Liverpool are to retire the number 20 shirt in honour of forward Diogo Jota, who tragically died in a car crash along with his brother Andre Silva.
The Reds took the decision after consulting with Jota's wife Rute Cardoso and his family which means the Portugal international "will forever be Liverpool's number 20".
A Liverpool statement said the number "will be retired in honour and memory of Diogo across all levels", including the women's team and throughout the academy.
They added: "The move is recognition of not only the immeasurable contribution our lad from Portugal made to the Reds' on-pitch successes over the last five years, but also the profound personal impact he had on his team-mates, colleagues and supporters and the everlasting connections he built with them."
Jota joined Liverpool from Wolves in 2020 and scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the club.
He also helped them win the FA Cup and League Cup in 2022 - also winning the latter in 2024 - and the Premier League title last season.
"As a club, we were all acutely aware of the sentiment of our supporters - and we felt exactly the same way," said Fenway Sports Group chief executive of football Michael Edwards.
"It was vitally important to us to involve Diogo's wife, Rute, and his family in the decision and to ensure they were the first to know of our intention.
"I believe this is the first time in Liverpool's history that such an honour has been bestowed upon an individual. Therefore, we can say this is a unique tribute to a uniquely wonderful person.
"By retiring this squad number, we are making it eternal – and therefore never to be forgotten."
Jota and his brother died on 3 July after their car, a Lamborghini, left the road due to a tyre blowout while overtaking another vehicle at about 00:30 local time on Thursday, 3 July.
Jota was on his way back to Liverpool for pre-season and, as doctors had advised him against flying because he had undergone minor surgery, he was making the trip by car and ferry.
The funeral of the brothers took place in their hometown of Gondomar last Saturday when a large Liverpool delegation were in attendance.
Cardoso, members of the brothers' family and Liverpool's squad visited Anfield on Friday to pay their respects to Jota and Silva.
Cardoso had three children with the Portugal international and the pair had married only 11 days prior to his accident.
She was seen carrying flowers at Anfield as she viewed the wealth of tributes that have been left outside the stadium in honour of Jota and his brother.
Liverpool players and staff have paid personal tributes in the week but the squad went as one with manager Arne Slot along with Cardoso on Friday.
Amber heat health alerts have been issued for much of England as the third heatwave of the summer kicks in.
The official alerts have been upgraded for southern England, the Midlands and East of England.
The warnings will come into force at noon on Friday and will remain in place until Monday morning, the UK Health Security Agency said.
Less severe yellow warnings remain in place in place for northern England.
Temperatures are forecast to go as high as 32C across England and Wales, with elsewhere in the UK expected to reach the high 20s.
Friday could be Wales's hottest day of the year so far if the temperature exceeds 30.8C as forecast.
The heat will continue into Saturday, when temperature may reach 31C in parts of central and north-east Scotland, making it the hottest day of the year so far north of the border.
Sunday is set to be cooler as a north-easterly breeze sets in, though temperatures will still be in the high twenties and low thirties for many.
There is also a chance of a few showers across some eastern areas of England.
The heatwave will be over for most on Monday as cooler Atlantic air spreads, bringing cloud and some showers to northern and western areas.
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Unite says it has suspended Angela Rayner from her membership of the union, amid a deepening row over the long-running bin strikes in Birmingham.
The deputy prime minister has been urging striking bin workersto accept a deal to end the dispute, which has seen mountains of rubbish pile up in the city.
The union said it would also re-examine its relationship with Labour after an emergency motion at its conference in Brighton.
Bin collection workers walked out in January, with an all-out strike going on since March. Unite is a major donor to the Labour Party, and has previously donated to Rayner herself.
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Jannik Sinner will face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final after a ruthless demolition of Novak Djokovic's latest bid for a record 25th Grand Slam title.
Sinner, 23, swatted aside seven-time champion Djokovic to win 6-3 6-3 6-4 and reach a maiden Wimbledon final, setting up a re-match of last month's epic French Open showpiece.
At least one of Sinner and Alcaraz have contested the men's singles final at the last six Grand Slam tournaments, while Sinner is going for a first title away from the hard courts against Alcaraz, a two-time winner at the All England Club.
Djokovic had admitted before the tournament this was probably his best chance of setting a standalone record of major singles title - on his favoured surface where he has enjoyed so much success.
Having been largely outplayed for two sets, the 38-year-old threatened a comeback in the third but Sinner remarkably won five games in a row on his way to securing a fifth Grand Slam final.
Three-time major winner Sinner has now won the last six meetings against Djokovic but this was the first time on grass.
There were doubts around the fitness of both players before the match and, while Sinner did not seem hampered by his elbow injury, Djokovic did require a medical time out after the second set.
Another final between Sinner and Alcaraz just five weeks after the last one at Roland Garros gives the Italian a chance for revenge after he let slip a two-set lead to lose in five.
"It's a huge honour for me to share the court again with Carlos," Sinner said.
"Hopefully it will be a good match like the last one - I don't know if it will be better because I don't know if that's possible but we will try - hopefully it will be an enjoyable match."
World number two Alcaraz beat American fifth seed Taylor Fritz 6-4 5-7 6-3 7-6 (8-6) in Friday's first semi-final on a sweltering hot day at SW19.
Defeat here for Djokovic calls into question whether he will ever achieve that elusive 25th major title.
Having ended Sinner's last two Wimbledon runs - in the quarter-final last year and semis the year before - this time the shoe was on the other foot with the Italian in imperious form.
His game has often been compared to that of Djokovic and nowhere was that more evident than here as Sinner's remarkable movement, consistency from the baseline and impeccable serving completely overawed the Serb.
The opening set passed by in a blur as Sinner served superbly with no sign of trouble from his elbow injury, picked up in the last 16 against Grigor Dimitrov.
Djokovic clung on in a tight game at 5-3, having gone down an early break, but Sinner was too good for him in the rallies - chasing down drop shots and anticipating his next move - and cruised to a one-set lead.
An early break of serve followed in the second set and a tense crowd, so used to seeing triumph after triumph from Djokovic, sensed he was in trouble.
Every point won off Sinner's serve was celebrated enthusiastically, but they were few and far between as Djokovic created no break points in the opening two sets.
He called a medical timeout after losing the second, perhaps still struggling after a nasty slip at the end of his last-eight match against Flavio Cobolli.
Djokovic threatened a comeback in the third set, pouncing on a loose service game from Sinner to hand himself some momentum in the match.
But hopes of that were soon extinguished when Sinner rediscovered his serve to save double-break points then broke back when Djokovic's drop shot fell back on his side of the net.
Sinner then showed incredible mental resilience by putting any potential threat of a repeat of the French Open final to bed when he broke again then impressively held serve on a five-game winning streak.
Djokovic did what he had to do and saved two match points on his own serve to force Sinner to serve it out, which he did at the second opportunity.
There was a huge round of applause for Djokovic as he left Centre Court and he raised a hand to all four corners - undoubtedly leaving many wondering how many more times he will be seen here.
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How 'out of this world' Alcaraz 'set the tone' for a place in the Wimbledon final
GP surgeries in England can offer advice to patients on getting back to work, including career coaching or exercise classes, as part of a pilot project to reduce the number of people who are signed off work sick.
The aim is to help people return to the workplace more quickly to reduce the length of time they need fit notes - better known as sick notes.
These are issued by health professionals if a patient is unwell or cannot work for more than seven days.
A total of £1.5m is being made available to 15 regions in England, and will be shared between GP practices in these areas to hire coaches or occupational therapists to support patients in their return to work.
The Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said: "It's about fundamentally changing the conversation from 'you can't' to 'how can we help you?'
"When someone walks into their doctor's surgery worried about their job, they should walk out with a plan, not just a piece of paper that closes doors."
Health staff would be offered training to give work and health advice. People could be pointed towards fitness classes or career coaching.
In one case quoted by the government, a woman who was off work with a fractured ankle had an assessment with a fitness adviser and was referred for a 12-week exercise programme with the aim of strengthening the ankle.
The Department of Health and Social Care says that of 11 million fit notes issued electronically in England last year, 93% simply declared people "not fit for work" with no alternative support offered.
