Six crew members have been rescued and at least three others killed after a cargo ship was attacked by Yemen's Houthis and sank in the Red Sea, a European naval mission says.

The Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated Eternity C was carrying 25 crew when it sustained significant damage and lost all propulsion after being hit by rocket-propelled grenades fired from small boats on Monday, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency.

The attack continued on Tuesday and search rescue operations commenced overnight.

The Iran-backed Houthis said they attacked the Eternity C because it was heading to Israel, and that they took an unspecified number of crew to a "safe location".

The US embassy in Yemen said the Houthis had kidnapped "many surviving crew members" and called for their immediate release.

Authorities in the Philippines said 21 of the crew were citizens. Another of them is a Russian national who was severely wounded in the attack and lost a leg.

It is the second vessel the Houthis have sunk in a week, after the group on Sunday launched missiles and drones at another Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated cargo ship, Magic Seas, which they claimed "belong[ed] to a company that violated the entry ban to the ports of occupied Palestine".

Video footage released by the Houthis on Tuesday showed armed men boarding the vessel and setting off a series of explosions which caused it to sink.

All 22 crew of Magic Seas were safely rescued by a passing merchant vessel.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted around 70 merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

They have now sunk four ships, seized a fifth, and killed at least seven crew members.

The group has said it is acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed - often falsely - that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK, which have carried out air strikes on Yemen in response.

On Wednesday the EU's naval mission in the Red Sea, Operation Aspides, said it was participating in the international response to the attack on the Eternity C and that "currently six castaway crew members have been recovered from the sea".

An Aspides official told AFP news agency that five were Filipinos and one was Indian, and that 19 others were still missing.

The Greece-based maritime security firm Diaplous released a video on Wednesday that showed the rescue of at least five seafarers who it said had spent more then 24 hours in the water, according to Reuters news agency.

"We will continue to search for the remaining crew until the last light," Diaplous said.

Reuters also cited maritime security firms as saying that the death toll was four.

The US state department condemned the attacks on the Magic Seas and Eternity C, which it said "demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security".

"The United States has been clear: we will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks, which must be condemned by all members of the international community."

In May, the Houthis agreed a ceasefire deal with the US following seven weeks of intensified US strikes on Yemen in response to the attacks on international shipping.

However, they said the agreement did not include an end to attacks on Israel, which has conducted multiple rounds of retaliatory strikes on Yemen.

The secretary-general of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) called for intensified diplomatic efforts following the new wave of attacks.

"After several months of calm, the resumption of deplorable attacks in the Red Sea constitutes a renewed violation of international law and freedom of navigation," Arsenio Dominguez said.

"Innocent seafarers and local populations are the main victims of these attacks and the pollution they cause," he warned.

Author Raynor Winn has hit back at a newspaper investigation that claimed she gave misleading information about her life story in her 2018 book The Salt Path.

The Observer reported she had misrepresented the events that led to she and her husband losing their house and setting off on a 630-mile walk. The investigation also cast doubt over the nature of her husband's illness. Winn denied the allegations and said she was taking legal advice.

In a lengthy statement posted on her website on Wednesday, Winn responded in detail to the claims made in the Observer.

She provided documents that appeared to confirm her husband Moth had previously been diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration (CBD).

She also stood by her description of how the couple came to lose their house and denied the couple had any outstanding debts.

However, Winn acknowledged making "mistakes" earlier in her career, after the Observer said she had defrauded her previous employer of £64,000. She said it had been a pressured time.

"Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry," she said, but added the case had been settled between her and her ex-employer on a "non-admissions basis" and although she was questioned by the police, she was not charged.

BBC News has contacted the journalist who wrote the Observer article for a response.

How has Raynor Winn responded to the allegations?

• The Observer said it had spoken to several medical experts who were sceptical about Moth having CBD, also known as CBS, given his long survival after diagnosis, lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them.

Winn shared photographs of four documents that appeared to show medical experts acknowledging or referring to Moth's condition or symptoms.

One letter appears to show that Moth had previously been considered as having an "atypical form of corticobasal degeneration", but further examination suggested he may have "an even more unusual disorder, perhaps monogenetic".

Winn said a CBS diagnosis does not come from a simple test, "but rather from a long and complex route of observation, where sufferers may have symptoms for many years before they finally reach a diagnosis".

She added: "We will always be grateful that Moth's version of CBS is indolent, its slow progression has allowed us time to discover how walking helps him."

Winn said she had documented Moth's illness "with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations", adding: "My books have become a record of his health."

The Salt Path described how Moth's condition appeared to improve during and after the walk. But in her statement, Winn said: "I have never sought to offer medical advice in my books or suggest that walking might be some sort of miracle cure for CBS, I am simply charting Moth's own personal journey and battle with his illness, and what has helped him."

• The Observer said the couple had not lost their home in a bad business deal as Winn originally suggested, but after they were unable to repay £100,000 they had borrowed to repay money she had been accused of stealing from a previous employer

Winn acknowledged a dispute with her previous employer but said that was separate to the court case described in The Salt Path involving their friend, whom she had referred to as Cooper, which ultimately lost the couple their home.

Reiterating the events described in the book, Winn said Moth made an investment in Cooper's property portfolio, and when the investment was due to mature, Cooper said it had failed due to low occupancy.

Winn said Cooper promised to eventually pay the money back, and the couple asked for it to be returned in 2008. Instead, she said, Cooper offered them a loan through his company, assured against their home, with 18% interest, which he said he would cover.

But Winn said his company later went into liquidation without the charge on their home having been removed. As a result, the author said, their house was repossessed.

• Penguin says it did 'all necessary due diligence' with The Salt Path
• What are the allegations against The Salt Path author Raynor Winn?

• The Observer alleged Winn had stolen £64,000 from her previous employer's while she was working there.

Winn acknowledged working for the employer before the economic crash of 2008, saying it was a "pressured time".

"It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry," she said.

Winn said her employer had gone to the police, accusing her of taking money from the company. "I was questioned, I was not charged, nor did I face criminal sanctions," she said.

"I reached a settlement... because I did not have the evidence required to support what happened. The terms of the settlement were willingly agreed by both parties."

She said her employer was equally keen to reach a private resolution as she was, and the money she paid was on a "non-admissions basis".

• The Observer said the couple owned property in the south-west of France, but added it was not in a habitable state and reported locals saying the couple only camped on the land when they visited

Winn said: "What we own in France is an uninhabitable ruin in a bramble patch, on the boundary of a family member's property.

"It has missing walls, a collapsed roof, no running water, drainage, or electricity... We have never lived there, that would be impossible, and we haven't been there since 2007."

She said the insinuation that the pair were not homeless, the central premise of the book, was "utterly unfounded".

Winn said the couple did try to sell the land in 2013, around the same time as events depicted in the book, "but the local agent said it was virtually worthless and saw no point in marketing it".

Elsewhere in the statement, Winn disputed any suggestion that the couple had outstanding debts, and said a credit check would have proved this.

She said after receiving an advance for the book and over the subsequent years "I tracked down our remaining debts and now believe I have tracked down and repaid everyone".

Winn also explained why she and Moth are not known by their legal names of Timothy and Sally Walker.

The author said Winn was her maiden name, and she disliked her first name of Sally and decided to use her family name Raynor as a pen name. She also noted Moth was short for Timothy.

She denied the couple were "hiding behind pseudonyms" and said their friends use "Sal and Tim interchangeably with Ray and Moth".

Millions of British households are facing an average £107 rise in monthly mortgage payments as their deals expire, according to the Bank of England.

It has said that 3.6 million home loans are coming up for renewal over the next three years, equating to 41% of all outstanding mortgages.

But the number of mortgages facing expiry is less than the Bank of England had initially expected and the monthly hike is below the £146 increase it had first anticipated.

While some bills will rise, a fall in interest rates is slowly feeding its way into typical monthly mortgage payments following four cuts by the Bank of England since last August.

Around 2.5 million households, or 28% of mortgage holders, will see their bills fall in the next three years.

Meanwhile, first-time buyers are likely to get more access to mortgages as banks and building societies are allowed to loosen a cap on riskier lending.

In its latest Financial Stability Report, the Bank of England's governor Andrew Bailey said at present just under 10% of new mortgages issued exceed 4.5 times a borrower's income.

He said he would be happy to see that percentage rise.

Individual banks and building societies will be allowed to exceed a 15% limit on higher loan-to-value mortgages.

The looser cap comes after a call by the UK government for regulators to look for ways to encourage economic growth.

The Bank reckons the change could lead to up to 36,000 new higher loan-to-income mortgages a year.

But the mortgage lending industry as a whole will have to stick to a 15% limit on riskier home loans.

Elsewhere, the bank said financial instability across the globe had increased, after the US-led global trade war.

While there had been little direct impact so far on British households and companies, some significant changes were occurring to the global financial system.

In particular the traditional strengthening of the US dollar as a safe haven in times of turmoil appeared to have changed since the start of the global tariff war.

Investors and large companies who never previously felt the need to hedge or insure against a weak dollar were now doing so, the Bank said.

