More than 300 people have contacted the BBC with allegations of racism, corruption and bullying of victims by police after a Panorama undercover investigation.

The secret filming over seven months revealed evidence of racism, misogyny and officers revelling in the use of force at one of London's busiest police stations.

One of the main themes among the hundreds of people getting in touch was misogyny when they reported domestic abuse and sexual violence - with some saying reporting their rape to police "was like being raped again".

In response to the latest allegations, the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said it was "working hard to build a culture based on integrity and trust" and improving vetting and misconduct procedures.

We have spoken to many of the women who contacted us with stories of mistreatment, whose experiences span police forces across England - from rural counties to big cities. We have changed their names to protect their identities.

A police officer allegedly told Joanna to "grow a pair" when she reported being punched in the face by her partner several months ago, she told us.

Her partner had been drinking excessively when he returned home and angrily attacked her, she says. She found herself at the local police station in tears.

"I was devastated and the police made it 10 times worse. My face had a bruise from the punch and one of the officers looked at me as if I was exaggerating the whole thing," she said.

"He told me to grow a pair... followed by a chuckle. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. It took so much to go there in the first place and then I wished I hadn't."

• Unmasked: Secret BBC filming exposes hidden culture of misogyny and racism inside Met Police
• Why BBC sent undercover reporter into a busy London police station
• Met officers face fast-track hearings after Panorama investigation

One woman was motivated to get in touch with the BBC by a scene Panorama filmed of a Metropolitan Police officer being dismissive of a pregnant woman's allegations of rape and domestic violence. The officer said of her account to a colleague: "That's what she says."

Ava was also pregnant when she fled her abusive partner, who she says repeatedly raped and hit her. She said the treatment and attitude of the officers she met that night meant she would never turn to the police in future.

She said she was devastated that they did not believe her, telling her that "nobody gets raped more than once".

"It was like being raped all over again," she said. "What they put me through was worse than what I was going through before".

Ava says evidence that would have supported her case was "willfully ignored" and she was told that without CCTV evidence of an attack, "it is just your word against his".

She believes being a black woman made matters worse.

"The colour of my skin meant everything was stacked against me. The language they used and how dismissive and mocking they were, was both misogynist and racist," she said.

"They asked why I thought he was doing it to me - as if I was the problem, as if I'd brought it all on myself."

Policing Minister Sarah Jones told the BBC that the government would not tolerate these "sickening comments" and urged people to report them.

She said police chiefs had been given new powers to dismiss officers who commit gross misconduct. "We will root out those unfit to serve the public," she said.

Another woman, Claire, told us how she escaped her abusive former partner, who had coercively controlled her for 12 years, only to find that police did not want to get involved when he breached court orders to stay away from her.

On one occasion, her former partner entered her home and locked her out, despite an injunction banning him from the property.

She said it took the police more than seven hours to arrive and then "they just stood laughing and chatting with him". She and her three children ended up having to stay with a friend for months.

"I felt even more afraid and more isolated after speaking to the police. It's a boys' club - a network across police stations, police forces and county lines," Claire said.

"I would never call the police and I still worry he'll find me and show up."

A training programme called Domestic Abuse Matters was developed by the College of Policing in 2016. It is used by 37 out of 44 police forces in England and Wales to improve the way they deal with victims of sexual and domestic violence.

And part of the NPCC and College of Policing strategy on violence against women and girls says that one of its priorities is to challenge sexism and misogyny among officers.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Helen Millichap, NPCC lead for violence against women and girls, told the BBC police chiefs were working with survivors of domestic abuse and sexual offences to continue to reform training, "with a key focus on first responders' understanding of the dynamics of abuse and their empathy with victims".

She said "officers must feel confident in calling out misogyny and sexism within policing" but that improved vetting and misconduct procedures were "having an impact in identifying and dismissing those who should not be in policing".

One of the women who contacted the BBC said that having watched the Panorama programme, she was shocked that nothing had changed in the decades since she was raped as a teenager.

"I have never had a night without a nightmare as a result, I've buried a lot of what the police officers asked me. They spoke down to me - like I was part of the problem," the woman, now in her 40s, said.

"Watching Panorama, I realised I must be one of thousands, I'm not the only one. They made me feel I was."

Gaza is experiencing a health "catastrophe" that will last for "generations to come", the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that a massive increase in aid is needed to begin to address the complex needs of the Strip's population.

Israel has allowed more medical supplies and other aid to cross into Gaza since a ceasefire with Hamas came into effect on 10 October, but Dr Tedros said levels are below those needed to rebuild the territory's healthcare system.

His intervention comes as the US attempts to shore up the ceasefire it helped to broker following an outbreak of violence at the weekend.

The agreement has been described by the White House as the first phase of a 20-point peace plan that includes an increase to the amount of aid entering Gaza, and supplies distributed "without interference" from either side.

Dr Tedros told the Today programme he welcomed the ceasefire deal but said the increase in aid that followed has been smaller than expected.

Asked about the situation on the ground, he said Gazans had experienced famine, "overwhelming" injuries, a collapsed healthcare system, and outbreaks of disease fuelled by the destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure.

He continued: "On top of that, [there is] restricted access to humanitarian aid. This is a very fatal combination, so that makes [the situation] catastrophic and beyond words."

Asked about long-term health prospects in Gaza, he added: "If you take the famine and combine it with a mental health problem which we see is rampant, then the situation is a crisis for generations to come."

Tom Fletcher, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said earlier this week that aid groups are "turning the tide on the starvation crisis" but that "far more" was needed.

On Tuesday, the UN's World Food Programme said lorries carrying more than 6,700 tonnes of food had entered since 10 October, but that was still considerably below its 2,000-tonnes-a-day target.

Six hundred aid lorries a day need to be arriving in Gaza but the average is between 200 and 300, Dr Tedros said, as he called on Israeli authorities to "de-link" aid and the wider conflict.

On Sunday, Israel temporarily halted aid deliveries after it said two Israeli troops were killed in an attack by Hamas gunmen in Gaza. Hamas said at the time it was not aware of the clashes.

The Israeli military responded with a series of air strikes across the territory, killing dozens of Palestinians.

The aid deliveries resumed the following day after heavy international pressure.

Dr Tedros said aid should not be "weaponised" and called on Israel not to impose conditions on its delivery, including over the return of the remains of dead hostages still in Gaza, which has become a key point of contention during the ceasefire.

Hamas has committed to returning the bodies but so far has transferred only 15 of 28, saying it has not been able to retrieve the rest.

Twenty living Israeli hostages were released by Hamas last week in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.

Dr Tedros told Today: "There should be full access, there should not be any condition, especially after all the living hostages were released, and a good part of the remains are transferred. I did not expect there would be additional restrictions."

Asked about the role the US should play, Dr Tedros said "since the US has brokered the peace deal it has the responsibility of making sure that all sides are respecting" it.

Israel is currently operating two crossings - Kerem Shalom in the south-east, and Kissufim in central Gaza - but it has continued to face calls from aid groups for all the access routes it controls to be restored.

Dr Tedros said "all available crossings" were needed to get enough aid into Gaza, and called on Israel to allow aid groups previously been denied registration back into the territory, saying: "You can't have a scaled up response without those who can deliver on the ground."

He also said supplies intended be used to restore Gaza's health system have been confiscated at the border because Israeli authorities say they could have a military use.

"If you are going to build a field hospital, you need the canvas and the pillars [for tents]," he continued. "So if the pillars are removed, because of an excuse that they could be dual-use, then you can't have a tent."

Thousands of Palestinians are waiting for weekly medical evacuation flights, Dr Tedros said, though none have taken off for two weeks due to religious holidays in Israel. He said 700 people have previously died while waiting for medical evacuation and called on the number of flights to be increased.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 68,229 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

In July, a UN-backed body concluded that famine had occurred in Gaza, though Israel disputed the findings, saying there was "no starvation".

The UN has previously estimated it will cost $70bn (£52bn) to reconstruct Gaza. Dr Tedros said around 10% of that figure would need to be spent on its badly damaged health system.

He continued: "We have been saying for a long time that peace is the best medicine.

"The ceasefire we have is a very fragile one and some people have died even after the ceasefire because it was broken a couple of times.

"What is very sad is many people were cheering in the streets because they were very happy there was a peace deal. Imagine, [some of] those same people are dead after they were told the war is over."

Israel has received two bodies that Hamas says are two more deceased hostages who had been held in Gaza.

The Israeli military said two coffins were handed over to troops in the Palestinian territory by the Red Cross, which had earlier received them from Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the coffins - which were escorted by the military - had crossed into Israel and will be taken to be formally identified in Tel Aviv.

Confirmation of their identies would mean that Hamas has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal earlier this month. All 20 living hostages were released shortly after the agreement was reached.

Hamas has handed over a Palestinian body in a previous hostage transfers, which it said was accidental due to difficulties locating the bodies.

The IDF urged the Israeli public on Tuesday evening to "act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families of the hostages".

It also stressed that "Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages".

Israeli officials said the families of the hostages will be notified once the bodies are identified.

There has been outrage in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the deceased hostages.

The Palestinian group says it is trying to do this but that it faces difficulty finding bodies under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.

Under the ceasefire and hostage release agreement, Israel has freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza, and returned 15 bodies of Palestinians for every Israeli hostage's remains.

The first phase of the agreement has also seen an increase of aid into Gaza, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a halt in fighting - though deadly violence flared up over the weekend as both sides accused one another of breaching the terms of the deal.

The IDF launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.

More than 68,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.

Irish police have come under attack at a protest outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Dublin.

Footage from the scene at the Citywest Hotel showed a police vehicle on fire.

Broadcaster RTÉ is reporting that several thousand people have gathered outside the hotel.

Ireland's Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan said there was "no excuse" for the violent scenes.

O'Callaghan said people threw missiles and fireworks at gardaí (Irish police).

"This is unacceptable and will result in a forceful response from the gardai," he said. "Those involved will be brought to justice.

"It is clear to me from talking to colleagues that this violence does not reflect the people of Saggart. They are not the people participating in this criminality, but rather the people sitting at home in fear of it.

"Attacks on gardaí will not be tolerated. Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy. Violence is not."

The head of global theme park giant Merlin Entertainments says its "biggest competition" is people choosing to stay at home on their phones and other devices.

Fiona Eastwood says a day out at one of its UK attractions - which include Legoland, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers - was the "perfect antidote" for spiralling screen time.

In a wide-ranging BBC Big Boss Interview, the chief executive reflected on challenges in the forthcoming Budget, big brand partnerships, and how its customers were responding to cost-of-living pressures.