This new scheme expands on an initiative launched last October in the same 15 regions called WorkWell, jointly run by the Departments of Work and Pensions and Health and Social Care.
It involves NHS staff referring patients to other services. People in work but at risk of quitting have been given advice on mental health in the workplace.
In the new scheme, those out of work will be referred by NHS staff to services that offer support for finding a job, such as CV and interview techniques and liaising with employers on appropriate support.
Ministers say the policies are part of the move across government to encourage more people back into work with 2.8 million currently out of the workforce due to health conditions.
The Royal College of GPs said it recognised the health benefits of being in work and GPs would encourage it where safe to do so, but added that doctors did not issue fit notes without good reason.
Professor Kamila Hawthorne, chair of the College, said: "We want to work alongside the Government on this scheme so it's important that it is not presented as a punitive measure for patients."
Prof Hawthorne also stressed that the new scheme should also not be punitive for "hardworking GPs", who are "doing their best under enormous pressures, caused by historic underfunding and poor workforce planning",
WorkWell is operating in 15 English regions and the new fit note initiative will provide £1.5m to be shared between them.
The regions are Birmingham and Solihull; Black Country; Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough; Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly; Coventry and Warwickshire; Frimley; Herefordshire and Worcestershire; Greater Manchester; Lancashire and South Cumbria; Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland; North Central London; North West London; South Yorkshire; Surrey Heartlands.
The former Metropolitan Police commissioner, Lord Ian Blair, has died at the age of 72.
The crossbench peer and senior police officer led the UK's largest force between 2005 and 2008, including during the 7/7 bombings in London.
Christ Church, Oxford, where Lord Blair studied English and later became an honorary student, confirmed his death on Friday.
Born in Chester in 1953, Lord Blair joined the Met in 1974 as part of its graduate entry scheme.
He rose through the ranks, serving in both uniform and CID, and went on to lead major investigations, including the response to the King's Cross fire of 1987.
In 1998, he became chief constable of Surrey Police before returning to the Met two years later as deputy commissioner.
Lord Blair was appointed commissioner in February 2005, just months before a series of bombings killed 52 people on London's transport network.
Two weeks later, firearms officers shot dead Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell Underground station, after mistaking him for a terror suspect.
The force was later found to have breached health and safety laws over the shooting.
Lord Blair was cleared of personal wrongdoing but faced sustained pressure over the incident for the remainder of his time in the role.
Parliament's standards commissioner has launched an investigation into ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
The BBC understands it is for allegedly failing to register hundreds of thousands of pounds raised in donations to fund his independent "Rape Gang Inquiry".
More than £600,000 has been donated to a Crowdfunder started by Lowe in March to support a national inquiry into gang-based sexual exploitation across the UK. So far, Lowe has not declared any of the money on his MPs' register.
Lowe started the project before the PM announced a government-backed national inquiry into grooming gangs last month. He has since said his investigation will continue regardless. Lowe has been approached for comment.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has confirmed they are investigating whether Lowe breached parliamentary rules on declaring donations within the 28-days - as set out in the MPs' Code of Conduct.
Under parliamentary rules, MPs must declare any donation from a single source over £1,500 - or over £300 in earnings or gifts.
Lowe's Crowdfunder includes a statement that donors giving above the parliamentary limit will have their names published in the Commons register.
Most of the £600,000 came in small sums - but records show over a dozen donations exceeded £1,500, none of which have appeared in Lowe's register of financial interests.
Lowe was elected as a Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth in 2024 but was suspended by the party in March, amid claims of threats towards the party's chairman, Zia Yusuf.
In May, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to press charges over threats he was alleged to have made. Lowe claimed in a BBC Newsnight interview that he had been the victim of a "political assassination attempt".
Not long after his suspension from Reform, Lowe set up his Crowdfunder - accusing ministers of failing victims and saying: "Our gutless political class is too cowardly to even start to process what has truly happened."
Lowe's Rape Gang Inquiry has set up a board, including Conservative MP Esther McVey.
According to the inquiries social media page it has sent "hundreds and hundreds of FOI requests to every local council, police force, NHS trust and more in order to uncover vital information relating to the rape gangs".
Lowe has promised to stream hearings online and insisted his private investigation will continue to push for accountability.
Emma says pubs landlords need to come together to voice their struggles.
Behind the bar at The King's Head in Pollington, east Yorkshire, Emma Baxter has a problem. She runs the pub in her evenings - but it makes no money.
It is the last remaining pub in the village after another shut down, along with a greengrocer and the post office. She says she can't take a salary from the business.
"I run the pub for the love of it and for the fact I'm a village girl," she says.
"I'm a strong believer in the fact that it's the centre of the community and I said when I bought it I would keep it going.
"But my electricity bill has doubled in the last six months – where is that money going to come from?"
Emma felt so strongly about the tough financial situation facing many pubs that she contacted Your Voice, Your BBC News - an initiative to share the stories that matter to you.
According to the British Beer and Pub Association, the number of pubs in the UK has steadily decreased every year since 2000. Some 15,000 pubs have closed in that time, including 289 last year - the equivalent of six a week.
The average price of a pint is set to increase from £4.80 to £5.01. Budget measures mean that pubs face a loss of 9p on each pint if they continue to charge the same pre-budget prices. This means the price of a pint will need to rise by 21p to £5.01 for pubs to maintain current 12p profit.
The industry faced particular struggles during the Covid pandemic, but Emma believes things have deteriorated in the last two years - and it's left some pubs struggling to stay afloat.
"We saw maybe one price increase a year if we were lucky [during Covid] - sometimes we didn't even see that," she says.
"Now we're seeing three for a year and we've got another one coming. That will be the second one in the last two months. So how much more is this going to happen?"
At the same time as battling rising costs, she is attempting to entice customers in.
"I think everybody's trying their best - but you can't compromise the service and the quality that you give and the environment that you give.
"So you can't turn around at 9pm, turn all the lights off and make people sit around one bulb, you know. That's not what people come out for."
Maurice says he is being charged 'ridiculous' prices for beer and spirits
Pubs operate under various business models. There are free houses, which are not owned by a brewery or landlord stipulating where landlords buy their beer from. These are often run by owner-occupiers.
Then there are brewery-owned pubs, which generally only sell beers from that brewery.
And there are firms that own thousands of pubs and are occupied by tenants - often referred to as a "pub co".
Some tenants are also obliged to buy the drinks they sell from the same company. In some cases they are responsible for the upkeep of the building too.
Maurice, a tenant for one such company in Sheffield, tells the BBC he is trying to renegotiate his deal to run the pub. He says he will have to close the establishment if he can't get better terms.
"The prices that we are charged for spirits, beer, is ridiculous. I could actually go to a supermarket and buy about two bottles for what they're charging me for one. But I'm not allowed to because I'm tied," he says.
He also wants to see "pub co" breweries offered more help with the maintenance of their pubs, rather than leaving tenants to chase money for repairs.
Having been in the trade all his working life, he says he got involved with running a pub because of his love for community, but he's struggling to see a bright future.
"At the end of the day, you've got to make money. Financially, we're losing about £1,000 a week at a minimum here. And that's been for about the last couple of months.
"I can't afford to carry that anymore. All my savings are going."
Paul is calling for a VAT cut for pubs
For its part, the UK government says the pub is a central part of Britain's national identity and it is working hard to support the industry.
"We are a pro-business government and we know the vital importance of pubs to local communities and the economy, which is why we are supporting them with business rates relief and a 1p cut to alcohol duty on draught pints."
However, campaigners say that's not enough.
"Bringing down the VAT rate for hospitality would be a massive win," says Paul Crossman, landlord of The Swan, in York.
Paul, who is also chair of the pressure group the Campaign for Pubs, says: "I know the Chancellor of the Exchequer won't like that because there will be a cost attached to it, but surely getting 10% VAT from businesses that are still open is better than asking 20% from businesses that can't sustain that and will close."
There are some positive stories, too. Meg and Patrick have recently taken over the oldest pub in Chesterfield, south Yorkshire, and say their re-opening "couldn't have gone better".
Both former teachers, the couple had a shared dream of running their own pub, eventually saving enough to buy the Ye Royal Oak in the town centre.
