US comedian Jimmy Kimmel will return to his late-night talk show on Tuesday after he was suspended for making jokes relating to the death of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

Disney, which owns the US broadcast network that airs Jimmy Kimmel Live, said on Monday that it suspended the show because it "felt some of the comments were ill-timed and thus insensitive".

"We have spent the last days having thoughtful conversations with Jimmy, and after those conversations, we reached the decision to return the show on Tuesday," Disney said.

The comic's abrupt suspension came after threats by the federal tv regulator to revoke ABC's broadcast licence, sparking nationwide debates over free speech.

US President Donald Trump had welcomed Kimmel's suspension and suggested that some TV networks should have their licences "taken away" for negative coverage of the president.

Trump did not address Kimmel's reinstatement when a reporter asked about it during a White House event on Monday.

Critics and First Amendment advocates have railed against the decision as censorship and a violation of free speech.

Kimmel has not yet publicly addressed the suspension or the fallout.

The row started after Kimmel said in his monologue on 15 September that the "Maga gang" were "desperately trying to characterise this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them" and trying to "score political points from it".

He also made fun of Trump's reaction to the influencer's murder, showing a clip of the president responding to a quesiton about how he was mourning the death by changing the subject to construction of a new White House ballroom.

Kimmel compared the response to "how a four-year-old mourns a goldfish".

Brendan Carr, the Trump-appointed chair of broadcast regulator the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), threatened to act against ABC and its parent company Disney over Kimmel's remarks.

The spat comes as Vice President JD Vance and other White House allies have been pushing a national campaign to punish anyone who has criticised Kirk in the wake of his death.

Hours after Mr Carr made his initial remarks about Kimmel's monologue, Nexstar Media, one of the biggest owners of TV stations in the US, said it would not air Kimmel's show "for the foreseeable future".

Sinclair, the largest ABC affiliate group in the US, followed suit and ABC announced that it would "indefinitely" suspend the programme.

Mr Carr thanked Nexstar "for doing the right thing" and said he hoped other broadcasters would follow its lead. Nexstar is currently seeking FCC approval for its planned $6.2bn (£4.5bn) merger with Tegna.

Nexstar and Sinclair did not immediately respond on Monday to the BBC's requests for comment.

ABC's decision was met with protests in California and lambasted by the writers and actors guilds, lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alike, who argued that the suspension violates free speech rights and spurs a chilling effect.

Kimmel's late-night colleagues, including Jon Stewart, John Oliver and outgoing CBS host Stephen Colbert, rallied behind him and hundreds of celebrities and Hollywood creatives signed on to a letter backing Kimmel.

Ben Stiller, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep and Robert DeNiro are among those who called Kimmel's suspension a "dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation".

"At what point did we become North Korea?" That was the question Nigel Farage posed when asked by a US congressional committee about limitations on freedom of speech in the UK.

He was condemning the "awful authoritarian situation we have sunk into", which he claimed had led to various arrests including that of Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan over his views on challenging "a trans-identified male" in "a female-only space".

When I heard the question, I confess I thought that the leader of Reform UK had gone over the top.

Farage was comparing his country - my country - with a brutal dictatorship that murders, imprisons and tortures opponents.

And he was doing it in front of an influential audience of American lawmakers.

When I interviewed his deputy, Richard Tice on Radio 4's Today, I asked him whether he really believed that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was the same as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Three times I asked the question. Three times Tice swerved it, suggesting Farage was simply using "an analogy".

But Farage is not alone in questioning how far restrictions to freedom of speech have gone in the UK.

Tensions around the limits of free speech are nothing new and since the advent of social media in the mid-2000s, the arguments have been simmering.

Now, though, they're reaching a boiling point.

During his recent visit, US Vice-President JD Vance said he did not want the UK to go down a "very dark path" of losing free speech.

The US business magazine Forbes carried an editorial this month that took this argument further still.

In it, editor-in-chief Steve Forbes condemned the UK's "plunge into the kind of speech censorship usually associated with tin pot Third World dictatorships".

He argues that, in stark contrast to the United States - where free speech is protected by the first amendment to the constitution, "the UK has, with increasing vigour, been curbing what one is allowed to say, all in the name of fighting racism, sexism, Islamophobia, transgenderism, climate-change denial and whatever else the woke extremists conjure up".

So, how exactly did we get to the point where the UK is being compared to a dictatorship and, given how inflamed the conversation has become, what - if anything - would it take to turn down the heat?

Big tech dialled up the debate

The case of Lucy Connolly has become a cause celebre to some in the UK and beyond.

The former childminder from Northampton, who is married to a Conservative councillor, had posted an abhorrent message on X, calling for people to "set fire" to hotels housing asylum seekers following the murder of three young girls at a dance class in Southport in July 2024.

It was viewed hundreds of thousands of times at a time when the threat of violence was very real.

Connolly had pleaded guilty to inciting racial hatred by publishing and distributing "threatening or abusive" written material on X. And yet she was given the red carpet treatment at the Reform party conference, as "Britain's favourite political prisoner".

The length of her prison sentence - 31 months although she only served 40% before she was released - was questioned by many, including people who were appalled by what she had written.

It is just one case that highlights how much social media has changed the shape of the debate around free speech and made heroes and villains of ordinary people.

And I use the word "ordinary" deliberately because views similar to Connolly's will have been expressed up and down the land by others who might well have said, as she now does, "I was an idiot".

But while it's unlikely that any action would have been taken had she said what she did in a coffee shop or a bar, the fact she posted it on social media changed things.

What's more, big tech firms have changed their approach in recent years.

After Musk bought Twitter, which he re-named X, he changed content moderation, which he regards as "a propaganda word for censorship" - and he talks a lot about people spreading "the woke mind virus".

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has also changed the rules governing Meta and Instagram.

In the case of Connolly, her post was "accelerated by the algorithm" and spread far more widely, according to Lilian Edwards, an emeritus professor at Newcastle University.

Dilemma around policing speech

The arrest of Graham Linehan at Heathrow, too, raised further questions around policing freedom of speech - and put the way issues are handled under renewed scrutiny.

Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley has voiced his own concerns. "It's a nonsense to pretend that with all of the (online) content out there that enforcement is the answer to that," he has said.

What these cases both illustrate is the lack of consensus about what can and should be policed online in the UK, and by who.

And a lack of consensus too about how we can set apart the unpleasant, offensive, ugly and hateful things said online from those that are genuinely threatening or dangerous.

In the UK, the Human Rights Act does give protection to free speech but as a "qualified right".

This means that "governments can restrict that right… provided that the response is proportionate - [or] 'necessary in a democratic society' is what people tend to say", according to Lorna Woods, professor of internet law at the University of Essex.

But some of the comments made at the protest in London earlier this month, billed by far-right, anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson as a "free speech rally," demonstrate that, despite other controversies, that right isn't that qualified.

Like nailing jelly to the wall

"Violence is coming" and "you either fight back or die", the billionaire X owner Elon Musk told flag-waving protesters via video link.

Along with his call for the overthrow of the government, some might argue that his words at the rally were an incitement to violence.

But the UK's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, the barrister Jonathan Hall KC, has said that Musk's words would not have broken the law.

"Politicians use martial language all the time, don't they?" he told BBC Radio 4's Today. "Metaphors such as fights and struggles are pretty normal. And he was talking about it contingently, wasn't he? He wasn't saying: 'Go out immediately.'"

Yet the fact both men were able to address a huge crowd in London is perhaps evidence that there is rather more leeway for free speech in this country than those likening the UK to a "tin pot dictatorship" suggest.

According to Essex University's Prof Lorna Woods, the lowest level of views that can be prosecuted in British criminal law are those deemed "grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character".

These are concepts that few people without a law degree could easily define, let alone agree upon.

It is the job of the police initially, but ultimately the courts, to try to nail that particular piece of jelly to the wall.

The UK is "out of whack" with other countries, according to Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister who later became right-hand man to Zuckerberg. He believes the UK needs to "think long and hard" about "whether we've overdone it" on policing speech.

"Surely part of the definition of being in a free society is people say ghastly things, offensive things, awful things, ugly things, and we don't sweep them under the carpet," he has said.

Free speech versus 'me speech'

What the British public want is another story.

Earlier this month, in a survey by YouGov, 5,035 British adults were asked what was most important when it came to online behaviour: 28% said it was that people were able to express themselves freely but 61% prioritised keeping them safe from threats and abuse.

"People tend to prefer safety to free speech [online]," argues Anthony Wells, a director at YouGov.

What's more, there seems to be a generational divide.

In my conversations with young people in their 20s and 30s - the age of my own children - I often hear the view that far from being an ideal to be strived for, free speech is the cause of much of the anger, division and fear they live with every day.

In recent years a "cancel culture" has emerged in which those with "unacceptable" views can be hounded out of their jobs, no platformed as speakers or intimidated as students.

Even back in 2021, a YouGov poll of Britons found that a majority of those surveyed - some 57% - had sometimes stopped themselves from expressing political or social views because of the fear of being judged or negative responses.

For those who believe that free speech is under threat in the country, these figures can be used as evidence that decades of political correctness has had a chilling effect on people's ability to express their opinions.

"Our definitions of what constitutes hate speech, and I think a very broadened definition of what constitutes harm, is meaning that people feel like they are walking on eggshells and they're frightened - not just that they'll have the police around, but that they'll be cancelled if they say the wrong thing," the former Brexit Party MEP Baroness Claire Fox told the BBC's The World Tonight.

But dig deeper and this debate, like so much else, is also about politics and the deepening and, increasingly, angry and violent divisions in our society.

What can America teach us?

Even with its constitutional protection for free speech, plenty in the UK question what basis Americans have to lecture Britain on free speech, given the arguments they are having back at home.

