Labour suffered its first parliamentary defeat in Caerphilly for 100 years as Plaid Cymru claimed victory in the Welsh Parliament by-election.

Nigel Farage's Reform pledged to "throw everything" at the campaign but could only finish second to Plaid's Lindsay Whittle, who took 47% of the vote with a majority of 3,848.

The result saw a swing of 27% from Labour, which has held the seat in Westminster since the 1920s and in the Senedd since it began at the turn of the century.

Whittle promised to work like "a Trojan for every man, woman and child" and said he was proud to call Caerphilly his home.

Celebrating victory outside the town's castle he said: "I believe the world is watching Wales, an emerging nation starting to control our lives again."

Plaid leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, who hopes to form the next Welsh government at May's Senedd election, said the party can "now win in any part of Wales" but was "taking nothing for granted".

"It is a momentous win, a historic win for Caerphilly, for Plaid Cymru and for the story of Welsh politics," he added.

Plaid Cymru, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding over the summer, is seen as being on the centre-left of Welsh politics.

Achieving Welsh independence has long been an article of faith for activists.

But ap Iorwerth is downplaying independence for now, promising a plan but not in the first term of any Plaid-led government.

Labour First Minister Eluned Morgan told BBC Wales she had spoken to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Friday morning and said he understood he "has a responsibility to help us out in Wales" following the party's humiliation.

She admitted it was a "bad result for Labour" but insisted she would not resign.

Whittle, a former Caerphilly council leader and councillor for almost 50 years, paid an emotional tribute to the late Caerphilly Member of the Senedd (MS) Hefin David, whose death triggered the by-election, saying his "kindness" was the "guiding spirit" of his campaign.

In his overnight victory speech to jubilant supporters, Whittle said: "Listen Westminster, this is Caerphilly and Wales telling you we want a better deal."

Ap Iorwerth said Caerphilly voters had "chosen hope over division, and progress over the tired status quo, and backed Plaid Cymru's positive, pro-Wales vision".

Turnout was just over 50% - higher than 2021's 44% in Caerphilly - compared to the national average for a Senedd vote has never been over 50%.

Reform won only 495 votes four years ago but ended in battle with Plaid Cymru, coming second with 36% of the vote.

Labour's Richard Tunnicliffe won just 11% of the vote and came third.

The constituency was visited by a series of senior figures from the party in the last few days, including Farage, who campaigned in Caerphilly on Thursday.

Despite the result Llŷr Powell said he thought Reform would form the next Welsh government.

"We've got more people turning out to vote now when they've got a party they believe in."

On Friday, Farage predicted May's Senedd election would be a "two-horse race between Reform UK and Plaid Cymru".

"The total collapse of the Labour vote to Plaid was to a party that people know well and to a popular local politician," he wrote on social media.

Labour had held Caerphilly since the National Assembly, as the Welsh Parliament - or Senedd - was then called, opened in 1999.

The result leaves the party two seats short of a majority, making it harder for it to govern ahead of a crucial vote on its budget in January.

It has already begun talks with opposition leaders in an effort to work out how it can get through its spending plans on the NHS, education and other services.

Morgan congratulated the Plaid Cymru candidate and said the by-election was held "in the toughest of circumstances and in the midst of difficult headwinds nationally".

She said Labour had heard "the frustration on doorsteps" and insisted the party was "listening, we are learning the lessons and we will be come back stronger".

Whatever happens next, Caerphilly has written itself into the pages of Welsh political history as 100 years of Labour rule came crashing down.

We are about to find out if this result is an eye-opening anomaly or a genuinely new chapter.

Read more analysis from Wales political editor Gareth Lewis here

Prince Andrew's banner bearing his coat of arms has been removed at Windsor Castle as the controversy continues over his links to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The flag, linked to his membership of the Order of the Garter, which the prince gave up last week, was on display inside St George's Chapel but is no longer hanging there.

Last Friday, Andrew announced he would also no longer use his royal titles, including Duke of York, after the publication of a posthumous memoir by Virginia Giuffre revived claims about his ties to Epstein.

The prince is under increasing pressure to lose further privileges, including the formal removal of his titles and his residence at Royal Lodge in Windsor.

The book, Nobody's Girl, was written by Ms Giuffre before she died earlier this year. She accused the prince of sexually assaulting her - allegations Prince Andrew has strenuously denied.

Prince Andrew's banner, which he was given when he became a Knight of the Garter (KG) in 2006, had been hanging in the quire - the area where clergy and the choir sit for services.

A virtual tour of the area available on the website for St George's Chapel shows it still hanging near the door leading into the quire. It is not known when the tour was created.

However, the banner has now been removed and only three now hang in the space. It is thought it was taken down earlier in the week.

The Order of the Garter is the oldest and most senior order of chivalry in Britain and includes other senior members of the royal family and those said to have contributed notably to public life.

Current non-royal members include former prime ministers Sir Tony Blair and Sir John Major.

Prince Andrew is facing scrutiny over his Royal Lodge home in Windsor Great Park, where he has paid a "peppercorn rent" for more than 20 years.

The government this week refused to give MPs time to debate Prince Andrew's titles or taxpayer-funded home, despite growing pressure for scrutiny.

The Metropolitan Police, meanwhile, has said it is "actively" looking into media reports that Prince Andrew tried to obtain personal information about Ms Giuffre through his police protection.

