Healthy Secretary Wes Streeting has said ministers may need to "look at" laws concerning online speech, following the arrest of comedian Graham Linehan.

The health secretary said such laws had put "more expectation on police" and "diluted the focus and priorities of the public", adding "that's obviously something we need to look at".

Streeting told the BBC it was "very easy for people to criticise police" who were only enforcing laws that had been passed by MPs, saying ministers wanted police to focus on street crime rather than posts on social media.

His comments come after the Father Ted co-creator was arrested at Heathrow Airport on suspicion of inciting violence in posts on the X website.

The arrest prompted a backlash from figures such as author JK Rowling and opposition parties including the Conservatives, who branded the arrest an "absurd infringement of free speech".

Downing Street declined to comment on Linehan's arrest on Tuesday, saying it was "an operational matter for the police".

But a No 10 spokesperson added: "The prime minister and the home secretary have been clear about where their priorities for crime and policing are, and that's tackling anti-social behaviour, shoplifting, street crime, as well as reducing serious violent crimes like knife crime and violence against women."

When asked about the Linehan case on the BBC's Today programme, Streeting echoed those words.

"As the prime minister and home secretary have been clear, we want the police to focus on policing streets rather than tweets," the health secretary said.

"But the thing we are mindful of, as a government that backs the police to keep us safe, is that police are there to enforce the laws that we as Parliament legislate for.

"So if over the years, with good intentions, Parliament has layered more and more expectation on police, and diluted the focus and priorities of the public, that's obviously something we need to look at."

Pressed on whether the law should be changed, Streeting said: "When it comes to speech, context is king. We do have to, as legislators, tread really carefully when it comes to boundaries of free speech."

Streeting said it was "hard for the police sometimes, because they have to apply the law as written, not the law as it was intended".

He also said "we are all - let's be honest - quite anxious" about some of the arrests and prosecutions over comments online.

Streeting added: "And you think, is that really what Parliament intended when we wrote these laws? So we've got to get the law right. Police are there to enforce the law that parliament makes."

Mr Linehan, 57, said he had been detained by five armed officers at Heathrow Airport after flying in from the US.

He said in an online Substack article that officials then became concerned for his health and took him to hospital.

The Metropolitan Police said that a man in his 50s had been arrested on 1 September at Heathrow Airport and taken to hospital.

The police said his condition was not life-threatening and he was bailed pending further investigation.

In his Substack article, Mr Linehan said his arrest was related to three posts on X from April, on his views about challenging "a trans-identified male" in "a female-only space".

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was critical of the arrest, saying: "Sending five officers to arrest a man for a tweet isn't policing, it's politics. Under Labour, we routinely see burglary, knife crime and assaults go unsolved, while resources are wasted on thought-policing."

But new Green Party leader Zack Polanski told BBC Newsnight the posts were "totally unacceptable" and the arrest seemed "proportionate".

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage is expected to raise the Linehan case and rail against "censorship" in the UK, when he gives evidence to the House Judiciary Committee in the US on free speech on Wednesday.

Separately, Mr Linehan is also facing a separate charge of harassment - which he denies - and is due to appear in court on Thursday.

The government is planning a new law in England to stop anyone under the age of 16 buying energy drinks such as Red Bull, Monster and Prime from shops, restaurants, cafes, vending machines and online.

Up to a third of UK children are thought to consume these types of drinks every week, despite most supermarkets having already introduced a voluntary ban.

Some popular drinks contain more caffeine than two cups of coffee.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said he was acting on the concerns of parents and teachers and tackling the issue "head on", to protect young people's health.

Lower-caffeine soft drinks, such Diet Coke, are not affected, and neither are tea and coffee.

A consultation will now run for 12 weeks to gather evidence from health and education experts as well as the public and retailers and manufacturers.

TV chef Jamie Oliver has repeatedly warned of the dangers and disruption energy drinks can cause, with kids coming into school "bouncing off the walls" having had energy drinks for breakfast.

"We are talking about three, four shots of espresso in one of these things. Loads of sugar. So an absolute nightmare," he said in a video posted on X last year.

Excessive consumption is linked to headaches and sleep problems.

Too much caffeine can cause a rapid heart rate, abnormal heart rhythms and seizures too.

Although rare, there have been some deaths linked to excess caffeine.

Under current labelling rules, any drink, other than tea or coffee, with over 150mg of caffeine per litre requires a warning label saying: "High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women."

Young people have smaller bodies and their brains are still developing, which can make them more sensitive to caffeine, say experts.

For most adults, up to 400mg of caffeine a day, or about four cups of instant coffee or five cups of tea, is safe.

"By preventing shops from selling these drinks to kids, we're helping build the foundations for healthier and happier generations to come," said Mr Streeting.

Prof Steve Turner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said a ban was the "next logical step" in making children's diets more healthy.

And Prof Amelia Lake from Teesside University, who has studied the drinks' impact on young people's lives, said they had "no place" in the diets of children.

"Our research has shown the significant mental and physical health consequences of children drinking energy drinks.

"We know these drinks are part of youth culture and associated with sports, gaming, music and more, but there is a lack of clear signalling about their health consequences."

But Gavin Partington from the British Soft Drinks Association said manufacturers had already led the way with self regulation.

"As with all government policy, it's essential that any forthcoming regulation is based on a rigorous assessment of the evidence that's available," he added.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are also considering a ban.

A former US filmmaker has launched a High Court battle against an English council to gain control of the ancestral stately home he spent seven years trying to save from ruin.

Hopwood DePree has led an operation to safeguard historic Hopwood Hall in Middleton, Greater Manchester, since 2017, and says he complied with an agreement with Rochdale Borough Council that gave him the option to buy the building.

However, the council say he did not fulfil the conditions of the deal, and locked him out in November 2024.

DePree, who published a book called Downton Shabby in 2022 about his work to restore the hall, has now taken action in an attempt to be declared its legal owner.

'Shocking' conduct

DePree says his grandfather told him stories of "Hopwood Castle" as a child in Michigan, but that he only discovered the real hall existed while researching his family history in 2013.

Parts of the 60-room building date from the 1420s, but both direct heirs were killed in World War One and the last family members moved out in the 1920s.

It was derelict by the time DePree visited, and he says he was told in 2015 that it would be beyond repair in another five to 10 years.

He moved to the UK to spearhead the effort to save it, signing a deal with the council in 2017 saying he could buy the hall for £1 on the condition he gained planning permission to develop it.

DePree began work on the crumbling building and got planning permission in 2022 to refurbish it as an event and hospitality venue. He says he has spent £750,000 of his own money on the project.

But he says relations soured when the council's Rochdale Development Agency became more involved in 2024, and DePree's legal case accuses the agency of trying to "poison everything my team and I had worked so hard to achieve".

He claims the council stopped co-operating and went behind his back, and that their conduct has been "evasive, misleading and at times shocking".

A council spokesperson said: "We don't comment on ongoing legal discussions and don't intend to elaborate on previous statements we have made on this subject."

The council has previously said any sale would depend on DePree having "a commercially viable business model to secure the long term future of the hall".

Last November, the council said it had decided not to renew the option agreement after consultants said his plans were "unlikely to be able to secure future public or private funding".

At that time, a council spokesman said DePree "had not been able to produce a viable proposal, despite having had seven years to do so", which it said was a condition of the sale. The authority said it "had a responsibility to explore alternative options" in order to "protect the public monies invested to date".

In November, council leader Neil Emmott said: "Mr DePree was asked to meet a number of conditions when we entered into our agreement with him. We would be failing in our duty to protect our historic assets if we didn't hold Mr DePree to the terms of this agreement."

The council said it spent £557,000 between 2017 and 2024 for essential repairs, with almost £1m contributed by Historic England. The council said it was now spending a further £700,000 on roof repairs and a feasibility study.

According to DePree's legal documents, the council has also argued that the planning permission was insufficient to meet the terms for a sale under the agreement. He is disputing that.

He is also disputing whether he needed to provide a "viable" business model to comply with the conditions for a sale, and his court papers say he does have "a clear vision, a plan and the resources to rescue Hopwood Hall".

'No other choice'

DePree told BBC News he believes he has complied with his end of the agreement.

"When I took the project on, the hall was just a few years from completely falling down and becoming a ruin," he said.

"We worked so hard and poured everything into it. I moved countries. I got British citizenship. I left behind a life and sold my home. I went through so much with the belief that the council was being open and honest with me, and I trusted them."

He added: "Ultimately I had an agreement that I signed with them that I fulfilled. My lawyers feel that we fulfilled that, and the council went against that, and I felt that I had no other choice other than to file court proceedings against them."

DePree and his family are involved in property development, and he sold his home in the Hollywood Hills to help fund the project.

In his former life, DePree was an actor, writer, producer and director whose early attempts to make it big in Hollywood were depicted in low-budget documentary Rhinoskin: The Making of a Movie Star.

He wrote, directed and appeared in the well-received independent rom-com The Last Big Attraction, and produced the 2010 drama Virginia starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stood publicly shoulder to shoulder for the first time on Wednesday, ahead of a massive military parade in central Beijing.

That parade, which marked 80 years since China's victory over Japan in World War Two, saw Beijing unveiling a range of new military hardware – including a new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile, a new road-bound missile for delivering hypersonic weapons, a new laser weapon, and even "robotic dog" drones.

It comes at a time when Xi seeks to project Beijing's power on the international stage - not just as the world's second-largest economy, but also as a counterweight to the United States as Trump's tariffs rock the global economic and political order.

Five BBC correspondents assess the significance of Wednesday's parade – what it means, why it matters, and what the spectacle tells us about the "new world order".

An enduring image for China - and the world

By Laura Bicker, China correspondent

One of the most enduring images of this military parade took place before the first cannon was fired.

President Xi welcoming North Korea's Kim Jong Un with a long handshake, then moving on to greet Russia's Vladimir Putin before all three walked together to watch the parade, was sheer political theatre.

This was the first time all three leaders have been seen in public together, and they really picked their moment.

But it is this meeting, not just the weapons and troops on show, that appears to have grabbed the attention of Donald Trump.

Trump posted on Truth Social earlier, accusing Xi of conspiring against America with the others. The Chinese leader said in this speech that his country is on the right side of history.

Wednesdays parade was a choreographed spectacle of precision, power and patriotism.

Even the choir stood in perfectly even rows as they sang "without the Communist Party, there is no modern China".

The troops goose-stepped past in unison, and each strike of the ground echoed through the stands of 50,000 guests in Tiananmen Square.

Then came the big weapons, and the crowd reached for their phones. A new ICBM, laser weapons, even robotic dogs.

The parade finished on a crowd-pleasing fly past before thousands of doves and balloons were released into the skies over the capital.

This display to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War was not just a look at where China has been, or how far China has come.

It showcased where China is going: Xi playing the role of a global leader prepared to stand alongside two of the most sanctioned leaders in the world.

And at his feet, a military which is being built to rival the West.

Trump's out, Xi's in - and what that means for the West

By James Landale, diplomatic correspondent

China's show of geopolitical and now military power this week will hardly surprise Western leaders.

President Xi has long sought to put himself at the centre of a new world order – one that replaces the crumbling global systems established after World War Two.

But two things will send shivers down western diplomatic spines.

One is the speed with which China is filling the vacuum left by America's withdrawal from international norms and institutions.

A Chinese-led world order, one where territorial integrity and human rights are valued less than raw power and economic development, might prove uncomfortable for many western countries.

The way harsh US tariffs have pushed India, the world's biggest democracy, so quickly into the warm embrace of China, the world's biggest autocracy, will also be of concern.

One small crumb of comfort for the West is that the so-called "axis of upheaval" on show in Beijing is not united - and India, in particular, which was not represented at Wednesday's parade, is still at odds with China over territorial and other disputes.

The bottom line is that the economic nationalism and disruptive diplomacy of Donald Trump's America is giving China a huge diplomatic opportunity – and it's one Xi is seizing with open arms with his summit and parade.

A clear message to Donald Trump

By Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor

All the diplomacy (and the optics) in China this week was designed to send a clear message to the Trump administration.

So, you want to Make America Great Again, do you? It's America First, is it? Well, then, we'll offer an alternative to the US-led order.

That is why we saw the leaders of China, Russia and India smiling together at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on Sunday and Monday.

