British Steel's blast furnaces are set to continue running with a delivery of enough raw materials to keep them alight for the "coming weeks" due on Tuesday, the government has said.

Coking coal and iron ore from the US will be unloaded at Immingham docks and transported to the Scunthorpe site after a scramble for supplies.

A separate shipment of materials is back on its way to the UK from Australia after a legal dispute over who owned the cargo was resolved between the government and British Steel's owner Jingye.

The government seized control of the business over the weekend following a breakdown in talks with its Chinese owner amid accusations it was planning to switch the furnaces off.

If the furnaces were starved of fuel and went out, the UK would no longer have the capability to produce so-called virgin steel, due to the process of restarting them being extremely difficult and costly.

Virgin steel-making involves iron being extracted from its original source to be purified and treated to make all types of steel used in major construction projects, such as new buildings and railways.

Scunthorpe's furnaces produce molten iron by splitting rocks containing iron ore in a chemical reaction that requires intense heat. Even if the temperature of the furnaces drops too low, it can lead to permanent damage.

The government said the materials from the US would be enough to keep the steel-producing furnaces running for the coming weeks and added officials were working to "get a steady pipeline of materials to keep the fire burning".

The materials have been paid for by the government, but the cost has not been revealed. The plant, which employs 2,700 people, is said to be in a "far better position" as a result of the government's intervention, according to union officials.

On Tuesday, the Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will travel to Immingham in north east Lincolnshire where the raw materials will be unloaded and transported to British Steel.

He said the government had moved "decisively" to secure the raw materials needed to "help save British Steel", adding that UK industries depended on the company.

Beijing has accused the British government of "politicising trade co-operation", and said its move to take control of British Steel had raised doubts about investment in the UK.

On Saturday, an emergency law was rushed through Parliament, giving the government control of the site to prevent Jingye from closing the furnaces against ministers' wishes.

The government has appointed two long-standing British Steel employees to run the plant on an interim basis.

The situation at the site has raised questions about Chinese investment in industries the government has deemed strategically critical.

The government has so far stopped short of taking British Steel back into full public ownership, but has not ruled out nationalisation, while also looking for potential private investors to fund operations.

China's embassy in the UK has urged ministers to negotiate with Jingye to "find a solution acceptable to all parties".

In March, Jingye said its Scunthorpe site was losing £700,000 a day, which it said was "no longer financially sustainable", and the company began a consultation on job cuts.

Government talks with Jingye last week failed to produce a breakthrough. The government said the company had rejected an offer of £500m in public money to help keep the furnaces operating, and had demanded more than twice as much with few guarantees it would keep the plant open.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said it "became clear" to the government that Jingye was intent on closing down the blast furnaces no matter the financial support offered, prompting it to secure control of the site from its owner.

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Pop star Katy Perry and five other women are set to blast into space aboard Jeff Bezos' space tourism rocket.

The singer will be joined by Bezos's fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King.

The New Shepard rocket is due to lift off from its West Texas launch site and the launch window opens at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST).

The flight will last around 11 minutes and take the crew more than 100km (62 miles) above Earth, crossing the internationally recognised boundary of space and giving the crew a few moments of weightlessness.

Also on board are former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

The spacecraft is fully autonomous, requiring no pilots, and the crew will not manually operate the vehicle.

The capsule will return to Earth with a parachute-assisted soft landing, while the rocket booster will land itself around two miles away from the launch site.

"If you had told me that I would be part of the first-ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child. Although we didn't grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER!" Mrs Perry said in a social media post.

Blue Origin says the last all-female spaceflight was over 60 years ago when Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space on a solo mission aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6.

Since then, there have been no other all-female spaceflights but women have made numerous significant contributions.

Blue Origin is a private space company founded in 2000 by Bezos, the billionaire entrepreneur who also started Amazon.

Although Blue Origin has not released full ticket prices, a $150,000 (£114,575.85) deposit is required to reserve a seat—underlining the exclusivity of these early flights.

Alongside its suborbital tourism business, the company is also developing long-term space infrastructure, including reusable rockets and lunar landing systems.

The New Shepard rocket is designed to be fully reusable and its booster returns to the launch pad for vertical landings after each flight, reducing overall costs.

According to US law, astronauts must complete comprehensive training for their specific roles.

Blue Origin says its New Shepard passengers are trained over two days with a focus on physical fitness, emergency protocols, details about the safety measures and procedures for zero gravity.

Additionally, there are two support members referred to as Crew Member Seven: one provides continuous guidance to astronauts, while the other maintains communication from the control room during the mission.

The rise of space tourism has prompted criticism that it is too exclusive and environmentally damaging.

Supporters argue that private companies are accelerating innovation and making space more accessible.

Professor Brian Cox told the BBC in 2024: "Our civilisation needs to expand beyond our planet for so many reasons," and believes that collaboration between NASA and commercial firms is a positive step.

But critics raise significant environmental concerns.

They say that as more and more rockets are launched, the risks of harming the ozone layer increases.

A 2022 study by Professor Eloise Marais from University College London found that rocket soot in the upper atmosphere has a warming effect which is 500 times greater than when released by planes closer to Earth.

The high cost of space tourism makes it inaccessible to most people, with these expensive missions out of reach for the majority.

Critics, including actress Olivia Munn, questioned the optics of this particular venture, remarking "There's a lot of people who can't even afford eggs," during an appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends.

Astronaut Tim Peake has defended the value of human space travel, especially in relation to tackling global issues such as climate change.

At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Peake voiced his disappointment that space exploration was increasingly seen as a pursuit for the wealthy, stating: "I personally am a fan of using space for science and for the benefit of everybody back on Earth, so in that respect, I feel disappointed that space is being tarred with that brush."

Watch Blue Origin's Last Spaceflight on the New Shepard Rocket

Additonal reporting by Victoria Gill and Kate Stephens, BBC Climate and Science.

El Salvador will not return Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national who the US government mistakenly deported to his home country where he is being held in a notorious mega-prison.

President Nayib Bukele made the comments during a meeting on Monday at the White House with Donald Trump, with whom he shares a strong relationship.

The US Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration must "facilitate" the return of Mr Ábrego García, who lives in Maryland with his family and was granted protection from deportation by a court in 2019.

The Trump administration argues it cannot bring him home, and Attorney General Pam Bondi said during the meeting that it's "up to El Salvador if they want to return him".

Trump praised Bukele for a new partnership under which the US can deport people it alleges are gang members to the Central American nation. Mr Garcia, whose lawyer said he is not a gang member, was among 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans the Trump administration deported to El Salvador's Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot).

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said another 10 alleged gang members were sent there, despite legal challenges over those it already deported. The Us considers them suspected members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs, which are designated as "foreign terrorist organisations" by Trump.

In response to an earlier ruling by the US Supreme Court that the administration should facilitate the return of Mr Ábrego García to the US, lawyers wrote on Sunday that the issue was a matter of foreign policy - and outside the control of the courts.

Trump told reporters last week that if the Supreme Court said "bring somebody back, I would do that".

The government has conceded Mr Ábrego García was deported due to an "administrative error", though it also claims he is a member of the MS-13 gang - something his lawyer denies.

Officials were ordered to provide daily updates on steps being taken to bring Mr Ábrego García back to the US.

• Man mistakenly deported to El Salvador 'alive and secure', US says
• What is the 1798 law that Trump used to deport migrants?
• Mother spots son deported from US in mega-prison footage

Relations between Trump and Bukele have flourished since Trump's return to the White House in January, after Bukele agreed to take US deportees which has assisted Trump in his pledge to enact mass deportations.

Writing on X, Rubio said the alliance was an "example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere".

Ahead of Bukele's trip to Washington, Trump praised his counterpart, who has positioned himself as a strongman leader who is tough on crime.

Trump said Bukele was doing a "fantastic job" at imprisoning some "very bad people... that should never have been allowed into our country".

Trump's team has so far sent to El Salvador more than 200 migrants, who were accused of being gang members. Many of them were removed from the country using a law that dates back to 1798.

Family members of some previous deportees to the notorious maximum security Salvadoran prison, known as Cecot, have denied they have gang ties.

One woman in Venezuela, Myrelis Casique López, recently told BBC Mundo she became certain her son was among the detainees when she saw a photo of him being taken to Cecot.

She suggested he was targeted by American authorities due to his tattoos.

Announcing the removal of 10 more "criminals" in a social media post on Sunday, Rubio did not say whether the latest group was sent to Cecot specifically.

The administration previously published images of deportees arriving at the facility - and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem paid a visit last month.

Asked whether he had concerns over allegations of human rights abuses at Cecot, Trump told reporters: "I don't see it."

Pop star Katy Perry and five other women are set to blast into space aboard Jeff Bezos' space tourism rocket.

The singer will be joined by Bezos's fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King.

The New Shepard rocket is due to lift off from its West Texas launch site and the launch window opens at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST).

The flight will last around 11 minutes and take the crew more than 100km (62 miles) above Earth, crossing the internationally recognised boundary of space and giving the crew a few moments of weightlessness.

Also on board are former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

The spacecraft is fully autonomous, requiring no pilots, and the crew will not manually operate the vehicle.

The capsule will return to Earth with a parachute-assisted soft landing, while the rocket booster will land itself around two miles away from the launch site.

