Everyone agrees: it's getting worse.

The people of Kyiv have, like the citizens of other Ukrainian cities, been through a lot.

After three and a half years of fluctuating fortunes, they are tough and extremely resilient.

But in recent months, they have been experiencing something new: vast, coordinated waves of attacks from the air, involving hundreds of drones and missiles, often concentrated on a single city.

• Deadly new Russian drone and missile attack hits Kyiv

Last night, it was Kyiv. And the week before too. In between, it was Lutsk in the far west.

Three years ago, Iranian-supplied Shahed drones were a relative novelty. I remember hearing my first, buzzing a lazy arc across the night sky above the southern city of Zaporizhzhia in October 2022.

But now everyone is familiar with the sound, and its most fearsome recent iteration: a dive-bombing wail some have compared to the German World War Two Stuka aircraft.

The sound of swarms of approaching drones have sent hardened civilians back to bomb shelters, the metro and underground car parks for the first time since the early days of the war.

"The house shook like it was made of paper," Katya, a Kyiv resident, told me after last night's heavy bombardment.

"We spent the entire night sitting in the bathroom."

"I went to the parking for the first time," another resident, Svitlana, told me.

"The building shook and I could see fires across the river."

The attacks don't always claim lives, but they are spreading fear and eroding morale.

After an attack on a residential block in Kyiv last week, a shocked grandmother, Mariia, told me that her 11-year old grandson had turned to her, in the shelter, and said he understood the meaning of death for the first time.

He has every reason to be fearful. The UN's Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) says June saw the highest monthly civilian casualties in three years, with 232 people killed and over 1,300 injured.

Many will have been killed or wounded in communities close to the front lines, but others have been killed in cities far from the fighting.

"The surge in long-range missile and drone strikes across the country has brought even more death and destruction to civilians far away from the frontline," says Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU.

Modifications in the Shahed's design have allowed it to fly much higher than before and descend on its target from a greater altitude.

Its range has also increased, to around 2,500km, and it's capable of carrying a more deadly payload (up from around 50kg of explosive to 90kg).

Tracking maps produced by local experts show swirling masses of Shahed drones, sometimes taking circuitous routes across Ukraine before homing in on their targets.

Many – often as many as half – are decoys, designed to confuse and overwhelm Ukraine's air defences.

Other, straight lines show the paths of ballistic or cruise missiles: much fewer in number but the weapons Russia relies on to do the most damage.

Analysis by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War shows an increase in Russia's drone and missile strikes in the two months following Donald Trump's inauguration in January.

March saw a slight decline, with occasional spikes, until May, when the numbers suddenly rose dramatically.

New records have been set with alarming regularity.

June saw a new monthly high of 5,429 drones, July has seen more than 2,000 in just the first nine days.

With production in Russia ramping up, some reports suggest Moscow may soon be able to fire over 1,000 missiles and drones in a single night.

Experts in Kyiv warn that the country is in danger of being overwhelmed.

"If Ukraine doesn't find a solution for how to deal with these drones, we will face great problems during 2025," says former intelligence officer Ivan Stupak.

"Some of these drones are trying to reach military objects - we have to understand it - but the rest, they are destroying apartments, falling into office buildings and causing lots of damage to citizens."

For all their increasing capability, the drones are not an especially sophisticated weapon. But they do represent yet another example of the vast gulf in resources between Russia and Ukraine.

It also neatly illustrates the maxim, attributed to the Soviet Union's World War Two leader Joseph Stalin, that "quantity has a quality of its own."

"This is a war of resources," says Serhii Kuzan, of the Kyiv-based Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre.

"When production of particular missiles became too complicated - too expensive, too many components, too many complicated supply routes – they concentrated on this particular type of drone and developed different modifications and improvements."

The more drones in a single attack, Kuzan says, the more Ukraine hard-pressed air defence units struggle to shoot them down. This forces Kyiv to fall back on its precious supply of jets and air-to-air missiles to shoot them down.

"So if the drones go as a swarm, they destroy all the air defence missiles," he says.

Hence President Zelensky's constant appeals to Ukraine's allies to do more to protect its skies. Not just with Patriot missiles – vital to counter the most dangerous Russian ballistic threat – but with a wide array of other systems too.

On Thursday, the British government said it would sign a defence agreement with Ukraine to provide more than 5,000 air defence missiles.

Kyiv will be looking for many more such deals in the coming months.

The original Birkin bag, which set the template for arguably the most coveted accessory in fashion history, has been bought for €8.6m (£7.4m; $10.1m), becoming the most valuable handbag ever sold at auction.

The black leather bag was made for singer Jane Birkin in 1985 after she spilled her belongings while sitting next to the boss of luxury fashion house Hermès on a flight.

She asked why they didn't make bigger bags, so he sketched out the design for a new, more practical but still highly desirable item on the aeroplane's sick bag.

The prototype he made was sold to a private collector from Japan at Sotheby's in Paris on Thursday, far surpassing the $513,000 (£378,000; €439,000) previous record sale.

The auction house said there was an "electrifying" 10-minute bidding war between "nine determined collectors".

Morgane Halimi, Sotheby's global head of handbags and fashion, said the price was a "startling demonstration of the power of a legend and its capacity to ignite the passion and desire of collectors seeking exceptional items with unique provenance, to own its origin".

She added: "The Birkin prototype is exactly that, the starting point of an extraordinary story that has given us a modern icon, the Birkin bag, the most coveted handbag in the world."

The €8,582,500 total includes commission and fees. Sotheby's did not publish a pre-auction estimate.

• The icon who inspired the Birkin bag

After creating the bag for the Anglo-French singer and actress, Hermès put the bag into commercial production, and it remains one of the most exclusive status symbols in fashion.

Some styles cost many tens of thousands of dollars and have waiting lists of years, with owners including celebrities like Kate Moss, Victoria Beckham and Jennifer Lopez.

The original has some unique features, such as Birkin's initials on the front flap, a non-removable shoulder strap, the nail clippers she kept attached to the strap, and marks where she put stickers for causes she supported, such as Médecins du Monde and Unicef.

Birkin, who died in 2023 at the age of 76, owned the original bag for a decade and donated it to an auction to raise funds for an Aids charity in 1994.

It was later bought by Catherine Benier, who has a luxury boutique in Paris, who owned it for 25 years before selling it on Thursday.

Sotheby's said the previous record price for a handbag was set by a White Himalaya Niloticus Crocodile Diamond Retourne Kelly 28 in 2021.

A senior Ukrainian intelligence officer has been gunned down in broad daylight in Kyiv, officials have said.

The agent of the domestic Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) was shot several times in a car park after being approached by an unidentified assailant who then fled the scene, footage circulated on social media shows.

The spy agency did not identify the victim, though Ukrainian media outlets have named him as Colonel Ivan Voronych.

The SBU is primarily concerned with internal security and counter-intelligence, akin to the UK's MI5. But since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, it has also played a prominent role in assassinations and sabotage attacks deep inside Russia.

Sources within Ukraine's security services have previously told the media - including the BBC - that they were behind the killing of the high-ranking Russian Gen Igor Kirillov in December 2024.

Earlier this year, Gen Yaroslav Moskalik was killed in a car bomb attack in Moscow - an incident the Kremlin blamed on Kyiv. Ukraine's security services have never officially admitted responsibility for the deaths.

Neither the SBU nor the Kyiv Police gave a possible motive for the shooting.

The Ukrainian capital's police force said in a statement that officers arrived at the scene to find a man's body with a gunshot wound.

It said officers were working to identify the assailant and that "measures are being taken to detain him".

The SBU said it was taking "a comprehensive set of measures to clarify all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice".

CCTV footage - which has been verified by the news agency Reuters - shows a man in jeans and a dark t-shirt exiting a building in the southern Holosiivskyi district shortly after 09:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Thursday.

As he walks to a nearby car while holding a plastic bag and a holdall, another man can be seen running towards him.

Online news site Ukrainska Pravda reports that the assailant had used a pistol and had shot the SBU officer five times, citing unnamed sources.

The apparent assassination follows what Ukraine described as the largest Russian aerial attack on Tuesday, when 728 drones and 13 cruise or ballistic missiles struck cities across the country.

Overnight into Thursday, a Russian attack on the Ukrainian capital killed at least two people and injured 16 others.

The strikes - which hit eight districts across the city - involved 18 missiles and 400 drones, officials said. Russia has been repeatedly accused of targeting civilian areas.

Meanwhile, fighting on the front line continues, with Russian forces slowly making advances in western Ukraine and retaking control of the part of Russia's Kursk region that Ukrainian forces seized in a surprise offensive last summer.

Russia currently controls around a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.

Efforts to negotiate a ceasefire in the more than three-year-long war have faltered, with US President Donald Trump becoming increasingly impatient with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

The number of school suspensions and exclusions in England has reached its highest level since 2006, Department for Education figures show.

There were 954,952 suspensions in state schools in 2023/24 - a 21% increase on the previous year - while exclusions also rose 16% to 10,885.

While secondary school pupils comprised most suspensions, more than 100,000 were primary age - a number that has grown significantly.

A suspended pupil must stay out of school for a fixed period of up to 45 days per school year, while those excluded are permanently removed. Individual pupils often account for more than one period of suspension.

The government says it is tackling the root causes of poor behaviour and is intensively supporting 500 schools with the worst behaviour.

Persistent disruptive behaviour was the most common reason pupils were sent home, accounting for half of all suspensions and 39% exclusions.

Nearly half of the suspensions were among pupils getting support for special educational needs - who were three times more likely to be suspended than their classmates.

Children on free school meals were also overrepresented, making up a quarter of the school population but 60% of suspensions.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary at school leaders' union NAHT, said schools alone could not address the causes of poor behaviour.

"Schools have a duty to provide a safe environment for all pupils and only use suspensions and exclusions when other options to ensure this have been exhausted," he said.

"The reasons for disruptive behaviour often lie beyond the school gates and have their roots in wider challenges, including everything from poverty to access to support with special educational needs and mental ill-health."