It is why Vladimir Putin called Xi Jinping "a real friend", and the Chinese leader called his Russian counterpart "old friend" earlier this week.

And it is also why Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un appeared together at the military parade on Wednesday.

In short: in the geopolitical universe different powers are aligning as a counterweight to American domination.

This doesn't mean that all these countries and leaders are on the same wavelength. They are not. Differences remain.

But the direction of travel is clear.

As a headline in news outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda declared this week, in reference to Russia, China and India: "We will build a new world."

The weapons that worry the West

By Frank Gardiner, security correspondent

From massive, underwater torpedoes to state-of-the-art laser weapons that shoot down drones, China's latest military parade will now be broken down and analysed by Pentagon experts and defence officials around the world.

The PLA has embarked on an extensive military modernisation programme that has seen it catching up - and in some areas - overtaking the United States. Hypersonic missiles that travel at more than five times the speed of sound is one area where China leads the world.

Dr Sidharth Kaushal, a leading expert on missiles at the London think tank RUSI, highlights the YJ-17 - a hypersonic glide vehicle - and the YJ-19, a hypersonic cruise missile.

China has also been investing heavily in artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons. One example of these is the AJX002: a giant, 60-foot (18m), underwater nuclear-capable drone.

China's nuclear arsenal - numbering in the hundreds of missiles - still lags far behind those of Russia and the US who both have thousands, but it is rapidly increasing in size as well as finding innovative ways of delivering its warheads.

China has unveiled a range of new weapons, drones and other military hardware in a massive parade that many see as a clear message to the United States and its allies.

The event saw Xi Jinping host more than 20 foreign heads of state, including Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong Un, both of whom rely on China for economic support and more.

It was a display of Xi's growing power on the world stage, and of China's military prowess - the show included the "Guam killer" missile, the "loyal wingman" drone and even robotic wolves.

Beyond the hype and shiny new weaponry, what did we learn?

Here are our five takeaways.

1. China has a lot of weapons. How well can it deploy them?

What was clear from Wednesday's display was that China has been able to quickly produce a diverse range of weapons.

Ten years ago, the military technology they put on show tended to be "rudimentary copies" of far more advanced equipment invented by the US, notes Michael Raska, assistant professor in the military transformations programme at the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.

But this parade revealed a more innovative and diverse range of weapons, particularly drones and missiles - a reflection of how advanced their defence-industrial complex has become.

China's top-down structure and significant resources enable it to churn out new weapons faster than many other countries, points out Alexander Neill, an adjunct fellow with the Pacific Forum.

It can also produce them in huge quantities, giving it a battlefield advantage where it can overwhelm the enemy.

"China has the ability to churn out munitions, ships, all these platforms... the state can just make these directives and off they go," Mr Neill says.

But how well can China's military integrate these weapons systems?

"They can show off these flashy advanced platforms, but are they organisationally agile to use them in the way they want to?" Dr Raska asks.

He adds that it won't be easy because the Chinese military is massive and untested, given it has not been involved in a significant war for decades.

2. China is focusing on missiles to counter the US

China has rolled out plenty of missiles, including some new variants.

These include the Dongfeng-61, which is capable of carrying multiple warheads in its nosecone; the Dongfeng-5C intercontinental ballistic missile which could be launched from northern China and hit the US; and the "Guam Killer" Dongfeng-26D intermediate range missile, which could hit key US military bases in Guam.

There were also several hypersonic anti-ship missiles such as the YJ-17 and YJ-19, which can fly very fast and maneuver unpredictably to evade anti-missile systems.

There's a reason for this focus on missiles.

China has been developing missiles and rocket forces as a key part of its deterrence strategy - and to counter the US' naval superiority, Mr Neill says.

The US Navy is unrivalled in the world with the largest fleet of aircraft carriers and carrier strike groups - China still lags behind on that count.

But, Mr Neill points out, some in the Western defence community are increasingly arguing that these strike groups are vulnerable, as they are effectively "sitting ducks" for any missile attacks.

Beijing is not only strengthening deterrence, but is also creating a "second strike capability," he says - a country's ability to launch a retaliatory strike if attacked.

Other notable weapons included the much-talked about LY-1 laser weapon, which is basically a giant laser that could burn or disable electronics or even blind pilots; and an assortment of fifth-generation stealth fighter jets including the J-20 and J-35 planes.

3. China is going all the way with AI and drones

There were a wide range of drones, some of them AI-powered, but the one that grabbed eyeballs was the AJX-002 giant submarine drone.

Also known as an extra-large uncrewed underwater vehicle (XLUUV) measuring up to 20m (65ft) in length, it could possibly do surveillance and reconnaissance missions.

China also showed off its GJ-11 stealth attack drone, dubbed the "loyal wingman", which can fly alongside a manned fighter jet and aid it in its attacks.

Besides an array of conventional aerial drones, there were also "robotic wolves". Experts say these could be used for a variety of tasks from reconnaissance and sweeping for mines, to hunting down enemy soldiers.

The drone display shows a clear direction that China wants to take with its military strategy, where it "not only wants to augment, but replace traditional structures".

It has clearly taken lessons from the Ukraine war, where one can "just throw drones at the enemy" to wear down their defences, Dr Raska notes.

"Alacrity in the kill chain matters," adds Mr Neill, pointing out that in a fast-moving battle, decisions have to be made in "nanoseconds" to defeat the enemy and gain the upper hand – which is what AI can do.

Many countries are still concerned about deploying AI in their military systems and asking "how comfortable are we in putting AI in the kill chain", he adds.

But China is very comfortable with that, Dr Raska says. "They believe they can control AI. They are going all the way to integrate it into their systems."

4. China may have the technology, but the US still has an edge

The parade clearly shows that China is catching up quickly with the US in its military technology, and has the resources to build up a huge arsenal of weapons.

But the US still maintains an edge in terms of operations, experts say.

The US military "excels" because there is a "bottom-up" culture where units on the ground can make decisions as the situation evolves and alter their fighting strategies, Dr Raska notes. This makes them more agile in a battle.

China, on the other hand, is "top-down" where "they can have flashy platforms and systems but they will not move a finger until they receive an order from the top", he adds.

"The Chinese think its technology that creates deterrence. They believe that will deter the US... but at the operational level, there have been instances which show they may not be as good as they say they are", Dr Raska says, pointing to recent encounters such as an incident last month when a Chinese warship rammed one of its own smaller vessels as they confronted the Philippine coast guard.

5. The parade was a weapons sales pitch – and a chance to show the US a united front

With the leaders of more than two dozen countries invited to the event, the parade of weapons and tanks was essentially a giant sales pitch on Chinese arms to potential buyers, Mr Neill points out.

Some of the countries in attendance such as Myanmar are already known to be buying huge quantities of Chinese weapons. But the chance to sell to new customers or increase orders is how the Chinese government can extend its influence globally, Dr Raska notes.

Among the key clients were those standing front and centre with Xi – Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un.

The three presented a united front as they walked to the parade together and stood on stage.

That was a message to the US, Mr Neill says: if America wanted to really challenge them it would mean "fighting them on several potential theatres at the same time – the Korean peninsula, Taiwan Straits, and Ukraine".

"And if you consider it, putting pressure on the US on all three domains, it may fail in one of those theatres."

Fresh warnings have been issued by police forces and councils across the country after a rise in parking scams over the summer.

From fake text messages about unpaid tickets to tampered car park machines that secretly steal your card details, fraudsters are becoming increasingly creative.

BBC scams expert Nick Stapleton told Morning Live there are easy ways you can protect yourself so you don't fall victim to some of the most common tricks.

1. Check your fine has these three details

Genuine parking notices always contain certain details.

"Real parking fines will include vehicle registration, the time of the offence and the location it happened," Stapleton says.

"If it doesn't have these three things then it is a scam.

"A genuine fine will always come in writing and will be left on your windscreen, handed to you in person or arrive in the post."

There are three types of fines you may receive - a penalty charge notice issued by the council, a fixed penalty notice issued by police usually linked to offences such as speeding and a parking charge notice issued by a private company.

Parking charge notices "aren't technically fines, they're invoices for breaching parking rules", so you don't always have to pay them but "check carefully before refusing to pay".

2. Don't click on links in texts

If you get a text out of the blue saying you owe money for an unpaid parking ticket, stop before you click. One of the most common tricks is a fake text or email demanding payment for an unpaid fine.

These texts usually come with a link you are told to click on to pay the fine and "use urgent and threatening language to make you panic", Stapleton says.

Some scam texts might say your licence will be revoked if you don't pay for the ticket but "that's not how it works, you won't lose your license".

Some links in these scam texts take you to websites that look like official government ones.

If you're not sure a website is legitimate you can "click around on the other links".

"If you click through on other links on the page you'll notice that they don't work and that's a clear sign it's a clone site," says Stapleton.

3. Restart your device and change passwords

If you have clicked on a suspicious link, don't despair - but do these three things:

• Restart your device: A lot of the links allow a scammer to gain remote access to your device. If you restart your phone or laptop it will kill the connection

• Change passwords: If you've filled in your details on the link make sure you change your passwords to any accounts with money in

• Call your bank: Inform your bank's fraud department about the message, the link and what information you gave

You could also consider installing antivirus software then run a search to see if any malware has been installed.

4. Check for skimming devices on parking machines

A new scam, which is increasing according to the UK's national fraud reporting centre Action Fraud, targets people paying for parking at machines.

Fraudsters attach a physical device to a contactless payment reader on a parking machine and when you try to pay, the machine displays a "card declined" message.

"While you walk off to try another machine, the skimming device has already stolen your card details," Stapleton explains.

Here's how to check whether the machine has been tampered with:

• Look for an extra sticker: Check there is no extra sticker or item placed on top of the contactless payment button

• Verify Branding: Look for the correct logos and branding. Scammers often use stickers with mismatched logos

• Trust Your Instincts: If something looks or feels suspicious, do not use the machine

"Contactless readers should look like they're part of the machine. If something looks bolted on or mismatched, it's best not to risk it," he says. "Always trust your gut."

If you do feel like there's something not quite right with the machine you can pay in cash instead or through a parking app.

Watch Morning Live to get the full details on how to protect yourself from the scams

Bidders for Thames Water are prepared to fire key senior managers if necessary as part of their plan to restructure the stricken utility, the BBC understands.

Sources close to the deal accept that the government needs to be seen to be tough with a company that has been heavily fined for failing to reach required operational and environmental standards.

"If the government insists we need a management clear out – we can help with that," said one person close to the process.

That job would fall to a new board of directors headed by telecoms and regulator veteran Mike McTighe who has been in lengthy talks with Ofwat, the industry regulator, and the government.

Chris Weston, Thames Water's chief executive, was criticised by MPs for accepting a £195k bonus after just three months in the job.

Politicians also criticised the current board for paying bonuses to senior staff out of a £3bn emergency cash lifeline.

A consortium of investors who are owed £13bn of Thames' £17bn debt pile are also offering to sweeten a rescue proposal by providing approximately £1bn in extra funding through a combination of additional debt write-offs and fresh capital.

They are hopeful that a combination of more pain for them, more money for the company and potential axe-wielding at the top will persuade the government and the regulator that Thames is turning a new page.

The lenders have presented a new operational plan to Ofwat that would see over £9bn invested in upgrading its facilities over the next five years.

Although not specified in this document, the lenders are clear that they will need a "regulatory reset" which specifies new and less onerous targets on pollution and leakage than the company tried and failed to hit in the past.

A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs told the BBC that the government would "always act in the national interest on these issues".

"The government has been clear that Thames Water must meet its statutory and regulatory obligations to their customers and to the environment. It is only right that the company is subject to the same consequences as any other water company," he said.

However, a recent review of the water sector by Sir John Cunliffe recommended a new regulatory framework that would establish "a formal regime to support the turnaround of poorly performing companies".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has expressed her preference for "a market-based solution" rather than see the company collapse into government-supervised administration - a so-called Special Administration Regime (SAR) - which could leave taxpayers exposed to potential losses.

Consultants Teneo have estimated the cost to the Treasury of a SAR at £4.1bn.

A senior civil servant from the Treasury has been included in recent talks with the creditors.

However, the government has also stepped up preparations for that scenario in recent weeks by placing consultancy firm FTI on standby as special administrators if necessary.

