The Israeli military has destroyed a high-rise block in Gaza City, the second major tower it has targeted in as many days.

Defence Minister Israel Katz posted video of the building collapsing on X, with the caption: "We're continuing".

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which has been expanding operations in Gaza, said the Sussi Tower was being used by Hamas - a claim denied by the militant group.

It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties. Ahead of Saturday's strike, Israel dropped leaflets repeating calls for Palestinians to relocate to what it calls a humanitarian zone in the south.

In a social media post, IDF Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee urged residents to "join the thousands of people who have already gone" to al-Mawasi - an area between Khan Younis and the coastline.

The IDF has repeatedly encouraged civilians to move there, saying medical care, water and food will be provided.

However, the UN has said the tent camps in al-Mawasi are overcrowded and unsafe, and that southern hospitals are overwhelmed.

On Tuesday, five children were killed while queuing for water in al-Mawasi. Witnesses said they were struck by an Israeli drone, an incident which the IDF said was "under review".

• BBC Verify: Israel destroys dozens of buildings in Gaza City

The Sussi Tower is the second high-rise to be destroyed in as many days. On Friday social-media footage showed the Mushtaha Tower, in the city's al-Rimal neighbourhood, collapsing after a massive explosion at its base.

The IDF said precautionary measures had been taken to mitigate harm to civilians, "including advance warnings to the population" and the use of "precise munitions".

But Palestinians said displaced families had been sheltering in the Mushtaha Tower, and Gaza civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal accused Israel of enacting "a policy of forced displacement".

Satellite imagery shows several neighbourhoods in parts of the city have been levelled by Israeli strikes and demolitions over the past month.

The residential and commercial tower blocks in Gaza City represented an important chapter in the city's history, tied to hopes of ending the Israeli occupation and building an independent Palestinian state.

The rise of multi-storey towers – more than five floors – began after the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, which allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to return from exile to Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

Following the Israeli withdrawal from most of Gaza in 1994, vertical expansion became a necessity to accommodate the influx of returnees.

The Palestinian Authority encouraged large investments in the construction sector, with entire neighbourhoods named after the towers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel's intention to seize all of the Gaza Strip after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down in July.

The UN estimates nearly one million people remain in Gaza City, where it declared a famine last month. It has warned of an imminent "disaster" if the assault proceeds.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 63,746 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

The ministry also says 367 people have so far died during the war as a result of malnutrition and starvation.

Additional reporting by Ruth Comerford

The government has urged people to "keep their cool" when the national system for sending emergency alerts to mobile phones in the UK is tested on Sunday.

At 15:00 BST, compatible phones will vibrate and make a siren sound for 10 seconds, even if set to silent. They will also display a message explaining that a test is taking place.

The alerts are intended for situations in which there is an imminent danger to life, such as extreme weather events or during a terror attack.

Pat McFadden, the new work and pensions secretary, said the test is "to make sure the system works well when we need it most".

It is just the second time the system has been tested nationwide, and comes more than two years after the first revealed a number of technical issues.

Many people reported the alert went off a minute earlier or later than planned. Some said they did not receive the alert at all.

McFadden, who until Friday's government re-shuffle served as a senior Cabinet Office minister, said: "I know Brits will keep their cool when phones across the UK make a siren-like noise... It's important to remember this is only a test, just like the fire drills we all do in our schools and workplaces."

He added: "We're carrying out the test to make sure the system works well when we need it most, and afterwards, we'll work with mobile network operators to assess performance.

"The test takes just 10 seconds, but it helps us keep the country safe 24 hours a day, 365 days a year," he said.

It will see compatible phones - the vast majority of those currently in use - vibrate and make a siren sound for 10 seconds, while displaying a message.

The text of the message will read: "This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby.

"You do not need to take any action. In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe."

Phones that are switched off or in airplane mode will not get the alert.

The system has been deployed regionally five times in the past few years.

Around 4.5 million phones in Scotland and Northern Ireland were sent an alert during Storm Eowyn in January. The previous month, around 3.5 million were sent alerts in England and Wales during Storm Darragh.

The system was used last February to aid the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents in Plymouth, after a 500kg unexploded World War Two bomb was discovered.

Messages have also been targeted to relatively small areas to pinpoint those at risk, including during flooding in Cumbria in May 2024, and for similar weather conditions in Leicestershire in January.

Domestic abuse charities previously warned the system could endanger victims by potentially alerting an abuser to a hidden phone. The National Centre for Domestic Violence advised people with concealed phones to turn them off for the duration of the test.

The government has stressed that emergency alerts should remain switched on, but has published a guide for domestic abuse victims on how to opt out.

This is the most fascinating party conference I have ever been to.

Yes, I am an insufferable nerd: I have been coming to things like this for 20 years.

I have been to Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Scottish National Party, UKIP and Green Party conferences.

Firstly, an admission. I arrived late here.

I'm blaming Angela Rayner and the government reshuffle that followed her resignation, which meant I had to be in London on Friday.

What is fascinating about this gathering is it illustrates the pace of growth of Reform UK.

It is a vastly bigger gathering than the party had last year.

It now feels like a big party conference - but retains the insurgency vibe that the party is seeking to channel.

That is the unique combination I have never seen before.

Scaling up while holding onto that newbie energy will be a challenge, they seem to be managing both for now.

UKIP in its pomp had an insurgency feel about it, but its focus was much narrower and it was never talked of as a potential government.

Its conferences, at Doncaster Racecourse, Exeter and Torquay among other places, were proudly rather homespun in feel.

This year, Reform has hired Birmingham's NEC.

It is huge and it would be easy to leave a sense of rattling around in a tin in here, but it is busy.

I recognise one of the big catering trucks in here from one of the other party's conferences.

The corporate lounge sponsored by Heathrow Airport is another staple of the big conferences.

So far, so conventional, if you like – for a big party.

But then I spot a queue of folk waiting for Nigel Farage to sign their light blue Reform UK football shirt, bought at the nearby merchandise shop.

The number 10 and Farage on the back of them all is not exactly subtle about this movement's ambitions.

Can you imagine Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch, Ed Davey or John Swinney pulling that off?

Not in a million years.

In another corner of the main exhibition hall are 10 stands, each representing a region of England or a nation of the UK.

They are indicative of the growth and professionalising Reform is attempting at lightning speed – setting up the local branch network and army of volunteers a successful national political party requires.

It's the unglamorous side of politics, a long way from the whizzy pyrotechnics of Nigel Farage's conference speech, but arguably more important.

A couple from Suffolk stop for a chat.

They have never been to a party conference before and had never been in a political party until they joined Reform recently.

Another couple from Glasgow tell a similar story.

There are plenty of sharp-suited young men about too.

Two blokes having lunch together call me over. One recently worked for a Labour MP, the other had been a lifelong Conservative voter.

Those with a former political affiliation are disproportionately disgruntled Conservatives, but not exclusively.

All around us flutter the party's banner and the conference's slogan: "The Next Step."

And those three words get to the essence of this: the story of Reform's momentum has been the stand out political development of the last year.

But can they keep growing - and, ultimately, can they win the next general election?

"Can't stop, won't stop" is the mantra of the party's senior figures privately, as their membership numbers tick towards a quarter of a million.

And as an indicator of their seriousness of purpose, what did Nigel Farage plead for in his closing address from his activists?

Was he tub thumping and cracking gags?

Not a bit of it.

"Discipline" is what he wants.

Activists who disagree in private, not in public. Activists willing to stand as council candidates.

Nigel Farage has a focus and sense of purpose I haven't seen in the best part of two decades of reporting on him.

He sees an opportunity the like of which he has never seen before.

Misfiring England belatedly hit their straps

Ministers Dame Angela Eagle and Dame Diana Johnson have followed Yvette Cooper out of the door at the Home Office as Sir Keir Starmer continues his reshuffle.

The prime minister shifted Cooper to the Foreign Office on Thursday in a major shake-up of his top team prompted by the resignation of deputy prime minister Angela Rayner.

Now he is reshuffling other key ministerial posts, as he seeks to regain the initiative after the most tumultuous week of his premiership.

Ministers of state and junior ministers are given specific areas of responsibility in government departments, while cabinet ministers are in charge of the department as a whole and take part in cabinet meetings for major decisions.

Dame Angela and Dame Diana have been moved to roles in other departments, with Sarah Jones and Alex Norris brought into the Home Office, to work with new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood.

The moves reflects the importance the PM places on tackling illegal immigration and stopping small boat crossings.

Anna Turley has been promoted from the Whips Office to minister without portfolio in the Cabinet Office, and will attend cabinet. She will also become Labour Party chair, replacing Chancellor Rachel Reeves's sister Ellie.

Ellie Reeves becomes Solicitor General, replacing Lucy Rigby, who is moving to the Treasury to become economic secretary, effectively third in command to Rachel Reeves.

Sir Keir has sacked farming minister Daniel Zeichner, having also moved environment secretary Steve Reed to Rayner's old housing brief - perhaps a sign that he wants to reset the government's shattered relationship with the farming community.

Another appointment that stands out is Jason Stockwood, vice-chairman Grimsby Town football club.

Stockwood is a local boy done very well in business, that some in the party were keen to see run as a candidate in a parliamentary seat.

He was not interested, but has been lured into the Lords and becomes a business minister.

For a government frequently criticised for lacking voices with long-standing private sector experience, the soon-to-be Lord Stockwood could prove something of an asset.

Former investment minister Poppy Gustaffson and former local government minister Jim McMahon have also left government, Downing Street confirmed.

Here is a full list of the other appointments announced so far:

• Dan Jarvis joins the Cabinet Office as a minister, while remaining security minister in the Home Office
• Baroness Jacqui Smith has taken up the role of skills minister in the Department for Work and Pensions. She will stay as both the skills and women and equalities minister in the Department for Education
• Lord Patrick Vallance becomes a minister in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. He will remain minister in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
• Michael Shanks as a minister jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
• Alison McGovern has been appointed to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
• Sir Chris Bryant is stripped of his joint role with the science and culture departments, becoming a minister of state at the business department
• Luke Pollard becomes minister of state at the Ministry of Defence
• Georgia Gould is moved from a junior role at the Cabinet Office to the education department.

Three British nationals were killed in the Lisbon funicular crash, Portuguese police have said.

