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.
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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's regime does not typically respond to claims of abuse made by North Korean defectors
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."
Wildfires have forced thousands of Canadians to evacuate their homes in 2025
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.
Roy Barclay was told to expect a "lengthy sentence" after being found guilty of the murder of Anita Rose
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?
Suffolk Police
Anita Rose loved walking her dog over the fields near her home village of Brantham, Suffolk, at sunrise
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.
PA Media
Anita Rose was captured on CCTV walking her dog Bruce on the morning of the fatal attack
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.
Google
Roy Barclay was a prolific reviewer of different locations on Google Maps - the red dots show all the locations he reviewed and photographed between 2022 and 2024
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.
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.
George King/BBC
Anita Rose was found with serious injuries on a track road in Brantham, Suffolk, in July 2024
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.
Google
Roy Barclay posted his thoughts on Flatford shortly before being arrested on suspicion of murder
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.
Crown Prosecution Service
Barclay, who was homeless, lived in makeshift camps he had set up under the Orwell Bridge and in Brantham (pictured)
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.
Crimewatch Live
Anita Rose was a mother and grandmother who was very active and loved walking her dog
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.
Supplied
Former Metropolitan Police detective Hamish Brown believes the murder could have been prevented
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.
Jamie Niblock/BBC
Anita's eldest daughter, Jess, addressed the media outside Ipswich Crown Court
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.
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.
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.
PA Media
Sir Jake Berry was appointed as the Conservative Party chairman by Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister
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.
Firefighters also battled fires sparked by explosions in the Kyiv region on Wednesday
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.
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.
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.
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.
PA Media
Sir Jake Berry was appointed as the Conservative Party chairman by Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister
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.
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.
Abi Smitton / BBC News
Ellie Mooney said she's spent the last year saving up for her holiday to Turkey
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.
Francesca Ramsden
Nurse Francesca Ramsden says she spends thousands of hours hunting for the best deals
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."
Abi Smitton / BBC News
Travel consultant Luke says people are getting creative to save money
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
With doubts circling and pressure increasing, England needed to step up at Euro 2025 - and they did.
A 2-1 defeat by France on Saturday meant the defending champions had catching up to do in Group D.
But England ensured their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals remained intact with a commanding 4-0 victory over the Netherlands.
"Proper England", as midfielder Georgia Stanway had called it earlier this week, returned as Sarina Wiegman's side played with fluidity and creativity.
They were back to their defensive best and Wiegman's positional switches worked a treat.
Wiegman knows what it means to be under the spotlight, having led England to back-to-back major tournament finals.
When you have set that standard, anything less is a disappointment.
England's level dropped dramatically against France which increased scrutiny on Wiegman, who suffered her first defeat at a Euros after winning 12 games in a row over the previous two tournaments.
It was also the first time the reigning women's European champions had lost the first match of their defence at the following finals.
Wiegman admitted the scrutiny was "hard" but she focused on the task in hand.
"I always knew ahead of this tournament that it was a very hard group. It can happen but then you need to win the other games," she said.
"So yes, I was excited, but at the same time I felt a little tense too. I think that's completely normal as you really want to stay in the tournament and you want to win.
"I just had to focus on my job, review well and think about how we could bring people together."
Wiegman has often delivered in the big moments and no manager has won more Euros matches than the Dutchwoman (13 - level with Germany's former manager Tina Theune).
She also boasts the best goals-per-game rate in the competition among managers to take charge of four or more matches, with her sides scoring 40 in 14 games.
Having come under criticism for her decision to start Lauren James in the number 10 role against France - which left England vulnerable defensively - Wiegman made all the right choices against the Netherlands.
James started on the right wing, with Manchester United's Ella Toone starting in the number 10 role. They scored three of the four goals on the night.
Jess Carter, who struggled against France at left-back, was moved into central defence, swapping with Alex Greenwood, and England kept a clean sheet.
"The priority was that we wanted to skip and exploit space. The Netherlands pushed up so we wanted to go over them. That worked really well," said Wiegman.
"When you're in their half of the pitch, you can start playing. We had some nice crosses and we spoke about that too.
"[James] came in good positions but she can also do that in midfield. In midfield today we wanted Ella [Toone] because she can make good runs in behind."
The plan worked.
Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema had just eight touches in the first half and the Dutch conceded more than two goals in a single match at a major women's tournament for the first time.
They also managed just four shots against England - their fewest on record (since 2011) at a major tournament.
'That's a proper English performance'
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Media caption,
'That should be three points for England' - James makes it 3-0
England midfielder Keira Walsh said the players "had to acknowledge that sometimes it is a bad day and it was a really bad day against France".
They wanted to put it behind them and do their talking on the pitch, as team-mate Stanway stressed this week.
Striker Alessia Russo felt they produced the "proper England" performance that Stanway had talked about.
"'Proper English' to us means we'll work hard until we can't run any more, stick together and know that we are very dominant on the ball," said Russo.
"We were picking up the ball in right areas and were clinical with our chances. We wanted to return to our roots and we know we're capable of performances like that."
Russo was among the standout performers as she picked up three assists - the first player on record (since 2013) to provide as many in a women's Euros match.
James' double means she has now been directly involved in more goals (eight) than any other European player at the past two major tournaments.
Stanway and Toone impressed in midfield, while Carter thrived in the centre-back role, with Greenwood producing the goods at left-back.
"We can change the structure of the team with so many different players. That's a strength of ours, that each individual player is so good at something," said Lucy Bronze.
"[Greenwood] isn't the fastest player on the pitch and I think she completely marked Chasity Grant out of the game. She was front-footed, she was aggressive.
"Jess Carter was covering her every single minute of the game as well. I think that's a proper English performance."
Carter told BBC Radio 5 Live that the two defenders had felt "isolated" in the defeat by France and they wanted to combat that.
Wiegman made the decision to swap them in training and tested it out.
"I'm not one to question and ask for a reason, I just do the job I'm asked to do," said Carter.
"This game felt the total opposite with Alex and the whole team. She was phenomenal at left-back."