This has added to the weakness of the US dollar this year, which is already down about 10% against a range of currencies.

US president Donald Trump has said he wants a weaker dollar, arguing that will boost exports and US manufacturing jobs growth.

However, imported goods can get more expensive, adding to any price rises from tariffs.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed that "new and innovative solutions" are needed to tackle small boat crossings.

The UK is paying France hundreds of millions of pounds to stop the boats leaving the French coast but, so far this year, the numbers of migrants arriving in the UK this way - most of whom go on to claim asylum - have reached record levels.

France has claimed that one factor attracting them is the ability to "work without papers" in the UK economy.

BBC Verify looks at the evidence for this and other "pull factors" cited as reasons for asylum seekers to choose the UK as a destination.

The informal economy?

The French government has argued that asylum seekers come to the UK because they believe they will be able to work in its informal economy - where tax is not paid and people are employed without legal status and proper documentation.

Estimating the size of the informal economy is not simple for obvious reasons.

Nevertheless, one recent study from researchers at the European Parliament, suggests the size of the UK's was about 11% of the total economy in 2022.

This was actually lower than their estimate for France's at 14% and lower than the average of 31 European countries at 17%.

By its nature the UK's informal economy provides potential opportunities for asylum seekers - and other irregular migrants - to work illegally - and the UK government has accepted the need for more enforcement in this area.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described this as a potential "pull factor" earlier this week.

The Home Office has increased the number of visits to employers suspected of hiring unauthorised workers.

There were 10,031 visits and 7,130 arrests in the year since the July election, compared with 6,797 visits and 4,734 arrests in the same period last year.

The volume and value of fines issued has also increased.

In the year to March 2025, 2,171 fines were issued to employers worth a total of £111m. In the same period last year, there were 1,676 fines worth £31m.

There is no data on the type of businesses targeted but recent Home Office press releases have mentioned restaurants, nail bars and construction sites.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair - and a number of Labour MPs - have called for the introduction of UK-wide digital identification to help the government tackle "illegal 'off-the-books' employment".

Digital ID, which exists in many EU countries, could be used as a tool to check an individual's right to work and to clamp down on illegal working.

But given some of these countries also appear to have sizeable informal economies, it is unclear about how much impact digital IDs have in this area.

The legal economy?

Access to the legal labour market for asylum seekers, while they wait for their claims to be processed, is more restrictive in the UK than in many major European countries.

In the UK, they can apply for permission to work if they have been waiting for more than a year for an initial decision on their claim.

If granted, they can apply for jobs on the immigration salary list. There are no published figures on how many asylum seekers have been granted the right to work.

By contrast, in France asylum seekers can apply for a work permit six months after submitting their asylum application.

In Italy, they can seek employment 60 days after submitting their application.

Madeleine Sumption from Oxford University's Migration Observatory think tank said: "I'm a bit sceptical of the narrative you often hear from French politicians about the UK being a soft touch on right-to-work issues because we have broadly the same set of policies as they do and some of the same challenges on unauthorised workers."

She added that research suggests that the ability of asylum seekers to speak English over other European languages and existing family links with the UK are significant pull factors.

Another factor cited is the "general impression that the UK is a good place to live" - a message promoted by people smugglers trying to sell Channel crossings.

State support?

The majority of asylum seekers cannot access welfare benefits in the UK, but they do gain legal protections while awaiting a decision - including accommodation if they cannot support themselves financially.

They can get £49.18 per person per week loaded onto a pre-paid debit card if they are in self-catered accommodation. People receiving support in catered accommodation can get £9.95 per person per week.

Asylum seekers are generally entitled to free access to the NHS and can get some free childcare.

Children of asylum seekers are also entitled to state education and in some circumstances can qualify for free school meals.

This is in contrast to many of the migrants in Calais - hoping to cross into the UK - who have not applied for asylum in France and are not entitled to state support there, but do get limited help from charities.

Research suggests that benefits are not a significant pull factor for asylum seekers.

A 2021 paper by Aalborg University in Denmark, found that other factors, such as which countries are most likely to recognise refugee status as well as the ability to reunite with family are more influential.

Another paper, written by University of Essex professor Timothy Hatton in 2020, said border controls and processing policies have significant deterrent effects while welfare policies do not.

Ms Sumption says the findings indicate that "technical tweaks to your [benefit] system don't tend to have a big impact, [although] they may have some impact at the margins".

What about push factors?

When it comes to the overall numbers of asylum seekers, researchers also stress the importance of "push factors", such as conflict and repression in their home countries.

Some relevant context is that asylum applications have risen sharply in recent years not just in the UK, but across Europe.

Claims are up in countries like France, Germany, Spain and Italy since 2020 - and in 2024 they were higher in absolute numbers in those countries than the number of claims submitted in the UK.

Additional reporting by Tamara Kovacevic and Rob England

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The dream becomes a reality

The Metropolitan Police has written to alleged victims of the late businessman Mohamed Al Fayed apologising for the distress they have suffered because he will never face justice.

And in an unusual move, Scotland Yard also plans to send the women a video statement later this week to provide an update on its ongoing investigation.

The force has promised to answer questions about the investigation into what it has said are 40 allegations, including rape and sexual assault.

These relate to the former Harrods boss - who died in 2023, aged 94 - as well as others who may have enabled his abuse.

In the letter, Detective Chief Superintendent Angela Craggs, now leading the investigation, said she was "acutely aware the case is especially distressing to all those who have suffered".

"Not least due to the fact that the main suspect will now never directly face justice for his crimes, and for this I am truly sorry," she wrote.

But some of Al Fayed's accusers have suggested the Met needs to do more.

Speaking on behalf of a group of survivors, Pelham Spong, who says she was sexually assaulted by Al Fayed in her 20s, questioned whether Met is giving the case the "gravitas and attention" it deserves.

She told the BBC it was "difficult to place a huge amount of trust" in the police investigation.

Some 21 women accused the tycoon between 2005 and 2023, but he was never charged. One focus of the Met's inquiry is assessing whether anybody still alive enabled his activities, but there have been no charges.

Scotland Yard plans to send alleged victims a video statement on Friday, which could provide the first substantial update about the investigation since the Met asked potential victims or survivors to come forward last September.

The Met decided against holding a meeting, online or in-person, to update the women because of concerns about anonymity and the potential to harm testimony for any future trial.

DCS Craggs' letter describes the inquiry as a "large-scale investigation into the allegations made against Al Fayed and those who may be involved in his offending", which is being run by complex investigations team at the Met.

She wrote: "Some of you may have heard, and perhaps experienced dissatisfaction in previous investigations into Al Fayed by the Met and hence may have little confidence in us."

To address that she has asked for questions from the alleged victims, which will be answered in Friday's video statement.

Ms Spong, who lives in the US state of South Carolina and reported her 2008 encounter with Al Fayed in 2017, said: "My fear is that most of our questions will remain unanswered, and we'll merely be given vague promises of change and accountability with no real action.

"It is hard to know what to expect and it is difficult to place a huge amount of trust in the process when the police have ignored and silenced so many victims for several decades."

In 2017, detectives investigating some of the claims against Al Fayed while he was still alive were "unable to obtain an account from the suspect owing to his poor state of health", according to an email they sent to Ms Spong. The case was subsequently closed.

Ms Spong has complained to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the police complaints watchdog for England and Wales, that the Met failed to challenge this response from Al Fayed's lawyers.

The Met's inquiry has grown rapidly since the BBC broadcast the documentary "Predator at Harrods" in September 2024, which brought the wider claims against him into the open. The tycoon owned Harrods between 1985 and 2010.

The force has refused to put a timescale on its investigation. In February, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley said it was a live investigation, and he was not going to give a running commentary.

Separate civil cases involving hundreds of women are ongoing.

A spokesperson for the Met Police said, as well as the video briefing, one-to-one liaison between officers and alleged victims will continue.

"We continue to support all victims and we urge anyone with information, whether they were directly affected by Mohamed Al Fayed's actions or aware of others who may have been involved, or committed offences to come forward," the statement added.

"We cannot comment further at this time, but will provide an update as soon as we are able to and where this won't jeopardise criminal or other proceedings."

It was just two days after Christmas 2023 when Chris Marriott selflessly stepped in to help a stranger in need - a decision which led to him being fatally struck by a car used by its driver, Hassan Jhangur, as a weapon. What turned out to be the 46-year-old's final act of kindness came as no surprise to those who knew the father-of-two from Sheffield, who has since been described as a "modern day Good Samaritan".

Mr Marriott's life was tragically cut short on 27 December, a wet and gloomy Wednesday, after a sudden break in the weather had prompted him, as well as Bryony - his wife of 16 years - and their two children, to head out for a stroll in Burngreave.

Midwife Alison Norris and her family had similarly taken the opportunity to get some fresh air and walk their dog.

Both their routes took them past College Close, and it was there they all came across Nafeesa Jhangur, who was lying motionless in the road.

Mr Marriott and Ms Norris rushed over to help - an instinctive act of public spirit that unwittingly placed them in the middle of a volatile family dispute.