The vast majority of suspensions - nine in 10 - occurred at secondary schools, with Year 9 having the highest rate.

But primary-age suspensions rose too, up 24% on the previous year.

The vast majority (88%) of pupils who were excluded at primary school were getting support for special educational needs, compared with 46% of excluded secondary school pupils.

Research from charity Chance UK, which supports families of excluded children in London, suggests that 90% of children who are excluded at primary school fail to pass GCSE English and maths.

Sophie Schmal, the charity's director, said Thursday's figures revealed a "very concerning picture" - particularly the rise in primary school suspensions.

"Early intervention has to mean early. We can't wait until these children are teenagers to tackle this."

Sarah - not her real name - is a mum of one in London. Her six-year-old son was suspended several times within his first few weeks at primary school for hitting other pupils and throwing things in class.

She said that even after school staff agreed that her son showed signs of autism, he continued to be sent out of class regularly and suspended, which made him feel "isolated".

"Since he was three years old, my son has been labelled as the naughty and difficult kid when all he really needed was help," she said.

"I sought help as soon as I recognised that he needed additional support. But rather than helping me immediately, they waited until it was an emergency."

Sarah eventually managed to move her son to a different mainstream school where he is getting more support, she said.

Responding to the figures, early education minister Stephen Morgan said the Labour government had "wasted no time in tackling the root causes of poor behaviour", including offering mental health support in every school and expanding free school meals.

He pointed to its new attendance and behaviour hubs, which will directly support the 500 schools that "need the most help".

"We're also continuing to listen to parents as we reform the SEND system, while already putting in place better and earlier support for speech and language needs, ADHD and autism," Morgan added.

Former MasterChef host Gregg Wallace is facing criticism from charities and groups working with disabled people after he appeared to link claims of misconduct he is facing to his autism diagnosis.

Several dozen people have come forward with allegations about Wallace, including inappropriate sexual comments, touching and groping, which he denies.

In a statement this week, the presenter defended himself and also said he had recently been diagnosed with autism, but that TV bosses had failed to "investigate my disability" or "protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment".

One charity told BBC News that autism is "not a free pass for bad behaviour", while others warned that such remarks risked stigmatising the autistic community.

• Gregg Wallace sacked as 50 more people make claims
• Gregg Wallace warned not to 'say women made it up'

Wallace has been sacked as MasterChef host, and a report into the accusations is expected to be published shortly. He has said it has cleared him of "the most serious and sensational allegations".

On Tuesday, Wallace wrote on Instagram: "My neurodiversity, now formally diagnosed as autism, was suspected and discussed by colleagues across countless seasons of MasterChef.

"Yet nothing was done to investigate my disability or protect me from what I now realise was a dangerous environment for over 20 years."

The Telegraph reported on Thursday that he plans to sue the BBC and the makers of MasterChef for discrimination on the grounds of his autism following his sacking.

And the Times reported friends of Wallace as saying his autism means he can't wear underwear, and that his condition was partly to blame for his alleged inappropriate behaviour.

Speaking to BBC News, Seema Flower, founder of disabilities consultancy Blind Ambition, said there was "no excuse" for being inappropriate to people in society.

"Where does it leave us if we use autism as excuse to behave in whatever way we like?" she asked.

Her comments were echoed by Emily Banks, founder of neurodiversity training body Enna.

"To be clear: being autistic is never an excuse for misconduct. It doesn't absolve anyone of responsibility, and it certainly doesn't mean you can't tell the difference between right and wrong."

Dan Harris, who runs the charity Neurodiversity in Business and is himself autistic, said people like him "may miss social cues sometimes".

"But autism is not a free pass for bad behaviour," he added.

"Comments like this stigmatise us and add an unfortunate negative focus on our community."

Last year, the charity Ambitious About Autism dropped Wallace as an ambassador in the wake of the original claims against him.

The comments have also sparked debate online and on radio phone-ins.

On BBC Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show, Jessie Hewitson, Director of NeuroUniverse, said people with autism "have been stereotyped since the dawn of time".

She said she worried that remarks like this risk "forming a connection in peoples' minds - either that autistic people behave inappropriately in the workplace or that we cannot take personal responsibility".

But on social media, many people responded positively to Wallace's post and sent him supportive messages.

And on BBC Radio 5 Live's Nicky Campbell Show, which dedicated an hour to the topic on Thursday, some callers were sympathetic.

One called Danielle, who is autistic, said people with the condition "can misread situations quite often".

"I think growing up undiagnosed, you grow up thinking everything you're doing is wrong because you're different and you then internalise a lot of that so you're very oversensitive as well," she said.

Another caller, Jake, said he thought Wallace should have had support a long time ago.

"You've got a man here who's clearly out of touch, he's been out of touch for a long time, he's had nobody putting him back in line, whether that's an employer, whether that's a friend, whether that's anybody, and at the moment that's what he needs.

"He needs some compassion to get him back where he needs to be and I feel for his mental health."

Report expected

As the face of BBC One cooking show MasterChef, Wallace, 60, was one of the most high-profile presenters on British television for 20 years.

He stepped aside from the show in November after an initial BBC News investigation, when 13 people accused him of making inappropriate sexual comments.

This week, new claims have come from 50 more people who say they encountered him across a range of shows and settings.

The majority say he made inappropriate sexual comments, while 11 women accuse him of inappropriate sexual behaviour, such as groping and touching.

The inquiry into allegations of misconduct against Wallace, has been conducted by an independent law firm on behalf of MasterChef's production company Banijay.

BBC News has not seen that report, but Wallace said it had found the "most damaging" allegations to be "baseless".

He also accused the BBC of "peddling baseless and sensationalised gossip masquerading as properly corroborated stories".

A spokesperson for Wallace has said he denies engaging in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.

Banijay UK said: "While the external investigation is ongoing, we won't be commenting on individual allegations. We encourage anyone wishing to raise issues or concerns to contact us in confidence."

A BBC spokesperson said: "Banijay UK instructed the law firm Lewis Silkin to run an investigation into allegations against Gregg Wallace.

"We are not going to comment until the investigation is complete and the findings are published."

If you are affected by any of the issues in this story, help and support is available at BBC Action Line.

Kemi Badenoch will call for foreign nationals to be barred from claiming disability and sickness benefits, as she sets out plans for tighter curbs on welfare.

In a speech on Thursday, the Tory leader will describe Britain's benefits bill as a "ticking time bomb" that could "collapse the economy".

It comes after the party outlined some of its own proposals to reduce spending, after Labour largely gutted its own plan for benefits cuts after a backbench revolt.

Legislation to bring in remaining government cuts to sickness benefits was approved by MPs on Wednesday evening.

But other proposals, including changes to the eligibility criteria for disability benefits, have effectively been put on hold.

The government announced plans to shrink welfare spending in March, warning the working-age welfare bill was set to rise by nearly £30bn by 2030 and reforms to the system were required to ensure it remained sustainable.

It wanted to make it harder to claim personal independence payment (Pip), the main disability benefit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and make health-related top-ups for universal credit less generous.

But ministers significantly watered down the cuts earlier this month after a huge rebellion from Labour MPs, all but wiping out savings estimated to be worth £5bn a year by the end of the decade.

Plans to freeze the higher rate of universal credit for existing health-related claimants have been reversed, whilst all changes to the Pip system have been parked pending a government review into the assessment regime.

In her speech on Thursday, Badenoch will accuse Labour of being "beholden to left-wing MPs" and "turning a blind eye" to rising benefit costs.

She will also seek to create a dividing line with Reform UK over the two-child benefit cap, which Nigel Farage's party has pledged to scrap, branding him "Jeremy Corbyn with a pint and a cigarette".

"On welfare he shows his true colours - promising unaffordable giveaways with no plan to fix the system," she is expected to add.

A Labour spokesperson said "The Conservatives had 14 years to reform welfare - instead, they left the country with a broken system that holds people back and fails to support the most vulnerable."

The party also warned that the Conservative proposal could see disabled British nationals living abroad being denied support if other countries decided to take a similar approach.

Tory welfare proposals

The Conservatives have not backed the government's legislation to deliver the changes, arguing its proposals do not go far enough.

They have set out some plans of their own to shrink welfare spending in the form of amendments to the government's plans, which were defeated on Wednesday.

These include limiting access to Pips and the health-related part of universal credit to those with "less severe" mental health conditions, and preventing claimants from receiving payments without a face-to-face assessment.

They also say both benefits should only be paid to British citizens, with exceptions for those covered by international agreements, such as citizens from EU countries who have acquired settled status in the UK.

At the moment, foreign nationals gain access to the welfare system when they are granted indefinite leave to remain or refugee status. Applicants for Pip generally need to have lived in Britain for at least two of the last three years.

Asylum seekers are not allowed to apply for benefits, although they have access to taxpayer-funded accommodation and separate financial support.

Conservative shadow minister Neil O'Brien has said he has obtained figures under freedom of information laws showing universal credit payments to households containing at least one foreign national stood at £941m a month as of March.

But working out the exact scale of payments to non-UK nationals specifically is complicated, because the Department for Work and Pensions does not provide a breakdown of claimants by immigration status and nationality.

However, the department is due to publish the first such breakdown next week, and has committed to updates every three months thereafter.

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The police have declared a major incident over a bonfire in south Belfast that is due to be lit on Friday as part of annual Twelfth events across Northern Ireland.

Belfast City Council have requested the police assist contractors to dismantle the bonfire before it is lit.

There are concerns that the power supply to Belfast City Hospital and the Royal Victoria Hospital would be put at risk because the bonfire lies near a major electricity substation.

On Thursday afternoon, bonfire builders voluntarily removed tiers of pallets from the top of the bonfire and told BBC News NI the action was an "olive branch" to those concerned.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said no decision had been taken on assisting the removal of the bonfire and they continued to work with agencies and community representatives on this matter.

Bonfires are lit as part of Eleventh night celebrations in some unionist areas of Northern Ireland, to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading season.

The Twelfth commemorates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III - also known as King Billy and William of Orange - defeated Catholic King James II.