Has optimism been revived?
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Toone and Russo combine for England's fourth
England were one of the pre-tournament favourites and despite defeat by France, qualification for the quarter-finals is in their hands.
If they beat Wales in their final group game, they will qualify for the last eight.
Wiegman admitted the "consequences of the result were huge" against the Netherlands - but it was nothing they did not expect.
"We knew exactly that we were going straight into finals [against strong opposition]," she added.
"Losing the first game, it was not the end of the world but it doesn't put you in the best position.
"We knew we had to perform really well and the team did."
Were England written off too soon? They won Euro 2022 and reached the 2023 World Cup final after all.
"Everybody else was panic stations, but we still needed to win this game whether we beat France or not and we knew that," said Walsh.
"The objective didn't change. We wanted to take the game to them and put things right that we didn't the other day.
"I think we did back up what we said in the media and I think everyone was just on it from the first whistle to the last."
It is hoped the sculpture will be a permanent memorial to the tree's mindless destruction
A piece of the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree which was illegally felled nearly two years ago is to go on permanent display.
The act sparked global condemnation and outrage in September 2023, with two men found guilty of chopping the tree down earlier this year.
Now, people will be able to see and touch part of its trunk at a Northumberland visitor centre near where the tree stood, as a permanent memorial to its mindless destruction is unveiled.
The BBC has been to see what the display looks like - and has had an insight into how it was created.
In a workshop in a tiny village in Cumbria, an idea has been taking shape.
The large shed up an ever-thinning track is where artist Charlie Whinney creates his abstract and beautiful sculptures.
They often feature steam-bent wood that makes my mind boggle when I visit, with its twists and turns.
His curved creations are everywhere I look, and his signature style will now surround the Sycamore Gap trunk.
Artist Charlie Winney has used the Sycamore Gap trunk as a centrepiece for his sculpture
The piece of tree, which is more than 6ft (2m) long, arrived at Charlie's workshop in mid-June, three weeks before its unveiling as part of a permanent exhibition at the Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland.
He is preparing the trunk for the metal work that will keep it upright, with the carving and drilling into the base being the only modification he is making to the sycamore itself.
It is nerve-wracking work, he tells me, "because so many people care about it, you don't want to mess it up".
Charlie Whinney took delivery of the trunk in mid-June
The wood cuts smoothly and is "really nice to work with", the artists says, as he attaches a three-pronged metal baseplate that will finally hold the trunk vertical once again.
He is not an emotional person but is "blown away by how huggable it is", he says, before inviting me to try and wrap my arms around the trunk - which, of course, I do.
This is what everyone who visits the installation will able to do too.
PA Media
The tree was a much-loved landmark before it was illegally felled in September 2023
"The actual design came from what people said," Charlie says. "They wanted to be able to sit down, so we made some benches, and also pretty much 100% of the people we spoke to said they want to be able to access the tree and touch it."
A public consultation was held to work out what to do with the tree, which included workshops with children and any written contributions people wanted to make.
The much-loved tree had been a part of so many memorable moments for so many people, from marriage proposals to the scattering of ashes.
Charlie Winney makes sculptures from steam-bent wood
Three benches with canopies formed from curved wooden stems and leaves now surround the trunk, the seats inscribed with words taken from people's submissions.
The Northumberland National Park Authority (NNPA) received thousands of emails, letters and messages in visitor books from people talking about the tree, with every one read by staff members.
The authority commissioned Charlie and the Creative Communities art collective, a community interest company which creates sustainable art projects, to deliver an artistic response with the wood.
"It was very important at the beginning when we received the commission to kind of represent people that loved the tree, or knew the tree in life," says Nick Greenall, of the collective.
"It shows by its absence how much it meant to people."
Rosie Thomas helped choose the words to be inscribed on the sculpture's benches
Rosie Thomas, the park's business development director, helped pick out some of the messages that feature in the installation.
"The words that were chosen take you from sorrow, grief, the initial reaction, all the way through to feelings of hope and wishes for the future," she says.
"The really nice thing about the words is that everyone's experience of the tree was different and everybody's experience with this installation will be different too because the route that you take to read the words creates your own individual poem."
The trunk and benches were hidden behind curtains while they were being installed at The Sill, which is just two miles from where the tree had stood.
Tony Gates is delighted to have the trunk back near Hadrian's Wall
For Tony Gates, the chief executive of the NNPA, having the installation revealed to the public on Thursday morning will be a big moment.
The 18 months since the tree was felled have been difficult for everyone, he says.
"Back in September 2023, people felt they'd lost the tree forever and maybe in some ways felt they'd lost those memories of those life events," he says.
"To be sat here today to be part of that tree with this beautiful installation, it gives me a ray of hope for the future, this is a time to look forward and a time for us to repledge to do positive things for nature."
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.
Roy Barclay was told to expect a "lengthy sentence" after being found guilty of the murder of Anita Rose
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?
Suffolk Police
Anita Rose loved walking her dog over the fields near her home village of Brantham, Suffolk, at sunrise
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.
PA Media
Anita Rose was captured on CCTV walking her dog Bruce on the morning of the fatal attack
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.
Google
Roy Barclay was a prolific reviewer of different locations on Google Maps - the red dots show all the locations he reviewed and photographed between 2022 and 2024
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.
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.
George King/BBC
Anita Rose was found with serious injuries on a track road in Brantham, Suffolk, in July 2024
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.
Google
Roy Barclay posted his thoughts on Flatford shortly before being arrested on suspicion of murder
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.
Crown Prosecution Service
Barclay, who was homeless, lived in makeshift camps he had set up under the Orwell Bridge and in Brantham (pictured)
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.
Crimewatch Live
Anita Rose was a mother and grandmother who was very active and loved walking her dog
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.
Supplied
Former Metropolitan Police detective Hamish Brown believes the murder could have been prevented
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.
Jamie Niblock/BBC
Anita's eldest daughter, Jess, addressed the media outside Ipswich Crown Court
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.
Firefighters also battled fires sparked by explosions in the Kyiv region on Wednesday
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.
