An exercise programme for colon cancer patients can cut the risk of dying by a third, a major international trial shows.

The researchers said it was "not a large amount" of exercise and any type of workout from swimming to salsa classes counted.

The results could change the way colon cancer is treated around the world.

Scientists are already investigating whether similar exercise regimes could improve survival for people with other diseases, such as breast cancer.

"It's a bit of a mind-shift, thinking of treatment as something you do, not just something you take," says researcher Prof Vicky Coyle from Queen's University Belfast.

In the trial, the three-year exercise programme started soon after chemotherapy.

The aim was to get people doing at least double the amount of exercise set out in the guidelines for the general population.

That could be three-to-four sessions of brisk walking a week, lasting 45-60 minutes, Prof Coyle says.

People got weekly face-to-face coaching sessions for the first six months, which then dropped to once a month.

The trial, involving 889 patients, put half on the exercise programme. The other half were given leaflets promoting a healthy lifestyle.

The results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed after five years:

• 80% of people exercising remained cancer-free
• compared with 74% in the other group
• meaning a 28% reduction in the risk of the cancer coming back, or a new one forming

Meanwhile, eight years after the initial cancer treatment:

• 10% of people on the exercise programme died
• compared with 17% in the group given only health advice
• marking a 37% lower risk of death

Exactly why exercise has this beneficial effect is unknown, but ideas include the impact on growth hormones, inflammation levels in the body and how the immune system functions - which patrols the body for cancer.

Dr Joe Henson, from the University of Leicester, said the results were "exciting".

He added: "I saw first-hand that this reduced fatigue, lifted people's mood and boosted their physical strength.

"We know that physical activity regulates several key biological processes that could explain these results, and further research will help us uncover why exercise is having such a positive impact."

Colon cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, with around 31,800 people diagnosed each year.

Caroline Geraghty, from Cancer Research UK, said: "This trial has the potential to transform clinical practice, but only if health services have the necessary funding and staff to make it a reality for patients."

First-time buyers are borrowing through mortgages that last an average of 31 years as the affordability of homes remains a stretch.

A decade ago, the average mortgage term for those buying a first home was 28 years, according to figures from banking trade body UK Finance.

Higher mortgage rates have pushed people to borrow for longer to keep their monthly repayments as low as possible.

Despite mortgage rates having fallen recently, these terms are showing no sign of dropping again.

Recent data showed that about two in five new mortgages had terms that see homeowners still making repayments into retirement.

Ultra-long mortgages

Lenders tend to allow mortgage terms up to a maximum of 40 years.

These have been popular among first-time buyers, many of whom are in their 30s, who are stretching their finances to allow them to buy a property.

It meant the average term for a mortgage lengthened in 2022-23, and has not really dropped since.

While many young homeowners are choosing these long mortgage terms to make repayments more manageable, they may opt for shorter terms in the future if their salaries improve or they move house.

UK Finance said the amount they initially spent on mortgage payments relative to their income was still high.

"Even as interest rates have come down, this measure of affordability has not eased significantly, with rising house prices largely offsetting any lowering of payments through falling rates," its review of household finances said.

First-time buyers were among a host of people who rushed to complete property purchases before a change in stamp duty on 1 April.

Temporary changes to thresholds, made in 2022, reverted back in April. It means buyers of properties in England and Northern Ireland now pay stamp duty on homes bought for more than £125,000. First-time buyers pay on homes bought for more than £300,000.

The UK Finance data shows that property completion numbers were much higher in the first three months of the year compared with the same period a year earlier.

This peaked in March, immediately before the deadline, when first-time buyer completions were 113% higher than the same month a year earlier. Existing homeowner completions soared by 140% over the same period.

However, data shows there has been, and will be, a significant drop-off after the deadline.

Mortgage approvals for house purchases, which is an indicator of future borrowing, decreased for the fourth consecutive month in April, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England.

That reflects some of the affordability challenges faced by new buyers.

However, various commentators have suggested there is still some momentum in the UK housing market, mainly due to low levels of unemployment.

"Despite wider economic uncertainties in the global economy, underlying conditions for potential home buyers in the UK remain supportive," said Robert Gardner, chief economist at Nationwide.

The building society said house prices rose by 0.5% in May, following a slight drop in April. It said property values were up by 3.5% over the last year, meaning the average home cost £273,427.

A corporate manslaughter investigation has been opened into failings at maternity units in Nottingham, police have said.

Nottinghamshire Police said it was examining whether maternity care provided by the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS trust had been grossly negligent.

The trust is at the centre of the largest maternity inquiry in the history of the NHS, with about 2,500 cases being examined by independent midwife Donna Ockenden.

The police investigation will centre on two maternity units overseen by the trust, which runs the Queen's Medical Centre and Nottingham City Hospital.

In a statement on the force's website, Det Supt Matthew Croome, from the investigation team, said corporate manslaughter was a "serious criminal offence".

He said detectives were "looking to see if the overall responsibility lies with the organisation rather than specific individuals".

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Plans to fast-track the remodelling of the UK's flight paths could lead to quicker flights and fewer delays for passengers, the government says.

Ministers are set to announce the creation of the UK Airspace Design Service (UKADS) later which will re-design the routes planes must take over UK airspace - many of which were decided around 70 years ago.

The initial shake-up will focus on modernising the complex airspace in and around London.

Cagne, a community aviation and environment group for Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, has warned the plans could mean there would be new flight paths over houses that are not currently affected.

Ministers say the plans could allow planes to climb quicker during take off and descend more smoothly.

The plans are also aiming at helping reduce aviation's climate change impacts and pave the way for new technologies like flying taxis.

"Modernising our airspace is also one of the simplest ways to help reduce pollution from flying and will set the industry up for a long-term, sustainable future," aviation minister, Mike Kane, said.

The changes would allow the largest re-design of UK airspace since it was first formed in the 1950s.

A couple who were seriously injured in the Smiler rollercoaster crash at Alton Towers say they can "never move on" from it, but still "couldn't be happier".

Now married, Leah Washington-Pugh, then 17 and 18-year-old Joe Pugh, from South Yorkshire, were on a date when their Smiler carriage rammed into another at the Staffordshire theme park, 10 years ago.

Leah's legs were crushed, forcing the amputation of her left leg above the knee whilst both of Joe's kneecaps were shattered and some of his fingers severed in the crash, they said was "equivalent to driving into a car at 90mph".

The crash, on 2 June 2015, led to operator Merlin being fined £5m, with compensation paid to the 16 victims.

Speaking through their legal representatives, the pair said despite going through some dark times they had "definitely come a long way" since the crash.

Remembering the day, the couple said they had made a beeline for the ride as soon as they had entered the park.

Technical difficulties had delayed them getting on, but "I never thought anything of it," said Leah.

After eventually setting off, their carriage had "gone around a corner and crashed straight into the empty cart," she explained.

"I think if I remember rightly if you compare it to a car accident it was the equivalent of driving into a car at 90 miles and hour, it was pretty severe," added Joe.

"And then I looked down at my legs and realised that something wasn't right," said Leah.

"I looked at Joe and Joe's little finger was hanging off."

Stranded on the ride for about four hours, she credits emergency workers for saving her life.

"The air ambulance was flying in blood for me because I was just losing that much," she said.

"If it wasn't for the air ambulance and other services on the day I know I wouldn't be here today."

'Learn to live again'

Following her rescue, Leah spent five days in intensive care and was in hospital for eight weeks.

After being discharged "navigating life in normal surroundings was quite difficult at the start," she said.

"We had to learn not only how to walk again and live again, but how to build a relationship again with each other," added Joe.

The couple said supporting each other through their recovery had been "really important".

"Yes, our injuries were there and everything else around us was going off, but we still had that relationship and friendship and that got us through everything."

"Fast forward 10 years we're both really happy," continued Joe.

"We're now married, we're almost a year into us marriage, we've got a beautiful home together we couldn't be happier."

The crash was "utterly shocking" and "unlike anything that had ever happened the world over," according to one industry expert.

Vicky Balch, of Leyland, Lancashire, also needed a partial leg amputation after the crash.

"Knowing quite a bit about the theme park industry, it was a shock as to how it could have happened and what would have been the cause," said European Coaster Club journalist Marcus Gaines.

"The incident attracted worldwide attention which shows how rare and unusual it was and what a major incident it was," he added.

Merlin Attractions Operations Ltd admitted breaches of the Health and Safety Act in what bosses called "the most serious incident" in Alton Towers' history.

Imposing the fine on Merlin, Judge Michael Chambers QC said the crash had been foreseeable, but accepted the company which owns Alton Towers had subsequently taken full and extensive steps to remedy the problems that led to it happening.

'Unprecedented'

Mr Gaines added that at the time the UK was recognised as one of the leading experts in amusement park safety.

"Lots of other countries don't have any real regulation about ride safety," he said.

He said safety measures put in place since the crash included visual checks where staff physically inspect the entire length of the track to ensure it is clear.

"We've had this horrific accident, but it is unprecedented that that accident happened," Mr Gaines continued.

"I think the fact that we haven't seen anything like that before, and we've not seen anything like it in the 10 years since, shows what high standards we do have in the UK."

Reflecting on a decade since the crash, Leah said: "You've always got to find the positive in the negative and just got to grab life, because it's so precious, and make the most of it".

The couple are using the anniversary to host a ball to support the Staffordshire Air Ambulance, Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the LimbBo Foundation, a charity which supports limb-different children.

The events of 2015 were "tragic", Leigh added, but had also "fetched a lot of happiness and experiences that we would never have had".

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Plans to fast-track the remodelling of the UK's flight paths could lead to quicker flights and fewer delays for passengers, the government says.

Ministers are set to announce the creation of the UK Airspace Design Service (UKADS) later which will re-design the routes planes must take over UK airspace - many of which were decided around 70 years ago.

The initial shake-up will focus on modernising the complex airspace in and around London.

Cagne, a community aviation and environment group for Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, has warned the plans could mean there would be new flight paths over houses that are not currently affected.

Ministers say the plans could allow planes to climb quicker during take off and descend more smoothly.

The plans are also aiming at helping reduce aviation's climate change impacts and pave the way for new technologies like flying taxis.

"Modernising our airspace is also one of the simplest ways to help reduce pollution from flying and will set the industry up for a long-term, sustainable future," aviation minister, Mike Kane, said.

The changes would allow the largest re-design of UK airspace since it was first formed in the 1950s.

Reform has announced it will send its first Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) team into local authorities.

The party said the first council to be audited will be Kent County Council, one of the councils the party took control of in May's local elections.

In a statement released late on Sunday, party chairman said it would be "led by one of the UK's leading tech entrepreneurs", although it is not yet known who that is.

The leader of the Liberal Democrat opposition in Kent said he believes it will be "more performance than substance".

Reform said a team of software engineers, data analysts and forensic auditors will "visit and analyse" local authorities.

