or less compos mentis [of sound mind] and last summer I was very close to not being.

"Take each day as it comes, they say."

She said there were no lasting ill-effects, but added: "You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus really."

Princess Anne, sister of King Charles and one of the busiest of the "working royals", has no plans to retire.

"I don't think there's a retirement programme on this particular life," she said.

"It really isn't written in, no. It isn't really an option, no, I don't think so," the princess said of any plans to cut back on her working life.

Princess Anne carried out a two-day visit to South Africa this week.

It included a ceremony recognising the overlooked efforts of black South Africans who died during World War One, working as labourers rather than combatants.

Laying a wreath at the Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial she honoured 1,700 who had lost their lives, working in tough conditions, and whose sacrifices had often not been recognised.

"This memorial is a reminder of a shared but sometimes difficult past," said Princess Anne.

The latest series of The Traitors is coming to an end, after weeks of wild accusations, wilder betrayals and Claudia Winkleman's devious looks-to-camera.

Many of us like to think we could handle the pressures and skullduggery of being a traitor in the remote Scottish castle. But could you really make it to the end undetected?

Work through our scenarios - from sitting at the roundtable with Claudia to rowing across an icy loch - to find out if you've got what it takes to be a treacherous mastermind, or whether you are far too faithful for that.

Quiz compiled by: Steven McIntosh, Helen Bushby, Yasmin Rufo, Rosemary McCabe, Jonathan Holmes

Ukraine reportedly hit a Russian oil refinery and targeted Moscow during an attack involving a wave of at least 100 drones, one of the largest single operations of its kind during the war.

Video footage verified by the BBC shows a fireball rising over the refinery and pumping station in the Ryazan region, southeast of Moscow, which Ukrainian officials said was a target.

Russia said it had shot down 121 drones that had targeted 13 regions, including Ryazan and Moscow, but reported no damage.

Elsewhere, Ukrainian authorities said three people were killed and one was injured when a Russian drone hit a residential building in the Kyiv region.

Andriy Kovalenko, head of Ukraine's centre for countering disinformation, said on Telegram that an oil refinery in Ryazan had been hit, as well as the Kremniy plant in Bryansk. Kyiv says the facility produces components for missiles and other weapons.

Bloggers on the social media site Telegram posted images and videos of fires raging in Ryazan. Footage verified as genuine by the BBC shows people fleeing from the site in cars as a blaze takes hold.

Russian state-owned news agency RIA cited a statement from the Kremniy plant in Bryansk, which said work had been suspended after an attack involving six drones. Pavel Malkov, the regional governor, said emergency services were responding.

The Kremlin acknowledged the attacks but made no mention of damage or casualties.

It claimed to have destroyed 121 Ukrainian drones, including six over the Moscow region, 20 in the Ryazan region, and a number over the border region of Bryansk.

Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow's mayor, said the city's air defences had intercepted attacks by Ukrainian drones at four locations.

He said air defences southeast of the capital in Kolomna and Ramenskoye had also repelled drones, without specifying how many. He said there was no damage.

Russian news agencies quoted Rosaviatsiya, the federal aviation agency, as saying two Moscow airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, had resumed flights after suspending operations for a time. Six flights were redirected to other airports.

In the city of Kursk, Mayor Igor Kutsak said overnight attacks had damaged power lines and cut off electricity to one district.

In Ukraine, officials said that its air defences had destroyed 25 of 58 drones launched overnight by Russia.

The interior ministry said debris from one of the drones had killed two men and a woman in Hlevakha, Kyiv region, and that another person had been injured.

Google has agreed to make "significant changes to its processes" to help tackle fake reviews of UK businesses, the regulator has announced.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) says the firm - which accounts for 90% of search in the UK - will attach warnings to companies found to have artificially boosted their star rating.

The worst offenders will have their review function deactivated, meaning they cannot receive any new reviews.

Individuals who repeatedly post fake or misleading reviews will be banned from posting – regardless of where they are in the world.

Sarah Cardell, the Chief Executive of the CMA, said: "The changes we've secured from Google ensure robust processes are in place, so people can have confidence in reviews and make the best possible choices."

The measures only relate to reviews for businesses when searching on Google or on Google maps.

They will not apply to reviews of products.

A spokesperson from Google told the BBC: "Our longstanding investments to combat fraudulent content help us block millions of fake reviews yearly – often before they ever get published.

"Our work with regulators around the world, including the CMA, is part of our ongoing efforts to fight fake content and bad actors."

It is not the first pledge to tackle fake reviews, a problem which artificial intelligence (AI) is exacerbating.

The influence of reviews real and fake is enormous - the CMA estimates £23bn of UK consumer spending every year is "potentially influenced" by online reviews.

Google told the BBC it has already started with its restrictions on businesses and reviews, and the CMA says Google will report to it over the next three years to ensure action is being taken.

After this period, Google will be able to change how it deals with fake reviews to reflect any new changes in technology.

Ms Cardell added: "This is a matter of fairness – for both business and consumers – and we encourage the entire sector to take note."

Amazon and Google have been under investigation by the CMA over fake reviews since June, 2021 – months after the consumer group Which? concluded Google was failing to do enough to combat fake reviews within its business listings.

The CMA has said its investigation into Amazon is ongoing.

A 13-year-old girl has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of an 80-year-old man who was attacked in a park in Leicestershire.

Bhim Kohli died in hospital on 2 September after he was injured while walking his dog in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town, the previous day.

The girl, who cannot be named because of her age, denied the charge during a hearing at Leicester Crown Court on Friday.