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.
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.
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.
PA Media
Sir Jake Berry was appointed as the Conservative Party chairman by Liz Truss during her brief tenure as prime minister
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.
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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Locke said he enjoyed playing characters who had "a bit of a bite, a bit of a grey area"
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".
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."
Getty Images
Samuel D Hunter (right) also wrote The Whale, the film adaptation of which won Brendan Fraser an Oscar
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."
Netflix
Locke, pictured with Heartstopper co-star Kit Connor, said the forthcoming film will be "a really nice closing chapter"
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."
Christian Horner's removal as Red Bull's F1 team principal leads several of Thursday's front pages. The Metro says the racing boss, husband of Spice Girl Geri, was "shunted out" 17 months after a female employee accused him of coercive, controlling behaviour. He was twice cleared of these claims, which he has strongly denied, but the fallout has been "blamed for the team's decline", the paper reports. Red Bull has won only two races this season.
The Daily Star references the energy's drink's slogan in its own headline on the Horner saga: "Red Bull gives you the boot." It adds that wife Geri has "stood by" her husband.
The Daily Mail's front page pictures the "humiliated" Geri and Christian Horner, but its lead story is based on fresh analysis suggesting "work doesn't pay under Labour". The Centre for Social Justice think tank has warned that sickness benefits will soon be worth "more than a minimum wage job", the paper reports. This "shocking finding" comes after Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer failed to secure benefits cuts earlier this month, it adds.
The Daily Telegraph also covers the think tank's benefits analysis, saying someone on "full handouts" will receive £2,500 more a year than a minimum wage worker. It also covers a separate report from a group representing the beer industry, which warns one pub a day will close after what the paper calls Labour's "tax raids". Elsewhere, actor Hugh Grant is pictured talking to Queen Camilla at Wimbledon.
The i Paper has a different story about Labour's economic policy. It says a minister has told the paper that the government will introduce new taxes that "target wealthier people" to appease restless backbench MPs. It will not call these measures a wealth tax in public, but it will do so privately, the paper reports.
On the third day of French President Emmanuel Macron's state visit to the UK, the Sun's headline is "A kick in the Gauls". It says a deal on returning migrants who crossed the Channel in small boats is expected to be announced on Thursday, during a bilateral summit. But the paper highlights criticism of the deal, which it says will deport "just 50 migrants a week". The Tories have said this arrangement is "no deterrent at all", the paper says, as "40,000 are arriving annually". Home Office figures say more than 21,000 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats this year so far.
The Times also leads on the UK-France asylum deal, which it says will deport one in 17 people who arrive via the Channel, but is intended to expand at a later date. A UK government source has told the paper the scheme will be "scaled up" after a pilot period.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that the Anglo-French migration deal "hangs in the balance" with negotiators still "deadlocked" over the details. Aides on both sides said there were "several significant hurdles" to overcome on Wednesday night. Sir Keir had hoped to unveil an agreement as the "key prize" of Macron's three-day visit at the bilateral summit on Thursday, the paper says.
The departure of X chief executive Linda Yaccarino is also covered in several newspapers. The Financial Times features a picture of Ms Yaccarino, who was hired to run the social media site by billionaire owner Elon Musk two years ago. She was tasked with "luring back advertisers" after Mr Musk controversially relaxed moderation on the platform, the FT reports. Its lead story is on AI chipmaker Nvidia, which has become the first $4tn (£2.94tn) company after a "rapid rebound for Wall Street technology stocks".
The Daily Express says there has been "fury" at a potential doctors' strike, with the prime minister branded as "weak". Resident doctors, previously known as junior doctors, in England have said they will strike for five days from 25 July after voting in favour of fresh action over pay if the government does not agree to negotiate their pay instead. The paper also features a picture of the Queen at Wimbledon on its front page - here shaking hands with Novak Djokovic.
The Mirror leads on the "astonishing bravery" of the children targeted by Southport killer Axel Rudakubana, after an inquiry into the attacks revealed "incredible tales of bravery" on Wednesday.
PA Media
Christian Horner
The Times leads on the possible new immigration deal between Britain and France ahead of today's summit in London. The paper says 50 migrants a week will be sent back to France from the end of August, as part of a pilot scheme - and, reportedly, the UK would accept the same number of asylum seekers in return, if they have family connections in Britain. The paper points out that if crossings continue at the same rate the number sent to France would equate to one in 17 of all small-boat migrants.
The Daily Telegraph says the government is hoping the number of returns will grow significantly, if the trial is successful.
The Guardian however says the deal "hangs in the balance" - with negotiators haggling over how much the UK should pay towards policing the crossings. Aides from both countries tell the paper that other significant hurdles include potential legal challenges in France, and opposition from other European countries. A Downing Street spokesperson is quoted saying the prime minister hopes to make "concrete progress" on a range of issues.
The I Paper says Labour will target the rich with its new tax plans, but won't publicly call it a "wealth tax". The paper quotes an unnamed minister saying "we'll end up doing a few things that target wealthier people".
The Daily Express leads on resident doctors announcing a five-day strike over pay - saying it puts around 200,000 hospital appointments at risk of being cancelled. The paper's leader column calls the prime minister weak and says it's only a matter of time before Downing Street "waves the white flag".
The Daily Mail is among a number of papers to highlight a report by the right-leaning think tank, the Centre for Social Justice - which forecasts that full sickness benefits will soon be worth £2,500 a year more than the minimum wage. "Proof Work Doesn't Pay Under Labour" is the Mail's headline.
A picture of the former Red Bull Racing Formula One boss, Christian Horner, with his head in his hands covers the front of The Daily Star. He was fired yesterday after 20 years in the role. Its headline reads "Red Bull gives you the boot".
Firefighters also battled fires sparked by explosions in the Kyiv region on Wednesday
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.
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.
Anthony Pierce was bishop of Swansea and Brecon between 1999 and 2008 and was jailed in March after pleading guilty to five counts of indecent assault on a child
A convicted bishop and a former vicar of the Church in Wales are being investigated by detectives over allegations of historical sexual abuse, the BBC can reveal.