Meg and Patrick said reopening Chesterfield's oldest pub was "really special"
They say being a free house pub has been helpful, as they are in control of what they do.
Patrick that the support he's witnessed in the community has given him hope.
"Beer and pubs are such a massive part of the fabric of British life that we think that that's not something that's ever going to go away," he says.
The National Trust has announced plans to cut 6% of its current workforce, about 550 jobs, blaming an inflated pay bill and tax rises introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The heritage and conservation charity said it was under "sustained cost pressures beyond our control".
These include the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage rise from April, which the National Trust said had driven up annual wage costs by more than £10m.
The cost-cutting measures are part of a plan to find £26m worth of savings.
A 45-day consultation period with staff began on Thursday and the Trust said they were working with the union Prospect "to minimise compulsory redundancies".
The charity is running a voluntary redundancy scheme, and is expecting that to significantly reduce compulsory redundancies, a spokeswoman said.
The job cuts will affect all staff from management down, and everyone whose job is at risk will be offered a suitable alternative where available, the spokeswoman added.
Following consultations, which will finish in mid-to-late August, the cuts will be made in the autumn.
Liam Gallagher has buried the hatched with brother Noel (for now)
Oasis fans have gone mad for their music again following their reunion, sending the band to number one in the UK album chart.
After the group kicked off their comeback tour last week, their greatest hits compilation Time Flies has gone back to the top spot, followed by 1995 album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? at number two.
Debut album Definitely Maybe, from 1994, is at number four - with only Sabrina Carpenter preventing them from completing a clean sweep of the top three.
News of the chart revival comes as the Britpop heroes prepare for their homecoming with the first of five sold-out nights in Manchester.
Oasis have had eight number one albums in total, and last topped the chart when Definitely Maybe went back to the summit last September after the reunion was announced. Time Flies and Morning Glory also went back into the top five at that time.
Three of their songs have also gone into the top 20 singles chart this week, led by Acquiesce, which was originally only a B-side, at number 17. That's followed by Don't Look Back in Anger at 18, and Live Forever at 19.
Noel and Liam Gallagher buried the hatchet to get back on stage for the first time in 16 years in Cardiff a week ago, and received enthusiastic reviews from ticket-holders and critics.
They have now moved on to Manchester's Heaton Park, where about 80,000 people will watch them every night.
They will also play seven nights at Wembley Stadium in London as well as shows in Edinburgh and Dublin, and a world tour.
The success of the brotherly reconciliation has gone some way to eclipsing bad memories of the scramble for tickets, when some fans found that prices more than doubled while they spent hours in a virtual queue.
An attack victim has said he is lucky to be alive after being knocked out by a single punch from a stranger who has now been jailed.
Airline pilot Ross McConnell, 35, was assaulted following a Busted concert at Aberdeen's P&J Live in 2023, leaving him unable to work for several months and with permanent scarring.
He has now spoken out to warn of the dangers of a single punch, saying the "split-second action" can have "absolutely devastating consequences".
Ben Corfield, 40, admitted the assault, and was jailed for a year at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Speaking after the sentencing, Mr McConnell said: "Justice has been done today, that guy very nearly killed me.
"I understand that he has had time to reflect on it. I accept his remorse, but ultimately he did what he did.
"Every day I'm reminded that the situation could be much more different."
Mr McConnell and his wife Lisa were both assaulted in the incident on 19 September 2023.
Corfield, from Doncaster in South Yorkshire, admitted punching the pilot to his severe injury and permanent disfigurement.
He also admitted assaulting another man on the same night.
Claire Maclagan, 36, from Dundee, admitted assaulting Lisa McConnell and was sentenced to carry out 187 hours of unpaid work.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin said she had "wrestled" with her decision, but she had no choice but to impose a custodial sentence on the first-time offender.
She described it as an "extremely serious assault" which could have turned out "significantly worse".
The sheriff told the court "everyone wishes Mr Corfield had just walked away".
Ross McConnell
Ross McConnell needed stitches to the wound in his head
Mr McConnell said events on the night unfolded very quickly.
"Out of nowhere this guy comes up to me," he said.
"He just punched me to the left-hand side of my jaw. It caused me to fall backwards. The next thing I remember was waking up in the recovery position on the floor.
"I don't recall saying anything to him, it all happened in the space of seconds. I just thought, what did I do to deserve this? If someone else had been in my position it looks like they would have got the same treatment."
How bad were the injuries?
Mr McConnell was taken to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary where he received stitches to his serious head wound.
He said: "My daughter nearly lost her father, my wife nearly lost her husband, my mother nearly lost her son - all because one guy had a bad night and decided to punch me.
"Just about 30cm from where my head struck was uneven granite cobble. If my head had hit that, I shudder to think. The situation could have been a lot worse. I might not even be here today at worse case."
He was unable to properly return to his job as an airline pilot for nearly four months.
"That really gets you down," he said. "You know I thought 'why me?' A single punch has caused all of this impact for me, the physical impact as well as the financial loss and the mental impact too.
"I sat for days wondering, had I done anything? Was this my fault?"
Maxine Thompson-Curl lost her son after a single-punch attack
Maxine Thompson-Curl set up the charity One Punch UK after her 18-year-old son Kristian's death in 2010.
He was punched by a man in a nightclub.
"He had a fractured skull and a catastrophic brain injury," she said. "My life from that moment has never been the same.
"He was in a coma for five days. And then for many months he was trying to get over having a brain injury. But he died nine months later. It was absolutely horrific."
She added: "We know these one-punch assaults happen, but the difficult thing statistically is that it isn't recorded by the police as a one-punch attack it is recorded as an assault.
"I have contact with people from across the country - Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland - and I would say at least twice a week I am hearing from people who are going through this, they get in touch looking for help.
"We know that one punch can ruin two lives. What I would say is - stop, think and walk away. Don't use those fists as weapons. They weren't given to punch, they were given to us to care, to hold each other, not to kill."
Why has Ross told his story?
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland of Police Scotland said violence of any kind was entirely unacceptable.
"A split-second, ill-informed decision can end someone's life, and leave the perpetrator facing a long jail sentence," he said.
Mr McConnell hopes sharing his story might also make others think twice before lashing out.
"I am one of the lucky ones who survived a one-punch attack," he said.
"There are many other accounts out there where people have lost their lives, become disabled from it.
"If you are really having a bad day, taking a swing at somebody Is not going to make it any better."
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pictured in a file photo with a US Patriot defence system
US President Donald Trump has said he will send weapons, including Patriot air defence systems, for Ukraine via Nato.
Trump told NBC News that in a new deal, "we're going to be sending Patriots to Nato, and then Nato will distribute that", adding that Nato would pay for the weapons.
His announcement came after Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of having a "positive dialogue" with Trump on ensuring that arms arrived on time, particularly air defence systems.
Zelensky said he had asked for 10 Patriot systems, after a surge in Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in the past week.
Speaking in Rome on Thursday, the Ukrainian leader said Germany was ready to pay for two of the Patriots and Norway for one, while other European partners were also prepared to help.
After a phone-call with Russia's Vladimir Putin last week, Trump said he was "not happy" that progress had not been made towards ending the war, and he has since complained that Putin's "very nice" attitude turned out to be meaningless.
During his interview with NBC News, Trump said he would make a "major statement" on Russia on Monday, but did not say what it would be about.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Friday that he had urged countries including Germany and Spain to hand over some of their existing Patriot batteries, as they could reach Ukraine faster.
"We have continued to encourage our Nato allies to provide those weapons... since they have them in their stocks, then we can enter into financial agreements... where they can purchase the replacements."
The US defence department halted some shipments of critical weapons last week, raising concerns in Kyiv that its air defences could run low in a matter of months.
Among the armaments reported to have been placed on pause were Patriot interceptor missiles and precision artillery shells.
Then, as Ukraine was pounded by record numbers of drone attacks this week, Trump said more weapons would be sent: "We have to... They're getting hit very hard now."
Zelensky had appealed for the shipments to resume, describing the Patriot systems as "real protectors of life".
On Tuesday night, Ukraine was hit by a record 728 drones, and the Ukrainian president warned that Russia wanted to increase that to 1,000.
June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in Ukraine in three years, with 232 people killed and more than 1,300 injured, according to the UN.