The anger and division sparked by the assassination of the conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk in Utah this month ramped up the debate further on that side of the Atlantic over where the boundaries should lie between what is offensive, hateful and dangerous.

Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi appalled many conservatives when she declared that, "There's free speech and then there's hate speech".

It seemed to take her into precisely the territory, which has caused so many problems here in the UK.

President Trump himself has threatened to sue the New York Times for $15bn (£11bn) over what he calls defamation and libel, adding to the long list of media outlets he has taken to the courts over stories - the newspaper has called it "intimidation tactics" - and he celebrated the sacking of the late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel as "great news for America".

The US historian Tim Snyder, who is an outspoken public critic of the direction America is heading under Trump believes that free speech should be distinguished from what he calls "me speech".

"Me speech is a common practice among rich and influential Americans," writes Mr Snyder. "Practitioners of me speech use the phrase free speech quite a bit.

"But what they mean is free speech for themselves. They want a monopoly on it.

"They believe that they are right about everything, and so they should always have giant platforms, in real life or on social media.

"The people with whom they disagree, however, should be called out and intimidated in an organised way on social media, or subjected to algorithmic discrimination so that their voices are not heard."

As much about listening

This issue is one I've felt strongly about for as long as I can remember. My grandparents knew first hand what it was to be persecuted for who you were and what you thought or said. They were German Jews who fled the Nazis for what then was the relative security of China and later had to flee the Communists there.

As a child, I recall watching in reverential silence as each day, after lunch, my grandfather held a huge radio on his lap and turned the dial, skipping stations until he found the BBC World Service. There, he had learned, he would find news he could trust and speech which was free of political control.

So important was this to him that he had risked hiding with his wife and daughter (my mother) in a cupboard in their home in Shanghai to listen to it on a banned shortwave radio.

That is why I find any comparison between the UK and a dictatorship a little hard to swallow.

What I learned as the grandchild of those who had fled not one but two murderous ideologies was that free speech was about listening as much as talking.

What mattered above all else is being able to hear both sides of an argument and learn the facts behind them - without having that information controlled by governments, rich and powerful media owners, or anyone else.

Nick Robinson is presenter of BBC Radio 4's Today programme and Political Thinking.

Top image credit: Carlos Jasso / Getty Images

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The UK government should offer discount visas to US cancer scientists who have had their research cancelled by the Trump administration, Sir Ed Davey will say.

"The UK should step up and say: If Trump won't back this research, we will," the Liberal Democrat leader will say in a speech to his party's conference in Bournemouth on Tuesday.

He will propose the setting up of a fellowship scheme for US scientists seeking to escape the US government's "anti-science agenda".

The Lib Dem leader has stepped up his attacks on the US president this week and accused Reform UK leader Nigel Farage of wanting to turn the UK into "Trump's America".

His staunch criticism of Farage, President Trump and his allies is expected to be a big theme of Sir Ed's keynote speech on the final day of his party's conference.

In February, the US government cut billions of dollars from overheads in grants for biomedical research as a part of broader cost-saving measures.

The US government said it was "vital to ensure that as many funds as possible go towards direct scientific research costs rather than administrative overheads".

At the time, the boss of the American Society of Clinical Oncology said the move "would be devastating to the pace and progress of cancer research in America".

"Slashing federal research funding at a time when science is revolutionising cancer care risks leaving millions of patients without the promise and potential of life-saving breakthroughs," said Clifford Hudis.

According to a poll conducted by the Nature journal, 75% of its readers were considering leaving the US and heading to Europe or Canada as a result of the actions of Trump.

The Liberal Democrats have not set out what level of discounts the UK government should offer to researchers wanting to come to the UK. Costs to purchase a visa can exceed £1,000.

In his conference speech, Sir Ed will argue that the UK should be "stepping into the vacuum left by Trump's anti-science agenda - leading the world in the fight against cancer".

The Liberal Democrat leader is also expected to criticise Reform UK party members for applauding a US decision to cut research for mRNA vaccines.

Twenty-two projects had been examining how the vaccine technology could counter viruses such as bird flu.

Sir Ed will say: "It is hard to express the cruelty and stupidity of cutting off research into medicine that has the power to save so many lives."

In addition to criticising Trump, Sir Ed has also been increasingly vocal in his attacks on the billionaire and former Trump ally Elon Musk.

On Sunday, he called on the UK's communications regulator Ofcom to "go after" Musk over "crimes" he claims are being committed on the tech mogul's social media platform X.

Sir Ed has also accused Musk of "inciting violence" when he addressed a rally in London via video link. In response, the X owner called the Liberal Democrat leader a "craven coward".

Asked by Sky News if he was worried about legal threats from Musk, Sir Ed said: "If he ... sues me, let's see how he fares, because I don't think he'll win."

The Lib Dems have become well known for their political stunts alongside a policy offer focused on social care and other priorities under Sir Ed's leadership.

It brought them success at last year's general election, with the party winning 72 seats in the House of Commons - its highest ever share.

But the Lib Dems have struck a more serious tone at this year's conference, as the party considers it's next move ahead of local elections next year.

On the opening night of the conference, former Lib Dem leader Tim Farron draped himself in a flag and called on members to "reclaim patriotism" from the far right.

Farron told a hall full of activists to "stop being so flaming squeamish and English" and reclaim the UK's flags from groups who seek to "divide and destroy".

Unusually for the Lib Dems, they have gone out of their way to claim that they are the true patriots, in contrast to Farage, who they have dubbed a "plastic patriot".

In an interview with the BBC, Sir Ed said his party has a moral duty to keep Farage and his Reform UK party out of power.

Trump officials are expected to link the use of pain reliever Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, according to US media reports.

At an Oval Office event on Monday, the US president will reportedly advise pregnant women in the US to only take Tylenol, known as paracetamol elsewhere, to relieve high fevers.

At the Charlie Kirk memorial service on Sunday, Trump said he had an "amazing" announcement coming on autism, saying it was "out of control" but they might now have a reason why.

Some studies have shown a link between pregnant women taking Tylenol and autism, but these findings are inconsistent and do not prove the drug causes autism.

Tylenol is a popular brand of pain relief medication sold in the United States, Canada and some other countries. Its active ingredient is acetaminophen, which is called paracetamol outside North America.

Tylenol maker Kenvue has defended the use of the drug in pregnant women.

In a statement to the BBC, it said: "We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers."

Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women, it added, and without it, women face a dangerous choice between suffering through conditions like fever or use riskier alternatives.

The BBC has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.

In April, the leader of HHS, Robert F Kennedy Jr, pledged "a massive testing and research effort" to determine the cause of autism in five months.

But experts have cautioned that finding the causes of autism - a complex syndrome that has been researched for decades - would not be simple.

The widely held view of researchers is that there is no single cause of autism, which is thought to be the result of a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.

• Tylenol-maker shares hit after report of autism link

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology said doctors across the country have consistently identified Tylenol as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant women.

"[S]tudies that have been conducted in the past, show no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during any trimester and fetal developmental issues," the group has said.

The drug is recommended by other major medical groups as well as other governments around the world.

In August, a review of research led by the dean of Harvard University's Chan School of Public Health found that children may be more likely to develop autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders when exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy.

The researchers argued some steps should be taken to limit use of the drug, but said the pain reliever was still important for treating maternal fever and pain, which can also have negative effects for children.

But another study, published in 2024, found no relationship between exposure to Tylenol and autism.

"There is no robust evidence or convincing studies to suggest there is any causal relationship," said Monique Botha, a professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University.

Dr Botha added that pain relief for pregnant women was "woefully lacking", with Tylenol being one of the only safe options for the population.

Autism diagnoses have increased sharply since 2000, and by 2020 the rate among 8-year-olds reached 2.77%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Scientists attribute at least part of the rise to increased awareness of autism and an expanding definition of the disorder. Researchers have also been investigating environmental factors.

In the past, Kennedy has offered debunked theories about the rising rates of autism, blaming vaccines despite a lack of evidence.

All flights to and from Denmark's largest airport have been suspended after drone sightings, police have said.

Between two to three large drones were seen flying in the area around Copenhagen Airport, according to authorities.

Take-offs and landings at the airport have been suspended since around 20:30 local time (19:30 BST).

"[The airport] is currently closed for take-off and landing, as 2-3 large drones have been seen flying in the area. The time horizon is currently unknown," police said in a statement on X.

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.

France has formally recognised a Palestinian state, becoming the latest in a wave of countries to take the step.

Speaking at the UN in New York, President Emmanuel Macron said "the time for peace has come" and that "nothing justifies the ongoing war in Gaza".

France and Saudi Arabia are hosting a one-day summit at the UN General Assembly focused on plans for a two-state solution to the conflict. G7 states Germany, Italy, and the US did not attend.

Macron confirmed that Belgium, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra and San Marino would also recognise a Palestinian state, after the UK, Canada, Australia and Portugal announced recognition on Sunday.

International pressure is ramping up on Israel over the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Gaza and settlement building in the West Bank.

Israel has said recognition would reward Hamas for the Palestinian armed group's 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and 251 people were taken hostage.

More than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry. Israeli forces are currently carrying out a ground offensive aimed at taking control of Gaza City, where a million people were living and a famine was confirmed last month.

The French leader told the conference that the time had come to stop the war and free the remaining Israeli hostages held by Hamas. He warned against the "peril of endless wars" and said "right must always prevail over might".

The international community had failed to build a just and lasting peace n the Middle East, he said, adding that "we must do everything in our power to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution" that would see "Israel and Palestine side by side in peace and security".

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud also addressed the UN, on behalf of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

He reiterated that a two-state solution was the only way to achieve lasting peace in the region.