Bonfires were lit on 11 July to welcome - and guide - William.

There are separate concerns about the presence of asbestos at the bonfire site which is between the Donegall Road and the Westlink and the council voted to write to the environment minister to act immediately to have it removed.

The Deputy First Minister and DUP MLA, Emma Little-Pengelly, said: "No one wants anyone to be hurt or for there to be any risks to health or wellbeing".

On Facebook she said those involved in the bonfire had engaged for "some time" on "size and other mitigations" and she believed that would continue.

Earlier, Sinn Féin MLA Pat Sheehan told BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that the police had a "responsibility" in the situation.

He said the issue had only been brought into the public domain because it is "the first time a bonfire has been held in this site".

He also called on action from the landowner and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) regarding the asbestos.

Sheehan had also urged unionist politicians to "show leadership" and said Emma Little Pengelly "should be out today calling for that bonfire to be dismantled. Where is her leadership?"

Residents of the Village area of Belfast, where the bonfire is situated, said the bonfire means "everything".

"This bonfire has been going for all of our generations… and we want our next generations to know our culture. This isn't to get up anybody's nose.

"The children of this area have been collecting for the bonfire since Christmas time."

Billy Garrett, another resident, said there was "a lot of frustration".

"It's just another attack on our culture and our traditions. We don't see any harm in what we're doing here, especially in the Village area of south Belfast. It's just knocking the heart out of everyone," he told BBC News NI.

He said the organisers of the bonfire site had been making sure it was safe since September last year.

"They've went through all the proper people to make sure it is safe for everyone in the community."

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson planned to take legal action to stop the bonfire being dismantled and has questioned the decision-making process behind the vote.

However, the council rejected claims that the decision to dismantle the bonfire breached legal guidelines and said the move was part of its "emergency" decision-making processes.

It also said it was in line with the rules of council, those cases on which an "inability to immediately implement a decision would result in a breach of statutory or contractual duty".

Power for hospitals

Belfast Health Trust said the bonfire was near a substation that supplies both hospitals.

Northern Ireland Electricity (NIE) said it had expressed concerns over the bonfire's "proximity to the substation causing potential risk to critical infrastructure and power outages".

The trust said it had contingency measures including back-up generators and it was confident there was no need to cancel any planned treatments or procedures.

The NIEA said it was first alerted to the issues of asbestos near the bonfire on 16 May and had been engaging with the landowner and the city council regularly since then.

An inspection was carried out and the NIEA said if the asbestos was not cleared by 11 July, "mitigating measures" would need to be put in place.

Tensions are escalated

The PSNI appears to have been put between a rock and a hard place here by a political decision at the 11th hour.

One of its considerations is most certainly: Would any operation trigger disorder which could spread to other areas?

Just 36 hours ago, the PSNI felt the mood music going into the 12th of July was pretty positive.

Now we have a significant bonfire row which has escalated tensions.

We saw evidence last night of how the local community has reacted to the prospect of a police operation.

Site entrances were blocked, a protest took place on the road, people were in an around the bonfire, and there is also a risk it could be lit early if any operation is mobilised.

Who owns the site?

The landowners, Boron Developments, bought the site in the summer of 2017 and were made aware of asbestos at that time.

Boron Developments have said it engaged a waste management company to remove the asbestos but the company needed "no personnel" on the site in order to complete the removal of asbestos.

Due to people "bringing in materials and building the bonfire" the company told the landowners it could not complete its work.

Belfast City Council said while the lands at the site remained "the responsibility of the landowner" the council and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) were "working together in relation to this site".

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said it had put in place mitigations "over the past week including the further covering of the asbestos containing material, the use of fire-retardant material and the erection of additional fencing".

US President Donald Trump has praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai for speaking "good English" and asked him where he went to school.

What Trump might have missed is that Liberia shares a unique and long-standing connection with the US.

English is the country's official language and many Liberians speak with an American accent because of those historical ties to the US.

It may have been this accent that Trump picked up on.

Here are five things to know about the country:

Founded by freed slaves

Liberia was founded by freed African-American slaves in 1822 before declaring independence in 1847.

Thousands of black Americans and liberated Africans - rescued from transatlantic slave ships - settled in Liberia during the colonial era.

Former US President Abraham Lincoln officially declared Liberia's independence in 1862 but the country retained a lot of US heritage and it remained in the American "sphere of influence" during the colonial period.

Due to this integration, Liberian culture, landmarks, and institutions have a heavy African-American influence.

Ten of Liberia's 26 presidents were born in the US.

The capital is named after a former US president

Liberia's capital, Monrovia, was named in honour of America's 5th President, James Monroe, who was a strong supporter of the American Colonization Society (ACS).

The ACS was the organisation responsible for resettling freed African-Americans in West Africa - which eventually led to the founding of Liberia.

Not surprisingly the early architecture of the city was largely influenced by American-style buildings.

Many streets in Monrovia are named after colonial American figures, reflecting the city's founding and historical ties to the US.

Nearly identical flags

The flag of Liberia closely resembles the American flag. It features 11 alternating red and white stripes and a blue square with a single white star.

The white star symbolises Liberia as the first independent republic in Africa.

The US flag, in comparison, has 13 stripes representing the original 13 colonies and 50 stars, one for each state.

The Liberian flag was designed by seven black women - all born in America.

Ex-president's son plays for US football team

Timothy Weah, the son of Liberia's former President George Weah, is an American professional soccer player who plays for Italian club Juventus as well as the US national team.

The 25-year-old forward was born in the US but began his professional career with Paris St-Germain in France, where he won the Ligue 1 title before moving on loan to the Scottish team, Celtic.

His father, George, is a Liberian football legend who won the Ballon d'Or in 1995 while playing for Juventus's Italian rivals AC Milan. He is the only African winner of this award - and went on to be elected president in 2018.

Former president won the Nobel Peace Prize

Liberia produced Africa's first elected female president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

She was elected in 2005, two years after the nation's bloody civil war ended, and served as president until 2018.

Sirleaf has a strong American background as she studied at Madison Business College and later went to Harvard University where she graduated as an economist.

She has received worldwide recognition and accolades for maintaining peace during her administration.

Her story is pitted with remarkable feats of defiance and courage.

In 2011, along with Leymah Gbowee and Tawakkul Karmān, she won the Nobel Prize for Peace for her efforts to further women's rights.

In 2016, Forbes listed her among the most powerful women in the world.

What do Liberians make of the comments?

There has been a mixed reaction.

Accountant Joseph Manley, 40, told the BBC that Trump should have been properly briefed before meeting Liberia's leader.

"Liberia has always been an English-speaking country. Our president represents a country with a rich educational tradition."

For human resources professional Henrietta Peter-Mogballah, The US president's surprise at Boakai's eloquence reflects a broader problem of global ignorance about African nations and its peoples.

"From travel experiences and observations, most citizens of other nations outside Africa do not know a lot about African countries," she said. "The few that know a little, their minds are clouded by narratives of war, poverty, and lack of education."

While many have criticised Trump, others see nothing wrong in his comments.

"I believe President Trump's remark was a genuine compliment on President Boakai's command of English," lawyer and politician Kanio Gbala told the BBC. "There is no evidence of sarcasm. Reading it as disrespectful may reflect political agendas."

More about Liberia from the BBC:

• Why Trump invited five African leaders to the White House
• Liberian president killed in coup gets state funeral after 45 years
• How President Joseph Boakai hopes to rid Liberia of its problems
• Liberia's war and peace: Lessons from 30 years' reporting

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

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

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is thought to be planning to make changes to the rules surrounding tax-free Individual Savings Accounts (Isas).

The details are expected to be set out in her Mansion House speech on Tuesday - traditionally an opportunity for chancellors to outline their strategic vision to City leaders.

But some have warned against tampering with a very popular savings product.

What are Isas and how much money can you save in them?

An Individual Savings Account (Isa) is a savings or investment product which is treated differently for tax purposes.

Isas are offered by a host of banks, building societies, investment companies and other financial providers.

Any returns you make from an Isa are tax-free, but there is a limit to how much money you can put in each year.

The current £20,000 annual allowance can be used in one account or spread across multiple Isa products as you wish.

These accounts do not close automatically at the end of the tax year. When the next tax year begins, you can open a new Isa or - in some cases - can keep adding money to your existing accounts.

You have to be 18 to open an Isa. You also have to live in the UK or be a member of the armed forces or a so-called Crown servant who works abroad.

Isas were first introduced by then-chancellor Gordon Brown in 1999, but the annual allowance and the way they work have changed several times since then.

What is the difference between cash Isas and stocks and shares Isas?

Cash Isas are typically offered by banks or building societies, and function like a normal savings account.

Savers pay in money and interest gets added on top.

With regular saving accounts, once the interest goes above a certain threshold, you start to pay income tax.

A basic rate taxpayer can earn £1,000 in savings interest a year before paying tax. For higher rate taxpayer the limit is £500, but additional rate taxpayers don't have any allowance - they pay tax on all their savings income. Those on low incomes may get an extra allowance.

When the money is saved in a cash Isa, the interest is tax-free, however much you earn.

Cash Isas are very popular, with millions of savers holding billions of pounds in them.

Stocks and shares Isas work in much the same way.

However, instead of simply being held in an savings account, the money is invested in shares in companies, unit trusts, investment funds or bonds.

Unlike other investments any returns are protected from income tax and capital gains tax.

Crucially, while the returns can be greater, so too are the risks. The amount of money you have in a shares Isa can go down as well as up.

What other types of Isa are available?

Junior Isas allow young people to save - or let their parents save for them - until they reach 18 - when they can access regular Isas.

Lifetime Isas (Lisas) are designed to help people save towards a deposit when buying a first home, or for retirement. Savers can put in up to £4,000 a year and the government adds an extra 25%.

However, critics argue the rules about how they work are too strict, and some savers have fallen foul of property purchase price limits.

Innovative Finance Isas let people use other types of financial arrangements such as peer-to-peer loans, without going through a bank.

How might the Isa rules change?