It follows the US Doge, which was launched during Donald Trump's presidency to cut federal spending. Billionaire Musk was involved but has since left his position spearheading the unit.

In the elections on 1 May the party took control of eight authorities from the Conservatives, along with Doncaster and Durham from Labour.

• What is Doge and why has Musk left?
• Trump says Elon is "not really leaving"
• Five ways world's richest man has changed White House

Mr Yusuf said: "For too long British taxpayers have watched their money vanish into a black hole. Their taxes keep going up, their bin collections keep getting less frequent, potholes remain unfixed, their local services keep getting cut. Reform won a historic victory on a mandate to change this.

"As promised, we have created a UK D.O.G.E to identify and cut wasteful spending of taxpayer money. Starting with Kent, our team will use cutting edge technology and deliver real value for voters."

But Antony Hook, the Liberal Democrat opposition leader on Kent County Council, questioned the need for a team of outside auditors.

He told BBC Radio Kent: "We have at KCC a governance and audit committee, that was due to have its first meeting since the election next week.

"Reform have cancelled it.

"The health and scrutiny committee was meant to meet, Reform have cancelled it. Reform have cancelled most of the committee meetings for this week or next week, without any explanation.

"They haven't even named who their nominees are to chair these important committees are.

"If Reform were serious about making the council work well they would be getting their councillors to do this job, not bringing in unnamed anonymous people who haven't been elected."

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The FBI says an attack in Boulder, Colorado, that injured eight people was a "targeted act of violence", and they are investigating it as an "act of terrorism".

What happened?

A group of people had gathered for a "regularly scheduled, weekly, peaceful event", which the BBC understands was organised by Run for Their Lives, an organisation that raises awareness for Israeli hostages still held in Gaza.

The FBI said that, according to witnesses, a suspect threw an incendiary device into the group of people, and used a "makeshift flamethrower" to attack them. They said a suspect had been identified as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45. Soliman was taken to hospital shortly after the attack, the FBI said.

Police said they were "fairly confident" that they had the lone suspect in custody. There was no evidence the suspect was connected to a wider group.

"The suspect was heard to yell 'Free Palestine' during the attack," said special agent in charge of the Denver field office of the FBI, Mark Michalek. "We're assisting Boulder police and providing technical, analytic and additional forensic resources. As a result of these preliminary facts, it is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism," Michalek said.

• Full story: Eight hurt in Colorado fire attack

Who is the suspect?

The suspect has been named as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, who was taken to hospital shortly after the attack.

Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said he did not believe anyone else was involved. "We're fairly confident we have the lone suspect in custody," he said.

The 45-year-old was an Egyptian national, government officials confirmed to the BBC's broadcast partner, CBS in Colorado.

In 2022, Soliman arrived in California on a non-immigrant visa that expired in February 2023, multiple sources have told CBS News. He had recently been living in Colorado Springs.

Who are the victims?

There are eight victims, aged between 52 and 88. Four are woman and four are men. All of them have been taken to hospitals with burns and other injuries. The injuries range from "minor" to "very serious".

At least one of the victims is seriously injured.

What is Run for their Lives?

Run for their Lives holds walking and running events around the world calling for the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas, according to their website.

It says its events are not protests, but "peaceful walks".

Their website says there are currently 230 active groups around the world, with the majority in North America and Europe.

The groups meet once a week for a 1km walk wearing red T-shirts. They also carry national flags of the citizens who are among the hostages still held in Gaza.

The Run for their Lives Instagram account has more than 6,000 followers. Their Facebook group has more than 2,000 members.

The movement was started by a group of Israelis in California, but local events are "independently led", according to their website.

What is happening now?

Authorities said they would not hold another press conference on Sunday. Police said their teams were still working in the area.

The district attorney for Boulder County, Michael Dougherty, said: "We are fully united 100% in making sure the charges we bring hold the attacker fully accountable."

The Boulder Courthouse will remain closed on Monday.

US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said her department is working with "interagency partners, including the FBI", and would share more information when it becomes available.

"We are praying for the victims and their families. This violence must stop," she said.

Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, released a statement saying he was "shocked" by the incident, which he called "pure antisemitism".

The Jewish community in Boulder released a statement saying: "Our hearts go out to those who witnessed this horrible attack, and prayers for a speedy recovery to those who were injured," Boulder's Jewish Community said in a joint statement. "When events like this enter our own community, we are shaken."

Multiple people were injured after a man shouting "free Palestine" tossed Molotov cocktails at a gathering in support of Israeli hostages in Colorado, authorities said.

Police said eight people - aged 52 to 88 - were injured in the attack at the Pearl Street Mall, a popular outdoor space in Boulder, about 30 miles (48km) from Denver.

The FBI called it a suspected terror attack and said the suspect used a makeshift flamethrower, Molotov cocktails and other incendiary devices.

Footage of the attack shows the suspect, who was shirtless, screaming at the group and had what appears to be Molotov cocktails in each hand when he was arrested.

The attack unfolded during a weekly scheduled demonstration put on by Run for Their Lives, a pro-Israeli group that that holds walks in the outdoor pedestrian mall in solidarity with Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Police got calls around 13:26 local time (20:26 BST) about a man with a weapon and people being set on fire, Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn said at a news conference.

Officers who responded found multiple people injured, including those with burns.

Witnesses told authorities that the suspect used a "makeshift flamethrower and threw an incendiary device into the crowd," said Mark Michalek, who heads the FBI's Denver office.

Redfearn added those devices included Molotov cocktails being tossed at the crowd.

Michalek identified the suspect as Mohamed Sabry Soliman, 45.

Soliman is an Egyptian national, government officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

In 2022, Soliman arrived in California on a non-immigrant visa that expired in February 2023, multiple sources have told CBS News. He had been living in Colorado Springs.

Footage that appeared to be from the attack showed a chaotic scene: smoke filling the air, people running in multiple directions, spots of grass on fire and people injured on the ground.

Warning: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.

In images and videos posted online, but not yet verified by the BBC, a man appearing to be the suspect is seen without a shirt and holding bottles with liquid with a piece of red cloth inside. He can be heard yelling at the crowd and appears to be advancing on them as some rush to flee.

As he screams, one woman is on the ground and appears injured. People surround her and one man pours water on her body.

Footage shows police rushing to the scene and arresting the suspect. Police say he was taken to the hospital with injuries.

"It is clear that this is a targeted act of violence and the FBI is investigating this as an act of terrorism," Mr Michalek said. "Sadly, attacks like this are becoming too common across the country."

The attack is the second high-profile act of violence in the US in the last two weeks related to the conflict in Gaza.

A man who shouted "free Palestine" fatally shot two Israeli embassy employees outside a Jewish museum in Washington DC on 22 May. The incident happened at a networking event organised by a Jewish organisation.

Colorado's Attorney General Phil Weiser said that from what officials know the attack "appears to be hate crime given the group that was targeted".

"People may have differing views about world events and the Israeli-Hamas conflict, but violence is never the answer to settling differences," Weiser said in a statement on Sunday. "Hate has no place in Colorado."

Israel's foreign minister, Gideon Sa'ar, said he was "shocked" by the incident and called the attack "pure antisemitism".

"Shocked by the terrible antisemitic terror attack targeting Jews in Boulder, Colorado," he wrote on X. "This is pure antisemitism, fueled by the blood libels spread in the media."

Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, similarly was saddened over the attack, calling it "terrorism" and asking for "concrete action" in response.

In a post on X, the ambassador said that Jewish protesters were brutally attacked".

"Terrorism against Jews does not stop at the Gaza border – it is already burning the streets of America," he said.

Top secret intelligence files uncovered by the BBC confirm for the first time that missing American journalist Austin Tice was imprisoned by the regime of the now-deposed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Former Syrian officials have also confirmed Mr Tice's detention to the BBC.

The US government has previously stated that it believed Mr Tice had been held by the Syrian government, but the Assad regime continuously denied this, and nothing was known about the details of his detention.

The intelligence files - along with testimony from several former regime officials - now reveal what happened to Mr Tice after his abduction.

Mr Tice vanished near the Syrian capital of Damascus in August 2012, just days after his 31st birthday. He had been working as a freelance journalist.

Around seven weeks later, a video posted online showed him blindfolded and with his hands bound being forced to recite an Islamic declaration of faith by a group of armed men.

However, the impression given - that Mr Tice had been abducted by a jihadist group - was quickly questioned by analysts and US officials, who said the scene "may have been staged".

No group or government has ever claimed responsibility for his disappearance and he has not been heard from since, fuelling widespread speculation as to his whereabouts.

The BBC uncovered the material as part of an ongoing investigation that began over a year ago for a Radio 4 podcast series, while accompanying a Syrian investigator to an intelligence facility.

The intelligence files are the first evidence to surface of the Syrian regime's detention of Mr Tice since search efforts began to find him following the fall of Bashar al-Assad in early December 2024.

The files labelled "Austin Tice" comprise of communications from different branches of Syrian intelligence. Their authenticity has been verified by the BBC and law enforcement.

One communication, marked "top secret" shows Mr Tice was held in a detention facility in the capital of Damascus in 2012.

Additional sources confirmed this to be in Tahouneh and a former senior Syrian intelligence officer, also confirmed that Mr Tice had been held in Damascus by a paramilitary group.

The fallen regime consistently denied knowing of Mr Tice's whereabouts; the BBC investigation proves this was false.

Mr Tice is understood to have been arrested near the Damascus suburb of Darayya, and then held by members of a paramilitary force loyal to President Assad called the National Defence Forces (NDF).

A Syrian official confirmed to the BBC that Mr Tice was there until at least February of 2013.

At that time, Mr Tice developed stomach issues and was treated by a doctor at least twice. Blood tests are said to have revealed he was suffering from a viral infection at the time.

A man who visited the facility where Mr Tice was held and saw him told the BBC that he was treated better than the Syrian detainees, but that "he looked sad, and that the joy had gone from his face".

Separately, a former member of the NDF with intimate knowledge of Austin's detention told the BBC "that Austin's value was understood" and that he was a "card" that could be played in diplomatic negotiations with the US.

Mr Tice is reported to have briefly escaped his captivity by squeezing through a window in his cell, but was later recaptured. He was also interrogated at least twice by a Syrian government intelligence officer. The incident is believed to have taken place between late 2012 and early 2013.

When Assad was ousted in December 2024, then-US President Joe Biden said he believed Mr Tice was still alive. Two days previously, Mr Tice's mother, Debra Tice, said that a "significant source" had confirmed that Mr Tice was alive and being "treated well".

But when prisons were emptied after the fall of the government, there was no sign of Mr Tice and his whereabouts are still unknown.

The Tice family are aware of the existence of these intelligence files seen by the BBC, as are the US authorities, and also a Syrian group that is working to gather information on crimes committed by the Assad regime.