Four people have told BBC Wales Investigates about abuse being ignored at the crisis-hit Church and have called for an independent inquiry.
Former Bishop of Swansea and Brecon Anthony Pierce, jailed for child sexual abuse earlier this year, faces fresh historical sex abuse allegations while a former vicar is also being investigated by South Wales Police.
The Church in Wales have said they were "profoundly sorry" and apologised to "anyone who has suffered or been let down by failings."
Warning: This story contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault
The BBC investigation found concerns about Pierce were reported to Church officials in 1986 - 13 years before he became Bishop of Swansea and Brecon - but nothing was done.
One victim has waived his right to anonymity to speak out and questions how a "predator" was allowed to become a Bishop when serious concerns had been raised about him.
Former Bishop of Swansea and Brecon Anthony Pierce was high up in the Church of Wales and that enabled him to meet dignitaries like the Prince of Wales, now King Charles, during a visit to Swansea in 2002
It is the latest controversy to hit the Church in Wales after the Archbishop of Wales retired last month after two critical reports highlighted safeguarding concerns where "sexual boundaries seemed blurred" at his north Wales diocese of Bangor.
People who sang with the Bangor Cathedral choir also told the BBC there had been a "binge drinking culture".
Although there is no suggestion the former archbishop behaved inappropriately, the church's representative body said there must be a "change in leadership, procedures and governance in the diocese of Bangor".
BBC Wales understands the current police investigation is looking into historical sexual abuse allegations against Pierce, as well as a former vicar of the Church in Wales.
Three alleged victims, from across Wales whose allegations span decades, have told BBC Wales Investigates they want an independent inquiry into the Church in Wales abuse.
Alisdair Adams was 18 and at University College Swansea, now Swansea University, when he first met Pierce who was a parish priest in the city in the 1980s.
Alisdair Adams has described to the BBC in detail the alleged abuse he suffered at the hands of a former and now convicted Bishop
"He invited me to his house for dinner to see how we could work together and gave me lots of white wine and no food," said Alisdair, now 59.
Alisdair said Pierce moved to sit on the arm of the sofa before the lights went out suddenly.
"He grabbed me and pulled me into him and held me tightly," he added. "I could feel his erect penis through his brown nylon trousers."
'He was the predator and we were the prey'
Alisdair said he left immediately and reported the incident to a Methodist minister.
He said he was invited to speak to the Anglican campus chaplain and said two other students were interviewed that day about Pierce.
D J Photography
Convicted child sex offender Anthony Pierce was a priest in Swansea during the 1980s and was chaplain at the city's Singleton Hospital
BBC Wales Investigates has spoken to Mark Dickey-Collas, who was also interviewed.
He said he was also invited to Pierce's house and offered alcohol before the lights went out and Pierce came onto him.
Mark said the chaplain reported his concerns to the Church and Pierce was banned from campus and university halls.
The Church in Wales said it was not aware of the report but confirmed it was undertaking enquiries into how it responded at the time.
Alisdair Adams
Alisdair was a student in Swansea when he said 'the lights went out' and Pierce attacked him
Pierce continued as a priest and worked as chaplain at Swansea's Singleton Hospital.
He became Bishop of Swansea and Brecon in 1999, and met the then Prince Charles, now King Charles, while he was on a visit to Swansea in 2002.
Pierce admitted five charges of indecent assault against a boy under the age of 16 between 1985 and 1990 and was sentenced to four years and one month in March.
Former Bishop of Swansea and Brecon Anthony Pierce was sentenced to four years and one month after admitting abusing a young boy between 1985 and 1990
"I'm dumbfounded as to why this man with allegations swirling around him in 1985 and 1986 was allowed to be employed by the church," Alisdair told BBC Wales Investigates.
"And they promoted him to Bishop. He was a predator and we were the prey and the Church did nothing about it."
The Church is currently holding a review into claims "senior figures" were aware of a separate allegation of abuse against Pierce in 1993 which was not passed to police until 2010.
After becoming Bishop, Pierce was in ultimate charge of Church safeguarding in his diocese.
D J Photography
Anthony Pierce had established links in Swansea and Brecon and was considered a pillar of the community before his conviction earlier this year
Ruth, not her real name, told BBC Wales serious allegations she made about a choirmaster were not acted on by Pierce.
She says Brecon Cathedral choirmaster David Gedge assaulted her on a choir exchange to Ireland in 2001 when she was 17 years old.
"He suggested we go for a walk," said Ruth, who was a chorister at the cathedral.
"He held my arm and turned me round and kissed me. In that moment I felt just kind of shattered."
Brecon Cathedral choirmaster David Gedge at a social event in early 2000s with Ruth in the foreground
"He put his hand underneath my top and was touching me. He talked about his wife and as he was talking about this his hands were moving and he put his hands down my trousers and into my pants.
"All of this was happening whilst I was really frozen."
She said she was scared to report the abuse initially, but eventually did two years later to try and protect other choristers.
'The Church allowed my abuser to have more opportunities'
Pierce was Bishop of Swansea and Brecon at the time - and Ruth says he did nothing.
The Church in Wales admitted there was no record of action against Mr Gedge in 2003 and any decisions about the case would have been made by Pierce.
Mr Gedge continued to work with children in the choir for four years before retiring.
Ruth had a passion for music so joined the Church choir at Brecon before leaving for university
"Anthony Pierce did not abuse me, but he allowed my abuse to go unaccounted for and for my abuser to have many more opportunities to do the same thing," said Ruth.
"I don't know how many other people are without justice because Anthony Pierce stopped their case from moving forward - maybe to protect his friends, maybe to take the eyes off him."
Ruth said she went to the police in 2012 after the lack of action by the Church.
Brecon Cathedral choirmaster David Gedge was "like a father figure" to Ruth before he sexually abused her
BBC Wales Investigates has seen police documents that say Mr Gedge admitted holding Ruth's hand, taking her for a walk and talking to her about intimate details of his life but he denied assaulting her.