Despite a lot of media speculation, Chancellor Rachel Reeves has not yet set out her plans.

Documents released by the Treasury as part of the Spending Review in June said only that the government was "looking at options" for Isa reform.

It wants to "get the balance right between cash and equities [shares] to earn better returns for savers, boost the culture of retail investment, and support the growth mission".

However, there is an expectation that Reeves will make an announcement at her Mansion House speech in the City of London on 15 July.

Many experts think she will reduce the annual allowance for putting money into a cash Isa.

Some have argued that she should scrap cash Isas completely, but that is considered extremely unlikely.

Why might the government cut the cash Isa limit?

It is thought the government wants to encourage savers to put money into stocks and shares Isas instead of cash Isas. This could potentially benefit British companies, and boost economic growth in the UK.

Many investment companies which sell stocks and shares Isas back the change, while banks and building societies who dominate the cash Isa market are against it.

Those in favour say there are billions of pounds languishing in savings accounts, which do not need to be accessed in a hurry.

They say that money could be better used for personal, and the greater, good by being invested in stocks and shares in the long-term, rather than sitting in savings accounts.

They want any change to the Isa rules to go hand-in-hand with other reforms to encourage personal investing.

What are the pitfalls of cutting the cash Isa allowance?

Opponents say there is little evidence that the move would encourage people to invest in shares instead of saving in cash.

They warn many people may not save at all, or would simply pay more tax on any money held in non-Isa accounts.

Building societies, in particular, point out it would also reduce the amount of money they receive from savers' deposits which can then be lent out as mortgages or other loans.

As a result, the cost of borrowing could rise.

Four people have been arrested by police investigating the cyber-attacks that have caused havoc at M&S and the Co-op.

The National Crime Agency says a 20 year old woman was arrested in Staffordshire, and three males - aged between 17 and 19 - were detained in London and the West Midlands.

They were apprehended on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.

All four were arrested at their homes in the early hours on Thursday. Electronic devices were also seized by the police.

Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said the arrests were a "significant step" in its investigation.

"But our work continues, alongside partners in the UK and overseas, to ensure those responsible are identified and brought to justice," he added.

The hacks - which began in mid April - have caused huge disruption for the two retailers.

Some Co-op shelves were left bare for weeks, while M&S expects its operations to be affected until late July, with some IT systems not fully operational until October or November.

The chairman of M&S told MPs this week that it felt like the hack was an attempt to destroy the business. The retailer has estimated it will cost it £300m in lost profits.

Harrods was also targeted in an attack that had less impact on its operations.

A wave of attacks

M&S was the first to be breached. A huge amount of private data belonging to customers and staff was stolen.

The criminals also deployed malicious software called ransomware scrambling the company's IT networks making them unusable unless a ransom was paid.

The BBC revealed that the hackers had sent an offensive email to the M&S boss demanding payment.

A few days after M&S was breached the Co-op was also targeted by the criminals who broke in and stole the private data of millions of its and staff.

The Co-op was forced to admit that the data breach had happened after hackers contacted the BBC with proof that the firm was downplaying the cyber attack.

The BBC later discovered from the criminals that the company disconnected the internet from IT networks in the nick of time to stop the hackers from deploying ransomware and so causing even more disruption.

Shortly after Co-op announced it had been attacked, luxury retailer Harrods said it too had been targeted and had been forced to disconnect IT systems from the internet to keep the criminals out.

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Romanian police have targeted a gang suspected of being behind a complex scam in which stolen data was used to fraudulently claim millions in tax repayments from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), police have said.

Thirteen people were detained during armed raids around Bucharest, and luxury cars and piles of cash were seized. A fourteenth man was arrested in Preston.

According to HMRC, scammers gained access to the personal data of British taxpayers through a sophisticated phishing operation, which was used to make bogus claims for tax refunds.

HMRC said "millions" was believed to have been stolen without specifying an amount, while Romanian police said over £1m had been taken.

A joint operation between HMRC and Romanian police saw male and female suspects, aged between 23 and 53, arrested during the armed raids.

They were held on suspicion of computer fraud, money laundering and illegal access to a computer system.

A 38-year-old man was arrested in Preston on Thursday. His electronic devices were seized and he was questioned by HMRC officers.

In footage published by Romanian authorities on Thursday, armed police officers were seen searching a large property, where jewellery and large quantities of cash were found.

A joint investigation team - composed of Romanian prosecutors, HMRC and the Crown Prosecution Service - was established earlier this year.

HMRC said the organised gang had used stolen data to submit fraudulent claims for PAYE, child benefit and VAT refunds.

It is unclear how many people had their information stolen, but HMRC said it had contacted "around 100,000" customers to inform them they had detected attempts to access their accounts.

Romanian police said scammers accessed the Government Gateway accounts of over 1000 UK taxpayers, and then laundered the stolen funds.

The scammers tricked people into disclosing their security information using various methods, and HMRC stressed that its systems had not been subject to a cyber-attack.

Phishing scams involving HMRC in common: in 2022, the National Cyber Security Centre found it was the government body third most likely to be impersonated by criminals trying to obtain information.

Additional reporting by Mircea Barbu.

If Arpineh Masihi could vote, she would have cast her ballot for Donald Trump. She's a devout supporter of the US president – even now that she's locked up as an illegal immigrant.

"He's doing the right thing because lots of these people don't deserve to be here," Arpineh told the BBC over the phone from the Adelanto immigrant detention centre in California's Mojave Desert.

"I will support him until the day I die. He's making America great again."

Sixty miles (96 km) away in her home in Diamond Bar, a wealthy suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, a Trump flag flies over the family's front yard. Maga hats adorn a shelf next to a family photo album, while the family's pet birds chirp in a cage.

It's a lively home, with three dogs and four young children, and Arpineh's husband and mother are bleary eyed and exhausted with worry, trying to put on brave faces.

"Our home is broken," says Arthur Sahakyan, Arpineh's husband.

'We all make mistakes'

In many ways, Arpineh, 39, is an American success story - a prime example of how the country gives people second, even third chances. Arpineh's mother wells up with tears as she talks about her daughter, who has lived in the US since she was three.

She had a rough patch many years ago, in 2008, when she was convicted of burglary and grand theft and was sentenced to two years in prison. An immigration judge revoked her Green Card, which is a common practice. But because she is a Christian Armenian Iranian, the judge allowed her to remain in the country instead of being deported.

"We are Christians. She can't go back, there's no way," Arthur says as their 4-year-old daughter runs in and out of the room. He fears her life would be at risk if she is sent back.

But since her release from prison, Arpineh has rebuilt her life, starting a successful business and a family among hundreds of thousands of Iranian immigrants who call Southern California home.

West Los Angeles - often called Tehrangeles - has the largest population of Iranians outside of Iran.

Some, like Arpineh, have been detained in recent weeks, swept up in immigration raids that have put the city on edge. While the majority of those detained in LA come from Mexico, daily updates from the Department of Homeland Security show immigrants from seemingly every corner of the globe have been arrested.

Trump was elected in part because of his promise to "launch the largest deportation programme of criminals in the history" - a promise Arpineh, her husband and mother say they all still believe in.

Yet her family says they have faith that Arpineh will be released, and believe that only hardened, dangerous criminals will actually be deported.

"I don't blame Trump, I blame Biden," Arthur says. "It's his doing for open borders, but I believe in the system and all the good people will be released and the ones that are bad will be sent back."

While many of those detained do not have criminal records, Aprineh is a convicted felon, which makes her a prime target for removal.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment about Arpineh's case.

Arthur says he doesn't know details of the burglary. They spoke briefly about it before they were married and then he forgot about what he considered a youthful indiscretion by his wife.

Instead, he focuses on his wife's good deeds over the last 17 years, volunteering with the local school district and bringing food to firefighters and police.

"We all make mistakes," he says.

'No matter what, we're going to catch you'

So, when ICE phoned Arpineh on 30 June as the family was having breakfast, the couple thought it must be a joke.

But immigration enforcement pulled up to their home 30 minutes later.

Despite signs all over Los Angeles County urging immigrants to "Know Your Rights" and not to open the door to immigration enforcement agents, the couple came outside to speak with the officers.

Arpineh explained how a judge had allowed her to stay in the US because of the situation in Iran, as long as she didn't commit any other crimes, and as long as she frequently checked in immigration officials. Her last check-in was in April, she showed them, presenting her paperwork.

Arthur even invited them into the house, which they declined, he says.

The immigration enforcement agents told her circumstances had changed and they had a warrant for her arrest.

They allowed her to go back inside and say goodbye to her children – aged 14, 11, 10 and 4. The officers told her that if she didn't come back outside, they would get her eventually.

"They told us no matter what we're going to catch you – maybe if you're driving on the street with your kids - so we thought, what we'd been seeing on the news: flash bombs, cornering cars," Arthur says. They didn't want to risk her being violently detained, possibly with their children watching.

"She came and kissed the kids goodbye," he recalls. "She came outside like a champion and said, 'Here I am'."

Arthur asked the immigration officers not to handcuff his wife. They said that wasn't possible, though they agreed to do it on the far side of the vehicle so the couple's children wouldn't see.

"I knew my kids were watching from upstairs," he says. "I didn't want them to see their mom handcuffed."

Arpineh was then taken to a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, a centre used by ICE to process those arrested in the ongoing raids across the region. The building became the centre of sometimes violent anti-ICE protests that riled Los Angeles for weeks.

She says those being held at the building "were treated like animals".

Arpineh told the BBC she was held in a freezing, brightly lit room with 28 other women for three days. They survived on snacks and one bottle of water a day, she says, the women huddling together for warmth, and sleeping on the floor.

Waiting for reprieve

Because Arpineh speaks three languages – Armenian, Spanish and English – she was able to communicate with many of the other women and says they helped each other.

Three days later, she was moved to Adelanto, the privately-run ICE detention centre in the desert northeast of Los Angeles, which has a reputation for harsh, prison-like conditions.

But Arpineh says it's much better than what they faced in downtown LA, now having three meals a day, access to showers and a bed. Though she's heard it's difficult to get medical treatment if you need it, Arpineh is young and healthy.