"I later found out his name was Chris," Ms Norris told the BBC.

"I didn’t know him, but I remember he was very sensible."

Recollecting the scene, Ms Norris said Mr Marriott "checked she was breathing, checked there was a pulse, called the ambulance".

"I was calming down thinking, 'right, we just need to keep her stable until the ambulance comes'," she said.

However, Ms Norris said that as she and Mr Marriott tended to Ms Jhangur, she saw a "brightly lit" car heading straight towards them.

The car, driven by Hassan Jhangur, first struck Riasat Khan, before then ploughing into the group of people who had gathered around Jhangur's sister.

"Chris’s back was to the car and I was facing it," Ms Norris said.

"I think if we’d been the other way round it would have been me.

"I couldn’t see him because of the way the car came between us and I remember thinking, 'I hope he’s all right, I hope he’s all right, I hope he’s all right'."

Mr Marriott died at the scene, while Mr Khan, Jhangur's sister Nafeesa, their mother Ambreen and Ms Norris all suffered serious injuries.

A lengthy trial at Sheffield Crown Court, which has just concluded, heard that the horrific scenes then continued.

The jury was told that Jhangur, who is now 25, got out of the car and stabbed Hasan Khan, his new brother-in-law, several times in the head and chest.

The court heard that Mr Khan had married Amaani Jhangur just that morning, amid serious tensions between the families over its timing and location.

Following the lengthy trial Hassan Jhangur was found guilty of murder, as well as three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and two of wounding with intent.

His father Mohammed Jhangur, 57, was convicted of perverting the course of justice.

Reflecting on what happened, Ms Norris said the tragedy was a stark reminder of how anger and the desire for revenge could lead to devastating consequences.

"We all have times when we are bitter, angry and fearful," she said.

"We don't have to act on that. We can check ourselves, then act from our best thinking, our kindness and our mutual respect."

In the aftermath of the attack, Ms Norris said it was the support from her community that carried her and her family through "the dark times".

"When I was shocked and injured, friends from all communities turned up and walked the dog, and brought food.

"They sat with me and offered to go with us when it was hard to walk by the scene," she said.

Ms Norris recalled a small but powerful moment of recovery: riding her bicycle again for the first time after overcoming her fear of traffic which had emerged following the events in Burngreave.

She explained that one of the local taxi drivers spotted her, stopped and clapped, genuinely delighted at her progress.

"People's kindness was humbling," she said.

A memorial service for Mr Marriott reflected the deep love and respect he had inspired in both the congregation at City Church Sheffield, of which he was a member, and also among those closest to him.

He was a steady presence, described as someone on whom people could rely, and a natural bridge-builder who brought people together.

Friends remembered him as the kind of person who would take a day off work just to support someone feeling unwell - a man whose quiet acts of care spoke volumes about his character.

Ben Gibbins, Mr Marriott's friend of nearly 30 years, said: "Chris was just a great guy to be around.

"From your interactions with him, you always came away feeling loved and cared for, and you always had a laugh, always had a joke."

Mr Gibbins said that while Mr Marriott's death had left an immense hole in his life, he would remain inspired by his friend's decision to help someone in need.

"I can’t think of anything else I should be doing, or could be doing, but doing the same thing and being a Good Samaritan and hopefully, in some small way, making a difference in other people’s lives," he said.

Meanwhile, at Jubilee+, a Christian anti-poverty organisation where Mr Marriott worked as a conference administrator for several years, his loss has also been felt deeply.

Chief executive Natalie Williams said: "When I heard how Chris died, my first thought was that it was so in keeping with who he was.

"It was no surprise to me at all that he died helping someone else.

"Chris was a man of very, very strong faith, and his faith in Jesus motivated him to want to be a Good Samaritan in all areas of his life.

"It wasn't just a one-off thing for him. It was a day-by-day decision to do good for other people."

Graham Pyman, director of ChristCentral Churches, who had worked with Mr Marriott for more than a decade, compared his actions to the biblical parable of the Good Samaritan, who helped an injured stranger.

Mr Pyman described Mr Marriott as the "modern day version of that".

"I think we can all learn something from Chris’s life," he explained.

"Whether you are a person of faith or not, just the attitude of putting other people before yourself is certainly something he demonstrated in the way he lived and, indeed, sadly in the way he died."

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A police officer has denied he "lost control" in the aftermath of being allegedly assaulted by two brothers at Manchester Airport.

Mohammed Fahir Amaaz, 20, and Muhammad Amaad, 26, are said to have struck out after police were called to a reported assault at the Starbucks cafe in Terminal 2 arrivals on July 23 last year, when Mr Amaaz is said to have headbutted a customer.

Jurors at Liverpool Crown Court were shown a photograph of injuries to the face of the defendants' mother, said to have been caused as PC Zachary Marsden attempted to arrest Mr Amaaz at the terminal car park.

PC Marsden said it was "unclear" if his actions that caused her injuries.

The Greater Manchester Police officer said: "I believe I was not the only person who made contact with Mrs Akhtar."

CCTV footage played to the jury showed Mrs Akhtar knelt near to her son on the floor after a Taser discharge knocked him down.

Cross-examining PC Marsden, Imran Khan KC, defending Mr Amaaz suggested that the officer caused Mrs Akhtar's injuries by hitting her with a Taser.

PC Marsden said: "I firmly believe that you can't wholly attribute my actions to those injuries."

Mr Khan said: "Did you push the Taser you were holding into Mrs Akhtar at the time she was tending to Mr Amaaz?"

PC Marsden said he did, and that he felt it was justified "in the circumstances".

He said the mother grabbed his left leg, and when he tried to remove her grip she "clamped" onto his left hand pulling him forward.

"I was being pulled over Mr Amaaz and at risk of falling on top of him and being vulnerable," he said.

Mr Khan said: "She was concerned for Mr Amaaz. She was not a threat. She was not interfering with anything you were doing and this was conduct, I suggest, where you have lost control."

PC Marsden said: "I would deny that."

'Beyond reasoning'

Mobile phone footage was also played to the jury of PC Marsden later using Pava spray on a bystander who he said was effectively "shielding" another man who officers wanted to detain for obstructing their duties.

PC Marsden told the court he did this because events were "beyond verbal reasoning".

The officer was then seen to grab the man around the neck and pull him to the floor, Mr Khan said.

Mr Khan said: "How do you justify putting your hands around a man's neck?"

PC Marsden said: "Immediately prior, I had been subjected to the most violent assault of my life.

"I was now terrified that we are on the tipping point of another volatile situation. They were complicit in watching us being violently assaulted.

"I used pre-emptive force. I was in pain, exhausted and wanted to try the best I could to effect an arrest."

When Mr Khan asked if the bystander was doing anything that required Pava spray in the face, PC Marsden said he was concerned that he would be "combative" which could lead to another "hostile fight".

Mr Amaaz is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden and PC Lydia Ward, causing them actual bodily harm.

He is also accused of the assault of PC Ellie Cook and the earlier Starbucks assault of Abdulkareem Ismaeil.

Mr Amaad is alleged to have assaulted PC Marsden, causing actual bodily harm.

Both men, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, deny the allegations.

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While Russia's overnight drone and missile attacks on Ukraine have hit record levels, on the ground its military is claiming territorial gains.

Last month Russian forces seized 556 sq km (215 sq miles), it's biggest land grab this year, according to the open-source DeepState monitoring website in Ukraine. That is an area four times the size of Liverpool and nearly the same size as the city of Chicago.

Russia's goal is to cut off supply routes used by Ukrainian troops in the east, and create a buffer zone inside Ukraine's northern borders.

But its advance remains relatively slow. At this pace it would take more than 70 years to capture the entire country.

Most Russian attacks have been concentrated on three areas:

• The Sumy region that borders Russia in the north-east
• The two eastern cities of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka
• A third front, west of Pokrovsk

Russian troops managed to push about 10-12km (6-7.5 miles) deep inside the Sumy region, but that advance has come to a stop in the face of fierce resistance.

Vladimir Putin says he wants to create a buffer zone to protect Russian territory, after Ukrainian forces captured a swathe of Kursk territory last summer. Russian forces eventually drove them out, with the help of North Korean troops and ammunition.

The Russians then crossed into Ukraine but quickly became bogged down in fighting over small border villages, which keep changing hands even today. Without major reinforcements, it is unlikely Russian troops will be able to push much further here.

Another northern region where Russia's army has reportedly crossed the state border is Kharkiv. Last week they claimed the capture of a border village, but without committing substantial resources they are unlikely to make further gains.

Military observers believe these operations are aimed at forcing Ukraine to spread its forces too thin along the entire 1,200-km long front line, so that they divert troops from key areas.

One of those frontline areas is Pokrovsk, a strategic hub in eastern Ukraine, which Moscow has been trying to capture for more than two years. According to the head of Ukraine's army Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, Russia has concentrated some 111,000 troops in that area.

Russians rarely launch massive assaults, says Lt Artem Pribylnov from Ukraine's 155th brigade, stationed near Pokrovsk.