Other potential bidders have expressed frustration that they have been locked out of advancing their own plans as the lenders have effective control of the company.

Executives on the lenders' bid team have told the BBC that time is running out for Thames as the longer it limps on, the harder any turnaround becomes.

"We have a matter of six to eight weeks before it goes into a special administration, and it goes in it could take years to come out," said one.

The probability of a lengthy SAR is questioned by some.

Infrastructure expert Prof Dieter Helm insists that with reduced debt, Thames is a viable asset that would attract bidders to a process that, if well designed, could be completed in a matter of weeks at little or no cost to the taxpayer.

What seems clear is that the long running crisis at Thames Water is coming to a head in the near future.

Thames Water has been contacted for comment.

A former US filmmaker has launched a High Court battle against an English council to gain control of the ancestral stately home he spent seven years trying to save from ruin.

Hopwood DePree has led an operation to safeguard historic Hopwood Hall in Middleton, Greater Manchester, since 2017, and says he complied with an agreement with Rochdale Borough Council that gave him the option to buy the building.

However, the council say he did not fulfil the conditions of the deal, and locked him out in November 2024.

DePree, who published a book called Downton Shabby in 2022 about his work to restore the hall, has now taken action in an attempt to be declared its legal owner.

'Shocking' conduct

DePree says his grandfather told him stories of "Hopwood Castle" as a child in Michigan, but that he only discovered the real hall existed while researching his family history in 2013.

Parts of the 60-room building date from the 1420s, but both direct heirs were killed in World War One and the last family members moved out in the 1920s.

It was derelict by the time DePree visited, and he says he was told in 2015 that it would be beyond repair in another five to 10 years.

He moved to the UK to spearhead the effort to save it, signing a deal with the council in 2017 saying he could buy the hall for £1 on the condition he gained planning permission to develop it.

DePree began work on the crumbling building and got planning permission in 2022 to refurbish it as an event and hospitality venue. He says he has spent £750,000 of his own money on the project.

But he says relations soured when the council's Rochdale Development Agency became more involved in 2024, and DePree's legal case accuses the agency of trying to "poison everything my team and I had worked so hard to achieve".

He claims the council stopped co-operating and went behind his back, and that their conduct has been "evasive, misleading and at times shocking".

A council spokesperson said: "We don't comment on ongoing legal discussions and don't intend to elaborate on previous statements we have made on this subject."

The council has previously said any sale would depend on DePree having "a commercially viable business model to secure the long term future of the hall".

Last November, the council said it had decided not to renew the option agreement after consultants said his plans were "unlikely to be able to secure future public or private funding".

At that time, a council spokesman said DePree "had not been able to produce a viable proposal, despite having had seven years to do so", which it said was a condition of the sale. The authority said it "had a responsibility to explore alternative options" in order to "protect the public monies invested to date".

In November, council leader Neil Emmott said: "Mr DePree was asked to meet a number of conditions when we entered into our agreement with him. We would be failing in our duty to protect our historic assets if we didn't hold Mr DePree to the terms of this agreement."

The council said it spent £557,000 between 2017 and 2024 for essential repairs, with almost £1m contributed by Historic England. The council said it was now spending a further £700,000 on roof repairs and a feasibility study.

According to DePree's legal documents, the council has also argued that the planning permission was insufficient to meet the terms for a sale under the agreement. He is disputing that.

He is also disputing whether he needed to provide a "viable" business model to comply with the conditions for a sale, and his court papers say he does have "a clear vision, a plan and the resources to rescue Hopwood Hall".

'No other choice'

DePree told BBC News he believes he has complied with his end of the agreement.

"When I took the project on, the hall was just a few years from completely falling down and becoming a ruin," he said.

"We worked so hard and poured everything into it. I moved countries. I got British citizenship. I left behind a life and sold my home. I went through so much with the belief that the council was being open and honest with me, and I trusted them."

He added: "Ultimately I had an agreement that I signed with them that I fulfilled. My lawyers feel that we fulfilled that, and the council went against that, and I felt that I had no other choice other than to file court proceedings against them."

DePree and his family are involved in property development, and he sold his home in the Hollywood Hills to help fund the project.

In his former life, DePree was an actor, writer, producer and director whose early attempts to make it big in Hollywood were depicted in low-budget documentary Rhinoskin: The Making of a Movie Star.

He wrote, directed and appeared in the well-received independent rom-com The Last Big Attraction, and produced the 2010 drama Virginia starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un stood publicly shoulder to shoulder for the first time on Wednesday, ahead of a massive military parade in central Beijing.

That parade, which marked 80 years since China's victory over Japan in World War Two, saw Beijing unveiling a range of new military hardware – including a new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile, a new road-bound missile for delivering hypersonic weapons, a new laser weapon, and even "robotic dog" drones.

It comes at a time when Xi seeks to project Beijing's power on the international stage - not just as the world's second-largest economy, but also as a counterweight to the United States as Trump's tariffs rock the global economic and political order.

Five BBC correspondents assess the significance of Wednesday's parade – what it means, why it matters, and what the spectacle tells us about the "new world order".

An enduring image for China - and the world

By Laura Bicker, China correspondent

One of the most enduring images of this military parade took place before the first cannon was fired.

President Xi welcoming North Korea's Kim Jong Un with a long handshake, then moving on to greet Russia's Vladimir Putin before all three walked together to watch the parade, was sheer political theatre.

This was the first time all three leaders have been seen in public together, and they really picked their moment.

But it is this meeting, not just the weapons and troops on show, that appears to have grabbed the attention of Donald Trump.

Trump posted on Truth Social earlier, accusing Xi of conspiring against America with the others. The Chinese leader said in this speech that his country is on the right side of history.

Wednesdays parade was a choreographed spectacle of precision, power and patriotism.

Even the choir stood in perfectly even rows as they sang "without the Communist Party, there is no modern China".

The troops goose-stepped past in unison, and each strike of the ground echoed through the stands of 50,000 guests in Tiananmen Square.

Then came the big weapons, and the crowd reached for their phones. A new ICBM, laser weapons, even robotic dogs.

The parade finished on a crowd-pleasing fly past before thousands of doves and balloons were released into the skies over the capital.

This display to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War was not just a look at where China has been, or how far China has come.

It showcased where China is going: Xi playing the role of a global leader prepared to stand alongside two of the most sanctioned leaders in the world.

And at his feet, a military which is being built to rival the West.

Trump's out, Xi's in - and what that means for the West

By James Landale, diplomatic correspondent

China's show of geopolitical and now military power this week will hardly surprise Western leaders.

President Xi has long sought to put himself at the centre of a new world order – one that replaces the crumbling global systems established after World War Two.

But two things will send shivers down western diplomatic spines.

One is the speed with which China is filling the vacuum left by America's withdrawal from international norms and institutions.

A Chinese-led world order, one where territorial integrity and human rights are valued less than raw power and economic development, might prove uncomfortable for many western countries.

The way harsh US tariffs have pushed India, the world's biggest democracy, so quickly into the warm embrace of China, the world's biggest autocracy, will also be of concern.

One small crumb of comfort for the West is that the so-called "axis of upheaval" on show in Beijing is not united - and India, in particular, which was not represented at Wednesday's parade, is still at odds with China over territorial and other disputes.

The bottom line is that the economic nationalism and disruptive diplomacy of Donald Trump's America is giving China a huge diplomatic opportunity – and it's one Xi is seizing with open arms with his summit and parade.

A clear message to Donald Trump

By Steve Rosenberg, Russia editor

All the diplomacy (and the optics) in China this week was designed to send a clear message to the Trump administration.

So, you want to Make America Great Again, do you? It's America First, is it? Well, then, we'll offer an alternative to the US-led order.

That is why we saw the leaders of China, Russia and India smiling together at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on Sunday and Monday.

It is why Vladimir Putin called Xi Jinping "a real friend", and the Chinese leader called his Russian counterpart "old friend" earlier this week.

And it is also why Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un appeared together at the military parade on Wednesday.

In short: in the geopolitical universe different powers are aligning as a counterweight to American domination.

This doesn't mean that all these countries and leaders are on the same wavelength. They are not. Differences remain.

But the direction of travel is clear.

As a headline in news outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda declared this week, in reference to Russia, China and India: "We will build a new world."

The weapons that worry the West

By Frank Gardiner, security correspondent

From massive, underwater torpedoes to state-of-the-art laser weapons that shoot down drones, China's latest military parade will now be broken down and analysed by Pentagon experts and defence officials around the world.

The PLA has embarked on an extensive military modernisation programme that has seen it catching up - and in some areas - overtaking the United States. Hypersonic missiles that travel at more than five times the speed of sound is one area where China leads the world.

Dr Sidharth Kaushal, a leading expert on missiles at the London think tank RUSI, highlights the YJ-17 - a hypersonic glide vehicle - and the YJ-19, a hypersonic cruise missile.

China has also been investing heavily in artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons. One example of these is the AJX002: a giant, 60-foot (18m), underwater nuclear-capable drone.

China's nuclear arsenal - numbering in the hundreds of missiles - still lags far behind those of Russia and the US who both have thousands, but it is rapidly increasing in size as well as finding innovative ways of delivering its warheads.

Donald Trump has rejected suggestions that the warming of relations between China, Russia and their allies poses a challenge to the US on the global stage.

The US president told reporters in the Oval Office that he had "a good relationship" with President Xi Jinping and that China "needs us more than we need them".

It comes as Xi prepares to host world leaders at a "Victory Day" parade in Beijing on Wednesday - a showcase of China's military might.

Xi will be joined by North Korea's Kim Jong Un and Russia's Vladimir Putin, viewed by some observers as a message to the Western nations that have shunned them.

• Russia's Putin hails 'unprecedented' ties with China at talks in Beijin
• North Korea's Kim arrives in Beijing with daughter

China has sought to position itself as a possible counterweight to the US since Trump's tariffs rocked the global economic and political order.

Trump has pitched his tariffs as essential to protecting American interests and industry. It appears that any diplomatic cost is something he is willing to pay.

Asked by the BBC if he believed Beijing and its allies were attempting to form an international coalition to oppose the US, Trump said: "No. Not at all. China needs us."

He added: "I have a very good relationship with President Xi, as you know. But China needs us much more than we need them. I don't see that at all."

Separately, in a radio interview on Tuesday, Trump said he was not concerned about the axis forming between Russia and China.

He told the Scott Jennings radio show that America has "the most powerful military forces in the world" and that "they would never use their military forces against us".

"Believe me, that would be the worst thing they could ever do," he said.

Elsewhere in the interview, Trump said he was "very disappointed" in Putin, after they failed to reach a peace deal for Ukraine during their meeting in Alaska last month.

"I'm very disappointed in President Putin, I can say that," Trump said, adding that the US "will be doing something to help people live" in Ukraine. He did not specify.

China has not criticised Putin's full-scale invasion and has been accused by the West of aiding Russia's war effort through its supply of dual-use materials and purchases of Russian oil. Beijing denies this.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia was engaged in a new troop build up along certain sectors of the frontline.

"[Putin] refuses to be forced into peace," Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

The government is planning a new law in England to stop anyone under the age of 16 buying energy drinks such as Red Bull, Monster and Prime from shops, restaurants, cafes, vending machines and online.

Up to a third of UK children are thought to consume these types of drinks every week, despite most supermarkets having already introduced a voluntary ban.

Some popular drinks contain more caffeine than two cups of coffee.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said he was acting on the concerns of parents and teachers and tackling the issue "head on", to protect young people's health.

Lower-caffeine soft drinks, such Diet Coke, are not affected, and neither are tea and coffee.

A consultation will now run for 12 weeks to gather evidence from health and education experts as well as the public and retailers and manufacturers.

TV chef Jamie Oliver has repeatedly warned of the dangers and disruption energy drinks can cause, with kids coming into school "bouncing off the walls" having had energy drinks for breakfast.

"We are talking about three, four shots of espresso in one of these things. Loads of sugar. So an absolute nightmare," he said in a video posted on X last year.

Excessive consumption is linked to headaches and sleep problems.

Too much caffeine can cause a rapid heart rate, abnormal heart rhythms and seizures too.

Although rare, there have been some deaths linked to excess caffeine.

Under current labelling rules, any drink, other than tea or coffee, with over 150mg of caffeine per litre requires a warning label saying: "High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women."