"But it's still very challenging," she says.

She and her husband say they still have faith in the Trump administration and believe that she will be released.

"I'm not deportable to any country," Arpineh told the BBC from the detention facility.

But that hasn't stopped immigration officials in the past. In February, a group of Iranian Christians who had just crossed the border from Mexico were deported - but to Panama, not Iran.

Arpineh remains hopeful for a reprieve, but she notes that she's felt discouraged, too.

She says she loves America and that she feels American, even if she lacks the paperwork.

She calls her husband collect once an hour so they can share updates on her legal case, though so far there isn't much to share. The older children understand what's happening, but their 4-year-old daughter keeps asking when mommy is coming home, he says.

All four children are US citizens, born and raised in California. The couple believes officials will take that into consideration when deciding Arpineh's fate.

"I have four citizen children. I own a business. I own a property. I own cars," Arpineh says. "I haven't done anything wrong in so many years."

Heartstopper star Joe Locke is to make his West End debut this autumn, in a play about two young men who bond while working night shifts at a warehouse in a rural US town.

Locke is currently filming the forthcoming Heartstopper movie after appearing in three series of the hit Netflix show about two classmates who fall in love, but will take on his new stage role later this year.

The 21-year-old will star in Clarkston, which follows two men in their twenties from opposite ends of the US who meet while working at Costco.

Locke told BBC News he was "so excited" for his West End debut, adding that his new role matched his desire to play "flawed characters... who have a bit of bite".

Clarkston is written by Samuel D Hunter, who is best known for his 2012 play The Whale, which later won Brendan Fraser an Oscar when made into a film.

Producers have not yet announced the venue or run dates for the British production, but told the BBC it would open in a West End theatre in the autumn.

Set in Clarkston, Washington, the play opens with a Costco employee named Chris working night shifts when he meets new hire Jake, a young gay man originally from Connecticut.

Jake has Huntington's disease, a degenerative neurological condition that causes involuntary movements. He ended up in Clarkston by accident after finding himself no longer able to drive during a road trip west.

"He's this city boy in a small place," explained Locke. "Jake has got so many layers to him that really unravel in the play. A lot of the themes are to do with class and the different experiences of the characters."

Chris, meanwhile, struggles with the strained relationship he has with his mother, who is a drug addict.

Locke, who is used to portraying young men grappling with their identity, explained: "I really enjoy characters that have something to them, a bit of bite, a bit of a grey area.

"Everyone is flawed in some ways. And I've been lucky enough in my career so far to play a few flawed characters, and Jake is no different to that. And that's the fun bit, the meaty bit, getting to know these characters - they're good and they're bad."

Hunter noted the play "is fundamentally about friendship and platonic male love, which is something that I feel like we don't see a lot of on stage and screen".

Locke agreed: "Yeah, one of my favourite things about this play is there's a scene where these characters almost build on their platonic relationship and get to a romantic level, and they realise that no, the platonic relationship is what's important, and I think that's really beautiful."

Clarkston, which has previously been performed alongside another of Hunter's plays, Lewiston, received positive reviews from critics when it was staged in the US.

"You feel like you're eavesdropping on intensely private moments of people you don't always like but come to deeply understand," said The Hollywood Reporter's Frank Scheck of a 2018 production.

"Toward the end, there's an encounter between Chris and his mother that is as shattering and gut-wrenching a scene as you'll ever see on stage. But the play ends on a sweet, hopeful note that sends you out of the theatre smiling."

Writing about a different production in 2024, Charles McNulty of the LA Times said: "Clarkston hints that some of our most instructive relationships may be the most transitory. That's one of the beautiful discoveries in Hunter's small, absorbing and ultimately uplifting play."

Anybody who has worked night shifts may relate to the idea that the early hours are a time when people often open up to each other and have have their deepest conversations.

Hunter suggests such an atmosphere results in a "more delicate, more intimate" backdrop.

"I had an experience working in a Walmart when I was a teenager," he recalled, "and I found that places like the break room were so intimate and vulnerable, you're in this very sterilised space so I think the need for human connection is made all the greater."

Hunter had the idea of writing the play when visiting his home town of Moscow Idaho, about 30 miles from Clarkson, and became interested in "the idea that the American West is still kind of young", following the Louisiana Purchase in the early 19th Century.

"The markers of that history are still there," noted Hunter, "but they are right next to things like Costcos and gas stations and mini-malls.

"So it just got me interested in the experiment of the American West and the colonial past, and what that means in 2025."

The new production will be directed by Jack Serio, who has previously directed another of Hunter's plays, Grangeville, with Ruaridh Mollica and Sophie Melville cast in the other two lead roles as Chris and his mother.

Locke has previously appeared on stage at London's Donmar Warehouse, and in a Broadway production of Sweeney Todd.

The actor said being a theatre actor "was the thing I wanted more than anything" when growing up.

"I'm from the Isle of Man," he explained, "and my birthday present every year was a trip to London with my mum to watch a few shows, so it's very full circle to bring my mum to my press night to my West End debut, it's going to be very exciting."

Locke has starred in three seasons of Neflix's Heartstopper since its launch in 2022. The show followed two teenage boys, Charlie and Nick, who fall for each other at secondary school, and their circle of friends. Locke spoke to BBC News while on set, shooting the film adaptation.

"It's going great, we're almost two thirds of the way through shooting now, and everything, touch wood, is going well," he said.

"We're having a great time doing it, it's a really nice closing chapter of the story."

Four people have been arrested by police investigating the cyber-attacks that have caused havoc at M&S and the Co-op.

The National Crime Agency says a 20 year old woman was arrested in Staffordshire, and three males - aged between 17 and 19 - were detained in London and the West Midlands.

They were apprehended on suspicion of Computer Misuse Act offences, blackmail, money laundering and participating in the activities of an organised crime group.

All four were arrested at their homes in the early hours on Thursday. Electronic devices were also seized by the police.

Paul Foster, head of the NCA's National Cyber Crime Unit, said the arrests were a "significant step" in its investigation.

"But our work continues, alongside partners in the UK and overseas, to ensure those responsible are identified and brought to justice," he added.

The hacks - which began in mid April - have caused huge disruption for the two retailers.

Some Co-op shelves were left bare for weeks, while M&S expects its operations to be affected until late July, with some IT systems not fully operational until October or November.

The chairman of M&S told MPs this week that it felt like the hack was an attempt to destroy the business. The retailer has estimated it will cost it £300m in lost profits.

Harrods was also targeted in an attack that had less impact on its operations.

A wave of attacks

M&S was the first to be breached. A huge amount of private data belonging to customers and staff was stolen.

The criminals also deployed malicious software called ransomware scrambling the company's IT networks making them unusable unless a ransom was paid.

The BBC revealed that the hackers had sent an offensive email to the M&S boss demanding payment.

A few days after M&S was breached the Co-op was also targeted by the criminals who broke in and stole the private data of millions of its and staff.

The Co-op was forced to admit that the data breach had happened after hackers contacted the BBC with proof that the firm was downplaying the cyber attack.

The BBC later discovered from the criminals that the company disconnected the internet from IT networks in the nick of time to stop the hackers from deploying ransomware and so causing even more disruption.

Shortly after Co-op announced it had been attacked, luxury retailer Harrods said it too had been targeted and had been forced to disconnect IT systems from the internet to keep the criminals out.

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The UK faces a "rising" and unpredictable threat from Iran and the government must do more to counter it, Parliament's intelligence and security committee has warned.

The call comes as it publishes the results of a major inquiry which examined Iranian state assassinations and kidnap, espionage, cyber attacks and the country's nuclear programme.

The committee, which is tasked with overseeing Britain's spy agencies, has raised particular concern over the "sharp increase" in plots against opponents of the Iranian regime in the UK.

"Iran poses a wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat to the UK, UK nationals and UK interests," said Lord Beamish, committee chair.

"Iran has a high appetite for risk when conducting offensive activity and its intelligence services are ferociously well-resourced with significant areas of asymmetric strength."

He added: "Iran is there across the full spectrum of all the kinds of threats we have to be concerned with."

The committee accuses the government of focusing on "crisis management" and "fire-fighting" with Iran, as well as on its nuclear programme, at the expense of other threats.

It says the national security threat from Iran requires more resourcing and a longer-term approach.

"Whilst Iran's activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and – crucially – unpredictable."

The report was published on Thursday as part of the committee's inquiry into national security issues relating to Iran. It covers events up to August 2023, when the committee finished taking evidence.

It has previously been read by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who was sent a copy in March, and circulated among UK intelligence organisations to give them the opportunity to check accuracy and request redactions on national security grounds.

According to the committee, the government is required to provide its response within 60 days of publication.

The committee examines the policies, expenditure, administration and operations of UK intelligence organisations including MI5, MI6, and GCHQ.

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

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At least 15 Palestinians, including eight children and two women, have been killed in an Israeli strike near a medical point in central Gaza, a hospital there says.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said the strike hit people queueing for nutritional supplements in the town of Deir al-Balah. Graphic video from the hospital showed the bodies of several children and others being treated for their wounds.

The Israeli military said it was checking the reports.

Another 26 people were reportedly killed in strikes elsewhere in Gaza on Thursday, as Israeli and Hamas delegations continued negotiations for a new ceasefire and hostage release deal at indirect talks in Doha.

Despite optimism expressed by the US, which is acting as a mediator along with Qatar and Egypt, they do not so far seem to have come close to a breakthrough.

On Wednesday night, a senior Israeli official told journalists in Washington that it could take one or two weeks to reach an agreement.

The official, who was speaking during a visit to the US by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, also said that if an agreement was reached on a 60-day ceasefire, Israel would use that time to offer a permanent end to the war that would require Hamas to disarm. If Hamas refused to disarm, Israel would "proceed" with military operations, they added.

Earlier, Hamas issued a statement saying that the talks had been difficult, blaming Israeli "intransigence".