The Glória funicular, a popular tourist attraction, derailed and crashed into a building on Wednesday, killing 16.

More than 20 people were also injured, with five in a critical condition.

Nationals of Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Canada, Ukraine, France, and the US are also among the dead, police said.

It is not known what caused the crash. The capital's public transport operator, Carris, said all funiculars would be inspected and that it had launched an independent investigation.

The 140-year-old carriage derailed at around 18:15 local time (17:15 GMT) near the city's Avenida da Liberdade boulevard.

More than 60 rescue personnel raced to the scene to pull people from the wreckage.

Videos and images of the site showed an overturned, crumpled yellow carriage lying on the cobblestone street.

Portugal's Prime Minister Luís Montenegro called the crash "one of the biggest human tragedies of our recent history" and a national day of mourning was declared.

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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South Korea is mounting an "all-out" response, as the country reels over the arrest of more than 300 of its citizens in an immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the US.

Seoul has dispatched diplomats to the site in Georgia, while LG Energy Solution, which operates the plant with Hyundai, said it was suspending most business trips to the US.

US officials detained 475 people - mostly South Korean nationals - who they said were found to be illegally working at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.

The White House defended the operation, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment.

"They were illegal aliens and ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] was just doing its job," President Donald Trump said following the raids on Friday.

Video released by ICE officials showed Asian workers shackled in front of a building, with some wearing yellow vests with names such as "Hyundai" and "LG CNS."

"People on short-term or recreational visas are not authorized to work in the US," ICE said, adding that the raid was necessary to protect American jobs.

"This operation sends a clear message that those who exploit the system and undermine our workforce will be held accountable," Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent Steven Schrank said in a statement on Saturday.

South Korea, a close US ally, has pledged tens of billions of dollars in American manufacturing investment, partly to offset tariffs.

The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.

Trump has actively encouraged major investments from other countries while also tightening visa allocations for foreign companies.

Many of the LG employees arrested were on business trips with various visas or under a visa waiver programme, officials say.

South Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun said he felt a "great sense of responsibility for the arrest of our citizens" as he presided over an emergency meeting about the issue on Saturday.

He said the government had set up a team to respond to the arrests and that he may travel to Washington if needed.

• Hundreds of South Koreans detained in massive ICE raid at Hyundai plant
• Raid on US Hyundai facility swept up workers on visitor visas

On Saturday, LG Energy Solution said it was sending its Chief Human Resources Officer Kim Ki-soo to the Georgia site on Sunday.

"We are making all-out efforts to secure the swift release of detained individuals from our company and partner firms," it said in a statement to the South Korean media.

"We are confirming regular medications for families through an emergency contact network for detainees and plan to request that necessary medications be delivered to those detained."

The company said it was suspending most business trips to the US and directing employees on assignment in the US to return home immediately.

South Korean media widely described the raid as a "shock," with the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper warning it could have "a chilling effect on the activities of our businesses in the United States".

The factory, which makes new electric vehicles, had been touted by Georgia's Republican governor as the biggest economic development project in the state's history, employing 1,200 people.

The arrested workers were being held at an ICE facility in Folkston, Georgia, until the agency decides where to move them next.

LG Energy Solution said 47 of its employees and about 250 workers for contractors at the joint venture factory were detained.

President Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".

His warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.

President Nicolás Maduro has said US allegations about Venezuela are not true and that differences between the countries do not justify a "military conflict".

"Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added.

When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in "trouble".

Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.

Since his return to office in January, Trump has steadily intensified his anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Latin America.

Maduro has accused the US of seeking "regime change through military threat".

When asked about the comments, Trump said "we're not talking about that", but mentioned what he called a "very strange election" in Venezuela. Maduro was sworn in for his third term in January after a contested election.

Trump went on to say that "drugs are pouring" into the US from Venezuela and that members of Tren de Aragua - a gang proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the US - were living in the US.

• US strike on 'Venezuela drug boat': What do we know, and was it legal?

The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors to stem the flow of drugs.

The White House said on Friday that the US is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.

When asked about the build-up of military assets in the Caribbean, Trump said: "I think it's just strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people."

Trump is a long-time critic of Maduro. The US president doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader to $50m (£37.2m) in August, accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".

During Trump's first term, the US government charged Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials with a range of offences, including narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking.

Maduro has previously rejected the US claims.

Police have started arresting protesters at a demonstration against the government's ban of the campaign group Palestine Action.

Hundreds of people have gathered in Parliament Square in central London, some waving Palestinian flags and chanting "free Palestine". Others held placards saying: "I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action."

Officers have been seen carrying people out of the crowd, after some protesters said they planned to refuse bail and go "floppy" if they were arrested.

The Metropolitan Police had earlier warned that people showing support for the group, which has been proscribed under terrorism law, would face arrest.

The government proscribed Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act in July, making membership of or support of the group a criminal offence, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

Saturday's protest follows a major demonstration last month which saw more than 500 people arrested for displaying placards in support of Palestine Action.

The average age of those arrested at the August rally was 54, and the most arrests - 147 of them - were of people aged between 60 and 69.

The funeral of the Duchess of Kent will be held at Westminster Cathedral on 16 September, with the King and Queen among the senior royals who will be in attendance, Buckingham Palace has announced.

The duchess, Katharine, died on Thursday aged 92, prompting tributes for her kindness and support for tennis and music - including working as a primary school music teacher.

The duchess was a Catholic and there will be a Requiem Mass for her funeral, which will be the first royal Catholic funeral in the UK in modern history.

It will be a private family ceremony, after which the coffin will be taken to the royal burial ground in Frogmore in Windsor.

The duchess, who had been the oldest member of the Royal Family, died in Kensington Palace and her coffin will remain in the chapel there until the evening before the funeral, when she will brought to Westminster Cathedral.

In the Catholic tradition, there will be a service to mark the reception of the coffin into the cathedral, where it will remain in the Lady Chapel overnight, before the funeral the following day.

That will be attended by her close family, with the duchess being survived by her husband, the Duke of Kent, and their two sons and a daughter.

This first royal funeral at Westminster Cathedral, at 2pm on Tuesday 16 September, will be presided over by Cardinal Vincent Nichols, with the Anglican Dean of Windsor participating, before accompanying the coffin to Frogmore.

Prince Harry will be in the UK next week for charity events, but it is not known if he would stay for the funeral, which is expected to be attended by many senior royals.

The Prince and Princess of Wales said she would be a "much missed member of the family" who had "worked tirelessly to help others and supported many causes, including through her love of music".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the Duchess of Kent brought "compassion, dignity and a human touch to everything she did".

The duchess supported music charities and taught music at a Hull primary school, where pupils knew nothing of the royal background of "Mrs Kent".

She will be remembered as a familiar figure at the Wimbledon tennis championships, where she handed over trophies - and consoled those who had lost, famously including a tearful Jana Novotna in 1993.

Tennis player Martina Navratilova posted a tribute with a picture of herself and the duchess at Wimbledon, saying it was "amazing how many millions of people around the globe she affected in a positive way".

The duchess, who stepped back from her royal life in her later years, had supported charities including Childline and the Passage, which supports homeless people, based in Westminster not far from where her funeral will be held later this month.

Sign up here to get the latest royal stories and analysis every week with our Royal Watch newsletter. Those outside the UK can sign up here.

The national system for sending emergency alerts to mobile phones will be tested for the second time this Sunday, 7 September.

The alerts are designed for situations where there is an imminent danger to life, such as during extreme weather events or a terror attack.

The previous test, in April 2023, revealed a number of technical issues including some users receiving multiple messages and others getting nothing at all.

What time will the emergency alert be sent and what will happen?

The alert will be sent to millions of devices around 15:00 BST on Sunday 7 September.

Compatible phones - the vast majority of those currently in use - will vibrate and make a siren sound for roughly 10 seconds.

The text of the message will read:

"This is a test of Emergency Alerts, a UK government service that will warn you if there's a life-threatening emergency nearby.

"You do not need to take any action. In a real emergency, follow the instructions in the alert to keep yourself and others safe.

"Find simple and effective advice on how to prepare for emergencies at gov.uk/prepare.

"Visit gov.uk/alerts for more information or to view this message in Welsh. Ewch i gov.uk/alerts am ragor o wybodaeth neu i weld y neges hon yn y Gymraeg."

• Welsh language error in government emergency alert

Which devices will receive the alerts?

The alert will be sent to all smartphones on the UK's 4G and 5G networks, even if they are not connected to mobile data or wi-fi.

There are about 87 million mobile phones in the UK and the goverment says about 95% of the population has 4G or 5G access.

Older phones, and phones connected to 2G or 3G networks, will not receive the message.

Phones that are switched off or in airplane mode will also not get the alert.

Can users opt out of receiving emergency alerts?

The government strongly recommends that users enable devices to receive emergency alerts, but it is possible to opt out.

This can be done by searching in your phone's settings for "emergency alerts" and turning off "severe alerts" and "extreme alerts".

The government has published a guide on how to opt out of the test.

What is the advice for victims of domestic abuse?

Ahead of the 2023 test, domestic abuse charities warned that the alert system could potentially endanger victims by alerting an abuser to the existence of a secret phone.

The National Centre for Domestic Violence advised people with concealed devices to make sure they were turned off for the duration of the test.

• What to do about the emergency alert if you’re a victim of domestic abuse
• BBC Action line: Information and support about domestic abuse

What went wrong during the 2023 test?

During the first test some users got the alert ahead of the scheduled time while others got it later.

Many mobile phones on the Three network did not get anything at all, along with some users on other networks.

Others received multiple messages.

The government later confirmed that the test alert had not reached around 7% of compatible devices, and promised to fix the problems before any future tests.

The issues did not arise when the system was subsequently used to circulate real alerts.

What have emergency alerts been used for?

The government says the alert system plays "a critical role in making sure that we are ready for all kinds of future emergencies".

It uses mobile phone masts to send targeted information to users in a particular area.

Five real life alerts have seen sent to more than seven million mobile phone users since the system began.

It was used to contact around 4.5 million phones in Scotland and Northern Ireland during Storm Eowyn in January 2025, and around three million in England and Wales during Storm Darragh the previous month.

It was also used to help co-ordinate the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents in Plymouth as an unexploded 500kg World War Two bomb was carefully removed and taken out to sea to be detonated.