Mr Tice is believed to be one of the longest-held American hostages. His mother, Debra and father, Marc. have led a tireless campaign to highlight their son's disappearance.

Their son is a former US marine captain who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan and was a law student at the prestigious Georgetown University in Washington DC.

In 2012 he travelled to Syria to report on the civil war as a freelance journalist.

Mr Tice vanished into a vast and complex system of detention. The UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Network for Human Rights estimates that 100,000 people disappeared under the Assad regime.

Presenter and campaigner Katie Piper has told an audience at the Hay Festival in Wales that "ageing can be compared to a bereavement."

The former model has had hundreds of surgeries to repair damage to her face and eyesight following an attack on the orders of her ex-boyfriend, which took place when she was 24 in 2008.

Piper's latest book, which is published on Friday, is titled Still Beautiful: On Age, Beauty and Owning Your Space.

The 41-year-old said: "Women age out of the male gaze. I was ripped from the male gaze at 24. I didn't just become invisible. I became a target for people saying derogatory things."

She expanded on her description of ageing being like a bereavement: "Sometimes we know we're losing somebody or something, and it's slow, it's gradual, and when it's ageing, we look down at our hands, we see they look different.

"We catch ourselves in the shop window, and everything's changed.

Piper, who is also a presenter on the BBC programme Songs of Praise and ITV's Loose Women. said she had recently been asked if writers minded if they mentioned her age.

"It was shocking, but not surprising. This was because I had been reminded at such a young age the currency and the power a woman holds when she is considered either beautiful or young, and now here I was going through the second phase of youth slipping away and feeling, once again, society's judgement and the label that they were going to put on to me."

She said: "I wanted to write this book... to really tell people where I have found myself, not just when I was no longer considered beautiful, but when I was told that I was losing my power because I was no longer a young woman.

"Among my peers, I'm not the most beautiful, I'm not the youngest, but I'm one of the most powerful."

In the book, Piper writes: "What if ageing is the magic key to letting go of other people's expectations and truly starting to live how we want to live."

She told the audience: "It makes you in control of your own destiny. And that scares some people, because if we are no longer insecure if we're confident, if we're not chasing something unpaid, what can they sell to us? What overpriced cream and diet and contraption will we spend our money on?

"We really glamorise youth. We talk about our 20s, [as] the time of your life, the best years. Okay, I had a very different 20s than most, because I was in the hospital, but your average 20-year-old, it's actually the time for mistakes... where you're least financially secure, you're least experienced. You don't really have as much confidence to put boundaries in."

'True evil'

She said she felt positive about getting older.

"I'm going to be 42 in October. I'm still incredibly young to many, and old and past it to some. You realise, 'I know who I am.' I have a strong sense of self and identity.This is the heyday. This is the time of my life. So I can only imagine what's on 50s and 60s and the decades beyond. I feel excited by that second chapter."

Piper, who mentors victims of acid attacks through the Katie Piper Foundation, recounted two stories when she had faced discrimination because of the way she looked.

In one incident, some men in a van whistled at her when they saw her from behind but then threw a sandwich at her when they saw her face (she was wearing a plastic mask at the time following some treatment) and another time, a first date walked out on her in a London restaurant leaving her to pick up a tab that was more than £700.

But she said: "You need to realise, on the whole, people are really good. Seventeen years ago, when I did that first cutting edge documentary (Channel 4's Katie: My Beautiful Face), what it did is it opened me up to the good side of society. Up until that point, I had seen true evil in mankind, but only in two people (her attackers)."

She said if she had to give one message to her younger self, it would be: "If you've ever felt less than... you've hated yourself or felt ashamed, it was never you. It was society, consumerism and capitalism. It was beneficial to someone, somewhere, to hold you down.

"Whether that was in a relationship, a corporate company or a brand, it was never you. You were always fine just as you are, and you always will be."

More from the Hay Festival

• Sharon Horgan says she only found confidence after Bad Sisters series two
• Jacqueline Wilson says she wouldn't return to Tracy Beaker as an adult
• Why Succession creator Jesse Armstrong is writing about rich people again

The fierce battle over artificial intelligence (AI) and copyright - which pits the government against some of the biggest names in the creative industry - returns to the House of Lords on Monday with little sign of a solution in sight.

A huge row has kicked off between ministers and peers who back the artists, and shows no sign of abating.

It might be about AI but at its heart are very human issues: jobs and creativity.

It's highly unusual that neither side has backed down by now or shown any sign of compromise; in fact if anything support for those opposing the government is growing rather than tailing off.

This is "unchartered territory", one source in the peers' camp told me.

The argument is over how best to balance the demands of two huge industries: the tech and creative sectors.

More specifically, it's about the fairest way to allow AI developers access to creative content in order to make better AI tools - without undermining the livelihoods of the people who make that content in the first place.

What's sparked it is the uninspiringly-titled Data (Use and Access) Bill.

This proposed legislation was broadly expected to finish its long journey through parliament this week and sail off into the law books.

Instead, it is currently stuck in limbo, ping-ponging between the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

The bill states that AI developers should have access to all content unless its individual owners choose to opt out.

Nearly 300 members of the House of Lords disagree.

They think AI firms should be forced to disclose which copyrighted material they use to train their tools, with a view to licensing it.

Sir Nick Clegg, former president of global affairs at Meta, is among those broadly supportive of the bill, arguing that asking permission from all copyright holders would "kill the AI industry in this country".

Those against include Baroness Beeban Kidron, a crossbench peer and former film director, best known for making films such as Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.

She says ministers would be "knowingly throwing UK designers, artists, authors, musicians, media and nascent AI companies under the bus" if they don't move to protect their output from what she describes as "state sanctioned theft" from a UK industry worth £124bn.

She's asking for an amendment to the bill which includes Technology Secretary Peter Kyle giving a report to the House of Commons about the impact of the new law on the creative industries, three months after it comes into force, if it doesn't change.

Mr Kyle also appears to have changed his views about UK copyright law.

He once said copyright law was "very certain", now he says it is "not fit for purpose".

Perhaps to an extent both those things are true.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology say that they're carrying out a wider consultation on these issues and will not consider changes to the Bill unless they're completely satisfied that they work for creators.

If the "ping pong" between the two Houses continues, there's a small chance the entire bill could be shelved; I'm told it's unlikely but not impossible.

If it does, some other important elements would go along with it, simply because they are part of the same bill.

It also includes proposed rules on the rights of bereaved parents to access their children's data if they die, changes to allow NHS trusts to share patient data more easily, and even a 3D underground map of the UK's pipes and cables, aimed at improving the efficiency of roadworks (I told you it was a big bill).

There is no easy answer.

How did we get here?

Here's how it all started.

Initially, before AI exploded into our lives, AI developers scraped enormous quantities of content from the internet, arguing that it was in the public domain already and therefore freely available.

We are talking about big, mainly US, tech firms here doing the scraping, and not paying for anything they hoovered up.

Then, they used that data to train the same AI tools now used by millions to write copy, create pictures and videos in seconds.

These tools can also mimic popular musicians, writers, artists.

For example, a recent viral trend saw people merrily sharing AI images generated in the style of the Japanese animation firm Studio Ghibli.

The founder of that studio meanwhile, had once described the use of AI in animation as "an insult to life itself". Needless to say, he was not a fan.

There has been a massive backlash from many content creators and owners including household names like Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and Dua Lipa.

They have argued that taking their work in this way, without consent, credit or payment, amounted to theft. And that artists are now losing work because AI tools can churn out similar content freely and quickly instead.

Sir Elton John didn't hold back in a recent interview with the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg.

He argued that the government was on course to "rob young people of their legacy and their income", and described the current administration as "absolute losers".

Others though point out that material made by the likes of Sir Elton is available worldwide.

And if you make it too hard for AI companies to access it in the UK they'll simply do it elsewhere instead, taking much needed investment and job opportunities with them.

Two opposing positions, no obvious compromise.

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Warsaw's liberal Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski has claimed victory in Poland's presidential election but his winning margin in an exit poll is well within the margin of error.

An exit poll, with a margin of error of 3% broadcast immediately after voting ended, indicates Trzaskowski winning on 50.3%, marginally ahead of his rival, conservative historian Karol Nawrocki on 49.7%.

The official result is due to be published on Monday morning, the head of the state electoral commission said.

Trzaskowski claimed victory in front of cheering supporters in Warsaw. "We won," he said.

"We won, although the phrase 'razor's edge' will forever enter the Polish language and politics," he added.

His wife, Malgorzata, jokingly told the crowd, "I'm close to having a heart attack".

Trzaskowski promised to reach out to voters who supported his opponent. I will be a president for all Polish women and men," he said.

Nawrocki told his supporters that the result is too close to call.

"Let's not lose hope for this night. We will win during the night, the difference is minimal. I believe that we will wake up tomorrow with President Karol Nawrocki," he said.

Poland's president is a largely ceremonial role with limited influence on foreign policy and defence, but they can veto legislation and Donald Tusk's pro-EU coalition government lacks a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn it.

The current conservative incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, has used his powers to prevent Prime Minister Tusk delivering key campaign promises including removing political influence from the judiciary and liberalising the country's strict abortion law.

If Trzaskowski's victory is confirmed that obstacle would be removed and would allow Tusk to cement Poland's place in the European mainstream.

However, Tusk also faces opposition from within his own coalition from the conservative Peoples' Party on issues including abortion and legalising civil partnerships.

A victory for national conservative Karol Nawrocki, who is supported by opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, would mean continued conflict between the government and president.

It would also re-energise PiS, which lost power 18 months ago, giving the party the belief that it can go on to win parliamentary elections in 2027.

Both candidates support continued assistance for neighbouring Ukraine, although Nawrocki has said he opposes its entry into Nato and the EU for now while Russia continues its war of aggression.

Both men differ over their approach to the EU. Trzaskowski, a former Europe minister, supports Tusk's vision of a Poland at the heart of the European mainstream, influencing decisions through strong relations with Germany and France.

A deputy leader of Tusk's Civic Platform, he has served as Warsaw mayor since 2018.

He's the son of a famous Polish jazz pianist, speaks several languages and is viewed by some voters as a member of the country's liberal elite who is out of touch with ordinary Poles.

According to the CBOS polling company, Trzaskowski's typical voter is aged 30-40 years old, is relatively well off with left-liberal views and is open to LGBTQ+ and migrants' rights. They tend to live in large cities and have positive views of the EU.

Some voters said he tried to "artificially" present himself as a candidate who values patriotism. During the campaign, he has taken a much tougher line against illegal migration, something Tusk started to do before winning power in 2023 and he has volunteered to do basic military training.

Nawrocki, 42, supports a strong sovereign Poland and does not want the country to cede any more powers to Brussels. He opposes the EU's climate and migration policies. He's a conservative Catholic that prioritises traditional family values.

He was relatively unknown nationally before he was selected by opposition party PiS to be their "unofficial" candidate.