Any large movement of troops and armoured vehicles will be quickly detected and destroyed by drones. Instead, Lt Pribylnov says, the Russians rely on small groups of infantry troops who relentlessly attack Ukrainian positions, sometimes on motor bikes but more often on foot.

This kind of "creeping offensive", as some call it, is aimed at exhausting Kyiv's resources until endless waves of Russian soldiers eventually push the Ukrainians out of their positions. But the price they pay is frighteningly high.

Ukraine's general staff puts Russia's casualties at more than 1,000 soldiers a day. The BBC cannot verify these figures independently, but they do indicate the heavy losses Russia is suffering.

Russia's aim in eastern Ukraine appears to be to create "a cauldron", semi-encircling the Ukrainians around Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka and then forcing them to retreat.

Read more:

• Ukraine suffers heaviest attack as Trump criticises Putin
• Steve Rosenberg: Moscow shrugs off Trump's irritation with Putin

Russian troops are now trying to wedge into the area between these two cities to create "a bridgehead from where they can attack Pokrovsk or Kostyantynivka", says Maj Viktor Trehubov, a spokesman for the Khortytsya operational-strategic group, which co-ordinates forces in eastern Ukraine.

A breakthrough here is not considered likely. Russia's advance between Kostyantynivka and Pokrovsk is already slowing down and earlier attempts to push from other sides have stalled.

The biggest Russian gain in recent weeks was further west from Pokrovsk, in an area referred to by the Ukrainian military as the Novopavlivske direction, named after the village of Novopavlivka which became a defence hub following the westward retreat of Ukrainian troops.

Military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets says Moscow's operation there was most threatening for Ukraine as its defence measures "collapsed", allowing the Russians to advance up to 10km a day.

Their move was so rapid that Russian military bloggers even claimed that their troops had reached the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time since the start of the invasion.

Ukrainian military officials deny these claims, saying that a small group of Russian soldiers entered a village in the Dnipropetrovsk region to take photos with a Russian flag but were quickly "eliminated". The Institute for the Study of War, however, indicates that Russian troops are still operating there.

Maj Trehubov argues this area offers little strategic advantage for Russian troops and their assault was instead motivated by political goals.

Advancing further into Dnipropetrovsk region may work well for propaganda messages, but would require greater resources that are currently tied up in Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka.

The Ukrainians are nevertheless facing increasing pressure on the front lines, as Russian troops are constantly trying to cut off their supply lines with drone attacks.

"Those routes that we used two months ago, we can't use them now, not during the daytime, not even at night," Staff Sgt Viktor Pyasetskyi from Ukraine's 93rd brigade stationed near Kostyantynivka told the BBC over the phone.

As a result it has become extremely complicated and slow to deliver food and ammunition, evacuate the wounded and rotate troops on the front line.

Russian drones like the Gerbera can fly for hundreds of kilometres to reach places that until recently were regarded as relatively safe.

Their aim is not just to erase defence lines but also "to terrorise the population", says Staff Sgt Pyasetskiy. "They systematically destroy civilian buildings. They want to undermine morale and weaken our faith in Ukraine's ability to stop the Russians."

As he spoke, he was interrupted by the roar of drones. Shortly afterwards there were reports of an apartment block being hit. It was later confirmed the staff sergeant had survived.

Linda Yaccarino, the boss of Elon Musk's social media site X, has announced she is stepping down.

Ms Yaccarino has been in the role since June, 2023.

In a post on the social media platform, she said was "immensely grateful" to Musk for "entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App".

Musk has not yet commented on Ms Yaccarino's departure.

The BBC has approached X for comment.

Ms Yaccarino was previously head of advertising at NBCUniversal, where she was credited with helping to steer it through the upheaval caused by technology firms.

She joined X, then Twitter, at a time of tumult with advertisers quitting the site and Musk having overseen the firing of a huge number of staff.

In her departure post, she said that she had decided to step down after "two incredible years".

She added: "When Elon Musk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company."

Musk has continued to attract controversy during her time at the helm of X.

The most recent of these has seen Musk's chatbot, Grok, start to speak favourably about Hitler.

In a statement, xAI said it was working to remove what it called "inappropriate" posts.

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Police have confirmed they are preparing for a potential visit by US President Donald Trump to Scotland later this month.

He is expected to visit a new course at his golf resort in Aberdeenshire, though it is understood there will be no private meeting with King Charles.

Trump will also make a full state visit to the UK later in the year, most likely in September.

Assistant chief constable Emma Bond of Police Scotland: "Planning is under way for a potential visit to Scotland later this month by the President of the United States."

She added: "While official confirmation has not yet been made, it is important that we prepare in advance for what would be a significant policing operation."

If the visit goes ahead, it would be the first time Donald Trump has travelled to Scotland since his victory in the US election.

The Trump organisation owns Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire and the Trump Turnberry resort in Ayrshire.

His last visit as president in 2018 required a major security operation with thousands protesting in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Eric Trump and his father broke ground on the 18-hole links MacLeod Course at the Trump International resort in Menie in 2023.

Trump International claimed the new course - named after Trump's Lewis-born mother, Mary - would feature the "largest sand dunes in Scotland" and form "the greatest 36 holes in golf" alongside the original course, completed in 2012.

The resort has prompted controversy in the past - five years ago the dunes at Menie lost their status as a nationally-important protected environment.

But Trump International claimed the new course was "one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable" ever built.

The Scottish Green Party previously said Trump and his new golf course were "not welcome in Aberdeenshire", accusing him of being a climate-change denier with a "long history of lies and dodgy business dealings".

During his 2018 visit, Trump was booed during an afternoon game of golf by demonstrators gathered at the perimeter of the Turnberry resort.

A paraglider was also able to fly over the resort hotel with a banner criticising Trump.

France's far-right National Rally party has accused authorities of a "new harassment campaign", after police raided its headquarters in an inquiry into its campaign finances.

Party president Jordan Bardella said the "spectacular and unprecedented operation" was a "serious attack on pluralism and democratic change".

Prosecutors said they were investigating potential acts of "fraud committed against a public figure" and alleged violations involving loans and donations during election campaigns in 2022 and 2024.

Wallerand de Saint-Just, the party's former treasurer, said National Rally (RN) had done nothing wrong.

"This process that looks completely unacceptable and outrageous. We're being persecuted on a daily basis," he told reporters outside the party's Paris headquarters.

"All our campaign accounts have been approved and reimbursed."

Despite a series of legal setbacks, RN are ahead in French opinion polls, and Bardella, its 29-year-old president, has topped one recent poll as the most popular political figure in the country.

Earlier this year, RN leader Marine Le Pen was convicted by a French court of helping to embezzle European Union funds. She was barred from running for office for five years, in a blow to her ambitions to run for the presidency for a fourth time.

She has appealed the conviction, which she has condemned as a "witch hunt", but last month accepted she may have to hand the baton to her young lieutenant ahead of the 2027 presidential vote.

Bardella was not present during the police raid as he was attending a European Parliament session in Strasbourg, but he said 20 finance brigade police had used the search as an excuse for seizing internal party documents and to raid his office.

There was no immediate comment from Le Pen.

Police also raided the head offices of several companies and their bosses.

The raids were linked by Paris prosecutors to an inquiry launched exactly a year ago into allegations of embezzlement, forgery and fraud centring on Le Pen's party.

Prosecutors said on Wednesday that the inquiry should establish whether the party's 2022 presidential and parliamentary election campaign and its 2024 European election campaign were funded by "illicit payments by individuals that benefited the National Rally party or candidates.

They said they would also investigate whether inflated or fictitious invoices had been submitted as campaign expenses to be paid back by the state.

RN said the allegations of illicit campaign financing are based on the fact that no French bank was prepared to help with funding. It previously secured loans from banks in Russia and Hungary.

In another setback for National Rally, the European Union public prosecutor's office formally launched an investigation this week into a former political grouping at the European Parliament that RN was part of.

Identity and Democracy was dissolved last year and is suspected of misusing Parliament funding. RN is now part of the Patriots for Europe group, which includes far-parties from Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Spain and Portugal.

Bardella said on Tuesday that the inquiry was a "new harassment operation by the European Parliament".

A man who killed a passer-by when he drove his car into a crowd of people at his sister's wedding reception has been found guilty of murder

Hassan Jhangur, 25, killed Chris Marriott, 46, when he deliberately crashed his Seat Ibiza into the group in Burngreave, Sheffield, in December 2023.

"Good Samaritan" Mr Marriott, who had stopped to help after Jhangur's sister had been injured in an earlier brawl, died at the scene while four other people were injured in the crash.

Jhangur, of Whiteways Road, Sheffield, was found guilty by a majority verdict of murder and three counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent and one of wounding with intent relating to those also hurt.

He was cleared of a charge of attempted murder but convicted of a second count of wounding with intent after jurors heard he launched a vicious knife attack on his new brother-in-law, Hasan Khan, following the crash, stabbing him repeatedly in the head and chest.