She appeared alongside a 15-year-old boy, who pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and manslaughter at a hearing in December.

'Loving grandad'

Judge Timothy Spencer KC remanded the boy into custody and granted the girl conditional bail until 17 February, when both children will go on trial at the same court.

Addressing the defendants, who were 14 and 12 at the time of the attack, he said: "Things are going to happen quite quickly from now on."

The trial for both children is scheduled to last up to six weeks and will be heard by a High Court judge.

An inquest into Mr Kohli's death was opened in November and gave a preliminary cause as a neck injury.

His family previously called him a "loving husband, dad and grandad" in a statement, adding: "He was also a son, brother and uncle. He adored his grandkids with all his heart and loved spending time with them."

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

The Brutalist tells the story of Hungarian immigrant and holocaust survivor László Tóth, who is trying to rebuild his life in post-war America through his work as an architect.

Oscar winner Adrien Brody delved deep into his own family history for his portrayal of the character, reflecting on his mother and grandparents' experiences in fleeing their native Hungary, which after World War Two was becoming a satellite state of the Soviet Union.

"The wonderful thing is, it's an opportunity for me to honour my ancestral struggles - my mother and my grandparents' hardships and loss in fleeing Hungary in the '50s and emigrating to the United States.

"[It's] very moving to be reminded of the details and hardships that they experienced that very much parallel the lived experience of my character," Brody says.

The actor says his character's drive to create also reflects his own path as an actor.

"Any artistic person, I think, can relate to the struggle and yearnings to leave, create a body of work and leave behind something of great meaning," he says.

'Epic length'

The relationships in the film might be intimate and personal, but they're set against a backdrop that is in so many ways epic - not least its running time. It clocks in at over three-and-a-half hours - something that might put off some moviegoers.

But director Brady Corbet believes The Brutalist's length really shouldn't deter audiences.

"For me, I think that the length of a movie is similar to the length of a book, a double album, a painting with a big canvas.

"I love small portraits and I love Anselm Kiefer (a German artist known for his large-scale installations). There's a space for both of them, you know. And at the end of the day, especially because the film has an intermission, it's only 100 minutes on each side, so it's not so bad."

Felicity Jones, who plays his wife, Erzsébet, says she spends a huge amount of time looking for realistic female characters who are more than just weak offshoots of their husbands.

"I spend most of my life foraging through scripts, trying to find decent characters to play. That's a huge part of it," she explains.

"I have to find someone who has some kind of spunk, or has some fight in them. Some sense of defiance is so key, so when I read the script it was an absolute no-brainer.

"I thought this woman is tremendous. But... they are few and far between, for sure. When you get something like this, you just grab it with both hands."

In the film, Tóth is hired by rich industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren to design and build a vast project as a tribute to his late mother. Van Buren, played by Guy Pearce, is a man who is in awe of the architect's talent. A useful parallel, then, for the actor.

"I suppose so," admits the Australian. "I really admire Adrien and his work. I think he's an extraordinary actor.

"It was really interesting the way Adrien played his role. He plays a man who has almost more sense of self than Van Buren does, which was a great thing for me to work off because I think Van Buren, even though he admires László, he probably is patronising of him.

"He probably expects him to be more subservient than he is, so it was a great dynamic between the two of us."

On Thursday, the film was nominated for 10 Oscars, including a best-actor nomination for Brody. Even before the Academy Awards shortlists were announced, Brody said how thankful he was for the reception the film had received from awards bodies.

"I'm just really grateful and I'm very appreciative of having had a chance to flourish in a work that I've dedicated a life towards. And when that is received with respect and appreciation. It's very rewarding."

The Brutalist is released in cinemas on 24 January

Storm Éowyn is threatening to unleash severe gales across parts of the UK on Friday.

Weather warnings are in place and forecasters say buildings could be damaged, travel is likely to be affected and power cuts are possible.

• What can we expect as Storm Éowyn hits UK?
• Weather warning increased to amber ahead of Storm Éowyn

What should you do to prepare before a storm hits?

There are a number of steps you can take to protect your property.

These include:

• Securing loose objects outside a property such as bins, ladders, trampolines and outdoor games, garden furniture and tools
• Checking fences and roof tiles are secure
• Clearing guttering of debris such as moss and leaves
• Closing and fastening external doors and windows
• Securing storm shutters, if they are fitted
• Parking vehicles in a garage, if you have one; otherwise ensuring they are as far away as possible from buildings, trees and fences
• Closing and securing loft trapdoors
• Making sure you know how to turn off your gas, electricity and water in case you have to leave your home, for example because of flooding
• Charging mobile phones and any other critical devices including battery packs

If you are in a flood-risk area, try to move valuable or essential items upstairs or store them as high as you can on the ground floor.

Make sure sure you have emergency contact numbers for your insurance company, local authority and utility companies.

You may also want to gather passports, driving licences and insurance policies and a few days' supply of any regular medication you take.

Consider adding emergency contacts and medical information to your mobile - often called "ICE" or "Medical ID" on smartphones.

The RSPCA advises bringing all animals inside before a storm, and ensuring you have sufficient food, bedding and fresh water.

Listen out for bad weather warnings on local radio and TV, and check government and news websites for the latest updates.

• Met Office: Stay safe in a storm
• ABI: Preparing for storms
• Gov.uk: Get prepared for emergencies
• Check the UK weather warnings in place

What should you do during a storm?

During a storm, people are advised to stay inside as much as possible and keep internal doors closed.