Since re-entering the White House in January, Trump has pushed to scale back US support for Ukraine.
Trump has also pressed Nato allies to pledge more of their GDP to the security alliance. Last year, all European Nato members pledged to spend 2% of GDP on defence.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The US has been urging the two countries to reach an agreement to end the war.
Rubio told reporters that he and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a "frank" conversation on the sidelines of a meeting in Malaysia on Thursday.
Rubio echoed Trump's "frustration at the lack of progress at peace talks", including "disappointment that there has not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict".
He said the two had shared some new ideas about how the conflict could conclude, which he would take back to Trump.
Rubio declined to elaborate on what Trump said would be a "major" announcement about Russia on Monday.
Two care home residents have died after a car crashed into the building following a police chase in Sunderland, Northumbria Police has said.
The crash happened at about 21:40 BST on Wednesday when a blue BMW hit Highcliffe Care Home in Witherwack, causing structural damage.
The vehicle had been reported stolen from the Fenham area of Newcastle earlier that evening, police said.
A woman in her 90s and another in her 80s died on Thursday, and eight other residents were taken to hospital with injuries. Two people have been arrested.
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Unite says it has suspended Angela Rayner from her membership of the union, amid a deepening row over the long-running bin strikes in Birmingham.
The deputy prime minister has been urging striking bin workersto accept a deal to end the dispute, which has seen mountains of rubbish pile up in the city.
The union said it would also re-examine its relationship with Labour after an emergency motion at its conference in Brighton.
Bin collection workers walked out in January, with an all-out strike going on since March. Unite is a major donor to the Labour Party, and has previously donated to Rayner herself.
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A fuel shortage threatens to shut down life-saving services at Nasser hospital
Doctors have warned of an imminent disaster at Gaza's largest functioning hospital because of critical shortage of fuel and a widening Israeli ground offensive in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Nasser Medical Complex was forced to stop admitting patients on Thursday, when witnesses said Israeli troops and tanks advanced into a cemetery 200m (660ft) away and fired towards nearby camps for displaced families. The forces reportedly withdrew on Friday after digging up several areas.
Medical staff and dozens of patients in intensive care remain inside the hospital, where the fuel shortage threatens to shut down life-saving services.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
However, it said on Friday morning that an armoured brigade was operating in Khan Younis to dismantle "terrorist infrastructure sites" and confiscate weapons> It has previously issued evacuation orders for the areas around the hospital.
A witness told the BBC that Israeli tanks accompanied by excavators and bulldozers advanced from the south of the cemetery near Nasser hospital on Thursday.
The tanks fired shells and bullets as they moved into an area, which was previously farmland, and several tents belonging to displaced families were set on fire, the witness said. Video footage shared online showed a plume of dark smoke rising from the area.
The witness added that Israeli quadcopter drones also fired towards tents in the Namsawi Towers and al-Mawasi areas to force residents to evacuate. Another video showed dozens of people running for cover amid as gunfire rang out.
One or two civilians standing near the hospital's gates were reportedly injured by stray bullets.
Medical staff inside Nasser hospital meanwhile sent messages to local journalists expressing their fear. "We are still working in the hospital. The tanks are just metres away. We are closer to death than to life," they wrote.
On Friday morning, locals said the Israeli tanks and troops pulled out of the cemetery and other areas close to the hospital.
Pictures shared online later in the day appeared to show deep trenches dug into the sandy ground, flattened buildings, burnt tents, and crushed vehicles piled on top of each other.
Staff at Nasser hospital said they were assessing if they could resume admitting patients.
Anadolu via Getty Images
Displaced people search for their belongings at the site of a camp near Nasser hospital that was destroyed by Israeli forces
On Wednesday, they warned that the hospital was very close to a complete shutdown due to a critical fuel shortage.
They said electricity generators were expected to function for one additional day despite significant efforts to reduce power consumption and restrict electricity to only the most critical departments, including the intensive care and neonatal units.
If the power went out completely, dozens of patients, particularly those dependent of ventilators, would "be in immediate danger and face certain death", the hospital added.
An Israeli military official told Reuters news agency on Thursday that around 160,000 litres of fuel destined for hospitals and other humanitarian facilities had entered Gaza since Wednesday, but that the fuel's distribution around the territory was not the responsibility of the army.
There is a shortage of critical medical supplies, especially those related to trauma care.
Dr Rik Peeperkorn said in a video that the facility, which normally has a 350-bed capacity, was treating about 700 patients, and that exhausted staff were working 24 hours a day.
The director and doctors reported receiving hundreds of trauma cases over the past four weeks, the majority of them linked to incidents around aid distribution sites, he added.
"There's many boys, young adolescents who are dying or getting the most serious injuries because they try to get some food for their families," he said.
Among them were a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the head and is now tetraplegic, and a 21-year-old man who has a bullet lodged in his neck and is also tetraplegic.
On Friday, 10 people seeking aid were reportedly killed by Israeli military fire near an aid distribution site in the nearby southern city of Rafah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not commented.
Reuters
Nasser hospital said doctors were performing some surgeries without electricity or air conditioning
Meanwhile, in northern Gaza, a senior Hamas commander was among eight people who were killed in an Israeli air strike on a school sheltering displaced families in Jabalia, a local source told the BBC.
Iyad Nasr, who led the Jabalia al-Nazla battalion, died alongside his family, including several children, and an aide when two missiles hit a classroom at Halima al-Saadia school, according to the source.
Another Hamas commander, Hassan Marii, and his aide were reportedly killed in a separate air strike on an apartment in al-Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City.
It comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal could be just days away, after concluding his four-day trip to the US.
Before flying back from Washington on Thursday night, he told Newsmax that the proposal would supposedly see Hamas release half of the 20 living hostages it is still holding and just over half of the 30 dead hostages during a 60-day truce.
"So, we'll have 10 living left and about 12 deceased hostages [remaining], but I'll get them out, too. I hope we can complete it in a few days," he added.
However, a Palestinian official told the BBC that the indirect negotiations in Qatar were stalled, with sticking points including aid distribution and Israeli troop withdrawals.
The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.
At least 57,762 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
The publisher said it had taken the decision to delay the book with Raynor Winn herself
Author Raynor Winn's new book has been delayed because questions about her bestselling work The Salt Path have caused her and her husband "considerable distress", her publisher has said.
Penguin Michael Joseph said the decision to postpone the publication of her fourth book, On Winter Hill, had been made with Winn.
It comes after an investigation by the Observer claimed the writer had misrepresented some of the events in her 2018 book. Winn has called the report "highly misleading" and refuted many of the newspaper's claims.
On Winter Hill, about a solo coast-to-coast walk Winn completed without husband Moth, had been scheduled to be published in October.
"Given recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth's health condition which has caused considerable distress to Raynor Winn and her family, it is our priority to support the author at this time," Penguin Michael Joseph said in a statement.
"With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, have made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October."
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
On Sunday, the Observer reported Winn had misrepresented the events that led to the couple losing their house and setting off on the 630-mile walk that was depicted in The Salt Path.
The paper's investigation also cast doubt on the nature of her husband's illness. Winn denied the allegations and said she was taking legal advice.
On Wednesday, she posted a more extensive statement, responding in detail to each of the claims made in the Observer's article.
The newspaper said it had spoken to medical experts who were "sceptical" that Moth had corticobasal degeneration (CBD), given his lack of acute symptoms and apparent ability to reverse them via walking.
In response, Winn provided documents that appeared to confirm he had been diagnosed with CBD. One letter suggested Moth may have an "atypical form" of the condition, or perhaps "an even more unusual disorder".
The Observer also said the couple had lost their home after Winn took out a loan to cover money she had been accused of stealing from a previous employer, and not in a bad business deal as Winn described in her book.
In her statement, Winn said the two cases were separate. She stood by her description of how the couple came to lose their home and wrote in detail about an investment in a property portfolio that left the couple liable for large sums of money.
However, in relation to the Observer's accusation that she had defrauded her previous employer of £64,000, Winn acknowledged making "mistakes" earlier in her career, and 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 she added the case had been settled between her and her ex-employer on a "non-admissions basis", and although she was questioned by police, she was not charged.