Eastwood also highlighted the importance of seasonal attractions to its customers - with Halloween now rivalling its summer season in driving profits at some attractions.

Having been in the job since February, Eastwood has taken over at a time when her industry is facing challenges from a dip in consumer confidence.

Her company's latest half-year update flagged concerns over a "softening of demand" in the UK theme park sector and fewer international visitors.

Last year the company's overall revenue was down slightly to just over £2bn, with an operating loss of £132m.

Despite the challenging environment, Merlin drew just shy of 63 million people to its attractions in 2024. Escapism was something people were willing to spend on, Eastood says.

"The moments to be together are increasingly precious, and what we provide is quite distinct," she says. "It's all about families coming together to play."

Talking about its UK attractions, which include Madame Tussauds, Sea Life and the London Eye, Eastwood says seasonal windows are key.

Its major theme parks have hosted Halloween events, like Scarefest at Alton Towers and Fright Nights at Thorpe Park, since 2002.

"We're a very seasonally led business," says Eastwood. "So you have spring break, Easter, summer and Halloween.

"Halloween, that we're in now, we're seeing some really strong performance. That's in view of the amazing product we have. You take Thorpe Park, increasingly Halloween is almost half of its annual profits."

Along with seasonal offerings, big brand partnerships are also a key part of Merlin Entertainments' strategy - creating rides themed around children's tv hits to tempt families away from their screens and into the parks.

Next year it will open its first Bluey ride at Alton Towers as part of CBeebies land, as well as PAW Patrol land opening at Chessington World of Adventures.

One of next year's biggest launches is a collaboration with video game Minecraft - an enduring mega hit since it was launched in 2009, spawning one of the highest grossing films of 2025.

With Eastwood citing screen time as Merlin's toughest competition, it hopes an £85m investment in immersive experiences will attract Minecraft fans with themed rides, restaurants and accommodation in the UK and US during 2026 and 2027.

"What I'm really excited about in terms of Minecraft is bringing [the game] to life in a physical way that will mean the massive fans of that game can then be in the game with their friends, their parents," says Eastwood.

Call for a VAT cut

Eastwood is on the board of Hospitality UK, an industry trade body which has been calling for VAT on hospitality to be cut from 20% to 12.5%.

"What we really want is a growth-led Budget," says Eastwood.

She adds that cutting VAT would put the UK on a "level-playing field" with its European neighbours - where hospitality businesses often face a rate of about 10%.

Making the case for this, Eastwood pointed to a period during Covid when VAT was cut to 12.5%.

"We saw a bump, and we saw demand, and we saw people wanting to spend," she says.

In a statement, the Treasury said the government was supporting all UK businesses and the upcoming Budget would aim to encourage growth and investment.

"We are a pro-business government that has capped corporation tax at 25%, the lowest rate in the G7, we're reforming business rates, have secured trade deals with the US, EU and India, and have seen interest rates cut five times since the election, benefiting businesses in every part of Britain."

While Eastwood has been CEO for less than a year, her time with Merlin stretches back a decade, with her joining shortly after Alton Towers Smiler rollercoaster crash in 2015.

Coming into the chief executive role, she says her focus was trying to take an "outside view" of the company - aware that she could have bias and blind spots.

She adds one of the best parts of her role is getting out to visit the sites.

"Nothing beats going to the theme park, that is my job," she says.

"Spending time with the team, seeing kids having an amazing experience at our attractions."

However, asked about getting to the front of the queue for Nemesis - the Alton Towers ride that is one of the best known in the country - Eastwood did not have any concrete advice, despite joining front-line workers on the ride last year.

"I'm not a big fan of Nemesis," she says.

"My favourite's actually Wicker Man, I love Wicker Man."

The focus of the national grooming gangs inquiry "will not change" or be "watered down", Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has insisted.

Writing in the Times newspaper, Mahmood said the wait for the appointment of the inquiry's chairperson will "not be much longer", adding that the government "must get this right".

Her intervention comes after three abuse survivors quit their roles in the inquiry this week over fears that its scope could be widened beyond grooming gangs - and concerns about who would chair the inquiry.

In her resignation letter, survivor "Elizabeth" - not her real name - said the process felt like "a cover-up" and had "created a toxic environment for survivors".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced in June there would be a national inquiry into grooming gangs covering England and Wales, with a panel of survivors set up to oversee the process.

But three abuse survivors have accused officials of trying to water down the inquiry by broadening its scope to wider issues of child sexual abuse and exploitation.

There is also frustration around the length of time it has taken to appoint a chairperson, with some seeing this as a delay tactic because of fears of what might be exposed.

Survivors have raised concerns about the suitability of the candidates shortlisted to chair the inquiry - including Annie Hudson, a former senior social worker, and Jim Gamble, a former deputy chief constable.

Fiona Goddard, who was abused by gangs while living in a Bradford children's home, said policing and social work services had "contributed most to the cover-up of the national mass rape and trafficking of children".

Another survivor, Ellie Reynolds, suggested having "establishment insiders representing the very systems that failed us" as potential chairs was a conflict of interest.

Ms Reynolds, who was abused by a gang of Pakistani brothers in Barrow, told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour: "If they were that serious in appointing a chair that was actually going to succeed in this inquiry they would not have picked a police officer or a social worker.

"It should have been a judge - it should have been somebody that was completely impartial and non-biased."

Ms Reynolds said the "final turning point" in her decision to quit was a move to widen the inquiry "in ways that downplay the racial and religious motivations behind our abuse".

Elizabeth said she had seen "selective narratives being promoted - ones that appear to serve particular agendas, especially around issues of race and the narrative of widening the scope".

She told the BBC she had wanted a chair who was "legally" trained and "impartial".

Annie Hudson has withdrawn her candidacy for chair, the BBC has been told.

In her article for the Times, Mahmood said it was with "a heavy heart" that she learned some members of the panel had stepped down.

"Should they wish to return, the door will always remain open to them," Mahmood wrote. "But even if they do not, I owe it to them – and the country – to answer some of the concerns that they have raised."

She also said the inquiry will "explicitly examine the ethnicity and religion of offenders".

"I know that some are frustrated that they are still waiting for this inquiry to begin. I understand that frustration. And I feel it myself," Mahmood added.

Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips had earlier said it was "untrue" the government was seeking to dilute the focus of the inquiry.

Responding to the resignations of Ms Goddard and Ms Reynolds in the House of Commons, Phillips said she regretted the departure of the two women but added: "My door is always open to them."

She also insisted "not all victims are of the same opinion" and she would continue to engage with all survivors.

Phillips added that the inquiry panel of victims from which Ms Reynolds and Ms Goddard resigned was not managed by the government, but by a grooming gang charity.

But Ms Goddard said the safeguarding minister's denials were a "blatant lie", and later told GB News that she would "consider" returning to the panel, but only if Phillips resigned.

Ms Goddard said there were "many" members of the survivors' panel who were not victims of grooming gangs but different types of child sexual abuse and exploitation, and that only these individuals were pushing for a wider inquiry.

A Home Office spokesperson said the inquiry "will remain laser-focused on grooming gangs", as Baroness Casey had recommended when calling for a national inquiry to be set up.

"In order to meaningfully consult with victims and survivors about the terms of reference, we need to ask them questions and listen to their responses." the spokesperson added.

"That is not expanding the scope - it is ensuring their voices shape the inquiry."

Conservative shadow home secretary Chris Philp said the government's inquiry was "descending into chaos".

He said that ministers had been "forced" into holding the inquiry in June adding: "Perhaps that is why, months later, the government has said nothing substantive publicly."

The Conservatives have called for the inquiry to be chaired by a senior judge to guarantee impartiality and restore faith in the process.

Phillips rejected that suggestion, arguing that Baroness Casey had said she did not want a traditional judicial-led inquiry.

The minister also stressed the difficulty of finding a chair who was not attached to an institution "that didn't fail these girls over the years, including our courts who took the children away from grooming gang victims, who criminalised some of them".

"There is no institution in our country that hasn't failed," she added.

Gambling advertisements featuring Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton and the Chelsea football club logo have been banned in the UK over concerns that they would influence children.

The adverts published by two gambling firms, Kwiff and Betway, were banned after investigations into the complaints, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said on Wednesday.

Betway's YouTube advert, seen in May, featured football fans wearing clothes with the Chelsea badge, while Kwiff's post on X in July promoted the British Grand Prix with Hamilton's picture.

Both betting companies were warned not to include any character who had a strong appeal to viewers under the age of 18.

The BBC has contacted the two betting firms for comments. Separately, the BBC has also reached out to Hamilton's team for comments.

In its ruling on Kwiff, which is run by Eaton Gate Gaming, ASA said that a researcher from the University of Bristol had lodged a complaint over concerns that the firm's post on X would likely appeal to under-18s.

Kwiff's post featured an image of Hamilton with text highlighting a "huge weekend" for him at the British Grand Prix in the Silverstone race, accompanied by an "18+" symbol and the BeGambleAware.org logo, ASA said.

The post also included a link to an article on Kwiff's website about the race, it added.

Eaton Gate Gaming had said that its data indicated that Hamilton appealed to an older audience rather than those aged under 18, ASA wrote.

The post was meant to drive traffic to their their company blog, which was an "editorial commentary" on a website separate from their gambling platform, Kwiff told ASA.

Kwiff has since reviewed its social media accounts and removed any content that displayed mainstream sportspeople, ASA said.

"We considered Sir Lewis Hamilton was a notable star within the sport, with a significant public profile and social media following," the ASA ruling said.

The authority also cited Hamilton's 150,000 Instagram followers who were under 18 and based in the UK as a sign of his appeal among youths. It also said Hamilton had appeared in the F1 24 video game - which had an age rating of three years old and above - and was a storyteller on a programme aired by the BBC's CBeebies last year.

"As such, we considered that Kwiff would have been aware of the possibility that Sir Lewis Hamilton would have strong appeal to under-18s," it added.

Separately, ASA also ruled that Betway's advertisement breached its code.

YouTube, according to ASA, was an unsuitable platform for the advert, as advertisers could not guarantee that their content would exclude under-18 viewers.

"It was likely that there was at least a significant number of children who had not used their real date of birth when signing up to YouTube," ASA said.

Betway told ASA it had the contractual right to use Chelsea's logo in its role as the club's official European betting partner.

Betway said that YouTube's own ad policies offered further safeguards against under-18s being exposed to age-restricted content, according to ASA's statement.

Banning the advert could set a "damaging precedent for gambling sponsorships in sport", Betway told the report.