• Anger after fire evacuation alert sent in error to millions in LA
• Hawaii missile false alarm triggers shock, blame and apologies

Welcome to the weird world of UK politics 2025.

The TV presenter Jeremy Kyle announces to a huge crowd of Nigel Farage supporters at Reform UK's party conference that David Lammy is the new number two in government and they boo, panto-style.

And there's a YouTube video of the (now former) deputy prime minister dancing in a tracksuit and chunky gold chain waving wads of cash that's been watched more than 1.5m times.

These might both sound like parodies, but only the video of Angela Rayner rapping "How Many Homes Can Rayner Buy" was a joke.

And what was planned as No 10's "get back in charge week" has been blown up by a row you couldn't make up – the housing secretary in trouble for not paying tens of thousands of pounds of tax on her expensive new house.

Her exit pushed the button on a chunky shakeup of Sir Keir Starmer's team.

The start of this political season has been wild.

In the end, Rayner's decision to go was clear cut.

The official report into her behaviour said she'd tried to do the right thing, but not tried hard enough. So the rules had been broken.

Her camp reckoned she had no option. No 10 agreed.

There is frustration that the manner of her exit from government gave her critics what they wanted. But she knew she had no choice, and was devastated by her own mistake.

• Starmer to announce more ministerial changes after Rayner resignation - live
• Chris Mason: Faced with an almighty mess PM opts for big shake-up
• Working-class warrior who fell from power
• In full: Rayner, PM and ethics adviser's letters

It's acutely and specifically painful for Labour because Rayner had personally styled herself as something of a sleaze-buster.

It was she who often led the charge against the succession of Conservatives who got into trouble over their own complicated financial arrangements, hurling accusations of arrogance and greed on a fairly regular basis.

She was the shoutier end of Starmer's so called "Mr Rules" approach, a serious belief that government had to be washed clean of its tawdry image after multiple scandals and Boris Johnson's, ahem, flexible attitude to the normal rules.

She portrayed herself as a loud and proud champion of ordinary people looking at the worst Westminster behaviour in disgust.

For Labour in general, it undermines again, their claim to be different to those who went before, to return government to the "service of the people", as Sir Keir said so many times – to be competent, with clean heels.

For the government's number two to have messed up her tax affairs undermines faith in ministers' ability. As one MP put it, "it's not even a rookie error, it's 40,000 smackers of oversight".

And for such a prominent politician to lose their job over property dealings that many of the public couldn't imagine being able to afford gives the impression, again, that politicians live in a different world.

"There's just the smell test," a Labour insider said.

This time last year, Rayner, the prime minister himself, and even the chancellor were all red faced for taking, albeit permitted freebies, of clothes, glasses, and gig tickets, struggling to explain why politicians are entitled to free stuff the rest of us are not.

Twelve months on, Rayner is the fifth minister who has quit after their actions caused embarrassment for the government. Those clean heels look a bit scruffy now.

The mess is, of course, a gift for Nigel Farage. At his party's conference in Birmingham on Friday Rayner's exit didn't just shove him on stage a few hours early for his speech to try to grab a space in the news cycle, it gave more ammunition to his fundamental argument.

Reform's pitch rests on a claim that the two big parties are as bad as each other, and preside over a system that is bust.

Does his vow he could stop the small boats in a fortnight stand up? We'll be talking to the Reform leader later, and our full interview will be on the show on Sunday.

The prime minister's answer to the drama of the last couple of days?

Making changes to his ministers.

The decisions were made finally because of Rayner's exit but the moves have been long in the making.

Downing Street's hope is to salvage opportunity out of what was fast morphing into a crisis. A No 10 source tells me: "None of us expected it to unfold as it did, but this gives real shape and substance to a refreshed No 10 team, marking a strong new phase of this premiership."

You and I might translate that as: "The saga over Angela's tax was a total pain in the neck, but it's given us the excuse to make some of the changes we fancied anyway."

One insider described it as moving those who were "a bit awkward, or a bit tired".

What those changes add up to depends on who you ask.

One ally of the PM tells me, the reshuffle "is all about immigration", believing "Shabana [Mahmood] is the one who can get a grip of this" to solve the small boats issue or "we're all done for".

Some of Starmer's allies have long admired Shabana Mahmood, and believe her elevation to home secretary will see bring a more forthright approach to cracking the problems of the immigration system.

As justice secretary she held out the possibility of castrating sex offenders. That is not exactly a proposal designed to warm the hearts of Labour Party branch meetings.

But in some government circles there's a hope she'll take a more strident approach to the small boats crisis than Yvette Cooper.

Cooper moves to a life where she'll spend a lot more time on a plane, as foreign secretary. But those close to her believe it's a tribute to her work doing deals with countries on migration in this last year that she has been given the arguably more prestigious job.

I wouldn't bet we'll see her meeting JD Vance in waders any time soon. But there is the small matter of a state visit from his boss, President Trump, in a matter of days.

Different sources point to other appointments as the ones that will make the difference. The government's often stated number one priority has been to get the economy growing. You don't need me to tell you they haven't been having a great time with that.

Sources suggest moving Pat McFadden, the wily political brain, into a new mega ministry to deal with welfare and skills is part of a souped-up attempt to get the country working, and moving Peter Kyle to business is a way to soothe fevered brows of industry.

He takes the seat of Jonathan Reynolds, who moves to the vital role of chief whip. Given how many ructions there were on the backbenches last term, despite the party's mega majority, Reynold's fortunes keeping the party on side, or not, will be critical.

But while the reshuffle was a major set of moves, will it dramatically change what you see from the government that runs the country? Don't expect big swerves.

This is not a reshuffle that has come about because of some massive ideological bust up. It seems more about the personalities of the ministers involved than any dramatic shifts in Starmer's ambition.

His allies say in the first year in office he was frustrated at how hard it was to get anything done. The hope is the new line up will work more quickly, and push harder on the government's most thorny problems. One minister said the "time for incremental change has passed – we don't have long", conscious all the time of Reform breathing down their neck.

Will it work? That's what we'll witness as the months unfold. A senior Labour figure told me disappointedly: "I'm not sure moving personnel is the best thing – the biggest frustration is the lack of project – that's what makes it hard to make day to decisions."

This reshuffle doesn't answer the most frequent complaint made about Sir Keir by his own party, often publicly, that it's just not that clear exactly what he stands for.

"Phase 2" was meant to be "delivery, delivery, delivery". Another bout of political jargon that followed, "change", "renewal", "security", "fairness", "milestones", "first steps", you get the point.

Even some of the PM's allies would admit privately that none of his chosen pitches to the public have made people's hearts sing.

"You can see the problem from Mars," another party insider says, "there's not enough political direction of what he wants to do – so the policies don't lather up into anything". they reckon. That oft-cited problem is not going to be miraculously solved by a set of HR decisions after a huge embarrassment this week.

But Sir Keir's hope this weekend will be that a reboot at the cabinet table makes his government more effective - demonstrating government can work.

And convincing the public of that these days would be a significant achievement.

Seven days ago there was an ambition that week one of "phase two" might be an orderly start to the term. The Rayner saga skewered that plan. Now with his new chosen team in place there is more opportunity to make things work perhaps, but fewer excuses if things go wrong.

A senior party source told me: "The test is how does the PM show how No 10's capacity for political strategy and policy making have materially changed?"

With a long list of problems and the party conference looming, we'll soon know if Downing Street can pass that test, to prove it can manage the many challenges of "phase two" any better than the agonies of year one.

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Top image credit: Leon Neal/ Reuters

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Chef and television presenter Matt Tebbutt will replace Gregg Wallace as a judge on the next series of MasterChef: The Professionals, the BBC has confirmed.

The Saturday Kitchen host will join Marcus Wareing and Monica Galetti on the programme.

Tebbutt said it was "an absolute honour" to be working alongside "two titans of the food world".

He replaces Wallace, who was sacked in July after a report upheld 45 allegations about his behaviour on the programme, including one of unwelcome physical contact and three of being in a state of undress.

The inquiry, conducted by an independent law firm, was ordered by MasterChef's production company Banijay in the wake of a BBC News investigation which first revealed claims of inappropriate sexual comments.

Wallace said he was "deeply sorry for any distress" he caused, but that he had "never set out to harm or humiliate".

The report also upheld a separate claim of using a severely offensive racist term against fellow MasterChef host John Torode, who did not present on spin-off series MasterChef: The Professionals.

Both hosts were sacked and the BBC has not yet announced who will replace them on the main amateurs series of the show.

• Inside the MasterChef crisis: Wallace and Torode were 'never friends'

Tebbutt, who has years of experience in the restaurant industry and is a regular contributor to food and travel magazines, has been seen as a potential replacement.

Commenting on his new role on the spin-off, he said he was looking forward to his co-judges "taking me under their wing and seeing the chefs get off to a flying start in the competition".

Wareing said Tebbutt's experience "speaks for itself", while Galetti said it was "really exciting" to have him join the show.

The transmission date for MasterChef: The Professionals has not yet been confirmed.

The controversy over MasterChef started last year, when claims of misconduct against Wallace were first revealed.

The show's production company Banijay launched an immediate inquiry into the allegations. This summer, the report revealed that 83 claims had been made against Wallace, with more than 40 upheld.

Following that report, Wallace issued a statement to the PA news agency insisting that "none of the serious allegations against me were upheld".

"I challenged the remaining issue of unwanted touching but have had to accept a difference in perception, and I am deeply sorry for any distress caused. It was never intended."

The upheld complaint against Torode related to a severely offensive racist term allegedly used on the set of MasterChef in 2018.

Torode said he had "no recollection" of it and that any racist language is "wholly unacceptable".

The BBC decided to broadcast this year's amateurs series of MasterChef - with both Wallace and Torode in it - for the sake of the chefs who had taken part in it.

Wallace will be replaced by Irish chef Anna Haugh in the final episodes, as that is when the allegations against him first emerged during filming in November.

The BBC has also not yet announced what it plans to do with the completed celebrity series - which was filmed with Torode and restaurant critic Grace Dent - or the Christmas special.

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has shifted on his pledge to stop migrants arriving on small boats within two weeks of entering government if they win power.

Farage told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that he would stop the boats within two weeks of passing laws that he says would allow him to deport migrants quickly.