UN secretary general Antonio Guterres referred to the situation in Gaza as "morally, legally and politically intolerable" and said a two-state solution was the "only credible path" for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas - who was blocked from attending the UN General Assembly in person after the US revoked his and other Palestinian officials' visas - addressed the conference via videolink.

He called for a permanent ceasefire and said Hamas could have no role in governing Gaza, calling for the group to "surrender their weapons" to the Palestinian Authority (PA).

"What we want is one unified state without weapons," he said.

Abbas also condemned Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on southern Israel and addressed Israelis saying: "Our future and yours depends on peace. Enough violence and war."

Macron said France was ready to contribute to a "stabilisation mission" in Gaza and called for a transitional administration involving the PA that would oversee the dismantling of Hamas.

He said France would only open an embassy to a Palestinian state when all the hostages being held by Hamas are released and a ceasefire had been agreed.

Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Dannon spoke to reporters shortly before Macron's announcement.

Dannon said a two-state solution was taken "off the table" after the 7 October attack and called this week's talks at the UN a "charade". He also refused to rule out Israel annexing the occupied West Bank.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted there will be no Palestinian state to the west of the River Jordan, and President Isaac Herzog said recognising one would only "embolden the forces of darkness".

Ahead of Macron's announcement, the Palestinian and Israeli flags were displayed on the Eiffel Tower on Sunday night. A number of town halls in France also flew Palestinian flags on Monday, despite a government order to local prefects to maintain neutrality.

Pro-Palestinian protests also took place in some 80 towns and cities across Italy, where Giorgia Meloni's government said recently it could be "counter-productive" to recognise a state that did not exist.

In Germany, the government has said Palestinian statehood is not currently up for debate, and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul explained as he left for New York on Monday that "for Germany, recognition of a Palestinian state comes more at the end of the process. But this process must begin now".

GPs in England are being urged to "think again" if they see a sick patient three times and can't pin down a diagnosis, or find their symptoms are getting worse.

The new NHS initiative, called Jess's Rule, is named after Jessica Brady who contacted her GP on more than 20 occasions after starting to feel unwell in the summer of 2020.

She was told her symptoms were related to long Covid and that she was "too young for cancer". She died from advanced stage 4 cancer later that year, aged 27.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said her death was "a preventable and unnecessary tragedy" and the rule would improve patient safety by helping GPs "catch potentially deadly illnesses".

'Her body was failing her'

Jessica Brady was a talented engineer at Airbus, involved in the design of satellites.

Her mum, Andrea, told Radio 4's Today programme that Jess was a very healthy young woman when the pandemic hit in 2020.

But in July of that year, she didn't feel right and contacted her GP practice repeatedly over the next five months about her symptoms.

Over time they became "increasingly debilitating", Andrea says.

"She had unintentionally lost quite a lot of weight, had night sweats, chronic fatigue, a persistent cough and very enlarged lymph nodes.

"But because of her age, it was obviously considered there wasn't anything wrong."

Jess had contact with six different doctors at her GP surgery and three face-to-face consultations with a family doctor, but no referral to a specialist was made.

"Her body was failing her," says Andrea.

"It was hard for Jess to advocate for herself. She was saying 'What's the point? Nothing will happen.'"

When the family decided to arrange a private appointment and she was referred to a specialist, it was too late.

Jess was given a terminal cancer diagnosis in November and died three weeks later - just days before Christmas 2020.

The family hopes Jess's Rule will help to increase awareness of the importance of GPs acting quickly for patients who are steadily deteriorating.

"She wanted to make a difference," Andrea says.

"Jess knew her delayed diagnosis was instrumental in the fact she had no treatment options open to her, only palliative care.

"She felt strongly she didn't want this to happen to other people."

Jess's Rule is not a law, but a strong reminder to GPs to take a "three strikes and rethink approach" after three appointments, to prevent avoidable deaths.

This could mean arranging face-to-face consultations with a patient previously only spoken to on the phone, ordering extra tests or asking for a second opinion from a colleague. GPs should also consider referring patients to a specialist.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), which was involved in drawing up the guidance, said no doctor ever wanted to miss signs of serious illness, such as cancer.

"Many conditions, including many cancers, are challenging to identify in primary care because the symptoms are often similar to other, less serious and more common conditions," said Prof Kamila Hawthorne, chair of RCGP.

"If a patient repeatedly presents with the same or similar symptoms, but the treatment plan does not seem to be making them better - or their condition is deteriorating - it is best practice to review the diagnosis and consider alternative approaches."

Research suggests younger patients and people from ethnic minority backgrounds often face delays before being diagnosed with a serious condition, because their symptoms don't appear similar to white or older patients.

RCGP has worked with Jess Brady's family to develop an educational resource for GPs on the early diagnosis of cancer in young adults.

The Department of Health said many GP practices already used the correct approach, but that Jess' s Rule would make this "standard practice across the country".

Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting thanked Jess's family, saying they had campaigned tirelessly through "unimaginable grief" to ensure Jessica's legacy helps to save the lives of others.

"Patient safety must be the bedrock of the NHS, and Jess's Rule will make sure every patient receives the thorough, compassionate, and safe care that they deserve, while supporting our hard-working GPs to catch potentially deadly illnesses," he said.

Paul Callaghan, from Healthwatch England, which represents people who use health and social care services, said the rule should be implemented "quickly and consistently".

"It's also imperative that specialist teams have the resources to deal with potential increases in demand, resulting from increased referrals," he said.

Trump officials are expected to link the use of pain reliever Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, according to US media reports.

At an Oval Office event on Monday, the US president will reportedly advise pregnant women in the US to only take Tylenol, known as paracetamol elsewhere, to relieve high fevers.

At the Charlie Kirk memorial service on Sunday, Trump said he had an "amazing" announcement coming on autism, saying it was "out of control" but they might now have a reason why.

Some studies have shown a link between pregnant women taking Tylenol and autism, but these findings are inconsistent and do not prove the drug causes autism.

Tylenol is a popular brand of pain relief medication sold in the United States, Canada and some other countries. Its active ingredient is acetaminophen, which is called paracetamol outside North America.

Tylenol maker Kenvue has defended the use of the drug in pregnant women.

In a statement to the BBC, it said: "We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers."

Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women, it added, and without it, women face a dangerous choice between suffering through conditions like fever or use riskier alternatives.

The BBC has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.

In April, the leader of HHS, Robert F Kennedy Jr, pledged "a massive testing and research effort" to determine the cause of autism in five months.

But experts have cautioned that finding the causes of autism - a complex syndrome that has been researched for decades - would not be simple.

The widely held view of researchers is that there is no single cause of autism, which is thought to be the result of a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.

• Tylenol-maker shares hit after report of autism link

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology said doctors across the country have consistently identified Tylenol as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant women.

"[S]tudies that have been conducted in the past, show no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during any trimester and fetal developmental issues," the group has said.

The drug is recommended by other major medical groups as well as other governments around the world.

In August, a review of research led by the dean of Harvard University's Chan School of Public Health found that children may be more likely to develop autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders when exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy.

The researchers argued some steps should be taken to limit use of the drug, but said the pain reliever was still important for treating maternal fever and pain, which can also have negative effects for children.

But another study, published in 2024, found no relationship between exposure to Tylenol and autism.

"There is no robust evidence or convincing studies to suggest there is any causal relationship," said Monique Botha, a professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University.

Dr Botha added that pain relief for pregnant women was "woefully lacking", with Tylenol being one of the only safe options for the population.

Autism diagnoses have increased sharply since 2000, and by 2020 the rate among 8-year-olds reached 2.77%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Scientists attribute at least part of the rise to increased awareness of autism and an expanding definition of the disorder. Researchers have also been investigating environmental factors.

In the past, Kennedy has offered debunked theories about the rising rates of autism, blaming vaccines despite a lack of evidence.

All flights to and from Denmark's largest airport have been suspended after drone sightings, police have said.

Between two to three large drones were seen flying in the area around Copenhagen Airport, according to authorities.

Take-offs and landings at the airport have been suspended since around 20:30 local time (19:30 BST).

"[The airport] is currently closed for take-off and landing, as 2-3 large drones have been seen flying in the area. The time horizon is currently unknown," police said in a statement on X.

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Families of elderly residents at one of Scotland's largest care homes have accused its owners of "cruelty" and "neglect" after a BBC investigation revealed a series of care failures.

As a BBC Disclosure reporter, I worked undercover as a cleaner in Castlehill Care Home in Inverness for seven weeks over the summer.

In that time, I saw vulnerable elderly people left sitting alone for hours in urine-soaked clothes or lying in wet bedsheets, often calling out for help.

I also saw a female residents screaming in distress over male carers doing intimate personal care, due to chronic staff shortages.

During the period I was undercover the home was in special measures because of improvement notices issued by regulator, the Care Inspectorate.

The watchdog said it "continued to have concerns" about care at Castlehill and was monitoring it.

Castlehill Care Home said it operated to the highest clinical standards, in accordance with a personal care plan, which is agreed with families.

The care home tried unsuccessfully to take the BBC to court to prevent the documentary being broadcast.

Warning: This story features details which viewers may find upsetting

Operated by Morar Living, Castlehill is the biggest care home in Inverness, with beds for 88 people.

It is billed as a luxury home, offering "kind, compassionate and specialist" dementia care, and it costs up to £1,800 per week to live there.

Many residents pay for their care themselves while others are paid for by the state.

NHS Highland has paid almost £10m in fees to Castlehill since it opened in 2019.

In my time working as a housekeeper at the home, I witnessed concerning medical care, which left one woman who was living with dementia in extreme distress on a regular basis.