If you do have to go out you should avoid walking next to buildings, trees and the sheltered side of walls or fences, in case of collapse.

You should not attempt to repair any damage while a storm is in progress.

If you have a power cut, switch off all non-essential electrical appliances but leave a light on so you know when the power comes back on. You can report a power cut online or by calling 105, which is a free service in England, Scotland and Wales.

If you are trapped by floodwater, you should go to the highest level of the building you are in. Avoid attic spaces because of the risk of being trapped by rising water, and only go onto the roof if absolutely necessary. Call 999 and wait for help.

Do not drive unless your journey is unavoidable, and steer clear of flooded or exposed routes such as bridges or high open roads.

If you have to drive, make sure you have essential supplies such as warm clothing, food, drink, blankets and a torch, and carry a fully-charged mobile.

Drive slowly, and be especially cautious around high-sided vehicles and when overtaking. Give other vehicles extra room.

• How to drive in snow and icy weather
• How to keep babies warm in cold weather and other winter tips
• How do cold health alerts work?

What should you do after a storm?

Most home buildings, contents and commercial business policies cover storm damage.

Comprehensive motor insurance covers the cost of repairing or replacing vehicles.

If you have suffered storm damage to your property or possessions you should:

• Not do anything that puts you or your household at risk
• Be especially careful around any exposed electrical or telephone cables
• Only return to your home or business after a storm when it is safe to do so
• Contact your insurance company as soon as possible: most have 24-hour emergency helplines, which can advise on next steps and arrange repairs
• If necessary, arrange temporary emergency repairs to stop any damage getting worse. Tell your insurer and keep receipts, as this will form part of your claim
• Unless they are dangerous, don't throw away damaged items without discussing it with your insurer, in case they can be repaired
• Remember it can take weeks or even months for a property to fully dry out after storm damage, so you may need to wait some time before redecorating

• Flooding: What are my rights if my home, car or work is affected?
• ABI: Advice re storms and insurance claims

A woman has been jailed for 10 years for the manslaughter of her four sons who died in a house fire while she was out shopping.

Deveca Rose, 30, had left her two sets of twins alone when a fire ripped through their terraced house in Sutton, south-west London, on 16 December 2021.

Four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath and Leyton and Logan Hoath, three, were unable to escape the locked house and died under a bed.

Rose was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter following a trial at the Old Bailey last autumn.

She was cleared of a single count of child cruelty.

The family had been living in a house with "rubbish all over the floor and human excrement", the trial heard.

A fire investigation report concluded the blaze had been started by either a discarded cigarette or upturned tealight and spread due to the rubbish on the floor.

Sentencing Rose, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said that none of the shopping she had gone out to buy on the day of the fire was "essential or vital".

This was a "deeply tragic" case with the lives of four young children "gone in just a few moments through an intense fire," Judge Lucraft said.

"You will have to live with the knowledge you bear responsibility for the deaths of your four children."

During the sentencing hearing Rose sat in the dock with an anorak hood over her head and wearing headphones - her defence barrister said this was for medical reasons.

The court heard victim impact statements from the family of the children describing the effect of the tragedy on them.

In a statement read on his behalf their father, Dalton Hoath, described it as the "worst day of his life" when he lost his four "beautiful boys".

"Their lives had only just begun," he said. "It was every parent's nightmare - I am devastated."

The children's great-grandmother Sally Johnson cried as she told the court: "They were my life. I now feel so empty."

She said the only comfort at this time of distress and sadness was that "they are now all together forever and need never be alone again".

Ms Johnson finished by stating she would like to use the children's favourite word "Why? Just why?".

At her trial Rose had suggested someone called "Jade" was with the children when she went out, said Judge Lucraft.

"The true position was that you left four boys aged four or under on their own," he said.

In mitigation, Laurie-Anne Power KC said that Rose had "asked for help and it was not forthcoming".

Her four children were "loved and cherished" and "looked after by her and her alone, while struggling with what are described by experienced psychiatrists as complex psychiatric mental health needs".

"She should not be punished any further than she has been for the lies she has told," Ms Power said.

Although Rose's mental health had some influence on her actions, the judge said he did not find her responsibility was substantially reduced.

Listen to the best of BBC Radio London on Sounds and follow BBC London on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to hello.bbclondon@bbc.co.uk

Hugh Grant has called for police to open a new criminal investigation into the owners of The Sun, saying the job is not done "by any means" after Prince Harry settled his privacy claim on Wednesday.

News Group Newspapers (NGN) agreed to pay "substantial damages" and apologised to the Duke of Sussex for "serious intrusion" by The Sun between 1996 and 2011, and admitted "incidents of unlawful activity" were carried out by private investigators working for the newspaper.

Grant also settled a privacy claim against NGN in 2024, saying he could have faced a bill of up to £10m even if he had won.

The actor said both incidents had shown a civil case was "not the right instrument" to get to "the real truth" of what happened at the newspaper.

Former Labour leader Lord Tom Watson, who also reached a settlement with NGN on Wednesday, said a legal team would be passing a dossier to the Metropolitan Police.

The force said on Friday there were no active investigations into allegations of phone hacking or related matters.

"We await any correspondence from the parties involved, which we will respond to in due course," a spokesperson said.

Grant said NGN had "gamed" the civil courts to silence complainants and a criminal investigation was needed.

"That's what they've done consistently over the last 10 years," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Friday.

"They've spent £1bn to make sure these things are never looked at in court… and you don't get proper judicial findings.

"I think what they're terrified of is that those findings would trigger a new criminal inquiry."