The group said it had shown flexibility in agreeing to release 10 hostages, but it reiterated that it was seeking a "comprehensive" agreement that would end the Israeli offensive.

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 57,680 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Most of Gaza's population has also been displaced multiple times. More than 90% of homes are estimated to be damaged or destroyed; the healthcare, water, sanitation and hygiene systems have collapsed; and there are shortages of food, fuel, medicine and shelter.

Who is Caster Semenya?

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When Beverly Morris retired in 2016, she thought she had found her dream home - a peaceful stretch of rural Georgia, surrounded by trees and quiet.

Today, it's anything but.

Just 400 yards (366m) from her front porch in Fayette County sits a large, windowless building filled with servers, cables, and blinking lights.

It's a data centre - one of many popping up across small-town America, and around the globe, to power everything from online banking to artificial intelligence tools like ChatGPT.

"I can't live in my home with half of my home functioning and no water," Ms Morris says. "I can't drink the water."

She believes the construction of the centre, which is owned by Meta (the parent company of Facebook), disrupted her private well, causing an excessive build-up of sediment. Ms Morris now hauls water in buckets to flush her toilet.

She says she had to fix the plumbing in her kitchen to restore water pressure. But the water that comes of the tap still has residue in it.

"I'm afraid to drink the water, but I still cook with it, and brush my teeth with it," says Morris. "Am I worried about it? Yes."

Meta, however, says the two aren't connected.

In a statement to the BBC, Meta said that "being a good neighbour is a priority".

The company commissioned an independent groundwater study to investigate Morris's concerns. According to the report, its data center operation did "not adversely affect groundwater conditions in the area".

While Meta disputes that it has caused the problems with Ms Morris' water, there's no doubt, in her estimation, that the company has worn out its welcome as her neighbour.

"This was my perfect spot," she says. "But it isn't anymore."

We tend to think of the cloud as something invisible - floating above us in the digital ether. But the reality is very physical.

The cloud lives in over 10,000 data centres around the world, most of them located in the US, followed by the UK and Germany.

With AI now driving a surge in online activity, that number is growing fast. And with them, more complaints from nearby residents.

The US boom is being challenged by a rise in local activism - with $64bn (£47bn) in projects delayed or blocked nationwide, according to a report from pressure group Data Center Watch.

And the concerns aren't just about construction. It's also about water usage. Keeping those servers cool requires a lot of water.

"These are very hot processors," Mark Mills of the National Center for Energy Analytics testified before Congress back in April. "The surface of each chip is hotter than the surface of the sun. It takes a lot of water to cool them down."

Many centres use evaporative cooling systems, where water absorbs heat and evaporates - similar to how sweat wicks away heat from our bodies. On hot days, a single facility can use millions of gallons.

One study estimates that AI-driven data centres could consume 1.7 trillion gallons of water globally by 2027.

Few places illustrate this tension more clearly than Georgia - one of the fastest-growing data centre markets in the US.

Its humid climate provides a natural and more cost-effective source of water for cooling data centres, making it attractive to developers. But that abundance may come at a cost.

Gordon Rogers is the executive director of Flint Riverkeeper, a non-profit advocacy group that monitors the health of Georgia's Flint River. He takes us to a creek downhill from a new construction site for a data centre being built by US firm Quality Technology Services (QTS).

George Diets, a local volunteer, scoops up a sample of the water into a clear plastic bag. It's cloudy and brown.

"It shouldn't be that colour," he says. To him, this suggests sediment runoff - and possibly flocculants. These are chemicals used in construction to bind soil and prevent erosion, but if they escape into the water system, they can create sludge.

QTS says its data centres meet high environmental standards and bring millions in local tax revenue.

While construction is often carried out by third-party contractors, local residents are the ones left to deal with the consequences.

"They shouldn't be doing it," Mr Rogers says. "A larger wealthier property owner does not have more property rights than a smaller, less wealthy property owner."

Tech giants say they are aware of the issues and are taking action.

"Our goal is that by 2030, we'll be putting more water back into the watersheds and communities where we're operating data centres, than we're taking out," says Will Hewes, global water stewardship lead at Amazon Web Services (AWS), which runs more data centres than any other company globally.

He says AWS is investing in projects like leak repairs, rainwater harvesting, and using treated wastewater for cooling. In Virginia, the company is working with farmers to reduce nutrient pollution in Chesapeake Bay, the largest estuary in the US.

In South Africa and India - where AWS doesn't use water for cooling - the company is still investing in water access and quality initiatives.

In the Americas, Mr Hewes says, water is only used on about 10% of the hottest days each year.

Still, the numbers add up. A single AI query - for example, a request to ChatGPT - can use about as much water as a small bottle you'd buy from the corner shop. Multiply that by billions of queries a day, and the scale becomes clear.

Prof Rajiv Garg teaches cloud computing at Emory University in Atlanta. He says these data centres aren't going away - if anything, they're becoming the backbone of modern life.

"There's no turning back," Prof Garg says.

But there is a path forward. The key, he argues, is long-term thinking: smarter cooling systems, rainwater harvesting, and more efficient infrastructure.

In the short term, data centres will create "a huge strain", he admits. But the industry is starting to shift toward sustainability.

And yet, that's little consolation to homeowners like Beverly Morris - stuck between yesterday's dream and tomorrow's infrastructure.

Data centres have become more than just an industry trend - they're now part of national policy. President Donald Trump recently vowed to build the largest AI infrastructure project in history, calling it "a future powered by American data".

Back in Georgia, the sun beats down through thick humidity - a reminder of why the state is so attractive to data centre developers.

For locals, the future of tech is already here. And it's loud, thirsty, and sometimes hard to live next to.

As AI grows, the challenge is clear: how to power tomorrow's digital world without draining the most basic resource of all - water.

Senior government figures believe they are on the cusp of achieving a breakthrough with Emmanuel Macron on a deal that would see France take back at least some of those who have crossed the English Channel on small boats.

In return, the UK would take asylum claimants from France who wish to come to the UK and are believed to have a legitimate reason to do so.

It's being called a "one-in-one" out deal, although the numbers will be greater than that.

But the key word to watch out for, when the deal is announced later, is "deterrent".

Sir Keir Starmer has said both he and the French president agree on the need for "a new deterrent to break the business model of the gangs".

The big question is the extent to which what is agreed to amounts to that, particularly in the short term.

Will it put people off getting in a small boat?

The pilot scheme is expected to involve around 50 migrants a week being returned to France, in return for the UK taking the same number of asylum seekers in France who are deemed to have a legitimate case to move to the UK.

Critics, including the Conservatives, say this would amount to about 5% of those who are attempting crossing currently, and so would be an inadequate deterrent.

The Tories point to the deterrent they planned but never got started - the idea of sending migrants to Rwanda. This scheme was scrapped when Labour won the election.

But it is true to say this agreement, albeit limited in scale initially, marks a new moment in Franco British diplomacy on this issue - the willingness of France to take back some of those who embark on the cross Channel journey.

The test, in the months and years ahead, can it be scaled up sufficiently to make a noticeable impact on the numbers?

Or, to put it more bluntly, do the numbers attempting a crossing start to fall, or not?

Because unless they do, the scheme, on this side of the Channel at least, is likely to be seen as a failure.

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Royal Mail can deliver second-class letters on every other weekday and not on Saturdays to help cut costs, the industry regulator has said.

Ofcom said a reform to the Universal Service Obligation (USO) was needed as people are sending fewer letters each year, so stamp prices keep rising as the cost of delivering letters goes up.

The current one-price-goes-anywhere USO means Royal Mail has to deliver post six days a week, from Monday to Saturday, and parcels on five from Monday to Friday.

Ofcom said Royal Mail should continue to deliver first-class letters six days a week but second class will be limited to alternate weekdays.

"These changes are in the best interests of consumers and businesses, as urgent reform of the postal service is necessary to give it the best chance of survival," said Natalie Black, Ofcom's group director for networks and communications.

However, just changing Royal Mail's obligations will not improve the service, she said.

"The company now has to play its part and implement this effectively."

The regulator is also making changes to Royal Mail's delivery targets.

The company will have to deliver 90% of first-class mail next-day, down from the current target of 93%, while 95% of second-class mail must be delivered within three days, a cut from the current 98.5%.

However, there will be a new target of 99% of mail being delivered no more than two days late to incentivise Royal Mail to cut down on long delays.

A North Korean defector is filing civil and criminal charges against the country's leader Kim Jong Un for abuses she faced while detained in the country.

Choi Min-kyung fled the North to China in 1997 but was forcibly repatriated in 2008. She said she was sexually abused and tortured after her return.

When she files the case in Seoul on Friday, it will be the first time a North Korean-born defector takes legal action against the regime, said a South-based rights group assisting Ms Choi.

South Korean courts have in the past ruled against North Korea on similar claims by South Koreans but such verdicts are largely symbolic and ignored by Pyongyang.

The case names Kim and four other Pyongyang officials. The rights group, the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), says it also plans to take Ms Choi's case to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court.

"I earnestly wish for this small step to become a cornerstone for the restoration of freedom and human dignity, so that no more innocent North Koreans suffer under this brutal regime," Ms Choi said on Wednesday, according to a statement by NKDB.

"As a torture victim and survivor of the North Korean regime, I carry a deep and urgent responsibility to hold the Kim dynasty accountable for crimes against humanity," she said.

Ms Choi fled North Korea again in 2012 and settled in the South. She said psychological trauma from the ordeal remains and that she continues to rely on medication.

For years international rights groups have documented alleged human rights violations by North Korea, ranging from the abuse of political prisoners to systematic discrimination based on gender and class.

Hanna Song, executive director of the NKDB, told BBC Korean that the lawsuits were significant because they were pursuing criminal charges "in parallel" to civil cases.

Previous court cases against North Korea had been "limited to civil litigation", she said.

In 2023, a Seoul court ordered North Korea to pay 50 million won ($36,000; £27,000) each to three South Korean men who were exploited after being taken as prisoners of war in North Korea during the Korean War.