"If you had told me that I would be part of the first-ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child. Although we didn't grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER!" Mrs Perry said in a social media post.

Blue Origin says the last all-female spaceflight was over 60 years ago when Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space on a solo mission aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6.

Since then, there have been no other all-female spaceflights but women have made numerous significant contributions.

Blue Origin is a private space company founded in 2000 by Bezos, the billionaire entrepreneur who also started Amazon.

Although Blue Origin has not released full ticket prices, a $150,000 (£114,575.85) deposit is required to reserve a seat—underlining the exclusivity of these early flights.

Alongside its suborbital tourism business, the company is also developing long-term space infrastructure, including reusable rockets and lunar landing systems.

The New Shepard rocket is designed to be fully reusable and its booster returns to the launch pad for vertical landings after each flight, reducing overall costs.

According to US law, astronauts must complete comprehensive training for their specific roles.

Blue Origin says its New Shepard passengers are trained over two days with a focus on physical fitness, emergency protocols, details about the safety measures and procedures for zero gravity.

Additionally, there are two support members referred to as Crew Member Seven: one provides continuous guidance to astronauts, while the other maintains communication from the control room during the mission.

The rise of space tourism has prompted criticism that it is too exclusive and environmentally damaging.

Supporters argue that private companies are accelerating innovation and making space more accessible.

Professor Brian Cox told the BBC in 2024: "Our civilisation needs to expand beyond our planet for so many reasons," and believes that collaboration between NASA and commercial firms is a positive step.

But critics raise significant environmental concerns.

They say that as more and more rockets are launched, the risks of harming the ozone layer increases.

A 2022 study by Professor Eloise Marais from University College London found that rocket soot in the upper atmosphere has a warming effect which is 500 times greater than when released by planes closer to Earth.

The high cost of space tourism makes it inaccessible to most people, with these expensive missions out of reach for the majority.

Critics, including actress Olivia Munn, questioned the optics of this particular venture, remarking "There's a lot of people who can't even afford eggs," during an appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends.

Astronaut Tim Peake has defended the value of human space travel, especially in relation to tackling global issues such as climate change.

At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Peake voiced his disappointment that space exploration was increasingly seen as a pursuit for the wealthy, stating: "I personally am a fan of using space for science and for the benefit of everybody back on Earth, so in that respect, I feel disappointed that space is being tarred with that brush."

Watch Blue Origin's Last Spaceflight on the New Shepard Rocket

Additonal reporting by Victoria Gill and Kate Stephens, BBC Climate and Science.

Officials are working to deliver essential raw materials to British Steel's Scunthorpe plant, the government has said, as it races to keep its blast furnaces burning.

An emergency law rushed through Parliament on Saturday gave the government control of the Lincolnshire site to prevent its Chinese owner shutting it down.

The government said work was under way on Monday to obtain the coking coal and iron ore that power the plant's two furnaces - materials it previously said owners Jingye had been selling off.

"My team are already hard at work on the ground to keep jobs going and furnaces burning," the business secretary said in a statement.

Dozens of businesses including steel producers Tata and Rainham Steel have offered help and to supply their raw materials, the government added.

How quickly materials get to the site is important because blast furnaces can sustain permanent damage if their temperature drops too low.

Restarting a furnace that has shut down is also a costly and complex process.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "When I said steelmaking has a future in the UK, I meant it.

"That's why we've passed these new powers to save British Steel at Scunthorpe and that's why my team are already hard at work on the ground to keep jobs going and furnaces burning."

It comes after Reynolds refused to confirm on Sunday whether the government could obtain the materials in time.

"I'm not going to get into that," he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, but said the takeover gave the "opportunity" to obtain the materials needed.

The Scunthorpe plant employs 2,700 people and is the last site in the UK that can produce virgin steel.

The government fast-tracked legislation which gave it control of the plant after talks with Jingye to save it appeared to break down.

The company said in March it was losing £700,000 a day at the site, which it called "no longer financially sustainable," and began a consultation on its closure.

Reynolds told the BBC it "became clear" during negotiations that Jingye was intent on closing down the blast furnaces no matter the financial support offered.

The government said Jingye refused an offer of some £500m and demanded more than twice as much money, with few guarantees it would keep the plant open.

"It might not be sabotage, it might be neglect," Reynolds said of the company's actions.

The Conservatives have criticised the government for not stepping in sooner to save the plant.

Tory shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the party had supported the emergency law because "it's the least worst option on the table".

The fate of the Scunthorpe steel works has shone a fresh spotlight on Chinese investment in the UK economy with critics raising questions over potential security risks.

The British Steel plant had been owned by China's Jingye Steel.

But the UK government has now taken control of the Scunthorpe site, amid claims the Chinese owners were planning to permanently decommission its two blast furnaces and use its rolling mills to process imported Chinese-made metal instead.

BBC Verify looks at what we know about the extent of Chinese investment in the UK economy - and how much of a concern it should be.

How much Chinese investment is there in the UK in total?

Data from the Office for National Statistics suggests total Chinese investment in the UK in 2023 amounted to about £4.3bn - a small fraction of the total £2 trillion of overseas investment in the British economy in that year.

However, this is likely to be a considerable underrepresentation of the true scale of Chinese investment in the UK because the official data only includes the immediate investing country, not the ultimate source of the money - and because of a lack of transparency from Beijing when it comes to overseas ownership stakes.

Independent estimates from the American Enterprise Institute think tank, using corporate reports, suggest total public and private Chinese investment in the UK between 2005 and 2024 added up to $105bn, or £82bn.

This would have made Britain the third largest national destination of Chinese investment over this period, after only the US and Australia.

What have Chinese firms invested in?

There is a wide range of Chinese investment in the UK, ranging from critical energy and transport infrastructure, to stakes in private companies and football clubs.

Significant Chinese investments in UK infrastructure include a 10% stake in London's Heathrow airport by the China Investment Corporation, a sovereign wealth fund wholly owned by the Chinese state.

The Hong Kong-based industrialist Li Ka-shing's investment group owns UK Power Networks, which operates electricity distribution infrastructure across London, the South East of England and the East of England.

The billionaire's group also owns a 76% stake in Northumbrian Water Group, which provides water supply and sewerage in the north east of England.

There is also a large Chinese investment in the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset.

China General Nuclear Power Group originally had a 33.5% stake, with the rest owned by the French company EDF.

But EDF reports that the Chinese company has stopped contributing additional financing to the joint project - which has been running over budget - and, as a result the Chinese stake at the end of last year had declined to 27.4%.

The same Chinese company has an even larger stake - 66.5% - in the proposed Bradwell B nuclear site in Essex, according to the project website. EDF owns the rest.

There is also Chinese investment in other sectors of the UK economy, such as transport.

The Hangzhou-based Chinese car company, Geely Auto, owns the Coventry-headquartered London EV Company, which manufactures electric black taxis.

Chinese firms have some investment in consumer brands too.

Li Ka-shing's group owns the Suffolk-headquartered pub chain and brewery Greene King.

Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club is owned by the Shanghai-based conglomerate Fosun.

While Jingye steel had total control of the Scunthorpe steel plant, it's important to bear in mind that Chinese investors do not always have majority stakes in UK businesses, which would interfere with their ability to determine those companies' operational decisions.

Some of these organisations such as airports and water utilities are also tightly regulated, potentially limiting the freedom of manoeuvre of their Chinese owners in controlling the assets.

Chinese investors are also estimated to have considerable holdings of UK land and buildings.

The Leadenhall Building, known as the "cheesegrater", in the City of London was acquired by a Chinese property investor for £1.15bn in 2017.

How much of a threat could these investments pose?

The potential danger posed by Chinese investment in UK infrastructure has been extensively debated in recent years - and a particular flashpoint was the involvement of the Shenzhen-based Chinese technology company Huawei in building the UK's 5G communications infrastructure.

Huawei was founded by Ren Zhengfei, a former Chinese army officer, in 1987.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre initially judged in 2019 that any risk posed by Huawei was manageable.

But the UK, nevertheless, required the Chinese company to begin pulling out of the UK's telecoms infrastructure in 2020, after coming under pressure from the US government during Donald Trump's first term as President.

The involvement of Huawei in UK networks was also opposed by a number of MPs.

Grace Theodoulou, policy fellow on China at the Council on Geostrategy, says there are two main potential threats to consider for Chinese investment in UK critical infrastructure.

"The first is the potential for espionage – for example, having Chinese-made audiovisual equipment installed in government buildings or devices.

"The second is the infrastructure can be controlled by the manufacturer and, as such, could be disrupted for geopolitical leverage," she said.

Some analysts argue that Chinese law - which mandates all Chinese companies to align closely with Chinese Communist Party directives and to assist with national intelligence efforts - represents an inherent security risk in all Chinese investments in Western infrastructure.

"A likely scenario where it might be in China's interests [to harm UK infrastructure] would be to impede Britain's ability to impose sanctions against Beijing in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

"If China were to invade Taiwan, and should they have control over parts of our critical infrastructure, it would highly impact the potential to enforce sanctions or similar measures," Ms Theodoulou said.

However, other analysts are sceptical over whether it would be in the financial interest of Chinese investors to sabotage UK infrastructure or firms, as such actions would collapse the value of their investments and likely lead to their appropriation by the UK government.

"This threat is asserted and not proven, and these companies are profit-driven so it is not in their interests to sabotage our infrastructure," said Prof Giles Mohan of the Open University.