The Director of Public Prosecutions in Ireland said there appeared to be substance to Ruth's allegations but it was unlikely a prosecution would be successful.
Mr Gedge was prevented from holding any role in the Church after 2012. He died in 2016.
Former priest Graham Sawyer started working in Pontypool in south Wales in 2003 when he raised concerns about Darren Jenkins, a youth leader and lay reader - someone who can preach and take services.
'I was told I should be very careful about reporting abuse'
"I was worried about the inappropriate touching," he said. "It didn't appear sexual, it was hugging."
As a former sexual abuse victim himself, Graham tried to raise the alarm.
"I was told that I should be very careful or I'd end up in court," he said.
He said he went to the police after he became concerned at the lack of action by the Church in Wales and left Pontypool for Australia.
Graham said cases like Pierce's show "the culture has not changed".
Former priest Graham Sawyer has written to Welsh politicians urging them to call on the Senedd to hold an independent inquiry
"Whenever there's a problem, they will close ranks and ignore. If that doesn't work, they would attack you with great ferocity," he told BBC Wales Investigates.
The Church in Wales is a separate body to the Church of England and both have separate safeguarding departments to protect vulnerable people including children.
Graham has written to Welsh politicians urging them to call on the Senedd to hold an independent inquiry.
The Church in Wales has been subject to two independent safeguarding reports to date - the Historic Cases Review in 2009 and the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) which started in 2014.
An IICSA panel member has questioned if the Church in Wales has done enough since that report and thought there should be an external review into the Church.
Professor Sir Malcolm Evans was part of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse that examined sex abuse in the church and said the Church in Wales needs to act
"We did make it very clear that there were quite a lot of significant gaps and operational shortcomings," Professor Sir Malcolm Evans told the BBC.
"But there doesn't seem to have been a broad-ranging discussion as to the future in Wales as there has been in the Church of England. What we now need is that level of discussion, reflection, and action."
Church in Wales promise culture review
The Church in Wales has apologised and told the BBC that an external safeguarding audit of all cathedrals in Wales would be commissioned as well as a review into its culture.
"There is no place in the Church for abuse, misconduct or concealment," a Church in Wales spokesman said.
"We are determined that the issues identified will be fully addressed and practices improved so that all church members, and the wider society, can have confidence that the church is, as it should be, a safe and supportive environment for all."
The Church added its complaints handling process is now more independent, professional and robust and it is committed to continuous improvement.
US President Donald Trump said he was planning to impose a 50% tax on goods made in Brazil, escalating his fight with the South American country.
He announced the plan in his latest tariff letter, shared on social media, accusing Brazil of "attacks" on US tech companies and conducting a "witch hunt" against former far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing prosecution over his role trying to overturn the 2022 election.
Trump had already sparred with Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over Bolsonaro's trial earlier this week.
At the time, President Lula said Brazil would not accept "interference" from anyone and added: "No one is above the law."
Trump has posted 22 letters to countries around the world this week, including trade partners such as Japan, South Korea and Sri Lanka, outlining new tariffs on their goods he says will come into force on 1 August.
The moves have largely served to revive plans he had put forward in April but that were put on hold after financial markets recoiled at the measures.
But the message to Brazil was a far more targeted missive and threatened a significant increase from the 10% rate the White House had previously announced.
Millie Castleton (r) was eight when her father was prosecuted over missing Post Office money
Millie Castleton was only eight years old when her father lost his job managing the post office in Bridlington, Yorkshire, and her family was branded as "thieves and liars" in the local community.
Nearly a decade later, after facing bullying at school, developing an eating disorder and dropping out of university, she is still struggling with the impact.
Millie's story was singled out by a report published this week, looking into the scandal around subpostmasters who were wrongly accused of fiddling the books.
But hundreds of other children suffered similar experiences, shunned by friends, suffering financial hardship, and watching their parents fall apart under the strain of being accused.
"Part of me will always feel a little broken-up," Millie told the official inquiry into the Post Office scandal, which produced this week's report.
"That nagging voice in my head still says ugly things sometimes. It still tells me that my past and my family's struggle will define me, that it will be a branding on my skin forever. Broken, thief or liar."
Like many subpostmasters, Millie's father, Lee Castleton, challenged the Post Office's allegations that he had taken funds from the branch he managed.
But it took years to win official recognition that people had been wrongly accused and that faulty software on the Post Office system could make it look as though money was missing when it wasn't.
In the meantime, Millie told the inquiry "confusion, frustration and anxiety... was leeching into my home".
At 17 Millie's mental health began to suffer. She experienced "self-loathing, depression and feeling like a burden to [her] family".
Millie managed to take up a place at university but dropped out at the start of her second year after developing anorexia.
Even now, at 29, she finds it hard to trust anyone, she says.
"I sabotage myself by not asking for help with anything. Asking for equipment, advice or resources feels terrifying. Like I'm unworthy."
The report provides glimpses into the impact on other families.
Janine Powell's daughter, aged 10, went to live with a friend when Janine, postmistress at a branch near Tiverton in Devon, was convicted and spent five months in prison. The separation from her mother, change of school and deep-seated unhappiness in her new home formed a traumatic experience for the child, the inquiry's report states, leading to mental illness.
Robert Thomson, a subpostmaster in a rural community near Alloa in Scotland, said his children, aged 10 and 13 at the time, were teased and bullied at school, while his wife became reclusive and depressed because she was "so embarrassed and ashamed".
Mahesh Kumar Kalia said his family was "dysfunctional" and his parents separated after their relationship became "toxic and turbulent" following his father's conviction. Mahesh and his father were estranged for 17 years until he understood his father had been wrongly convicted.
"Between the ages of 17 and 35, I did not have a relationship with my dad. We will never get back this time," he told the inquiry.
The government has confirmed that it is setting up a scheme, along the lines recommended in the report, to compensate "close family members" if they "suffered serious adverse consequences" from the scandal. So far there are no details of how the scheme will work or how soon they will see any results.
"We don't want to wait like our parents for three or four year for claims to be settled," said Rebekah Foot.