Author Sir Philip Pullman has called on the government to change copyright laws on "scraping", where writers' books are used to train artificial intelligence (AI) software to understand and generate human language.

Writers whose work has been scraped don't get compensation or recognition, something authors including Kate Mosse and Richard Osman have criticised, saying it could destroy growth in creative fields and amount to "theft".

Sir Philip, author of the hugely popular novels about Lyra Silvertongue, the heroine of His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust trilogies, thinks writers should be compensated.

"They can do what they like with my work if they pay me for it," he told the BBC's culture editor Katie Razzall. "But stealing people's work... and then passing it off as something else... That's immoral but unfortunately not illegal."

Last December a consultation on the UK's legal framework for copyright around the AI sector and creative industries was launched, attracting 11,500 responses.

The government has set up expert working groups on AI and copyright. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been contacted for a response to Sir Philip's comments.

Sir Philip said: "As far as I know everybody's work has been stolen, scraped like a trawler... at the bottom of the sea. Prawns, oysters, starfishes, mermaids, whatever. You name it, it's all killed.

"It's a wicked system and I'm profoundly against it."

Sir Philip says he wants the government to act now, change the law and fight back.

"Of course they should change it at once," he said. "Don't you steal anybody else's work."

Sir Philip's latest novel, The Rose Field, completes the second trilogy about Lyra. The first five books have so far sold 49 million copies globally.

Lyra lives in a universe parallel to our own, where people have a daemon - a companion spirit in animal form.

Early on she uncovers a conspiracy using kidnapped children, and uses a truth-telling device called an alethiometer.

"She's always curious and inquisitive," he says. "I think it's a very important quality. We should praise people who are curious. We should encourage it in children."

The books see her grow from an 11-year-old girl into a woman in her early 20s, with her world ruled by the Magisterium, a shadowy religious and political organisation.

In The Rose Field, the Magisterium is waging war on imagination, which it calls a false, seductive and dangerous doctrine.

Former English teacher Sir Philip, 78, goes on to describe what he sees as real-life enemies of imagination.

He highlights "the education policy of the government, which insists on learning things off by heart, sitting in rows and walking silently down corridors", along with learning about the grammar of language "before you can use it", calling this "nonsense".

The writer, who is clearly a fan of using the imagination, as evidenced in his writing, calls it "a form of perception".

He explains that his final book in the trilogy is about the the realm of the "Rose Field, in which things exist that you can only see with your imagination".

"They're there but you can't see them if you don't imagine them, for example, ghosts, wishes, hopes, memories...

"Things you can't necessarily weigh, measure or analyse chemically, but which are there nonetheless, such as love, fear, hope. That's what Lyra has discovered in the course of this book."

He's also an outspoken critic of organised religion.

"The arguments I have are with people in power who use religion to make other people do things... religion gives them a sense of extra certainty when they do that because they believe that they're fulfilling the will of God," he says.

Final farewell to Lyra?

Despite writing about other worlds, realms and creatures, he insists he is not a fantasy writer, unlike JRR Tolkien, the author of the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings books.

"I don't think there's any comparison at all between me and Tolkien. He was a writer of fantasy, and I'm not writer of fantasy."

Despite his books containing magical objects, talking animals and mythical griffins, he insists he is "writing about the real world through a little filter".

He adds that after saying farewell to Lyra and all the other characters in his books, he will "miss them a little bit".

But for his millions of fans, there is a glimmer of hope.

This might not be the end of Lyra's story.

"I can't say that," he says. "It might happen."

He is now writing a memoir about his "unusual childhood" and a picture of the world he grew up in.

His final thought is about the daemons in his books, and he muses over what animal form his own might take.

"I think she'd be a corvid," he says. "I love ravens. They're not very well loved. I don't care.

"Their flying is extraordinary, their aerobatics turning upside down and zooming so close to the ground.

"They're wonderful birds to watch, they're very clever.

"And In some mythologies, the raven is the storyteller."

The Rose Field: The Book of Dust Volume Three will be published on 23 October, including the audiobook, which is read by actor Michael Sheen.

Side effects of different antidepressants have been ranked for the first time, revealing huge differences between drugs.

Academics looked at the impact medications had on patients in the first eight weeks after starting treatment, with some causing patients to gain up to 2kg in weight or vary heart rate by as much as 21 beats every minute.

Around eight million people in the UK take antidepressants.

Researchers warned the gulf in side effects could affect people's health and whether they could stick to their prescription.

They said nobody reading this should stop their treatment, but have called for antidepressants to be closely matched to the needs of each person.

"There are big differences between [antidepressants] and this is important not just for individual patients, but large numbers of people are taking them, so even modest changes could have a big effect across the whole population," said researcher Prof Oliver Howes.

We've always known antidepressants affect physical health. The study by King's College London and the University of Oxford is the first to produce a ranking so the effects of medicines can be easily compared.

The team analysed 151 studies of 30 drugs commonly used in depression, involving more than 58,500 patients.

Not everybody develops side effects but, on average, the results published in the Lancet medical journal showed:

• An eight-week prescription of agomelatine was linked to a 2.4kg drop in weight compared with maprotiline, which led to nearly 2kg of weight gain
• A difference of 21 beats per minute between fluvoxamine, which slowed the heart, and nortriptyline, which sped it up
• An 11 mmHg difference in blood pressure between nortriptyline and doxepin

"Clearly no two antidepressants are built the same," said Dr Atheeshaan Arumuham, from King's College London.

Those differences can stack up in ways that become clinically important, including an increased risk of heart attack or stroke.

It means even people with the same diagnosis could be better suited to different antidepressants depending on their own preferences and other health conditions.

Which antidepressant is best for me?

In a hypothetical scenario, Sarah, 32, John, 44, and Jane, 56, have all received the same depression diagnosis and have been recommended antidepressants.

But they each want to avoid different side effects.

For Sarah, the priority is avoiding weight gain, while John already has high blood pressure and Jane has raised cholesterol.

Dr Toby Pillinger, who worked through the examples for the BBC, says each would be recommended a different medicine.

Dr Toby Pillinger says: Sarah should have an antidepressant that avoids weight gain, such as agomelatine, sertraline or venlafaxine rather than amitriptyline or mirtazapine which are more likely to increase weight.

Dr Toby Pillinger says: John should avoid drugs such as venlafaxine, amitriptyline or nortriptyline which raise blood pressure, and would be better suited to citalopram, escitalopram and paroxetine.

Dr Toby Pillinger says: For Jane, some antidepressants are linked to higher cholesterol, including venlafaxine, duloxetine and paroxetine, so she might steer clear of those. Citalopram or escitalopram are more neutral on cholesterol and could suit her better.

Push for 'generic, cheap medications'

It is too simplistic to say there are good and bad antidepressants, the researchers say. Even though amitriptyline increases weight, heart rate and blood pressure it also helps with pain and struggling to sleep.

Overall, the most prescribed class of antidepressants - SSRIs such as paroxetine, citalopram, escitalopram and sertraline - tended to have fewer physical side effects.

Fluoxetine - an SSRI that is also called Prozac - was linked to a drop in weight and higher blood pressure, in the study.

Prof Andrea Cipriani from the University of Oxford said it was "impossible" to say how many of the millions of people being prescribed antidepressants should be on a different drug.

However, he said there had been a push for "generic, cheap medications" that meant 85% of antidepressant prescriptions in the UK were for just three drugs: the SSRIs citalopram, sertraline and fluoxetine.

He said implementing the findings of this report would see "the 85% reduce dramatically" with "more people accessing better treatments".

The researchers are developing a free online tool to help doctors and patients choose the right drug.

However, that would still require a significant change in culture within the NHS.

The study also only analysed what happened eight weeks after starting treatment. Dr Pillinger said "complimentary data" meant they expected the short-term changes "will persist" but this still needs to be properly tested.

Dr Prasad Nishtala, from the University of Bath which was not involved in the study, said the findings were "novel and valuable".

He said: "In a real-world setting, where patients often receive antidepressants for months or years, the cumulative risks are likely to be higher, particularly among those with chronic depression."

Ukraine has hit a Russian chemical plant with UK-made Storm Shadow missiles, the Ukrainian military said on Tuesday.

Calling the strike "a successful hit" that penetrated the Russian air defence system, Ukraine's general staff of the armed forces said they were still assessing the outcome of the "massive combined missile and air strike".

The Kremlin has been warning the West not to give Ukraine weapons capable of long-range attacks, but Kyiv says it's imperative to target Russian facilities that play a key role in Moscow's war against Ukraine.

"The Bryansk Chemical Plant is a key facility of the aggressor state's military-industrial complex", the Ukrainian military said in an X post on Tuesday.

It added that the plant "produces gunpowder, explosives and rocket fuel components used in ammunition and missiles employed by the enemy to shell the territory of Ukraine".

Moscow's authorities have not yet commented on the strike.

The attack came on the same day that UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and other European leaders vowed to "ramp up the pressure on Russia's economy and its defence industry" until Russian leader Vladimir Putin "is ready to make peace".

A joint statement - co-signed by the Ukrainian, German, French, Italian, Polish, Danish, Finnish, EU and Norwegian leaders - added that "Ukraine must be in the strongest position "before, during, and after any ceasefire".

Russia launched an overnight air attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv on Wednesday morning, according to the city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko.

Witnesses heard explosions that sounded like air defence units in operation, the Reuters news agency reported.

The latest attacks came after a meeting at the White House last week between Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which the US leader indicated he was not ready to supply sought-after Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kyiv.

Trump initially agreed with Putin to hold talks in Budapest regarding the war in Ukraine, possibly in the coming weeks. But that plan was put on hold on Tuesday, with Trump saying he did not want a "wasted meeting".

In remarks at the White House, the US president indicated that a key sticking point remained Moscow's refusal to cease fighting along the current front line.

Just last month, Trump appeared to take a major shift in his position towards ending the war, saying Kyiv could "win all of Ukraine back in its original form" - referring to Ukraine's internationally recognised borders.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsular Moscow annexed in 2014.

Reports of an impending US-Russia leadership summit have been greatly exaggerated, it seems.

Just days after Donald Trump said he planned to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Budapest - "within two weeks or so" - the summit has been suspended indefinitely.

A preliminary get-together by the two nations' top diplomats has been cancelled, too.

"I don't want to have a wasted meeting," President Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday afternoon. "I don't want to have a waste of time, so I'll see what happens."

• Trump says he did not want 'wasted meeting' after plan for Putin talks shelved
• Disappointment in Kyiv as Zelensky leaves White House empty-handed

The on-again, off-again summit is just the latest twist in Trump's efforts to broker an end to war in Ukraine – a subject of renewed focus for the US president after he arranged a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza.