Winn also said the couple did not have any outstanding debts, and clarified that a house in France that the Observer said they also owned was "an uninhabitable ruin in a bramble patch", which an estate agent had advised was not worth selling.
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.
Winn has written two sequels, The Wild Silence and Landlines, which also focus on themes of nature, wild camping, homelessness and walking.
Parliament's standards commissioner has launched an investigation into ex-Reform MP Rupert Lowe.
The BBC understands it is for allegedly failing to register hundreds of thousands of pounds raised in donations to fund his independent "Rape Gang Inquiry".
More than £600,000 has been donated to a Crowdfunder started by Lowe in March to support a national inquiry into gang-based sexual exploitation across the UK. So far, Lowe has not declared any of the money on his MPs' register.
Lowe started the project before the PM announced a government-backed national inquiry into grooming gangs last month. He has since said his investigation will continue regardless. Lowe has been approached for comment.
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has confirmed they are investigating whether Lowe breached parliamentary rules on declaring donations within the 28-days - as set out in the MPs' Code of Conduct.
Under parliamentary rules, MPs must declare any donation from a single source over £1,500 - or over £300 in earnings or gifts.
Lowe's Crowdfunder includes a statement that donors giving above the parliamentary limit will have their names published in the Commons register.
Most of the £600,000 came in small sums - but records show over a dozen donations exceeded £1,500, none of which have appeared in Lowe's register of financial interests.
Lowe was elected as a Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth in 2024 but was suspended by the party in March, amid claims of threats towards the party's chairman, Zia Yusuf.
In May, the Crown Prosecution Service decided not to press charges over threats he was alleged to have made. Lowe claimed in a BBC Newsnight interview that he had been the victim of a "political assassination attempt".
Not long after his suspension from Reform, Lowe set up his Crowdfunder - accusing ministers of failing victims and saying: "Our gutless political class is too cowardly to even start to process what has truly happened."
Lowe's Rape Gang Inquiry has set up a board, including Conservative MP Esther McVey.
According to the inquiries social media page it has sent "hundreds and hundreds of FOI requests to every local council, police force, NHS trust and more in order to uncover vital information relating to the rape gangs".
Lowe has promised to stream hearings online and insisted his private investigation will continue to push for accountability.
Rafah in southern Gaza has suffered large-scale destruction of buildings and infrastructure
For Gazans, a 60-day ceasefire being negotiated between Israel and Hamas would be a lifeline.
A window to bring in large quantities of desperately needed food, water and medicine after severe – and at times total - Israeli restrictions on aid deliveries.
But for Israel's defence minister Israel Katz a two-month pause in military operations would create an opportunity to build what he has called a "humanitarian city" in the ruins of the southern city of Rafah to contain almost every single Gazan except those belonging to armed groups.
According to the plan, Palestinians would be security screened before being allowed in and not permitted to leave.
Critics, both domestically and internationally, have condemned the proposal, with human rights groups, academics and lawyers calling it a blueprint for a "concentration camp".
It's unclear to what extent it represents a concrete plan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government or whether it is a negotiating tactic to put more pressure on Hamas in the talks on a ceasefire and hostage release deal.
In the notable absence of any Israeli plan for Gaza after the war ends, this idea is filling the strategic vacuum.
Katz briefed a group of Israeli reporters that the new camp would initially house about 600,000 Palestinians - and eventually the whole 2.1 million population.
His plan would see the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) securing the site from a distance while international bodies managed the area. Four aid distribution sites would be established in the area, he said.
Katz also restated his desire to encourage Palestinians to "voluntarily emigrate" from the Gaza to other countries.
But it has not gained traction or support among other senior figures in Israel, and according to reports the proposal even triggered a clash between the prime minister and the head of the IDF.
Israeli media say the office of the chief of the general staff, Lt Gen Eyal Zamir, made clear the army was not obligated to forcibly transfer civilians, as the plan would require.
It's claimed Gen Zamir and Netanyahu were involved in an angry exchange during a recent war cabinet meeting.
Tal Schneider, a political correspondent at the centrist Times of Israel, said Zamir would be in a strong position to push back because the government "practically begged him to take the job" six months ago – and Netanyahu strongly endorsed his appointment.
It's not only the top military brass that is opposed to the idea. There is also consternation among rank and file too.
"Any transfer of a civil population is a form of war crime, that's a form of ethnic cleansing, which is also a form of genocide," IDF reservist Yotam Vilk told the BBC at his home in Tel Aviv.
John Landy
Yotam Vilk says he will refuse any further reserve duty in Gaza
The 28-year-old former officer in the Armored Corps is refusing to serve any longer in the army following 270 days of active combat in Gaza.
He describes himself as a patriot and argues Israel must defend itself but that the current war has no strategy nor end in sight.
Vilk is also part of Soldiers for the Hostages, a group calling for an end of the war to secure the release of the 50 Israelis still being held captive by Hamas in Gaza, up to 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Meanwhile 16 Israeli experts in international law issued a joint letter on Friday denouncing the plan, which they said would constitute a war crime. The letter urged "all relevant parties to publicly withdraw from the plan, renounce it and refrain from carrying it out".
The plan has unsurprisingly dismayed Palestinians in Gaza.
"We completely reject this proposal, and we reject the displacement of any Palestinian from their land," Sabreen, who had been forced to leave Khan Younis, told the BBC. "We are steadfast and will remain here until our last breath."
Ahmad Al Mghayar from Rafah said: "Freedom is above everything. This is our land, we should be free to move wherever we want. Why are we being pressured like this?"
It's not clear how much support Katz's plan has among the general public, but recent surveys have indicated the majority of Jews in Israel favour the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza.
One poll published in the left-wing daily newspaper Haaretz claimed as many as 82 per cent of Jewish Israelis supported such a move.
But there has been curious lack of public support for the proposal among the far-right, including prominent ministers in the coalition Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.
Both have been vocal proponents of Palestinians leaving Gaza and Jewish settlers returning.
Tal Schneider said both ministers may still be weighing up giving their backing to the proposal for a mass camp.
"Maybe they're waiting to see where the wind blows to see if it's serious. Both Smotrich and Ben-Gvir are cabinet members and have more access to internal discussions. Maybe they think this is just to put political pressure on Hamas to come to the table."
Outside Israel, the proposal for a new camp for all Gazans has attracted widespread criticism.
In the UK, minister for the Middle East Hamish Falconer posted on social media that he was "appalled" by the plan.
"Palestinian territory must not be reduced," he wrote. "Civilians must be able to return to their communities. We need to move towards a ceasefire deal and open a pathway to lasting peace."
British human rights lawyer Baroness Helena Kennedy KC told the BBC the project would force Palestinians into a "concentration camp".
The description, which other critics including academics, NGOs and senior UN officials have used, holds considerable resonance in light of the role of concentration camps in the Holocaust.
Baroness Kennedy said the plan - as well as the latest actions of Israel - has led her to conclude Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
"I was very reluctant to go there, because the threshold has to be very high. There has to be specific intent for genocide. But what we're now seeing is genocidal behaviour," she said.
Israel has vehemently rejected the charge of genocide and says it does not target civilians.
The Israeli foreign ministry also told the BBC that "the notion that Israel is creating concentration camps is deeply offensive and draws parallels with the Nazis". Israel "adheres to the Geneva Convention", it added, referring to the international regulations governing the treatment of civilians in occupied territories.
Aside from grim warnings about what might happen, the prospect of a new camp is having an impact on efforts to end the Gaza war.
Palestinian sources at the ceasefire talks grinding on in the Qatari capital Doha have told the BBC the plan has alarmed the Hamas delegation and has created a new obstacle to a deal.
Unite says it has suspended Angela Rayner from her membership of the union, amid a deepening row over the long-running bin strikes in Birmingham.
The deputy prime minister has been urging striking bin workersto accept a deal to end the dispute, which has seen mountains of rubbish pile up in the city.
The union said it would also re-examine its relationship with Labour after an emergency motion at its conference in Brighton.
Bin collection workers walked out in January, with an all-out strike going on since March. Unite is a major donor to the Labour Party, and has previously donated to Rayner herself.
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Two care home residents have died after a car crashed into the building following a police chase in Sunderland, Northumbria Police has said.