Her illness had led to her pulling off her stoma bag that collects bodily waste from the abdomen.

Care staff were supposed to support her and reattach the bag but were often too busy, leaving the woman wandering around the home screaming for help - in one instance for more than an hour.

This happened seven times while I was in Castlehill and often led to excrement being left around the corridors and lounges.

At other times, residents were left sitting in chairs for up to eight hours at a time, with little stimulation other than a TV on the wall.

One woman's daughter complained to me that her mother hadn't been showered for two weeks. Her mother added: "There's no one around to shower you".

While I was in the home, I noticed that some residents simply wanted to go outside but in my seven weeks working at Castlehill I saw residents taken outside only a handful of times.

One elderly man with dementia was able, several times, to bypass code-access security doors, which are meant to ensure vulnerable people stayed safely on their own floor.

He was usually intercepted at reception but one morning I found him walking out of the front door.

He had got down in the lift past two security doors.

I had to intervene to ensure his safety.

The BBC investigation began after Disclosure spoke to Susan Christie, whose father moved to Castlehill in 2023 after showing symptoms of dementia.

"We looked at Castlehill and we just fell in love with the place. It was an absolute dream," she said.

"They had a piano as you went into the entrance. It had a cinema room. It's absolutely beautiful. It's a stunning building."

Susan began to have concerns about her father's care after finding him wet with urine when she visited.

She was so concerned that in April she installed a secret camera in his bedroom.

"The first day or two of footage, it was things that I already suspected," she said.

"He wasn't being washed properly, he was being left in an incontinence pad for in excess of 12 hours, never taken to the toilet, food placed out of reach, spilling hot porridge on himself.

"It was neglect."

The camera also recorded a carer drinking from his juice jug.

It was noted in the Care App, a digital record of residents' daily care updates, that Susan's father had drunk fluids directly from the jug. He hadn't.

On another occasion, Susan watched as two carers spoke to her dad about going for a shower.

He has had a lifelong fear of being showered due to an incident in his childhood. It was recorded in his care plan that he requires a bath or bed wash.

Susan said: "I watched a 23-minute interaction, and the word 'shower,' which my dad is afraid of, was mentioned on 22 occasions. That's almost once a minute.

"I watched him become more and more distressed. This seemed to be like a game to them."

The final straw came when a cleaner was filmed restraining the elderly man and violently shaking the bed frame before prodding him with a walking stick.

"I'd had enough," said Susan.

She moved him out of Castlehill in May.

In the week after he left, Susan says staff continued to record in the Care App that he was sleeping well and was comfortable in bed.

Susan complained about her dad's treatment at Castlehill to the Care Inspectorate. Her complaint was upheld in full and the cleaner was sacked.

She also reported two carers to their regulatory body.

Susan was not the only person to complain.

Freedom of Information requests show that no other care home in Scotland had more complaints upheld against it in 2024 than Castlehill. There were 10 in total.

Many of the issues related to short staffing, which was a chronic problem when I worked there.

It was clear to me that there were some staff who cared about residents and were driven by making their lives better, but there simply weren't enough of them to do that on a regular basis.

On one weekend shift working in the home in July, several staff called in sick, leaving two carers and a nurse to manage a floor of 23 residents, many of whom had dementia and mobility issues.

It resulted in distressed residents calling out from their beds throughout the day for help to get washed and dressed, and to go to the toilet.

At other times, staff failed to change continence aids regularly enough. This was a particular problem on level one, known as the dementia floor.

One resident could be seen leaving a trail of footprints in urine as he walked in a loop around the home's corridors.

When I was cleaning on floor one, I sometimes heard women screaming from behind their bedroom doors because they didn't want to be washed and dressed by male carers.

One morning I knocked on the door to offer help.

The room belonged to a 73-year-old called Rachel, a former nurse who had spent her life caring for others.

I showed the footage from that incident, and another, to Rachel's daughter-in-law, Linda Larkin.

"She was completely distressed," Linda said.

"She was wringing her hands. She was scared. I trusted them. And they've seriously let us down, and they've let her down. That's cruelty."

Linda said she felt "betrayed" that Rachel was repeatedly given intimate personal care by male carers, despite express wishes from her family for female carers.

"It was one of the things that Rachel had always said to us", she said.

"'I don't mind men being around men, but I don't want men to do my personal care. Please, please, if I end up in a care home, don't allow that to happen'.

"So, it was something that me and my husband were really strict about. We thought that was being respected."

The family are now in the process of moving Rachel to a new home.

We asked nursing consultant and former chief nurse of the Care Inspectorate, Dr Jane Douglas, to review some of the secret footage.

She said: "There clearly wasn't enough staff to support these people who had very complex care needs, and there was a lot going on.

"People were very unsettled in that environment and there wasn't a presence of enough people, as in staff, to support them.

"Where there was good interaction, they responded positively to that. But I think that was minimal."

Dr Douglas added: "For as long as I've worked in the sector, staffing has always been an issue. Recruiting staff, but retaining staff is an issue as well.

"We're also competing with supermarkets and other employers, who pay more money."

Castlehill pays carers £13 per hour. This is in line with other care homes.

Morar Living operates 18 care homes across the UK.

Internal documents show it expects to make pre-tax profits of more than £90m in the next five years.

It also projects the company will be worth more than £500m by 2027.

A spokesperson for Castlehill Care Home, which trades under the name Simply Inverness, said: "Each resident's wellbeing is consistently monitored and evaluated to inform the level of care required.

"During the period in question, independent external third parties were routinely in the home."

The spokesperson added that a clinical lead has been appointed to "oversee extra support for the most vulnerable residents" and said the company is investing more than £1m to refurbish the home.

The BBC has spoken to several families who say they have seen improvements in the past month.

I also witnessed more activities and engagement with residents in my final week there in August.

'We are monitoring the home closely'

Castlehill has been the subject of two multi-agency large scale investigations in the past five years - one is still ongoing.

In May, the Care Inspectorate issued it with an improvement notice after grading it as "unsatisfactory" in three key areas.

The home was warned if it did not make improvements in care planning, staffing, leadership and the care of residents, it could lose its registration and close.

Inspectors carried out regular checks and Castlehill was issued with further improvement notice targets and deadlines over the course of the summer, during the time the BBC was investigating.

A spokesperson for the Care Inspectorate said: "While the service met the conditions set out in the Improvement Notice, there are outstanding requirements from the previous inspection in May 2025 that we are following up on.

"We continue to have concerns about the care experienced by residents and we are monitoring the home closely.

"We will not hesitate to take further action where it is required."

A spokesperson for Highland Health and Social Care Partnership said: "We have a responsibility as a lead partner with regards to Adult Support and Protection and we have clear expectations of standards to be met by any care home provider in Highland. The provider of Castlehill care home has not met those standards.

"At this time care home admissions remain suspended."

Additional reporting by Mona McAlinden, Anton Ferrie and Kevin Anderson.

If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, information and support can be found at the BBC's Action Line.

All remaining Bodycare stores are to shut with the loss of 444 jobs.

Administrators said the business was "no longer viable to continue" trading and a sale of the stores was "now unlikely".

As a result the chain's remaining 56 stores will shut, the administrators said, with the closures expected to take place by this Saturday.

A spokesperson for the administrators said the company would "continue to provide all support to those impacted".

Nick Holloway, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said they would "continue to explore options for the Company's assets, including the Bodycare brand, and will provide further updates in due course".

Bodycare was founded in Lancashire in 1970. Its store layouts were known for their bright lighting and window displays that often feature piles of toilet tissue or pyramids of washing up powder.

It also offered warehouse-style display shelves packed with goods such as lip balm, perfume, false nails and foot cream.

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The event honouring conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a stadium in Arizona was a swirling mix of memorial service, big-church Christian religious revival and conservative political rally.

It also provided a glimpse of a Republican Party at a fork in the road, weighing a choice between forgiveness and retribution; reconciliation and conflict.

The leading lights of President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again coalition gathered for an hours-long celebration of Kirk's life, which included music and plenty of speeches.

The event provided a glimpse at the potential direction of travel for Trump's Maga movement, more than a decade after it emerged and upended US politics.

Erika Kirk a possible future star

Despite the string of prominent politicians speaking on Sunday night, the defining moment came when Erika Kirk, Charlie's widow, took the stage. The 36-year-old former beauty contestant, podcaster and businesswoman took the opportunity to preach unity - including forgiveness for her husband's killer.

"The answer to hate is not hate," she said, her voice cracking. "The answer, we know from the Gospel, is love and always love. Love for our enemies, and love for those who persecute us."

It was a powerful speech from a woman who has quickly found her footing in the harshest of spotlights. Last week, Turning Point USA named her the head of the conservative youth organization that her late husband founded, a group that is flush with new energy and determination in the aftermath of Kirk's murder.

Sunday night proved Erika Kirk has the strength and character to be an effective public face for the Turning Point USA.

She eventually could become a formidable candidate for public office in her home of Arizona, a key political battleground state. Her words also offered a contrast to the bombast and confrontation that has typified most of modern American politics.

Trump's call to arms

If Erika Kirk offered a glimpse of a possible kinder, gentler future for the conservative movement, Donald Trump, who spoke immediately after her, provided a quick reminder that the Republican Party of today may have very different priorities.

"I hate my opponents, and I don't want what's best for them," Trump said with a chuckle. "Now Erika can talk to me and the whole group and maybe they can convince me that's not right, but I can't stand my opponent."

Trump's remarks come just a day after a Truth Social Post in which the president demanded that his Justice Department prosecute his political enemies – including California Senator Adam Schiff, former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James.