Addressing him, Mr Justice Morris said: "The sentence for murder will be life imprisonment. At the sentencing hearing it will be for me to set the minimum period of time for you to serve before you are considered for release."

Jhangur's father, Mohammed Jhangur, 57, who was also on trial, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice after the court heard he had hidden the knife his son used to attack Hasan Khan.

The judge warned him "all sentencing options remain open" before releasing him on bail.

During the trial at Sheffield Crown Court jurors heard how a complex series of events involving the Jhangur and Khan families had led to the death of devout Christian Mr Marriott.

On 27 December, a dispute between the two families came to a peak following the marriage of Amaani Jhangur and Hasan Khan that morning.

The couple had been celebrating at the Khan's family home in College Court when the bride's mother, Ambreen, and sister, Nafeesa, arrived and a fight broke out in the street, during which Nafeesa was knocked to the ground, seemingly unconscious.

At this point Mr Marriott, who was out for a walk with his family, and off-duty midwife Alison Norris came across the scene and stepped in to help.

Moments later, Hassan Jhangur arrived in a Seat Ibiza, with witnesses describing him flying round the corner into College Court before driving straight into Riasat Khan and then, without braking, smashing into the group of people gathered around Nafeesa Jhangur

The court heard Mr Marriott died at the scene, while Ms Norris, Ambreen Jhangur, Nafeesa Jhangur and Riasat Khan were all seriously injured.

'Only trying to help'

Hassan Jhangur then got out of the car brandishing a knife and attacked Hasan Khan before passing the knife to his father, Mohammed Jhangur, who hid it in the boot of his taxi.

Opening the case, prosecutor Jason Pitter KC said: "Chris Marriott was only trying to help. Alison Norris was only trying to help too.

"It was that public spirit of both of them that brought them unwittingly into the midst of a family dispute."

He told jurors that although Hassan Jhangur's target may have been the Khan family, "the law says your intentions can be transferred from one person to another, even if he did not intend to hit that particular person".

Both Hassan Jhangur and Mohammed Jhangur will return to the court for sentencing at a later date.

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Any analysis of Donald Trump's current thinking on Russia risks getting out of date very quickly.

Read too much into an individual tweet, post or off-the-cuff comment by the US president, and the danger is that your conclusions will be contradicted by tomorrow's tweet, post or off-the-cuff comment.

Believe me. I've been there.

As today's edition of the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper put it: "The US president blows hot and cold…he changes his mind on key issues as easily as he changes shoes."

Recently, though, when it comes to Russia, the White House does appear to have been blowing more cold than hot, which explains the headline in today's edition of Moskovsky Komsomolets: "The Russian-American Chill."

Following Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's most recent telephone conversation on 3 July – their sixth this year – President Trump revealed that the two leaders "didn't make any progress" towards ending the war in Ukraine.

"I'm not happy about that," he added.

Four days later, President Trump threatened to impose a 10 percent tariff on any country aligned with the BRICS, the group of nations that includes Russia.

On Tuesday, his frustration boiled over with some of his strongest language so far: "We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth," President Trump said at a cabinet meeting.

"He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."

Today I asked for the Kremlin's reaction.

"We are pretty calm about this," Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told me on a Kremlin conference call for journalists.

"Trump's way of talking is generally quite harsh…we plan to continue our dialogue with Washington to mend our broken bilateral relations…we hope that Trump and his team will continue their efforts to get the peace process back to the realm of diplomacy."

The Kremlin was trying, at least, to sound diplomatic.

The Russian press? It wasn't even trying.

In Komsomolskaya Pravda, a political pundit accused Donald Trump of "an absence of geopolitical achievements".

The tabloid Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote about President Trump's "mercurial temperament, his propensity for sudden moods and chaotic changes of direction".

This week's edition of Arguments and Facts mocked Donald Trump over Elon Musk's new America Party.

"Now every time the US president says 'Make America Great Again' he'll be inadvertently promoting Musk's party," the paper wrote.

This is a sea-change from the previously positive coverage in Russia of the Trump administration. Back in March, a political scientist told Izvestia that "America now has more in common with Russia than Washington does with Brussels or Kyiv".

In May, the business daily Kommersant declared: "Donald Trump's stance couldn't be more advantageous to Moscow.

"He refused to strengthen sanctions against Russia and confirmed his determination to develop large-scale trade with Russia."

The optimism was understandable. Earlier this year, the White House was publicly criticising President Zelensky (not President Putin) and exerting pressure on Kyiv (not Moscow).

The US and Russia had launched bilateral talks to boost their relations.

What's more, President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff was a frequent visitor to Russia for talks with President Putin. At one of their meetings the Kremlin leader gave him a present to take back for Trump: a portrait of the US president.

It seemed as if Moscow and Washington were destined to forge a new relationship.

But it's been more than two months since Witkoff's last visit. And, in June, Russia announced that the US had cancelled the next round of talks between the two countries aimed at restoring the operations of diplomatic missions.

Meanwhile, President Trump has, it seems, been growing increasingly frustrated by Russia's refusal to agree to a comprehensive ceasefire in Ukraine.

"The Kremlin believes that Trump offers Russia too little and, therefore, the continuation of a 'good quarrel' is better than a 'bad peace' from the point of view of Russia's long-term national interests," wrote Moskovsky Komsomolets today.

In other words, on Ukraine, Vladimir Putin wants more than Trump has been prepared to offer.

More in terms of territory, more in terms of concessions from Kyiv on the future size of Ukraine's army, more in terms of cutting back Western arms supplies to Kyiv.

And, to borrow a Trumpian expression, Vladimir Putin clearly believes that "he holds the cards" right now and can hold out for a better deal.

Is he right? Or is Moscow miscalculating?

Much will depend on what President Trump does next: on the scale of future US military assistance to Ukraine, and on whether the White House decides to strengthen sanctions against Russia.

But keep in mind my caveat.

And that vivid image, in Komsomolskaya Pravda, of Donald Trump changing his shoes.

Only a week ago Russian commentators were celebrating the US government's decision to freeze some military assistance to Ukraine.

So, follow closely. Not only what Donald Trump says on Russia and Ukraine, but the action he takes.

Thousands of victims of the infected blood scandal are being "harmed further" by long waits for compensation, the chair of the public inquiry into the disaster has said.

In a hard-hitting report, Sir Brian Langstaff said there were "obvious injustices" in the way the scheme had been devised.

It is thought 30,000 people were infected with HIV and hepatitis B or C in the 1970s and 80s after being given contaminated blood products on the NHS.

The government has set aside £11.8bn to pay compensation and has said it is cutting red tape to speed up payments to victims.

The inquiry's main report into the scandal, published last year, found that the disaster could largely have been avoided if different decisions had been taken by the health authorities at the time.

It said too little was done to stop the importing of contaminated blood products from abroad in the 1970s and 80s, and there was evidence that elements of the scandal had been covered up.

In May of this year, Sir Brian took the unusual step of ordering two days of extra hearings after he received "letter after letter, email after email" expressing concerns about the way the government's compensation scheme for victims had been managed.

His extra 200-page report, based on that evidence, found that victims had been "harmed further" by the way they had been treated over the last 12 months.

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A girl who suffered devastating injuries in the Southport attacks "fought like hell" to escape and save other children, her mother tearfully told a public inquiry.

The Southport Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall heard statements from the families of four girls who survived despite being severely injured during the attacks on 29 July 2024.

One of those girls, referred to as C1 to protect her anonymity, was a seven-year-old described by her mother as "our little hippie" who had "loved adventure" before the events of last summer.

However she "does not live that way anymore" her mother said, as she describes how the courage her daughter had shown left "me crushed but in complete awe".

• Rudakubana's brother denied full inquiry access

C1 was stabbed 33 times by Axel Rudakubana at the dance workshop in Southport's Hart Street and was airlifted to Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

Her mother said she had become known as "the girl who was dragged back in", after CCTV footage shown in court captured the moment C1, already wounded, had tried to escape the dance studio building.

It showed Rudakubana grabbing her and pulling her backwards into the building to inflict more damage before she escaped, eventually collapsing on the street.

A hushed chamber in the town hall building heard that C1's injuries were "vast" and covered "so much of her body and organs".

Her mother said: "The damage was catastrophic. The hours and days that followed the attack were a living hell."

C1's mother said the "most painful of truths" about the attacks carried out by 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana was that there were no adults to help her.

The inquiry heard how her daughter had shielded other children as they were attacked and screamed at them to run.

She said that she did not doubt "for one moment" that the actions of the teachers in the class, Leanne Lucas and Heidi Liddle, helped saved lives when they encouraged children to flee.

However she added: "The uncomfortable and often unspoken truth of our own reality is that, when the adults left in those first moments, our daughter had to save herself.

"It is these untold stories of remarkable strength and bravery that are missing when we have heard other accounts of this day.

"I think it is vitally important that those girls are now heard, so that the inquiry can understand the complexities of this experience for everyone."

She added: "That reality is painful - our children fought alone, they shielded each other, comforted each other, and helped each other and that must be remembered."

The inquiry also heard from the father of C3, a nine-year-old girl who was also critically injured that day.