And they argue that a distinction should be drawn between Chinese investments in vital infrastructure and investments into UK firms which own consumer brands where the potential for public harm is considerably lower.

What do you want BBC Verify to investigate?

The families of five people murdered by Hashem Abedi in the Manchester Arena bombing have told the justice secretary of their "absolute disbelief" that he was allowed to attack prison officers in HMP Frankland.

Despite being held in a high-security unit, Abedi, 28, attacked three prison officers on Saturday with improvised blades and hot cooking oil.

In a letter seen by the BBC, the families say Abedi "should not have access to anything that he can weaponise" and urged the government to ensure he "cannot be allowed to hurt anyone else".

Abedi was jailed for life with a minimum 55 years in prison after being convicted of murdering 22 people in the 2017 attack carried out by his brother, Salman.

Since the letter was sent to Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday, inmates of separation centres have been barred from using kitchens.

Abedi had been held in a separation centre - which holds a small number of inmates deemed to be dangerous and extremist - at Frankland.

He moved to Frankland after carrying out an earlier attack on prison officers in London's Belmarsh prison in 2020, for which three years and 10 months was added to his sentence.

Two prison officers remain in hospital with serious injuries from the latest attack, while a third had been discharged.

The letter says "we are writing in absolute disbelief" that, once again, the "evil Hashem Abedi has been allowed to cause danger to life".

They go on: "As the families of Megan Hurley, Eilidh Macleod, Chloe Rutherford, Liam Curry, and Kelly Brewster, our beautiful, beloved children who were so tragically murdered along with 16 others in the Manchester Arena terror attack in May 2017, we find this situation beyond comprehension."

The families say they understood prison to mean "confinement in a cell for 23 hours a day, meals served through a hatch, and a single hour outside the cell, accompanied by a prison officer" - which they described as "the very minimum measure of justice for the devastation he caused".

They write: "In our view, he should not be allowed any privileges whatsoever while serving a sentence for the deaths of 22 innocent lives and the injuring of many more.

"He should not have access to anything that he can weaponise, such as hot oil or items he can turn into blades."

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said there would be a full, independent review into the incident, which saw the three prison officers suffer stab wounds and burns.

The families asked Mahmood to "consider the full gravity of Abedi's actions when determining any further punishment".

They wrote "His continuing violence in prison, attacking prison officers in Belmarsh and now attempting to murder three more, shows he feels no remorse and has no respect for human life.

"We send our heartfelt sympathies to the three prison officers who were injured on Saturday, as well as their families. Hashem Abedi cannot be allowed to hurt anyone else.

"As broken families, we firmly believe the appropriate punishment for this individual should be permanent solitary confinement. In truth, anything harsher would be more fitting."

The MoJ said in a statement responding to the letter: "Our thoughts remain with the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing and their families who are understandably concerned by the shocking attack at HMP Frankland this weekend.

"We've already taken immediate action to suspend access to kitchens in separation and close supervision centres."

It added that it would be setting out the terms and scope of the review into the incident in the coming days.

Mahmood has said separately that she will be pushing for the "strongest possible punishment" for Abedi.

With his brother, the suicide bomber Salman Abedi, Hashem Abedi planned and prepared the attack on the Ariana Grande concert in 2017.

He was in Libya when the blast took place and was later extradited to the UK to face trial.

Hashem Abedi was found guilty in 2020 of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life, and sentenced to a minimum term of at least 55 years before he could be considered for parole.

The sentence was a record for a fixed-length prison term.

It is understood that Hashem Abedi has been moved to the separation centre at HMP Full Sutton following the kitchen attack.

Officials are working to deliver essential raw materials to British Steel's Scunthorpe plant, the government has said, as it races to keep its blast furnaces burning.

An emergency law rushed through Parliament on Saturday gave the government control of the Lincolnshire site to prevent its Chinese owner shutting it down.

The government said work was under way on Monday to obtain the coking coal and iron ore that power the plant's two furnaces - materials it previously said owners Jingye had been selling off.

"My team are already hard at work on the ground to keep jobs going and furnaces burning," the business secretary said in a statement.

Dozens of businesses including steel producers Tata and Rainham Steel have offered help and to supply their raw materials, the government added.

How quickly materials get to the site is important because blast furnaces can sustain permanent damage if their temperature drops too low.

Restarting a furnace that has shut down is also a costly and complex process.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: "When I said steelmaking has a future in the UK, I meant it.

"That's why we've passed these new powers to save British Steel at Scunthorpe and that's why my team are already hard at work on the ground to keep jobs going and furnaces burning."

It comes after Reynolds refused to confirm on Sunday whether the government could obtain the materials in time.

"I'm not going to get into that," he told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, but said the takeover gave the "opportunity" to obtain the materials needed.

The Scunthorpe plant employs 2,700 people and is the last site in the UK that can produce virgin steel.

The government fast-tracked legislation which gave it control of the plant after talks with Jingye to save it appeared to break down.

The company said in March it was losing £700,000 a day at the site, which it called "no longer financially sustainable," and began a consultation on its closure.

Reynolds told the BBC it "became clear" during negotiations that Jingye was intent on closing down the blast furnaces no matter the financial support offered.

The government said Jingye refused an offer of some £500m and demanded more than twice as much money, with few guarantees it would keep the plant open.

"It might not be sabotage, it might be neglect," Reynolds said of the company's actions.

The Conservatives have criticised the government for not stepping in sooner to save the plant.

Tory shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said the party had supported the emergency law because "it's the least worst option on the table".

Nick Frost, Paapa Essiedu, Janet McTeer and Paul Whitehouse will appear in the forthcoming Harry Potter TV series, US network HBO has confirmed.

Frost has been cast as Hagrid, McTeer will play Minerva McGonagall, and Essiedu will portray Severus Snape. All three were reported to be in talks with the network in recent weeks.

HBO have now formally confirmed their casting, and announced that Whitehouse, well known for the Fast Show and Harry & Paul, will play Argus Filch.

The network also confirmed John Lithgow's announcement in February that he will play Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore.

The show is due to begin filming this summer, with the first series airing potentially as early as next year.

The actors playing Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger have not yet been cast.

HBO launched an open casting call for the three lead roles, which reportedly attracted more than 30,000 submissions.

Who are the confirmed actors?

• John Lithgow, who will play Dumbledore, recently starred in the Oscar-winning Conclave, and has also appeared in 3rd Rock from the Sun, Footloose and The Crown. He won an Olivier Award last week for playing Roald Dahl in stage play Giant, which soon transfers to the West End
• Paapa Essiedu, who will portray Hogwarts teacher Severus Snape, shot to fame in the TV series I May Destroy You, and has also appeared in Gangs of London and The Lazarus Project. Last year, he starred in The Outrun with Saoirse Ronan, and will appear in a new stage production of Arthur Miller's All My Sons in the West End later this year
• Janet McTeer, who has been cast as Professor McGonagall, has appeared in films including Wuthering Heights, Albert Nobbs and The Menu, as well as the TV series Ozark and Jessica Jones. Later this year, she will be seen in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
• Nick Frost, who will play the friendly half-giant Hagrid, is best known for appearing in comedy films Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End and Paul. His TV credits include Spaced and Into the Badlands, and he voices SM-33 in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
• Paul Whitehouse, who will play Argus Filch, appeared in the BBC sketch comedy series The Fast Show and opposite Harry Enfield in Harry & Paul. He also appears in Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing, with Bob Mortimer, while his stage credits include Only Fools and Horses The Musical
• Luke Thallon, who will play Quirinus Quirrell, has appeared in stage productions including Patriots, Albion and Tom Stoppard's Leopoldstadt. He is currently starring in a touring Royal Shakespeare Company production of Hamlet, playing the titular role

Showrunner Francesca Gardiner and executive producer Mark Mylod said they were "delighted to have such extraordinary talent onboard, and we can't wait to see them bring these beloved characters to new life".

JK Rowling's phenomenally successful series of novels has previously been adapted into a film franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe as Potter.

The TV series, however, will have more breathing space to explore the plot lines from the books without the time constraints of the film.

Rowling will serve as an executive producer on the TV series, which HBO has said will be a "faithful adaptation" of her books.

Further casting announcements are expected to follow soon, with rumours swirling about other actors reportedly in discussions about joining, including Cillian Murphy as a possible Voldermort.

The World Health Organization has said conditions at hospitals in Gaza are "beyond description", after a major facility was put out of service by an Israeli air strike.

Spokeswoman Dr Margaret Harris told the BBC it was seeing "attack after attack" on hospitals and healthcare workers, and medical supplies were critically low due to Israel's blockade of the territory.

On Sunday, staff at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City said an Israeli strike had destroyed its laboratory and damaged its emergency room. They did not report any direct casualties, but said a child died due to disruption of care.

The Israeli military said it hit a "command-and-control centre" used by Hamas to plan attacks.

The hospital is run by the Church of England, whose bishops said they shared "grief, sorrow and outrage" with Palestinians over the attack and called on Israel to provide evidence to support its claim.

A ceasefire in Gaza ended when Israel resumed its air and ground campaign four weeks ago, saying that military pressure would force Hamas to release the hostages it is still holding.

Al-Ahli hospital was struck by two missiles around midnight on Sunday - the fifth time it has been hit since the beginning of the war.