She established the charity Lost Chances a year and a half ago for the children of wronged subpostmasters and said there was a sense of relief that their situation was now being acknowledged.
Many of the 250 people who have joined Lost Chances had their education disrupted, had to take care of parents or siblings, some watching parents become alcoholics, or have other breakdowns, she said.
Compensation could help some of them return to education or pay for therapy they might otherwise not be able to afford, she said.
"Loss of childhood - we're not sure how that gets put into a claim," she added. That is what happened in her case, she said.
She spent her teenage years looking after her five siblings and working in a chip shop at the weekends while her mother became a recluse.
Rebekah said Lost Chances would be involved in the process of drawing up the new compensation scheme, meeting with ministers in the Department for Business in the coming weeks.
Rebekah Foot
Rebekah Foot (r) had to support her mother (l) by looking after her five siblings and earning money at weekends
Rebekah Foot
Rebekah Foot says she lost her childhood after her mother was accused of taking funds from the post office where she worked
The report acknowledges that it may prove difficult to agree which family members should be entitled to compensation, what evidence should be required for a claim to be made, and what the scale of the compensation should be.
However, Professor Richard Moorhead, an expert in law and ethics at the University of Exeter, said the stories about children highlighted by the report had been "heartbreaking" and welcomed the recommendation for compensation.
"Compensation will not right the wrongs or reclaim the time. Their lives have been blighted, but I hope and expect it to make a substantial difference to improving the chances of those children," he said.
With doubts circling and pressure increasing, England needed to step up at Euro 2025 - and they did.
A 2-1 defeat by France on Saturday meant the defending champions had catching up to do in Group D.
But England ensured their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals remained intact with a commanding 4-0 victory over the Netherlands.
"Proper England", as midfielder Georgia Stanway had called it earlier this week, returned as Sarina Wiegman's side played with fluidity and creativity.
They were back to their defensive best and Wiegman's positional switches worked a treat.
Wiegman knows what it means to be under the spotlight, having led England to back-to-back major tournament finals.
When you have set that standard, anything less is a disappointment.
England's level dropped dramatically against France which increased scrutiny on Wiegman, who suffered her first defeat at a Euros after winning 12 games in a row over the previous two tournaments.
It was also the first time the reigning women's European champions had lost the first match of their defence at the following finals.
Wiegman admitted the scrutiny was "hard" but she focused on the task in hand.
"I always knew ahead of this tournament that it was a very hard group. It can happen but then you need to win the other games," she said.
"So yes, I was excited, but at the same time I felt a little tense too. I think that's completely normal as you really want to stay in the tournament and you want to win.
"I just had to focus on my job, review well and think about how we could bring people together."
Wiegman has often delivered in the big moments and no manager has won more Euros matches than the Dutchwoman (13 - level with Germany's former manager Tina Theune).
She also boasts the best goals-per-game rate in the competition among managers to take charge of four or more matches, with her sides scoring 40 in 14 games.
Having come under criticism for her decision to start Lauren James in the number 10 role against France - which left England vulnerable defensively - Wiegman made all the right choices against the Netherlands.
James started on the right wing, with Manchester United's Ella Toone starting in the number 10 role. They scored three of the four goals on the night.
Jess Carter, who struggled against France at left-back, was moved into central defence, swapping with Alex Greenwood, and England kept a clean sheet.
"The priority was that we wanted to skip and exploit space. The Netherlands pushed up so we wanted to go over them. That worked really well," said Wiegman.
"When you're in their half of the pitch, you can start playing. We had some nice crosses and we spoke about that too.
"[James] came in good positions but she can also do that in midfield. In midfield today we wanted Ella [Toone] because she can make good runs in behind."
The plan worked.
Netherlands striker Vivianne Miedema had just eight touches in the first half and the Dutch conceded more than two goals in a single match at a major women's tournament for the first time.
They also managed just four shots against England - their fewest on record (since 2011) at a major tournament.
'That's a proper English performance'
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'That should be three points for England' - James makes it 3-0
England midfielder Keira Walsh said the players "had to acknowledge that sometimes it is a bad day and it was a really bad day against France".
They wanted to put it behind them and do their talking on the pitch, as team-mate Stanway stressed this week.
Striker Alessia Russo felt they produced the "proper England" performance that Stanway had talked about.
"'Proper English' to us means we'll work hard until we can't run any more, stick together and know that we are very dominant on the ball," said Russo.
"We were picking up the ball in right areas and were clinical with our chances. We wanted to return to our roots and we know we're capable of performances like that."
Russo was among the standout performers as she picked up three assists - the first player on record (since 2013) to provide as many in a women's Euros match.
James' double means she has now been directly involved in more goals (eight) than any other European player at the past two major tournaments.
Stanway and Toone impressed in midfield, while Carter thrived in the centre-back role, with Greenwood producing the goods at left-back.
"We can change the structure of the team with so many different players. That's a strength of ours, that each individual player is so good at something," said Lucy Bronze.
"[Greenwood] isn't the fastest player on the pitch and I think she completely marked Chasity Grant out of the game. She was front-footed, she was aggressive.
"Jess Carter was covering her every single minute of the game as well. I think that's a proper English performance."
Carter told BBC Radio 5 Live that the two defenders had felt "isolated" in the defeat by France and they wanted to combat that.
Wiegman made the decision to swap them in training and tested it out.
"I'm not one to question and ask for a reason, I just do the job I'm asked to do," said Carter.
"This game felt the total opposite with Alex and the whole team. She was phenomenal at left-back."
Has optimism been revived?
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Toone and Russo combine for England's fourth
England were one of the pre-tournament favourites and despite defeat by France, qualification for the quarter-finals is in their hands.
If they beat Wales in their final group game, they will qualify for the last eight.
Wiegman admitted the "consequences of the result were huge" against the Netherlands - but it was nothing they did not expect.
"We knew exactly that we were going straight into finals [against strong opposition]," she added.
"Losing the first game, it was not the end of the world but it doesn't put you in the best position.