Young people have smaller bodies and their brains are still developing, which can make them more sensitive to caffeine, say experts.

For most adults, up to 400mg of caffeine a day, or about four cups of instant coffee or five cups of tea, is safe.

"By preventing shops from selling these drinks to kids, we're helping build the foundations for healthier and happier generations to come," said Mr Streeting.

Prof Steve Turner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said a ban was the "next logical step" in making children's diets more healthy.

And Prof Amelia Lake from Teesside University, who has studied the drinks' impact on young people's lives, said they had "no place" in the diets of children.

"Our research has shown the significant mental and physical health consequences of children drinking energy drinks.

"We know these drinks are part of youth culture and associated with sports, gaming, music and more, but there is a lack of clear signalling about their health consequences."

But Gavin Partington from the British Soft Drinks Association said manufacturers had already led the way with self regulation.

"As with all government policy, it's essential that any forthcoming regulation is based on a rigorous assessment of the evidence that's available," he added.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are also considering a ban.

A US congressional panel has released a trove of documents related to the federal investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The House of Representatives Oversight Committee published 33,295 pages, including flight logs, jail surveillance video, court filings, audio recordings and emails.

But Republicans and Democrats alike said the files contained little new information and it is unclear if the justice department is withholding other Epstein records.

Pressure has been growing from President Donald Trump's own supporters for more transparency on the probe into the well-connected financier after the justice department said in July there was no "incriminating" Epstein client list.

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Republican, ordered the documents to be published online on Tuesday.

The Republican-led panel received the files after issuing a legal summons to the Department of Justice last month.

But Comer, a Kentucky congressman, acknowledged there was little fresh information.

"As far as I can see, there's nothing new in the documents," he told NBC News.

The videos released on Tuesday include footage from outside Epstein's New York jail cell on the night of his death.

It includes 13 hours and 41 seconds of video from the facility covering the evening of 9 August to the morning of 10 August 2019, when Epstein died.

This is two hours more of video than what the justice department released two months ago.

But the newly released footage does not include the so-called "missing minute" - a jump in the timecode between 23:00 and 00:00, according to the BBC's US partner CBS.

Attorney General Pam Bondi previously said the "missing minute" was just the jail's camera system resetting each night.

However, the apparent anomaly had stoked conspiracy theories about the official finding that Epstein died by suicide.

The convicted paedophile had once hobnobbed with the likes of Trump, former President Bill Clinton and British royal Prince Andrew.

The tranche of documents also includes several clips from 2006 showing interviews with people who said they were victims of Epstein.

Their faces are blurred and names removed from the audio as they talk about alleged sexual abuse while they were hired for massages.

Other videos show bodycam footage from police in Palm Beach, Florida, as they search a home belonging to Epstein.

Some of the documents date back 20 years, covering an initial criminal investigation into Epstein launched by Palm Beach police.

But Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on House Oversight Committee, said in a statement: "To the American people – don't let this fool you.

"After careful review, Oversight Democrats have found that 97% of the documents received from the Department of Justice were already public.

"There is no mention of any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims."

Democratic congresswoman Summer Lee said the "only new disclosure" was flight logs taken by US Customs and Border Protection, which show Epstein's travel to and from his private island in the US Virgin Islands.

The release came after backbench Republican rebel Thomas Massie forged ahead on Tuesday with a bipartisan effort to force the House to vote on a bill requiring the justice department to publish all of its Epstein files within 30 days.

The Kentucky congressman said: "People want these files released. I mean, look, it's not the biggest issue in the country.

"It's taxes, jobs, the economy, those are always the big issues. But you really can't solve any of that if this place is corrupt."

Earlier on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, and members of the oversight committee met six Epstein victims behind closed-doors.

Johnson, a Trump ally, told reporters afterwards that "there were tears in the room" as they heard from the Epstein victims.

Congresswoman Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, appeared to leave the meeting crying.

Democrat Melanie Stansbury praised the survivors for speaking out and described the case as a "cover-up of epic proportions".

Lawmakers and victims of Epstein plan to hold a news conference on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Protests over the use of hotels for housing asylum seekers have put police forces under "chronic pressure" when combined with other duties this summer, a senior police chief has said.

Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chair of the National Police Chiefs' Council, told the BBC people in leadership positions in the UK needed to think about how to "reduce and diffuse tension and not sew division".

Senior officers are concerned about political and business leaders commenting on social media, sometimes spreading misinformation, though Mr Stephens didn't give names.

Police say there have been 3,081 protests between the start of June and 25 August, compared with 2,942 last summer and 928 in 2023.

The number has been pushed up by campaigns against asylum hotels, sometimes attended by hundreds of protestors on both sides of the debate.

Mr Stephens said it was everybody's responsibility, including the police, to "set the tone", but he continued to defend the right to protest.

"We all want to live in places where we can be safe, and where we feel safe," he said.

Police forces all over the country have been responding to protests this summer, pulling in officers from neighbourhood roles to do public order duties. Through the system of mutual aid, police forces with fewer protests have have sent reinforcements across the country to back up those under pressure.

In Epping, where protests began outside the Bell Hotel in July, hundreds of police officers have been involved, often keeping pro and anti-migrant groups separated and preventing activists getting into the hotel.

At least 30 more protests are planned this weekend.

On Tuesday, the Conservative leader of Epping Forest District Council said he would be asking campaigners demanding the closure of the Bell Hotel to halt their protests.

Councillor Chris Whitbread said in a statement: "I am approaching the other group leaders on Epping Forest District Council and other community leaders to jointly ask protesters to reflect on whether they continue with the twice-weekly local protests.

"If you choose to continue, it should be done considerately and calmly, with awareness of the impact on local residents and the local economy.

"The people of Epping are under great strain. As schools return this week, I appeal to the protest organisers to show restraint and give our families and children some much needed respite."

Mr Stephens said the demand on policing could be reduced by better integration of refugees.

"Where there's a lack of integration, whether that's through accommodation or placement in local communities, to a certain extent, the model doesn't matter. It's the effort that we go to work together as a community that reduces the demand on policing," he said.

Police chiefs are waiting for the government to publish plans to reform the service so it can cope better with modern challenges. They're hoping for a radical long-term strategy.

Last year, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper argued that the co-ordinated national response to the disorder in summer 2024 in the wake of the Southport attack had demonstrated the need for more centralisation.

She announced a National Centre of Policing to bring together support services for local forces, including national IT systems, shared police helicopters and a centralised forensics service.

The Home Office has been approached for comment by the BBC.

Fresh warnings have been issued by police forces and councils across the country after a rise in parking scams over the summer.

From fake text messages about unpaid tickets to tampered car park machines that secretly steal your card details, fraudsters are becoming increasingly creative.

BBC scams expert Nick Stapleton told Morning Live there are easy ways you can protect yourself so you don't fall victim to some of the most common tricks.

1. Check your fine has these three details

Genuine parking notices always contain certain details.

"Real parking fines will include vehicle registration, the time of the offence and the location it happened," Stapleton says.

"If it doesn't have these three things then it is a scam.

"A genuine fine will always come in writing and will be left on your windscreen, handed to you in person or arrive in the post."

There are three types of fines you may receive - a penalty charge notice issued by the council, a fixed penalty notice issued by police usually linked to offences such as speeding and a parking charge notice issued by a private company.

Parking charge notices "aren't technically fines, they're invoices for breaching parking rules", so you don't always have to pay them but "check carefully before refusing to pay".

2. Don't click on links in texts

If you get a text out of the blue saying you owe money for an unpaid parking ticket, stop before you click. One of the most common tricks is a fake text or email demanding payment for an unpaid fine.

These texts usually come with a link you are told to click on to pay the fine and "use urgent and threatening language to make you panic", Stapleton says.

Some scam texts might say your licence will be revoked if you don't pay for the ticket but "that's not how it works, you won't lose your license".

Some links in these scam texts take you to websites that look like official government ones.

If you're not sure a website is legitimate you can "click around on the other links".

"If you click through on other links on the page you'll notice that they don't work and that's a clear sign it's a clone site," says Stapleton.

3. Restart your device and change passwords

If you have clicked on a suspicious link, don't despair - but do these three things:

• Restart your device: A lot of the links allow a scammer to gain remote access to your device. If you restart your phone or laptop it will kill the connection

• Change passwords: If you've filled in your details on the link make sure you change your passwords to any accounts with money in

• Call your bank: Inform your bank's fraud department about the message, the link and what information you gave

You could also consider installing antivirus software then run a search to see if any malware has been installed.

4. Check for skimming devices on parking machines

A new scam, which is increasing according to the UK's national fraud reporting centre Action Fraud, targets people paying for parking at machines.

Fraudsters attach a physical device to a contactless payment reader on a parking machine and when you try to pay, the machine displays a "card declined" message.

"While you walk off to try another machine, the skimming device has already stolen your card details," Stapleton explains.

Here's how to check whether the machine has been tampered with:

• Look for an extra sticker: Check there is no extra sticker or item placed on top of the contactless payment button

• Verify Branding: Look for the correct logos and branding. Scammers often use stickers with mismatched logos

• Trust Your Instincts: If something looks or feels suspicious, do not use the machine

"Contactless readers should look like they're part of the machine. If something looks bolted on or mismatched, it's best not to risk it," he says. "Always trust your gut."

If you do feel like there's something not quite right with the machine you can pay in cash instead or through a parking app.

Watch Morning Live to get the full details on how to protect yourself from the scams

Listen to Alison read this article

It took me some time to find the front door of the Safer Living Foundation. There was no nameplate, and the building was one of many anonymous red-brick Victorian terraced houses in Nottingham. It was January 2025, and I was wrapped up against the cold as I walked up and down the street trying to find the right address.

There was a very good reason for this anonymity. The foundation works with people convicted and imprisoned for sexual offences after they have been released back into the community. The men may have been found guilty of anything from indecent exposure to viewing abusive images online to contact offences involving children.

And people who have committed sex crimes can be among the most reviled in society. At times they are the subject of vigilante action.

In May 2025, the government announced it was considering the roll-out of voluntary chemical castration for sex offenders and also looking at whether this could be made mandatory.

But while this sort of tough rhetoric grabs headlines, the Safer Living Foundation claims the work it does providing a safe space for people with sexual convictions to find support with reintegrating into society has had positive results.

And there is evidence to suggest they may be correct. Just 2% of the men who spent time at the foundation reoffended, according to its own figures. That compares to an average of 15.1% for those convicted of sexual crimes in England and Wales. The Foundation says it only takes people who say they are committed to change.

I was there to see for myself how the centre in Nottingham - the only project of its kind in the UK - operated. Over five months the BBC was given a unique insight into its work.

What none of us knew that cold winter morning was that these would prove to be its final months. In May 2025, the centre was forced to close. Persuading organisations to fund sex offender treatment had never been easy and in the tough financial climate, it had become impossible to secure the money they needed to keep going.

It's an outcome that casts light on the UK's attitude towards preventing those guilty of sex crimes from reoffending. It forces us to confront difficult questions, including whether spending public or charity money on attempting to rehabilitate sex offenders should be recognised as an effective way of preventing harm and in doing so protecting potential victims.

'I'll do whatever works'

When I eventually found the right door, it was opened by Dave Potter. He had run the service since it was set up 11 years ago.

Here, he told me, offenders meet people who have insight into their experience of having been convicted for sex crimes - both others who have been found guilty of these offences as well as counsellors - "because who else can you talk to?".

Inside, in a busy kitchen, lunch was being prepared. A handful of men of all ages, sitting and standing, quietly chatted about the day's news, football and food. In another room, a games club was taking place and elsewhere, counselling sessions were under way.

Often their partners and families wanted nothing more to do with them after their convictions, according to Dave.

Dave accepted that there would be those who wondered how he could bring himself to offer support to sex offenders. But he believed the bigger picture is what's important. "Everything we do underpins (the idea of) no more victims," he said. "I'll do whatever works to prevent further offending."

Sex Offenders: The Long Way Back

Alison Holt reports on how a Nottingham charity working with men who have been convicted of sexual offences has success in greatly reducing re-offending rates. Listen on BBC Sounds – or on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday 3 September at 11:00.

Certainly, the official statistics around sexual offending suggest that much more needs to be done to bring the numbers down. On average the police record more than 194,000 sexual offences each year in England and Wales. Of these, 40% are against children.