He told the inquiry his daughter was: "Stabbed three times in the back by a coward she didn't even see."

"She bears the scars, both physically and emotionally, of that terrible day," he said.

"We know that she is only a small way down the path that life will take her, and that obstacles will continue to present themselves along the way."

Another statement, read by Nicola Ryan-Donnelly, solicitor to the parents of surviving girls, said a "creative" and "full-of-life" seven-year-old remembers the attack "vividly" including how Rudakubana "tried to get her face".

"Where she was once an independent and joyful child she now needs constant support, reassurance and protection", her mother had written.

The inquiry has adjourned until 8 September and is expected to hear evidence about the circumstances of the attack and Rudakubana's contact with various agencies in the months and years before it.

The second phase, expected to start next year, will look at wider issues around how young people become drawn into "extreme violence".

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Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out extending the freeze on tax thresholds, which has seen millions of people dragged into paying higher rates.

The freeze on National Insurance (NI) and income tax thresholds, introduced under the Conservatives, is currently due to end in April 2028.

But asked during Prime Minister's Questions whether the government still planned to lift the freeze, Sir Keir only said he was committed to Labour's election manifesto.

This included a pledge not to increase National Insurance (NI), income tax or VAT - but no specific promise on thresholds.

U-turns on cutting disability benefits and winter fuel payments for pensioners have piled pressure on the government's spending plans, with economists saying tax rises are now likely in the autumn Budget.

Following major concessions on the government's flagship benefits plan, potential savings of around £5bn will now be delayed or lost entirely.

Tax thresholds - the income levels at which people start paying NI or income tax, or have to pay higher rates - typically increased every year in line with inflation.

However, income tax thresholds have been frozen since 2021/22.

This means people risk being dragged into a higher tax band, or paying tax on their income for the first time, if they get a pay rise.

Extending the freeze until 2029/30 could raise an estimated £7bn a year.

In her Budget speech last autumn, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said extending the freeze "would hurt working people" and pledged to lift thresholds in line with inflation again from 2028/29.

However, asked by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch if this was still government policy, Sir Keir did not rule out continuing the freeze.

"No prime minister or chancellor is going to write a Budget in advance. We are absolutely fixed on our fiscal rules. We remain committed to them," he told the Commons.

"We remain committed to our Budget, to our manifesto commitments."

The PM's answer contrasted to his previous response to Badenoch, when asked if he stood by Labour's promise not to increase income tax, NI or VAT.

His reply to this was simply: "Yes."

The government's self-imposed fiscal rules include not borrowing to fund day-to-day spending and to get government debt falling as a share of national income by 2029/29.

The rules are designed to reassure financial markets but sticking to them limits the government's options and makes tax rises more likely.

Badenoch also accused Sir Keir of "flirting" with the idea of a wealth tax – something some Labour MPs on the left of the party have called for.

Supporters of the idea say a new 2% tax on assets worth more than £10m could raise £24bn per year.

However, critics argue such a move could see wealthy individuals leave the country.

Badenoch told the Commons: "Let's be honest about what that means, this is a tax on all of our constituents' savings, on their houses, on their pensions, it would be a tax on aspiration."

Asked if he would rule out a wealth tax, Sir Keir said Labour had stabilised the economy and "don't need lessons" from the Conservatives.

Pressed again on whether he would introduce a wealth tax by Green MP Adrian Ramsay, who suggested "those with the broadest shoulders should carry the largest burden", Sir Keir said: "We can't just tax our way to growth."

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Resident doctors in England have said they will strike for five days from 25 July after voting in favour of fresh action over pay.

Previously known as junior doctors, the medics will stage a walkout from 07:00 on 25 July until 07:00 on 30 July - giving ministers two weeks to agree to negotiate their pay instead.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said it had met with the health secretary to try and "avoid strike action" on Tuesday, but that the government had "stated that it will not negotiate on pay".

Health Secretary Wes Streeting called the move "unnecessary and unreasonable" and added: "The NHS is hanging by a thread - why on earth are they threatening to pull it?"

He said the strike was "without historic precedent" given the medics had received a 28.9% pay increase over the last three years, and were not in the interest of patients or staff.

"I met with them yesterday and offered to meet with their entire resident doctor committee this morning - that has not been taken up," he added, calling on the BMA to "get around the table and agree a way forward".

He had earlier told the Times newspaper the walkouts would be "a disaster for their members and a disaster for patients" - and the public would "not forgive" them.

Resident doctors have been awarded a 5.4% pay rise for this financial year - which will go into pay packets from August - following a 22% increase over the previous two years.

But the BMA says wages are still around 20% lower in real terms than in 2008.

Its resident doctors committee co-chairs, Dr Melissa Ryan and Dr Ross Nieuwoudt, said they had "made every attempt to avoid strike action by opening negotiations for pay restoration" in talks with the government on Tuesday.

But they said the government had wanted to "focus on non-pay elements without suggesting what these might be".

They said they had "no choice" but to strike without a "credible offer to keep us on the path to restore our pay".

"No doctor wants to strike, and these strikes don't have to go ahead.

"If Mr Streeting can seriously come to the table in the next two weeks we can ensure that no disruption is caused. The government knows what is needed to avert strikes. The choice is theirs."

The government said on Tuesday that it would not reopen pay negotiations and that it could not "be more generous than we already have".

A Downing Street spokesperson added that the medics had "received the highest pay award across the public sector for two years in a row".

Resident doctors' basic salaries in England range from £37,000 to £70,000 a year for a 40-hour week, depending on experience, with extra payments for working nightshifts and weekends.

That does not include the latest 5.4% average pay award for this year which will start to be paid into wage packets from August.

Resident doctors took part in 11 separate strikes during 2023 and 2024.

Publishing house Penguin has said it "undertook all the necessary due diligence" before releasing The Salt Path, after a series of claims about the book's veracity.

A recent Observer investigation claimed English author Raynor Winn fabricated or gave misleading information about some elements of her 2018 non-fiction best-seller.

Penguin Michael Joseph said it had not received any concerns about the book's content prior to the Observer's story, and that it had a contract with Winn regarding factual accuracy.

Winn has described the Observer's article as "highly misleading" and said the couple are taking legal advice, adding that the book was "the true story of our journey".

• The Salt Path author defends herself against claims she misled readers

The Salt Path, and its recent film adaptation, told the story of a couple who decide to walk the 630-mile South West Coast Path after their home is repossessed.

The Observer alleged Winn had misrepresented the events that led to the couple losing their home.

Rather than losing money in a bad business deal, as the book described, the newspaper said the couple had lost their home after Winn had defrauded her employer of £64,000.

According to the Observer, the couple borrowed £100,000 to pay back the money Winn had been accused of stealing, and it was when this loan was called in that their home was repossessed.

It also said it had spoken to medical experts who were sceptical about her husband Moth having corticobasal degeneration (CBD) as she described in the book, given his long survival after diagnosis, lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them.

In a statement issued to BBC News, the publisher said: "Penguin (Michael Joseph) published the Salt Path in 2018 and, like many readers, we were moved and inspired by Raynor's story and its message of hope.

"Penguin undertook all the necessary pre-publication due diligence, including a contract with an author warranty about factual accuracy, and a legal read, as is standard with most works of non-fiction."

A legal read means the book would have been looked over by a lawyer before its publication.

"Prior to the Observer enquiry, we had not received any concerns about the book's content," the publisher added.

In her statement released earlier this week, Winn said: "[Sunday's] Observer article is highly misleading.

"We are taking legal advice and won't be making any further comment at this time."

The statement continued: "The Salt Path lays bare the physical and spiritual journey Moth and I shared, an experience that transformed us completely and altered the course of our lives.

"This is the true story of our journey."

The Salt Path has sold more than two million copies since its publication in March 2018, and a film adaptation starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs was released earlier this year.

A spokeswoman for Number 9 Films and Shadowplay Features, who made the screen adaptation, said in a statement on Monday: "There were no known claims against the book at the time of optioning it or producing and distributing the film."

Their statement called the movie "a faithful adaptation of the book that we optioned", adding, "we undertook all necessary due diligence before acquiring the book".

"The allegations made in The Observer relate to the book and are a matter for the author Raynor Winn," it concluded. "We have passed any correspondence relating to the article to Raynor and her agent."

The film adaptation has taken around $16m (£11.7m) at the box office worldwide. The movie is yet to launch in Germany and France, while a deal is reportedly still pending in the US, according to Deadline.

After the Observer's article was published, the charity PSPA, which supports people with CBD and has worked with Raynor and Moth Winn, said "too many questions currently remain unanswered" and that it had "made the decision to terminate our relationship with the family".

Winn has also withdrawn from the forthcoming Saltlines tour, which would have seen her perform readings alongside folk music act Gigspanner Big Band during a string of UK dates.

A statement from Winn's legal team said the author was "deeply sorry to let down those who were planning to attend the Saltlines tour, but while this process is ongoing, she will be unable to take part".

President Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine has been hit by the biggest ever aerial attack from Russia - 728 drones and 13 cruise or ballistic missiles hit cities around the country in multiple waves.