A keen amateur boxer and footballer, he often posted images of himself working out, allowing PiS to present him as a strong candidate who would stand up for ordinary Poles and the country's national interests.

A fan of President Donald Trump, he flew to Washington during the campaign for an extremely brief meeting to get a thumbs-up photo of himself with the American president in the Oval Office.

During the campaign he was attacked by the government and media for being morally unfit to be the country's president, but the allegations did not diminish his support during the last week of campaigning.

During a presidential debate, Nawrocki said that he, like most Poles, owned one apartment. That turned out to be a lie.

Nawrocki was accused of taking advantage of a vulnerable senior citizen to acquire his council flat at a huge discount in exchange for promises of care that were unfulfilled. Following the scandal, Nawrocki said he would donate the flat to charity but always denied the accusation.

Polish news website Onet.pl accused Nawrocki of helping to arrange sex workers for guests at the luxury Grand Hotel in the Baltic seaside resort of Sopot when he worked there as a security guard.

The story was based on anonymous sources, but Onet.pl said the witnesses had sworn they would repeat the allegations under oath in court. Nawrocki called the story a pack of lies and said he would sue the website.

His opponents portrayed him as a football hooligan who admired gangsters and neo-Nazi ultras. Nawrocki did not deny taking part in hooligan brawls as a younger man, calling them "noble fights". He has also said these allegations were an attempt to smear his reputation.

Some Nawrocki voters told me they did not believe certain stories about him, saying they were inventions of the mainstream Trzaskowski-supporting media.

Families of those killed in an RAF Chinook helicopter crash in 1994 have said they are launching legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for not ordering a public inquiry.

Four crew and 25 passengers were killed when the helicopter went down in foggy conditions over the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.

The helicopter was carrying leading security personnel from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to a conference at Fort George near Inverness.

The families of the victims want a High Court judge to review information which they say was not included in previous investigations. They believe it will offer new information on the airworthiness of the helicopter.

All 25 passengers - made up of personnel from MI5, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army - were killed, along with the helicopter's four crew members.

The families of the victims, who have formed the Chinook Justice Campaign, said failing to order a public inquiry is a breach of the UK government's human rights obligations.

In a letter to the government, the group said: "The investigations conducted to date, whether considered individually or in combination, have failed to discharge the investigative duty."

Thirty-one years after, the group have also called for the release of documents that were sealed at the time of the crash for 100 years, as revealed in a BBC documentary last year.

'Should never have taken off'

The solicitor representing the families said there is enough evidence to convince the families that there was "a failure by the MoD to apply appropriate safeguards in order to protect the passengers and crew".

Solicitor Mark Stephens added: "In fact, they were put on board an aircraft that was known to be positively dangerous and should never have taken off.

"That is why we are seeking a judicial review into the government's failure to hold a public inquiry - which the families have sought for more than a year."

After the crash, pilots Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were accused of gross negligence, but this verdict was overturned by the UK government 17 years later.

A subsequent review by Lord Philip set out "numerous concerns" raised by those who worked on the Chinooks.

The MoD's testing centre at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire declared the Chinook Mk2 helicopters "unairworthy" prior to the crash.

'What is being hidden?'

Esme Sparks, who was seven years old when her father Major Gary Sparks lost his life, said: "We don't want to have to take legal action against the government and MoD but we do want and need answers surrounding the circumstance of this crash.

"We want to know who or what is being protected? Who made the decision to let this helicopter take off? What is being hidden? In our view, a public inquiry is key."

The MoD said that records held in The National Archives contain personal information and early release of those documents would breach their data protection rights.

An MoD spokesperson said: "The Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident and our thoughts and sympathies remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those who died."

From allegations of infidelity to swinging scandals, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives offers a look into a version of Mormon life far removed from traditional public perception.

Set in suburban Utah, the TV series follows a group of Mormon women – most of whom rose to fame on TikTok and became MomTok influencers – as they manage scandals, confront marital breakdowns and clash over everything from business ventures to party invitations.

But beneath the sensational plotlines is a more complex story about the evolving dynamics within a tight-knit community.

The group of Mormon mothers have been making content online for the past five years but say the concept of reality TV still feels very new to them.

"I've heard that eventually people learn how to play the reality TV game but that's not us yet, we're still trying to figure it out," Jessi Ngatikaura tells the BBC. "So you're getting to see the real us."

What started off as a hobby has now become a job and the women speak openly on the show about the amount of money they make from reality TV and brand deals.

"It is totally our job now but we chose this and we could all walk away any time if we didn't want to be part of it," Jessi says.

Whitney Leavitt explains that "naturally dynamics will change when there's more money and family involved and definitely some people get competitive" but reassures me the group are still friends off camera.

Across the two seasons of the show, Jessi and Whitney have had challenging storylines play out - Whitney is presented as the villain in season one and at the end of season two it is alleged Jessi has had an affair.

The pair speak candidly about the impact having your life watched and commented on by millions of people worldwide has had on them.

"It's been hard coming to terms with the fact we have no control over the narrative and you don't ever really get over it," Whitney explains. "But you have to accept that and let it go."

As the show follows the lives of nine friends, it's easy to see how some of them may create more drama for themselves in order to guarantee some screen time but Jessi insists that's not the case and no one "plays up but naturally emotions are heightened".

"We're actually recording four or five days a week so we don't know what will make the final edit."

Jessi says her explosive Halloween party was not manufactured by producers and there is just "naturally so much drama that we don't need to create more just for the show".

'Lots of resentment'

Given the intensity of drama and filming demands, the presence of strong aftercare is essential and both women praise the production for its duty of care standards.

"There are always therapists on hand and at first I was like why are Taylor and Jen having therapy all the time and now I'm having five or six hours of it a week," Jessi confesses. "I've found it's useful even if you're not going through a hard time."

Whitney also accessed some aftercare in season one after being presented as the villain of the show.

"It totally sucked being the villain and I was angry, had a lot of resentment and was really sad. There were so many overwhelming emotions for me but I was proud that instead of running away I stayed and had those hard conversations I didn't want to have," Whitney says.

Whitney was one of the members of the MomTok group that Taylor Frankie Paul publicly revealed was involved in "soft swinging", something she denies and caused a rift to form in their friendship.

The open discussions around sex, marital affairs and alcohol on the show has caused some backlash from the Mormon church.

"When the first trailer came out there was some backlash from the church because they were scared but actually we're showing you how we live the Mormon life and we all live it differently," Whitney says.

Jessi adds the docudrama shows how "we are all normal and everyday girls, not people wearing bonnets and churning butter like you might think".

The women say that not only has the church come to accept the show, they are also helping young women think about their faith differently.

"We've definitely influenced people to question their faith, dive deeper into it or be more honest about it and I've had messages from some people saying that they're joining the church because of me," Jessi says.

While their religion plays an important part of their life, they're keen to tell me that they are not the face of Mormonism.

"There are Mormons who still get upset about it but we're just showing our version of it and I think that's empowering as hopefully people can relate to our stories and struggles."

Families of those killed in an RAF Chinook helicopter crash in 1994 have said they are launching legal action against the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for not ordering a public inquiry.

Four crew and 25 passengers were killed when the helicopter went down in foggy conditions over the Mull of Kintyre in Scotland.

The helicopter was carrying leading security personnel from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to a conference at Fort George near Inverness.

The families of the victims want a High Court judge to review information which they say was not included in previous investigations. They believe it will offer new information on the airworthiness of the helicopter.

All 25 passengers - made up of personnel from MI5, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the British Army - were killed, along with the helicopter's four crew members.

The families of the victims, who have formed the Chinook Justice Campaign, said failing to order a public inquiry is a breach of the UK government's human rights obligations.

In a letter to the government, the group said: "The investigations conducted to date, whether considered individually or in combination, have failed to discharge the investigative duty."

Thirty-one years after, the group have also called for the release of documents that were sealed at the time of the crash for 100 years, as revealed in a BBC documentary last year.

'Should never have taken off'

The solicitor representing the families said there is enough evidence to convince the families that there was "a failure by the MoD to apply appropriate safeguards in order to protect the passengers and crew".

Solicitor Mark Stephens added: "In fact, they were put on board an aircraft that was known to be positively dangerous and should never have taken off.

"That is why we are seeking a judicial review into the government's failure to hold a public inquiry - which the families have sought for more than a year."

After the crash, pilots Richard Cook and Jonathan Tapper, were accused of gross negligence, but this verdict was overturned by the UK government 17 years later.

A subsequent review by Lord Philip set out "numerous concerns" raised by those who worked on the Chinooks.

The MoD's testing centre at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire declared the Chinook Mk2 helicopters "unairworthy" prior to the crash.

'What is being hidden?'

Esme Sparks, who was seven years old when her father Major Gary Sparks lost his life, said: "We don't want to have to take legal action against the government and MoD but we do want and need answers surrounding the circumstance of this crash.

"We want to know who or what is being protected? Who made the decision to let this helicopter take off? What is being hidden? In our view, a public inquiry is key."

The MoD said that records held in The National Archives contain personal information and early release of those documents would breach their data protection rights.

An MoD spokesperson said: "The Mull of Kintyre crash was a tragic accident and our thoughts and sympathies remain with the families, friends and colleagues of all those who died."

Pharmacists have warned that "one of the worst" examples of medicine shortages is affecting cancer patients.

Creon, a pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy (Pert), helps digestion and is required by patients with pancreatic cancer, cystic fibrosis, and chronic pancreatitis. It is thought more than 61,000 patients in the UK need the medicine.

Some patients are said to be "skipping meals" to ration their medication due to a shortage of it, according to the National Pharmacy Association (NPA).

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said there were "European-wide supply issues" and it was "working closely with industry and the NHS" to mitigate the impact on patients.

Without the drug, patients lose weight and strength, which means their ability to cope with treatment such as chemotherapy is reduced.

Some experts have predicted shortages continuing until next year.

The Department of Health and Social Care has extended a serious shortage protocol for Creon which has already been in place for a year.

This indicates concern about shortages of a medicine and allows pharmacists to give patients an alternative - though they argue other drugs are also in short supply.

A spokesperson for the department said the "European-wide supply issues" were caused by manufacturing supply constraints.

'Extra layer of stress'

The National Pharmacy Association said more than three quarters of members covered in a recent survey felt the current arrangements for managing the shortages were inadequate.

Some reported that patients were skipping meals and travelling long distances to get hold of the medication, according to the NPA.

One said it was the "worst stock shortage" they had ever had to deal with.

BBC News highlighted the issue in February after a woman got in touch saying it was impossible for her husband, who has pancreatic cancer, to digest his food without Creon.

That month, leading pancreatic clinicians and charities wrote to the prime minister, saying the absence of Pert can have a "devastating impact on people's lives".

They called for a national strategy to tackle the shortage.