When asked if passing those laws could take months, Farage said a government led by him would "want to do it as quickly as we possibly can".

The two week pledge was one of the standout announcements of Farage's keynote speech to his party's conference in Birmingham on Friday.

He told activists: "We will stop the boats and we will detain and deport those who illegally break into our country."

He said this was what "nearly every normal country around the rest of the world does".

"You cannot come here illegally and stay. We will stop the boats within two weeks of winning government," he added.

In plans announced last month, Reform UK suggested it would be prepared to deport 600,000 migrants over five years if it won power at the next general election.

Farage said his party would bar anyone who came to the UK on a small boat from claiming asylum and make £2bn available to offer payments or aid to countries like Afghanistan to take back migrants.

Key to the plan is the passage of a new law called the Illegal Migration (Mass Deportation) Bill.

Reform UK said the bill would create a legal duty for the home secretary to remove illegal migrants, and ban anyone who had been deported from re-entering the UK for life.

The bill would also "disapply" international treaties like the Refugee Convention, a 1951 treaty that prevents signatory countries like the UK from returning refugees to countries where they face serious threats to their life or freedom.

When asked how that would work, given the complexities and typical timelines of passing legislation, Farage told Laura Kuenssberg: "As soon as the law is in place. As soon as you have the ability to detain and deport, you'll stop it in two weeks."

Citing Australian policies, Farage said once the country had "the legal base" to tow small boats back to Indonesia they solved the problem in two weeks.

Under former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's offshore detention policy, asylum-seeker vessels were controversially turned back to Indonesia and would-be refugees sent to Papua New Guinea and Nauru in the Pacific for processing and resettlement.

In June 2014, Abbott said Australia had marked six months since the last asylum-seeker boat arrival in December 2013 - a few months after he took office.

When Farage was asked if he was making promises he could not keep, he said he meant what he said about mass deportations.

He accused other political parties of telling "the electorate what they think the electorate want to hear without every intending to deliver it".

Farage has also said he mis-spoke when he said he bought a house in his Clacton constituency before the last general election, telling Sky News that his partner had bought the property.

He said: "I should have said 'we'. All right? My partner bought it, so what?" adding, "I own none of it. But I just happen to spend some time there."

He added: "I should have rephrased it. I didn't want...to put her in the public domain."

Watch the full interview with Farage on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg at 0900 BST on BBC One and on BBC Iplayer.

A resident has paid for graffiti to be removed from outside Angela Rayner's flat in Hove, the council has said.

The graffiti appeared on a white wall on the outside of the home earlier in the week, after Ms Rayner admitted underpaying stamp duty on the property.

The 45-year-old quit as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour Party leader on Friday, following an official probe into the admission.

A Brighton & Hove City Council spokesperson said on Friday: "Due to security concerns, and in line with our policy of removal of offensive graffiti, we have removed graffiti reported in Hove. This has been paid for by a resident."

Ms Rayner's spokesperson has called the vandalism "totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale" and said it was a matter for the police.

Across the road from her seafront flat, "Tax evader Rayner" and "Rayner tax avoidance" were written on construction chipboard.

Ms Rayner's spokesperson said: "This vandalism to residents' homes is totally unjustifiable and beyond the pale.

"Neither Angela nor her neighbours deserve to be subjected to harassment and intimidation.

"It will rightly be a matter for the police to take action as they deem appropriate."

The MP for Hove and Portslade, Peter Kyle, said he was disappointed at the graffiti.

Mr Kyle, who became Business and Trade Secretary in Friday's reshuffle, said: "I'm really disappointed that the heritage wall has been defaced over this issue. Hove is better than this."

Workers from Brighton & Hove City Council turned up to clear off the graffiti on Thursday afternoon but withdrew after complaints from locals about how quickly the clean up was happening compared to similar vandalism across the city.

A spokesperson for Sussex Police said on Thursday: "We have been made aware of graffiti outside an address in Hove.

"The matter is being treated as criminal damage and we are proactively making enquiries to gather information as to the circumstances.

"We will be contacting the homeowner to identify and address any further concerns.

"Anyone with information is asked to contact us."

Additional reporting by PA Media

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Three British nationals were killed in the Lisbon funicular crash, Portuguese police have said.

The Glória funicular, a popular tourist attraction, derailed and crashed into a building on Wednesday, killing 16.

More than 20 people were also injured, with five in a critical condition.

Nationals of Portugal, South Korea, Switzerland, Canada, Ukraine, France, and the US are also among the dead, police said.

It is not known what caused the crash. The capital's public transport operator, Carris, said all funiculars would be inspected and that it had launched an independent investigation.

The 140-year-old carriage derailed at around 18:15 local time (17:15 GMT) near the city's Avenida da Liberdade boulevard.

More than 60 rescue personnel raced to the scene to pull people from the wreckage.

Videos and images of the site showed an overturned, crumpled yellow carriage lying on the cobblestone street.

Portugal's Prime Minister Luís Montenegro called the crash "one of the biggest human tragedies of our recent history" and a national day of mourning was declared.

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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Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.

It's the reaction.

In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.

"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."

Then the reaction.

The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.

Observing the scene in the hall, I found the applause quite chilling.

And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.

• Putin rejects Western security in Ukraine, warning troops would be target

The audience applauded again when the Kremlin leader suggested that he would be prepared to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky - but only on home soil.

"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," said Putin.

Outside Russia, Putin's proposal has been dismissed as unserious, a complete non-starter. A case of political trolling.

But in many ways it encapsulates the Kremlin's current position on the war in Ukraine: "Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms. You reject our terms? No peace then."

• Putin says Russia will achieve all aims militarily if Ukraine does not agree deal

This uncompromising stance is being fuelled by a combination of factors.

First, by the Kremlin's belief that, in Ukraine, Russian forces have the initiative on the battlefield.

Second, by diplomatic success. In China this week, Putin shook hands and shared smiles with a string of world leaders. The optics were all about demonstrating that Russia has powerful friends, such as China, India and North Korea.

And then there's America. Last month US President Donald Trump invited Putin to Alaska for a summit meeting. Back home pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the event as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine had failed.

To convince the Kremlin to end the fighting Trump has previously set ultimatums and deadlines; he's threatened further sanctions if Russia won't make peace.

But Trump hasn't followed through on his threats - and that's another reason for Russia's confidence.

Putin publicly praises Trump's peace efforts. And yet he has rejected Trump's ceasefire proposals and shown no desire to make concessions over the war in Ukraine.

So where does that leave prospects for peace?

Putin said recently that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel".

It seems to me that right now Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine and Europe (and to some extent America) on the other are in different tunnels, on different roads, with different destinations.

Ukraine and Europe are focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv and making sure that the Ukrainian army is strong enough post-war to prevent another invasion.

When Putin talks about "light at the end of the tunnel", I believe he imagines a path that leads to a Russian victory in Ukraine, and more widely, to the construction of a new global order that benefits Russia.

In terms of peace, it's hard to see where and when these two very different highways will converge.

When I interviewed surgeon Neil Hopper in 2023 for BBC News, I believed I was speaking to a man who had been humbled by the life-changing experience of losing his legs to sepsis.

Little did I know, Hopper had a sexual interest in amputation and had frozen his own legs so they would be removed.

Hopper, a consultant vascular surgeon who had carried out hundreds of amputation operations, told me he had come down with a mystery illness on a family camping trip which had led to sepsis and below-knee amputations of both his legs.

In reality, he had used ice and dry ice to freeze his own legs, causing damage that meant they eventually had to be amputated in hospital.

Watching him being jailed on Thursday it was hard to reconcile the reflective man I had interviewed in my capacity as a journalist, with the often graphic details heard in court.

When I interviewed him, I had not doubted the version of events he had told me for one moment. He was a respected surgeon, and why would anyone lie about such a thing?

Warning: Contains information some readers may find upsetting

Back in 2023 Hopper, who grew up in Aberystwyth and Swansea and was living in Truro, Cornwall, appeared almost grateful for the opportunity his life-changing surgery had given him to reassess his life.

"You have to make a lot of sacrifices to be a surgeon and family time is one of them," the father-of-two told me. "I know that was a mistake."

He seemed relaxed, at peace, like a man who had gone through something horrific but had come out the other side changed for the better.

He said losing his legs had led him to "audit" his life and try new things, including applying to become Nasa's first disabled astronaut.

He told me he passed the medical and made it to the final 27 applicants but the space agency eventually selected Paralympic sprinter John McFall.

"My life is more interesting because of what's happened to me," he insisted.

He also praised his wife.

"This didn't happen to me, it happened to us," he said.

The truth behind his amputations was finally laid bare in court on Thursday.

Having his legs amputated was a long-standing ambition for Hopper, the court was told. He had both an obsession and a sexual interest in removing parts of his own body.

The court heard how he had suffered body dysphoria since childhood and his feet were an "unwelcome extra" and a "persisting never-ending discomfort".

For some time, Hopper had been paying to access videos of body mutilation.

The court heard he had bought three videos from the website for £10 and £35, respectively, showing men willingly having their genitals removed.

He also exchanged about 1,500 messages with Marius Gustavson, an amputee who ran the website.

Some of the messages were Hopper seeking advice from Gustavson about how he had brought about his own lower leg amputation.

In one message Hopper told Gustavson: "I've dreamt of this for 20 years."

In another he wrote: "It's going to be awesome being a double amputee."

After his amputations he sent him another message: "It feels so cool. No feet!"

Hopper returned to work for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust just six months after his amputations.

He went on to make fraudulent claims from two insurance firms, lying that the injuries to his legs were the result of sepsis and not self-inflicted.

During this time he messaged a friend to say he felt he should "milk this as much as possible".

The money - totalling more than £466,000 - was quickly spent on luxury items including home improvements, a campervan and a hot tub.

Hopper's unique insight as an amputee who carried out amputation operations, as well as his bid to go into space garnered plenty of media attention.

"He enjoyed the attention that this generated," the court was told.

It was the police investigation into Gustavson that would be Hopper's undoing.

Gustavson was jailed for life in 2024 for leading an extreme body modification ring.

Hopper was arrested in March 2023 and has been suspended from the medical register since December 2023.

On Thursday he was jailed for two years and eight months for insurance fraud and possessing extreme pornography. The court heard Hopper did not regret the operations, but "bitterly regrets" the "dishonesty" about their cause.