Zelensky condemned the "telling attack", adding: "It comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only Russia continues to rebuff them all."

The overnight strike came after President Donald Trump said the US would send more weapons to Kyiv - a reversal of last week's suspension which US media said Trump had not known about.

On Tuesday, the US leader expressed growing frustration at Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth," Trump told reporters. "He's very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless."

"He's very nice to us all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless," Trump said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was "pretty calm about this. Trump's way of talking is generally quite harsh, the phrases he uses."

The two leaders have been in regular contact but this has so far failed to translate into tangible steps towards a ceasefire in Ukraine - something Trump once said he would be able to achieve in a day.

Last week, following a phone call with the Russian president, Trump said he was "very unhappy".

"He wants to go all the way, just keep killing people, it's no good," Trump said of Putin.

The criticism came even as the Trump administration announced a suspension of military aid to Ukraine, reportedly authorised by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth and Elbridge Colby, the under-secretary of defence for policy.

Asked by reporters on Tuesday who had taken the decision, Trump - sitting right next to Hegseth - replied: "I don't know. Why don't you tell me?"

The reversal of the decision may now mean that 10 Patriot missiles may be sent to Ukraine, according to US outlet Axios.

Kyiv relies on the interceptors to try to counter Russia's missile and drone attacks, which continue to grow in intensity and frequency.

Although the east of the country and Kyiv come under fire on a regular basis, no corner of Ukraine has been spared by Russian strikes.

The city of Lutsk - which lies 90km (56 miles) from the Polish border and is a transit hub for military and humanitarian aid - suffered the brunt of Tuesday's overnight attack.

Explosions were also reported in the western cities of Lviv and Rivne.

Two rounds of ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine took place earlier this year but no other meetings have so far been scheduled - and neither Moscow nor Kyiv appear optimistic that diplomacy will solve the conflict, which was sparked by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Meanwhile, Russia's summer offensive in eastern Ukraine grinds on.

"We are moving forward," said Peskov on Wednesday. "Each new day the Ukrainians have to accept the new realities."

Pret A Manger has launched a new range of "premium" salads costing up to £12.95, which the company says have been "priced competitively".

The four new "Super Plates" - including options like chipotle chicken and miso salmon - are said to be "nearly 60%" larger than the chain's existing salads and are filled with "premium ingredients" including "hand massaged" kale.

Defending the higher price point, a Pret spokesperson told the BBC the new range was launched to meet growing demand for "larger, nutrient-rich lunch options".

Pret's new offering comes after the chain faced backlash last year for making changes to its popular subscription model.

Like many companies that cater to office workers and commuters, Pret took a hit during the Covid pandemic when the majority of Britons were ordered to work from home if they could.

Many employees who have spent the last few years working from home are now being encouraged, or mandated by their employers, to return to the office - a move which has seen the lunchtime market become fiercely competitive again.

The most expensive of Pret's new range of salads is the miso salmon with a price tag of £12.95. The company said the range had been launched in order to "reflect a shift in customer habits".

The use of more premium ingredients "reflects the growing trend of workers treating themselves to a more filling lunch the days they are in the office", a spokesperson for Pret said.

Pret was criticised by customers last year when it changed its subscription offer of up to five coffees a day for a monthly fee of £30 to up to five half-price coffees a day for £5 a month.

It also ended its 20% discount on food, saying it had "never really got comfortable" with the dual pricing system across its food products as it announced it was scrapping the offer.

Among Pret's biggest competitors is the bakery chain Greggs. The bakery was ranked as the most popular dining brand in the UK in 2025 and the second strongest brand of 2024, according to data platform Statista.

Other competitors include the likes of Atis, Farmer J and Salad Project which already focus their menus on "premium" salads and lunches aimed at inner-city workers.

The new Pret salads are available in over 250 shops in large cities such as London, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Manchester.

An official list of people who died without leaving a will has been taken offline, after a BBC investigation found evidence a crime gang was using it to commit fraud worth millions of pounds.

The government list - known as Bona Vacantia - gives the details of unclaimed estates in England or Wales. The BBC heard allegations that criminals were using the information to create fake wills and inherit money and property.

The page's removal has been welcomed by lawyers, but they say more needs to be done to protect the system from fraud.

In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said it was “working with the relevant agencies to support ongoing investigations into alleged fraudulent activity”.

Details of about 6,000 unclaimed estates are listed on Bona Vacantia (Latin for "Vacant Goods") and, until 7 July, anyone could view them on the gov.uk website.

However, the relevant page has been updated and now merely says: "We have temporarily removed the unclaimed estates list from our website. Further details will follow as soon as possible."

The Ministry of Justice has now told the BBC that the list has been removed “in keeping with current investigations” and it could not confirm “when the list will be available online again”.

A BBC News article published on Saturday 5 July recounted several cases in the south of England where a dead person's details had appeared on Bona Vacantia, and then, shortly after, someone had stepped forward claiming to be their sole heir.

These "heirs" produced wills where none had previously been thought to have existed. What's more, the claimants appear to be connected to each other through a network of company directorships, and all had names of Hungarian origin.

Family, friends and neighbours of the deceased told us how they had tried to alert authorities about their suspicions, but say that no action was ever taken.

As a result of our investigation, bank accounts for dozens of companies connected to the suspected fraudsters, have been suspended.

Taking down Bona Vacantia is "absolutely right", according to Ann Stanyer, a leading specialist lawyer in the field, but she says this in itself will not be enough to combat fraud.

Probate (the legal process of administering a dead person's estate) has largely been carried out online since 2017, she says, but the current system demands too few checks on applicants, and "is clearly open to abuse".

• Why did our late aunt leave everything to a total stranger?

Ms Stanyer's misgivings are shared with lawyer and former MP Sir Bob Neill: "If you are going to have an automated system there have to be checks in it, and at the moment, there aren't," he says.

Sir Bob began an inquiry into the probate system when he was chair of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, although this was cut short by the 2019 general election. He says the taking down of Bona Vacantia is "a good start [to combat fraud], but there's a lot more they need to do".

The removal of Bona Vacantia will also have an impact on legitimate heir-hunting companies, who use the list as a starting point to research and then contact the genuine heirs to unclaimed estates.

"It's a bureaucratic kneejerk reaction, unnecessary," says Peter Turvey, who runs one such company, Anglia Research Services.

He says that the problem lies more not with the details revealed in Bona Vacantia, but with government failure to act when presented with clear examples of fraud.

High pressure brings high temperatures

How long will it last?

Within minutes of Erin Patterson walking into a tiny hospital in rural Victoria, doctor Chris Webster realised she was a cold-blooded killer.

"I knew," he tells the BBC.

"I thought, 'Okay, yep, you did it, you heinous individual. You've poisoned them all'."

Dr Webster had spent the morning frantically treating two of the four people a jury this week found Erin had intentionally fed toxic mushrooms - concealed in a hearty beef Wellington lunch served at her home in July 2023.

She was convicted of the murders of her in-laws, Don and Gail Patterson, both 70, as well as Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, 66. Erin was also found guilty of attempting to murder local pastor Ian Wilkinson – Heather's husband – who recovered after weeks of treatment in hospital.

But initially, when Heather and Ian presented to Leongatha Hospital with intense gastroenteritis-like symptoms, Dr Webster and his team thought they were dealing with a case of mass food poisoning.

Heather had described for him a "lovely" afternoon at Erin's house, the physician told the trial.

"I did ask Heather at one stage what the beef Wellington tasted like and she said it was delicious," Dr Webster said.

His suspicion had fallen on the meat, so the doctor took some blood samples as a precaution and sent them off for analysis in a town with better medical facilities, before hooking the Wilkinsons up with fluids.

But soon he would receive a call from the doctor treating Don and Gail at Dandenong Hospital, about a 90-minute drive away, and his stomach dropped.

It wasn't the meat, it was the mushrooms, she told him. And his patients were on the precipice of irreversible slide towards death.

He immediately changed tack, beginning treatment to try and salvage their failing livers, and preparing to transfer them to a larger hospital where they could receive specialist care.

It was at this point that someone rang the bell at the front of the hospital.

Through a Perspex security window was a woman telling him she thought she had gastro.

"I'm like, 'Oh, hang on, what's your name?' And she said, 'Erin Patterson'," Dr Webster says.

"The penny dropped… it's the chef."

He ushered Erin into the hospital and told her he suspected she and her guests were all suffering from life-threatening poisoning from toxic mushrooms. He quizzed her on the source of the fungi included in her home-cooked dish.

"Her answer was a single word: Woolworths," he says.

"And it all just suddenly coalesced in my brain."

There were two things that convinced him of her guilt in that moment, Dr Webster explains.

One, it was a far-fetched answer. Admitting she had foraged wild mushrooms, as many locals in the area do, wouldn't have set off alarm bells. Saying they came from a major grocery chain with stringent food safety standards, on the other hand, was suspicious.

And two, there was no concerned reaction from the mother-of-two – despite being metres from where Ian and Heather, relatives she said she loved, lay on beds desperately sick.