In the civil courts, claimants could end up paying the costs of their opponents if the damages award is less than they have been offered to settle - even if they win.

Grant had accused The Sun of using private investigators to tap his phone and burgle his house, and said he settled because he could not face the possible costs of proceeding to trial.

NGN had denied the allegations and said the settlement was reached "without admission of liability".

The actor called on the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Metropolitan Police to investigate.

The CPS told the BBC criminal investigations were matters for the police.

Grant also argued a new investigation was needed because people who were at the paper at the time that private investigators who carried out "unlawful activity" were instructed were still in "positions of great power".

NGN apologised to Prince Harry for serious intrusion into his private life by The Sun that took place between 1996 and 2011.

The paper's editor during part of that time, Rebekah Brooks, is currently the CEO of News UK. She was cleared of conspiracy to hack voicemails in a 2014 trial.

"A lot of the foot soldiers for those newspapers have now come over to our side… to say this is awful," the actor said.

"We've been punished, we've been to prison, we've paid fines, we've lost our jobs.

"But the people who commanded all this, they're still there."

Meanwhile, Grant said the government should launch part two of the Leveson Inquiry into press standards in light of the Duke of Sussex's case.

The 2012 inquiry into the culture, practice and ethics of the press was launched in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

"This is something that was repeatedly promised by Labour in opposition to victims of press abuse, over and over.

"And now suddenly seem to have disappeared from their priority list now that they're in government."

On Thursday, Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, ruled out opening a second stage of the inquiry, saying it was no longer "fit for purpose".

"A lengthy inquiry that was formulated in a different era before a lot of the cases that we've seen since arise from what happens online, which is where a lot of people consume news nowadays," Lisa Nandy told the BBC.

The BBC has contacted The Sun, News UK and the government for a response.

Princess Anne says she has no memory of the accident that put her in hospital with concussion last summer.

It was believed to be caused by a horse, but the Princess Royal says she recalls "nothing" of the incident on her Gatcombe Park estate that led to a five-night hospital stay.

Speaking to the Press Association on a trip to South Africa, she said it had taught her that "every day is a bonus".

The princess, who will be 75 later this year, also ruled out retirement, saying: "It isn't really an option".

There was uncertainty last June about what had happened to her when she was treated in hospital for what Buckingham Palace described as "minor injuries and concussion".

Her medical team had described her injuries as being consistent with the type of impact from a horse's legs or head.

Princess Anne says she has no memory of the incident on her Gloucestershire estate: "No, nothing."

"I know where I thought I was going and that was to go to the chickens, no, nothing to do with horses."

Seeing the chickens was "my regular visit, I don't have any idea what I was doing in the field, because I never normally went that way.

"It just reminds you, shows you - you never quite know, something [happens] and you might not recover."

Emergency services had been called to the estate after the accident and the princess was taken to Southmead Hospital in Bristol.

She had to temporarily step down from royal duties while she recovered, missing a planned trip to Canada and the Japanese state visit to the UK.

Princess Anne commented on realising she might have had a near miss with more serious problems.

"You're jolly lucky... if you can continue to be more or less compos mentis [of sound mind] and last summer I was very close to not being.

"Take each day as it comes, they say."

She said there were no lasting ill-effects, but added: "You are sharply reminded that every day is a bonus really."

Princess Anne, sister of King Charles and one of the busiest of the "working royals", has no plans to retire.

"I don't think there's a retirement programme on this particular life," she said.

"It really isn't written in, no. It isn't really an option, no, I don't think so," the princess said of any plans to cut back on her working life.

Princess Anne carried out a two-day visit to South Africa this week.

It included a ceremony recognising the overlooked efforts of black South Africans who died during World War One, working as labourers rather than combatants.

Laying a wreath at the Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial she honoured 1,700 who had lost their lives, working in tough conditions, and whose sacrifices had often not been recognised.

"This memorial is a reminder of a shared but sometimes difficult past," said Princess Anne.

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

Do I receive compensation if my power was cut off?

Do I have to go to work?

My travel plans were disrupted, what are my rights?

Is there help available if my flight was cancelled?

Three judges who oversaw family court proceedings related to the care of Sara Sharif before she was murdered will be named next week, the Court of Appeal has ruled.

Mr Justice Williams ruled in December that the media could not name the judges involved in the historical family court cases related to the 10-year-old, as well as social workers and guardians, due to a "real risk" of harm from a "virtual lynch mob".

However, several media organisations, including the BBC, have successfully appealed against the decision, previously telling a hearing that the judges should be named in the interests of transparency.

Sara's father Urfan Sharif, 43, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were jailed for life for her murder in Woking in 2023.

At a ruling on Friday, the Court of Appeal ruled that the three unnamed judges could be identified in seven days.

Sir Geoffrey Vos said: "In the circumstances of this case, the judge had no jurisdiction to anonymise the historic judges either on 9 December 2024 or thereafter.

"He was wrong to do so."

Following the convictions at the Old Bailey in December last year, details from previous family court proceedings could be published relating to Sara's care before her death.

This included that Surrey County Council (SCC) repeatedly raised "significant concerns" about the children returning to Sharif, "given the history of allegations of physical abuse of the children and domestic abuse with Mr Sharif as the perpetrator".

Documents released to the media showed that SCC first had contact with Sharif and Sara's mother, Olga Sharif, in 2010 – more than two years before Sara was born – having received "referrals indicative of neglect" relating to her two older siblings.

The authority began care proceedings concerning the siblings in January 2013, involving Sara within a week of her birth.

Between 2013 and 2015, several allegations of abuse were made that were never tested in court.