According to the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem, the two-storey genetic laboratory was demolished and the pharmacy and emergency department buildings were damaged. Surrounding buildings were also damaged, including St Philip's Church.

The diocese said the Israel military gave a 20-minute warning to hospital staff and patients to evacuate before the attack.

There were no casualties as a result of the strike, but one child who had previously suffered a head injury died as a result of the rushed evacuation process, it added.

Later, WHO Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the UN agency had been told by al-Ahli's director that the emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines, and the pharmacy were "destroyed".

The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals, but 40 patients in a critical condition could not be moved, he added.

"Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Attacks on health care must stop. Once again we repeat: patients, health workers and hospitals must be protected."

The Israeli foreign ministry said it was a "precise strike on a single building that was used by Hamas as a terror command and control centre" and where there was "no medical activity take place".

It also stressed that an "early warning" was issued, and that the strike was "carried out while avoiding further damage to the hospital compound, which remained operational for continued medical treatment".

Hamas condemned the attack as a "savage crime" and rejected the claim that it was using the facility for military purposes.

On Monday, the Church of England's House of Bishops said in a statement they were "dismayed that hospitals have become battlegrounds in Gaza" and that Israel had "yet to provide clear and compelling evidence to substantiate its claim" that the hospital was being used by Hamas.

"Against that backdrop, we call for an independent, thorough and transparent investigation into this attack as well as the alleged misuse of the hospital."

The bishops also said that "the extremely limited time given to staff and patients to evacuate the hospital was a further assault on fundamental human rights and basic human dignity".

WHO representative Dr Rik Peeperkorn meanwhile told the BBC that al-Ahli was now unable to receive new patients pending repairs, and that this would "heavily impact trauma patients".

"Al-Ahli was a key trauma hospital north of Wadi Gaza. It is the hospital with the only functional CT scanner north of Wadi Gaza," he said, referring to the valley that effectively divides the territory in two because it is an Israeli-designated "no-go" area.

The charity Medical Aid for Palestinians also quoted an orthopaedic surgeon at al-Ahli as saying that the level of care the hospital could provide to the 40 remaining patients was "quite similar to that of a hostel".

"We are unable to perform any surgical procedures, as these patients require laboratory diagnostics, pharmacy support, and emergency referrals in case of complications - all of which have ceased entirely due to the recent attack," Dr Ahmed al-Shurafa said.

The ICRC's head of sub-delegation in Gaza, Adrian Zimmermann, also warned that the wider shortage of medical supplies "puts the life and the wellbeing of Gazans who require healthcare services at risk".

Dr Peeperkorn said they were running critically low because Israel had not allowed in any deliveries of humanitarian aid for more than six weeks.

He added that the WHO had stockpiled some supplies in its warehouses during the recent ceasefire, but that the Israeli military was not facilitating transfers between northern and southern Gaza.

"Last week, we had a discussion with one of the medical specialists at al-Ahli. He was telling us that they had to use the same surgical gowns and the same surgical gloves for various operations, while we have surgical gloves and gowns in our warehouse in Deir al-Balah [south of Wadi Gaza]," he recalled. "We want to bring them, but we are not facilitated."

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 50,980 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

A ceasefire deal that began in January and lasted two months saw Hamas release 33 Israeli hostages – eight of them dead – and five Thai hostages in exchange for about 1,900 Palestinian prisoners and a surge in humanitarian aid entering Gaza.

Israel resumed its offensive on 18 March, blaming Hamas's refusal to accept a proposal for an extension of the agreement's first phase and the release of more of the 59 hostages it is still holding, up to 24 of whom are believed to be alive.

Hamas accused Israel of violating the original deal, according to which there would be a second phase where all the remaining living hostages would be handed over and the war brought to a permanent end.

On Monday, a Hamas delegation led by the group's chief negotiator left Cairo without making any progress in talks with Egyptian mediators aimed at reaching a new ceasefire agreement, a senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC.

"No breakthrough was achieved due to Israel's refusal to commit to ending the war and withdrawing from the Gaza Strip," the official said.

"Hamas showed flexibility, regarding the number of hostages to be released in order to make progress. But Israel wants the hostages back without ending the war," he claimed.

Israel has said it is waiting for a response to its latest proposal, sent at the end of last week.

It is understood to have reduced slightly the number of hostages it is demanding should be released in exchange for an extension of the truce and the entry of humanitarian aid.

A group of hostages' families, known as the Tikvah Forum, said on Monday that the parents of Eitan Mor had been told by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the government was working on a deal that would see 10 hostages freed - down from 11 or 12.

A strike by bin workers in Birmingham is set to continue after the latest pay offer by the city council was "overwhelmingly" rejected.

It follows a month-long stand-off between members of the Unite union and the Labour-run authority as bin bags and fly-tipped rubbish have piled high on streets.

Unite said the city council's "partial" offer was "totally inadequate" did not address the potential pay cuts for 200 drivers.

The council has previously said the offer on the table was a fair one.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "The rejection of the offer is no surprise as these workers simply cannot afford to take pay cuts of this magnitude to pay the price for bad decision after bad decision."

The dispute centres around the council's decision to remove Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) roles.

The union argued that the role brought safety expertise to an "often dirty and dangerous job", and said about 170 affected workers faced losing up to £8,000 annually due to the decision.

Birmingham City Council, which disputes both the number of staff affected and the sums of money quoted by the union, said the WRCO role was not industry standard, and did not exist in other councils.

At the end of March, the council declared a major incident, saying that some 17,000 tonnes of rubbish was lining the city's streets.

Some residents have also reported an increase in rats and other vermin.

In recent days, military planners have been called in to help deal with the situation.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said that was not about "boots on the ground" but it would help get waste cleared.

Other neighbouring authorities have also stepped in to help clear rubbish.

"We've got over two-thirds of the rubbish cleared off the streets now, this week we'll start to see cleaning up the pavements and streets as well as the clearance of all of that rubbish, I'm very pleased about that," Rayner said.

"The kids are off school - obviously it's Easter holidays, we want that rubbish cleared."

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The government has suspended kitchen use in prison separation centres that are used to house a small number of the UK's most dangerous and extremist inmates, it is understood.

It comes after the Manchester Arena bomber Hashem Abedi attacked three prison officers on Saturday in HMP Frankland.

Two male officers remain in hospital with serious injuries. A female officer was discharged from hospital on Saturday.

Abedi threw hot oil at the officers and stabbed them with blades fashioned from cooking trays, the prison officers' association has said.

Abedi had access to the kitchen in Frankland's separation centre, one of only two separation centres currently in use.

It is understood that Hashem Abedi was moved to the separation centre at HMP Full Sutton following the kitchen attack.

The Ministry of Justice has said there will be a full review into the incident.

Abedi was jailed for life with a minimum sentence of 55 years for helping his brother carry out the 2017 suicide bombing of an Ariana Grande concert.

Abedi had been a long-term inmate at HMP Frankland's separation centre, which holds fewer than 10 prisoners and is used to house those considered the most dangerous and extremist.

He moved to Frankland after carrying out an earlier attack on prison officers in London's HMP Belmarsh in 2020.

Earlier that same year, Abedi was found guilty of 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life over the Manchester Arena attack.

A man who died in a house explosion that saw dozens of people evacuated from their homes has been named as David Howard.

Emergency services were called to John Street, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, on Saturday shortly before 20:00 BST.

Nottinghamshire Police said officers recovered the 53-year-old's body from under debris following the blast.

His daughters have been informed and are being supported by specially trained officers, the force added.

A major incident was declared by emergency services following the explosion on Saturday evening.

One terraced house was destroyed and two more partially collapsed.

Eight further properties and 20 cars were damaged by debris, police said, with one other person treated for minor injuries.

The force said 35 houses were evacuated on the night but residents had since been able to return to all but 16.

Temporary accommodation is being provided to those still unable to return.

Det Ch Insp Ruby Burrow, from Nottinghamshire Police, said: "Our thoughts are very much with David's loved ones at this devastating time.

"He has lost his life in truly tragic circumstances, and we would ask everyone to respect his daughters' privacy.

"Our investigation to establish exactly what happened is ongoing and we are working hard to find the answers his family needs.

"We would ask that while the investigation is being carried out that people avoid speculation both online and in the community."

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Chinese officials are calling on US President Donald Trump to "completely cancel" his so-callled reciprocal tariffs, as a trade war between the world's two biggest economies grinds on.

This week, Trump announced a 90-day pause for a host of global tariffs he had planned, but increased levies on Chinese imports to 145%.

"We urge the US to take a big step to correct its mistakes, completely cancel the wrong practice of 'reciprocal tariffs' and return to the right path of mutual respect," China's commerce ministry said in a statement.

The Trump administration offered a concession on Friday by announcing that some technological products - including many produced in China - would be exempted.

The Chinese commerce ministry called the exemptions a "small step" by the US, and said that Beijing was "evaluating the impact" of the move.

Trump's technology exemptions - which include smartphones, computers and semiconductors - offered hope for tech giants and consumers who worried the price of gadgets would skyrocket as a result of the tariffs.

• Trump's iPhone olive branch is a significant trade war retreat
• Trump's changing tariffs leave shoppers feeling paralysed

But there was no immediate prospect of a thaw in the two rival's protectionist posture.