Alice from Birmingham was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2023 and initially got 15 boxes of Creon capsules every month to help her tolerate chemotherapy.

She can now get only six or seven and is having to skip snacks.

The 64-year-old said the shortage had profoundly affected her mental health.

She told the BBC: "Each day I'm trying to balance: what shall I eat, shall I have a more substantial meal, shall I take my supplements and that creates an extra layer of stress and worry whilst I'm trying to put my life together again after having this diagnosis."

'Taking desperate measures'

Alfie Bailey-Bearfield of Pancreatic Cancer UK said the charity had been raising concerns with the government and suppliers for more than a year and it was vital that officials intervened to try to boost supply.

"Thousands of people affected by pancreatic cancer rely on taking Pert tablets every time they eat simply to digest their food and absorb nutrients – something most of us take for granted," he said.

"It's totally unacceptable that they are still taking desperate measures which puts their health, wellbeing and their eligibility for treatment at risk," he added.

Dr Leyla Hannbeck, chief executive of the Independent Pharmacies Association said it was very difficult for her members to obtain supplies from the wholesaler.

"The shortages with Creon has been ongoing for so long and it seems no effective attempts are being made by officials to make the process easier for pharmacies and patients and to put robust plans in place to prioritise the availability of this product," she said.

"Instead they continue prolonging the current processes."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it knew "how frustrating and distressing" medicine supply issues can be for patients and clinicians caring for them.

They added: "The European-wide supply issues with Creon are caused by a limited availability of raw ingredients and manufacturing capacity constraints.

"We are working closely with industry and the NHS to mitigate the impact on patients and resolve the issues as quickly as possible."

Time has not dimmed Ernest Williams' sense of injustice.

Despite being 90 years of age, the former Royal Navy veteran says he still has a "burning fire" inside him.

He believes he was "robbed" of the military pension he deserved and has been fighting to have it corrected since the 1980s.

"I'm coming up to 91 and I haven't got long to go," Mr Williams said. "I'm doing it for my wife."

It wasn't until Mr Williams had a chance conversation with his brother-in-law Ronald Oswell, that he says he realised what had happened.

The two men had almost identical service records and both applied for redundancy when the UK armed forces looked to reduce numbers in 1969.

But while Mr Williams, who lives in King's Stanley, Gloucestershire, was given a discharge date in 1970, his brother-in-law was allocated one in 1972.

"He said 'What do you think of the pension, Ernie?'," Mr Williams told BBC West Investigations.

"I said, 'Well £440 a year is not very good, is it?'

"And he said 'No it's £880 a year'."

It transpired that during the intervening two years, military pension rules had changed and had Mr Williams been given the later discharge date he would have got a much better pension.

The Ministry of Defence said it cannot comment on individual cases, but during his time campaigning Mr Williams has been told that his pension reflected his "full and correct entitlement".

Mr Williams enlisted in the navy aged 18 in 1952, eventually becoming a Chief Petty Officer. He served many years overseas, including on aircraft carriers in the far east.

However, as the UK armed forces looked to reduce numbers, he was offered redundancy under a navy programme known as DCI 1187/68.

The navy agreed to add time to his service record so that he received a military pension in addition to the state pension.

But crucially, Mr Williams says he was not given a say in when he left the armed forces, and rather was told he would leave the navy on 28 November 1970.

Others who applied at the same time were given a discharge date in 1972.

"You're told when you're going. [Your discharge date] was not disclosed until some time later. There was nothing I could do about it," Mr Williams said.

Mr Williams and his wife Wendy believe about 400 men were discharged in the same 'first wave' as him, with about 2,600 going in the 'second wave' in 1972, receiving a substantially improved pension.

Mrs Williams said: "What did this 400 do that was so wrong they had to be discriminated against financially?"

She added that the extra money would have made a "vast difference" to their lives.

The couple launched a series of appeals to various official bodies once they realised what had happened.

In May 1984, Mr Williams was told by the MOD that both his and his brother-in-law's pension "are correct" and the disparity was due to "a pay rise for CPO's [Chief Petty Officers] in the intervening two years which is reflected in the basic pension awarded".

He continued to fight his case throughout the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

In 1998, the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency told Mr Williams that in the period between the two phases, "changes were made [to the military pension] but these changes were not retrospective" and that his pension reflected his "full and correct entitlement".

Over the years Mr Williams has been supported by some of Stroud's MPs.

In 2019, Labour MP David Drew wrote to Penny Mordaunt, the Defence Secretary at the time, to highlight Mr Williams' case, believing he was the victim of "an injustice" and had been "unfairly treated".

Mr Drew argued that comments made by senior politicians in the late 1960s about intended improvements to military pay meant that possible differences in pensions should have been foreseen.

He describes Mr Williams' case as "shocking" and that "both the process and the documentation surrounding the volunteer redundancies were ethically flawed".

But ultimately, Mr Williams received the same answer from everybody he asked to look at his case – that his pension was correct based on the rules at the time.

Mr Williams still maintains that before he left, he never had the effect of different discharge dates explained to him – and that he would never have accepted redundancy on the earlier date had he known an extra two years would have effectively doubled his pension.

Mr Williams' case has similarities to a fight waged by other military veterans over their pensions.

Jim Monaghan was involved with the Equality for Veterans Association (EfVA) which also campaigned against pension decisions in the 1970s.

Military rules before April 1975 meant that in most circumstances, servicemen had to serve 22 years to be eligible for an armed forces pension in addition to the state pension.

Mr Monaghan left the RAF at the end of 1974, having accrued 14 years' service, including in Singapore and the middle east.

Had he left a few months later, he would have received a military pension. The rule change in 1975, like rules on pensions generally, were not retrospective.

The issue was debated in parliament in 2015, with then-Defence Minister Anna Soubry saying making changes to pension policy retrospective would break an "essential principle" and "would lead to widespread, long-term and unmanageable consequences for both this government and future governments".

Mr Monaghan believes communication from the MOD was not good enough.

"Everyone was kept in the dark," he said.

"They knew nothing about [pensions] when they were young.

"We never had a brief on pensions. We were never given any insight and probably we didn't have any interest because I was a young man."

The Equalities for Veterans Association was disbanded a few years ago – because of a lack of success and the dwindling number of surviving veterans from that period.

Mr Williams says he feels "very bitter" about his experience but hopes that by speaking out publicly for the first time, he can bring more attention to his case.

He also hopes any other servicemen still alive and affected by the same issue will come forward.

He added he intends to continue his campaign by contacting the current Stroud MP, Labour's Simon Opher, in the hope he will take up the case.

Mr Williams said: "I'm just a stubborn old sod and I'm not going to give in. I would appreciate it if anybody said to me 'you were right and we were wrong'."

Follow BBC West on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: westinvestigations@bbc.co.uk or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.

The striking feature of this election has been the leading opposition candidate, Lee Jae-myung, campaigning in a bullet-proof vest.

At a recent rally, he was escorted to the podium by close protection officers, ready to shield him with their ballistic briefcases. He then addressed the crowd from behind bullet-proof glass, under the gaze of rooftop watchers.

This is not South Korean politics as usual. But South Korea has not been itself lately.

It is still recovering from the martial law crisis last December, when the president, Yoon Suk Yeol, tried to orchestrate a military takeover.

He failed, because of resistance from the public and politicians, and was impeached, triggering this snap election to choose his successor.

But the chaos Yoon unleashed that night has festered.

While stuck in limbo, without a president, the country has become more polarised and its politics more violent.

At street protests earlier this year it became commonplace to chant for various political leaders to be executed. And since launching his presidential bid, Lee has been receiving death threats, and his team say they have even uncovered a credible plot to assassinate him.

This election is an opportunity to steer South Korea back onto safer, more stable ground, and heal these fractures.

Given this, the ruling party was always going to struggle, marred by President Yoon's self-defeating coup. But rather than break away from the disgraced former president, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) has chosen a candidate who repeatedly defended Yoon and his actions.

Kim Moon-soo, Yoon's former labour minister, was the only cabinet member who refused to stand and apologise during a parliamentary hearing into martial law. He said sorry only well into his campaign, after he had won Yoon's public endorsement.

This has turned the election into more of a referendum on martial law than anything else. Given most of the public overwhelmingly rejected the move, it has also virtually gilded the path for the opposition leader Lee, who famously livestreamed himself scaling the walls of the parliament complex, to get inside and vote down the president's order.

Now the Democratic Party politician portrays himself as the only candidate who can ensure this never happens again. He has said he will change the constitution to make it more difficult for future presidents to declare martial law.

"We must prevent the return of the rebellion forces," Lee urged voters at his recent rally from behind fortified glass.

Such promises have pulled in people from across the political spectrum. "I didn't like Lee before, but since martial law I now trust and depend on him," said 59-year-old Park Suh-jung, who admitted this was the first time she had attended a political event.

One man in his 50s said he was a member of another smaller political party, but had decided to back Lee this time: "He is the only person who can end Yoon's martial law insurrection. We need to stop those who destroyed our democracy."

Most recent polls put Lee about 10 points ahead of his rival Kim, but he was not always so popular. This is his second time running for president, having lost out to Yoon three years ago. He is a divisive character, who has been embroiled in a series of court cases and political scandals. There are many who do not trust him, who loathe him even.

Kim, hoping to capitalise on this, has branded himself "the fair and just candidate". It is a slogan his supporters have adopted, many seemingly backing him not for his policies, but because he is not Lee.

"I don't like Kim but at this point there's no real choice. The other candidate has too many issues," said one elderly woman who is planning to vote for him.

Kim has charted an unusual political path. As a student who campaigned for workers' rights, he was tortured and imprisoned under South Korea's right-wing dictatorship in the 1980s but then moved sharply to the right himself.

He was picked by the party base, many of whom are still loyal to Yoon. The party leadership, realising he was not the best choice, tried to replace him at the last minute with a more moderate, experienced politician, only to be blocked by furious members.

This has left the party weak and divided, with many suspecting it will splinter into rival factions after voting day. "Haven't we already imploded?" one party insider said to me recently, their face crumpled in their hands. "This is a miserable campaign."

"Choosing Kim is the biggest mistake the conservative party have made in this election, and they do know that. They will have to be held accountable for this decision," said Jeongmin Kim, the executive director of Korea Pro, a Seoul-based news and analysis service.

Lee has seized this opportunity to hoover up centrist votes. He has shifted his policies to the right, and even claimed his left-leaning party is, in fact, conservative.

This, despite his reputation as a staunch leftist. He grew up in a slum outside Seoul, working in factories rather than attending school, and is someone who has previously quoted US senator Bernie Sanders.

But gone are his previous pledges to introduce a universal basic income. This time, he is courting South Korea's powerful conglomerate businesses, the chaebols. He has even incorporated the conservative colour red into his own blue logo, and hits the campaign trail wearing red and blue trainers.