In 2019, a judge approved Sara moving to live with her father in Woking. It was there that she was hooded, burned and beaten during years of abuse before her death.

SCC said the appeal should be allowed.

Sharif was sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison for murder, while Batool received a minimum of 33 years.

Sara's uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment for causing or allowing her death.

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Hamas is expected to hand over to Israel the names of four hostages to be released on Saturday under the Gaza ceasefire deal.

It is thought they will be soldiers and civilians, all female.

They will be freed in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

It will be the second exchange since the ceasefire came into effect last Sunday. Three hostages and 90 prisoners were released in the first swap.

The ceasefire halted the war which began when Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October 2023. About 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken back to Gaza as hostages.

More than 47,200 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in Israel's offensive, Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry says.

Hamas is also expected to provide information about the remaining 26 hostages due to be released over the next five weeks.

This includes the Bibas family - two parents and two children, one of whom, Kfir, was 10 months old when taken captive and is the youngest hostage. It is unclear if this information will include the names or just the number of living or dead hostages.

• What we know about the ceasefire in Gaza
• Hamas hostages: Stories of the people taken from Israel

The prisoners who will be released are of a more serious category than those freed in the first exchange. They will include those who have killed, some of whom are serving sentences of more than 15 years.

Israel has insisted that no-one who was involved in the 7 October attacks will be freed.

The ceasefire deal was reached after months of indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas, led by the US, Qatar and Egypt.

It will be implemented in three stages, with the second stage due to begin six weeks into the truce. About 1,900 Palestinian prisoners will be released during the first stage in exchange for 33 hostages. Israeli forces will also begin withdrawing from positions in Gaza and hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians will be able to return to areas they had fled or been forced from.

The ceasefire is meant to lead to a permanent end to the war in Gaza.

Ninety-one hostages taken on 7 October 2023 are still held in Gaza. Fifty-seven of them are assumed by Israel to still be alive. Three others - two of whom are alive - have been held for a decade or more.

Julia Ramadan was terrified - the war between Israel and Hezbollah was escalating and she'd had a nightmare that her family home was being bombed. When she sent her brother a panicked voice note from her apartment in Beirut, he encouraged her to join him in Ain El Delb, a sleepy village in southern Lebanon.

"It's safe here," he reassured her. "Come stay with us until things calm down."

Earlier that month, Israel intensified air campaigns against Hezbollah in Lebanon, in response to escalating rocket attacks by the Iran-backed armed group which had killed civilians, and displaced tens of thousands more from homes in northern Israel.

Ashraf was confident their family's apartment block would be a haven, so Julia joined him. But the next day, on 29 September, it was subject to this conflict's deadliest single Israeli attack. Struck by Israeli missiles, the entire six-storey building collapsed, killing 73 people.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says the building was targeted because it was a Hezbollah "terrorist command centre" and it "eliminated" a Hezbollah commander. It added that "the overwhelming majority" of those killed in the strike were "confirmed to be terror operatives".

But a BBC Eye investigation verified the identity of 68 of the 73 people killed in the attack and uncovered evidence suggesting just six were linked to Hezbollah's military wing. None of those we identified appeared to hold a senior rank. The BBC's World Service also found that the other 62 were civilians - 23 of them children.

Among the dead were babies only a few months old, like Nouh Kobeissi in apartment -2B. In apartment -1C, school teacher Abeer Hallak was killed alongside her husband and three sons. Three floors above, Amal Hakawati died along with three generations of her family - her husband, children and two granddaughters.

Ashraf and Julia had always been close, sharing everything with each other. "She was like a black box, holding all my secrets," he says.

On the afternoon of 29 September, the siblings had just returned home from handing out food to families who had fled the fighting. Hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon had been displaced by the war.

Ashraf was in the shower, and Julia was sitting in the living room with their father, helping him upload a video to social media. Their mother, Janan, was in the kitchen, clearing up.

Then, without warning, they heard a deafening bang. The entire building shook, and a massive cloud of dust and smoke poured into their apartment.

"I shouted, 'Julia! Julia!,'" says Ashraf.

"She replied, 'I'm here.'

"I looked at my dad, who was struggling to get up from the sofa because of an existing injury to his leg, and saw my mother running toward the front door."

Julia's nightmare was playing out in real life.

"Julia was hyperventilating, crying so hard on the sofa. I was trying to calm her down and told her we needed to get out. Then, there was another attack."

Video footage of the strike, shared online and verified by the BBC, reveals four Israeli missiles flying through the air towards the building. Seconds later, the block collapses.

Ashraf, along with many others, was trapped under the rubble. He began calling out, but the only voice he could hear was that of his father, who told him he could still hear Julia and that she was alive. Neither of them could hear Ashraf's mother.

Ashraf sent a voice note to friends in the neighbourhood to alert them. The next few hours were agonising. He could hear rescuers sifting through the debris - and residents wailing as they discovered loved ones dead. "I just kept thinking, please, God, not Julia. I can't live this life without Julia."

Ashraf was finally pulled from the rubble hours later, with only minor injuries.

He discovered his mother had been rescued but died in hospital. Julia had suffocated under the rubble. His father later told him Julia's last words were calls for her brother.

In November, a ceasefire deal was agreed between Israel and Hezbollah with the aim of ending the conflict. The deal gives a 60-day deadline for Israeli forces to withdraw from southern Lebanon and for Hezbollah to withdraw its forces and weapons north of the Litani River. As this 26 January deadline approaches, we sought to find out more about the deadliest single Israeli attack on Lebanon in years.