The crash happened at about 21:40 BST on Wednesday when a blue BMW hit Highcliffe Care Home in Witherwack, causing structural damage.
The vehicle had been reported stolen from the Fenham area of Newcastle earlier that evening, police said.
A woman in her 90s and another in her 80s died on Thursday, and eight other residents were taken to hospital with injuries. Two people have been arrested.
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Irvine Welsh is pointing up to the second floor of a grey stone building in Leith, the port district of Edinburgh.
As he gets ready to publish a sequel to his 1993 cult novel Trainspotting, the author is showing me the window of the room, with its view over a local park, where he wrote that first book, which later became a hit film starring Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller.
The son of a Leith docker and a waitress - who did a course in electrical engineering, spent time in a punk band and was addicted to heroin as a younger man - Welsh had moved back home to Leith from London and "just started typing". He tells me that before writing Trainspotting he had decided "this is my last chance to do something creative".
Trainspotting follows the lives of a group of heroin-addicted friends in Edinburgh. Violent, often shocking and darkly funny, the book is a picture of the social decay sparked by the decimation of Britain's industrial heartlands. It was Welsh's first novel and sold more than a million copies in the UK alone.
But as he sat typing away, back in the early 90s, he had no idea it would do well. "I just wanted to get it done," he explains. It certainly paid off.
Shutterstock
Ewen Bremner, Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle starred in 1996's Trainspotting, based on Irvine Welsh's successful book
The book and film tapped so successfully into the cultural zeitgeist that more than 30 years on, you can still book an official Trainspotting tour in Leith. But on a blustery Scottish summer's day, I'm getting a bespoke one from the writer himself, touring some of the key haunts that inspired him.
We head to the so-called Banana Flats, the curved building officially called Cables Wynd House that dominates the Leith skyline and where his character Sick Boy (played by Miller in the film) grows up.
We visit the Leith Dockers' Club where Renton (played by McGregor) goes with his mum and dad and where Welsh remembers hanging out "as a kid and sitting there with lemonade and crisps" and "feeling really sort of resentful" while everyone else was getting drunk.
Adam Walker/BBC
Katie Razzall talking to Irvine Welsh outside Cables Wynd House, better known as the Banana flats in Leith, which is part of the Trainspotting tour
Welsh's latest return to his characters is called Men in Love. He's previously written follow-up books and a prequel about the Trainspotting gang (he clearly can't get enough of them), but this new novel is set immediately after the first one finished, when Renton has run off with the money he and his friends have made from a big drug deal.
This time, Welsh is exploring what happens when young men start to fall in love and have relationships. He was partly motivated to write it, he says, because "we're living in a world that seems to be so full of hate and poison... I think that it's time we focused more on love as a kind of antidote to all that".
But don't expect saccharine stories of romance - this is Welsh, after all. The cheating, lying, manipulative - and at times, horrifying - behaviour of some of his characters is still much in evidence.
The book even has a disclaimer at the end explaining that because the novel is set in the 1980s, many of the characters "express themselves in ways that we now consider offensive and discriminatory".
Welsh says the publishers insisted on it. "They felt we live in such sensitive times that we need to make that point.
"We live in a much more censorious environment," he continues. While he accepts that misogynist terms in the book including "fat lassie" are hurtful and "there's a good reason why we don't say them", he worries that if the state starts to say "you can't talk about this, you can't talk about that, I think we're on a dangerous road".
The Men in Love story spans into the early 90s. It's being published at a time when Britain is indulging in a bit of 90s nostalgia, with Oasis on tour and Pulp's surprise set at Glastonbury getting rave reviews.
Welsh tells me he "never left" that era, but says younger generations also feel a nostalgia for it because "people had lives then".
He pins some of the blame for cultural change on the internet and social media which has become "a controlling rather than an enabling force".
As someone who understands addiction, Welsh hopes we'll be "more judicious" about using social media in future. He points to the way people have "their phones stuck to their face" while they are moving around.
"If we survive the next 50 years, that's going to look as strange in film as people chain smoking cigarettes did back in the 80s."
Film Four
[L-R] Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Renton (Ewan McGregor), Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and Tommy (Kevin McKidd) in Trainspotting
He also thinks the internet is making us more stupid. "When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies." He fears we're heading towards "a post-democratic, post-art, post-culture society where we've got artificial intelligence on one side and we've a kind of natural stupidity on the other side, we just become these dumbed down machines that are taking instructions".
Trainspotting's success came in part he says at a time when people were willing to read more challenging, less formulaic books. And as the money rolled in, it gave him the freedom to write.
He's also a DJ and is releasing an album with the Sci-Fi Soul Orchestra to go with his new book. The disco tracks relate to the characters, the storyline and the "emotional landscape" of the novel.
Music is "fundamental" to his writing and he's also "looking for that four-four beat all the time while I'm typing".
He builds a playlist in his head for every character and theme.
Renton's into Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground. Sick Boy also likes Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, New Order, he says.
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh has always loved music, saying he "writes in a very musical type of way, looking for that 4-4 beat" when he's typing
Getty Images
Irvine Welsh DJing during Playground Festival at Rouken Glen Park in Glasgow in 2021
The aggressive and violent Begbie likes "Rod Stewart and power ballads basically".
The singer recently told The Times that the public should give the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a chance. I wondered if Irvine Welsh thinks that his Trainspotting characters would support that party if they were growing up now.
He pushes back, telling me the Scottish working classes "still have a radical kind of spirit. They're not really there to be the stooge of some public school idiot".
Although later he adds "people are so desperate that they'll go along with anybody who has that rhetoric of change".
Welsh has always been political and, as we walk around the area where he grew up, he describes how Margaret Thatcher ended centuries of shipbuilding in Leith "at a stroke". Five thousand dockers became none, he says.
Henry Robb Ltd/SWNS
Workers at the Henry Robb Ltd Ship Builders in Leith in 1964 - reflecting Leith's proud history of shipbuilding
Trainspotting also resonated, he thinks, because it "heralded the adjustment to people living in a world without paid work. And now we're all in that position".
His argument is that Britain's class system is changing "because of this massive concentration of wealth towards the wealthy".
The working classes already have no money and now the middle classes are being pulled into more and more debt too and are less able to pass on their assets which makes life increasingly insecure.
"We're all members of the Precariat, basically. We don't know how long we'll have paid work if we do have it, and we just don't know how long this will last because our economy, our society is in a long-form revolutionary transformation."
In my time in Welsh's company, we haven't just toured Leith, I've had an insight into his brain, exploding with opinions on everything from our dystopian future, to why the best music was made in the analogue era and even to what would happen if he were offered a knighthood (it's a no, by the way).
When our time's up, he heads into the bar at the Dockers' Club to see a friend he first met at primary school 60 years ago. His old pal jokes to me that he's a plumber while Welsh is a millionaire author. You can see the affection between them.
Trainspotting may have changed Welsh's life entirely. But he's still plugged into the community that shaped him, and the Leith that he turned so spectacularly into fiction.
Yorkshire Water CEO Nicola Shaw accepted a £371,000 bonus last year
A hosepipe ban which has come into force across Yorkshire is expected to last until winter, the head of the region's water company has said.
More than five million householders have been barred from using hosepipes for activities such as watering the garden, washing the car or filling a paddling pool.
It is the first regional ban in the UK this year and comes after months of extremely hot and dry weather across England, with more high temperatures forecast over the weekend.
Nicola Shaw, chief executive of Yorkshire Water, told BBC 5 Live said: "I expect it to last until the winter as that is when the reservoirs will have recharged."
Yorkshire Water said the region had experienced its driest and warmest spring on record, with only 15cm of rainfall between February and June - less than half of what would be expected in an average year.
The company said the restrictions were needed to protect supplies in the face of more dry weather forecast in the coming weeks.
In October, the Environment Agency (EA) reported that 21% of Yorkshire Water's supplies were lost due to leakage, higher than the national average of 19%.
The loss in Yorkshire equates to about 260 million litres every day.
PA Media
People walk over a bridge that is normally submerged at Baitings Reservoir in Ripponden, West Yorkshire
When pushed on this issue, Ms Shaw, who received a bonus of £371,000 on top of her base salary of £585,000 last year, said she accepted the leakage rate was high but said it "was absolutely one of our priorities".