He has rebranded his foreign policy too. Typically, his Democratic Party is cautious about Korea's security alliance with the US, preferring to prioritise relations with China and North Korea.

But Lee is casting himself as a "pragmatist" who can adapt to a changing security environment. "The US-Korea alliance is the backbone of our national security. It should be strengthened and deepened," he said in a recent televised debate.

All this has left voters and diplomats here unsure of what he really stands for, and what he will do if elected - though this seems to be the point.

Ms Kim, Korea Pro's analyst, believes his makeover is more genuine than might appear. "He was already high up in the polls, so he didn't need to work hard to win votes," she said. "I think he is playing a longer game. He wants to be a popular leader, someone who can be trusted by more than half of the country."

Bringing the country together will be the biggest challenge for whoever wins.

When people vote on Tuesday, it will be six months to the day since they came out onto the streets to resist a military takeover.

After months of chaos, they are desperate to move forward, so the country can start addressing pressing issues that have been on hold, including tariff negotiations with US President Donald Trump.

But more than anything they hope this election can restore their own confidence in their democracy, which has been badly shaken.

At a baseball game in the capital Seoul last week – arguably the only place where Koreans are as tribal as they are about politics – both sides were united, acutely aware of this election's importance.

"I'm really concerned about our democracy," said Dylan, a data engineer. "I hope we have the power to save it and make it greater than before. My vote is a piece of power."

"The next president needs to show people clearly and transparently what he is doing," said one man in his mid-20s. "We need to watch him carefully."

If Lee is to win, and by the margin the polls suggest, he would have a solid mandate, as well as control of parliament, giving him three years to implement major political reforms.

That could be good for rebuilding South Korea's stability but would come with its own challenges, said the political analyst Ms Kim.

"If Lee wins, he will have a lot of power. {Given how Yoon behaved} he will need to be very responsible when using it."

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Almost 40 years on, it seems surprising there are still new stories to tell about the Lockerbie disaster.

The destruction of Pan Am 103 in the skies above the small Dumfries and Galloway town on 21 December 1988 is one of the most chronicled events in recent British history.

A bomb exploded in the plane's cargo hold, causing the Boeing 747 to break up at 31,000ft as it flew from Heathrow to New York.

All 259 passengers and crew on board were killed, along with 11 people in Lockerbie who died when the plane fell on their homes. It remains the biggest terror attack to have taken place on British soil.

Coverage tends to focus on anniversaries, but the past six months have brought two big-budget television dramas and later this year a play about the town's response to the disaster will debut at Glasgow's Citizens Theatre.

Now, a BBC Scotland documentary aims to tell some of the less well-known stories about those who died on the flight, and about those they left behind.

Among the victims on the plane was Tim Burman, a 24-year-old banker who was flying to New York to spend Christmas with his girlfriend, Rose Grant.

Tim was the youngest of four and the only boy. His three sisters - Rachel, Tanya and Fiona - remember him as an "arty, sporty" brother who was keen on the environment and loved running in the Scottish hills.

Tanya says: "He genuinely was easy-going and fun, really good fun".

Rose, who Tim met while he was on a gap year in Australia, says: "I enjoyed his sense of humour, his style, sense of adventure, ability to get on with everyone.

They all mourn his lost potential. His sister Tanya says: "He's both the brother we had, but also a victim of Pan Am 103."

Rose believes Tim and his death created a huge bond between them all.

"Tim is everywhere in the conversation and the mannerisms of Rachel, Tanya and Fiona," she says.

"Our connection is held together by him still."

Olive Gordon was 25 and a hairdresser from Birmingham.

She had bought a last-minute ticket on Pan Am 103 and was planning on enjoying some shopping in New York in the run up to Christmas.

"She was just yapping. She said 'I'm going to America tomorrow. Going to buy stuff'. She loved shopping," her sister Donna says.

Donna describes Olive as "very bubbly, very full on. You just would not forget her if you knew her".

Olive was one of nine siblings.

"I have always asked 'why her? why my sister?'" her brother Colyn says.

"And it's something that you sort of battle with. And I'm still battling with it, a little bit. Well, not a little bit, a lot."

Her family believe she would have been in business now, something involving hair and beauty.

"She would probably be an influencer right now," Donna says.

William MacAllister, known as Billy, was a 26-year-old professional golfer from Mull. He was heading to the USA for a romantic break with his girlfriend Terri.

Her friends say Terri was hoping Billy was about to propose.

Fellow golf pro Stewart Smith worked with Billy at a course in London and remembers his friend as a natural comic with a zest for life.

"He was a very funny guy. Great sense of humour, great sense of fun," he says.

"He had moved to Richmond Park, so I went across and worked with Billy. Imagine living in London in the mid-80s when you're mid-20s, both of you.

"We had some great times."

Back in Mull, family friends have put a memorial bench on the course at Tobermory, where they say Billy played every day after school and every weekend from the age of 12. They remember him as "some guy".

Family friend Olive Brown says: "Every December I do have a wee sad moment, thinking he's not here. All that potential, enthusiasm and ability got caught short."

Colyn and other members of Olive Gordon's family visited Lockerbie in the days after the disaster. It was a shocking scene.

"I remember the crater, this huge hole, and these little bits all over the place. It just had this smell. My God, my sister was found here. Somewhere here," he says.

In the weeks that followed, members of the local community came together to wash, press and package up the belongings of those who had died on the plane.

The Lockerbie laundry has become a symbol of the kindness shown by the people of the town. They treated the dead and their families with love and care while coping with their own immeasurable trauma.

Colyn says: "Just thinking about it now makes me emotional. Because these people, they don't know you, they've never met you. But the way they treated you is as if they were family.

"The people of Lockerbie showed how humanity works. How to display compassion, to display love. I'll never forget them.

"I don't know if it's quite macabre to say this but I've always said I am glad that's the place that my sister's life was ended. Because of the type of people that live in this place."

The events of the night of 21 December 1988 have resonated across the decades.

In 2001, a Libyan intelligence officer, Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, was convicted of the bombing and 270 counts of murder, following a trial in front of three Scottish judges sitting in a special court at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands.

His co-accused, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty.

Suffering from terminal prostate cancer, Megrahi was released from prison in Scotland on compassionate grounds in 2009.

He was returned to Libya and spent the next three years living in a villa in Tripoli before finally succumbing to his illness in 2012.

Ten years later, Libyan Abu Agila Mas'ud Kheir Al-Marimi, known as Masud, was taken into American custody after being removed from his home in Tripoli.

He is awaiting trial in the USA, accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am 103.

Today, the town of Lockerbie remembers the disaster in its own, quiet, way.

Pupils from the secondary school can apply for a scholarship to spend a year at Syracuse University, in memory of 35 students from there who died in the bombing.

There is a memorial garden on the edge of the town, as well as plaques in Sherwood Crescent and Park Place, the two sites where most of the plane came down.

Nearby Tundergarth Church, which overlooks the field where the nose cone was found, is also a site of remembrance.

But more than anything, the Lockerbie bombing victims are remembered by those they left behind.

Every year in Tobermory, members at the golf club play for the cup which carries Billy MacAllister's name.

And his friend Stewart has a special reason to remember him.

"He had a big impact on my life really because, had Billy not enticed me to go and work over at Richmond, I would probably have not got to know my then girlfriend, who became my wife. My life would have been a very different one from what it became," he says.

"What a shame he didn't get a chance to go on and fulfil his potential."

For Rose, Tim's early death has shaped the course of the past four decades for all those who loved him.

"I think the gift that Tim's given us is to live our lives. I always feel that I owe that to him. Get out and do it."

Olive's death has had the same effect on Colyn and their siblings.

"Olive would have wanted us to live a good life, a full life. Like how she lived. Having a good time."

Lockerbie: Our Story will be available on the BBC iPlayer from 22:00 on Monday 2 June and will be shown on BBC Two at 21:00 and BBC Scotland at 22:00 on Tuesday 3 June.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is at the centre of a political firestorm after he approved a law that gives the state the power to expropriate some privately owned land without compensation for owners.

The law, which is yet to be implemented, has drawn the ire of US President Donald Trump, who sees it as discriminating against white farmers.

Centre-right political parties and lobby groups in South Africa have also opposed it, saying they will challenge the Expropriation Act – as the law is named – in court on the grounds that it threatens property rights.

Ramaphosa's government says the law provides for compensation to be paid in the vast majority of cases – and the changes are needed to increase black ownership of land.

Most private farmland is still owned by white people.

When Nelson Mandela came to power more than 30 years ago, ending the racist system of apartheid, it was promised that this would be rectified through a willing-buyer, willing-seller land reform programme – but critics say this has proved too slow and too costly.

So what exactly can be expropriated without compensation?

In rare circumstances it would be land that was needed for the "public interest", legal experts told the BBC.

According to South African law firm Werksmans Attorneys, this suggested it would mainly, or perhaps only, happen in relation to the land reform programme.

Although it could also be used to access natural resources such as minerals and water, the firm added, in an opinion written by its experts in the field, Bulelwa Mabasa and Thomas Karberg.

Mabasa and Karberg told the BBC that in their view, productive agricultural land could not be expropriated without compensation.

They said any expropriation without compensation – known as EWC – could take place only in a few circumstances:

• For example, when an owner was not using the land and was holding it for "speculative purposes"
• Or when an owner "abandoned the land by failing to exercise control over it despite being reasonably capable of doing so".

Owners would probably still get compensation for the buildings on the land and for the natural resources, the lawyers said.

Mabasa and Karberg added that EWC was "not aimed at rural land or farmland specifically, and could include land in urban areas".

However, in cases where compensation is paid, the rules are set to change, with owners likely to get less money.

Why will less money be paid in compensation?

The plan is for owners to receive "just-and-equitable" compensation – a departure from the higher "market value" they have been getting up to now, Mabasa and Karberg said.

The government had been paying market-value compensation despite the fact that this was "at odds" with the constitution, adopted after white-minority rule ended in 1994, they added.

The lawyers said that all expropriations had "extensive procedural fairness requirements", including the owner's right to go to court if they were not happy.

The move away from market-value compensation will also apply to land expropriated for a "public purpose" – like building state schools or railways.

This has not been a major point of controversy, possibly because it is "hardly a novel concept" – a point made by JURISTnews, a legal website run by law students from around the world.

"The US Constitution, for instance, provides that the government can seize private property for public use so long as 'just compensation' is provided," it added.

Will it make it easier for the government to acquire land?

The government hopes so.

University of Western Cape land expert Prof Ruth Hall told the BBC that more than 80,000 land claims remain unsettled.

In the eastern regions of South Africa, many black people work on farms for free – in exchange they are allowed to live there and keep their livestock on a portion of the owners' land, she said.

The government wants to transfer ownership of this land to the workers, and it was "unfair" to expect it to pay the market value, Prof Hall added.

Over the last three decades, the government has used existing powers to expropriate property–- with less than market-value compensation – in fewer than 20 cases, she said.