When news of the charges against Hopper broke in July, I was shocked.

Then I was confused - what exactly was he accused of doing? And why would someone inflict those injuries on themself?

Then I was concerned. Was I wrong to have taken what he told me at face value?

Fact-checking is an essential part of journalism, but on the face of it this did not appear to be a difficult story to confirm.

I was communicating with Hopper through his place of work, his work as a surgeon was well-documented, and his bilateral amputations were plain to see.

In court Hopper's case was described as "very unique", a "saga" and "difficult to comprehend".

He had managed to pull the wool over the eyes of medics, two insurance companies, and those who knew him - who expressed shock in character references read to the court.

Remembering my conversation with Hopper while watching his sentencing on Thursday, it was clear that as a journalist you never quite know where a story will take you.

Like many Australians, Rach grew up "terrified of the sun" in a country that has the unenviable title of skin cancer capital of the world.

Her childhood was characterised by the infamous "no hat, no play" rule that is commonplace in Australian schools, 90s advertisements that warned the sun would give you cancer, and sunscreen tubes that stood guard at every door in her home.

It made the now 34-year-old the kind of person who religiously applies sunscreen multiple times a day and rarely leaves the house without a hat.

So she was shocked when doctors found a skin cancer on her nose during a check last November, something they said was abnormal given her age and ray-dodging regime.

Though technically classified as a "low grade" skin cancer – a basel cell carcinoma – it had to be surgically removed, leaving the Newcastle mum with a scar just below her eye.

"I was just confused, and I was a little bit angry because I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'" Rach – who asked that her surname not be used – told the BBC. "I thought I'd done all the right stuff and it still happened to me."

That rage grew when she learned the sunscreen she had been using for years was unreliable and, according to some tests, offered next to no sun protection at all.

Independent analysis by a trusted consumer advocacy group has found that several of Australia's most popular, and expensive, sunscreens are not providing the protection they claim to, kicking off a national scandal.

There has been a massive backlash from customers, a probe launched by the country's medical watchdog, multiple products pulled from shelves, and questions raised about the regulation of sunscreen around the globe.

"It's definitely not an issue isolated to Australia," cosmetic chemist Michelle Wong told the BBC.

The reckoning

Australians have a complicated relationship with the sun: they love it, but they also fear it.

Effective public health messaging – which has drilled "Slip, Slop, Slap" into their heads – competes with a beauty culture which often idolises bronzed skin.

The country has the highest incidence of skin cancers in the world and it is estimated that two out of three Australians will have at least one cut out in their lifetime.

So when Choice Australia released its damning report in June, it immediately made waves. The group had tested 20 sunscreens in an independent accredited Australian lab, finding 16 did not meet the SPF, or skin protection factor, rating listed on the packet.

Ultra Violette's Lean Screen SPF 50+ Mattifying Zinc Skinscreen, a facial product that Rach says she used exclusively, was the "most significant failure" identified. It returned a result of SPF 4, something that shocked Choice so much it commissioned a second test that produced a similar reading.

Other products that did not meet their SPF claims included those from Neutrogena, Banana Boat, Bondi Sands and the Cancer Council - but they all rejected Choice's findings and said their own independent testing showed their sunscreens worked as advertised.

The uproar was immediate for the brands named in the report, and also prompted a swift response from the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA), which said it would investigate the findings and "take regulatory action as required".

Ultra Violette bit back, saying they were "confident that Lean Screen is safe and effective" and detailing extensive testing of the product – which has been sold in almost 30 countries, including the UK, and retails for upwards of A$50 (£24, $33).

But less than two months later, it announced that Lean Screen would be recalled after it returned inconsistent results across eight different sets of lab testing.

"We are deeply sorry that one of our products has fallen short of the standards we pride ourselves on and that you have come to expect of us," read a statement published to the brand's Instagram account.

It added that it has "since ended the relationship with the initial testing lab".

In the past fortnight, other brands have "paused" the sale of at least four more products, none of which were included in the Choice report.

Rach knows there is no way to prove that there is a link between her diagnosis and the brand of sunscreen she relied on. She says she is not alleging there is such a connection.

But she said Ultra Violette's response to the scandal was like "a kick in the guts".

She felt that they took no real accountability for the pitfalls of their product, and was let down by their decision to continue selling it for two months despite doubts over its efficacy.

"I just had like the five stages of grief, you know?" she said. "I was angry, I was upset, I was almost in denial."

Like Rach, a horde of annoyed customers say the saga has shaken their faith in the industry.

"A refund isn't really going to reverse years of sun damage, is it?" one wrote in response to Ultra Violette's recall statement.

Choice has urged the TGA to conduct further investigations into the sunscreen market, and also urged any brands who had reason to question the SPF protection listed on their products to remove them from sale immediately.

"It is clear there is a serious issue in the Australian sunscreen industry that urgently needs to be addressed," said Rosie Thomas, the director of campaigns, in a statement to the BBC.

How did this happen?

While in Europe sunscreen is classed as a cosmetic, Australia regulates it as a therapeutic good – essentially a medicine – which means it is subject to some of the most robust sunscreen regulations in the world.

And that's something many of the brands caught up in this saga trade on. So, how did this happen?

An investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation found that a single US-based laboratory had certified at least half of the products that had failed Choice's testing, and that this facility routinely recorded high test results.

It also found that several of the sunscreens pulled from shelves shared a similar base formula and linked them to a manufacturer in Western Australia.

The TGA says it does not usually speak about ongoing investigations because it does not want to compromise them, but that it is also looking into "reviewing existing SPF testing requirements" which can be "highly subjective".

"The TGA is also aware that it is common practice for different sunscreen products to share the same or similar base formulations," a spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.

"Ultimately it is the sponsor's [seller's] responsibility to ensure that their medicine remains compliant with all applicable legislative requirements."

Consistent and comfortable sunscreens which offer high protection are very technical and difficult to make, says Dr Wong, founder of Lab Muffin Beauty Science.

Everyone's skin responds differently to the product, he adds, and it's one that is almost always being stress-tested – by sweat, water, or makeup.

It is very difficult to rate effectively for the same reasons. Historically, it has been done by spreading the sunscreen on 10 people at the same thickness, then timing how long it takes for their skin to start burning both with and without the product applied.

While there are clear guidelines as to what you are looking for, Dr Wong says there is still a lot of variability. That is down to skin texture or tone, or even the colour of the walls, and "different labs get different results".

But she says results are also quite easy to fake, pointing to a 2019 probe by US authorities into a sunscreen testing laboratory which resulted in the owner being jailed for fraud.

Many sunscreen brands from all over the world use the same manufacturers and testing labs - and so this issue is unlikely to be isolated to Australia, she adds.

"Until someone goes out and tests a whole bunch of sunscreens in other countries, we just don't know the extent of it."

She says the scandal is a reminder that regulations are only as good as they are enforced.

But while it has touched a nerve for many people who are at high risk for skin cancer simply by virtue of being Australian, Dr Wong said she felt the panic triggered by the investigation was blown out of proportion.

She points to the world's largest clinical trial of sunscreen, done in the 90s, which found that the daily use of an SPF 16 sunscreen dramatically dropped skin cancer rates.

"95% of the sunscreens tested [by Choice] have high enough SPF to more than half the incidence of skin cancer," Dr Wong said.

"Some of the SPF testing, I feel, has become a bit more of a marketing exercise than a real reflection of efficacy."

The most important thing you can do when choosing a sunscreen, she says, is actually wear enough of it – a full teaspoon at least for each part of your body, face included.

And ideally you should apply it about every two hours, especially if you have been sweating a lot or swimming.

Experts also advise that you combine the sunscreen with other safety methods, such as wearing protective clothing and seeking out shade.

If Republican leaders in Washington had hoped that a month-long congressional recess would help the Jeffrey Epstein controversy die down, this week's frenzy of activity has dashed those hopes - at least for now.

Last Friday, the Justice Department released more than 33,000 pages of documents related to its Epstein investigation into child sex trafficking. By Monday, a consensus had formed that most of the information was already publicly available or of little interest.

Early in the week, Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California resumed their efforts to gather support for a "discharge petition" in the House of Representatives that would force a vote on publicly releasing the entirety of the government's Epstein case information.

On Wednesday, a group of Epstein victims and their families held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol to support the discharge petition and call for full disclosure in the Epstein case.

Taken together, it's the kind of drumbeat of attention that has helped the story break into the larger public's awareness. But will it stay there? Here are possible scenarios for what happens next.

The heat on Trump rises

The victims' press conference could mark a dramatic turn in the Epstein saga.

Missing from the Washington dialogue, which had focused on client lists and the possible involvement of the rich and powerful, were the faces of those whose lives were damaged or destroyed as children by Epstein's crimes.

The gathering at the Capitol on Wednesday put those victims front and centre - with an added promise that they would not be silenced.

Donald Trump has for months tried to brush off the criticisms of his administration's handling of the Epstein case as a "hoax" perpetrated by his political enemies.

That strategy, while effective in the past, is becoming harder in this case.

And if Massie and Khanna succeed in forcing a House vote to publicly release all remaining Epstein files - and there is new, politically damaging information in them involving Trump or other high-profile political figures - the dam could break.

The White House has denied a Wall Street Journal report that Trump was told in May by his attorney general that his name appeared in files related to the investigations against Epstein, who took his own life in prison awaiting trial.

• What do we know about the Epstein files?
• Epstein accusers say they are compiling list

He was friends with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s, but being named is not evidence of any criminal activity. Trump has never been accused by investigators of wrongdoing in connection with the Epstein matter.

Even if there no "client list" of the Epstein's rich and powerful comes to light, the victims may will one into existence. They've promised to gather the names of those they said had close ties to Epstein and were connected to his misdeeds.

"I'm not afraid to name names," said Majorie Taylor Green of Georgia, one of the Republican members of Congress and usually a Trump loyalist. "And so if they want to give me a list, I will walk in that Capitol on the House floor and I'll say every damn name that abused these women."

These are the kind of ingredients that could fan the flames in the Epstein story as summer turns to autumn.

It rumbles on but little damage

Maybe there's nothing new in any new Epstein-related documents that make it into the public domain. Or maybe the congressional efforts to force public disclosure fall just short. Even with the victims and their families becoming more visible, new revelations or information are what drive news cycles and substantively move public opinion.