• Trump hails Kirk as martyr at memorial service

The president also announced that he had fired a federal prosecutor who had recently announced that there was not enough evidence to charge James with a crime, replacing him with one of his former defence attorneys.

Trump's remarks at the memorial service were jarring for the occasion, but he was not the only speaker to use the moment to promise action against "enemies".

"We are the storm," said senior White House adviser Stephen Miller. "Our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion."

He went on to say that conservatives would fight for Western culture and traditions and that their opponents have nothing but wickedness and jealousy.

"You have no idea the dragon you have awakened," he said.

Hints of a religious revival

While the event had its discordant notes, the overall theme was akin to a religious revival – reminiscent of Billy Graham's tent crusades of the 1930 and 1940s or the "great awakenings" of the 19th Century.

The memorial service celebrated Charlie Kirk's Christianity and promised a new enthusiasm among young Americans for traditional values with an evangelical fervour.

Tens of thousands of supporters packed the stadium and millions more watched online. Those numbers are sure to be encouraging for conservative leaders who want to see Christianity play a more central role in American public and political life – a view that Kirk himself repeatedly expressed.

"The body politic of America was so Christian and was so Protestant that our form and structure of government was built for the people that believed in Christ our Lord," Kirk said in 2024. "You cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population."

While Christianity has declined in the US in recent years, it is still the majority faith. Most surveys show that younger Americans are less religious than their elders, however, indicating that further shifts could be in store.

Kirk's death may prompt a religious awakening among American youth. If it doesn't, however, Sunday night's evangelical rhetoric could exclude as much as it unites – further exacerbating cultural and political divides in the nation.

Presidential ambitions on display

We're only nine months into Trump's second term, but Sunday night also may have been an opening skirmish in the 2028 Republican presidential nomination contest.

Three potential contenders – Vice-President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr – had prominent speaking slots.

All three talked of the importance of their relationship with Kirk and their personal religion – providing more focused, traditional eulogies that contrasted sharply with Trump's speech. But there was still a forward-looking political edge to them.

"For Charlie, we will rebuild this United States of America to greatness," Vance said. "For Charlie, we will never shrink, we will never cower, and we will never falter, even when we are staring down the barrel of a gun."

Kennedy described of how Kirk "changed the trajectory of history" – and the risks of challenging "entrenched interests". Rubio praised Kirk for inspiring Americans to "live a productive life, get married, start a family, love your country."

Trump, of course, was a prominent speaker at the rally, but the president of the United States was not the dominant force the way he often is at political events.

Conservatives on Sunday began to get a taste of those who might become key players on the national stage once Trump leaves the scene.

An unexpected Musk reconciliation

Speaking of key players, Sunday night saw the return of one of the most prominent figures in the early days of Trump's second term.

Tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk, who was a close confidante of Trump's before a dramatic public falling out in June, visited the president's box at the Phoenix event and had what appeared to be a friendly chat.

"I thought it was nice," Trump told reporters afterwards. "He came over; we had a conversation."

Musk, who headed Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency" earlier this year, oversaw sweeping federal layoffs and attempted budget cuts.

He broke with the president over a $3.4bn congressional spending bill, however, and later promised to start his own political party.

A Trump-Musk reconciliation was certainly not the most significant development from the memorial service, but it may be one of the most unexpected - and who knows where it may lead.

The Duchess of York has been removed as patron of a children's charity, in the wake of an email in which she called sex offender Jeffrey Epstein her "supreme friend".

Julia's House, a children's hospice charity serving families in Dorset and Wiltshire, has removed Sarah Ferguson from her role as patron.

"Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York's correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia's House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity," said a Julia's House spokesperson.

"We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support," said the statement.

The decision to end the link with the duchess follows the publication of an email from her to Epstein in 2011, which appears to have been sent after she had publicly broken off contact with him.

The email appeared to privately apologise for her public rejection of Epstein, saying: "You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family."

A spokesperson for the duchess - the former wife of the Prince Andrew, the Duke of York - said the email was to counter a threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation.

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Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey has said his party has a moral duty to keep Nigel Farage and his Reform UK party out of power.

Speaking to the BBC at his party's autumn conference, Sir Ed said voters were turning away from Labour and the Conservatives and some were attracted by Reform.

However, he argued that the Liberal Democrats could be the alternative by offering "radical change... in tune with British values".

In contrast, he said Farage wanted the UK to "be like Trump's America".

In last year's general election, the Lib Dems won 72 seats while Reform won five, however in recent months Farage's party has led opinion polls.

Sir Ed told the BBC's political editor Chris Mason his party had "momentum" but acknowledged that was "not quite reflected in the polls as much as I would like to see".

"We have a challenge. We have got to take the fight to Reform."

Asked how he could win over Reform voters, Sir Ed said people were worried about illegal immigration and that his party was urging the government to call a national emergency to deal with the backlog in processing asylum claims.

"If we get rid of that asylum backlog and close the asylum hotels, I think that would reassure many communities."

He argued that in addition to immigration, voters were also worried about the cost of living and said the Lib Dems had policies which would bring down energy bills.

At its autumn conference in Bournemouth, the Liberal Democrats have been handing out Lego models of "plastic patriot" Nigel Farage.

Asked if his party was obsessed with or frightened by Farage, Sir Ed said: "I am certainly not frightened - the issue is we need to expose him.

"I think the more he comes under scrutiny the more he will be seen to fail."

Sir Ed argued that a Reform government would make the UK more "like Trump's America" adding: "I think that'll be harsh and it's not true to British values."

He said his party offered "the change that is in tune with those values - to have a decent caring country".

He said voters had "lost trust" in a Labour government that had "failed" and his party could provide an alternative.

The Liberal Democrat leader criticised the BBC's coverage of Reform UK and accused the BBC News website of failing to provide "enough scrutiny" of Farage's party.

"We're seeing some improvements and long it may continue because the BBC has a really important role.

"That's one of the reasons why Liberal Democrats have championed the BBC and when it's not performing that role it's not unreasonable is it for people to call it out."

A BBC spokesperson says: "The BBC is committed to achieving due impartiality in all its output and gives appropriate levels of scrutiny to all political parties."

A French murder trial that opened Monday has transfixed the public because of the mystery at its core: where is the victim's body?

Cédric Jubillar, a 38 year-old painter-decorator, is accused of killing his wife Delphine nearly five years ago in a fit of jealous rage.

He has always denied the charges and, other than circumstantial evidence, investigators have struggled to build a case. There is no body, no blood, no confession, and no witness.

With its unexplained central fact and its cast of characters from small-town southern France, the affair has become a social media sensation.

Self-declared investigators have set up countless chat groups where they swap theories and share testimony – much to the irritation of police and families.

"These groups are the equivalent of the bistro counter – but with more people," said psychoanalyst Patrick Avrane, author of a book on attitudes to crime.

"Everyone constructs the theory that suits him or her the best."

The Jubillar mystery began at the height of Covid lockdown when – in the early hours on 16 December 2020 – Cédric Jubillar contacted the gendarmes to report that his wife had gone missing.

Delphine, who was 33 at the time, was a night nurse in a clinic not far from their home in Cagnac-les-Mines in the south-western Occitania region. The couple had two children, aged six and 18 months.

Police came to understand that the Jubillars did not have a happy relationship.

Cédric Jubillar was a habitual cannabis user and barely held down a job. Delphine was in a relationship with a man she had met over the Internet. She and Cédric were talking about divorce.

Police and locals conducted extensive searches in the surrounding countryside – with potholers descending into some of the disused mineshafts with which the area is dotted.

Delphine's body was never found, but a case was gradually built against her husband and in mid-2021 he was placed under investigation and detained.

The prosecution at the trial in the town of Albi will tell the court that Cédric Jubillar had a clear motivation to kill his wife, because of their impending split.

Lawyers will raise other points: certain odd actions by Cédric on the night of the disappearance; signs of a fight, including a pair of broken glasses; a neighbour who heard a woman screaming.

Cédric Jubillar's own character will be brought under the spotlight, with witnesses expected who will speak of his threatening language to Delphine before she disappeared, and his apparent lack of concern after.

Two of his acquaintances – a former cellmate and a former girlfriend – will also repeat what they told police: that Cédric confessed to the murder and told them where her body was.

But after more digging no body has been found, and the defence is expected to raise doubts about the veracity of the pair's accounts.

Indeed the heart of Cédric Jubillar's case is that there is nothing – beyond the popular view that he is the ideal culprit – to prove that he did away with his wife. He himself has always protested his innocence.

The trial is expected to last four weeks, with 65 witnesses called and 11 experts. More than 16,000 pages of evidence have been compiled.

Explaining the case's grip on the public mind, writer Thibault de Montaigu said in Le Figaro newspaper it was like "a novel by Georges Simenon" – creator of the fictional detective Inspector Maigret.

In a long analysis of the case, he said that for all the circumstantial evidence against Cédric Jubillar, the central question was this: how a "red-eyed, fuzzy-brained guy who smoked ten joints a day could have carried out the perfect crime?

"Killing his wife without leaving the slightest trace; secretly transporting her body, burying her in an unfindable location, then coming back to tell the police – all while his two children slept quietly in their bedrooms.

"And this was a guy who greeted the cops in panda pyjamas and then played Game of Thrones on his phone the very morning of the disappearance.

"So: genius bluffer; lucky fool; or poor innocent?"

The court will decide.

The teenager who murdered three girls in the Southport knife attacks previously obtained two driving licences to order machetes online, a public inquiry has heard.

Axel Rudakubana - referred to in the hearing by his initials - managed to get three large bladed weapons delivered to his home in Banks, Lancashire, in 2023.

On 29 July 2024, he used a kitchen knife to attack a children's dance workshop in the Merseyside town, killing Alice Aguiar, Elsie Dot Stancombe and Bebe King. Eight other girls and two adults were wounded.