One child in every 10 experiences some form of sexual abuse before the age of 16 in England and Wales, according to "conservative estimates" by the Centre of Expertise on Child Sexual Abuse. Many victims, both adults and children, will never feel able to speak about what has happened.

The harm caused by these offences cannot be underestimated, and that was acknowledged in most of the conversations I had at the centre with offenders, staff and volunteers alike.

At the time I visited about 60 men were enrolled as service users, but over the last decade hundreds of men and two women have been supported by staff here.

'The life I knew has completely ended'

The service users I spoke to wanted to remain anonymous. They described feeling lonely and even suicidal, and said they realised what they had done was wrong. They said they recognised the impact it had on their victims. They also talked about how the centre had helped them.

"I was petrified about leaving prison with a stigma attached," said Matt (the names of all ex-offenders have been changed). As a result of his conviction, he had lost his family, his job and everything he knew before. "The life I knew has completely ended." Without the centre he would be struggling even more, he said.

Another man, Liam, described being assaulted after he was released from prison.

"One of my neighbours found out who I was and then one night decided to come round and attack me," he said. "Physical violence, swearing at me and basically, telling everybody around there what I was," he said. He had to move.

Finding work can be a major challenge for the men, too. Some 95% of the service users here were on the Sex Offenders Register and were required to tell potential employers this.

In my conversations with them, the same words came up time and again – anxiety, low self-esteem, fear and, in particular, isolation.

While to some these risk factors could sound like an excuse for what they have done, the centre's approach is based on the idea that addressing these issues will make these men less likely to offend. And so it tries to help them rebuild their lives in a way that protects them and others.

"By treating people with decency, by looking at the whole person and not just the crime, by finding ways to manage their social isolation, their shame and their guilt, that reduces further offending down the line," Dave said.

He accepted that some might think that what the centre was doing was naïve. Before he did his job, he says, he might have agreed with the suggestion that sex offenders simply need to be punished. But now, he said, "I know what we do works. It is about understanding the harm that acting on those impulses causes. It is about understanding what they've put victims through."

Distractions from inappropriate thoughts

There is group therapy as well as weekly one-to-one counselling sessions. In one of the discussions with Dave, a man called John, who has been jailed twice for his offending, talked about how he now distracted himself if he began to have any fleeting, inappropriate sexual thoughts. He played football video games and generally kept busy.

He also described how difficult the last few months have been. A homeless man, who John had offered to help, moved into his flat and became increasingly manipulative and violent. Eventually, he threatened to tell others about John's conviction.

With support from the Foundation, John called the police and the man was removed.

"If an alcoholic has no help and support, its unlikely they'll give up booze," said Dave. He believes it can be the same with sex offenders, so the centre provided controlled support that helps them cope, even under stress.

There is support for this approach, too, among groups that work with victims.

"This project further underpins the fact that we can't make a dent in the alarming figures of a quarter of the population experiencing sexual violence by simply pledging to change things," says Lucy Duckworth, policy lead at The Survivors Trust. "We need action and funding and to have difficult conversations with those who commit this crime, to enable us to intervene earlier."

A failing in the system

The main place where sex offenders currently get treatment is in prison – but even there it is limited.

In the year ending March 2024, there were about 87,000 people in prison in England and Wales. More than 18,000 (21%) had been convicted of sex offences. Some 1,115 prisoners did start accredited treatment in prison and 1,094 people completed those courses.

The length of time the courses take means they may not be an option for offenders in jail for a short period.

Matt, who had earlier told me how worried he had been about leaving prison, took two 30-hour programmes while an inmate at HMP Whatton in Nottinghamshire, which is, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform, the largest prison for adult sex offenders in Europe. Matt said these were hugely useful to him.

"You ripped yourself right open," he said. "Laid everything on the table. Looked at how and why you got there, and how are you going to rebuild yourself? How are you going to make sure it doesn't happen again?"

But once inmates are released, accessing this kind of treatment becomes even more difficult, experts say. "That's a failing of where we're at in the system," says Nick Blagden, professor of criminological psychology at the University of Derby and a co-founder and trustee of the Safer Living Foundation.

An alternative solution is to reach people before they end up in the criminal justice system - before they harm someone. There are UK projects that do good work offering services in the community, says Prof Blagden. But given the scale of the problem, the level of support is nowhere near as "wide-ranging" as is needed, he adds. He contrasts this with Germany, where he says there is a "much more sensible" approach to funding prevention projects that provide therapy to adults who feel they might commit sexual offences.

In addition to the Nottingham centre, the foundation also ran a programme called Aurora, which provided highly confidential support, online and in person, for people with concerning sexual thoughts, before they did something that put them in contact with the criminal justice system. It had 300 people on a 12-month waiting list.

"If we had unlimited funds and resources, we would be working with hundreds of people a month," says Prof Blagden.

'We've helped a lot of lives'

Getting all this right could not be more important. The National Crime Agency estimated in 2024 that between 710,000 and 840,000 UK adults posed varying degrees of sexual risks to children.

The questions for society are: as well as making it easier for victims of abuse to be heard and believed, are we ready to challenge the behaviour, thoughts and actions of those who have offended and are at risk of offending much sooner? And are we prepared to spend money on doing so?

For its part, the Ministry of Justice says: "We are determined to halve violence against women and girls in a decade and tackling sexual offenders' criminality is a vital part of this plan."

Ministers also point to their plan for a national roll-out of "medication to manage problematic sexual arousal in sex offenders", often known as chemical castration, which is delivered through drugs alongside psychiatric work, and say they are considering whether to make it mandatory. The department also says it recently announced a record £700m increase in overall probation funding by 2028.

For decades, the mantras of many politicians have focused on being tough on crime. The use and length of prison sentences have increased as a result. However, the current overcrowding in prisons is forcing a rethink.

In May 2025, an independent review of sentencing was published. It concluded that while punishment is important, there "has been insufficient focus on reducing crime". It called for more community-based sentences and support and more use of the third sector charities and organisations.

The government has since accepted most of the recommendations across all crimes.

The Safer Living Foundation, with the guardrails it provided to support sex offenders in the community, seemed to be tailor-made for this strategy.

But the same month the review was published, the Foundation learned that its application for a lottery grant - which it needed to keep running - had been turned down.

'Fairly hand-to-mouth'

"It has been fairly hand-to-mouth over the years we've been operating," says Lynn Saunders, another of the co-founders of the Safer Living Foundations as well as a former governor at Whatton and now professor of applied criminology at Derby University. "There seems to be a big reluctance because of the nature of the work, people find it difficult to be associated with it."

In May, the centre closed, while the Aurora Project was paused.

On the final day, staff, volunteers and some of the men they have supported, packed into the small kitchen to say goodbye.

"I've decided to celebrate the fact we existed at all," said Dave. "We've helped a lot of lives and prevented a lot of victims."

A few hours later, when that anonymous front door was shut and locked, it marked the end of the project. There is no replacement and no prospect of re-opening.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story you can visit the BBC Action Line for support.

Top picture credit: Getty Images

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The government is planning a new law in England to stop anyone under the age of 16 buying energy drinks such as Red Bull, Monster and Prime from shops, restaurants, cafes, vending machines and online.

Up to a third of UK children are thought to consume these types of drinks every week, despite most supermarkets having already introduced a voluntary ban.

Some popular drinks contain more caffeine than two cups of coffee.

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said he was acting on the concerns of parents and teachers and tackling the issue "head on", to protect young people's health.

Lower-caffeine soft drinks, such Diet Coke, are not affected, and neither are tea and coffee.

A consultation will now run for 12 weeks to gather evidence from health and education experts as well as the public and retailers and manufacturers.

TV chef Jamie Oliver has repeatedly warned of the dangers and disruption energy drinks can cause, with kids coming into school "bouncing off the walls" having had energy drinks for breakfast.

"We are talking about three, four shots of espresso in one of these things. Loads of sugar. So an absolute nightmare," he said in a video posted on X last year.

Excessive consumption is linked to headaches and sleep problems.

Too much caffeine can cause a rapid heart rate, abnormal heart rhythms and seizures too.

Although rare, there have been some deaths linked to excess caffeine.

Under current labelling rules, any drink, other than tea or coffee, with over 150mg of caffeine per litre requires a warning label saying: "High caffeine content. Not recommended for children or pregnant or breast-feeding women."

Young people have smaller bodies and their brains are still developing, which can make them more sensitive to caffeine, say experts.

For most adults, up to 400mg of caffeine a day, or about four cups of instant coffee or five cups of tea, is safe.

"By preventing shops from selling these drinks to kids, we're helping build the foundations for healthier and happier generations to come," said Mr Streeting.

Prof Steve Turner, president of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said a ban was the "next logical step" in making children's diets more healthy.

And Prof Amelia Lake from Teesside University, who has studied the drinks' impact on young people's lives, said they had "no place" in the diets of children.

"Our research has shown the significant mental and physical health consequences of children drinking energy drinks.

"We know these drinks are part of youth culture and associated with sports, gaming, music and more, but there is a lack of clear signalling about their health consequences."

But Gavin Partington from the British Soft Drinks Association said manufacturers had already led the way with self regulation.

"As with all government policy, it's essential that any forthcoming regulation is based on a rigorous assessment of the evidence that's available," he added.

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are also considering a ban.

The government is unable to calculate the total cost of a secret relocation plan it set up following the Afghan data leak, the public spending watchdog has said.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) estimates the cost of the massive data breach - and setting up a new scheme to relocate those whose lives might be at risk over it - to be £850m.

But the National Audit Office (NAO) says the MoD has not provided enough evidence to give it confidence in that figure, which does not include legal expenses, or compensation claims likely to follow.

The MoD said it was committed to transparency and "committed to honouring the moral obligation we owe to those Afghans who stood with us and risked their lives".

Last month it was revealed the details of almost 19,000 people had applied to move to the UK in order to flee the Taliban were leaked, when an official mistakenly emailed a spreadsheet that contained a hidden tab with the information in 2022.

It contained information like names, contact details and family information of people who believed their cooperation with British forces during the Afghanistan war put them at risk of reprisals.

The names of British officials including members of UK special forces were also included in the data breach.

More than 16,000 Afghans and family members were eligible to resettle under an existing relocation scheme.

Following the data breach, a new scheme - the Afghanistan Response Route (ARR) - was secretly set up in April 2024, allowing a further 7,000 to come to the UK.

A super-injunction granted by the High Court in September 2023 prevented the incident being reported for almost two years, before the order was lifted in July.

The MoD estimates the cost for resettling each individual to be £128,000, with the total bill for all its Afghan resettlement programmes forecast to exceed £2bn.

In a report, the NAO said the government had failed to provide sufficient evidence to give the watchdog "confidence" to say if its £850m figure was accurate.

The watchdog said: "The MoD is not able to determine exactly what it has spent on resettling people through the ARR scheme.

"This is because it did not separately identify the costs of the ARR scheme in its accounting system, meaning that these costs were not visible in its management accounts, but instead included them within its total spending on Afghan resettlement activities."

A spokesperson for the MoD said: "We are committed to honouring the moral obligation we owe to those Afghans who stood with us and risked their lives.

"Since taking the decision to support the lifting of the super injunction brought by the previous government, we have been clear on the costs associated with relocating eligible Afghans to the UK - and are fully committed to transparency.

"The cost of all Afghan resettlement schemes, including the Afghan Response Route, has been fully funded as part of the Government's Spending Review."

One of the most famous polar shipwrecks has been filmed in detail on the sea floor for the first time.

The Terra Nova carried Captain Scott and his men on their doomed expedition to reach the South Pole more than a century ago.

The British party lost the race to the pole, and died on their return journey in 1912.

The footage shows the Terra Nova colonised with sea life, but key features of the wooden ship are still visible including its wheel, winch and mast.

The wreck lies 170m down off the coast of Greenland. After the polar expedition with Scott, the ship continued in service and eventually sank in 1943 while carrying supplies to US bases during World War Two.

The Terra Nova was discovered in 2012, but the new expedition has been the first opportunity to record extensive footage of the wreck.

"To be able to see these significant parts of the wreck, it was truly awe inspiring," said Leighton Rolley, Science Systems Manager at REV Ocean.

"The wheel was sat there perfectly intact amongst the debris of the aft section of the wreck.