While making remarks in Egypt last week to celebrate that ceasefire agreement, Trump turned to Steve Witkoff, his lead diplomatic negotiator, with a new request.

"We have to get Russia done," he said.

However, the circumstances that aligned to make a Gaza breakthrough possible for Witkoff and his team may be difficult to replicate in a Ukraine war that has been raging for nearing four years.

Less leverage

According to Witkoff, the key to unlocking a deal was Israel's decision to attack Hamas negotiators in Qatar. It was a move that infuriated America's Arab allies but gave Trump leverage to pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into making a deal.

Trump benefited from a long record of siding with Israel dating back to his first term in office, including his decision to move the US embassy to Jerusalem, to change America's position on the legality of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, more recently, his support for Israel's military campaign against Iran.

The US president, in fact, is more popular among Israelis than Netanyahu – a position that gave him unique influence over the Israeli leader.

Add in Trump's political and economic ties to key Arab players in the region, and he had a wealth of diplomatic muscle to force an agreement.

In the Ukraine war, by contrast, Trump has much less leverage. Over the past nine months, he has swung between attempts to strong-arm Putin and then Zelensky, all with little seeming effect.

Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russian energy exports and to provide Ukraine with new long-range weapons. But he has also recognised that doing so could disrupt the global economy and further escalate the war.

Meanwhile, the president has publicly berated Zelensky, temporarily cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine and suspending arms shipments to the country - only to then back off in the face of concerned European allies who warn a Ukrainian collapse could destabilise the entire region.

Trump loves to tout his ability to sit down and hammer out deals, but his face-to-face meetings with both Putin and Zelensky haven't seemed to move the war any closer to a resolution.

Putin may actually be using Trump's desire for a deal – and belief in in-person deal-making - as a means of influencing him.

In July, Putin agreed to a summit in Alaska just as it appeared likely that Trump would sign off on congressional sanctions package backed by Senate Republicans. That legislation was subsequently put on hold.

Last week, as reports spread that the White House was seriously contemplating shipping Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot anti-air batteries to Kyiv, the Russian leader called Trump who then touted the possible summit in Budapest.

The next day, Trump hosted Zelensky at the White House, but left empty-handed after a reportedly tense meeting.

Trump insisted that he was not being played by Putin.

"You know, I've been played all my life by the best of them, and I came out really well," he said.

But the Ukrainian leader later made note of the sequence of events.

"As soon as the issue of long-range mobility became a little further away for us – for Ukraine – Russia almost automatically became less interested in diplomacy," he said.

So, in a matter of days, Trump has bounced from entertaining the prospect of sending missiles to Ukraine to planning a Budapest summit with Putin and privately pressuring Zelensky to cede all of Donbas – including territory Russia has been unable to conquer.

He has finally settled on calling for a ceasefire along current battle lines – something Russia has refused to accept.

On the campaign trail last year, Trump promised that he could end the Ukraine war in a matter of hours. He has since abandoned that pledge, saying that ending the war is proving harder than he expected.

It has been a rare acknowledgement of the limits of his power – and the difficulty of finding a framework for peace when neither side wants, or can afford to, give up the fight.

There has been more than a bitter twang in the glasses at British breakfast tables. Only five years ago, a typical supermarket own-label carton of orange juice could be bought for 76p for 1 litre. It now costs £1.79.

That's a rise of 134% since 2020, and it's up 29% just in the past year.

In cafes and restaurants it's a similar story - with £3.50 to £4 now a standard price point for a glass of basic OJ.

One colleague was outraged to be sent a bill for £9 for a glass of hangover-busting orange juice and lemonade at an unassuming little restaurant in Kent. Asked why so much, she was told that the orange juice - albeit freshly squeezed - accounted for £5.30 of the price.

Yet as costs have surged, the taste is changing too, with certain manufacturers substituting oranges for mandarins to cut costs.

The public is, if you like, being freshly squeezed.

There are all sorts of reasons for this: disease among crops, extreme weather, over-reliance on supply from a single nation, new rules for packaging and complexities around trade wars and Brexit.

All of this is compounded by grocery price inflation which, after hitting 17.5% in 2023, came down (to around 5.7% in August) but is rising once again. New figures for overall inflation will be released later today.

It is a perfect storm.

Yet the problem is not isolated to orange juice - track the prices of all sorts of other groceries in supermarket aisles and you'll see a similar pattern. And so understanding what has happened to orange juice offers a glimpse into how our overall grocery bills suddenly seem so expensive.

It all prompts the question: is this storm a passing one, or are prices set to remain stubbornly high - and should brace for them staying that way permanently?

The Bing Crosby effect

Where else to start but in the orange groves of Florida where the industrialisation of OJ began as an initiative of the US Army during World War Two.

The US government was seeking a source of transportable Vitamin C for troops that didn't taste like turpentine.

Orange juice is nearly 90% water. So gently evaporating the water off the juice and freezing the concentrate, allowed for transportability of a much better tasting product when water was later re-added.

WW2 ended before the troops got to try it, but it ended up being commercialised by what became the American soft drink giant, Minute Maid.

It was popularised by Bing Crosby, who, as a significant shareholder, would sing in ads and radio show jingles about frozen orange juice being "better for your health".

Western consumption of orange juice surged.

Flash forward to today and an estimated 2.5 billion gallons of orange juice are drunk each year - with about a tenth of that in the UK, where the market is still growing.

Drought, disease and flooding

At an industrial unit in the Essex town of Basildon, green steel drums of frozen orange concentrate arrive from Brazil, overseen by Maxim McDonald.

His firm Gerald McDonald and Co is named after his grandfather, a pioneer who was importing orange concentrate as far back as the 1940s from what was then British-mandate Palestine.

Today it produces juices and blends them, then sells them to supermarkets and restaurant suppliers.

But prices reached extraordinary heights in global markets, rising from $1(75p) to $1.50 (£1.12) per lb over the last decade, to a record $5.30 per lb by the end of last year.

This followed five years of poor crops, owing to severe drought and a disease called citrus greening (caused by a bacteria spread by insects). Brazil had its worst crop since 1988. In some parts of its citrus belt, two thirds of orange trees are affected.

"Around September of last year the price shot up to crazy levels," Maxim tells me. "At the worst time I was being offered $7 a kilo.

"For such a major commodity to go from $2 to $7 is insane, but it took a while to filter through to consumers."

Until 2023 the rise in orange juice prices was disguised among food inflation in general, explains Philip Coverdale, an industry expert at consultancy firm GlobalData.

Producers have tried to look beyond South America but it's not easy - the supply of oranges has been sown up by Brazil, even more so than, say, the Saudis have cornered the market for crude oil.

Morocco, Egypt and South Africa grow oranges too but their supplies are more limited. Spain also grows them, but Valencia and Seville oranges are mostly exported as fruit, rather than concentrate. (Plus Spain too suffered from weather-related production slumps, including the floods in Valencia last October.)

Even within Brazil the market is concentrated in the hands of huge industrialised conglomerates.

In a truly competitive market the price would settle again - but it hasn't, nor does the industry expect it to. This is a phenomenon that is common to many other ordinary groceries too whose prices have risen.

Oranges becoming less sweet

Florida is the other traditional exporter of oranges, but output from the Sunshine State over the past year has been the lowest since the Great Depression, amid a high number of hurricanes and long-term problems caused by citrus greening.

One problem with greening is that it reduces sugar content, making oranges less sweet.

"Not many are buying Florida oranges any more unless it is a requirement to label the juice 'Florida Orange'," says Maxim McDonald.

"It's very difficult to get oranges out of Florida [because of the shortages] and it's too expensive."

One of the leading suppliers to Tropicana sold off some of its land earlier this year to build homes.

Tropicana itself, the marquee US brand for orange juice, had to restructure its debts this year. Pepsi has also sold most of its stake in it.

One of Tropicana's recent product innovations in the US has been to launch an "essentials" brand of orange juice "blends" - combining orange, apple and pear juice - at a lower price.

Similar trends can be seen on British shelves. Orange is being mixed with mango, mandarins and clementine juice. Mango purée is especially cheap right now, driven by a good harvest in India. Mandarin concentrate, meanwhile, is cheaper than its orange equivalent because there is less demand for it.

These developments save money, but also maintain the traditional sweetness of the taste.

Tariffs: War on the orange

Then there is the added impact of the recent spike in trade tensions with the US since President Trump introduced new tariffs.

Oranges, it transpires, have been at the centre of it.

US exports of orange juice to Canada have slumped to a 20-year low after Canada put counter-tariffs on US exports. The former PM Justin Trudeau warned that Canadians might have to "forgo Florida orange juice".

The Trump administration has also settled on a 10% tariff on orange juice coming from Brazil, which will feed into US supermarket prices.

In 2024, the UK eliminated tariffs on some imports produced from fruit grown outside Britain. But tariffs on certain sweeter, cheaper varieties and blends were not part of this.

And while the tariff cuts might have helped, they were vastly outweighed by the increase in the underlying price.

Then there are new regulations around packaging, further adding to the pressures.

The rules, known as Extended Producer Responsibility, are aimed at improving recycling rates, with a weight-based fee. All juice producers will be impacted, especially those still using glass bottles.

In August a Bank of England report said that high food price inflation is driven partly - and among other things - by these regulations.

Did the West fall out of love with OJ?

In Brazil, the orange harvest has recovered somewhat - this is the greatest hope for a return to normal prices. Yet it coincides with sinking demand: global consumption of orange juice is now down 30% from a peak two decades ago.

Though this may be partly down to the high prices, in certain parts of the world there has also been a shift in perception about the sugar content and health benefits or otherwise of fruit juice.

"When young children are not regularly given juice from an early age, they are less likely to be regular juice drinkers in later years," suggests Philip Coverdale at GlobalData.

Demand is increasing in countries with growing middle classes, such as China, South Africa, and India. But elsewhere other more exotic fruit juices such as mango, pear and pomegranate are growing in popularity.

Ultimately, however, orange juice is a staple that supermarkets have long been used to selling at low prices. And the price spikes to £2 a carton could, with for example better weather, simply reverse.

"The volatility in the harvest appears to have reduced," says Giles Hurley, UK CEO of Aldi, "Our buying team are doing everything they can to ensure that that saving is passed on to consumers."

Others in the supply chain are less convinced, given that much of the frozen concentrate was bought at last year's high prices. Plus, the stranglehold of the small number of giant producers who control the market remains.

As for the citrus greening, some major commercial producers, including Coca-Cola, which owns Minute Maid and Innocent, have contributed to a project to Save the Orange, using artificial intelligence to find a way to combat it.