The Southport Inquiry at Liverpool Town Hall has been hearing how the attacker, now 19, had been building an arsenal of weapons in his bedroom for at least two years.

Warning: This article contains distressing content

The inquiry's first phase is examining the perpetrator's history, his contact with relevant agencies and any missed opportunities to prevent the attack.

Det Ch Insp Jason Pye, who led the Merseyside Police investigation into the attack, told the inquiry about the online purchases.

Under questioning from Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, he confirmed that two of the machetes had seemingly been "intercepted" by his parents - as one was found on top of a wardrobe and another had not been opened.

However one was found in a black holdall under the teenager's bed, along with a bow and arrows.

Mr Moss said "quite apart" from the "illegality" of the attacker possessing a machete as a youth, the vendors who sold them to him have suggested the proper use of such tools in the UK is "primarily agricultural"... for "clearing branches and thickets".

He asked: "Did AR have any remote reason - as far as you can really tell - or his family to be ordering machetes?"

Det Ch Insp Pye replied: "No."

The inquiry heard online records showed he had bought the weapons from three different companies: Springfields, Knife Warehouse and Hunting and Knives.

For the second and third purchases, he shared a copy of two real driving licences belonging to adults named only as 'Alice' and 'Samuel'. Both were unaware.

Springfields and Knife Warehouse sent the weapons via couriers who requested age checks at the door.

However, the killer appeared to be able to successfully sign for the third weapon despite being under 18, for reasons that will be explored later in the inquiry.

His father Alphonse had told police he signed for one of the machetes and hid it on top of a wardrobe, the second weapon was not discovered until after his then 18-year-old son was sentenced in January to a minimum of 52 years in prison.

Det Ch Insp Pye said this was because, after police discovered the biological toxin ricin in a box in the teen's bedroom, the house had to be cleared and the contents put into storage.

An unopened package containing the blade was not spotted.

Mr Moss said, based upon emails recovered by the police, the attacker had appeared to have been "preoccupied" with questions about age verification checks and whether "it would be obvious" whether the packages he ordered contained weapons.

He said two companies, Merlin Archery and Tactical Archery, had declined to sell him a crossbow in October 2023.

'He knew'

Earlier, the public inquiry heard a taxi driver who drove the killer to the scene of the attack would have been "morally" expected to call police immediately.

The inquiry heard Gary Poland had shouted at him for not paying his fare, and his dashboard camera recorded the teenager ignoring him and climbing the stairs to the dance studio at 11:45 BST.

Seconds later, as screaming children streamed out of the venue and passed his taxi, Mr Poland drove away and waited more than 50 minutes before dialling 999.

Mr Moss asked Det Ch Insp Pye what he would have expected a "responsible member of the public" to have done.

The officer replied: "Accepting that he had no duty of care, I would like to think, morally, that a call would be made.

"There was enough evidence that we had that he knew what was happening.

"Yes you would have expected a phone call to come in."

In a 999 call he did eventually make, Mr Poland told the call handler: "The lad that done everything [AR]. I picked him up…I'm just a bit shook up. My heart is going like I don't know what."

'Bad meeting good'

After describing the killer, the taxi driver said he had seen young children "just screaming".

"That's when I shot off then," he added, referring to himself leaving the scene.

Mr Poland is due to give evidence on Thursday.

Det Ch Insp Pye praised the actions of members of the public who helped the victims of the attack.

They included window cleaner Joel Verite, who rushed in with the first officers on the scene - Sgt Greg Gillespie, PC Luke Holden and PCSO Tim Parry.

The inquiry was told Mr Verite carried six-year-old Bebe King's body out of the building, and had also earlier carried Alice Aguiar from where she had collapsed in the car park further down the street to get help.

He removed his t-shirt to help stem the bleeding, the inquiry heard.

Det Ch Insp Pye said the public response was an example of "bad meeting good", and added: "People may have seen on TV how chaotic the scene was outside, but there was lots of good people and it's only right that we recognise the work that those people did."

The inquiry was also told how the attacker's phone was recovered from the crime scene after his arrest, and was found to have the precise address of the dance studio, at 34a Hart Street, saved as a contact.

Det Ch Insp Pye said he believed Rudakubana had saved the address after spotting an advertisement for the Taylor Swift-themed dance class on Instagram.

The inquiry continues.

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President Emmanuel Macron will formally recognise a Palestinian state in New York on Monday, backed by several other European countries, describing France's move as a "necessity".

Coming hard on the heels of a decision by the UK, Canada and Australia, Macron said his move would be the "beginning of a political process and a peace and security plan for everybody".

France, like the UK, carries considerable diplomatic weight as both a permanent member of the UN Security Council and the G7, and is co-ordinating the push with Saudi Arabia on the sidelines of this week's UN General Assembly.

Paris will not be joined by two of the other big European states in the G7, Germany and Italy, and not by the US either.

Israel has denounced the move as a reward for Hamas, and its UN ambassador has called Monday's event a circus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted there will be no Palestinian state to the west of the River Jordan, and President Isaac Herzog said recognising one would only "embolden the forces of darkness".

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot was adamant that his country's move was a "categorical rejection" of Hamas but said it was "symbolic, immediate, and political, demonstrating France's commitment to the two-state solution".

He spoke of Macron's declaration as a "great diplomatic victory for our country". Paris has said Belgium, Luxembourg and Malta are also set to announce formal recognition, along with the tiny states of Andorra and San Marino. Portugal made its own declaration late on Sunday.

A number of other European countries have already recognised a Palestinian state, including Spain and Norway last year, but Macron's move is seen as a gamble by some domestic commentators which might make little difference on the ground.

Ahead of Macron's announcement, the Palestinian and Israeli flags were displayed on the Eiffel Tower on Sunday night. A number of town halls in France also flew Palestinian flags on Monday, despite a government order to local prefects to maintain neutrality.

Pro-Palestinian protests also took place in Italy, in some 80 towns and cities in Italy, where Giorgia Meloni's government said recently it could be "counter-productive" to recognise a state that did not exist.

Public transport and ports were disrupted in a day of action organised by some trade unions. A key metro line in Milan was shut down, while university students in Turin and Bologna blocked access top lecture halls.

In Germany, the government says Palestinian statehood is not currently up for debate, and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul explained as he left for New York on Monday that "for Germany, recognition of a Palestinian state comes more at the end of the process. But this process must begin now".

Although Germany is one of Israel's closest allies in Europe, its chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has become increasingly critical of Israel's military response in Gaza.

European Union officials have also toughened their language against Israel in recent weeks. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for an end last week to "the horrific events taking place in Gaza on a daily basis".

In a CBS News interview late on Sunday, President Macron spoke of a phased plan that would be geared towards isolating Hamas.

The first stage would involve a ceasefire, a release of all hostages and then the stabilisation of Gaza, he explained. The second would involve governance and reconstruction of Gaza, and the "third package, the perspective of two states".

Opening a French embassy would be conditional on the release of hostages still held by Hamas, he stressed.

But Macron's high-profile move in United Nations has met with criticism from some of his political opponents.

Jordan Bardella, of the far-right National Rally, said it was a "mistake, while Hamas still holds Israeli hostages", and he pointed out that it amounted to "rewarding the atrocities committed on 7 October [2023], during the deadliest attack ever known by the state of Israel".

The Duchess of York has been removed as patron of a children's charity, in the wake of an email in which she called sex offender Jeffrey Epstein her "supreme friend".

Julia's House, a children's hospice charity serving families in Dorset and Wiltshire, has removed Sarah Ferguson from her role as patron.

"Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York's correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia's House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity," said a Julia's House spokesperson.

"We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support," said the statement.

The decision to end the link with the duchess follows the publication of an email from her to Epstein in 2011, which appears to have been sent after she had publicly broken off contact with him.

The email appeared to privately apologise for her public rejection of Epstein, saying: "You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family."

A spokesperson for the duchess - the former wife of the Prince Andrew, the Duke of York - said the email was to counter a threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation.

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A British couple released by the Taliban in Afghanistan last week say they were detained in 10 different prisons and at one point thought they would be executed.

Peter, 80, and wife Barbie Reynolds, 76, said it was never explained to them why they were being held, nor why they were released.

The couple, who have run a charity programme in Afghanistan for almost two decades, arrived back in the UK on Saturday after seven and a half months in detention.

"Good, old-fashioned diplomacy" ended their ordeal, Hamish Falconer, minister for the Middle East, told the BBC, and again thanked the government of Qatar, which helped mediate their release.

• British couple reunited with daughter after months held by Taliban
• Hugs on tarmac as family reunite after Afghan ordeal

Both suffered health problems while in prison, including severe anaemia. Taliban officials maintained they received adequate medical care during their detention and that their human rights were respected.

They were arrested on 1 February this year after taking a chartered flight from Kabul to Bamiyan province, along with friend Faye Hall and their translator who were later released.

A spokesperson for the Taliban foreign ministry, speaking after their release, said they had "served their time" but did not reveal the reasons for their detention.

"We have a lot to process," Peter Reynolds said in written remarks sent to the BBC. "We are leaving behind quality people, our home, and all our possessions."

The couple have a deep love of Afghanistan, and were married there in 1970.

Since 2009, the couple have been running training projects in Kabul and Bamiyan.

One of their education projects involved training women and children, and had apparently been approved by local authorities, despite a Taliban ban on women working and education for girls over 12-years-old.

One of the prisons Peter and Barbie were held in was Pul-e-Charkhi, a notorious maximum security prison outside Kabul that is home to some of the most dangerous criminals.