"I don't know if she even acknowledged their presence," he says.

Briefly leaving Erin with nurses to undergo some basic health checks, he went to see the Wilkinsons off to Dandenong Hospital. He recalls watching the elderly couple being loaded into an ambulance, Heather calling out to thank him for his care as the vehicle doors were closed.

"And I knew," he says, trailing off.

"It's actually quite difficult to talk about without getting emotional.

"She could have quite easily done the complete opposite and screamed… 'Thanks for nothing'.

That may have been easier to accept than her sincere gratitude, he says. "You know, I didn't catch it [the poisoning] earlier."

But he had no time to process the gravity of their last interaction, rushing back to the urgent care room only to find Erin had discharged herself against medical advice.

After desperately trying to call her on her mobile phone, gobsmacked and concerned, Dr Webster decided to call police.

"This is Dr Chris Webster from Leongatha Hospital. I have a concern about a patient who presented here earlier, but has left the building and is potentially exposed to a fatal toxin from mushroom poisoning," he can be heard saying in the call played at the trial.

He spells her name for the operator, and gives them her address.

"She just got up and left?" they ask. "She was only here for five minutes," Dr Webster replies.

At her trial, Erin said she had been caught off guard by the information and had gone home to feed her animals and pack a bag, pausing to have a "lie down" before returning to the hospital.

"After being told by medical staff you had potentially ingested a life-threatening poison, isn't it the last thing you'd do?" the prosecutor asked her in court.

"It might be the last thing you'd do, but it was something I did," Erin defiantly replied from the witness stand.

But before police reached her house, Erin had returned to hospital voluntarily. Dr Webster then tried to convince her to bring in her children – who she claimed had eaten leftovers.

"She was concerned that they were going to be frightened," he said in court.

"I said they can be scared and alive, or dead."

Erin told the jury she wasn't reluctant, rather overwhelmed by the doctor who she believed was "yelling" at her. "I've since learnt this was his inside voice," she added.

Dr Webster clocked off shortly after, but the trial heard medical tests performed on Erin and her children would return no sign of death cap poisoning, and after a precautionary 24 hours in hospital, they were sent home.

Guilty verdicts a 'relief'

Two years later, when news of the jury's verdict flashed on his phone on Monday, Dr Webster began shaking.

He was one of the prosecution's key witnesses, and had struggled with the "weight of expectation".

"If the picture is going to make sense to the jury, if a small puzzle piece is out of place, it could upset the whole outcome of the trial… I really didn't want to crack under the scrutiny."

It's a "relief" to have played his part in holding Erin Patterson – who he calls "the definition of evil" – accountable.

"It does feel like [there's] that reward of justice."

For him though, the biggest sense of closure came from seeing Ian Wilkinson – the only surviving patient – for the first time since sending him and his ailing wife off in an ambulance.

"That memory of Heather being sort of taken away in that fashion, that's now bookended by seeing Ian standing on his feet again."

"That brought some comfort."

An official list of people who died without leaving a will has been taken offline, after a BBC investigation found evidence a crime gang was using it to commit fraud worth millions of pounds.

The government list - known as Bona Vacantia - gives the details of unclaimed estates in England or Wales. The BBC heard allegations that criminals were using the information to create fake wills and inherit money and property.

The page's removal has been welcomed by lawyers, but they say more needs to be done to protect the system from fraud.

In a statement, the Ministry of Justice said it was “working with the relevant agencies to support ongoing investigations into alleged fraudulent activity”.

Details of about 6,000 unclaimed estates are listed on Bona Vacantia (Latin for "Vacant Goods") and, until 7 July, anyone could view them on the gov.uk website.

However, the relevant page has been updated and now merely says: "We have temporarily removed the unclaimed estates list from our website. Further details will follow as soon as possible."

The Ministry of Justice has now told the BBC that the list has been removed “in keeping with current investigations” and it could not confirm “when the list will be available online again”.

A BBC News article published on Saturday 5 July recounted several cases in the south of England where a dead person's details had appeared on Bona Vacantia, and then, shortly after, someone had stepped forward claiming to be their sole heir.

These "heirs" produced wills where none had previously been thought to have existed. What's more, the claimants appear to be connected to each other through a network of company directorships, and all had names of Hungarian origin.

Family, friends and neighbours of the deceased told us how they had tried to alert authorities about their suspicions, but say that no action was ever taken.

As a result of our investigation, bank accounts for dozens of companies connected to the suspected fraudsters, have been suspended.

Taking down Bona Vacantia is "absolutely right", according to Ann Stanyer, a leading specialist lawyer in the field, but she says this in itself will not be enough to combat fraud.

Probate (the legal process of administering a dead person's estate) has largely been carried out online since 2017, she says, but the current system demands too few checks on applicants, and "is clearly open to abuse".

• Why did our late aunt leave everything to a total stranger?

Ms Stanyer's misgivings are shared with lawyer and former MP Sir Bob Neill: "If you are going to have an automated system there have to be checks in it, and at the moment, there aren't," he says.

Sir Bob began an inquiry into the probate system when he was chair of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, although this was cut short by the 2019 general election. He says the taking down of Bona Vacantia is "a good start [to combat fraud], but there's a lot more they need to do".

The removal of Bona Vacantia will also have an impact on legitimate heir-hunting companies, who use the list as a starting point to research and then contact the genuine heirs to unclaimed estates.

"It's a bureaucratic kneejerk reaction, unnecessary," says Peter Turvey, who runs one such company, Anglia Research Services.

He says that the problem lies more not with the details revealed in Bona Vacantia, but with government failure to act when presented with clear examples of fraud.

The son of a British couple detained in Iran has said he broke down in tears when he learned of their arrest and has not heard from them in six months.

Craig and Lindsay Foreman were on a "once-in-a-lifetime" motorbike trip around the world when they were arrested in January and later charged with espionage, which the family denies.

Their son Joe Bennett said the Foreign Office must act more urgently to bring them home, adding that he was not "clear" on their strategy to do so.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said they were continuing to assist the family and raise the case directly with Iranian authorities.

Mr and Mrs Foreman, both 52 from East Sussex, were motorbiking from Spain to Australia when they crossed into Iran on 31 December.

Mr Bennett said he last spoke with his parents on 3 January prior to their arrest, before learning they were being held in late January and charged with spying in February.

"I didn't know what to do or where to turn," he recalled.

Mr Bennett said one "generic letter" written by his mother had been shared with friends and family since then, and that updates on their wellbeing had come from three welfare checks by UK embassy officials - the last being in May.

"That's tough when you're used to hearing someone's voice every day," Mr Bennett said.

"She's sleeping on a wafer-thin mattress," he said of his mother, "that causes a lot of upset".

"You always go back to how they must be feeling, that's the one thing that gets the family the most."

Mr Bennett said his parents were very active people who loved doing Parkrun, and were trying to "keep as fit as possible" in their cell.

"In true fashion they're now running figure of eights in their cell," he said, "which just shows their mental fortitude".

He added that the conflict between Iran and Israel which erupted in June was a "terrifying" period, "not knowing if they were okay or safe".

The couple were due to be transferred to Tehran's notorious Evin Prison on 8 June, he continued, which was bombed by Israel on 23 June - while the war also saw the UK pull its embassy staff out of the city.

Mr Bennett recalls thinking: "They are now left alone, we haven't got people who can push for their safety and wellbeing."

The FCDO currently advises against all travel to Iran, saying that British and British-Iranian dual nationals are at "significant risk" of arrest, questioning or detention.

It also now states that UK government support is "extremely limited in Iran".

"No face-to-face consular assistance will be possible in an emergency and the UK government will not be able to help you if you get into difficulty in Iran," the guidance reads.

Mr Bennett said the family did have reservations about their decision to travel to the country and asked, "why would you go there?".

But he stressed that the couple did so "by the proper means" - with the right visas, accompanied by licensed tour guides, and staying in hotels and along main roads.

"They followed every guideline in the book they could… that clearly wasn't enough."

Mr Bennett said he believed they were arrested because "they have UK passports and are being used as leverage by the Iranian regime".

"I want to be crystal clear, my parents aren't spies, they're not political players, they aren't criminals. They're Mum and Dad."

A spokesman for Iran's judiciary said in February that the couple had entered Iran "under the guise of tourists" and "gathered information" in several parts of the country.

They said the couple had been under surveillance by intelligence agencies and were arrested as part of a "coordinated intelligence operation".

In recent years, Iran has arrested dozens of Iranians with dual nationality or foreign permanent residency, mostly on spying and national security charges. At least 15 have had links to the UK.

Human rights groups say they are often held as leverage, released only when Iran receives something in return.

Mr Bennett said the foreign office had been "supportive in terms of words and comfort, but we're past that now," describing the relationship as "functional".

He added that their "quiet diplomacy" approach had been "going on for too long" and that the family was not "clear what the strategy is".

"We know where we stand and what we want, it's over to you to make this happen."

An FCDO spokesperson said: "We continue to raise this case directly with the Iranian authorities, we're providing them with consular assistance and we remain in close contact with the family."