In this scenario, the Epstein story doesn't go away completely but it never becomes the kind of crisis that causes lasting political damage to the Trump administration. It is a distraction, not a disruption.

As the Republican Party prepares for midterm congressional elections next year that are shaping up to be closely contested, even a modest drag on their public approval - a diversion that keeps them from focusing on a more beneficial campaign message - could have significant ballot-box consequences.

As Trump pointed out on Tuesday, it's hard to squash a conspiracy theory. He drew parallels to the 1963 assassination of John F Kennedy and his recent orders to release more government documents.

"You know it reminds me a little of the Kennedy situation," he said. "We gave them everything over and over again, more and more and more and nobody is satisfied."

Trump will be more familiar with the recent conspiracy around former President Barack Obama's birthplace. The White House released short- and long-form certificates showing Obama was born on US soil but doubters, most notably Trump himself, were never satisfied.

Turnabout, as they say, is fair play.

Fade to black, scandal subsides

If there's one undeniable power that Trump has shown over his 10 years in the national political spotlight, it's the ability to outlast every scandal and controversy that comes his way. While the Epstein story has a toxic blend of power, abuse, sex and influence, there's no indication that this will be any different.

"He's done it before, and he will do it again" is the mantra that a White House looking for a best-case scenario might want to repeat. Without new revelations, the public will eventually tire of this story - or it will be buried by a new scandal, conflict or media frenzy.

If so, the Epstein saga will return to corners of the internet and the political fringes, joining the Kennedy assassination, US moon landing and, yes, Obama's birth certificate as the focus of only an obsessed few.

It may not be justice - it may be too late for that - but it would not be an unfamiliar ending in modern American politics.

President Donald Trump has warned that, if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and "put us in a dangerous position, they'll be shot down".

His warning comes after Venezuela flew military aircraft near a US vessel off South America for the second time in two days, US officials told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

The reports follow a US strike against what Trump officials said was a "drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela" operated by a gang, killing 11 people.

President Nicolás Maduro has said US allegations about Venezuela are not true and that differences between the countries do not justify a "military conflict".

"Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect," he added.

When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in "trouble".

Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.

Since his return to office in January, Trump has steadily intensified his anti-drug-trafficking efforts in Latin America.

Maduro has accused the US of seeking "regime change through military threat".

When asked about the comments, Trump said "we're not talking about that", but mentioned what he called a "very strange election" in Venezuela. Maduro was sworn in for his third term in January after a contested election.

Trump went on to say that "drugs are pouring" into the US from Venezuela and that members of Tren de Aragua - a gang proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the US - were living in the US.

• US strike on 'Venezuela drug boat': What do we know, and was it legal?

The US military has moved to bolster its forces in the southern Caribbean, including through the deployment of additional naval vessels and thousands of US Marines and sailors to stem the flow of drugs.

The White House said on Friday that the US is sending 10 F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico.

When asked about the build-up of military assets in the Caribbean, Trump said: "I think it's just strong. We're strong on drugs. We don't want drugs killing our people."

Trump is a long-time critic of Maduro. The US president doubled a reward for information leading to the arrest of the Venezuelan leader to $50m (£37.2m) in August, accusing him of being "one of the largest narco-traffickers in the world".

During Trump's first term, the US government charged Maduro and other high-ranking Venezuelan officials with a range of offences, including narco-terrorism, corruption and drug trafficking.

Maduro has previously rejected the US claims.

It is a sunny spring afternoon in Warwickshire and I'm parked up in a nondescript hatchback with my cameraman, poised to meet a drug dealer.

He has agreed to sell what he claims to be THC vape liquids to a schoolgirl – an illegal substance which is the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

However, we suspect it actually contains spice, a more potent drug that is highly addictive and can cause serious side effects.

And unbeknown to him, the "schoolgirl" is an undercover BBC reporter who has been messaging him on Snapchat.

On Friday we published an article exposing these drug dealers who are selling vape liquid laced with spice to unwitting teenagers through adverts posted on the social media site.

It came after we went undercover to catch the dealers in the act.

A year ago I saw social media posts from two mums worried about their teenage daughters, who started vaping what they thought was THC when they were just 13.

Over the course of a few months, they told me how the girls had become addicted to what they now suspect was spice, and would come home so high they would collapse.

One said she feared she would find her child dead in their bed, while her daughter said withdrawal symptoms from the drug made her feel like she was "dying".

Both mums want the people responsible to stop. They told us that, despite reaching out to police a year ago, the dealers were still on the streets.

Using the mums' information, we messaged a seller their daughters bought from.

The Snapchat account he's using explains at the top: "new account, old one banned".

Its avatar is a cartoon man standing in front of a wall of dollar bills. I ask for a menu and he sends a brightly-coloured poster with a price list for THC, the chemical compound in cannabis which gets you high.

The price list shows he's charging £10 for a bottle of "special mixed flavour", or £20 for "pure concentrated THC". He delivers on afternoons and evenings across Birmingham and Warwickshire.

It's starting to feel like we're ordering a pizza.

No names or personal information are exchanged but the dealer has a few questions about how we got his information, "So I know you're not police".

We tell him a friend at school recommended him and place an order for three special-mix bottles and one pure concentrated THC. We agree a meet point and ready our team.

We're waiting on a housing estate in a leafy suburb where most of the houses have perfectly-maintained front lawns and expensive cars on the drives.

The dealer has agreed to meet us near a busy children's playground - which isn't an issue for him.

My colleague is posing as the schoolgirl who placed the vape juice order. She looks like an ordinary teenager, in joggers, worn trainers and a big puffer jacket, clutching her mobile phone and vape.

She's the youngest member of our team and, though the nerves have set in, we all feel confident to carry on.

If at any point she feels unsafe, the whole operation will be pulled. We have to be prepared for the unexpected.

We're in constant communication as she moves to the meeting point, the dealer messaging her his ETA on Snapchat.

Soon, he's five minutes away and things are tense.

After what feels like a lifetime, a white SUV appears and the adrenaline begins to rush.

There are three of them in the car, which does a U-turn right in front of ours - but we manage to hide our camera.

The team watch as our colleague walks towards the car, our cameras rolling.

After a quick hello, she keeps them talking as she hands over cash, asking about the flavours and whether they would sell in bulk for a party.

The car is slowly rolling forward throughout.

Less than 30 seconds later, she returns clutching four bottles - one turquoise blue, the other three containing clear liquid in 10ml vials. The deal is done.

Independent tests show the bottles we bought contain spice.

I showed the mums and girls our footage a few days later.

One told me she felt sick. Both are angry the dealers are still active and children like theirs are still buying from them.

And one of the girls recognised the man taking the cash and handing over the drugs, because she'd bought from him before.

We contacted the dealer again last week, using his Snapchat accounts, to see what he had to say. We were blocked and haven't had a reply.

Snapchat has since told us using the platform to buy or sell vapes and illegal drugs is strictly against its rules and that it removed more than more than 2.4 million drug-related posts and disabled 516,000 related accounts last year.

"We use technologies to proactively find and shut down dealers' accounts, block search results for a wide range of drug-related terms and support law enforcement efforts," a spokesperson added.

Warwickshire Police confirmed it had received reports about the spice-laced vapes being sold to young people and said it was working with partners to gather evidence.

Both teenage girls have told us they are no longer vaping illegal drugs.

One mum, Dawn, said: "This stuff's dangerous... for adults and it's highly dangerous for children.

"Adults who are making money out of this are absolute scum. They should be locked up with the key thrown away."

• Details of information and support with addiction are available at BBC Action Line.

Follow BBC Coventry & Warwickshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

When I interviewed surgeon Neil Hopper in 2023 for BBC News, I believed I was speaking to a man who had been humbled by the life-changing experience of losing his legs to sepsis.

Little did I know, Hopper had a sexual interest in amputation and had frozen his own legs so they would be removed.

Hopper, a consultant vascular surgeon who had carried out hundreds of amputation operations, told me he had come down with a mystery illness on a family camping trip which had led to sepsis and below-knee amputations of both his legs.

In reality, he had used ice and dry ice to freeze his own legs, causing damage that meant they eventually had to be amputated in hospital.

Watching him being jailed on Thursday it was hard to reconcile the reflective man I had interviewed in my capacity as a journalist, with the often graphic details heard in court.

When I interviewed him, I had not doubted the version of events he had told me for one moment. He was a respected surgeon, and why would anyone lie about such a thing?

Warning: Contains information some readers may find upsetting

Back in 2023 Hopper, who grew up in Aberystwyth and Swansea and was living in Truro, Cornwall, appeared almost grateful for the opportunity his life-changing surgery had given him to reassess his life.

"You have to make a lot of sacrifices to be a surgeon and family time is one of them," the father-of-two told me. "I know that was a mistake."

He seemed relaxed, at peace, like a man who had gone through something horrific but had come out the other side changed for the better.

He said losing his legs had led him to "audit" his life and try new things, including applying to become Nasa's first disabled astronaut.

He told me he passed the medical and made it to the final 27 applicants but the space agency eventually selected Paralympic sprinter John McFall.

"My life is more interesting because of what's happened to me," he insisted.

He also praised his wife.

"This didn't happen to me, it happened to us," he said.

The truth behind his amputations was finally laid bare in court on Thursday.

Having his legs amputated was a long-standing ambition for Hopper, the court was told. He had both an obsession and a sexual interest in removing parts of his own body.

The court heard how he had suffered body dysphoria since childhood and his feet were an "unwelcome extra" and a "persisting never-ending discomfort".

For some time, Hopper had been paying to access videos of body mutilation.

The court heard he had bought three videos from the website for £10 and £35, respectively, showing men willingly having their genitals removed.

He also exchanged about 1,500 messages with Marius Gustavson, an amputee who ran the website.

Some of the messages were Hopper seeking advice from Gustavson about how he had brought about his own lower leg amputation.

In one message Hopper told Gustavson: "I've dreamt of this for 20 years."

In another he wrote: "It's going to be awesome being a double amputee."

After his amputations he sent him another message: "It feels so cool. No feet!"

Hopper returned to work for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust just six months after his amputations.

He went on to make fraudulent claims from two insurance firms, lying that the injuries to his legs were the result of sepsis and not self-inflicted.