"When you think of the people who have stood there, manoeuvred the Terra Nova through ice, like Captain Scott… It was like, wow, if that ship's wheel could talk, it could tell an amazing history."

The Terra Nova was one of the finest polar vessels of its time and sailed for 60 years.

The ship was 57m (187ft) long with a wooden hull that was a metre thick in places to help it break through the sea ice.

Captain Scott's men embarked to Antarctica in 1910. A comprehensive scientific programme was planned for the Terra Nova expedition - along with the goal of being the first to reach the South Pole.

Scott, along with Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates and Edgar Evans, were attempting to make history.

After trekking hundreds of miles, the British party reached the pole in January 1912, but they found they had been beaten by a Norwegian team led by Roald Amundsen.

A black flag, planted by Amundsen, is now on display at the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI) in Cambridge along with other items from the Terra Nova.

"Their hearts must have sunk seeing this black flag against the whiteness of Antarctica," said David Waterhouse, curator of the polar museum at SPRI.

The deflated British party began their arduous return journey to their base. But they encountered unusually bad weather, and Edgar Evans died after falling while descending a glacier.

Several weeks later Captain Oates left the men's tent. His last words were recorded in Scott's journal: "I'm just going outside and may be some time." He was never seen again.

Scott, Bowers and Wilson continued on and made a final camp, but trapped by a freezing blizzard with dwindling supplies, all three perished.

A search expedition discovered their last camp just 11 miles from a resupply depot that would have provided them with food and fuel.

The Terra Nova played a crucial role in breaking the news of their death.

"In January 1913, the Terra Nova arrived at Cape Evans in the Antarctic to pick up the shore party, and they were expecting to pick up Captain Scott and his pole party at the same time," explained Naomi Boneham, an archivist at SPRI.

"But when they arrived they found out the sad news."

The ship's log records that the men had died from "exposure and want".

The vessel sailed on to New Zealand, where the tragic end of the Terra Nova expedition was announced to the world.

The new footage from the deep provides another chance to retell Scott's story, says David Waterhouse.

"It's a story that's really got the whole package - the heroism, the tragedy," he said.

"And, I guess, as British people, we like an underdog, and they were so close to being the first to the pole and making it back alive."

The ship that witnessed so much history now has a very different existence lying beneath the waves at the other end of the planet.

It's not in good condition. While the centre of the ship is relatively intact, there is a lot of damage at the stern and the bow has split into two.

But it's become a reef of life, says Leighton Rolley.

"It's full of fish, it's got corals growing on it - it's become one with the ocean."

Sir Keir Starmer's former chief of staff Baroness Sue Gray has challenged the government's plan to limit a civil service internship scheme to working-class students.

The Labour peer questioned the "evidence base" behind last month's decision to restrict a Whitehall internship to students from "lower socio-economic backgrounds".

The government argued the change will bring in "more working-class young people" widening the talent pool for a civil service that will "truly reflect the country".

But Baroness Gray told peers she was "from the most working class of backgrounds" but had "learned a lot from being around people from different walks of life".

From October 2026, Whitehall's main internship scheme designed to attract university students to the civil service will now only be available for students from "lower socio-economic backgrounds" - judged by what jobs their parents did when they were 14.

Those who are successful on the internship will then be prioritised for entry to the Fast Stream, the main graduate programme for entry to the civil service.

But Baroness Gray said: "As a former civil servant from the most working class of backgrounds, and I'm sure there are very good intentions here, I would have found it really difficult when I joined the civil service to not have a wider group that I actually was exposed to, and I learned so much from that.

"I would like to know what the evidence base is for actually reaching this conclusion, because I do think it's good intentioned, but I think there are other ways that the civil service can be opened up as well."

Labour minister Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent said this was one of the "rare" occasions she "disagreed" with Baroness Gray.

"This is not about stopping the civil service being a meritocracy. It is ensuring that the meritocracy is available to everyone, regardless of where you were born," she said

Earlier, Tory shadow Cabinet Office minister Baroness Finn pointed out that the current rules made clear a person's selection for work in the civil service "must be on merit on the basis of fair and open competition".

She said: "The changes proposed by the government to the summer internship programme would allow the child of a mechanic, an electrician or even possibly a toolmaker to apply, but discriminate against the child of a roofer, a taxi driver or a nurse, who would be deemed ineligible.

"Quite apart from dramatically reducing the range of talent, does she really believe that this is still a fair and open and indeed a sensible process?"

Baroness Gray, the daughter of Irish immigrants in 1950s Tottenham, grew up with a salesman father and a barmaid mother.

She joined the civil service straight from school after her father died when she was a teenager.

She became a household name as the Partygate investigator, and her critical report into Downing Street lockdown gatherings contributed to Boris Johnson's downfall in 2022.

She was poached from the civil service by Labour to lead Sir Keir Starmer's office as the party prepared for government ahead of the 2024 election, but infighting forced her out within 100 days of victory.

Since joining the House of Lords she has used her speeches to warn about proposed cuts to the civil service, criticising those who call public servants "pen pushers".

Making her maiden speech in the House of Lords, Baroness Gray said that the UK needs "public servants to succeed".

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A former US filmmaker has launched a High Court battle against an English council to gain control of the ancestral stately home he spent seven years trying to save from ruin.

Hopwood DePree has led an operation to safeguard historic Hopwood Hall in Middleton, Greater Manchester, since 2017, and says he complied with an agreement with Rochdale Borough Council that gave him the option to buy the building.

However, the council say he did not fulfil the conditions of the deal, and locked him out in November 2024.

DePree, who published a book called Downton Shabby in 2022 about his work to restore the hall, has now taken action in an attempt to be declared its legal owner.

'Shocking' conduct

DePree says his grandfather told him stories of "Hopwood Castle" as a child in Michigan, but that he only discovered the real hall existed while researching his family history in 2013.

Parts of the 60-room building date from the 1420s, but both direct heirs were killed in World War One and the last family members moved out in the 1920s.

It was derelict by the time DePree visited, and he says he was told in 2015 that it would be beyond repair in another five to 10 years.

He moved to the UK to spearhead the effort to save it, signing a deal with the council in 2017 saying he could buy the hall for £1 on the condition he gained planning permission to develop it.

DePree began work on the crumbling building and got planning permission in 2022 to refurbish it as an event and hospitality venue. He says he has spent £750,000 of his own money on the project.

But he says relations soured when the council's Rochdale Development Agency became more involved in 2024, and DePree's legal case accuses the agency of trying to "poison everything my team and I had worked so hard to achieve".

He claims the council stopped co-operating and went behind his back, and that their conduct has been "evasive, misleading and at times shocking".

A council spokesperson said: "We don't comment on ongoing legal discussions and don't intend to elaborate on previous statements we have made on this subject."

The council has previously said any sale would depend on DePree having "a commercially viable business model to secure the long term future of the hall".

Last November, the council said it had decided not to renew the option agreement after consultants said his plans were "unlikely to be able to secure future public or private funding".

At that time, a council spokesman said DePree "had not been able to produce a viable proposal, despite having had seven years to do so", which it said was a condition of the sale. The authority said it "had a responsibility to explore alternative options" in order to "protect the public monies invested to date".

In November, council leader Neil Emmott said: "Mr DePree was asked to meet a number of conditions when we entered into our agreement with him. We would be failing in our duty to protect our historic assets if we didn't hold Mr DePree to the terms of this agreement."

The council said it spent £557,000 between 2017 and 2024 for essential repairs, with almost £1m contributed by Historic England. The council said it was now spending a further £700,000 on roof repairs and a feasibility study.

According to DePree's legal documents, the council has also argued that the planning permission was insufficient to meet the terms for a sale under the agreement. He is disputing that.

He is also disputing whether he needed to provide a "viable" business model to comply with the conditions for a sale, and his court papers say he does have "a clear vision, a plan and the resources to rescue Hopwood Hall".

'No other choice'

DePree told BBC News he believes he has complied with his end of the agreement.

"When I took the project on, the hall was just a few years from completely falling down and becoming a ruin," he said.

"We worked so hard and poured everything into it. I moved countries. I got British citizenship. I left behind a life and sold my home. I went through so much with the belief that the council was being open and honest with me, and I trusted them."

He added: "Ultimately I had an agreement that I signed with them that I fulfilled. My lawyers feel that we fulfilled that, and the council went against that, and I felt that I had no other choice other than to file court proceedings against them."

DePree and his family are involved in property development, and he sold his home in the Hollywood Hills to help fund the project.

In his former life, DePree was an actor, writer, producer and director whose early attempts to make it big in Hollywood were depicted in low-budget documentary Rhinoskin: The Making of a Movie Star.

He wrote, directed and appeared in the well-received independent rom-com The Last Big Attraction, and produced the 2010 drama Virginia starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris.

Valentine Low's eminently readable, behind-the-scenes book about the royals has been making headlines, including how Queen Camilla fended off a sexual assault when she was a teenager.

Power and the Palace, published next week and written by the former royal correspondent for The Times, explores the tangled relationship between the royals and the world of politics.

From nightcaps on the royal train to discussions over the Coronation budget, here are some of the most eye-catching anecdotes in the book:

1. Queen Camilla fought off a sexual assault and got the perpetrator arrested, in an incident that took place on a train to London when she was a teenager in the 1960s, Low says in the book.

The author says the Queen told Boris Johnson the story of her experience in 2008 when he was mayor of London. Johnson's former communications director, Gutto Harri, told Low the details of that conversation.

"I did what my mother taught me to. I took off my shoe and whacked him in the nuts with the heel," Camilla is said to have told Johnson.

According to this account, Camilla was "self-possessed enough when they arrived at Paddington to jump off the train, find a guy in uniform and say 'That man just attacked me,' and he was arrested".

Buckingham Palace has a policy of not commenting on claims in books.

But a source close to the Queen said: "If some good comes of this publication, which is that the wider issues are discussed, it de-stigmatises the whole topic and empowers girls today to take action and seek help and to talk about it, then that's a good outcome."

It's a story that certainly is in keeping with Queen Camilla's outspoken campaigning against domestic abuse and violence against women.

She has visited women's refuges, challenged the taboos surrounding domestic abuse and at a reception for International Women's Day held up stones that in 1914 been thrown by suffragettes to break windows in Buckingham Palace.

2. What whisky for a royal nightcap? Michael Gove, while he was environment secretary in 2018, was said to have been invited for a late drink with the then Prince of Wales in the royal train - a dedicated train for monarchs since Queen Victoria's reign.

The drink was a Laphroaig whisky - a smoky, peaty Scottish malt, like pouring a wistful but rather melancholy highland walk into a tumbler.

Gove, on a trip with the prince, was advised not to expect a big breakfast the next morning, with Charles said to prefer a "tiny little vase of fruit and then some pressed fruit juice concoction, sort of beetroot and ginger or whatever".

3. Boris Johnson was late for a meeting in 2008 with the then Prince Charles because he'd travelled in the wrong direction on the London underground. He made sure he wouldn't be late for the next meeting by going on his bike.

That seemed to amuse Camilla, but Charles and Johnson were said to have had a frosty relationship, including a dispute over his government's plan to process asylum applications in Rwanda years later.

4. Queen Elizabeth II was a Remainer. The late Queen was careful to avoid public interventions in political matters, but the author says she was instinctively against the upheaval of Brexit.

The author quotes royal insiders and an unnamed senior minister, who said the Queen had been frustrated by some of the European Union's bureaucracy, but on balance she thought it was better to remain.

The Queen saw the EU as part of the post-war settlement that she supported, according to the book's sources.

There are other glimpses of the late Queen's dealings with politicians. She got on well with Harold Wilson and John Major but had a much more tense relationship with Margaret Thatcher.

Queen Elizabeth personally rang Tony Blair to congratulate him when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Northern Ireland in 1998. "I thought, I bet she doesn't do this often," Blair is quoted as saying.

There were other unexpected interventions. She is said to have raised concerns with ministers that defence cuts should not threaten the Army's School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming.

5. "Does he always do that thing with you?" That was the question put by Charles to then Prime Minister Tony Blair, about Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. The author says Prescott was in a "class of his own when it came to discomfiting Charles".

Charles is said to have explained: "When he's sitting opposite you, he slides down the seat with his legs apart, his crotch pointing a little menacingly, and balances his teacup and saucer on his tummy. It's very odd."