"We knew we had to perform really well and the team did."
Were England written off too soon? They won Euro 2022 and reached the 2023 World Cup final after all.
"Everybody else was panic stations, but we still needed to win this game whether we beat France or not and we knew that," said Walsh.
"The objective didn't change. We wanted to take the game to them and put things right that we didn't the other day.
"I think we did back up what we said in the media and I think everyone was just on it from the first whistle to the last."
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.
Abi Smitton / BBC News
Ellie Mooney said she's spent the last year saving up for her holiday to Turkey
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.
Francesca Ramsden
Nurse Francesca Ramsden says she spends thousands of hours hunting for the best deals
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."
Abi Smitton / BBC News
Travel consultant Luke says people are getting creative to save money
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
When the defending European champions had their backs against the wall at Euro 2025, the Chelsea forward stepped up to deliver.
James dazzled against the Dutch, scoring the Lionesses' first and third goals as they went from a potential early exit to the cusp of the quarter-finals.
Following criticism in their opening-game defeat by France, she provided much-needed inspiration for England to claim a vital first victory in the tournament.
Her first strike was superb as she finished off a sweet counter-attack with three tight touches to get the ball out of her feet and finish with a dreamy drive into the top corner from the edge of the box.
The second on the hour mark was effectively the moment that sealed the success at 3-0 - a calm sweeping first-time finish into the bottom corner from 10 yards out after Ella Toone's effort had been saved.
James' nonchalant celebration of pretending to put her hands in her pockets and staring down the camera almost does her performance a disservice.
The goals were far from routine and in a pressured environment with so much at stake for her team.
They were special strikes by a special player to kickstart England's Euros defence into life.
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Media caption,
'Lionesses have lift off!' James fires England ahead
James was also described as "unstoppable" and a "massive talent" by England team-mate Toone after the impressive showing.
Defender Jess Carter added the 23-year-old was a "phenomenal player" who "thrives under pressure", while Georgia Stanway called her "class".
The England camp love James, who responded superbly to a below-par performance from her and the team against France on Saturday.
She had the fewest amount of touches in that game of all the starting players, before being substituted with England 2-0 down after 60 minutes.
Undeterred, manager Sarina Wiegman gave James even more attacking freedom against the Dutch, allowing her to roam in the inside-right channel and often making late darts forward to overload the box.
Those runs often led to confusion in the Dutch defence with who should have been marking James when she skipped between the lines? A midfielder dropping back or a defender pushing up and leaving space in behind?
"The variety of threat James provides for this England side is tremendous," former England goalkeeper Karen Bardsley told BBC Radio 5 Live. "If I was facing her I would have broken my ankles from being turned inside and out."
James took the joint-most shots in England's win (five), all while having the game's best passing accuracy (93.8%) and regularly carving out chances for team-mates.
"We want James in our starting 11. That is her position coming off that right-hand-side," added ex-England captain Steph Houghton on BBC One.
"Having that defensive responsibility is not her game. We need her on the ball, we need her to make things happen.
"That was a very assured performance and a great tactical change by Sarina Wiegman."
Image source, Getty Images/Opta
Image caption,
Lauren James celebrated her first goal by pretending to put her hands in pockets and staring down the TV cameras. The picture on the right shows James' heat map against the Netherlands. The forward found plenty of joy in the inside-right channel
'She has a wonderful aura'
Well done if you remembered we've been here before.
James was also England's creative force in their run to the World Cup final two years ago, even if she did miss two matches through suspension and was often limited to appearances off the bench.
She has now been directly involved in eight goals in just five starts at major tournaments (World Cups and European Championships - five goals, three assists), the most of any player who has appeared at both Euro 2025 and the 2023 World Cup.
And, after England's record goalscorer Ellen White, James is only the second Lioness to net twice in both a World Cup and European Championship match.
"Lauren James has a wonderful aura. She is cool, calm, and collected," White said on BBC One.
"I would love to have some of that talent. England work defensively for James and it gives her the freedom to roam."
Hampton's 'exquisite' pass
Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton made 38 passes. Only Lucy Bronze (51), Keira Walsh (45), Leah Williamson (43) and Alex Greenwood (41) completed more
While James may rightfully claim the headlines, England goalkeeper Hannah Hampton deserves far more than just a paragraph.
The Chelsea stopper is her country's definitive number one after Mary Earps retired from international duty earlier this year.
The 24-year-old had very few saves to make, but impressed with the ball at her feet to make an impact at the other end.
Hampton's drilled line-breaking pass, from inside her own box forward to a counter-attacking Alessia Russo, led to England's first goal.
The ball caught out the entirety of the Netherlands' midfield, allowing Russo to drive upfield before slipping the ball to James for a fantastic left-foot finish.
"The bravery to play that pass in a game like this, for me, says everything you need to know about her mindset," said Bardsley.
And White added: "Exquisite, perfection, this is what Hannah Hampton can bring to this England team."
Former Conservative MP and party chairman Sir Jake Berry has announced he is defecting to Reform UK.
Writing in the Sun, Sir Jake said: "Old Westminster politics has failed. But there's a better way."
He said he was backing Reform UK "because I've always believed that change comes with challenging the old order. In shaking up the system when it isn't working".
Earlier this week David Jones, the former Conservative Welsh secretary, also joined Nigel Farage's party.
Millions of British households are facing an average £107 rise in monthly mortgage payments as their deals expire, according to the Bank of England.
It has said that 3.6 million home loans are coming up for renewal over the next three years, equating to 41% of all outstanding mortgages.
But the number of mortgages facing expiry is less than the Bank of England had initially expected and the monthly hike is below the £146 increase it had first anticipated.
While some bills will rise, a fall in interest rates is slowly feeding its way into typical monthly mortgage payments following four cuts by the Bank of England since last August.
Around 2.5 million households, or 28% of mortgage holders, will see their bills fall in the next three years.
Meanwhile, first-time buyers are likely to get more access to mortgages as banks and building societies are allowed to loosen a cap on riskier lending.