During this time he messaged a friend to say he felt he should "milk this as much as possible".

The money - totalling more than £466,000 - was quickly spent on luxury items including home improvements, a campervan and a hot tub.

Hopper's unique insight as an amputee who carried out amputation operations, as well as his bid to go into space garnered plenty of media attention.

"He enjoyed the attention that this generated," the court was told.

It was the police investigation into Gustavson that would be Hopper's undoing.

Gustavson was jailed for life in 2024 for leading an extreme body modification ring.

Hopper was arrested in March 2023 and has been suspended from the medical register since December 2023.

On Thursday he was jailed for two years and eight months for insurance fraud and possessing extreme pornography. The court heard Hopper did not regret the operations, but "bitterly regrets" the "dishonesty" about their cause.

When news of the charges against Hopper broke in July, I was shocked.

Then I was confused - what exactly was he accused of doing? And why would someone inflict those injuries on themself?

Then I was concerned. Was I wrong to have taken what he told me at face value?

Fact-checking is an essential part of journalism, but on the face of it this did not appear to be a difficult story to confirm.

I was communicating with Hopper through his place of work, his work as a surgeon was well-documented, and his bilateral amputations were plain to see.

In court Hopper's case was described as "very unique", a "saga" and "difficult to comprehend".

He had managed to pull the wool over the eyes of medics, two insurance companies, and those who knew him - who expressed shock in character references read to the court.

Remembering my conversation with Hopper while watching his sentencing on Thursday, it was clear that as a journalist you never quite know where a story will take you.

Like many Australians, Rach grew up "terrified of the sun" in a country that has the unenviable title of skin cancer capital of the world.

Her childhood was characterised by the infamous "no hat, no play" rule that is commonplace in Australian schools, 90s advertisements that warned the sun would give you cancer, and sunscreen tubes that stood guard at every door in her home.

It made the now 34-year-old the kind of person who religiously applies sunscreen multiple times a day and rarely leaves the house without a hat.

So she was shocked when doctors found a skin cancer on her nose during a check last November, something they said was abnormal given her age and ray-dodging regime.

Though technically classified as a "low grade" skin cancer – a basel cell carcinoma – it had to be surgically removed, leaving the Newcastle mum with a scar just below her eye.

"I was just confused, and I was a little bit angry because I was like, 'Are you kidding me?'" Rach – who asked that her surname not be used – told the BBC. "I thought I'd done all the right stuff and it still happened to me."

That rage grew when she learned the sunscreen she had been using for years was unreliable and, according to some tests, offered next to no sun protection at all.

Independent analysis by a trusted consumer advocacy group has found that several of Australia's most popular, and expensive, sunscreens are not providing the protection they claim to, kicking off a national scandal.

There has been a massive backlash from customers, a probe launched by the country's medical watchdog, multiple products pulled from shelves, and questions raised about the regulation of sunscreen around the globe.

"It's definitely not an issue isolated to Australia," cosmetic chemist Michelle Wong told the BBC.

The reckoning

Australians have a complicated relationship with the sun: they love it, but they also fear it.

Effective public health messaging – which has drilled "Slip, Slop, Slap" into their heads – competes with a beauty culture which often idolises bronzed skin.

The country has the highest incidence of skin cancers in the world and it is estimated that two out of three Australians will have at least one cut out in their lifetime.

So when Choice Australia released its damning report in June, it immediately made waves. The group had tested 20 sunscreens in an independent accredited Australian lab, finding 16 did not meet the SPF, or skin protection factor, rating listed on the packet.

Ultra Violette's Lean Screen SPF 50+ Mattifying Zinc Skinscreen, a facial product that Rach says she used exclusively, was the "most significant failure" identified. It returned a result of SPF 4, something that shocked Choice so much it commissioned a second test that produced a similar reading.

Other products that did not meet their SPF claims included those from Neutrogena, Banana Boat, Bondi Sands and the Cancer Council - but they all rejected Choice's findings and said their own independent testing showed their sunscreens worked as advertised.

The uproar was immediate for the brands named in the report, and also prompted a swift response from the Therapeutic Goods Association (TGA), which said it would investigate the findings and "take regulatory action as required".

Ultra Violette bit back, saying they were "confident that Lean Screen is safe and effective" and detailing extensive testing of the product – which has been sold in almost 30 countries, including the UK, and retails for upwards of A$50 (£24, $33).

But less than two months later, it announced that Lean Screen would be recalled after it returned inconsistent results across eight different sets of lab testing.

"We are deeply sorry that one of our products has fallen short of the standards we pride ourselves on and that you have come to expect of us," read a statement published to the brand's Instagram account.

It added that it has "since ended the relationship with the initial testing lab".

In the past fortnight, other brands have "paused" the sale of at least four more products, none of which were included in the Choice report.

Rach knows there is no way to prove that there is a link between her diagnosis and the brand of sunscreen she relied on. She says she is not alleging there is such a connection.

But she said Ultra Violette's response to the scandal was like "a kick in the guts".

She felt that they took no real accountability for the pitfalls of their product, and was let down by their decision to continue selling it for two months despite doubts over its efficacy.

"I just had like the five stages of grief, you know?" she said. "I was angry, I was upset, I was almost in denial."

Like Rach, a horde of annoyed customers say the saga has shaken their faith in the industry.

"A refund isn't really going to reverse years of sun damage, is it?" one wrote in response to Ultra Violette's recall statement.

Choice has urged the TGA to conduct further investigations into the sunscreen market, and also urged any brands who had reason to question the SPF protection listed on their products to remove them from sale immediately.

"It is clear there is a serious issue in the Australian sunscreen industry that urgently needs to be addressed," said Rosie Thomas, the director of campaigns, in a statement to the BBC.

How did this happen?

While in Europe sunscreen is classed as a cosmetic, Australia regulates it as a therapeutic good – essentially a medicine – which means it is subject to some of the most robust sunscreen regulations in the world.

And that's something many of the brands caught up in this saga trade on. So, how did this happen?

An investigation by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation found that a single US-based laboratory had certified at least half of the products that had failed Choice's testing, and that this facility routinely recorded high test results.

It also found that several of the sunscreens pulled from shelves shared a similar base formula and linked them to a manufacturer in Western Australia.

The TGA says it does not usually speak about ongoing investigations because it does not want to compromise them, but that it is also looking into "reviewing existing SPF testing requirements" which can be "highly subjective".

"The TGA is also aware that it is common practice for different sunscreen products to share the same or similar base formulations," a spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.

"Ultimately it is the sponsor's [seller's] responsibility to ensure that their medicine remains compliant with all applicable legislative requirements."

Consistent and comfortable sunscreens which offer high protection are very technical and difficult to make, says Dr Wong, founder of Lab Muffin Beauty Science.

Everyone's skin responds differently to the product, he adds, and it's one that is almost always being stress-tested – by sweat, water, or makeup.

It is very difficult to rate effectively for the same reasons. Historically, it has been done by spreading the sunscreen on 10 people at the same thickness, then timing how long it takes for their skin to start burning both with and without the product applied.

While there are clear guidelines as to what you are looking for, Dr Wong says there is still a lot of variability. That is down to skin texture or tone, or even the colour of the walls, and "different labs get different results".

But she says results are also quite easy to fake, pointing to a 2019 probe by US authorities into a sunscreen testing laboratory which resulted in the owner being jailed for fraud.

Many sunscreen brands from all over the world use the same manufacturers and testing labs - and so this issue is unlikely to be isolated to Australia, she adds.

"Until someone goes out and tests a whole bunch of sunscreens in other countries, we just don't know the extent of it."

She says the scandal is a reminder that regulations are only as good as they are enforced.

But while it has touched a nerve for many people who are at high risk for skin cancer simply by virtue of being Australian, Dr Wong said she felt the panic triggered by the investigation was blown out of proportion.

She points to the world's largest clinical trial of sunscreen, done in the 90s, which found that the daily use of an SPF 16 sunscreen dramatically dropped skin cancer rates.

"95% of the sunscreens tested [by Choice] have high enough SPF to more than half the incidence of skin cancer," Dr Wong said.

"Some of the SPF testing, I feel, has become a bit more of a marketing exercise than a real reflection of efficacy."

The most important thing you can do when choosing a sunscreen, she says, is actually wear enough of it – a full teaspoon at least for each part of your body, face included.

And ideally you should apply it about every two hours, especially if you have been sweating a lot or swimming.

Experts also advise that you combine the sunscreen with other safety methods, such as wearing protective clothing and seeking out shade.

'She's still just Liv'

'Her dad is a bit like Serena and Venus' father'

'How did we fool this girl to be here?'

Dealing with the price tag

Marina, a 45-year-old freelance copywriter, has relied on WhatsApp for her work and personal life for years.

But one day last month that abruptly changed when a call to a colleague did not go through properly. They tried Telegram - another messaging app popular in Russia - but that did not work either.

She was one of millions of Russians facing new restrictions imposed in mid-August by Russia's media regulator, Roskomnadzor, on calls made through the two platforms - the country's most popular apps.

The timing coincides with the rollout of a new "national messenger" app known as Max and created by a Russian firm closely controlled by the Kremlin.

Monthly user numbers of WhatsApp and Telegram are estimated to be 97 and 90 million respectively — in a country of 143 million people.

From parents' chats to tenants' groups, much of daily life runs through them. WhatsApp - whose owner, Meta, is designated an extremist organisation in Russia - is especially popular with older people because of how easy it is to register and use.

In some parts of Russia, particularly in remote and sparsely connected places in the Far East, WhatsApp is much more than chatting with friends and colleagues. Mobile browsing is sometimes painfully slow, so people use the app to coordinate local matters, order taxis, buy alcohol, and share news.

Both apps offer end-to-end encryption which means that no third party, not even those who own them, are able to read messages or listen to calls.

Officials say the apps refused to store Russian users' data in the country, as required by law, and they have claimed scammers exploit messaging apps. Yet Central Bank figures show most scams still happen over regular mobile networks.

Telecom experts and many Russians see the crackdown as the government trying to keep an eye on who people talk to and potentially what they say.

"The authorities don't want us, ordinary people, to maintain any kind of relationships, connections, friendships or mutual support. They want everyone to sit quietly in their own corner," says Marina who lives in Tula, a city 180km (110 miles) south of Moscow.