"Was it, asked Charles, a 'sign of hostility or class enmity?' No, said Blair. 'He just likes drinking his tea that way," writes Low.

6. 'Hardball' over funding. The book reveals negotiations over public funding for the royals when the Sovereign Grant was introduced in 2012 - and presents the Palace as cannier about money than their counterparts in Westminster.

When concerns were raised that the link with the Crown Estate profits might prove over-generous, and was likely to inflate the value of the annual grant, Low says the Palace played "hardball" and stuck to the deal.

As the BBC showed earlier this year, there was indeed a significant increase over time, with public funding trebling in real terms, to pay for repairs to Buckingham Palace.

7. Coronation showcase. It was the government, rather than the Palace, that wanted to make sure that the Coronation of King Charles III in 2022 was a well-funded spectacle.

While the Palace was wary of anything too ostentatious when people were struggling to pay their bills, the "very clear guidance" from government was there should be no cut-price ceremony and that there should be a "maximalist" approach.

In the end, the Coronation cost £72m, including £22m for policing costs.

Power and the Palace, by Valentine Low. Headline Press. Published 11 September.

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Zack Polanski's sweary, brash and blunt victory video on social media said everything about how the Green Party of England and Wales is under new leadership.

His landslide victory is the latest case study in how the political kaleidoscope between and within political parties has been given another colourful shake.

Disillusionment with those parties perceived as part of the establishment, whatever that is and however people choose to define it, has been a headache first for the Conservatives and now for Labour.

But it has been a boon for the plenty of others spared that perception, across the political spectrum.

The challenge for Labour in particular, already under the cosh from Reform UK and Nigel Farage, is they now confront a cacophony of blunt-speaking, digitally-savvy communicators to their Left – Jeremy Corbyn, Zarah Sultana and Zack Polanski among them – nibbling away at an already shrivelling supporter base.

If we then add in the Gaza independents in Parliament and those beyond who one day hope to join them, that attrition to Sir Keir Starmer's coalition goes further.

But Polanski's triumph isn't without challenge for the Greens, or the wider Left.

Could they end up cannibalising each other's support?

In no time after Polanski's victory, the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had publicly heaped praise on him.

The new Green leader reciprocated with public praise for Corbyn on Radio 4 shortly afterwards.

But could they end up falling out?

The former Labour leader and the former Labour, now independent MP Zarah Sultana are in the process of setting up their own party and on the face of it Polanski's Greens and this new outfit could be chasing the very same voters.

Maybe they can collaborate, but the potential for awkwardness isn't difficult to spot.

Where does all this leave the Green Party?

It is a party that has long leant Left, but whose current parliamentary coalition takes in parts of Suffolk and Herefordshire, the seats of Polanski's vanquished rivals.

Adrian Ramsay and Ellie Chowns, in tone, style and emphasis personify the previously big C and still small C conservatism of their patches.

How might folk there react to the sweary bluntness and brash left-wingery of the Green's new front man?

After a record-breaking general election result last year, in which they assembled a sufficiently broad coalition of support to win parliamentary seats in Labour-facing urban patches and Conservative-facing rural ones, are they now dispensing with that delicate balance?

Outwardly, the answer to that appears to be yes and that worries some in the party.

Perhaps a punchily-delivered message can deepen their support in some places.

But will it narrow their potential in others?

Let's see.

Former UK deputy prime minister Sir Nick Clegg has accused right-wing US politicians, including JD Vance, of "rank hypocrisy" for attacking UK speech laws while silencing dissent at home.

Since coming to office this year, the US vice president has repeatedly criticised measures like the UK's Online Safety Act and claimed free speech in Europe was "in retreat".

Sir Nick accused Vance of an "outrageous double standard" for attacking UK free speech laws while trying to "intimidate and bully" critics.

The ex-Lib Dem leader, who until last year was Mark Zuckerberg's deputy at Meta, warned Silicon Valley's ties with the Trump administration were starting to look like "Chinese-style cooperation".

In February, Vance used his first international speech since taking office to berate close US allies over immigration and speech laws.

During his speech at the Munich Security Conference, Vance cited the conviction of a British army veteran for silently praying outside an abortion clinic as proof that "basic liberties of religious Britons" were under threat.

Speaking to BBC Newsnight, Sir Nick said he "cannot stand the rank hypocrisy" of senior right-wing American politicians "flying first class or by private jet over to the United Kingdom and declaring that somehow there is excessive censorship in the UK and then flying back to the US to basically intimidate and bully and cow their own opponents".

He said the behaviour of many in the Trump administration "is flagrantly contrary to American principles of free expression".

Asked if he included JD Vance among these figures, Sir Nick said: "That includes them all.

"I think it is an outrageous example of double standards."

Yet Sir Nick warns the UK is "over-censorious" online, citing police making 30 arrests a day for offensive posts.

He warns crackdowns on online "speech that is offensive, unpleasant, vile" but not illegal open the door to political abuse.

"Part of the definitions of living in a free society is that you can say things that are offensive and other people violently disagree with," Sir Nick said.

Over-censoring offensive but legal speech empowered figures like Nigel Farage who "will get more of a hearing the more imprecise these boundaries are".

At the same time, he said age verification rules in the Online Safety Act aimed at preventing young people from encountering harmful content "did not go far enough".

The former Liberal Democrat leader, who served as deputy PM to David Cameron in 2010's coalition government, swapped Westminster for Silicon Valley after losing his Sheffield Hallam seat to Labour in the 2017 general election.

In 2022, he was promoted to a senior role by Zuckerberg, with responsibility for policy as well as communication and a reported bonus of £10m on top of his £2.7m annual salary.

But he left the company in January just weeks before Donald Trump returns to the White House after the president repeatedly accused Meta and other platforms of censorship and silencing conservative speech.

Sir Nick used his Newsnight interview to attack Silicon Valley's relationship with Donald Trump, which he said was starting to look like "Chinese-style cooperation".

Tech firms were beginning to resemble the "politically directed companies of China," he argued, despite their criticism of Chinese authoritarianism.

Seeing tech bosses like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mr Zuckerberg line up behind Donald Trump at his inauguration in January was "one of the reasons where I thought probably it's time to move on from Silicon Valley".

"Private sector enterprise and ingenuity and innovation thrives best when it's kept at a certain sort of arm's length from politics and politicians," he added.

Sir Nick, who is promoting his forthcoming book How to Save the Internet, said: "There's only one thing worse than having politicians and business people at each other's throats - it's having them in each other's pockets."

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Cardi B was cleared of assault by a Los Angeles jury after a security guard sued her for $24 million in a fingernail attack.

Emani Ellis alleged that the US rapper cut her cheek with a 3in (7.5cm) fingernail and spat on her outside an obstetrician's office in 2018. The rapper was pregnant at the time, which wasn't public knowledge.

The civil trial in Alhambra led to a series of viral moments as the rapper took the stand and offered colourful testimony about the incident and her fashion choices.

She told the court that the guard followed her and filmed her on her phone and wouldn't give her space or privacy. Ms Ellis, though, said it left her "traumatised".

The jury took only about an hour to clear the Grammy-winning rapper of the allegations of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress as well as negligence and false imprisonment.

The case revolved around Cardi B's obstetrics appointment, when she was four months pregnant with her first child. The office closed for the day to shield her privacy, as her pregnancy was not publicly known.

Cardi B acknowledged to the court that she and Ms Ellis had a profanity-laden shouting match after she showed up to the doctor's appointment. She said it was very heated - but she denied ever touching the guard or spitting on her.

The rapper testified about that day, telling the court that when she stepped out of an elevator, Ms Ellis, who was working as a security guard in the building, told someone on the phone about her appointment for a pregnancy that wasn't yet public knowledge.

• 'Which one is your real hair?' Why Cardi B's wigs and nails baffled lawyers in court
• Cardi B denies scratching and spitting on security guard

The performer, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, added that Ms Ellis appeared to record her on her phone and refused to "back up", before a face-to-face "verbal altercation" ensued.

She admitted shouting an obscenity at Ms Ellis while telling her to "get out of my face".

Her lawyer noted how the star had "feared for her unborn baby" and hadn't discussed the news of her pregnancy publicly yet.

Her case was bolstered by testimony from the doctor she was there to see and his receptionist - Tierra Malcolm - who rushed between the arguing women in an attempt to break up the fight.

Ms Malcolm testified that Ms Ellis was the aggressor and that the security guard was swinging her arms in an apparent attempt to hit Cardi B, which resulted in a cut on Ms Malcolm's head.

Cardi B's testimony went viral as she changed wigs and outfits each day of the trial - the length of her fingernails becoming a focus multiple times in the case.

During closing arguments, Cardi B wore a black and white polka dot suit with a red bow, her black hair tied up.

Since this is not a criminal case - but a civil one - the jury had been asked to decide if Cardi B should be held liable for injuring Ms Ellis and, how much, if anything she should pay the security guard for pain and suffering.

Cardi B testified that she's being sued for $24 million and that Ms Ellis was looking for a payout. Ms Ellis' attorney in closing arguments said that it was up to the jury to decide a dollar amount to compensate Ms Ellis.

Ultimately, the jury cleared the rapper entirely in the case.

Outside the courthouse in Los Angeles County, a handful of fans showed up to support the rapper.

Christine Orozco who lives near the court showed up with a hand drawn sign that read, "If the nail don't fit, u must acquit," a pun referencing another Los Angeles celebrity trial - that of OJ Simpson, where the gloves, not the fingernails, were a subject of debate. She said Cardi B read the sign and laughed.

"She had a round tip that day, not a sharp tip," Ms Orozco said of Cardi B's fingernails. "She read the sign. She was squinting to see it. She laughed."

Tens of thousands of protesters, in capital cities across Australia, took to the streets on 24 August to advocate for Palestinians, condemn the Israeli government for their actions in Gaza, and urge their own government to respond more strongly to the devastation unfolding there.

They were reinforcing pressure that had been well-established weeks earlier, on 3 August, when a colossal gathering marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge in one of the largest political demonstrations ever held in Australia.

A lot had changed since then, diplomatically speaking. Between them, the protests bookended a month in which Australia-Israel relations nosedived to an all-time low – a spectacular falling out that has seen officials' visas cancelled, vitriol spouted in both directions, and claims and denials of Israeli "intervention" in Australia's political affairs following the expulsion of Iran's ambassador.

Many demonstrators on 24 August, however, were still calling for the same things – sanctions against Israel; the end of a "two-way arms trade" that sees Australia supplying parts used in Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) weaponry.

And while Australia-Israel relations appear to have shifted in recent weeks – "It really is quite a change," one expert told the BBC - exactly how much is a subject of debate.

How we got here

This week, the world's leading association of genocide scholars declared that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, as per the legal definition laid out in the UN convention.

The report by the International Association of Genocide Scholars noted the widespread attacks on both the personnel and facilities needed for survival - including in the healthcare, aid, and educational sectors - as well as the 50,000 children killed or injured by Israel.

Israel said the report was based on "Hamas lies", and has consistently denied carrying out genocide in Gaza.

This comes as the IDF expands its operation – launching a massive assault on Gaza City despite widespread international and domestic opposition – and the primary UN-backed global hunger monitor confirms a famine in the territory.

More than half a million people are facing "catastrophic" conditions characterised by "starvation, destitution and death", the monitor said last week, noting that the situation is "entirely man-made", with aid organisations accusing Israel of the "systematic obstruction" of food entering the Gaza Strip.

Such developments, coupled with growing public outrage, seem to have precipitated a change of tone from the Australian government.

Days after the Sydney Harbour Bridge march, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese followed the UK, France and Canada in announcing that Australia would conditionally recognise a Palestinian state.

Albanese later told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that the decision was partly motivated by a phone call with Netanyahu that made it clear the Israeli prime minister was "in denial" about the situation in Gaza.

In Australia, the move drew backlash from both pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups.

Amal Naser, a third-generation Palestinian refugee, called it a "distraction".

"We need much more from the Australian government for them to satisfy their obligations under international law," Ms Naser, an organiser with the Palestine Action Group (not affiliated with the UK-based group Palestine Action) which arranged the protests on 3 and 24 August, told the BBC following Albanese's pledge to recognise Palestine.