US trade representative Jamieson Greer was asked whether there were any plans for Trump to speak with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, during an appearance on CBS's Face the Nation on Sunday.

"Right now we don't have any plans on that," he said.

Trump imposed a tariff amounting to 54% on imports of products from China at the beginning of April, before escalating to the current 145% rate.

In its own tit-for-tat tariffs, China imposed levies of 34% on US goods, before increasing it to 84% and then 125%, which took effect on Saturday.

In announcing its latest tariffs, China's commerce ministry said last week that it would "fight to the end" if the US "insists on provoking a tariff war or trade war".

• What are tariffs and why is Trump using them?
• US coffee shops worried about bitter price hike after tariffs

Late on Saturday, while travelling to Miami, Florida, Trump said he would give more details of the exemptions at the start of next week.

The White House has argued that it is using tariffs as a negotiating tactic to extract more favorable trade terms from other countries.

Trump has said his policy will redress unfairness in the global trading system, as well as bring jobs and factories back to the US.

However, his interventions have seen massive fluctuations in the stock market and raised fears of a decrease in global trade that could have a knock-on effect on jobs and individual economies.

Labour MP and former minister Tulip Siddiq has accused the Bangladeshi authorities of a "politically motivated smear campaign" after they issued an arrest warrant against her.

The country's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has been investigating allegations Siddiq illegally received land as part of its wider probe of the regime of her aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister in August.

The Hampstead and Highgate MP, who quit as economic secretary to the Treasury in January, was named in the arrest warrant alongside more than 50 others over the weekend.

Responding to the arrest warrant, Siddiq told reporters the Bangladeshi authorities were conducting a "trial by media".

More than 100 civilians, among them at least 20 children and a medical team working for a humanitarian charity, have been killed in a series of attacks beginning on Friday in Sudan's western Darfur region, the UN has said.

The assaults – on the city of el Fasher and two nearby camps housing people forced from their homes by the civil war – have been blamed on the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The camps, Zamzam and Abu Shouk, provide temporary homes to more than 700,000 people, many of whom are facing famine-like conditions.

News of the attacks come on the eve of the second anniversary of the civil war between the RSF and the army.

The UN's humanitarian co-ordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said she was "appalled and gravely alarmed" by reports of what had happened.

"This represents yet another deadly and unacceptable escalation in a series of brutal attacks on displaced people and aid workers," she added in a statement.

Aid organisation Relief International said nine of its workers "were mercilessly killed including doctors, referral drivers and a team leader" in the attack on Zamzam.

• BBC finds fear, loss and hope in Sudan's ruined capital
• Sudan war: A simple guide to what is happening
• Fear and prayers in Sudan city under siege

The charity, which said it was the last provider of critical health services in the camp, alleged RSF fighters were to blame.

"We understand that this was a targeted attack on all health infrastructure in the region to prevent access to healthcare for internally displaced people.

"We are horrified that one of our clinics was also part of this attack - along with other health facilities in el-Fasher."

Contacting the BBC on Sunday morning, one Zamzam resident who works at a community kitchen providing food for those in the camp, said the situation was "extremely catastrophic".

"We've lost a large number of young people, those who were working in the community kitchen have been killed, and the doctors who were part of the initiative to reopen the hospital were also killed," Mustafa, 34, said in a WhatsApp audio message.

"My uncle and my cousin were killed. People are wounded, and there is no medicine or hospital to save them - they are dying from bleeding.

"The shelling is still ongoing, and we are expecting more attacks in the morning."

He added that all roads out of the camp were closed and it was "surrounded from all four directions".

The war - a power struggle between the army and the RSF - has created the world's largest humanitarian crisis, forcing more than 12 million people from their homes and pushing communities into hunger.

It began on 15 April 2023, after the leaders of the army and RSF fell out over the political future of the country.

El-Fasher is the last major town in Darfur under army control and has been under siege by the RSF for almost a year.

Additional reporting by Mohamed Zakaria

More BBC stories on Sudan:

• The children living between starvation and death in Darfur
• Civil war survivors tell of killings and rapes
• Thousands flee fresh ethnic killings in Darfur
• 'I saw bodies dumped in Darfur mass grave'

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

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

Fifteen people including former Conservative MP Craig Williams have been charged with betting offences by the Gambling Commission.

The investigation was launched last year following bets placed on the timing of the 2024 general election.

The commission said the investigation focused on individuals "suspected of using confidential information - specifically advance knowledge of the proposed election date - to gain an unfair advantage in betting markets".

Those charged will appear at Westminster Magistrates Court on 13 June 2025.

Before the election was called, Williams was the Conservative MP for Montgomeryshire and an aide to then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Laura Saunders, who was the Conservative candidate in Bristol North West at the general election, is also on the list of those who have been charged by the commission.

On 22 May, Rishi Sunak announced the general election would be held on 4 July - a decision that overturned expectations of an autumn poll.

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

You can receive Breaking News on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on X to get the latest alerts.

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Pop star Katy Perry and five other women are set to blast into space aboard Jeff Bezos' space tourism rocket.

The singer will be joined by Bezos's fiancée Lauren Sánchez and CBS presenter Gayle King.

The New Shepard rocket is due to lift off from its West Texas launch site and the launch window opens at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST).

The flight will last around 11 minutes and take the crew more than 100km (62 miles) above Earth, crossing the internationally recognised boundary of space and giving the crew a few moments of weightlessness.

Also on board are former Nasa rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen, and film producer Kerianne Flynn.

The spacecraft is fully autonomous, requiring no pilots, and the crew will not manually operate the vehicle.

The capsule will return to Earth with a parachute-assisted soft landing, while the rocket booster will land itself around two miles away from the launch site.

"If you had told me that I would be part of the first-ever all-female crew in space, I would have believed you. Nothing was beyond my imagination as a child. Although we didn't grow up with much, I never stopped looking at the world with hopeful WONDER!" Mrs Perry said in a social media post.

Blue Origin says the last all-female spaceflight was over 60 years ago when Soviet Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to travel into space on a solo mission aboard the spacecraft Vostok 6.

Since then, there have been no other all-female spaceflights but women have made numerous significant contributions.

Blue Origin is a private space company founded in 2000 by Bezos, the billionaire entrepreneur who also started Amazon.

Although Blue Origin has not released full ticket prices, a $150,000 (£114,575.85) deposit is required to reserve a seat—underlining the exclusivity of these early flights.

Alongside its suborbital tourism business, the company is also developing long-term space infrastructure, including reusable rockets and lunar landing systems.

The New Shepard rocket is designed to be fully reusable and its booster returns to the launch pad for vertical landings after each flight, reducing overall costs.

According to US law, astronauts must complete comprehensive training for their specific roles.

Blue Origin says its New Shepard passengers are trained over two days with a focus on physical fitness, emergency protocols, details about the safety measures and procedures for zero gravity.

Additionally, there are two support members referred to as Crew Member Seven: one provides continuous guidance to astronauts, while the other maintains communication from the control room during the mission.

The rise of space tourism has prompted criticism that it is too exclusive and environmentally damaging.

Supporters argue that private companies are accelerating innovation and making space more accessible.

Professor Brian Cox told the BBC in 2024: "Our civilisation needs to expand beyond our planet for so many reasons," and believes that collaboration between NASA and commercial firms is a positive step.

But critics raise significant environmental concerns.

They say that as more and more rockets are launched, the risks of harming the ozone layer increases.

A 2022 study by Professor Eloise Marais from University College London found that rocket soot in the upper atmosphere has a warming effect which is 500 times greater than when released by planes closer to Earth.

The high cost of space tourism makes it inaccessible to most people, with these expensive missions out of reach for the majority.

Critics, including actress Olivia Munn, questioned the optics of this particular venture, remarking "There's a lot of people who can't even afford eggs," during an appearance on Today with Jenna & Friends.

Astronaut Tim Peake has defended the value of human space travel, especially in relation to tackling global issues such as climate change.

At the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Peake voiced his disappointment that space exploration was increasingly seen as a pursuit for the wealthy, stating: "I personally am a fan of using space for science and for the benefit of everybody back on Earth, so in that respect, I feel disappointed that space is being tarred with that brush."

Watch Blue Origin's Last Spaceflight on the New Shepard Rocket

Additonal reporting by Victoria Gill and Kate Stephens, BBC Climate and Science.

From the end of April, the 500-year-old Royal Mail will be controlled by a Czech billionaire who co-owns a football club and is a major investor in a British supermarket - so, why would he want this ailing institution?

Listen to the audio version of this on BBC Sounds

"A pair of scissors, one empty teapot and some hot water, please." The slightly baffled staff at Claridge's scrambled to comply with Daniel Kretinsky's breakfast order as he sanitised and moisturised his hands.

The upscale hotel has been serving tea to the global elite for decades but Mr Kretinsky brought along his own packet of Chinese green tea, which he snipped open (hence the scissors) and poured into the empty pot.

He was tall, perfectly groomed, steely-eyed but unfaultingly polite and thoughtful. If you told anyone in the dining room he was a billionaire, they would have no problem believing it.

Known as the Czech Sphinx for his enigmatic style, Mr Kretinsky, who is 49, is worth £6bn according to the Sunday Times Rich List. He lives in plush mansions in Paris and London, was originally a lawyer and made his fortune in European energy markets.