It's a long-term project - and even if fruitful, it may be some time before the effect - if at all - filters through to grocery bills.

But the story of orange prices does also show how an upward price shock gets transmitted around the world far more quickly than a downward one.

Chocolate, coffee, butter and beef

Oranges are not the only food that has seen a price spike, of course. The price of beef and veal is up almost 25% in a year. Butter is up almost 19%, and chocolate and coffee 15% and milk over 12%, all according to the Office for National Statistics.

This all suggests that, more generally, there may be something else at play. And that for all the food and drink spikes, the consumer was actually protected from the worst of it for a period - and now it is pay back time.

"It might be the retailers didn't full pass through the cost increase in the first place and therefore it's a way of recouping some of the margin they would otherwise have got," says Steve McCorriston, Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of Exeter.

Ultimately, though, trying to unpick the precise reason for why our food and drink costs what it does is very difficult - other factors that influence price can go undetected.

"What we don't know much about is how these supply chains tend to work in practice. It's difficult to uncover relationships between retailers and manufacturers or farmers and the use of contracts."

There is also a broader question that goes well beyond orange juice: do consumers in the UK need to simply accept the fact that as a densely populated small country with limited agriculture, a changing climate means the UK will be increasingly exposed to food price shocks?

A 2024 government report on food security noted: "The UK continues to be highly dependent on imports to meet consumer demand for fruit, vegetables and seafood...

"Many of the countries the UK imports these foods from are subject to their own climate-related challenges and sustainability risks."

And so it could be that this is only the start of a wild ride on what we pay for our food and drink.

Top image credits: Daniel Grizelj/ Tetra Images/ Getty Images

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We all want hair that looks and feels healthy, whether that means glossy waves, bouncy curls or sleek and smooth strands.

In an industry worth £5.8bn in the UK, there are endless products, trends and TikTok hacks flying around which makes it's easy to lose sight of the basics.

The truth is, healthy hair isn't about spending a fortune or following complicated routines, it's about getting the simple stuff right.

Trichologists Eva Proudman from UK Hair Consultants and Tracey Walker from Hair and Scalp Clinic, bust four common myths about how to look after your hair.

1. Cold water doesn't make your hair shinier

Ever shivered your way through an icy shower just for the sake of shinier hair?

Well luckily you can stop doing that and enjoy a warm and comfortable wash as Proudman says cold water doesn't add any extra shine to your hair.

"There's no need to wash your hair in freezing cold water as it does nothing," she says. "What's much more important is how you protect your hair from chemicals, heat and the environment you're in.

She does add that you don't want to wash you hair in too hot water though as it can dehydrate your hair and can scald the scalp in the same way hot water scalds our skin.

2. No product can repair damaged hair

If you're someone who hopes to fix their split ends without a visit to the hairdressers, you'll be disappointed to know a haircut is the only solution.

Proudman explains a split end is similar to a ladder in tights - there's simply no way to mend it.

Walker says: "If you imagine a hair is fracturing and if you look at it under the microscope, it almost looks like there's two or three more prongs to the hair.

"Products on the market act as a kind of glue which puts the hair back together again so it looks better."

She says these are temporary fixes, and warns not to get lulled into spending a lot of money on products which promise a solution.

Proudman also says claims that cutting your hair can make it grow faster are untrue.

"It's just not possible to make your hair grow quicker so any product claiming that is lying."

3. Your hair won't self-clean

You may well have met someone who swears they've managed to train their hair to "self-clean" allowing them to wash it infrequently or not at all.

But Proudman says doing this is absolutely not good for your hair. "Your scalp has 180,000 oil glands and it collects dirt and debris if it's not regularly washed."

Walker agrees and likens it to the fact you can't remove an oily or dirty mark from clothes with just water, you need detergent too.

Not washing your hair regularly can cause a smell as well as a worsening of scalp conditions such as dandruff, she says because "leaving the hair to become oilier can let yeast and bacteria build, making itchy scalp conditions worse".

Proudman recommends washing your hair every other day if your hair is very oily or you use a lot of product in it.

Laura Waters, Professor of Pharmaceutical Analysis at University of Huddersfield, says while those with very oily hair might benefit from stronger cleansing, people with drier hair could consider a sulfate-free shampoo which is more expensive but won't strip oil out of it.

4. Dry shampoo isn't a substitute for washing

Finding time for a full wash, blow-dry and style isn't always realistic so between work, workouts and social plans, many of us reach for dry shampoo as a quick fix to revive greasy roots and refresh our hair without hopping in the shower.

Proudman says dry shampoo is "absolutely fine", but that it should be used only once between hair washes.

The problem arises when you use it for multiple days in a row without washing it out.

"The natural oil of the scalp sinks into the shampoo and the yeast will feed on the build up," Proudman says.

"If you're not careful you'll get an itchy and flaky scalp."

Ultimately her advice is to focus on looking after your scalp in the same way you look after your face - you wouldn't keep piling makeup onto your skin without removing what's underneath and washing it first.

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The head of global theme park giant Merlin Entertainments says its "biggest competition" is people choosing to stay at home on their phones and other devices.

Fiona Eastwood says a day out at one of its UK attractions - which include Legoland, Thorpe Park and Alton Towers - was the "perfect antidote" for spiralling screen time.

In a wide-ranging BBC Big Boss Interview, the chief executive reflected on challenges in the forthcoming Budget, big brand partnerships, and how its customers were responding to cost-of-living pressures.

Eastwood also highlighted the importance of seasonal attractions to its customers - with Halloween now rivalling its summer season in driving profits at some attractions.

Having been in the job since February, Eastwood has taken over at a time when her industry is facing challenges from a dip in consumer confidence.

Her company's latest half-year update flagged concerns over a "softening of demand" in the UK theme park sector and fewer international visitors.

Last year the company's overall revenue was down slightly to just over £2bn, with an operating loss of £132m.

Despite the challenging environment, Merlin drew just shy of 63 million people to its attractions in 2024. Escapism was something people were willing to spend on, Eastood says.

"The moments to be together are increasingly precious, and what we provide is quite distinct," she says. "It's all about families coming together to play."

Talking about its UK attractions, which include Madame Tussauds, Sea Life and the London Eye, Eastwood says seasonal windows are key.

Its major theme parks have hosted Halloween events, like Scarefest at Alton Towers and Fright Nights at Thorpe Park, since 2002.

"We're a very seasonally led business," says Eastwood. "So you have spring break, Easter, summer and Halloween.

"Halloween, that we're in now, we're seeing some really strong performance. That's in view of the amazing product we have. You take Thorpe Park, increasingly Halloween is almost half of its annual profits."

Along with seasonal offerings, big brand partnerships are also a key part of Merlin Entertainments' strategy - creating rides themed around children's tv hits to tempt families away from their screens and into the parks.

Next year it will open its first Bluey ride at Alton Towers as part of CBeebies land, as well as PAW Patrol land opening at Chessington World of Adventures.

One of next year's biggest launches is a collaboration with video game Minecraft - an enduring mega hit since it was launched in 2009, spawning one of the highest grossing films of 2025.

With Eastwood citing screen time as Merlin's toughest competition, it hopes an £85m investment in immersive experiences will attract Minecraft fans with themed rides, restaurants and accommodation in the UK and US during 2026 and 2027.

"What I'm really excited about in terms of Minecraft is bringing [the game] to life in a physical way that will mean the massive fans of that game can then be in the game with their friends, their parents," says Eastwood.

Call for a VAT cut

Eastwood is on the board of Hospitality UK, an industry trade body which has been calling for VAT on hospitality to be cut from 20% to 12.5%.

"What we really want is a growth-led Budget," says Eastwood.

She adds that cutting VAT would put the UK on a "level-playing field" with its European neighbours - where hospitality businesses often face a rate of about 10%.

Making the case for this, Eastwood pointed to a period during Covid when VAT was cut to 12.5%.

"We saw a bump, and we saw demand, and we saw people wanting to spend," she says.

In a statement, the Treasury said the government was supporting all UK businesses and the upcoming Budget would aim to encourage growth and investment.

"We are a pro-business government that has capped corporation tax at 25%, the lowest rate in the G7, we're reforming business rates, have secured trade deals with the US, EU and India, and have seen interest rates cut five times since the election, benefiting businesses in every part of Britain."

While Eastwood has been CEO for less than a year, her time with Merlin stretches back a decade, with her joining shortly after Alton Towers Smiler rollercoaster crash in 2015.

Coming into the chief executive role, she says her focus was trying to take an "outside view" of the company - aware that she could have bias and blind spots.

She adds one of the best parts of her role is getting out to visit the sites.

"Nothing beats going to the theme park, that is my job," she says.

"Spending time with the team, seeing kids having an amazing experience at our attractions."

However, asked about getting to the front of the queue for Nemesis - the Alton Towers ride that is one of the best known in the country - Eastwood did not have any concrete advice, despite joining front-line workers on the ride last year.

"I'm not a big fan of Nemesis," she says.

"My favourite's actually Wicker Man, I love Wicker Man."

There are "no plans" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has stated.

Last Thursday Trump said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" call and that a meeting was no longer "necessary".

The White House did not share any more details on why the talks had been put on hold.

On Monday Trump embraced the idea of freezing the Ukrainian conflict on the current front line.

"Let it be cut the way it is," he said on Monday, referring to the contested region of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.

Moscow was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov said on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.

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Irish police have come under attack at a protest outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Dublin.

Footage from the scene at the Citywest Hotel showed a police vehicle on fire.

Broadcaster RTÉ is reporting that several thousand people have gathered outside the hotel.

Ireland's Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan said there was "no excuse" for the violent scenes.

O'Callaghan said people threw missiles and fireworks at gardaí (Irish police).

"This is unacceptable and will result in a forceful response from the gardai," he said. "Those involved will be brought to justice.

"It is clear to me from talking to colleagues that this violence does not reflect the people of Saggart. They are not the people participating in this criminality, but rather the people sitting at home in fear of it.

"Attacks on gardaí will not be tolerated. Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy. Violence is not."

Israel has received two bodies that Hamas says are two more deceased hostages who had been held in Gaza.

The Israeli military said two coffins were handed over to troops in the Palestinian territory by the Red Cross, which had earlier received them from Hamas.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the coffins - which were escorted by the military - had crossed into Israel and will be taken to be formally identified in Tel Aviv.

Confirmation of their identies would mean that Hamas has transferred 15 out of 28 deceased Israeli hostages under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal earlier this month. All 20 living hostages were released shortly after the agreement was reached.