In its latest Financial Stability Report, the Bank of England's governor Andrew Bailey said at present just under 10% of new mortgages issued exceed 4.5 times a borrower's income.
He said he would be happy to see that percentage rise.
Individual banks and building societies will be allowed to exceed a 15% limit on higher loan-to-value mortgages.
The looser cap comes after a call by the UK government for regulators to look for ways to encourage economic growth.
The Bank reckons the change could lead to up to 36,000 new higher loan-to-income mortgages a year.
But the mortgage lending industry as a whole will have to stick to a 15% limit on riskier home loans.
Elsewhere, the bank said financial instability across the globe had increased, after the US-led global trade war.
While there had been little direct impact so far on British households and companies, some significant changes were occurring to the global financial system.
In particular the traditional strengthening of the US dollar as a safe haven in times of turmoil appeared to have changed since the start of the global tariff war.
Investors and large companies who never previously felt the need to hedge or insure against a weak dollar were now doing so, the Bank said.
This has added to the weakness of the US dollar this year, which is already down about 10% against a range of currencies.
US president Donald Trump has said he wants a weaker dollar, arguing that will boost exports and US manufacturing jobs growth.
However, imported goods can get more expensive, adding to any price rises from tariffs.
The Trump administration is imposing sanctions on the UN Human Rights Council special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, an outspoken critic of Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio linked the move to her support for the International Criminal Court (ICC), some of whose judges have already been sanctioned by the US.
Rubio said the US was sanctioning Ms Albanese for directly engaging with the ICC in its efforts to prosecute American or Israeli nationals, accusing her of being unfit for service as a UN Special Rapporteur.
The sanctions are likely to prevent Ms Albanese from travelling to the US and would block any assets she has in the country.
It is the latest escalation by the Trump administration as it wages a campaign against the ICC, having already sanctioned four its judges after the court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his then defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza, accusations they reject.
Mr Rubio also accused Ms Albanese of having "spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West."
The move is likely to provoke a fierce backlash from those who argue for accountability over the civilian death toll from Israel's military offensive in Gaza.
The special rapporteur has longed argued that Western governments are not doing enough to support the rights of Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territories, and with her outspoken stance has attracted significant support among those who accuse Israeli and US leaders of weaponising accusations of antisemitism in order to silence criticism of their policies.
The timing of the sanctions announcement is notable with Netanyahu currently in Washington, where he on Wednesday received an extended honour cordon at the Pentagon.
Ms Albanese has previously rejected similar claims against her, telling the BBC in October: "I don't take these remarks and the defamation they carry lightly, but at the same time, I know this is not about me, as my predecessors knew that it was not about them.
"I also know these member states [making accusations of antisemitism] have done absolutely nothing to abide by international law."
Her office has been approached for comment.
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 57,575 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.
MPs have approved the government's benefits bill, which was heavily watered-down last week following a rebellion by Labour backbenchers.
The Universal Credit Bill is expected to be classed as a money bill, meaning it could become law after one month, with or without the approval of the House of Lords.
The measures implement cuts to the health-related element of universal credit for some claimants, while ensuring other parts of the benefit rise above inflation.
The bill had originally proposed making it harder for people to claim the personal independence payment however, following objections from Labour MPs, this has been scrapped for existing claimants and put on hold for future ones.
Personal independence payment (Pip) is paid to people with long-term physical or mental health conditions and is not linked to the recipient's savings or income.
In contrast, universal credit (UC) is means-tested and designed to help support the unemployed or low-paid people.
Urging MPs to back the bill, Disabilities Minister Sir Stephen Timms said: "If you can work, you should, if you need help into work, the government should provide it, and those who can't work must be able to live with dignity.
"Those are the principles underpinning what we're doing."
The government said nearly four million households would see their income boosted by £725 over the next five years, as a result of increasing the universal credit standard allowance.
Despite the government's climbdown last week, 47 Labour MPs still voted against the legislation and backed a rebel amendment tabled by York MP Rachael Maskell.
During a debate ahead of the final votes, Maskell called the bill an "omnishambles" which would result in different levels of UC to people depending on whether they had claimed before or after April 2026.
She asked if someone who came off universal credit as their illness subsided but then had a relapse and needed the benefit would be awarded a lower rate compared to what they had previously received.
Sir Stephen said the bill already protected people in the situation she had described.
However, Maskell pushed her amendment to a vote which would see those with fluctuating medical conditions receive the existing rate of UC, rather than the lower rate applied to new claimants. It was defeated by 334 votes to 149.
The Conservatives also tabled an amendment which would have made further changes including reducing payments for those with less severe mental health conditions and excluding some foreign nationals from certain benefits.
It was defeated by 416 votes to 103. In the final vote, MPs approve the bill by 336 votes votes to 242.
The changes to universal credit will apply across the UK while any measures relating to Pip apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Last week - in order to ensure the bill could pass - ministers were forced to make last-minute concessions including announcing that stricter eligibility rules for new Pip claimants would not be introduced until a review into Pip assessments had been completed.
The review - which aims to conclude in autumn 2026 - will be led by Disabilities Minister Sir Stephen Timms and would be co-produced with disabled people and the organisations that represent them.
During Wednesday's debate, several Labour MPs urged the government to strengthen the role of disabled people in the review.
Labour MP Marie Tidball said their involvement in the Timms review should be "meaningful and not performative".
Another Labour MP, Stella Creasy, said disabled organisations should have veto power over any recommendations made by the review.
Before MPs had begun their debate, a United Nations panel raised concerns about the impact the government's proposals would have on disabled people.
In a letter to the Department for Work and Pensions, the UN's high commissioner asked about measures to "address the foreseeable risk of increasing poverty rates amongst persons with disabilities if cuts are approved".
The government had estimated the bill would save £5bn a year by 2030, however the concessions it made to ensure the bill could pass mean those savings have been virtually wiped out.
Last week, Chancellor Rachel Reeves was asked if the changes would lead to tax rises. She said she would not "speculate" but added: "Of course there is a cost to the welfare changes that Parliament voted through this week and that will be reflected in the Budget."