Our meeting was at Claridge's in June 2024 - I was trying to convince him to give me an interview about his audacious attempt to buy a British institution that was once seen as a national treasure: Royal Mail.

His profile as a buyer was one that that unions and ministers typically would be wary of because of his historic connections with Russia - his companies own a gas pipeline that has transported Russian gas to Europe.

But six months on, his bid to buy Royal Mail's parent company was cleared by the UK government after he agreed "legally binding" undertakings.

It was agreed that the government would retain a so-called "golden share", requiring it to approve any major changes to Royal Mail's ownership, headquarters location and tax residency. The deal was also blessed by unions.

Earlier this month, the owner of Royal Mail said that the takeover could be completed by the end of April as the deal cleared the final regulatory hurdles standing in the way.

But step back and Royal Mail seems a strange target for a globally mobile oil and gas billionaire investor to set his sights on. It begs the question why would anyone, let alone a successful international entrepreneur, want to buy this faded relic?

How Royal Mail's crown slipped

Royal Mail was founded by Henry VIII more than 500 years ago and still carries the royal cipher on its vans. It is part of the fabric of British life and many people still have a fond relationship with their 'postie', who walks down their path bringing their letters and parcels to their door.

But in recent years Royal Mail's crown has slipped. It is losing money and market share, has been fined for missing delivery targets and has made an enemy of its own workforce through a series of bitter strikes.

Royal Mail's letter business is in steep decline too. It has gone from a peak of 20 billion letters sent in 2004 to under seven billion sent last year.

In December 2024, it was fined £10.5m by the regulator Ofcom for failing to meet delivery targets for first and second class mail.

While the boom in e-commerce has seen the volume of parcels rise, Royal Mail's share of that more profitable business has been falling as new competitors like DPD, DHL, Amazon and Evri have eaten into its market share.

Royal Mail was split off from the Post Office in 2012 and privatised in 2013 at a value of £3.3bn. Its shares immediately rocketed by 38% on the first day of trading, leading to criticism - from the National Audit Office, among others - that it had been sold on the cheap.

At its peak in Covid-era May 2021, the company was worth more than £6bn but had slumped to just over £2bn when Mr Kretinsky launched his takeover bid last April.

He sealed the deal at £3.6bn - 63% higher than before he signalled his intent, but barely more than it was worth at privatisation over a decade ago.

"Royal Mail is a business that has historically found it difficult to grow revenues by more than costs," says Alex Paterson, an analyst at Peel Hunt stockbrokers. "It has seen its parcels market share eroded by more dynamic competition that has been able to invest more in technology, and it has struggled with industrial relations to keep staff working towards a common goal.

"This is not a challenge to underestimate nor one that can be overcome quickly, but that requires considerable long-term investment in infrastructure, technology and staff."

Part of the challenge, and one that puts Royal Mail at a disadvantage compared with its rivals, is that unlike them, Royal Mail has to meet a string of legal and regulatory obligations, says Hazel King, the editor of Parcel and Post Technology International.

Under what is called the universal service obligation (USO), Royal Mail is required by law to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week to every address in the UK. So it cannot pick and choose which business it wants to do.

"Royal Mail must meet their universal service obligation while trying to compete with private firms who often cherry-pick the most profitable business," says Ms King.

The 'Czech Sphinx's' plan

Mr Kretinsky says he has a plan. His success in the energy sector allowed him to buy a 27.5% stake in Royal Mail's parent company, International Distribution Services (IDS). And his company – EP Group – intends to build a pan-European conglomerate built on three pillars: energy, retail and logistics.

He sees IDS as the cornerstone of the logistics pillar, with a plan to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Deutsche Post DHL, DPD and Amazon.

The USO has been under review by Ofcom, with Royal Mail hoping that the regulator will reduce the requirement to deliver second-class letters from six days a week to every other weekday. That single move could save Royal Mail £300m a year – putting it back on a break-even footing.

Mr Kretinsky told me during our interview that he would honour the USO "as long as I am alive", but he is unsurprisingly very much in favour of changing its terms. He said he hopes that "rational minds prevail" when reforming a service that is unsustainable in its current form.

So far, the noises from Ofcom seem to be supportive. The regulator's chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes told the BBC there were "real questions about what the service needs to be going into the future".

Given letter numbers are falling, "we have to think about what is economical", she said, adding Ofcom would be publishing plans for the regulation of Royal Mail "to make sure it is sustainable".

While Royal Mail generally welcomed the proposed changes to the Universal Service Obligation, Royal Mail pushed back against proposed new delivery time and business customer requirements.

Royal Mail said last week that the level at which Ofcom is proposing to set the new delivery targets – 99.5% of First Class letters delivered within three days, and the same percentage of Second Class letters within five – is "over specified and will add significant cost to the delivery of the Universal Service".

It also expressed concerns that proposals to add a new category of regulation to ensure timely delivery for business users like direct mail companies "goes against the wider government drive to reduce unnecessary regulation".

European parcel know-how

But there are other factors that may have driven the sale. Some analysts have speculated that there is another jewel in the crown of IDS - and that Mr Kretinsky may really be after a different part of the business.

Along with Royal Mail, IDS also owns a European parcels business called GLS which it acquired in 1999 – long before Royal Mail was split off from the Post Office and privatised.

Last year GLS made a profit of £320m, compared to Royal Mail, which lost £348m as letter volumes continued to plunge and new competitors ate into its market share of the more profitable parcels business.

"GLS has been a profitable growth business, which has seen investment whereas Royal Mail has been a perpetual underperformer, as the board of parent company IDS has invested where it thinks it will see the best returns," says Mr Paterson.

Mr Kretinsky rejects suggestions from some quarters that he wants to break up the group and has committed to keeping it together for at least five years. Even beyond that, he says the plan is to grow the company rather than shrink it, so a disposal of GLS would be "nonsensical".

In fact, Mr Kretinsky says he hopes to bring the European parcel know-how at GLS to bear on Royal Mail's operations.

What the unions are hoping, and Kretinsky is promising, is that Royal Mail will see greater investment and over time begin to look a bit more like GLS and its European counterparts such as Deutche Post DHL.

Catching up with competitors

Given all the challenges Royal Mail faces, there's an obvious question - why would a billionaire want to chance his arm on turning round something that others couldn't, while up against powerful competitors?

Well, if you believe as Kretinsky does - and he is surely right - that getting parcels to people is a profitable and growing industry, then buying Royal Mail and GLS gives you a way to become a big European player in logistics quickly.

Add to that a powerful and historic brand, a database with every single UK address and a frontline workforce that most of its customers are fond of and pleased to see when they walk down the path - then, despite the challenges, it begins to make sense.

Mr Kretinsky is convinced future growth lies in out-of-home (OOH) delivery. The parcel lockers found in supermarket car parks and elsewhere, operated by the likes of Amazon, Evri and UPS, have grown quickly across Europe.

Earlier this month it was reported that Sainsbury's would be the first supermarket to partner with Royal Mail and install parcel lockers at supermarkets. Some are already operating at several stores including ones in Clapham, Kidderminster and Chislehurst.

Royal Mail has also trialled a new postbox that can take small parcels. Customers procure a barcode from an app, then at the postbox they scan the barcode and drop the parcel into a drawer - this is all powered by solar panels on the box.

Emma Gilthorpe, Royal Mail chief executive, called it an "historic change" to give postboxes "a new lease of life".

All of this boils down to the same thing: convenience. It means customers don't have to wait at home for a delivery - the sender or parcel business emails or texts a code to unlock the locker. For the business it's more efficient, allowing couriers to deliver lots of parcels to one place - meaning fewer miles on the road and less time.

"If they can grow the parcels business and claw back market share, there is every chance that they can add new jobs that could offset the reduction in jobs in the declining letters business," says Mr Paterson.

"There is a significant long-term opportunity to run Royal Mail more successfully with regulatory changes to the USO and greater investment in technology and out-of-home deliveries."

But Royal Mail still has a lot of catching up to do with its competitors. It currently has 1,500 lockers in the UK and aims to grow this figure to at least 20,000 over time. By contrast, Amazon already has 5,000 lockers across the UK and InPost has 7,500 across the UK.

Winning over doubters

That Mr Kretinsky has pulled off the takeover is no easy feat. Royal Mail is, after all, considered vital national infrastructure and as such the deal required review under national security laws.

Then there is the fact that his companies own a gas pipeline that has transported Russian gas to Europe – paid for and approved by EU member states. The small amount that was transported was reduced to zero at the end of 2024 when Ukraine refused to renew permission for any gas to flow across its borders.

Speaking in front of MPs in November, UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds referred to Mr Kretinsky as a "legitimate business figure" whose alleged links to Russia had already been reviewed and dismissed when he became the biggest shareholder in the company two years ago.

Getting the unions on board seemed even more of a challenge and the Communication Workers Union was wary of Mr Kretinsky. "The CWU believes Royal Mail should be in public hands," Dave Ward, the CWU's general secretary, told the BBC in June. "We know there are legitimate concerns about Royal Mail Group being owned by a foreign private equity investor."

But during negotiations, union representatives secured a series of time-limited commitments from him, including guarantees that he will protect Royal Mail's pension surplus, that there will be no compulsory redundancies for two years, no sell-off or break-up of any operational part of the existing company and no outsourcing of grades represented by the CWU.