In the apartment below Julia and Ashraf's, Hawraa and Ali Fares had been hosting family members displaced by the war. Among them was Hawraa's sister Batoul, who, like Julia, had arrived the previous day - with her husband and two young children. They had fled intense bombardment near the Lebanon-Israel border, in areas where Hezbollah has a strong presence.

"We hesitated about where to go," says Batoul. "And then I told my husband, 'Let's go to Ain El Delb. My sister said their building was safe and that they couldn't hear any bombing nearby.'"

Batoul's husband Mohammed Fares was killed in the Ain El Delb attack. A pillar fell on Batoul and her children. She says no-one responded to her calls for help. She finally managed to lift it alone, but her four-year-old daughter Hawraa had been fatally crushed. Miraculously, her baby Malak survived.

Three floors below Batoul lived Denise and Moheyaldeen Al-Baba. That Sunday, Denise had invited her brother Hisham over for lunch.

The impact of the strike was brutal, says Hisham.

"The second missile slammed me to the floor… the entire wall fell on top of me."

He spent seven hours under the rubble.

"I heard a voice far away. People talking. Screams and… 'Cover her. Remove her. Lift the stone. He's still alive. It's a child. Lift this child.' I mean… Oh my God. I thought to myself, I'm the last one deep underground. No-one will know about me. I will die here."

When Hisham was finally rescued, he found his niece's fiance waiting to hear if she was alive. He lied to him and told him she was fine. They found her body three days later.

Hisham lost four members of his family - his sister, brother-in-law and their two children. He told us he had lost his faith and no longer believes in God.

To find out more about who died, we have analysed Lebanese Health Ministry data, videos, social media posts, as well as speaking to survivors of the attack.

We particularly wanted to interrogate the IDF's response to media - immediately following the attack - that the apartment block had been a Hezbollah command centre. We asked the IDF multiple times what constituted a command centre, but it did not give clarification.

So we began sifting through social media tributes, gravesites, public health records and videos of funerals to determine whether those killed in the attack had any military affiliation with Hezbollah.

We could only find evidence that six of the 68 dead we identified were connected to Hezbollah's military wing.

Hezbollah memorial photos for the six men use the label "Mujahid", meaning "fighter". Senior figures, by contrast, are referred to as "Qaid", meaning "commander" - and we found no such labels used by the group to describe those killed.

We asked the IDF whether the six Hezbollah fighters we identified were the intended targets of the strike. It did not respond to this question.

One of the Hezbollah fighters we identified was Batoul's husband, Mohammed Fares. Batoul told us that her husband, like many other men in southern Lebanon, was a reservist for the group, though she added that he had never been paid by Hezbollah, held a formal rank, or participated in combat.

Israel sees Hezbollah as one of its main threats and the group is designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, many Western governments and Gulf Arab states.

But alongside its large, well-armed military wing, Hezbollah is also an influential political party, holding seats in Lebanese parliament. In many parts of the country it is woven into the social fabric, providing a network of social services.

In response to our investigation, the IDF stated: "The IDF's strikes on military targets are subject to relevant provisions of international law, including taking feasible precautions, and are carried out after an assessment that the expected collateral damage and civilian casualties are not excessive in relation to the military advantage expected from the strike."

It had earlier also told the BBC it had executed "evacuation procedures" for the strike on Ain El Delb, but everyone we spoke to said they had received no warning.

Watch on YouTube if outside the UK

UN experts have raised concerns about the proportionality and necessity of Israeli air strikes on residential buildings in densely populated areas in Lebanon.

This pattern of targeting entire buildings - resulting in significant civilian casualties - has been a recurring feature of Israel's latest conflict with Hezbollah, which began when the group escalated rocket attacks in response to Israel's war in Gaza.

Between October 2023 and November 2024, Lebanese authorities say more than 3,960 people were killed in Lebanon by Israeli forces, many of them civilians. Over the same time period, Israeli authorities say at least 47 civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets fired from southern Lebanon. At least 80 Israeli soldiers were also killed fighting in southern Lebanon or as a result of rocket attacks on northern Israel.

The missile strike in Ain El Delb is the deadliest Israeli attack on a building in Lebanon for at least 18 years.

The village remains haunted by its impact. When we visited, more than a month after the strike, a father continued to visit the site every day, hoping for news of his 11-year-old son, whose body had yet to be found.

Ashraf Ramadan, too, returns to sift through the rubble, searching for what remains of the memories his family built over the two decades they lived there.

He shows me the door of his wardrobe, still adorned with pictures of footballers and pop stars he once admired. Then, he pulls a teddy bear from the debris and tells me it was always on his bed.

"Nothing I find here will make up for the people we lost," he says.

Additional reporting by Scarlett Barter and Jake Tacchi

There's been a record jump in the number of UK businesses in critical financial distress, according to insolvency specialists.

This comes at the same time as a drop in consumer confidence as more people have concerns over the UK's financial prospects as well as their own.

In their latest report, insolvency experts at Begbies Traynor said a company can be considered in critical financial distress if they have an outstanding county court judgment of over £5,000 or face a winding-up petition.

Businesses in the most distress include those in hospitality, leisure, and retail.

While there's often a jump at year-end of companies in critical financial distress, the report found a record increase of 50% from September to December 2024, taking the number of companies in this category to 46,583 businesses.

One factor was HMRC becoming more aggressive in recovering overdue taxes owed.

The number of UK businesses considered to be in significant financial distress also rose by 3.5% on the prior quarter to 654,765.