At one point they were held in basement cells with no windows for two months. For the final weeks of their detention they were moved above ground, where they say they had access to better food and were treated with kindness.

Peter and Barbie were taken to court around four times, each time there was no charge.

"When I was taken to court, I had my ankles and hands cuffed together with murderers and rapists," Peter said via email.

They also say they are "mystified" by their detention, with Mr Reynolds adding that they were both mostly treated with respect but felt "a huge powerlessness".

He adds: "We were told we were guests. However, when I was taken to court, I had my ankles and hands cuffed together with murderers and rapists."

For his wife Barbara, the toughest time of her captivity was "seeing my 80-year old husband struggling to get into the back of a police truck with his hands and ankles chained."

"The worst moment was being led away and being separated as a couple after 55 years of marriage to my best friend," Mr Reynolds recalls.

Back in the UK, after nearly eight months of "oily and salty" prison food, Barbie told the Sunday Times she would like to have some salad and marmite, while Peter was hankering for baked beans.

Peter and Barbie said they won't be returning to Afghanistan for now.

"We are confident in the many wonderful Afghans we know to bring about a positive future for their country without us," they said.

The UK no longer has an embassy in Afghanistan and warns against all travel to the country, saying it is "extremely dangerous."

According to the Foreign Office: "There is a heightened risk of British nationals being detained in Afghanistan. If you are a British national and you are detained in Afghanistan, you could face months or years of imprisonment."

All remaining Bodycare stores are to shut with the loss of 444 jobs.

Administrators said the business was "no longer viable to continue" trading and a sale of the stores was "now unlikely".

As a result the chain's remaining 56 stores will shut, the administrators said, with the closures expected to take place by this Saturday.

A spokesperson for the administrators said the company would "continue to provide all support to those impacted".

Nick Holloway, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said they would "continue to explore options for the Company's assets, including the Bodycare brand, and will provide further updates in due course".

Bodycare was founded in Lancashire in 1970. Its store layouts were known for their bright lighting and window displays that often feature piles of toilet tissue or pyramids of washing up powder.

It also offered warehouse-style display shelves packed with goods such as lip balm, perfume, false nails and foot cream.

Egypt's president has pardoned prominent British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah, who has been imprisoned for six years, state media and his lawyer say.

Abdel Fattah is one of six people whose sentences President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi commuted following a request from the National Council for Human Rights, according to Al-Qahera News. His lawyer confirmed the news and wrote on X: "Praise be to God."

The 43-year-old blogger and pro-democracy activist is one of Egypt's best known political prisoners.

He was arrested in 2019, months after finishing a previous five-year sentence, and convicted in 2021 of "spreading false news" for sharing a Facebook post about torture in Egypt.

He should have been released in September 2024. However, Egyptian authorities refused to count the more than two years he spent in pre-trial detention towards his time served.

He and his mother, Laila Soueif, staged hunger strikes to protest against his imprisonment.

The second runway at Gatwick could lead to an extra 100,000 flights a year.

If Heathrow gets permission to build a third runway, that could mean adding another 276,000 - with approval also granted for an expansion of Luton airport.

If such large expansions are to take place while meeting the target of becoming net zero by 2050, big reductions in aircraft emissions will be needed.

Some cuts can be made in relatively simple ways - for example, by replacing old aircraft with new ones.

A current-generation Airbus A320neo is 15-20% more fuel efficient than its predecessor, for example. If you use less fuel, you produce fewer emissions.

However, this on its own will not go nearly far enough.

In its latest progress report to Parliament, the UK's climate watchdog, the UK Climate Change Committee (UKCCC), has warned emissions from flying "pose a risk to the UK's emissions targets".

Last year, emissions from flying saw an increase of 9%, which the UKCCC has put down to an increasing demand for international leisure flights – holidays abroad – which is Gatwick's main type of flight.

• Gatwick second runway plan approved by transport secretary

Although the UKCCC did not rule out airport expansion altogether - it did caution that the government should look at measures to reduce demand for flights.

The UK has legally binding targets to reduce its levels of planet-warming emissions, and contribute to the global goal of preventing average temperatures rising by more than 1.5C by 2050.

Above this temperature level, scientists anticipate significant impacts from global sea level rise, more extreme weather and impacts on agriculture.

To prevent temperatures increasing there is a limit to the amount of greenhouse gases, such as CO2, that the world can release, and the UK has set out its own share of these – known as carbon budgets.

In 2021, for the first time, the government agreed that its carbon budgets for 2033 onwards should include the country's share of international flying and shipping. That means decisions to expand airports could have a significant impact on the country's climate targets.

Sustainable fuel push

That means a great deal is being expected from "sustainable aviation fuels" or SAF over the coming decades.

These are fuels which can be produced from waste oils, from feedstocks such as wood, crops and agricultural waste, or synthesised from captured carbon dioxide and water.

Such fuels can result in much lower emissions than fossil fuels when burnt, because they do not release long-stored CO2 into the atmosphere.

However, in practice their environmental benefits can vary dramatically depending on what they are made from and how they are manufactured.

In addition, there is not currently a lot of SAF around – and what there is, can be very expensive.

The government is attempting to build a greater market for sustainable fuels in the hope this will stimulate production and bring down prices.

There is currently a SAF mandate, which stipulates that 2% of all jet fuel supplied in the UK this year must be considered sustainable, rising to 10% by 2030 and 22% by 2040.

In addition, a bill currently before Parliament would set up a "revenue certainty mechanism" for SAF producers – in effect guaranteeing them a minimum price for the fuel they provide.

In theory, this should encourage more investment in SAF production.

However, it would be funded through a levy on fuel suppliers, who would be likely to pass on the extra costs to their customers. That could ultimately mean higher ticket prices for passengers.

In the longer term, more radical solutions may become available, such as aircraft powered by hydrogen.

However, that will require a step-change in aircraft design, as well as big changes at airports. It will also require a supply of affordable "green" hydrogen, produced from renewable energy – and the infrastructure for that does not yet exist.

Electric or hybrid planes could have environmental benefits, but again the technology is in its early stages – and battery-powered planes are not currently thought to be a viable option for long-haul flights.

Reform UK has announced plans to abolish the right of migrants to qualify for permanent settlement in the UK after five years if the party wins the next general election.

Under the plans all migrants with Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) - a permanent status which grants migrants rights and access to benefits - will be asked to reapply for new visas.

Reform will also unveil plans to bar anyone other than British citizens from accessing welfare. Taken together the party claims their plans would save £234bn over several decades, though this figure is contested.

A government spokesperson dismissed the plans as a "gimmick", adding they were consulting on restricting migrants' access to welfare.

Under the current system, migrants can apply for indefinite leave to remain after five years, giving the right to live and work in the UK permanently.

It is a key route to gaining British citizenship and allows people to claim benefits.

Reform said it would replace ILR with visas that force migrants to reapply every five years.

The announcement launches Reform's fresh assault on what they brand the "Boriswave" - 3.8 million people who entered the UK after Brexit under looser rules brought in by Boris Johnson's administration.

Hundreds of thousands of these migrants, who have come to the UK since 2021, will soon qualify for permanent residence under the ILR scheme.

Reform say the policy is designed to bring Britain into line with other countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and save the UK more than £234bn over what it calls the "lifetime of the average migrant".

Labour has noted the figure came from a report by the Centre for Policy Studies, a Thatcher-founded think tank, which later said the cost estimates "should no longer be used" after a challenge by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

The government spokesperson added: "People here illegally rightly do not get anything from our benefits system.

"Foreign nationals usually have to wait five years to claim Universal Credit and we're looking at increasing this to 10 years.

"We inherited a broken welfare system and spiralling benefits bill. That's why we're taking action and reforming the system and have seen the proportion of Universal Credit payments to foreign nationals fall since last July."

Writing in The Telegraph newspaper, Reform's policy chief Zia Yusuf said "We are putting business on notice: the era of cheap foreign labour is over."

Yusuf said the changes would lead to "hundreds of thousands of people having to apply and ultimately losing their settled status in the UK".

"Many of those who will lose their leave to remain are entirely dependent on the welfare state and will leave voluntarily upon losing access to benefits," he said.

"Those that don't will be subject to immigration enforcement as part of our mass deportation programme."

World Bank Data shows the UAE has one of the highest proportions of international migrants globally, with migrants making up about 90% of its total labour force.

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The Duchess of York has been removed as patron of a children's charity, in the wake of an email in which she called sex offender Jeffrey Epstein her "supreme friend".

Julia's House, a children's hospice charity serving families in Dorset and Wiltshire, has removed Sarah Ferguson from her role as patron.

"Following the information shared this weekend on the Duchess of York's correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein, Julia's House has taken the decision that it would be inappropriate for her to continue as a patron of the charity," said a Julia's House spokesperson.

"We have advised the Duchess of York of this decision and thank her for her past support," said the statement.

The decision to end the link with the duchess follows the publication of an email from her to Epstein in 2011, which appears to have been sent after she had publicly broken off contact with him.

The email appeared to privately apologise for her public rejection of Epstein, saying: "You have always been a steadfast, generous and supreme friend to me and my family."

A spokesperson for the duchess - the former wife of the Prince Andrew, the Duke of York - said the email was to counter a threat Epstein had made to sue her for defamation.

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Trump officials are expected to link the use of pain reliever Tylenol in pregnant women to autism, according to US media reports.

At an Oval Office event on Monday, the US president will reportedly advise pregnant women in the US to only take Tylenol, known as paracetamol elsewhere, to relieve high fevers.

At the Charlie Kirk memorial service on Sunday, Trump said he had an "amazing" announcement coming on autism, saying it was "out of control" but they might now have a reason why.

Some studies have shown a link between pregnant women taking Tylenol and autism, but these findings are inconsistent and do not prove the drug causes autism.