Mr Kretinsky also agreed to restrictions on moving dividends out of Royal Mail Group and to respect agreements with and recognition of the CWU. He said he would keep the brand name and Royal Mail's headquarters and tax residency in the UK for the next five years.

Union bosses told me that a life under Mr Kretinsky "couldn't be any worse than what we have had for the last 10 years".

So, as Mr Kretinsky looks certain to pull off the sale, what will customers notice?

The frequency of second-class deliveries may be reduced after the Ofcom review. We will see new Royal Mail lockers appearing in our neighbourhoods. And the price of first-class mail may go up: second-class stamps are regulated by Ofcom, while first-class ones are not.

The monarch's head will still be on those stamps, but there is a new king of our mail system. And his name is Daniel Kretinsky.

Top image credit: Getty

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A Palestinian paramedic who has been missing since an Israeli attack that killed 15 other emergency workers in southern Gaza three weeks ago is being detained by Israeli authorities, the International Committee of the Red Cross has said.

The ICRC confirmed in a statement that it had "received information" that Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medic Assad al-Nassasra was being held "in an Israeli place of detention".

The PRCS said Mr Nassasra was "forcibly abducted" by Israeli troops following the attack and called for his immediate release.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has not confirmed his detention. A spokesperson said it was aware of the claim about his whereabouts.

The bodies of eight PRCS medics, six Civil Defence first responders and a UN staff member were found buried in shallow graves on the outskirts of Rafah, a week after their convoy came under fire from Israeli troops there on 23 March.

One other PRCS medic survived and said he was released by Israeli forces after being detained for around 15 hours.

The PRCS has said the incident was a "full-fledged war crime", accusing Israeli forces of "a series of deliberate attacks" on its staff and their ambulances as they answered a call to help casualties.

It has called for an independent international investigation into the incident and for those responsible to be held to account.

Last Monday, the IDF said a preliminary inquiry indicated troops "opened fire due to a perceived threat following a previous encounter in the area, and that six of the individuals killed in the incident were identified as Hamas terrorists", without giving evidence.

The Palestinian Red Crescent rejected the allegation, as did the other surviving paramedic.

The IDF initially said its troops fired on "suspicious vehicles" driving in darkness with their headlights and emergency lights off.

But it later said that account was "mistaken" after a video found on the mobile phone of medic Rifaat Radwan, who was in the same ambulance as Assad al-Nassasra, showed the convoy was using its emergency lights.

At the end of the video, the ambulances are seen pulled over on the roadside. The sound of gunfire can be then heard just as Radwan gets out of his ambulance. It continues for more than five minutes and Radwan is heard saying his last prayers, before the voices of Israeli soldiers are heard approaching.

Audio analysis by BBC Verify of the footage found Israeli troops fired more than 100 times during the attack, with some shots taken from as close as 12m (39ft) away.

In a statement released on Sunday, the PRCS said: "We have been informed by the International Committee of the Red Cross that PRCS medic Assad al-Nassasra is being held by the Israeli occupation authorities.

"His fate had remained unknown since he was targeted along with other PRCS medics in Rafah."

It added: "We call on the international community to pressure the occupation authorities to immediately release our colleague, medic Assad, who was forcibly abducted while carrying out his humanitarian duties."

A spokeswoman for the PRCS told the New York Times Mr Nassasra had worked for the PRCS for 16 years, and was married with six children.

An ICRC spokeswoman said it had informed Mr Nassasra's family and the PRCS after receiving information about his whereabouts.

It noted: "The ICRC has not been granted access to visit Assad al-Nassasra. The ICRC has not been able to visit any Palestinian detainees held in Israeli places of detention since 7 October 2023."

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 were taken hostage.

More than 50,940 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Two British tourists have drowned off the coast of a popular tourist town at the southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef.

A boy, 17, and a man, 46, were swept out to sea on Sunday while swimming at a beach without lifeguards in Seventeen Seventy - a town in Queensland named for the year Captain James Cook arrived in Australia.

The pair were declared dead at the scene after being pulled from the water by a police rescue helicopter.

An Australian man is also in a life-threatening condition after being swept out to sea, and was airlifted to hospital with serious head injuries.

While police revealed that the deceased were from the UK, their names have not yet been released.

"Sunday's mission was a difficult one," CapRescue, the emergency rescue service that found the three men, shared on social media - adding that the deaths had occurred "despite the best efforts of all involved".

Police say the injured Australian man was from Monto, a town about 150 kilometres inland from Seventeen Seventy.

"We're not sure whether the third person jumped into the water trying to perform a rescue," Surf Life Saving Queensland's Darren Everard told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

There is only one beach patrolled by lifeguards within a 50-kilometre radius of Seventeen Seventy.

Police are treating the drownings as non-suspicious and will prepare a report for the coroner.

One-hundred-and-seven people drowned in Australia last year, with 25% of them born overseas, according to Royal Life Saving Australia.

Australia's coastal fatalities mostly occur around creeks and headlands at high tide when "it's chaos in the water", Everard explained.

Speaking to ABC, he encouraged tourists to "seek local knowledge" and swim between the flags.

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Police forces were in several cases unprepared for the level of violence that broke out in riots after the murder of three children in Southport last summer, a report by MPs has found.

It left officers exposed to "significant risk", the Home Affairs Committee said, in disorder that saw attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers and mosques.

However, the report said the policing response was "entirely appropriate" given the violence and criminality - with no evidence to suggest "two-tier policing".

The police lead for the national response said the report "rightly praises the efforts" of officers and staff, adding the recommendations will be considered.

Disorder broke out across the country following the fatal stabbing of Bebe King, six, Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, at a Taylor Swift-themed dance and yoga event in Southport in July 2024. Eight further children and two adults were also injured in the attack.

Monday's report identified 246 events which took place in its aftermath - 88 of which were deemed significant - some turning violent.

As of January 22 this year, 1,804 arrests had been made and 1,072 charges issued, the report said.

Acknowledging this was the worst disorder the country had seen since 2011, MPs said police forces should have "better anticipated the risk of disorder in general" following an initial instance of disorder in Southport.

Officers across the country worked "tirelessly", the report said, but forces being unable to act proactively left them exposed.

The "bravery and professionalism" of the officers was commended after 302 were injured and between 54 and 69 taken to hospital.

Staffordshire Police Chief Constable Chris Noble told the committee: "This will change some officers for the rest of their lives and they will live with the impacts of it for the rest of their lives."

The report found no evidence to support claims of "two-tier policing", finding instead that such commentary "undermin[ed]" the efforts of the officers.

"Those participating in disorder were not policed more strongly because of their supposed political views but because they were throwing missiles, assaulting police officers and committing arson," it said.

Later on the day of the Southport attack, police said they had arrested an 17-year-old male. He was named as Axel Muganwa Rudakubana three days later, when restrictions preventing him from being identified due to his age were lifted.

Misinformation regarding the identity of the suspect spread quickly online following the attack. Forces and the Home Office said it was a "significant factor" in the spread of disorder.

The reports outlines the "difficult position" Merseyside Police faced around publishing details around the suspect but added the lack of information created a "vacuum".

A recommendation has been made for the Crown Prosecution Service to publish its new media protocol "as soon as possible" and keep it regularly updated after MPs found existing guidance was "not fit for the social media age".

The Law Commission is currently reviewing contempt of court law.

Chief Constable BJ Harrington, who led the national response, said: "We are pleased that the report robustly disagrees with the notion of 'two tier policing'.

"We are also appreciative of the consideration given to the dangerous of mis- and disinformation on social media, which remain substantial areas of risk for policing..."

Committee chair, Dame Karen Bradley, said "lessons must be learned" from the way the criminal justice system worked as a whole.

"It will need to ensure that police forces can improve how they deal with regular policing work as well as supporting them to develop capacity to respond to crises."

A government spokesperson said they were "working closely" with police to both improve national decision-making and support for officers.

A spokesperson from the CPS said work to update the media protocol began before the disorder, adding they "are working to publish an updated version later this year".

"Alongside this, we support proposals for law reform which will make the application of contempt law clearer and simpler."

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Mario Vargas Llosa, who has died at the age of 89 in his native Peru, was a towering figure in Latin American literature and culture who rarely shied away from controversy.

With more than 50 works to his name, many of which have been widely translated, Vargas Llosa won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2010 when judges dubbed him a "divinely gifted story-teller". His depictions of authoritarianism, violence and machismo, using rich language and imagery, made him a star of the Latin American Boom literary movement that shone a global spotlight on the continent.

At first sympathetic to left-wing ideas, he grew disillusioned with Latin America's revolutionary causes, eventually running unsuccessfully for the Peruvian presidency with a centre-right party in 1990.

Vargas Llosa was born in 1936 to a middle-class family in Arequipa in southern Peru. After his parents separated while he was an infant, he moved to Cochabamba in Bolivia with his great-grandparents. He returned to Peru aged 10 and six years later he wrote his first play, The Escape of the Inca. He graduated from Lima University, studied in Spain and later moved to Paris.

His first novel, The Time of the Hero, was an indictment of corruption and abuse at a Peruvian military school. Written at a time when the country's military wielded significant political and social power, it was published in 1962.

Its forceful, menacing imagery was condemned by several Peruvian generals. One accused Vargas Llosa of having a "degenerate mind".