Ric Traynor, executive chairman of Begbies Traynor, said: "After a historic rise in critical financial distress in the last quarter of 2024, it's clear that many distressed UK businesses are finding it almost impossible to navigate the challenges they face as we start 2025."

"For many businesses which were already dealing with weak consumer confidence and higher borrowing costs, the increase in national insurance contributions and the national minimum wage, announced at the last Budget, could be the last straw."

He said sectors like retail and hospitality could be impacted in particular because they typically "operate on razor-thin margins".

"I fear 2025 could end up being a watershed moment where thousands of UK businesses 'call time' after struggling to survive for years," he added.

A separate report showed a slight fall in confidence among consumers in their own finances and a much sharper one over the prospects for the wider economy.

The long-running survey from GfK showed people's intentions to spend on big-ticket items fell while the number of people considering putting money aside in savings rose.

GfK said that was a negative for the economy as it was a sign that many people saw dark days ahead and were putting money aside for safety.

Neil Bellamy, consumer insights director at GfK, said: "New year is traditionally a time for change, but looking at these figures, consumers don't think things are changing for the better.

"These figures underline that consumers are losing confidence in the UK's economic prospects."

The teenager who murdered three children, Elsie Dot Stancombe, Alice da Silva Aguiar, and Bebe King, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class last July will serve a minimum of 52 years in prison.

Axel Rudakubana had a long-standing obsession with violence, killing and genocide, but prosecutors said there is no evidence he ascribed to any particular political or religious ideology.

He admitted a terrorism offence for downloading an al-Qaeda training manual. But the knife attack has not been treated as terrorism by police or prosecutors, and the judge stressed that he "must accept" that there was no evidence of terrorist cause.

He added, however, that Rudakubana's culpability is "equivalent to terrorist matters, whatever its purpose".

Following Rudakubana's guilty pleas earlier this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer declared "terrorism has changed" and Britain is facing a "new threat".

In the past, he said, the main threat was organised groups like al-Qaeda, but that we now also face extreme violence from "loners, misfits, young men in their bedroom, accessing all manner of material online, desperate for notoriety". They are sometimes inspired by traditional terrorist groups, he said, but are fixated on extreme violence, seemingly for its own sake.

But what the prime minister described has been happening for years.

"This is not a new threat," says Barnaby Jameson KC, who has spent years prosecuting terror cases. "In the last decade we have seen a plethora of terrorist cases involving young males who have become self-radicalised in isolation online."

What is new is that the prime minister has now indicated this problem must be urgently addressed.

The question now is how he will do it - and, if this has been going on for so many years, why has it taken until now to do so?

A 'fluid' counter-terror system

At present, the police, courts and MI5 work to a definition in the Terrorism Act 2000.

That defines terrorism as the use or threat of violence designed to influence the government, an international governmental organisation, or to intimidate the public or a section of it, with the use or threat of violence for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, racial or ideological cause.

Put simply, for an attack to be treated as terrorism the authorities must conclude it was for some kind of cause.

But various terror offences can be – and are – used to charge and disrupt people who are not defined by prosecutors as having a terrorist motive. On the flipside, it is also true that cases which some think should be classed as terrorism, are not.

Several recent cases show how fluid the counter-terror system can be when presented with cases falling outside the main ideologies, showing these issues are not as new as the prime minister suggests.

Counter-terror police, with their particular focus on preventing violence in the first place, have investigated plots that are not defined as terrorism, including two teenagers jailed in 2018 for planning a school massacre in North Yorkshire.

Another investigation prevented a massacre in Cumbria the same year. The "loner" responsible was convicted of possessing terrorist manuals, but prosecutors said the motive was "not terrorism" and related to hatred and revenge.

In 2021, a 16-year-old boy from Birmingham admitted three terror offences for possessing gun and bomb manuals. He had a general fascination with terrorism, violence and so-called 'incels'.

From age 11, he had constantly posted in a forum about the Columbine massacre. The prosecution case was that he did not hold any fixed ideology.

On the other side of the spectrum, a vehicle attack in Westminster in 2018 - in which a man drove at cyclists and police officers outside Parliament - was prosecuted and sentenced as terrorist-linked, despite no evidence of any extremist motive, on the basis that the act and location meant the attacker must have been acting for a terrorist purpose.

The case shows a motive does not need to be clear for a case to be treated as terrorism.

But a notorious double murder that was inspired by an extreme ideology – the stabbings of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman in a London park in 2020 – were not defined as terrorism despite the killer clearly being motivated by his adherence to Satanism and the occult.

The case of the Liverpool hospital explosion

It is up to the police, namely the senior national co-ordinator for counterterrorism, to declare an incident as terrorism.

In the past, this has happened quickly in notorious cases, including after the Manchester Arena bombing and the Westminster Bridge attack. Both were carried out by known extremists.

One reason why police may now take longer before making a declaration - even an incident that may appear likely to be classed as terrorism - is because of an explosion in a taxi outside Liverpool Women's Hospital in 2021, which was initially declared a terrorist incident.

After a long investigation, however, detectives eventually concluded there was no evidence the Liverpool bomber held extremist views of any kind and that his precise motive remained unknown, but it was likely driven by anger towards the British state for repeated rejections of his asylum claim and exacerbated by his own mental health struggles.

Despite such examples, the central focus for MI5 and police is terrorism as defined by the law, rather than a broader group of people presenting a more general risk of violence.

If the government is now going to ask that more time be devoted to this wider group, MI5 and the police may well ask for more resources.