Hamas has handed over a Palestinian body in a previous hostage transfers, which it said was accidental due to difficulties locating the bodies.

The IDF urged the Israeli public on Tuesday evening to "act with sensitivity and wait for the official identification, which will first be provided to the families of the hostages".

It also stressed that "Hamas is required to uphold the agreement and take the necessary steps to return all the deceased hostages".

Israeli officials said the families of the hostages will be notified once the bodies are identified.

There has been outrage in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the deceased hostages.

The Palestinian group says it is trying to do this but that it faces difficulty finding bodies under rubble of buildings bombed out by the IDF in Gaza.

Under the ceasefire and hostage release agreement, Israel has freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza, and returned 15 bodies of Palestinians for every Israeli hostage's remains.

The first phase of the agreement has also seen an increase of aid into Gaza, a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces, and a halt in fighting - though deadly violence flared up over the weekend as both sides accused one another of breaching the terms of the deal.

The IDF launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel and took 251 others hostage.

More than 68,000 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen by the UN as reliable.

Irish police have come under attack at a protest outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers in Dublin.

Footage from the scene at the Citywest Hotel showed a police vehicle on fire.

Broadcaster RTÉ is reporting that several thousand people have gathered outside the hotel.

Ireland's Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan said there was "no excuse" for the violent scenes.

O'Callaghan said people threw missiles and fireworks at gardaí (Irish police).

"This is unacceptable and will result in a forceful response from the gardai," he said. "Those involved will be brought to justice.

"It is clear to me from talking to colleagues that this violence does not reflect the people of Saggart. They are not the people participating in this criminality, but rather the people sitting at home in fear of it.

"Attacks on gardaí will not be tolerated. Peaceful protest is a cornerstone of our democracy. Violence is not."

The history of the Labour Party oozes out of the valleys of south Wales, perhaps like nowhere else in the UK.

Keir Hardie, that founding figure of the party, was elected to Parliament in Merthyr Tydfil in 1900.

Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, was elected as the MP for Ebbw Vale in 1929.

Even in recent years, when the so called Red Wall of formerly solid Labour seats in many parts of the north of England and the Midlands crumbled, with the Conservatives as the beneficiary, much of south Wales stuck with Labour.

The Red Wall and plenty more besides have since swung to Labour, but now things seem to be changing in Wales.

Local sentiment, polling and the mood within the parties all suggests something is up, ahead of a by-election to the Welsh Parliament in Caerphilly.

Labour gloom

Talking to folk around town, there is a deep-seated frustration.

A stubborn lack of evidence, as many see it, of things getting better.

And there is a recurring sense of a declining sense of community: a sense that the ties that have long bound the town, the area together, are perhaps continuing to fray.

Something which began with the closure of the coal mines and loss of much heavy industry has continued, some feel, as so many of us retreat behind a phone screen; our increasingly digital lives splintering and atomising us further from each other.

Is that a contributor to political volatility and a dilution of the loyalty people may once have had to particular political parties?

Whatever the contributory factors, Labour are gloomy here, even on their upbeat days.

In Caerphilly, they are the essence of the political establishment: they run the council, they run the Welsh devolved government and they run the UK government as well.

This, if you are the Welsh Labour candidate, can cause issues.

Richard Tunnicliffe, a book publisher by trade, has campaigned in recent weeks to keep some local libraries threatened with closure open.

The thing is, it is the local Labour council which runs the very libraries threatened with being shut. Awkward.

It is a case study in the potential consequences for a party of near political ubiquity for such a long time.

Perhaps little wonder Reform UK and Plaid Cymru are upbeat.

Giants squeezed

Anecdotally, and for what it is worth, they both appear to have considerably more posters dotted around the place than Labour.

And they definitely have broader smiles and a greater spring in their steps.

The big change round here is Reform UK.

As has so often happened in the last six months or so, they are compelling their rivals to react to what they are doing.

The party leader Nigel Farage has been here twice, drawing big crowds.

But the security guard on their campaign office front door reminds you they provoke strong opinions, positive and negative.

Some are incensed with their focus on immigration, in an area with barely any.

Reform's candidate Llŷr Powell argues they are offering something new and are untainted by the blame being heaped on both Labour and the Conservatives.

But they do come with their own Welsh branded baggage.

The party's former leader in Wales, Nathan Gill, has admitted taking bribes to make statements in favour of Russia, of all countries, while he was a member of the European Parliament.

He is expected to be jailed next month.

Powell tells me Gill deserves to face the full force of the law.

Lindsay Whittle, the Plaid candidate, is no stranger to elections.

He has stood in ten general elections and every devolved election for over a quarter of a century – and victory has remained elusive.

He has been a local councillor for nearly 50 years.

Whittle reckons that when it comes to what appears to be a cratering in support for Labour, he has never seen anything like it.

He is buoyant and thinks that in a tight tussle with Reform UK, he can squeak a win.

Plaid are allowing themselves to dream, with some supportive polling evidence right now at least, that they could be running the Welsh government after next May's devolved elections across Wales. They see Reform as their big opponent.

But some of Labour's opponents fret that they may be under pricing what they fear could be a new phenomenon – what one figure described to me as "shy Labour voters."

Some people might be unwilling to admit it, or saying they are undecided, but could they plump for Labour in the end? Let's see.

The Welsh Conservatives, in a part of the world rarely fertile for them, find themselves cropped further out of the picture, again courtesy of Reform.

Perhaps little wonder when former Conservative cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees Mogg is suggesting Tory voters in Caerphilly should consider voting Reform to prevent Plaid from winning.

Incidentally, he also suggests Labour supporters should back Reform too, for the same reason.

Both of Westminster's giants – Conservatives and Labour – are feeling squeezed here.

The Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and others are vying for support too.

You can see a full list of the candidates standing in the by election here.

As I say, next May, there will be elections across Wales to the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd.

By Friday morning here, we could be seeing the first big indicator of a seismic change to come.

British designer Grace Wales Bonner has been named as the new creative director of men's wear for French fashion house Hermès.

The appointment means Wales Bonner, a 35-year-old Londoner, is now the first black woman to lead design at a major fashion house, according to the New York Times.

In a statement, Wales Bonner said she was "deeply honoured to be entrusted with the role".

She replaces Véronique Nichanian, who has been the company's artistic director of men's wear division for 37 years.

Her final collection for the brand will be shown in Paris in January, while Wales Bonner's first collection will launch in 2027.

In her statement, Wales Bonner said: "It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers."

She also thanked the company's bosses "for the opportunity to bring my vision to this magical house".

Reporting the news on Tuesday, Vogue said: "While industry insiders were betting on a promotion from within, Hermès went for a renowned talent."

Wales Bonner, who was born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father, founded her own label in 2014, not long after graduating from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art.

According to Vogue, Wales Bonner will continue her namesake brand alongside her new Hermès role.

She dressed F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, musician FKA Twigs, and actor Jeff Goldblum for this year's Met Gala and has made T-shirts with musician Solange Knowles, younger sister of Beyoncé.

Wales Bonner has also curated an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and hosted musical performances at London's Serpentine Galleries.

She has had a long-standing collaboration with Adidas and was made a MBE in 2022 for services to fashion.

Pierre-Alexis Dumas, general artistic director of Hermès, said: "I am really pleased to welcome Grace to the Hermès artistic director family.

"Her take on contemporary fashion, craft and culture will contribute to shaping Hermès men's style, melding the house's heritage with a confident look on the now.

"Grace's appetite and curiosity for artistic practice strongly resonate with Hermès's creative mindset and approach. We are at the start of an enriching mutual dialogue."

US Vice-President JD Vance has arrived in Israel as part of the Trump administration's efforts to strengthen the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

He is expected to push the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to start negotiations on long-term issues for a permanent end to the war with Hamas.

The two special US envoys who helped negotiate the deal, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, also held talks with Netanyahu on Monday.

Their visits come after a flare-up of violence on Sunday that threatened to derail the 12-day-old truce. Israel said a Hamas attack killed two soldiers, triggering Israeli air strikes which killed dozens of Palestinians.

US President Donald Trump insisted on Monday that the ceasefire was still on track but also warned Hamas that it would be "eradicated" if it violated the deal.

Trump is said to have dispatched his deputy and envoys to Israel to keep up the momentum and push for the start of talks on the second critical phase of his 20-point Gaza peace plan.

It would involve setting up an interim government in the Palestinian territory, deploying an international stabilisation force, the withdrawal of Israeli troops, and disarmament of Hamas.

Vance, Witkoff and Kushner are also attempting to ensure the ceasefire deal, which is based on the first phase of the peace plan, does not collapse first.

The New York Times cited US officials as saying they were concerned that Israel's prime minister might "vacate" the deal and resume an all-out assault against Hamas.

Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament on Monday that he would discuss "security challenges" and "political opportunities" with Vance during his visit.

He also said Israeli forces had dropped 153 tonnes of bombs on Gaza in response to what he called a "blatant" breach of the ceasefire by Hamas on Sunday.

"One of our hands holds a weapon, the other hand is stretched out for peace," he said. "You make peace with the strong, not the weak. Today Israel is stronger than ever before."

The Israeli military blamed Hamas for an anti-tank missile attack on Sunday that killed two Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza and then carried out dozens of strikes across the territory which hospitals said killed at least 45 Palestinians.

Afterwards, the Israeli military said it was resuming enforcement of the ceasefire, while Hamas said it remained committed to the agreement.

However, four Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli fire east of Gaza City on Monday. The Israeli military said its troops fired towards " terrorists" who crossed the agreed-upon ceasefire line in the Shejaiya area.

Later, Trump told reporters at the White House: "We made a deal with Hamas that they're going to be very good. They're going to behave. They're going to be nice."

"If they're not, we're going to go and we're going to eradicate them, if we have to. They'll be eradicated, and they know that," he added.

Hamas's chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, who is in Cairo, meanwhile insisted that his group and other Palestinian factions were committed to the ceasefire deal and "determined to fully implement it until the end".

"What we heard from the mediators and the US president reassures us that the war in Gaza is over," he told Egypt's Al-Qahera News TV .

Hayya also said Hamas was serious about handing over the bodies of all the deceased hostages still in Gaza despite facing what he described as "extreme difficulty" in its efforts to recover them under rubble because of a lack of specialist equipment.

Overnight, Israeli authorities confirmed that Hamas had handed over the body of another deceased Israeli hostage to the Red Cross in Gaza.

The remains were identified as those of Tal Haimi, 41, who the Israeli military said was killed in Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October, which triggered the war.

That means 13 of the 28 hostages' bodies held in Gaza when the ceasefire took effect on 10 October have so far been returned.