She asked us to change her name, worrying that speaking to foreign media can be dangerous.

A state-approved super-app

The new Max app is being aggressively promoted by pop stars and bloggers, and since 1 September all devices sold in Russia must have Max pre-installed.

It was launched by VK, which owns the country's largest social network of the same name. The Facebook-like platform is controlled by oil-and-gas giant Gazprom and one of Vladimir Putin's closest confidantes, billionaire Yuri Kovalchuk.

Max is set to become a super-app, bringing together multiple functions, including government digital services and banking.

The model mirrors China's WeChat - central to daily life but also a tool of censorship and surveillance.

Max's privacy policy states it can pass information to third parties and government bodies, potentially giving access to the security services or making user data vulnerable to leaks.

In Russia, where people are prosecuted for critical comments or private messages, and a black market of personal data feeds an epidemic of scam calls, this is a real concern.

Although many Russians are worried about the new restrictions on WhatsApp and Telegram, and by the introduction of Max, the state already has vast means to spy on its citizens.

By law, you can only buy a sim card with your national ID, and the security services have access to telecom operators' infrastructure. This means they can find out who you call as well as your whereabouts.

From this month it is now illegal to share your sim card with anyone other than a close relative.

But Max can potentially allow the authorities to read your messages as well - and avoiding the app is getting harder.

Schools are now obliged to move parent chats to the app.

In Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, Max is being adopted as an alert system; in St Petersburg, it is being tied to emergency services.

Despite the push, Max remains far behind its rivals - this week it claimed to have 30 million users.

The Kremlin has long been uneasy of the freedoms offered to people by the internet, which Vladimir Putin once called a CIA project.

The first legislative restrictions came in 2012, soon after mass opposition protests, officially to protect children from suicide-related content.

Ten years later, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the government blocked popular social media sites, such as Facebook, Instagram and X, and most independent media, leaving them accessible only through VPNs.

New restrictions keep coming: as of this month, Russians face fines for "deliberately searching" online for extremist materials - more than 5,000 resources from an ever-growing blacklist compiled by the ministry of justice. Examples include a book by opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024, and Ukrainian songs.

Another ban targets adverts on platforms linked to "extremist" organisations, in effect ending advertising on Instagram which many small businesses had relied on as a shopfront.

Ads for VPNs are also banned, and while using these apps is not illegal, it may now be treated as an aggravating factor in criminal cases.

State-induced digital detox

Apart from their problems with WhatsApp and Telegram, many Russians are now getting used to life without mobile internet altogether, as entire cities face regular cut-offs.

Since May, every Russian region has seen mobile internet go down.

Blackouts surged through the summer, with up to 77 regions hit by shutdowns simultaneously at the peak, according to the Na Svyazi (In Touch) project.

The authorities justify the measures by the need to protect people and infrastructure from attacks by Ukrainian drones - Kyiv's response to Russia's relentless and deadly bombardments of Ukrainian cities.

But some experts doubt that switching off mobile internet - which many Russians use instead of broadband - is an effective tool against long-distance drone attacks.

Local authorities, who were made responsible for countering drone attacks, have no other means to do it, explains telecom expert Mikhail Klimarev.

"There are no air defence systems, no army - everything's on the frontline," he says. "Their logic goes: we've switched off the internet and there were no drones, hence it works."

In Vladimir, 200km (125 miles) east of Moscow, two of the city's three districts have been offline for almost a month.

"It's impossible to check bus routes or timetables," says Konstantin, a resident who also asked to change his name. "The information boards at stops also show errors."

Taxi fares have risen as drivers cannot accept orders online.

State TV in Vladimir spun the shutdown as "digital detox", showing residents who said they now enjoyed more walking, reading and spending time with friends.

In Krasnoyarsk, a city of more than a million people in Siberia, mobile internet vanished citywide for three days in July and still works poorly.

Some officials rejected complaints, with one Krasnoyarsk bureaucrat suggesting remote workers who lost income should "go and work for the special military operation", as the war in Ukraine is known in Russia. She later apologised.

The government is now working on a scheme that will allow Russians to access only vital online services during shutdowns, such as banking, taxis, deliveries - and the Max messenger.

This is a dangerous step, warns Sarkis Darbinyan, lawyer and co-founder of digital rights group RKS Global.

"There's a possibility the authorities will use this measure for other goals apart from fighting drones," he tells the BBC.

He believes the Kremlin's current approach to the internet mirrors Beijing's.

"Unlike the Chinese, Russians have spent decades enjoying cheap, fast internet and foreign platforms," he says. "These services became deeply ingrained not only in people's daily lives but also in business processes."

For now those who are wary of installing Max on their devices can still find a way around it.

Marina from Tula says her mother, a school teacher, was instructed to download the messenger but claimed to her superiors that she didn't have a smartphone.

People can still call each other using regular mobile networks, although that is more expensive, especially when talking to someone abroad - and not secure.

There are other means available too, like using VPNs or alternative messaging apps, previously reserved for tech nerds and those handling sensitive information.

But as government control over the internet increases, fewer and fewer people will find ways to escape it - and that is assuming the internet is still available for them to try.

Additional reporting by Yaroslava Kiryukhina

About 100 firefighters are tackling a blaze at the BBC's former headquarters, Television Centre, in west London.

London Fire Brigade said 15 engines were at the nine-storey building on Wood Lane, White City, after a fire broke out in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The building is now home to a restaurant and flats, as well as television studios. Authorities said an unspecified number of homes were affected and people had been evacuated.

It is not known what caused the fire or whether there have been any injuries.

London Fire Brigade said it was called out 03:08 BST, with crews drafted in from Hammersmith, North Kensington, Kensington and Chiswick.

Two large turntable ladders were being used to tackle the fire from a height.

"The Brigade is working alongside multi-agency partners, including the Metropolitan Police, to evacuate buildings in the area as a precaution," it said in a statement.

"A rest centre is being set up for residents who have been evacuated from their homes.

"Wood Lane is currently closed to traffic and people are advised to avoid the area as the incident will remain ongoing for some time."

Sometimes it's not what's said that makes the biggest impression.

It's the reaction.

In the Russian Far East, Vladimir Putin delivered a warning to the West: don't even think about sending soldiers - and that includes peacekeepers - to Ukraine.

"If some troops appear there," the Russian president said, "especially now while the fighting's going on, we proceed from the premise that these will be legitimate targets for destruction."

Then the reaction.

The audience at the economic forum in Vladivostok burst into applause, with Russian officials and business leaders apparently welcoming the threat to "destroy" Western troops.

Observing the scene in the hall, I found the applause quite chilling.

And this came just a day after Kyiv's allies, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had pledged a post-war "reassurance force" for Ukraine.

• Putin rejects Western security in Ukraine, warning troops would be target

The audience applauded again when the Kremlin leader suggested that he would be prepared to meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky - but only on home soil.

"The best place for this is the Russian capital, in Hero City Moscow," said Putin.

Outside Russia, Putin's proposal has been dismissed as unserious, a complete non-starter. A case of political trolling.

But in many ways it encapsulates the Kremlin's current position on the war in Ukraine: "Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms. You reject our terms? No peace then."

• Putin says Russia will achieve all aims militarily if Ukraine does not agree deal

This uncompromising stance is being fuelled by a combination of factors.

First, by the Kremlin's belief that, in Ukraine, Russian forces have the initiative on the battlefield.

Second, by diplomatic success. In China this week, Putin shook hands and shared smiles with a string of world leaders. The optics were all about demonstrating that Russia has powerful friends, such as China, India and North Korea.

And then there's America. Last month US President Donald Trump invited Putin to Alaska for a summit meeting. Back home pro-Kremlin commentators hailed the event as evidence that Western efforts to isolate Russia over the war in Ukraine had failed.

To convince the Kremlin to end the fighting Trump has previously set ultimatums and deadlines; he's threatened further sanctions if Russia won't make peace.

But Trump hasn't followed through on his threats - and that's another reason for Russia's confidence.

Putin publicly praises Trump's peace efforts. And yet he has rejected Trump's ceasefire proposals and shown no desire to make concessions over the war in Ukraine.

So where does that leave prospects for peace?

Putin said recently that he could see "light at the end of the tunnel".

It seems to me that right now Russia on the one hand, and Ukraine and Europe (and to some extent America) on the other are in different tunnels, on different roads, with different destinations.

Ukraine and Europe are focused on ending the fighting, shaping security guarantees for Kyiv and making sure that the Ukrainian army is strong enough post-war to prevent another invasion.

When Putin talks about "light at the end of the tunnel", I believe he imagines a path that leads to a Russian victory in Ukraine, and more widely, to the construction of a new global order that benefits Russia.

In terms of peace, it's hard to see where and when these two very different highways will converge.

The resignation of Angela Rayner, and the resulting reshuffle, is the main story on all the front pages. The Daily Mail calls it a "Nightmare on Downing Street", saying Labour is in "meltdown". It calls the reshuffle "chaotic" and "desperate". The Guardian says Sir Keir Starmer is "battling to get a grip" on a crisis, and that the sweeping changes are an attempt to restore order and "get back on the front foot".

The Times calls it "The Great Rayner Reshuffle" and thinks its scale, just over a year after winning a landslide election, reflects deep concern about the government's collapse in the polls and the rise of Reform UK. The Financial Times calls the reshuffle a "big gamble" - because many ministers have simply been moved to new jobs rather than been sacked, raising questions about whether their performance will actually improve.

The Daily Mirror describes the loss of Rayner as a "serious blow" for Sir Keir Starmer. It says the row will have caused damage to the government, stoking anger about politicians breaking the rules - but that her absence will be felt.

The paper says: "Angela Rayner is someone who could reach places that the PM can't, which is part of why their opposites-attract partnership made sense." The Sun says she was "cut adrift" but thinks the trouble she has caused the prime minister could get a lot worse. "To her legions of militant supporters," it says, "she is far from a busted flush - she is a martyr, and soon quite possibly their Red Queen over the water".

The Daily Telegraph says Downing Street hopes the reshaped top team can counter the threat from Reform UK, and even "take the fight" to Nigel Farage.

Farage is the focus for the Daily Express. It leads with his warning that Labour are "not fit to govern" - saying he "twisted the knife" in a stricken government with his claim that his party could win a general election in two years' time.

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