She added: "We have a lot of water mains across Yorkshire but because they're underground they are subject to some of the problems of the stresses and strains of movement of the soil and when it gets really dry they also break more."
"We've been working really hard on this and we've got less leakage from our pipes than we've ever had in Yorkshire.
"We are getting to fix leaks much quicker than we ever have done before."
The ban, which applies to customers across much of Yorkshire, parts of North Lincolnshire and parts of Derbyshire, comes after the Environment Agency declared a drought across the region last month.
Anyone flouting the restriction could be fined up to £1,000.
Ms Shaw, who was said to have turned down a bonus this year ahead of legislation which would have prevented her from receiving it, said businesses were able to continue using hosepipes as normal while restrictions were in place.
"We're asking people to use them for non-essential purposes. Please don't wash your car with a hosepipe, you can absolutely use a bucket.
"Washing your car with a hosepipe will use about a 1,000 litres if you did it for an hour."
US singer Chris Brown has arrived at a court in London to enter a plea over two charges relating to an alleged bottle attack at a London nightclub two years ago.
The 36-year-old star is accused of causing actual bodily harm to a music producer during an incident that prosecutors have described as "unprovoked".
He is also charged with having an offensive weapon - namely a tequila bottle.
The two charges were added last month to the original charge of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm (GBH), to which Brown has already pleaded not guilty. The singer will face trial in October 2026.
PA Media
Chris Brown arrived at Southwark Crown Court on Friday morning
The singer arrived at Southwark Crown Court for the latest plea hearing shortly before 09:00 BST on Friday.
Prosecutors have previously said the alleged victim, Abraham Diaw, was standing at the bar of Soho's Tape nightclub on 19 February 2023 when Mr Brown struck him several times with a bottle.
The singer was arrested at the five-star Lowry hotel in Salford, Greater Manchester, last month, after returning to the UK to prepare for a European tour.
He was held in custody for almost a week, before being released after agreeing to pay a £5m security fee to the court.
A security fee is a financial guarantee to ensure a defendant returns to court. Mr Brown could be asked to forfeit the money if he breaches bail conditions.
Under those conditions, Mr Brown must live at an address in the UK while awaiting trial, and was ordered to surrender his passport to police.
However, a plan was put in place allowing him to honour his Breezy Bowl XX world tour dates by surrendering his passport but getting it back when he needs to travel to the gigs.
The first date took place in Amsterdam on 8 June, before a string of stadium and arena shows across the UK and Europe.
Mr Brown is one of the biggest stars in US R&B, with two Grammy Awards, and 19 top 10 singles in the UK - including hits like Turn Up The Music, Freaky Friday, With You and Don't Wake Me Up.
His co-defendant Omololu Akinlolu, a 39-year-old American who performs under the name HoodyBaby, also entered a not guilty plea last month to the charge of attempted grievous bodily harm.
Imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan still commands support among many Kurds
After 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state, the outlawed Kurdish PKK will hold a ceremony on Friday to mark a symbolic first step in laying down its arms.
The disarmament process will start under tight security in Iraqi Kurdistan and is expected to take all summer.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has hailed the move as "totally ripping off and throwing away the bloody shackles that were put on our country's legs".
Some 40,000 people have been killed since the conflict began, and the PKK is listed as a terror group in Turkey, the US, EU and UK. Its disarmament will be felt not just in Turkey but in Iraq, Syria and Iran.
How and where will the PKK disarm?
A small group of PKK members will symbolically lay down their weapons in a ceremony near Suleymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan, before going back to their bases.
For security reasons, the exact location is not being revealed, although it's thought members of Turkey's pro-Kurdish opposition Dem party will be there, even if other major Turkish political parties will not.
Disarmament will then continue over the coming months at points set up with the involvement of the Turkish, Iraqi and Kurdistan regional governments, BBC Turkish has been told.
In a video, the PKK's long-imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, said it was "a voluntary transition from the phase of armed conflict to the phase of democratic politics and law". He has been in solitary confinement on the small prison island of Imrali, south-west of Istanbul, since he was captured in 1999.
Who are the PKK and why has the conflict lasted so long?
Getty Images
A fragile ceasefire with the PKK broke down in 2015
This is not the first attempt at peace involving Turkey and the PKK, but this is the best hope so far that the armed struggle that began in 1984 will come to an end.
Originally a Marxist group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party took up arms calling for an independent state inside Turkey.
In the 1990s, they called instead for greater autonomy for Kurds, who make up about 20% of the population.
Ocalan announced a ceasefire in 2013, and urged PKK forces to withdraw from Turkey. The 2015 Dolmabahce Agreement was supposed to bring democratic and language rights for Kurds, but the fragile truce collapsed amid devastating violence, especially in the Kurdish-dominated cities of the south-east, including Diyarbakir.
Turkey's air force targeted PKK bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Several military campaigns have also targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria.
The government in Ankara ruled out further talks until the PKK laid down its arms. That is now on the verge of happening.
Why has the PKK decided to disband?
In October 2024, a prominent nationalist leader and key Erdogan ally called Devlet Bahceli began a process described by the government as "terror-free Turkey". He urged the PKK's imprisoned leader to call for the dissolution of the outlawed group. It could pave the way for his possible release from Imrali island, he suggested.
"All groups must lay their arms and the PKK must dissolve itself," read Ocalan's letter.
The PKK had been formed primarily because "the channels of democratic politics were closed", he said, but Devlet Bahceli and Erdogan's own positive signals had created the right environment.
The PKK followed Ocalan's lead and declared a ceasefire and later declared that it had "completed its historical mission": the Kurdish issue could now "be resolved through democratic politics".
President Erdogan said it was an "opportunity to take a historic step toward tearing down the wall of terror" and met pro-Kurdish politicians in April.
Why is Ocalan so important?
ANF
Ocalan, in the centre at the front, released a video on Wednesday ahead of Friday's ceremony
As founder of the PKK, Ocalan continues to be reviled by many Turks, even after 26 years in solitary confinement.
And yet he still plays an important role in the eyes of Kurds.
"I think he really has this authority; he is a main symbol for many Kurds, not all," says Joost Jongerden, a specialist on the 41-year conflict at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.
Two days before the PKK were due to begin disarmament, Ocalan appeared on video for the first time since he was put on trial more than 20 years ago.
Speaking for seven minutes, he addressed the outlawed group: "I believe in the power of politics and social peace, not weapons. And I call on you to put this principle into practice."
Ocalan was wearing a branded Lacoste polo shirt, and in an indication of his enduring relevance, the shirt quickly went viral and websites ran out of stock.
What happens next?
Reuters
Turkey's President Erdogan has denied wanting to continue in office when his term runs out
After Friday's ceremony, the scene switches to Turkey's parliament in Ankara where a commission will be set up to make decisions on the next steps for the government.
As the summer recess is around the corner, no concrete decisions are expected for several months, when MPs vote on the commission's recommendations and President Erdogan has the final say.
What happens to Abdullah Ocalan is not yet clear. The government says his conditions in jail could be reviewed as the process unfolds, but any chance of release will be left to the latter stages.
What's in this process for Erdogan?
Erdogan's AK Party has begun work on changing the constitution, and there has been speculation that this would mean Erdogan would be able to run for the presidency again when his final term runs out in 2028.
The AKP and pro-Kurdish Dem party deny there is any link between the peace process and reshaping the constitution, but if Erdogan secures Dem support he would have a far greater chance of pushing through changes.
Erdogan is behind in the polls, but his main opposition rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, is in jail accused of corruption, which he denies, and more opposition mayors have been arrested as part of a crackdown in the past week.
ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has obtained new images of 3I/ATLAS, an interstellar object discovered last week.
A mystery interstellar object spotted last week by astronomers could be the oldest comet ever seen, according to scientists.
Named 3I/Atlas, it may be three billion years older than our own solar system, suggests the team from Oxford university.
The preliminary findings were presented on Friday at the national meeting of the UK's Royal Astronomical Society in Durham.
"We're all very excited by 3I/Atlas," University of Oxford astronomer Matthew Hopkins told BBC News. He had just finished his PhD studies when the object was discovered.