It was based on the writer's own time as a teenager at the Leoncio Prado Military Academy, which he described in 1990 as "an extremely traumatic experience". His two years there made him see his country "as a violent society, filled with bitterness, made up of social, cultural, and racial factions in complete opposition". The school itself burnt 1,000 copies of the novel on its grounds, Vargas Llosa claimed.

His experimental second novel The Green House (1966) was set in the Peruvian desert and jungle, and described an alliance of pimps, missionaries and soldiers based around a brothel.

The two novels helped found the Latin American Boom literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The Boom was characterised by experimental and explicitly political works that reflected a continent in turmoil.

Its leading authors, who included Vargas Llosa's Colombian friend and sometime rival Gabriel García Márquez - who pioneered the kaleidoscopic magical realism style of writing - became household names and their works were read around the world.

Famously the two authors did not speak to each other for decades after Vargas Llosa punched García Márquez in the face in a Mexican cinema in 1976. Reports of why Vargas Llosa punched his Colombian friend differ.

Friends of García Márquez said the dispute had revolved around García Márquez's friendship with Vargas Llosa's then-wife, Patricia, but Vargas Llosa told students at a Madrid university in 2017 that it had been down to their opposing views on Cuba and its communist leader, Fidel Castro.

They reconciled in 2007 and three years later, in 2010, Vargas Llosa was awarded the Nobel Prize - the first South American writer to be chosen for the literature prize since Gabriel García Márquez took the honour in 1982.

Much of Vargas Llosa's work is inseparable from the instability and violence in parts of Latin America in the second half of the 20th Century as the region experienced waves of revolutions and military rule.

His novel Conversations in the Cathedral (1969) was celebrated for exposing how the Peruvian dictatorship of 1948-56 under Manuel Odría controlled and eventually ruined the lives of ordinary people.

Like many intellectuals, Vargas Llosa supported Fidel Castro but became disillusioned with the communist leader following the "Padilla Affair" when poet Heberto Padilla was imprisoned for criticising the Cuban government in 1971.

In 1983 Vargas Llosa was appointed president of a commission investigating the gruesome killing in a village in the Peruvian Andes of eight journalists, which became known as the Uchuraccay massacre.

Peruvian officials maintained that the journalists had been killed by indigenous villagers who had mistaken the journalists for members of the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla group.

The commission's report backed the official line, leading to fierce criticism of Vargas Llosa by those who believed that the gruesome nature of the crime and the horrific mutilations inflicted on the body were the hallmark of an infamous anti-terrorist police rather than signs of "indigenous violence".

Moving further right on the political spectrum, in 1990 Vargas Llosa ran for the Peruvian presidency with the centre-right Frente Democrático coalition on a neo-liberal platform. He lost to Alberto Fujimori, who went on to govern Peru for the following 10 years.

Despite the criticism levelled against him over the investigation into the Uchuraccay massacre, Vargas Llosa continued to expose state terror and abuse of power through literature.

His novel The Feast of the Goat, published in 2000, focused on dictator Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic for 31 years until his assassination in 1961. The novel won praise from the Nobel Prize Committee for its attention to "structures of power" and "images of the individual's resistance, revolt, and defeat".

Other works were adapted for the big screen. His book Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, based on his first marriage, was adapted in 1990 into a Hollywood feature film, Tune in Tomorrow.

His later work covered figures as diverse as Irish nationalist Roger Casement (The Dream of the Celt, 2012).

He spent the latter years of his life in Peru as well as Madrid.

The author appeared in the pages of Spanish gossip magazine Hola after he left his wife of 50 years in 2015 to be with Spanish-Filipino socialite Isabel Preysler, the mother of popular Latin singer Enrique Iglesias.

He also continued to attract criticism for controversial remarks.

In 2019 he was condemned for blaming the rise in killings of journalists in Mexico - more than 100 in the past decade - on the expansion of press freedom "which allows journalists to say things that were not permitted previously". While he also said that "narcotics trafficking plays an absolutely central part in all of this", some commentators felt that he failed to express sympathy with the victims and their families.

And in 2018 he caused a stir when, in a column for Spanish newspaper El País, he called feminism "the most determined enemy of literature, trying to decontaminate it from machismo, multiple prejudices and immoralities".

He died in Lima on 13 April surrounded by his family and "at peace", his son Álvaro Vargas Llosa announced.

With his death, the last of the Latin American Boom's great stars has gone.

Fifty-seven years into his career, Neil Young has harvested millions of fans – but none of those followers is more devoted than his pet dogs.

"They love the music," says the musician's wife, actress Daryl Hannah.

"They go to every sound check and lay under the piano on the stage. Whenever Neil is playing, the dogs just migrate right to him and lay at his feet."

It's not just the dogs. During the 2020 lockdown, Young performed a livestream concert from the barn at his Colorado farm, surrounded by alpacas, ducks, chickens and even a horse.

"And every single one of the animals came over and laid down and watched him," Hannah says. "It was so cool. I think they're really drawn to the music."

Hannah, known for appearing in films like Blade Runner, Splash and Kill Bill, directed that livestream – and she's stayed behind the camera to make a documentary about Young's 2023 solo tour.

Filmed largely on her phone ("and it's not even the most recent model"), it captures the star's return to the stage, aged 75, after a four-year break, with his dogs in tow.

"He was very nervous about it," she recalls.

"There's always a point where he's like, 'I don't know if I can do this… We'll see'."

"It's funny, because he didn't do any rehearsals before the tour. He likes things to be real and spontaneous. But as soon as he walked out on stage, he was fine."

Playing without a band, the shows were loose and unpredictable. The setlist changed every night, and even recurring songs like Heart of Gold and Like A Hurricane would be played in different settings, on different instruments, without warning.

It's a set-up that caused his director a few headaches.

"It was really hit or miss because every day he would go out to do sound check, and he would choose one of his three pianos and play something like Expecting To Fly," says Hannah.

"So we'd set a camera on that piano but, when it came to show time, he wouldn't go near it. There were quite a few shows where we literally got no footage.

"I was frustrated in the editing room, trust me."

Despite those challenges, Hannah captured spellbinding, stripped back versions of rarely-played tracks like Vampire Blues, If You Got Love and Prime Of Life.

More revealing, however, was the footage she shot off the stage.

Large stretches of the film take place on a silver eagle tour bus, where Young rides shotgun beside his longtime driver, Jerry Don Burden.

Together, they shoot the breeze like Vladimir and Estragon - but rather than waiting for Godot, they're waiting for the next arena car park.

The conversations are wonderfully mundane. There is ample discussion of scenery, snacks and setlists ("people think they want to hear the hits, because that's all they've ever heard", Young observes.)

It's punctuated by stretches of companionable silence, where Young drums on his knees, or interacts with his son Ben, who was born with severe cerebral palsy.

Later, the musician emerges from the bathroom, stares into the camera and deadpans: "Now there's no risk of having to pee in the middle of the show".

Capturing that day-to-day normality was Hannah's motivation from the start.

"So many performers put on a persona, and Neil just does not have that quality at all. Whatever he's talking about with his bus driver, he continues talking about with the audience.

"People think of him as this intimidating, inscrutable person who'll make an album the record company refuses to put out," she continues, referring to the time Geffen Records sued Young for submitting two albums it considered "musically uncharacteristic".

Hannah says people who judge him on that basis have got it wrong.

"He just has an absolute, uncanny commitment to his creative muse," she argues.

"He's not driven by financial interests, he's not driven by self-aggrandisement, he's not driven by anything other than that creative force, and it's pretty incredible to witness.

"Having spent so much time with him, my perception is that he's completely guileless. He has a lot of warmth and innocence, so I wanted to show that."

Barred from America?

Young recently made headlines for pulling out of the Glastonbury Festival, saying the BBC had asked him "to do a lot of things" he was "not interested in".

He later backtracked, saying he'd received bad information, and will top the bill on the Pyramid Stage this June (Hannah jokes he'll serenade Glastonbury's livestock, in the style of his lockdown sessions).

But his European tour isn't without peril. Writing on his website, Young has shared concerns that he could be barred from the US upon his return, following a rise in the number of people being detained and deported upon entering the country.

"If I talk about Donald J Trump, I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminium blanket," he wrote.

Young, who holds dual Canadian-American citizenship, has long been an outspoken critic of President Trump, calling him "a disgrace to my country" and suing him for using the song Rockin' In the Free World on the campaign trail.

Hannah reveals her husband was harassed during the first Trump administration, as he went through the process of becoming a US citizen.

"They tried to every trick in the book to mess him up, and made him keep coming back to be re-interviewed and re-interviewed. It's ridiculous [because] he's been living in America and paying taxes here since he was in his 20s."

Despite that, she doesn't think Young will be prevented from entering the country.

"They've been detaining people who have green cards or visas – which is hideous and horrifying - but they have not, so far, been refusing to let American citizens back in the country, so I don't think that's going to happen."

Hannah will accompany Young to Glastonbury, and says she'll film his performance from the side of the stage (perhaps the BBC can use that footage, if all else fails).

The trip happens to fall on the 25th anniversary of her West End debut, in The Seven Year Itch. So, has she any desire to tread the boards again?

"Oh God, no," she exclaims. "I really loving directing, because I don't have to be the focus of things, and that's a much more comfortable position for me.

"I mean, never say never, but that's how I feel right now."

Neil Young: Coastal will be shown in cinemas on 17 April.