In 2024, the North Korean government was also ordered to pay 100 million won to each of five Korean Japanese defectors. They were part of thousands who had left Japan for North Korea in the 1960s and 1980s under a repatriation programme.

They said they had been lured to North Korea decades ago on the promise of "paradise on Earth", but were instead detained and forced to work.

North Korea did not respond to either of the lawsuits.

But Ms Song, from the NKDB, argued that the rulings offered much-needed closure to the plaintiffs.

"What we've come to understand through years of work on accountability is that what victims really seek isn't just financial compensation - it's acknowledgment," said Ms Song.

"Receiving a court ruling in their favour carries enormous meaning. It tells them their story doesn't just end with them - it's acknowledged by the state and officially recorded in history."

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is drifting south and making it difficult for Americans to enjoy summer, six members of Congress have said in a letter to Canada's embassy.

"We write to you today on behalf of our constituents who have had to deal with suffocating Canadian wildfire smoke filling the air to begin the summer," they wrote to Ambassador Kirsten Hillman.

It was signed by Tom Tiffany and Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin and Michelle Fischbach, Brad Finstad, Pete Stauber and Tom Emmer of Minnesota. The Canadian embassy told the BBC that Canada takes wildfire prevention "very seriously".

Two Canadians have died in this year's wildfires and tens of thousands of others have evacuated.

Tom Emmer is a senior member of Congress, serving as Majority Whip in the House of Representatives.

He and his five fellow Republican lawmakers wrote in the letter, published Monday: "We would like to know how your government plans on mitigating wildfire and the smoke that makes its way south."

They continued: "Our constituents have been limited in their ability to go outside and safely breathe due to the dangerous air quality the wildfire smoke has created.

"In our neck of the woods, summer months are the best time of the year to spend time outdoors recreating, enjoying time with family, and creating new memories, but this wildfire smoke makes it difficult to do all those things."

Tarryn Elliott, spokeswoman for the Canadian embassy in Washington DC, told the BBC the Canadian government "takes the prevention, response, and mitigation of wildfires very seriously".

"I can confirm that the letter has been received by the Embassy and has been shared with the relevant Canadian agencies," she said. "We will respond in due course."

Canada faces wildfires every summer. The worst year on record was 2023, when the fires killed eight people and torched an area larger in size than England, according to the Canadian government.

There have been 2,672 fires so far this year, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

May and June were particularly bad months in western Canada, when around 30,000 people were evacuated in the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, where officials declared a state of emergency.

"As I'm sure you know, this is not the first year Canadian wildfire smoke has been an issue," the lawmakers wrote, blaming a "lack of active forest management" and arson.

"With all the technology that we have at our disposal, both in preventing and fighting wildfires, this worrisome trend can be reversed if proper action is taken," they stated.

Wildfires are part of the natural cycle, and play an essential role in the regeneration of Canada's boreal forests, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Canada.

Many are caused by lightning strikes. In 2023, 93% of the fires in Canada were caused by lightning, according to the Canadian Climate Institute.

Scientists have linked worsening wildfire seasons to climate change, an issue that affects Canada significantly.

The country is warming at a rate twice that of the global average due to its large land mass, and its Arctic region is warming three times as fast, according to scientists.

The sun was rising over the village of Brantham in Suffolk when Anita Rose set off for an early morning dog walk. She was a mother of six, and a grandmother of 13. Within an hour, she had been assaulted so brutally that her injuries were akin to those of someone in a head-on car crash. She died four days later.

The man responsible, Roy Barclay, was on a list of Suffolk Police's most wanted criminals but he had managed to avoid being recalled to prison for the past two years by sleeping in makeshift camps.

But despite this, Barclay had left a sizeable digital footprint - using his bank card to order items online and leaving hundreds of reviews on Google Maps.

With all this online activity, how did he manage to evade police and remain free to murder Anita?

Anita was an "early bird", her partner Richard Jones said. She loved to walk her springer spaniel Bruce around Brantham, a village where she'd lived for six years and always said she felt safe. The 57-year-old loved watching the sun come up before other people were awake.

On the morning of 24 July last year, Mr Jones and Anita chatted on the phone while she walked. He worked as a lorry driver and would spend time away from home during the week, so the couple would catch up while Anita took Bruce on the first of his three daily walks.

The couple had known each other since they were teenagers and had started dating in 2011 after a chance meeting at a petrol station in Copdock where Anita worked.

The pair's final conversation ended with Anita telling the 59-year-old to "drive safe, I love you".

Within an hour of hanging up, she was found unconscious and severely injured on a track road near a railway line by a cyclist and dog walker.

During the trial, Ms Island told the court Anita had "laboured breathing" and patches of blood on her face, and was only wearing leggings and a black sports bra, despite leaving the house wearing her pink Regatta jacket.

Mr Tassel described how her dog Bruce was lying "patiently" next to her body with his lead wrapped twice around her leg - this turned out to be something Barclay had also done in 2015, when he attacked a man.

Neuropathologist Dr Kieran Allinson, who treated Anita at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, likened her injuries to those seen in high speed car crashes and said they were consistent with kicking, stamping and repeated impacts to the head.

In the weeks that followed, Barclay was described during his Ipswich Crown Court trial as having lived in carefully-hidden camps and shaving his head to change his appearance.

He had been wanted by police since 2022, when he breached the terms of his licence by making himself homeless.

Barclay had been jailed in 2015 for the violent, unprovoked assault on an elderly man in an Essex seaside town, and was released on parole in 2020.

After killing Anita, his internet search history showed he had looked up news articles about the attack. He also looked up Anita's partner on social media.

Barclay is also said to have kept some of her belongings - including a pink Regatta jacket - at his makeshift camps.

In the weeks after Anita's murder, Suffolk Police entered into one of its biggest-ever investigations to find the culprit.

A number of people were arrested and bailed.

Barclay, meanwhile, continued to be a prolific reviewer on Google Maps for hundreds of locations around Suffolk and Essex.

Between 2022 and October 2024, he posted thousands of photos of churches, Amazon lockers, libraries, beaches, council buildings, statues and more - earning himself a 'Level 8' contributor status (the highest being level 10).

One review was of Decoy Pond in Brantham, with photos posted between April and July - the month he murdered Anita a short distance away.

Three months after the murder, his final few Google reviews were about Flatford, a historic area on the Essex-Suffolk border famed for inspiring iconic paintings.

"It's a beautiful, unspoilt rural idyll that somehow exists in its own timelessness, as if awaiting the return of John Constable," wrote Barclay in a review posted in October 2024.

By then he was camping out a mile from where he'd killed Anita - but a chance meeting with a Suffolk Police officer near White Bridge, between Brantham and Manningtree, led to his arrest.

Barclay gave the officer, Det Con Simpson, a fake name, coming across as "quite nervous and quite anxious", the detective said.

Six days later on 21 October, at Ipswich County Library, Barclay was arrested and was subsequently charged with Anita's murder, which he denied.

After his conviction, the Crown Prosecution Service described Barclay as "an individual that… has a history for acting violently so we knew that this was somebody that could act unprovoked in a very violent manner".

The 2015 attack in Walton-on-the-Naze left the victim, 82-year-old Leslie Gunfield, with serious injuries to his head, neck, face and jaw.

Barclay was jailed for 10 years for the assault, but was released on licence after five.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which is responsible for probation services, told the BBC that a recall notice for Barclay was issued quickly following the breach of his licence conditions.

In doing this, finding Barclay became the responsibility of Suffolk Police.

The force began looking for him in 2022 but did not issue a press release about his wanted status until January 2024. it asked for members of the public to get in touch if they saw him, saying he had "links across Suffolk and Essex".

Just over a month before he murdered Anita, on 10 June, Barclay had left a comment on an online article called 'Fixing Fixed Term Recalls'.

He accused the MoJ of "deliberately" setting up prison leavers "to fail" and "return like a boomerang".

"Is it really any surprise that so many of those on license are on recall within the first year of release?" he wrote. The MoJ has refuted these claims.

Hamish Brown, a former detective inspector who worked for the Specialist Crime Directorate at New Scotland Yard, said his own experience taught him that officers were often not given "huge amounts of time" to investigate wanted suspects.

But in this case, he said, the force would have serious questions to answer.

"Suffolk Police failed in tracking him down, despite him using his bank card and reviewing places on Google.

"I'm surprised Suffolk Police missed this and didn't find him, despite the trail he was leaving.

"The bottom line is it could have been prevented if the police had done their job and gone looking for the person.

"So the police will have to brace themselves and be answerable."

But Paul Bernal, professor of information technology law at the University of East Anglia, believes there would have been a limit to how useful the Google reviews could have been in tracking Barclay down.

"There is absolutely no way a social media or search provider would know that those things are in any way needed in a police investigation," he told the BBC.

Speaking after the jury found Barclay guilty, Anita's family stood on the court steps and spoke of the changes they said "need to be made within the probation service and justice system".

"We need make sure our communities are safe and criminals are taken back to prison when they break the terms of their probations," her eldest daughter Jess said.

"They cannot remain at large - there's too much at stake."

'Definitive answers'

Suffolk Police confirmed it would conduct a voluntary partnership review which would look at how the force and the probation service handled the search for Barclay.

"It will look closely at the information sharing processes and how the organisations collaborated," said assistant chief constable Alice Scott.

"This review will be a thorough assessment and scrutiny of the processes concerning Barclay.

"It will be expedited as soon as possible so we can provide clear and definitive answers for Anita's family."

Additional reporting by Jodie Halford and Laura Foster.

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For the second time this week, Reform UK have announced a former Conservative cabinet minister has joined them.

The other day they said that former Welsh Secretary David Jones had signed up, back in January.

Two other former Tory MPs defected recently too – Anne Marie Morris and Ross Thomson.

Now it is Sir Jake Berry joining Nigel Farage's party.

A man knighted by Boris Johnson.

A man whose son counts Johnson as his godfather.

A man who used to be the chairman of the Conservative Party and who was a Tory minister in three different government departments.

And yet a man who now says this: "If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you'd be hard pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule."