The new law was aimed at making it easier and cheaper to restore land to black people who were "dispossessed" of it during white-minority rule or were forced to be "long-term tenants" as they could not own land, Prof Hall added.

"It's a bargaining chip," she said.

But she doubts that the government will press ahead with implementing the law in the foreseeable future as the "political cost" has become too high.

The academic was referring to the fact that Trump has opposed the law, saying it discriminates against white farmers and their land was being "seized" – a charge the government denies.

In February, Trump cut aid to South Africa, and in April he announced a 30% tariff on South African goods and agricultural products, although this was later paused for 90 days.

This was followed by last month's infamous Oval Office showdown when Trump ambushed Ramaphosa with a video and printouts of stories alleging white people were being persecuted – much of his dossier has been discredited.

• Fact-checking Trump's Oval Office confrontation with Ramaphosa

What has been the reaction in South Africa?

Like Trump, the second-biggest party in Ramaphosa's coalition government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), is opposed to the legislation.

In a statement on 26 May, the party said that its top leadership body had rejected the notion of "nil compensation".

However, it has agreed with the concept of just-and-equitable compensation rather than market-value compensation, adding it should be "adjudicated by a court of law".

Surprisingly, Jaco Kleynhans of the Solidarity Movement, an influential Afrikaner lobby group, said that while the new law could "destroy" some businesses and he was opposed to it, he did not believe it would lead to the "large-scale expropriation of farmland".

"I don't see within the wording of this text that that will happen," he said in a recent panel discussion at an agricultural exhibition held in South Africa's Free State province – where a large number of conservative Afrikaner farmers live.

The South African Property Owners Association said it was "irrational" to give "nil compensation" to an owner who held land for speculative purposes.

"There are many landowners whose sole purpose of business is to speculate in land. They do not get the land for free and they have significant holding costs," the association said, adding it had no doubt the law would be "abundantly tested" in the courts.

Mabasa and Karberg said one view was that the concept of EWC was a "legal absurdity" because "intrinsic in the legal definition of expropriation, is a requirement for compensation to be paid".

However, the lawyers pointed out the alternative view was that South Africa's constitution "implicitly recognises that it would in some circumstances be just and equitable for compensation to be nil".

What does the government say?

South Africa's Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson has defended the legislation, breaking ranks with his party, the DA.

In fact he is in charge of the new legalisation and, on a discussion panel, he explained that while he had some concerns about the law, it was a "dramatic improvement" on the previous Expropriation Act, with greater safeguards for land-owners.

He said the law could also help end extortionist demands on the state, and in some cases "nil compensation" could be justified.

He gave as an example the problems being faced by the state-owned power utility Eskom.

It plans to roll out a transmission network over about 4,500km (28,000 miles) of land to boost electricity supplies to end the power crisis in the country.

Ahead of the roll-out, some individuals colluded with Eskom officials to buy land for 1m rand ($56,000; £41,000), and then demanded R20m for it, he said.

"Is it just and equitable to give them what they want? I don't think that's in the interest of the broader community or the state," Macpherson said.

Giving another example, Macpherson said that some of South Africa's inner cities were in a "disastrous" condition. After owners left, buildings were "over-run" and "hijacked" for illegal occupation. The cost to the state to rebuild them could exceed their value, and in such cases the courts could rule that an owner qualified for "nil compensation", he said.

"Nil is a form of compensation," Macpherson added, while ruling it out for farms.

Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero told South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper that he wanted to use the buildings for the "public good", like accommodating around 300,000 people on the housing waiting list.

He added the owners of nearly 100 buildings could not be located.

"They have abandoned the buildings," he said, adding some of the owners were from the UK and Germany.

But Mabasa and Karberg told the BBC that in such cases compensation would probably still have to be paid for the buildings, though not the land.

If the state could not locate the owners, it "must deposit the compensation with the Master of the High Court" in case they returned or could be traced later, they said.

What next?

The law is in limbo, as Ramaphosa – about four months after giving his assent to it – has still not set a date for its implementation.

Nor is he likely to do so anytime soon, as he would not want to further antagonise Trump while South Africa was trying to negotiate a trade deal with the US.

And on the domestic front, the DA is spearheading opposition to the legislation. It said it wanted a "judicial review" of it, while at the same time it was pressing ahead with court action to challenge the law's constitutionality.

The DA's tough line is in contrast with that of Macpherson, who, a few weeks ago, warned that if the law was struck down in its entirety: "I don't know what's going to come after that.

"In politics, sometimes you must be careful what you wish for because often you can get it," he said.

His comments highlight the deep fissures in South African politics, with some parties, such as Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), believing that the legislation did not go far enough to tackle racial inequality in land ownership.

With land such an emotive issue, there is no easy solution to the dispute – and it is likely to continue to cause tensions within South Africa, as well as with the US president.

You may also be interested in:

• Rebuked by Trump but praised at home: How Ramaphosa might gain from US showdown
• Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?
• South Africans' anger over land set to explode

Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.

Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica

The UK will build up to 12 new attack submarines, the prime minister will announce as the government unveils its major defence review on Monday.

The review is expected to recommend the armed forces move to "warfighting readiness" to deter growing threats faced by the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer will say up to 12 conventionally-armed nuclear-powered submarines will replace the UK's current fleet from the late 2030s onwards.

The prime minister is also expected to confirm the UK will spend £15bn on its nuclear warhead programme.

Sir Keir will say that, alongside the UK's nuclear-armed submarines, the new vessels would keep "Britain and Nato safe for decades".

The Strategic Defence Review, commissioned by Labour, will shape the UK's armed forces for years to come.

Led by ex-Labour defence secretary Lord Robertson it will make 62 recommendations, which the government is expected to accept in full.

Other announcements in the review will include:

• Commitment to £1.5bn to build six new factories to enable an "always on" munitions production capacity
• Building up to 7,000 long-range weapons including missiles or drones in the UK, to be used by British forces
• Pledge to set up a "cyber and electromagnetic command" to boost the military's defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace
• Extra £1.5bn to 2029 to fund repairs to military housing
• £1bn on technology to speed up delivery of targeting information to soldiers

Defence Secretary John Healey has signalled he is not aiming to increase the overall size of the Army before the next general election.

On Sunday, he said his "first job" was to reverse a decline in numbers with a target to return to a strength of 73,000 full-time soldiers "in the next Parliament".

Building the new submarines will support 30,000 jobs into the 2030s as well as 30,000 apprenticeships and 14,000 graduate roles across the next 10 years, the Ministry of Defence said.

Healey said: "Our outstanding submariners patrol 24/7 to keep us and our allies safe, but we know that threats are increasing and we must act decisively to face down Russian aggression."

The Astute class is the Royal Navy's current fleet of attack submarines, which have nuclear-powered engines and are armed with conventional torpedoes and missiles.

As well as protecting maritime task groups and gathering intelligence, they protect the Vanguard class of submarines that carry the UK's trident nuclear missiles.

In the Astute series, HMS Agamemnon, was launched last October and another is under construction which will take the number of submarines in this class to seven.

The next generation of attack submarines that will replace them, SSN-AUKUS, have been developed with the Australian Navy under a deal agreed in 2023 by the Conservative government.

Meanwhile work on modernising the warheads carried by Trident Missiles is already under way.

The £15bn investment into the warhead programme will back the government's commitments to maintain the continuous-at-sea nuclear deterrent.

In his announcement on Monday, Sir Keir is to repeat a Labour manifesto commitment to deliver the Dreadnought class of nuclear-armed submarines, which are due to replace the ageing Vanguard fleet from the early 2030s onwards.

The MoD's Defence Nuclear Enterprise accounts for 20% of its budget and includes the cost of building four Dreadnought class submarines.

Rival spending targets

Commitments on military spending come against the background of the government's wider review of departmental spending due later this month and have also taken on renewed importance given the Ukraine war, and pressure from Nato and US President Donald Trump for European countries to step up defence spending.

Sir Keir has committed the government to spending 2.5% of the UK's national income on defence by 2027, up from 2.3%, but has faced pressure to commit to 3%.

Healey said the target will be hit by 2034 but the Conservatives say the threshold should be hit earlier. The Liberal Democrats have also argued for a 3% spending target.

Shadow defence secretary James Cartlidge said Labour's review should be "taken with a pinch of salt" unless the government showed there would be enough money to pay for it.

Head of NATO, Mark Rutte has called on allies to spend 3.5% of its GDP on defence, with a further 1.5% on defence related expenditure.

The government has said it wants Britain to be the leading European nation within the NATO alliance but that might prove difficult when a significant number of allies exceed the UK's military spending.

It says its review will reverse decades of underinvestment in Britain's armed forces. But it remains to be seen if the investment will be enough.

The ambitions of past defence reviews have rarely been matched by resources.

Warsaw's liberal Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski has claimed victory in Poland's presidential election but his winning margin in an exit poll is well within the margin of error.

An exit poll, with a margin of error of 3% broadcast immediately after voting ended, indicates Trzaskowski winning on 50.3%, marginally ahead of his rival, conservative historian Karol Nawrocki on 49.7%.

The official result is due to be published on Monday morning, the head of the state electoral commission said.

Trzaskowski claimed victory in front of cheering supporters in Warsaw. "We won," he said.

"We won, although the phrase 'razor's edge' will forever enter the Polish language and politics," he added.

His wife, Malgorzata, jokingly told the crowd, "I'm close to having a heart attack".

Trzaskowski promised to reach out to voters who supported his opponent. I will be a president for all Polish women and men," he said.

Nawrocki told his supporters that the result is too close to call.

"Let's not lose hope for this night. We will win during the night, the difference is minimal. I believe that we will wake up tomorrow with President Karol Nawrocki," he said.

Poland's president is a largely ceremonial role with limited influence on foreign policy and defence, but they can veto legislation and Donald Tusk's pro-EU coalition government lacks a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn it.

The current conservative incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, has used his powers to prevent Prime Minister Tusk delivering key campaign promises including removing political influence from the judiciary and liberalising the country's strict abortion law.

If Trzaskowski's victory is confirmed that obstacle would be removed and would allow Tusk to cement Poland's place in the European mainstream.

However, Tusk also faces opposition from within his own coalition from the conservative Peoples' Party on issues including abortion and legalising civil partnerships.

A victory for national conservative Karol Nawrocki, who is supported by opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, would mean continued conflict between the government and president.

It would also re-energise PiS, which lost power 18 months ago, giving the party the belief that it can go on to win parliamentary elections in 2027.

Both candidates support continued assistance for neighbouring Ukraine, although Nawrocki has said he opposes its entry into Nato and the EU for now while Russia continues its war of aggression.

Both men differ over their approach to the EU. Trzaskowski, a former Europe minister, supports Tusk's vision of a Poland at the heart of the European mainstream, influencing decisions through strong relations with Germany and France.