Twenty living Israeli hostages were also released last week in exchange for almost 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails.

There has been anger in Israel that Hamas has not yet returned all the dead hostages, with the Israeli prime minister's office saying that the group "was required to uphold its commitments".

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which Hamas-led gunmen killed about 1,200 people and took 251 others as hostages.

At least 68,216 have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Jewellery stolen from the Louvre in Paris in a daring daylight robbery has been valued at 88 million euros (£76m; $102m), a French public prosecutor has said, citing the museum's curator.

Laure Beccuau told RTL radio the sum was "extraordinary" but said the greater loss was to France's historical heritage. Crown jewels and pieces gifted by two Napoleons to their wives were among the items taken.

Thieves wielding power tools took less than eight minutes to make off with the loot shortly after the world's most-visited museum opened on Sunday morning.

With the thieves having not been caught more than two days on from the heist, experts fear the jewellery will already be long gone.

• How Louvre gang carried out France's most shocking theft

Ms Beccuau said she hoped announcing the estimated worth of the jewellery would make the robbers think twice and not destroy them.

She added the thieves would not pocket the full windfall if they had "the very bad idea of melting down these jewels".

The items taken, previously described as having inestimable worth, include a diamond and emerald necklace Emperor Napoleon gave to his wife, a tiara worn by Empress Eugenie, the wife of Napoleon III, and several pieces previously owned by Queen Marie-Amelie.

Investigators found a damaged crown that used to belong to Empress Eugenie on the thieves' escape route - apparently having been dropped as they departed in haste.

Four masked thieves used a truck equipped with a mechanical lift to gain access to the Galerie d'Apollon (Gallery of Apollo) via a balcony close to the River Seine.

Two of them cut through a glass window on the first floor using a battery-powered disc cutter and entered the museum. They then threatened the guards inside, who evacuated the building.

The thieves had tried to set fire to their vehicle outside but were prevented by the intervention of a member of museum staff. They were seen making off on scooters.

French President Emmanuel Macron described the robbery as an attack on France's heritage.

Security measures have been tightened around the country's cultural institutions, after a preliminary report found one in three rooms in the Louvre lacked CCTV and that its wider alarm system did not go off.

Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said security protocols had "failed", lamenting that the thieves being able to drive a modified truck up to the museum had left France with a "terrible image".

Authorities believe they are chasing a team of professionals, given how quick and organised they were.

Experts in art recovery previously told the BBC investigators had just one or two days to track down the items before they could be considered gone for good.

It is most likely they have been broken down into precious metals and gems, smuggled out of the country and sold for a fraction of their worth, other experts have said.

The Ukrainian city of Chernihiv is in total blackout following what the authorities describe as a "massive" assault by Russian missiles and drones, with hundreds of thousands of people affected.

Across the wider Chernihiv region, four people are reported to have been killed as residential neighbourhoods were struck in the town of Novhorod-Siverskyi.

Ten others were injured, including a 10-year-old girl.

The country's most northerly region is the latest to be hit in an intensifying series of attacks on civilian infrastructure as Russia targets energy supplies, the rail network, homes and businesses in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"I personally heard the drones flying overhead," 55-year-old Oleksandr Babich said.

The Chernihiv city resident spoke in matter-of-fact terms about a night filled with the low whine of Iranian-designed Shahed drones, a sound now being increasingly heard far from the war's front lines.

"Unfortunately, our region is very close to our scheming neighbour," he said, adding an expletive for good measure.

The Chernihiv region shares a border with both Russia and Belarus, giving the air defences here less time to react to any incoming attacks.

In a raid involving more than 100 Shahed drones - each of which carry a 50kg warhead - and six ballistic missiles, the direct strikes on Chernihiv's electricity generating facilities left the whole city without power, as well as large parts of the surrounding area.

Andriy Podorvan, the deputy head of the Chernihiv Regional Military Administration, told the BBC that it was part of a pattern across much of the country, with things getting much worse in recent months.

"For around half a year we have been experiencing targeted strikes on the energy infrastructure in our region," he said.

"The number of attacks has significantly increased over the last two months."

When I asked him if he believed that any of the targets were of military value - Moscow's usual justification for these sorts of attacks - he pointed out that Russia has even been targeting petrol stations.

"I can only see strikes on civilian infrastructure," he said.

The attack on the electricity grid has also meant the loss of power to water pumping stations, seriously impacting supplies. Residents have been told to stock up on bottled water or are having to rely on emergency deliveries.

With the attacks ongoing in the morning, electrical engineers had to delay their initial response - but were later able to begin working to restore power.

The wider concern is that, if the intensity of Russia's bombardment continues, it risks rapidly depleting the country's energy resilience, taking a heavy toll on the economy and - with a harsh winter ahead - dealing a psychological blow to the public too.

Up until now, the country's generating companies - working together in a war-time spirit of co-operation - have been able to restore power relatively quickly, but stocks of replacement equipment are not unlimited.

A single transformer can take more than a year to produce, with added time for transportation and installation.

The country is having to look for all the help it can get.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's recent meeting with US President Donald Trump in Washington may have been seen as a strategic disappointment, coming away without having secured a supply of long-hoped for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

But his meetings with the heads of leading US energy companies, in which they discussed ways of helping Ukraine to shore up and modernise its energy sector, were reportedly a success.

Some estimates put the total cost of the damage to Ukraine's energy infrastructure so far at more than $16bn (€13.7bn; £11.9bn).

In Chernihiv, the regional official Andriy Podorvan told the BBC that he believes Russia is unable to make any significant progress on the front lines and so now sees the civilian population as a weak point.

But he thinks this is misjudged.

"People understand who the enemy is and who is guilty in this situation," he said. "It will lead to the even greater unity of the population."

Mr Babich agrees.

"Although, yes, there are inconveniences, the majority of the population is ready for this," he insisted.

Many have been going to work as normal, he pointed out, with back-up generators in place for important facilities like hospitals and government buildings, and neighbours are helping each other.

"The hero city of Chernihiv did not give up and is not going to give up. Morale is high."

There are "no plans" for US President Donald Trump to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin "in the immediate future", a White House official has stated.

Last Thursday Trump said he and the Russian president would hold talks in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.

A preparatory meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov was due to be held this week - but the White House said the two had had a "productive" call and that a meeting was no longer "necessary".

The White House did not share any more details on why the talks had been put on hold.

On Monday Trump embraced the idea of freezing the Ukrainian conflict on the current front line.

"Let it be cut the way it is," he said on Monday, referring to the contested region of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly pushed back against freezing the current line of contact.

Moscow was only interested in "long-term, sustainable peace", Lavrov said on Tuesday, implying that freezing the front line would only amount to a temporary ceasefire.

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Warning: The following article contains details about suicide which some may find distressing

Cerys Lupton-Jones pauses between two doorways.

One door leads into a side room in the Manchester mental health unit where she's a patient. The other leads into a toilet.

The 22-year-old had tried to end her life just 20 minutes earlier - but no staff are seen on the CCTV footage from inside the unit.

She hesitates for about 30 seconds, walking backwards and forwards. Then she enters the toilet and shuts the door.

The next time she is seen on the footage, doctors and nurses are fighting to resuscitate her.

Cerys dies five days later, on 18 May 2022.

A coroner has concluded that some of the care Cerys was given at Park House, which was run by the Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust, was a "shambles".

Staff were meant to be checking on her every 15 minutes.

But the last recorded observation - at 15:00 - had been falsified, saying she had been seen in a corridor. CCTV shows at that point, Cerys was already in the toilet where she would fatally harm herself.

A staff member who was supposed to be looking after her has now admitted to falsifying these records.

Zak Golombeck, coroner for Manchester, said that if someone had stayed with her after the earlier attempt to take her life, what followed may never have happened. He said neglect was likely to have contributed to her death.

Campaigners are calling for an inquiry into the number of deaths at the mental health trust and believe the services are in crisis.

Greater Manchester Mental Health Trust said it "failed her that day, and we are so very sorry that we did not do more".

Cerys's parents, Rebecca Lupton and Dave Jones, describe their daughter as a loving young woman who would do anything for her friends. She was studying to be a nurse and was months away from completing her degree, with a job lined up.

She was autistic and had also struggled with her mental health since her teens.

Her family, who lived miles away in Sussex, say the pandemic and the reduction in community mental health support exacerbated Cerys's problems.

The inquest was told Cerys had tried to take her life in the days running up to her death, spending time in A&E.

She was then readmitted to Park House and put on one-to-one observations for a short time. Later, she was supposed to be checked by staff every 15 minutes.

The inquest heard how, at about 14:35 on 13 May 2022, Cerys was found in a toilet by Mohammed Rafiq, a health support worker who had been assigned to check on her. Cerys had tried to hang herself.

Mr Rafiq and the duty nurse, Thaiba Talib, intervened.

However, the inquest heard the 15-minute observations were not then increased and staff had no proper conversation with her.

The nurse told the inquest she did not believe Cerys meant to seriously harm herself.

She told the coroner she chose not to increase observations on Cerys because she did not want her to feel punished, as she did not like being under observation.

When asked by the coroner if she should have gone with Cerys to her room after the incident and check she was safe, Ms Talib answered: "In hindsight, yes."

Damning CCTV from inside the unit was described minute by minute in court.

It showed Cerys going into the ward garden at 14:42. The observation record, which says at 14:45 she was in her bedspace, was described by the coroner as "not accurate".

At 14:54, Cerys walked into another toilet on the ward and closed the door.

Yet Mr Rafiq told the coroner he remembered seeing Cerys at 14:57. He wrote in the observation notes that he had seen her at 15:00 "along the corridor, looking flat-faced". He then went on a break. In reality, Cerys was still in the toilet.

The coroner told Mr Rafiq that his recollections were wrong, and that he had "falsified" the observation records. Mr Rafiq responded: "I'm afraid so".

Mr Rafiq said other staff had shown him how to record observations every 15 minutes, even if he hadn't done them. "That's how they did it and that's how I did it", he told the court.

A new support worker took over the observations at 15:00. There was no verbal handover and, according to Mr Rafiq's notes, Cerys had just been seen.

The CCTV shows the new support worker checking on other patients. At 15:15 she looked for Cerys.

She could be seen becoming increasingly desperate as she searched the communal areas and ran along the corridor.

At 15:19, she tried the door to the toilet, using a master key to unlock it. She found Cerys inside and immediately raised the alarm.

By that point, 25 minutes had passed since Cerys went into the toilet. She died in hospital on 18 May, five days later.