She described the Australian government's overall response as "nowhere near proportionate to the situation at hand".

"I don't object to [their pledge to recognise a Palestinian state], but I don't support it either," she said. "The Australian government have not taken any material measures to comply with our international law obligations."

Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, similarly said that he was "bitterly disappointed" by Albanese's announcement – though for different reasons.

"After the announcements by the British, the Canadians and the French, we thought it was pretty imminent. But it still came as a body blow to the community," he said, characterising the move as "gesture politics that really undermines the actual cause of peace on the ground".

"From all my conversations with ordinary members of the [Jewish] community, up and down the country... there's a great frustration with the government," he added. "It's clearly a low point in nearly 80 years of diplomatic relations between the countries."

Perhaps the strongest response, however, came from Netanyahu himself.

On 18 August, the Israeli prime minister wrote a letter to Albanese in which he accused him of pouring "fuel on this antisemitic fire" and described Australia's planned recognition of Palestine as "appeasement" towards Hamas.

The comments echoed earlier rebukes levelled at the UK, France and Canada, whom Netanyahu accused of siding with "mass murderers, rapists, baby killers and kidnappers" in their calls for Palestinian statehood.

But in Australia's case, things went further.

The same day that news broke of Netanyahu's letter to Albanese, Australia's home affairs minister, Tony Burke, confirmed that far-right Israeli politician Simcha Rothman – a member of Netanyahu's coalition – had been denied entry into Australia ahead of an upcoming "solidarity tour".

Israel in turn revoked the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority, the internationally-backed governing body of the Palestinians, which is based in the West Bank.

The day after, on 19 August, Netanyahu ramped up his rhetoric against Albanese, describing him as a "weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia's Jews". Two days after that, in an interview with Australia's Sky News, he claimed Albanese's record would be "forever tarnished" by the decision to recognise a Palestinian state.

Albanese dismissed Netanyahu's rebukes, telling reporters he does not "take these things personally".

"I treat leaders of other countries with respect, I engage with them in a diplomatic way," he said.

But Burke responded with stronger language, telling the ABC that Netanyahu was "lashing out".

"Strength is not measured by how many people you can blow up or how many people you can leave hungry," he said.

Why now?

The public row has sunk Australia-Israel relations to a nadir.

Ian Parmeter, a research scholar at Australia National University's Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies who spent decades working across Australian government departments, says he's never seen the two countries' relations in a worse state.

As he puts it: "Australia has generally had a very pro-Israel foreign policy."

"This is language I haven't heard from an Australian prime minister talking about Israel in all my time working on foreign policy issues," he told the BBC.

In the aftermath of Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 others taken hostage, Australia remained steadfast in its support of its democratic ally – expressing solidarity, insisting on Israel's right to defend itself and resisting calls to censure it despite mounting civilian death tolls.

In the time since 7 October, almost 62,900 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Mr Parmeter suggests that Australia's recent change of tack was likely motivated by two major factors: Netanyahu's denial of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and his escalation of plans to seize control of the entire territory.

Another, he adds, would have been the Sydney Harbour Bridge march, which "made clear that there was a very strong mood among the Australian people for the government to do something – even if it was symbolic".

What has actually changed?

Pro-Palestinian advocates, however, believe that the Australian government's increasingly frosty approach to Israel is little more than empty symbolism, and the falling out between the two governments merely a diplomatic melodrama that conceals a controversial alliance.

Protesters on 3 and 24 August put forth specific demands of the "something" that they wanted the Australian government to do. But prominent voices within the pro-Palestinian movement note that, behind the scenes, the situation is largely business as usual.

"[We had] one of the largest marches in Australian history, with the clear demand to sanction Israel and end the two-way arms trade," Ms Naser said, echoing calls made by numerous human rights groups including Amnesty International. "I think the Australian government has had to make an urgent move to essentially appease the masses. But they haven't gone far enough."

Australia supplies parts used in Israel's F-35 fighter jets, which Israel has used in operations in Gaza – most notably, the mechanism that opens the aircraft's bomb-bay doors, which is not manufactured by any other country.

The Australian government denies allegations that it supplies arms to Israel, with foreign affairs minister Penny Wong arguing that they only supply "components and parts that are non-lethal in nature" - though by the UN definition this still counts as part of the arms trade.

Against that backdrop, some in the pro-Palestinian camp are questioning the sincerity and efficacy of the Australian government's posturing towards Israel.

Other demands from pro-Palestinian activists include stronger Australian sanctions on Israel - to date, the government has imposed financial and travel sanctions on two far-right Israeli ministers, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich - and the expulsion of Israel's ambassador from Australia.

Instead, the Australian government last week took action that Israel applauded: ordering Iran's ambassador to leave the country based on allegations that the Iranian government directed antisemitic attacks in Sydney and Melbourne.

Intelligence services linked Iran to an arson attack on a café in Sydney in October last year, and another on a synagogue in Melbourne in December, Albanese told a press conference. It is the first time Australia has expelled an ambassador since World War Two. Iran has "absolutely rejected" the allegations.

Israel, meanwhile, took credit for the move, with Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer suggesting that it was prompted by Netanyahu's "forthright intervention" and criticisms.

"The relationship between this country and Australia was damaged, and so it's welcome that after Prime Minister Netanyahu's timely intervention that these actions have been taken by Australia's government," Mencer told reporters.

The Australian government has dismissed the suggestion that Israeli interference played a role, with Burke, Australia's home affairs minister, telling the ABC it was "complete nonsense".

The incident highlights the diplomatic tightrope that Australia is struggling to walk.

On the domestic front, discontent about Australia's position towards Israel continues to simmer on both sides - while experts suggest that the diplomatic spat is unlikely to have a lasting impact in either country.

"The actual statistics don't indicate that this is a major relationship for us," Mr Parmeter says. "Does Australia lose much? Not really at this stage.

"I have no doubt that all of this will eventually be healed, because the human ties between Australia and Israel are strong."

Additional reporting by Tiffanie Turnbull

Kim Jong Un's arrival in China for his first ever multilateral meeting was always going to make headlines.

But it was the smartly-dressed girl standing just behind him as he exited his armoured train which caught Korea watchers' attention: Kim Ju Ae, the North Korean leader's daughter.

According to South Korea's spy agency, Miss Kim is her father's most likely successor.

But details - including her exact age - are thin on the ground. So what exactly do we know?

Miss Kim has, for a number of years, been believed to be the second of Kim Jong Un's and his wife, Ri Sol-Ju's, three children. The exact number, and their order, is by no means certain however: Kim is very secretive about his family, only introducing his wife to the public after they had been married for some time.

Kim Ju Ae is their only child whose existence has been confirmed by the country's leadership. No other child has been seen in public.

News of her existence first emerged through an unlikely source: the basketball player Dennis Rodman, who revealed to The Guardian newspaper back in 2013 that he "held their baby Ju Ae" during a trip to the secretive state.

Little was then heard about her until November 2022, when she appeared alongside her father at the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

By February the next year, she was appearing on postage stamps and attending banquets for top officials - described as Kim Jong Un's "respected" daughter.

The adjective "respected" is reserved for North Korea's most revered. In her father's case, he was referred to as "respected comrade" only after his status as future leader was cemented.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) provided lawmakers with a few extra details on the little girl at around the same time, according to news agency AP.

They said she enjoyed horse riding, skiing and swimming, and was home-schooled in the capital Pyongyang. They suggested she was around 10 years old.

By January 2024, the NIS had come to another conclusion: that the little girl was the "most likely" successor to Kim Jong Un - although they noted there were "many variables" still in play, not least because of her father's young age.

Since then, she has appeared by her father's side on numerous occasions. Standing next to him at ICBM launches and military parades, she has taken centre stage and received military salutes from senior military commanders.

But Tuesday marked the first time she has been seen outside North Korea, and the trip is likely to further fuel speculation she may succeed her father.

The Kim family, who have ruled North Korea since 1948, tell citizens they hail from a sacred bloodline, meaning only they can lead the country.

However, there is speculation that Kim has introduced his daughter at this point to try to overcome prejudice in the deeply patriarchal state, which has never been led by a woman.

A council seeking to stop an Epping hotel from housing asylum seekers has lost a legal attempt to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Epping Forest District Council had secured a temporary injunction from the High Court which would have forced migrants to leave The Bell Hotel in Epping, Essex, by 12 September.

That was overturned by Court of Appeal judges last week and has been followed by the same court ruling the case cannot go to the Supreme Court, although the council said it can now make a direct request to the higher court.

After months of demonstrations at the hotel, Conservative council leader Chris Whitbread called for protesters to consider stepping away as the town was "under great strain".

The council had argued at the High Court that the site owner, Somani Hotels, had breached planning rules by not notifying the local authority of its plans for The Bell.

But the company and the Home Office – which places migrants at the site – successfully overturned the injunction at the Court of Appeal.

A full High Court hearing to discuss a permanent injunction is scheduled for October.

However, in the meantime, the council is considering applying directly to the Supreme Court - the UK's highest court of appeal - about the temporary injunction being denied.

Mr Whitbread said: "We believe the Court of Appeal decision to overturn the interim injunction for the closure of The Bell Hotel was wrong.

"However, this is not the end of the matter. We consider we have a strong case for a final injunction... expected to be heard some time in early October.

"In the meantime, the council is keeping all our options open, including seeking permission from the Supreme Court to appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal."

The council said it was given "no reasons" by the Court of Appeal for denying permission for the case to be taken to the Supreme Court.

There are 138 asylum seekers housed at the Bell, with dozens of people arrested in connection with disorder near the hotel, many of whom have since been charged.

With many children returning to school for the first day of term on Wednesday, Conservative councillor Mr Whitbread urged potential protesters to show restraint as local people were "under great strain".

"I support the right of local people to peacefully protest," he said.

"However, following further disturbances and arrests by Essex Police, I am approaching the other group leaders on Epping Forest District Council and other community leaders to jointly ask protesters to reflect on whether they continue with the twice-weekly local protests.

"If you choose to continue, it should be done considerately and calmly, with awareness of the impact on local residents and the local economy.

"As schools return this week, I appeal to the protest organisers to show restraint and give our families and children some much needed respite."

The recent wave of protests followed the arrest and subsequent charging of one of the hotel's residents with several offences including the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.

Hadush Kebatu, who is from Ethiopia, is on trial and denies the offences.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has left Pyongyang for China, where he will be attending a military parade in the capital Beijing, media reports say.

The "Victory Day" parade, which takes place on Wednesday, will see Kim rub shoulders with China's President Xi Jinping, Russia's Vladimir Putin and other world leaders - making it his first multilateral international meeting.

Kim left the North Korean capital on Monday evening onboard his armoured train, which is said to include a restaurant car serving fine French wines and dishes like fresh lobster.

The train's heavy protection means it travels slowly, and Kim's journey is expected to take up to 24 hours, according to South Korea's Yonhap agency.

Kim's attendance marks the first time a North Korean leader has attended a Chinese military parade since 1959. He will be among 26 other heads of states - including leaders from Myanmar, Iran and Cuba - in attendance.

His attendance is an upgrade from China's last Victory Day parade in 2015, when Pyongyang sent one of its top officials, Choe Ryong-hae.

The reclusive leader rarely travels abroad, with his recent contact with world leaders limited to Putin, who he's met twice since Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He last visited Beijing in 2019 for an event marking the 70th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the countries. That trip also saw him travel by train.

The tradition of travelling via train was started by Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung - who took his own train trips to Vietnam and Eastern Europe.

Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, travelled by train as well as he was reportedly afraid of flying.

According to one South Korean news outlet, the armoured train has around 90 carriages, including conference rooms, audience chambers and bedrooms.

Tens of thousands of military personnel will march in formation through Beijing's historic Tiananmen Square on the day of the parade, which will mark the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War Two and the end of the conflict.

The 70-minute parade is likely to feature China's latest weaponry, including hundreds of aircraft, tanks and anti-drone systems - the first time its military's new force structure is being fully showcased in a parade.

Most Western leaders are not expected to attend the parade, due to their opposition to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has driven the sanctions against Putin's regime.

But it will see leaders from Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Vietnam in attendance - further proof of Beijing's concerted efforts to ramp up ties with neighbouring South East Asia.

Just one EU leader will be attending - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico - while Bulgaria and Hungary will send representatives.