A deputy leader of Tusk's Civic Platform, he has served as Warsaw mayor since 2018.

He's the son of a famous Polish jazz pianist, speaks several languages and is viewed by some voters as a member of the country's liberal elite who is out of touch with ordinary Poles.

According to the CBOS polling company, Trzaskowski's typical voter is aged 30-40 years old, is relatively well off with left-liberal views and is open to LGBTQ+ and migrants' rights. They tend to live in large cities and have positive views of the EU.

Some voters said he tried to "artificially" present himself as a candidate who values patriotism. During the campaign, he has taken a much tougher line against illegal migration, something Tusk started to do before winning power in 2023 and he has volunteered to do basic military training.

Nawrocki, 42, supports a strong sovereign Poland and does not want the country to cede any more powers to Brussels. He opposes the EU's climate and migration policies. He's a conservative Catholic that prioritises traditional family values.

He was relatively unknown nationally before he was selected by opposition party PiS to be their "unofficial" candidate.

A keen amateur boxer and footballer, he often posted images of himself working out, allowing PiS to present him as a strong candidate who would stand up for ordinary Poles and the country's national interests.

A fan of President Donald Trump, he flew to Washington during the campaign for an extremely brief meeting to get a thumbs-up photo of himself with the American president in the Oval Office.

During the campaign he was attacked by the government and media for being morally unfit to be the country's president, but the allegations did not diminish his support during the last week of campaigning.

During a presidential debate, Nawrocki said that he, like most Poles, owned one apartment. That turned out to be a lie.

Nawrocki was accused of taking advantage of a vulnerable senior citizen to acquire his council flat at a huge discount in exchange for promises of care that were unfulfilled. Following the scandal, Nawrocki said he would donate the flat to charity but always denied the accusation.

Polish news website Onet.pl accused Nawrocki of helping to arrange sex workers for guests at the luxury Grand Hotel in the Baltic seaside resort of Sopot when he worked there as a security guard.

The story was based on anonymous sources, but Onet.pl said the witnesses had sworn they would repeat the allegations under oath in court. Nawrocki called the story a pack of lies and said he would sue the website.

His opponents portrayed him as a football hooligan who admired gangsters and neo-Nazi ultras. Nawrocki did not deny taking part in hooligan brawls as a younger man, calling them "noble fights". He has also said these allegations were an attempt to smear his reputation.

Some Nawrocki voters told me they did not believe certain stories about him, saying they were inventions of the mainstream Trzaskowski-supporting media.

A genius at work - the numbers behind Root's magnificence

Ukraine claims to have hit more than 40 Russian warplanes at several military airfields, in what appears to be one of the most audacious drone attacks so far on Russian aviation.

According to a statement from Ukraine's security service, SBU, "enemy strategic bombers are burning en masse in Russia".

The SBU says Ukraine is conducting "a large-scale special operation aimed at destroying enemy bomber aircraft."

Dramatic footage has emerged purportedly showing a drone attack at Belaya airbase in Irkutsk oblast, Siberia, thousands of miles from Ukraine.

Russia's military has not commented on the issue.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

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It's hard to exaggerate the sheer audacity - or ingenuity - that went into Ukraine's countrywide assault on Russia's air force.

We cannot possibly verify Ukrainian claims that the attacks resulted in $7bn (£5.2bn) of damage, but it's clear that "Operation Spider's Web" was, at the very least, a spectacular propaganda coup.

Ukrainians are already comparing it with other notable military successes since Russia's full-scale invasion, including the sinking of the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, and the bombing of the Kerch Bridge, both in 2022, as well as a missile attack on Sevastopol harbour the following year.

Judging by details leaked to the media by Ukraine's military intelligence, the SBU, the latest operation is the most elaborate achievement so far.

In an operation said to have taken 18 months to prepare, scores of small drones were smuggled into Russia, stored in special compartments aboard freight trucks, driven to at least four separate locations, thousands of miles apart, and launched remotely towards nearby airbases.

"No intelligence operation in the world has done anything like this before," defence analyst Serhii Kuzan told Ukrainian TV.

"These strategic bombers are capable of launching long-range strikes against us," he said. "There are only 120 of them and we struck 40. That's an incredible figure."

It is hard to assess the damage, but Ukrainian military blogger Oleksandr Kovalenko says that even if the bombers, and command and control aircraft were not destroyed, the impact is enormous.

"The extent of the damage is such that the Russian military-industrial complex, in its current state, is unlikely to be able to restore them in the near future," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

The strategic missile-carrying bombers in question, the Tu-95, Tu-22, and Tu-160 are, he said, no longer in production. Repairing them will be difficult, replacing them impossible.

The loss of the supersonic Tu-160, he said, would be especially keenly felt.

"Today, the Russian Aerospace Forces lost not just two of their rarest aircraft, but truly two unicorns in the herd," he wrote.

Beyond the physical damage, which may or may not be as great as analysts here are assessing, Operation Spider's Web sends another critical message, not just to Russia but also to Ukraine's western allies.

My colleague Svyatoslav Khomenko, writing for the BBC Ukrainian Service website, recalls a recent encounter with a government official in Kyiv.

The official was frustrated.

"The biggest problem," the official told Svyatoslav, "is that the Americans have convinced themselves we've already lost the war. And from that assumption everything else follows."

Ukrainian defence journalist Illia Ponomarenko, posting on X, puts it another way, with a pointed reference to President Volodymyr Zelensky's infamous Oval office encounter with Donald Trump.

"This is what happens when a proud nation under attack doesn't listen to all those: 'Ukraine has only six months left'. 'You have no cards'. 'Just surrender for peace, Russia cannot lose'."

Even more pithy was a tweet from the quarterly Business Ukraine journal, which proudly proclaimed "It turns out Ukraine does have some cards after all. Today Zelensky played the King of Drones."

This, then, is the message Ukrainian delegates carry as they arrive in Istanbul for a fresh round of ceasefire negotiations with representatives from the Kremlin: Ukraine is still in the fight.

The Americans "begin acting as if their role is to negotiate for us the softest possible terms of surrender," the government official told Svyatoslav Khomenko.

"And then they're offended when we don't thank them. But of course we don't – because we don't believe we've been defeated."

Despite Russia's slow, inexorable advance through the battlefields of the Donbas, Ukraine is telling Russia, and the Trump administration, not to dismiss Kyiv's prospects so easily.

Warsaw's liberal Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski has claimed victory in Poland's presidential election but his winning margin in an exit poll is well within the margin of error.

An exit poll, with a margin of error of 3% broadcast immediately after voting ended, indicates Trzaskowski winning on 50.3%, marginally ahead of his rival, conservative historian Karol Nawrocki on 49.7%.

The official result is due to be published on Monday morning, the head of the state electoral commission said.

Trzaskowski claimed victory in front of cheering supporters in Warsaw. "We won," he said.

"We won, although the phrase 'razor's edge' will forever enter the Polish language and politics," he added.

His wife, Malgorzata, jokingly told the crowd, "I'm close to having a heart attack".

Trzaskowski promised to reach out to voters who supported his opponent. I will be a president for all Polish women and men," he said.

Nawrocki told his supporters that the result is too close to call.

"Let's not lose hope for this night. We will win during the night, the difference is minimal. I believe that we will wake up tomorrow with President Karol Nawrocki," he said.

Poland's president is a largely ceremonial role with limited influence on foreign policy and defence, but they can veto legislation and Donald Tusk's pro-EU coalition government lacks a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn it.

The current conservative incumbent president, Andrzej Duda, has used his powers to prevent Prime Minister Tusk delivering key campaign promises including removing political influence from the judiciary and liberalising the country's strict abortion law.

If Trzaskowski's victory is confirmed that obstacle would be removed and would allow Tusk to cement Poland's place in the European mainstream.

However, Tusk also faces opposition from within his own coalition from the conservative Peoples' Party on issues including abortion and legalising civil partnerships.

A victory for national conservative Karol Nawrocki, who is supported by opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, would mean continued conflict between the government and president.

It would also re-energise PiS, which lost power 18 months ago, giving the party the belief that it can go on to win parliamentary elections in 2027.

Both candidates support continued assistance for neighbouring Ukraine, although Nawrocki has said he opposes its entry into Nato and the EU for now while Russia continues its war of aggression.

Both men differ over their approach to the EU. Trzaskowski, a former Europe minister, supports Tusk's vision of a Poland at the heart of the European mainstream, influencing decisions through strong relations with Germany and France.

A deputy leader of Tusk's Civic Platform, he has served as Warsaw mayor since 2018.

He's the son of a famous Polish jazz pianist, speaks several languages and is viewed by some voters as a member of the country's liberal elite who is out of touch with ordinary Poles.

According to the CBOS polling company, Trzaskowski's typical voter is aged 30-40 years old, is relatively well off with left-liberal views and is open to LGBTQ+ and migrants' rights. They tend to live in large cities and have positive views of the EU.

Some voters said he tried to "artificially" present himself as a candidate who values patriotism. During the campaign, he has taken a much tougher line against illegal migration, something Tusk started to do before winning power in 2023 and he has volunteered to do basic military training.

Nawrocki, 42, supports a strong sovereign Poland and does not want the country to cede any more powers to Brussels. He opposes the EU's climate and migration policies. He's a conservative Catholic that prioritises traditional family values.

He was relatively unknown nationally before he was selected by opposition party PiS to be their "unofficial" candidate.

A keen amateur boxer and footballer, he often posted images of himself working out, allowing PiS to present him as a strong candidate who would stand up for ordinary Poles and the country's national interests.

A fan of President Donald Trump, he flew to Washington during the campaign for an extremely brief meeting to get a thumbs-up photo of himself with the American president in the Oval Office.

During the campaign he was attacked by the government and media for being morally unfit to be the country's president, but the allegations did not diminish his support during the last week of campaigning.

During a presidential debate, Nawrocki said that he, like most Poles, owned one apartment. That turned out to be a lie.

Nawrocki was accused of taking advantage of a vulnerable senior citizen to acquire his council flat at a huge discount in exchange for promises of care that were unfulfilled. Following the scandal, Nawrocki said he would donate the flat to charity but always denied the accusation.

Polish news website Onet.pl accused Nawrocki of helping to arrange sex workers for guests at the luxury Grand Hotel in the Baltic seaside resort of Sopot when he worked there as a security guard.

The story was based on anonymous sources, but Onet.pl said the witnesses had sworn they would repeat the allegations under oath in court. Nawrocki called the story a pack of lies and said he would sue the website.

His opponents portrayed him as a football hooligan who admired gangsters and neo-Nazi ultras. Nawrocki did not deny taking part in hooligan brawls as a younger man, calling them "noble fights". He has also said these allegations were an attempt to smear his reputation.

Some Nawrocki voters told me they did not believe certain stories about him, saying they were inventions of the mainstream Trzaskowski-supporting media.