Read that sentence again and consider it was written by someone who was not just a Tory MP for 14 years but a senior one, occupying high office.

Extraordinary.

And this is probably not the end of it – both Reform and Conservative folk I speak to hint they expect there to be more to come.

Tories are trying to put the best gloss on it they can, saying Reform might be attracting former MPs – Sir Jake lost his seat at the last election – but they are losing current MPs.

The MP James McMurdock suspended himself from Reform at the weekend after a story in the Sunday Times about loans he took out under a Covid support scheme.

McMurdock has said he was compliant with the rules.

But the trend is clear: Conservatives of varying seniority are being lured across by Nigel Farage and are proud to say so when they make the leap.

Reform are particularly delighted that Sir Jake has not just defected but done so by going "studs in" on his former party, as one source put it.

"For us this is really crucial. If you want to join us you need to be really going for the other side when you do. Drawing a proper line in the sand," they added.

They regard Sir Jake's closeness to Boris Johnson as "dagger-in-the-heart stuff" for the Conservatives.

But perhaps the more interesting and consequential pivot in strategy we are currently witnessing is Labour's approach to Reform.

At the very highest level in government they are reshaping their approach: turning their attention away from their principal opponent of the last century and more, the Conservatives, and tilting instead towards Nigel Farage's party.

Again, extraordinary.

It tells you a lot about our contemporary politics that a party with Labour's history, sitting on top of a colossal Commons majority, is now shifting its focus to a party with just a handful of MPs.

Senior ministers take the rise of Reform incredibly seriously and are not dismissing them as a flash in the pan insurgency.

After all, Reform's lead in many opinion polls has proven to be sustained in recent months and was then garnished with their impressive performance in the English local elections in May and their win, on the same day, in the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.

If Labour folk then were still in need of the jolt of a wake-up call, that night provided it.

In their immediate response to Sir Jake's defection, Labour are pointing to Reform recruiting Liz Truss's party chairman and so are inheriting, they claim, her "reckless economics".

But they know the challenge of taking on and, they hope, defeating Reform, will be work of years of slog and will have to be grounded in proving they can deliver in government – not easy, as their first year in office has so often proven.

Not for the first time in recent months, Reform UK have momentum and are making the political weather.

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Ukraine's capital Kyiv is again under a massive overnight Russian drone attack, local officials say, with at least eight people reported injured and fires burning across the city.

Authorities in Kyiv say drone wreckage has hit the roof of a residential building in the central Shevchenkivskyi district.

Footage on social media, as yet unverified by the BBC, shows explosions in the night sky, as air defence units begin repelling the attack. Ukraine's military has also warned of a threat of a ballistic missile attack.

Last night, Ukraine reported the biggest ever aerial attack from Russia, after 728 drones and 13 cruise or ballistic missiles struck cities around the country in multiple waves.

In the early hours of Thursday, morning Kyiv's military administration reported Russian drone strikes in six city districts.

"Residential buildings, vehicles, warehouses, office and non-residential buildings are burning," administration head Tymur Tkachenko said in a post on Telegram.

He urged city residents to shelter until the air raid siren was lifted.

Overnight, Ukraine's air force reported a threat of Russian drone attacks in a number of regions. It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties outside Kyiv.

Russia's military has not commented on the reported latest attack.

In other developments:

• Ukraine's emergency service DSNS said late on Wednesday that three people had been killed in a Russian air strike in the town of Kostiantynivka - close to the front line in eastern Ukraine
• The US resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, Reuters reported late on Wednesday, days after it halted shipments of some critical arms

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

For the second time this week, Reform UK have announced a former Conservative cabinet minister has joined them.

The other day they said that former Welsh Secretary David Jones had signed up, back in January.

Two other former Tory MPs defected recently too – Anne Marie Morris and Ross Thomson.

Now it is Sir Jake Berry joining Nigel Farage's party.

A man knighted by Boris Johnson.

A man whose son counts Johnson as his godfather.

A man who used to be the chairman of the Conservative Party and who was a Tory minister in three different government departments.

And yet a man who now says this: "If you were deliberately trying to wreck the country, you'd be hard pressed to do a better job than the last two decades of Labour and Tory rule."

Read that sentence again and consider it was written by someone who was not just a Tory MP for 14 years but a senior one, occupying high office.

Extraordinary.

And this is probably not the end of it – both Reform and Conservative folk I speak to hint they expect there to be more to come.

Tories are trying to put the best gloss on it they can, saying Reform might be attracting former MPs – Sir Jake lost his seat at the last election – but they are losing current MPs.

The MP James McMurdock suspended himself from Reform at the weekend after a story in the Sunday Times about loans he took out under a Covid support scheme.

McMurdock has said he was compliant with the rules.

But the trend is clear: Conservatives of varying seniority are being lured across by Nigel Farage and are proud to say so when they make the leap.

Reform are particularly delighted that Sir Jake has not just defected but done so by going "studs in" on his former party, as one source put it.

"For us this is really crucial. If you want to join us you need to be really going for the other side when you do. Drawing a proper line in the sand," they added.

They regard Sir Jake's closeness to Boris Johnson as "dagger-in-the-heart stuff" for the Conservatives.

But perhaps the more interesting and consequential pivot in strategy we are currently witnessing is Labour's approach to Reform.

At the very highest level in government they are reshaping their approach: turning their attention away from their principal opponent of the last century and more, the Conservatives, and tilting instead towards Nigel Farage's party.

Again, extraordinary.

It tells you a lot about our contemporary politics that a party with Labour's history, sitting on top of a colossal Commons majority, is now shifting its focus to a party with just a handful of MPs.

Senior ministers take the rise of Reform incredibly seriously and are not dismissing them as a flash in the pan insurgency.

After all, Reform's lead in many opinion polls has proven to be sustained in recent months and was then garnished with their impressive performance in the English local elections in May and their win, on the same day, in the parliamentary by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in Cheshire.

If Labour folk then were still in need of the jolt of a wake-up call, that night provided it.

In their immediate response to Sir Jake's defection, Labour are pointing to Reform recruiting Liz Truss's party chairman and so are inheriting, they claim, her "reckless economics".

But they know the challenge of taking on and, they hope, defeating Reform, will be work of years of slog and will have to be grounded in proving they can deliver in government – not easy, as their first year in office has so often proven.

Not for the first time in recent months, Reform UK have momentum and are making the political weather.

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.

All-inclusive family package holidays from the UK have jumped in price for some of the most popular destinations, including Spain, Cyprus and Turkey.

The average price for a week in Cyprus in August has gone up by 23%, from £950 per person to £1,166, figures compiled for the BBC by TravelSupermarket show.

Of the top 10 most-searched countries, Italy and Tunisia are the only ones to see prices drop by 11% and 4% respectively compared with 2024.

Travel agents say holidaymakers are booking shorter stays or travelling mid-week to cut costs.

The top five destinations in order of most searched are: Spain, Greece, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Portugal. They have all seen price rises.

Trips to the UAE have seen the biggest jump, up 26% from £1,210 in August 2024 to £1,525 this year.

Cyprus had the next biggest rise and came in at number nine in terms of search popularity.

The figures are based on online searches, made on TravelSupermarket from 18 April to 17 June, for all-inclusive, seven-night family holidays in August 2024 and 2025.

While this snapshot of data reveals a general trend, costs will vary depending on exactly where a family goes and when they book.

Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive of travel agent industry group Advantage Travel Partnership, said the price rises were down to a number of factors.

"These increases simply keep pace with the broader cost of doing business and reflect the reality of higher operational costs, from increased energy bills affecting hotels, to elevated food costs impacting restaurants and rising wages across the hospitality sector," she said.

But she added the group had seen evidence that some holidaymakers still had money to spend.

Some customers were upgrading to more premium all-inclusive packages and booking more expensive cabin seats on long-haul flights to locations such as Dubai, she said.

Holiday destinations are a frequent topic of conversation at the hairdressers.

At Voodou in Liverpool, Ellie Mooney talked to us as she got a last-minute trim before jetting off to Turkey.

"We've been going for the past 20 years or so. We normally book a year ahead then save up in dribs and drabs," she said.

Hope Curran, 21, was getting her highlights done and she and her partner had just got back from holiday in Rhodes in Greece.

"We did an all-inclusive trip because it was a bit more manageable, but it's not cheap," she said.

End of life care nurse Francesca Ramsden, 35, from Rossendale, has made it her mission to cut the cost of holidays, saving where she can and hunting for a bargain at every turn.

"My husband is sick of me, he'll ask 'have you found anything yet' and I'll say no, rocking in the corner after looking for 10,000 hours.

"The longest I've booked a holiday in advance is two to three months and I find that the closer you get, the cheaper it is."

She said she spent hours trying to save as much as possible on a May half-term break to Fuerte Ventura for her family of four which came in at £1,600.

She now shares her budgeting tips on social media.

"I've mastered the art of packing a week's worth of clothes into a backpack. I always book the earliest or latest flight I can, and midweek when it's cheaper."

Luke Fitzpatrick, a travel consultant at Perfect Getaways in Liverpool, said people were cutting the length of their holidays to save money.

"Last year we did a lot for 10 nights and this year we've got a lot of people dropping to four or seven nights, just a short little weekend vacation, just getting away in the sun," he said.

He has also seen more people choosing to wait until the last minute to book a trip away.

"People are coming in with their suitcases asking if they can go away today or tomorrow," he added.

"Yesterday we had a couple come in with their passports and we got them on a flight last night from Liverpool to Turkey."

How to save money on your holiday

• Choose a cheaper location. A UK holiday eliminates travel and currency costs, but overseas destinations vary a lot too

• To decide whether all-inclusive will save you money, first look at local costs for eating out and don't forget about drinks and airport transfers

• Travel outside the school holidays if you can

• Booking early can help, especially if you have to travel at peak times

• Check whether you can get a cheaper flight by travelling mid-week

• Haggle. Call the travel agent to see if they can better the price you found online

• Choose destinations where the value of the pound is strong. This year that includes Turkey, Bulgaria and Portugal

Source: Which? and TravelSupermarket