He says it could be more than seven billion years old, and it may be the most remarkable interstellar visitor yet.
3I/Atlas was first spotted on 1 July 2025 by the ATLAS survey telescope in Chile, when it was about 670 million km from the Sun.
Since then astronomers around the world have been racing to identify its path and discover more details about it.
Mr Hopkins believes it originated in the Milky Way's 'thick disk'. This is a group of ancient stars that orbit above and below the area where the Sun and most stars are located.
The team believe that because 3I/ATLAS probably formed around an old star, it is made up of a lot of water ice.
That means that as it approaches the Sun later this year, the energy from the Sun will heat the object's surface, leading to blazes of vapour and dust.
That could create a glowing tail.
The researchers made their findings using a model developed by Mr Hopkins.
"This is an object from a part of the galaxy we've never seen up close before," said Professor Chris Lintott, co-author of the study.
"We think there's a two-thirds chance this comet is older than the solar system, and that it's been drifting through interstellar space ever since."
Later this year, 3I/ATLAS should be visible from Earth using amateur telescopes.
Before 3I/Atlas soared into view, just two others had been seen. One was called 1I/'Oumuamua, found in 2017 and another called 2I/Borisov, discovered in 2019.
Astronomers globally are currently gearing up to start using a new, very powerful telescope in Chile, called the Vera C Rubin.
When it starts fully surveying the southern night sky later this year, scientists expect that it could discover between 5 and 50 new interstellar objects.
Irvine Welsh is pointing up to the second floor of a grey stone building in Leith, the port district of Edinburgh.
As he gets ready to publish a sequel to his 1993 cult novel Trainspotting, the author is showing me the window of the room, with its view over a local park, where he wrote that first book, which later became a hit film starring Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller.
The son of a Leith docker and a waitress - who did a course in electrical engineering, spent time in a punk band and was addicted to heroin as a younger man - Welsh had moved back home to Leith from London and "just started typing". He tells me that before writing Trainspotting he had decided "this is my last chance to do something creative".
Trainspotting follows the lives of a group of heroin-addicted friends in Edinburgh. Violent, often shocking and darkly funny, the book is a picture of the social decay sparked by the decimation of Britain's industrial heartlands. It was Welsh's first novel and sold more than a million copies in the UK alone.
But as he sat typing away, back in the early 90s, he had no idea it would do well. "I just wanted to get it done," he explains. It certainly paid off.
Shutterstock
Ewen Bremner, Ewan McGregor and Robert Carlyle starred in 1996's Trainspotting, based on Irvine Welsh's successful book
The book and film tapped so successfully into the cultural zeitgeist that more than 30 years on, you can still book an official Trainspotting tour in Leith. But on a blustery Scottish summer's day, I'm getting a bespoke one from the writer himself, touring some of the key haunts that inspired him.
We head to the so-called Banana Flats, the curved building officially called Cables Wynd House that dominates the Leith skyline and where his character Sick Boy (played by Miller in the film) grows up.
We visit the Leith Dockers' Club where Renton (played by McGregor) goes with his mum and dad and where Welsh remembers hanging out "as a kid and sitting there with lemonade and crisps" and "feeling really sort of resentful" while everyone else was getting drunk.
Adam Walker/BBC
Katie Razzall talking to Irvine Welsh outside Cables Wynd House, better known as the Banana flats in Leith, which is part of the Trainspotting tour
Welsh's latest return to his characters is called Men in Love. He's previously written follow-up books and a prequel about the Trainspotting gang (he clearly can't get enough of them), but this new novel is set immediately after the first one finished, when Renton has run off with the money he and his friends have made from a big drug deal.
This time, Welsh is exploring what happens when young men start to fall in love and have relationships. He was partly motivated to write it, he says, because "we're living in a world that seems to be so full of hate and poison... I think that it's time we focused more on love as a kind of antidote to all that".
But don't expect saccharine stories of romance - this is Welsh, after all. The cheating, lying, manipulative - and at times, horrifying - behaviour of some of his characters is still much in evidence.
The book even has a disclaimer at the end explaining that because the novel is set in the 1980s, many of the characters "express themselves in ways that we now consider offensive and discriminatory".
Welsh says the publishers insisted on it. "They felt we live in such sensitive times that we need to make that point.
"We live in a much more censorious environment," he continues. While he accepts that misogynist terms in the book including "fat lassie" are hurtful and "there's a good reason why we don't say them", he worries that if the state starts to say "you can't talk about this, you can't talk about that, I think we're on a dangerous road".
The Men in Love story spans into the early 90s. It's being published at a time when Britain is indulging in a bit of 90s nostalgia, with Oasis on tour and Pulp's surprise set at Glastonbury getting rave reviews.
Welsh tells me he "never left" that era, but says younger generations also feel a nostalgia for it because "people had lives then".
He pins some of the blame for cultural change on the internet and social media which has become "a controlling rather than an enabling force".
As someone who understands addiction, Welsh hopes we'll be "more judicious" about using social media in future. He points to the way people have "their phones stuck to their face" while they are moving around.
"If we survive the next 50 years, that's going to look as strange in film as people chain smoking cigarettes did back in the 80s."
Film Four
[L-R] Spud (Ewen Bremner), Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Renton (Ewan McGregor), Begbie (Robert Carlyle) and Tommy (Kevin McKidd) in Trainspotting
He also thinks the internet is making us more stupid. "When you get machines thinking for you, your brain just atrophies." He fears we're heading towards "a post-democratic, post-art, post-culture society where we've got artificial intelligence on one side and we've a kind of natural stupidity on the other side, we just become these dumbed down machines that are taking instructions".
Trainspotting's success came in part he says at a time when people were willing to read more challenging, less formulaic books. And as the money rolled in, it gave him the freedom to write.
He's also a DJ and is releasing an album with the Sci-Fi Soul Orchestra to go with his new book. The disco tracks relate to the characters, the storyline and the "emotional landscape" of the novel.
Music is "fundamental" to his writing and he's also "looking for that four-four beat all the time while I'm typing".
He builds a playlist in his head for every character and theme.
Renton's into Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Velvet Underground. Sick Boy also likes Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan, New Order, he says.
Irvine Welsh
Irvine Welsh has always loved music, saying he "writes in a very musical type of way, looking for that 4-4 beat" when he's typing
Getty Images
Irvine Welsh DJing during Playground Festival at Rouken Glen Park in Glasgow in 2021
The aggressive and violent Begbie likes "Rod Stewart and power ballads basically".
The singer recently told The Times that the public should give the Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a chance. I wondered if Irvine Welsh thinks that his Trainspotting characters would support that party if they were growing up now.
He pushes back, telling me the Scottish working classes "still have a radical kind of spirit. They're not really there to be the stooge of some public school idiot".
Although later he adds "people are so desperate that they'll go along with anybody who has that rhetoric of change".
Welsh has always been political and, as we walk around the area where he grew up, he describes how Margaret Thatcher ended centuries of shipbuilding in Leith "at a stroke". Five thousand dockers became none, he says.
Henry Robb Ltd/SWNS
Workers at the Henry Robb Ltd Ship Builders in Leith in 1964 - reflecting Leith's proud history of shipbuilding
Trainspotting also resonated, he thinks, because it "heralded the adjustment to people living in a world without paid work. And now we're all in that position".
His argument is that Britain's class system is changing "because of this massive concentration of wealth towards the wealthy".
The working classes already have no money and now the middle classes are being pulled into more and more debt too and are less able to pass on their assets which makes life increasingly insecure.
"We're all members of the Precariat, basically. We don't know how long we'll have paid work if we do have it, and we just don't know how long this will last because our economy, our society is in a long-form revolutionary transformation."
In my time in Welsh's company, we haven't just toured Leith, I've had an insight into his brain, exploding with opinions on everything from our dystopian future, to why the best music was made in the analogue era and even to what would happen if he were offered a knighthood (it's a no, by the way).
When our time's up, he heads into the bar at the Dockers' Club to see a friend he first met at primary school 60 years ago. His old pal jokes to me that he's a plumber while Welsh is a millionaire author. You can see the affection between them.
Trainspotting may have changed Welsh's life entirely. But he's still plugged into the community that shaped him, and the Leith that he turned so spectacularly into fiction.