Tylenol is a popular brand of pain relief medication sold in the United States, Canada and some other countries. Its active ingredient is acetaminophen, which is called paracetamol outside North America.

Tylenol maker Kenvue has defended the use of the drug in pregnant women.

In a statement to the BBC, it said: "We believe independent, sound science clearly shows that taking acetaminophen does not cause autism. We strongly disagree with any suggestion otherwise and are deeply concerned with the health risk this poses for expecting mothers."

Acetaminophen is the safest pain reliever option for pregnant women, it added, and without it, women face a dangerous choice between suffering through conditions like fever or use riskier alternatives.

The BBC has contacted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for comment.

In April, the leader of HHS, Robert F Kennedy Jr, pledged "a massive testing and research effort" to determine the cause of autism in five months.

But experts have cautioned that finding the causes of autism - a complex syndrome that has been researched for decades - would not be simple.

The widely held view of researchers is that there is no single cause of autism, which is thought to be the result of a complex mix of genetic and environmental factors.

• Tylenol-maker shares hit after report of autism link

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology said doctors across the country have consistently identified Tylenol as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant women.

"[S]tudies that have been conducted in the past, show no clear evidence that proves a direct relationship between the prudent use of acetaminophen during any trimester and fetal developmental issues," the group has said.

The drug is recommended by other major medical groups as well as other governments around the world.

In August, a review of research led by the dean of Harvard University's Chan School of Public Health found that children may be more likely to develop autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders when exposed to Tylenol during pregnancy.

The researchers argued some steps should be taken to limit use of the drug, but said the pain reliever was still important for treating maternal fever and pain, which can also have negative effects for children.

But another study, published in 2024, found no relationship between exposure to Tylenol and autism.

"There is no robust evidence or convincing studies to suggest there is any causal relationship," said Monique Botha, a professor in social and developmental psychology at Durham University.

Dr Botha added that pain relief for pregnant women was "woefully lacking", with Tylenol being one of the only safe options for the population.

Autism diagnoses have increased sharply since 2000, and by 2020 the rate among 8-year-olds reached 2.77%, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Scientists attribute at least part of the rise to increased awareness of autism and an expanding definition of the disorder. Researchers have also been investigating environmental factors.

In the past, Kennedy has offered debunked theories about the rising rates of autism, blaming vaccines despite a lack of evidence.

Former England rugby international Tom Voyce was nearly three times over the drink-drive limit when his vehicle was washed into a river during a storm, an inquest has heard.

The 43-year-old had been at a shoot on 7 December at Glanton near Alnwick in Northumberland before going to the nearby Queens Head pub with a group.

The inquest previously heard Mr Voyce's wife Anna had reported him missing the next morning when she realised he had not returned home, a coroner said.

Pathologist Clive Bloxham said while Mr Voyce's blood alcohol levels - 215 micrograms of alcohol in 100 ml of blood - would have impaired his judgement and co-ordination, it was a not a causal factor to his death.

It is thought the former wing's vehicle was swept away while he tried to drive across a ford during Storm Darragh.

His body was found on 12 December "in deep water" at Old Abberwick Mill by a member of UK Search and Rescue.

The rugby player, from Truro in Cornwall, won nine caps for England and made 220 Premiership appearances. He played for Wasps, Bath and Gloucester before retiring from the sport in 2013.

Since relocating to Northumberland from London in 2019, Mr Voyce left his role at Investec to set up his own business, Trevow Vegetation Management.

The inquest at County Hall in Morpeth continues.

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Rachel Cowley's daughter Jessica was like any other 10-year-old until she started having seizures.

Now aged 20, Jessica is unable to walk or talk, and Ms Cowley fears she will die in the next few years.

"I hope when the time comes it is quick," said Ms Cowley. "But I just don't think it's going to be."

Jessica is one of a "cluster" of people in south Wales affected by Dentatorubral-pallidoluysian atrophy, or DRPLA, an inherited and progressive neurological disorder for which there is no known treatment or cure.

DRPLA was believed to mainly affect people of Japanese origin and considered rare in the UK, until a 2007 research study found a relatively high prevalence of the condition in Wales.

The symptoms of DRPLA can vary significantly, but generally include progressive memory loss and personality change, impaired control of body movements, muscle spasms, seizures and psychiatric disturbances.

It is caused by a gene defect, and a person with the condition has a 50% chance of passing it on to a child of their own.

Dr Mark Wardle, a consultant neurologist who authored the 2007 study, said there were a number of "common founders" with DRPLA in south Wales which had resulted in the current "cluster of patients in their 20s or 30s".

"It doesn't take many generations to have very many more cases just from the most common founders," he added.

Ms Cowley said Jessica was initially diagnosed with epilepsy aged 10, when she began having seizures.

"We could never control it," said Ms Cowley, 45, from Pontypridd, Rhondda Cynon Taf.

But when Jessica turned 13, Ms Cowley said her daughter's legs began to "give way".

The teenager, who previously loved doing gymnastics and horse riding, was now struggling to walk.

"I noticed that she could hardly walk up the stairs," said Ms Cowley.

"When she lost her voice, I just thought, these ain't signs of epilepsy, there's got to be something else."

After "years of wondering" why her health was deteriorating, Jessica was diagnosed with DRPLA in May.

Jessica now uses a wheelchair and is completely non-verbal.

"It's quite scary because she's been going through this for the last five to seven years," said Ms Cowley.

"I would speak to the consultant and they just did not know why she was deteriorating like she was.

"I think it's because of this disease being so rare."

Ms Cowley is part of a group called DRPLA in south Wales on Facebook, which currently has more than 100 members.

Ms Cowley said it was a "massive surprise" to find other people in her area were facing the same challenges.

"We're all connected in a way," she said.

"It's nice to talk to some of them and have advice off them, because if I phone the GP, they don't know nothing about it."

Zoe Hoes adopted her eight-year-old daughter Gabriella when she was a baby.

Last year, she was contacted by social services who said that a member of Gabriella's birth family had tested positive for DRPLA.

Ms Hoes, 47, from Cwmbran, Torfaen, noticed her daughter was twitching at night and thought she might have symptoms.

"I managed to get a private test done and that confirmed that she did have it," Ms Hoes added.

She said she was left "scrambling to find out information" about the condition.

"It's terrible because at the moment there is no treatment and no cure.

"You love them so much and you don't want to lose them."

Ms Hoes said the private test cost her "in the region of £2,000" which she acknowledged was unaffordable for many.

"A lot of families haven't got that money to spend," she said.

"So they just carry on with their lives, and anyone's child could meet someone with [DRPLA] and end up being a carer for their partner and children."

Ms Hoes would like to see more people being tested for the condition at a younger age.

"[Parents] need to be able to make plans for those children's futures because, ultimately, they're going to be caring for them," she said.

Dr Wardle began his research study into the DRPLA prevalence in south Wales after finding "several families" with the condition.

He said the DRPLA gene, also known as the ATN1 gene, was crucial in understanding the disorder.

If the gene expands in a large way "over multiple generations" a person will "probably have a more aggressive disease than [their] parent", explained Dr Wardle.

He said the current generation of DRPLA patients had, in this way, experienced "more severe disease".

"That's why it feels as if we've suddenly got more patients," he said.

"When I first found patients with this disease in south Wales, they were in their 50s or 60s.

"Now we've got a cluster of patients in their 20s or 30s and that's why we're seeing that difference."

Dr Wardle said it was "very difficult" to diagnose DRPLA because it was "astonishingly rare" compared to similar conditions like epilepsy.

"Unless you've got a family history, people aren't even going to consider it," he added.

He said raising awareness about DRPLA was a "really good thing" as it would make people think about it earlier.

"Getting good access to neurological services and genetic testing is really important to push this forward," he added.

But Dr Wardle said there were "moral and ethical issues" with testing people under the age of 18.

He said people needed to be mature enough to "understand the consequences" of being tested for the "life-changing" condition.

"You can't do that if you're six or 12-years-old.

"I know of one patient who has been devastated by being screened for this disease," he added.

Clinical trial 'hope'

Dr Wardle said it would be "very different" if there was treatment available.

"I think we'd change our approach because we want to identify those patients early.

"But that would be on the basis of early access to treatment, which we don't have at the moment."

The families affected in Wales said that clinical trials in the US for a potential treatment were providing "hope".

But Dr Wardle said these trials could "potentially" cause more harm to families by "raising expectations".

"There's a pipeline where you've got to prove safety and then prove efficacy, and you've got to do that right," he said.

Dr Silvia Prades is a research manager at the charity Ataxia UK and CureDRPLA.

She is currently working with a team based in the US who are trialling a treatment on two people living with DRPLA.

She said the early results had been positive with one of the people on the trial, a teenage boy, showing signs of improvement.

"He's now able to walk a few steps without assistance. He has regained some small movement in his hands and his speech is a bit clearer," she said.

The second patient, a woman in her 30s, was more advanced in the condition and Dr Prades said any improvement had been "less obvious".

She said the treatment effects could "vary" but felt the results were "encouraging".

Dr Prades said she understood why people wanted testing at an earlier age but stressed that it was a "personal choice".

"Some people will feel empowered by having this knowledge. Others feel a huge burden," she said.

Dr Prades said a "combination of many different factors" might explain why DRPLA prevalence appeared to be higher in south Wales than the rest of the UK.

"Perhaps it is the access to genetic testing has improved. It could also be that people are more aware of the condition," she said.

"It could also be that the stigma on genetic conditions is being removed."

She said there had been an "increase" in the number of families "engaging" with her team in recent times, which could be because people are experiencing the symptoms of DRPLA at an earlier age.