The coroner said there was a gross failure by Ms Talib to provide "basic medical attention to a person in a dependent position".

He said it was not clear what Cerys's intention had been. In a narrative conclusion, he recorded that neglect had contributed to her death.

"I knew it was bad," Cerys's mother Rebecca told the BBC, "but listening to the evidence highlighted quite how poor the care was."

Her father, Dave, says when Cerys was sectioned and taken to the hospital at the start of 2022, they believed it would keep her safe and help her get better. "In fact, it just made everything worse," he says. "It was the wrong environment."

"Cerys was a wonderful, wonderful young person. We feel that she would be here today if she'd been given better care by Manchester Mental Health Trust," Rebecca said outside court, after the coroner gave his conclusion.

Dave described the disbelief and anger as difficult to put into words. "We need more funding for mental health services, more staff, better training and much better oversight."

Immy Swithern was a patient at the same time as Cerys. They became close friends. She says they tried to make the best out of a bad situation and would talk all day.

She also claims some staff regularly failed to carry out 15-minute safety checks, so they tried to look out for each other.

"I was there to get better, and I was there to have help with that," she says. "Instead, I was constantly checking on people. On that ward, I think that is the most scared I've ever felt in my life."

Park House mental health unit has since closed. It was replaced by a new £105.9m hospital in November 2024.

The NHS trust said it had "significantly improved" its provision of care and it was grateful to the coroner for "acknowledging the work that has been done to prevent something of this nature from happening again".

But campaigners claim mental health services in Manchester are in crisis.

Responding to Tuesday's inquest verdict, the Communities for Holistic, Accessible and Rights-based Mental Health (CHARM) group, says: "It is devastating to hear of yet another young person losing their life as a result of neglect and poor care."

The group says it is due to meet Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham this week to call for a statutory inquiry into the deaths and the financial crisis in the city's mental health services.

In October 2022, five months after Cerys death, an undercover BBC panorama programme exposed bullying and the mistreatment of patients at the medium secure Edenfield centre, which was also run by GMMH.

As a result, an independent review was commissioned by the NHS and published in 2024.

It found a "closed culture" at GMMH. It also raised concerns about the number of deaths by ligature.

In 2022, 19 people took their own lives by hanging on mental health units in the UK, five were GMMH patients, the trust itself said that meant it had 26% of all such deaths in the whole country.

If you are suffering distress or despair, details of help and support in the UK are available at BBC Action Line.

Boris Johnson arrived at the Covid Inquiry before the sun came up on Tuesday morning.

Papers in hand, he came ready to answer questions on the decisions he made during the pandemic that directly impacted children.

The biggest one was on school closures.

The responsibility for all the decisions made were his, the former prime minister began, apologising for the things he got wrong.

Closing schools for him was a "personal horror" and a "nightmare idea".

"I thought it would have done a lot of damage to people to the life chances of people," he said.

But it seemed like the only option at the time.

Many of the questions he was asked on Tuesday were on the planning that went into the shutting of schools.

Over the last few weeks, the inquiry has heard plenty of criticism of the fact that the plan to close schools was not pulled together until the night before it was announced in March 2020.

It's been called "an extraordinary dereliction of duty". The former children's commissioner described chaotic scenes around that decision-making in her own evidence to the inquiry.

The planning around school closures was vitally important, because it outlined who would be allowed in to school, who was classed as vulnerable, how free school meals would work, how remote learning would be scaled up, and plenty more besides.

When the former education secretary, Gavin Williamson, was asked questions about this last week, he said government policy was to keep schools open and all the key decisions were being taken within Number 10.

Today, Boris Johnson said he thought the Department for Education (DfE) would have picked up from discussions that were going on from February onwards that the closure of schools was a possibility. He suggested it was clear there was work to be done, and it was "surprising" there was no plan ready at the time.

The inquiry has also heard about the huge effort to set up Covid testing in schools before January 2021, in an attempt to allow them to stay open. Many teachers worked over Christmas 2020 to make it work, and the DfE had been clear that it would.

But a decision was made to close schools late on 4 January 2021 - the same day pupils had first returned after the Christmas holidays.

Johnson said this was a low moment, describing how he could see "the cavalry coming over the hill" - the vaccines which would eventually turn the tide of the pandemic, but which had not arrived quickly enough to prevent more disruption to children's lives.

He said he was sorry to teachers for all their efforts on getting mass testing up and running, but said that plan was ultimately defeated by the alpha mutation which accelerated the spread of Covid.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Johnson was challenged on the exam results of August 2020, which were first awarded by putting teachers' grades into an algorithm designed to prevent grades becoming inflated, but which instead downgraded 40% of them.

It was a "disaster", Johnson said, and "plainly let a lot of kids down" before the government U-turn which saw pupils get their original teacher-assessed grades.

Johnson was in a "homicidal mood" after the debacle, he said. One message he sent to advisers at the time suggested ministers at the DfE should be sacked.

This was Johnson's second and final appearance at the inquiry. His first, in December 2023, was for the session looking directly at political governance at the time. The fact he's back now highlights the importance they are giving to the impact the pandemic had on children and the lessons that need to be learned.

When asked about the lockdowns and the restrictions that were put in place on children, Johnson conceded that they were very hard on children.

The experiences of children spending a lot of time online, some in troubled families behind closed doors, others left with serious mental health implications, have become painstakingly clear through the evidence of the last few weeks.

Johnson said that, looking back on it all - the intricacy of the rules of six, the complexity of other lockdown and social distancing rules, particularly for children - "I think we probably did go too far".

"It was far too elaborate. Maybe we could have a found a way of exempting children," he said.

These are all points that Baroness Heather Hallett, who is the chair of the inquiry, will be paying particular attention to when she comes to her final report, and the question of what could possibly be done differently if it were ever to happen again.

Listen to the latest episode of the Covid Inquiry Podcast on BBC Sounds

Under Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza, the "yellow line" - which Israel withdrew to earlier this month - is the first of three stages of Israeli military withdrawal. It leaves it in control of about 53% of the Gaza Strip.

One Israeli newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, referred to it as "effectively the new border" in Gaza.

It's a remark that will please the far-right coalition partners of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The fortifications and demarcations Israel is now building along this boundary are meant to clearly divide the territory, but they may also help to blur the differing hopes and expectations of Mr Netanyahu's allies in Washington and at home.

How long he can keep both sets of expectations in play depends largely on this next stage of negotiations.

The boundary marked by the yellow line is temporary, but further withdrawal of Israeli forces rests on resolving the difficult issues pinned to the second stage of Donald Trump's deal – including the transfer of power in Gaza and the process for disarming Hamas.

Washington is keen that nothing upset this next delicate stage of negotiations. US Vice-President JD Vance flew in on Tuesday to push Netanyahu to press on with peace talks. Trump's negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met with the Israeli PM on Monday.

Israeli newspapers have been reporting that Netanyahu is receiving a stern message from his American allies to "show restraint" and not to endanger the ceasefire.

When Israel complained that Hamas had violated the terms of the ceasefire on Sunday, killing two soldiers, the response advocated by Mr Netanyahu's far-right National Security Minister was a one-word demand: "War".

Instead, Israel carried out an intense, but brief, wave of air strikes, before reinstating the truce, and was careful to emphasise that its troops had been attacked inside the yellow line – keen to show Washington that Israel had not broken the rules.

Netanyahu has said the war will not end until Hamas is dismantled – its disarmament, and the full demilitarisation of Gaza, are among the conditions he has set.

But Israeli commentators are lining up to say that the real decisions over Israel's military action in Gaza are now being made in Washington.

The yellow line – and the daunting task facing negotiators in this second stage of the deal – are clues as to why Netanyahu's coalition partners have chosen to wait, rather than carry out a threat to bring down his government.

The dream for many extremist settlers – and ministers – is that the next stage of this process will prove impossible to resolve and the yellow line will indeed become the de facto border, opening the way to new settlements on Gazan land. Some hardliners would like Israel to annex the whole of the Gaza Strip.

The vast majority of Israelis want an end to the war and for the remaining bodies of the hostages, and Israel's serving soldiers, to come home.

But Israel's prime minister is known as a politician who likes to keep his options as open as possible, for as long as possible, and this is a deal in stages, with caveats built in.

Agreeing to this first stage meant withdrawing to positions that left Israel in control of more than half of Gaza, and agreeing to a ceasefire in order to get hostages home.

From here, it will become harder to align the goals of his US and domestic allies.

Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly underlined that violations of the deal by Hamas – including its failure to disarm – would allow Israel to return to war.

"If this is achieved the easy way, so much the better," he told the Israeli public earlier this month. "If not, it will be achieved the hard way."

Donald Trump has said the same. But Washington has so far shown a tolerance for delays and violations in implementing the deal on the ground, leaving Netanyahu with far less political room than perhaps he'd like.

British designer Grace Wales Bonner has been named as the new creative director of men's wear for French fashion house Hermès.

The appointment means Wales Bonner, a 35-year-old Londoner, is now the first black woman to lead design at a major fashion house, according to the New York Times.

In a statement, Wales Bonner said she was "deeply honoured to be entrusted with the role".

She replaces Véronique Nichanian, who has been the company's artistic director of men's wear division for 37 years.

Her final collection for the brand will be shown in Paris in January, while Wales Bonner's first collection will launch in 2027.

In her statement, Wales Bonner said: "It is a dream realised to embark on this new chapter, following in a lineage of inspired craftspeople and designers."

She also thanked the company's bosses "for the opportunity to bring my vision to this magical house".

Reporting the news on Tuesday, Vogue said: "While industry insiders were betting on a promotion from within, Hermès went for a renowned talent."

Wales Bonner, who was born in London to an English mother and Jamaican father, founded her own label in 2014, not long after graduating from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art.

According to Vogue, Wales Bonner will continue her namesake brand alongside her new Hermès role.

She dressed F1 driver Lewis Hamilton, musician FKA Twigs, and actor Jeff Goldblum for this year's Met Gala and has made T-shirts with musician Solange Knowles, younger sister of Beyoncé.

Wales Bonner has also curated an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and hosted musical performances at London's Serpentine Galleries.

She has had a long-standing collaboration with Adidas and was made a MBE in 2022 for services to fashion.

Pierre-Alexis Dumas, general artistic director of Hermès, said: "I am really pleased to welcome Grace to the Hermès artistic director family.

"Her take on contemporary fashion, craft and culture will contribute to shaping Hermès men's style, melding the house's heritage with a confident look on the now.

"Grace's appetite and curiosity for artistic practice strongly resonate with Hermès's creative mindset and approach. We are at the start of an enriching mutual dialogue."