As things stand, both are currently devoting increasing time to investigating state espionage in the UK, particularly from Russia, Iran and China, which means they're spending less time on terrorism investigations.

Within those investigations, detectives focused on the extreme right spend an increasing amount of time dealing with young people who engage in a range of harmful activity, including sexual offences.

Certain online spaces have seen a blending with the occult, Satanism, misogyny, and a general ultra-violent misanthropy, creating toxic new groups that bleed back into the real worlds.

Some of those involved are often mentally vulnerable, creating additional sensitivities around interventions, whether they involve criminal investigations or not.

Some neo-Nazi groups created by teenagers and young people online have been outlawed as terrorist organisations, joining a list that includes Hamas and the IRA.

From al-Qaeda to IS

The challenge of preventing lone attackers in the UK is nothing new. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the main threat was from elaborate plots directed by groups like al-Qaeda, such as the plan to blow up transatlantic planes using bombs disguised as drinks.

This era saw the creation of the main terrorism laws now in use, which defined a series of offences – including preparing acts of terrorism and possessing terrorist instructions – that we see in the courts, used to disrupt and stop people before they commit acts of violence.

But with the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) group over a decade ago, the threat moved away from plots directed by organisations and towards acts of violence by individuals inspired by online propaganda and instructions from groups like IS, but who might have no direct contact with them.

In the decade since there have been multiple plots and attacks by lone actors, including people using knives and vehicles as weapons, making it harder to spot their plans because the preparations are relatively low-key.

Extreme right-wing violence, which has emerged as a major issue, has predominantly followed the same pattern: plots and attacks by lone actors, often very young, who are typically inspired by material accessed online.

The challenge of rooting outing lone attackers

For years, counter-terror police have been registering their concerns about this group. (Indeed, they are only a group because the authorities have defined them as such.)

The point is illustrated by the number of them referred to Prevent, the government-led counter-extremism programme. In the year to March 2020, 51% were for individuals with a "mixed, unstable or unclear ideology", of which almost half had no concern identified following an initial assessment.

In the years since, the way in which that group is classed has changed, with newer categories for concerns about school massacre radicalisation and the misogynistic incel ideology, which makes direct comparisons over the years difficult.

However, the government's own figures for 2023/2024 show the largest single group referred to Prevent – 36%, meaning 2,489 people – were defined as individuals with a vulnerability present but no ideology or counter terror risk, with 19% classed as extreme right-wing, 13% as Islamist radicalisation, and 2% relating to concerns regarding school massacres.

From these thousands of Prevent referrals, 7% were adopted as cases requiring intervention by a multi-agency panel. But the figures for interventions show how the largest group of original referrals – the mix of people with a general interest in violence but no clear ideology – get increasingly filtered out of the programme.

For cases involving intervention, 45% related to extreme right-wing radicalisation, 23% to Islamist radicalisation, 18% to individuals with "conflicted concerns", and 4% for school massacre concerns.

The Southport attacker himself was referred to Prevent three times by "education providers" because of concern about his interest in violence and extremism, but each time officers assessed he did not need meet the threshold for intervention – assessments since found to be wrong by an official review.

A 'dizzying range' of beliefs

When you get to actual investigations by MI5, which is the UK's lead agency for counter terrorism, the figures change again, with the organisation's director general Ken McCallum saying last year that 75% relate to Islamist extremism and 25% to the extreme right.

However, he acknowledged that "straightforward labels like 'Islamist terrorism' or 'extreme right wing' don't fully reflect the dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies we see," and that MI5 is encountering more people accessing "both extreme right wing and Islamist extremist instructional material, along with other bits of online hatred, conspiracy theories and disinformation."

What the figures show is that a large group of people - about whom there are real concerns - neither end up in Prevent, nor being investigated by MI5 or counter-terror police.

The prime minister said this week it may be that such people are "harder to spot," adding that we "can't shrug our shoulders and accept that".

But what his government is proposing to do about it is currently unclear.

New definitions: Would serial killers be included?

The government could consider broadening the definition of terrorism or creating new offences to tackle the threat of violence from non-terror offenders.

It could also change the way in which the threat of violence from non-terror suspects is monitored and managed.

Neil Basu, the Met's former head of counter-terror policing, this week said that a "Prevent for non-terrorists" is now necessary and will require a "big bill" if we want to be safe.

The government has appointed Lord Anderson KC, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, to review the Prevent scheme, although it was the subject of a highly critical review two years ago commissioned by the previous government.

Jonathan Hall KC, the current independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, has been asked by the government to consider whether the definition does need to change. Speaking to the BBC, he says: "There appear to be three reasons for expanding the definition of terrorism.

"The sense that only terrorism captures the horrors of attacks like the one by Rudakubana; because doing so brings in counter-terrorism powers; and because terror laws focus on pre-cursor offences and preventing attacks in the first place.

"However, to change the definition you would need to work out what violence to include, and what to exclude.

"If it was no longer necessary to prove a political, religious, racial or ideological cause, would the touchstone be methodology, or number of victims, or desire for notoriety or terrorising impact? Would serial killers like Lucy Letby be included or not?"

On the question of which resources are used to tackle the threat, he argues that "we must ask who is responsible for the risk posed by people like Rudakubana. This is about risk management and public protection by law enforcement, not welfare interventions.

"We can learn from how terrorist subjects of interest are managed by every mechanism available, such as non-terrorism prosecutions or use of civil orders."

Now the Southport attacker has been sentenced, the focus will be on what the government next does to tackle the issues articulated by the prime minister.

Top picture credit: Merseyside Police and PA

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