On Friday, it emerged the prince was paid tens of thousands of pounds by British businessman linked to a wealth management company which ripped off pension savers.

Documents from the High Court in London showed Andrew received £60,500 from a British businessman, Adrian Gleave in December 2019, a few weeks after the BBC Newsnight interview which led to his withdrawal from public life.

As break-up albums go, Lily Allen's new record West End Girl is one for the history books.

Written and recorded in just 10 days, it's a real-time account of her shock, grief, confusion and anger, as her four-year marriage to actor David Harbour fell apart, amid accusations of infidelity.

In interviews, Allen has stressed the lyrics aren't necessarily the gospel truth - because she "wasn't sure what was real, and what was in my head" as she processed the end of the relationship.

But critics have lavished praise on the record, calling it a "jaw-dropping" and "brutal" act of "personal exorcism", while praising Allen's gift for melody, on songs that span flamenco, bossa nova, and "infectious pop".

'Rooted in darkness'

West End Girl is the star's first album in seven years, following 2018's Mercury Prize-nominated No Shame.

Speaking to Perfect Magazine earlier this week, Allen said she had continued writing in the intervening years, but had struggled to feel "emotionally attached" to the material.

"I just didn't think it was any good," she said, before confessing: "It's easier to write funny things that are rooted in darkness or anger or... terminal hatred."

West End Girl marries all of those emotions to pithy, witty storytelling that's been Allen's trademark since her debut, Alright, Still in 2006.

Narratively, it begins with the singer falling in love, moving to New York with her two daughters, and setting up home in "a nice little rental near a sweet little school".

But the first signs of trouble begin when she's cast in a West End Play (Allen received a Laurence Olivier nomination for her stage debut in 2:22 A Ghost Story, in 2021).

"That's when your demeanour started to change," she sings, as clouds gather over the breezy musical backdrop. "You said that I'd have to audition, I said 'You're deranged'".

As the album progresses, the relationship continues to sour.

Her husband disappears for weeks on end, and Allen reluctantly accepts the conditions of an open marriage.

"He had an arrangement, be discreet and don't be blatant / There had to be payment, it had to be with strangers."

It all blows up when she realises he isn't playing by the rules. She finds text messages and secret Instagram accounts, and confronts one of her husband's extra-marital partners, demanding: "Is it just sex or is there emotion?"

In one of the album's most brutal scenes, Allen, or the character she is portraying, visits an apartment where she believed her husband was practising karate, only to discover a room scattered with sex toys and "a shoebox full of handwritten letters from brokenhearted women".

When she finally ends the relationship, she's bewildered and wounded by his indifference, wondering over and over, "why won't you beg for me?"

It's only on the two final tracks where she accepts the need to move on and burn her bridges.

"I will not absorb your shame, it's you who put me through this," she sings over a stripped-bare beat on Let You W/in. "I can walk out with my dignity if I lay my truth out on the table."

'Sharp, pithy pop'

It is "a brutal, tell-all masterpiece," said The Independent's Hannah Ewens in a five star review.

"This musical of deceit and suffering puts her in the starring role, seizing control of her narrative and holding little back."

"Despite the heartache, or perhaps because of it, she sounds artistically reinvigorated," argued Adrian Thrills in the Daily Mail, awarding the album four stars.

"There's a touch too much auto-tune on her voice at times, but no doubting her ability to convey raw emotion with sharp, pithy pop."

It's a "victorious comeback" that represents the star "at her very best", said the NME's Ali Shutler.

"There's a lot of grief and misery [but] Allen's always had a knack for making devastation sound exciting."

"Anyone who's been betrayed will welcome the bravery of her honesty," wrote Helen Brown in The Telegraph, "while no doubt counting their blessings not to live in the emotionally detached celebrity world of sad sex and lonely mansions."

"It's hard not to wonder whether West End Girl is going to get the reception it deserves," noted The Guardian's Alexis Petridis, calling it a "great pop album regardless of the subject matter".

"Perhaps some listeners will view it as too personal to countenance. Or perhaps fans who have grown up alongside Allen, now 40, will find something profoundly relatable in the story it has to tell."

The musician has been careful to clarify that some of the songs are written "in character", saying that the lyrics "could be considered autofiction" - a genre that combines autobiography and fiction.

Harbour has also been circumspect about the end of the marriage. "I'm protective of the people and the reality of my life", he told GQ magazine in April.

"There's no use in that form of engaging [with tabloid news] because it's all based on hysterical hyperbole."

West End Girl will no doubt fuel a renewed tabloid frenzy. Heck, I've just spent 800 words summarising Allen's account.

But in her own words, the album was necessary. At the start of the year, she took time off her hit BBC podcast Miss Me? to deal with her spiralling mental health and checked into rehab.

"The feelings of despair that I was experiencing were so strong," she told Vogue.

"The last time that I felt anything like that, drugs and alcohol were my way out, so it was excruciating to sit with those [feelings] and not use them."

Writing West End Girl, it seems, was her way of coping, of healing and, just maybe, of settling scores.

"If what you're doing isn't provocative, what's the point?" she told Perfect Magazine. "And if it's not scary, what's the point? I'm not here to be mediocre.

"My strength is my ability to tell a story. And so I'm going to lean into that. I have to. It's all I have."

A drug dealer who organised a Russian-ordered arson attack on a warehouse providing aid to Ukraine has been sentenced to 17 years in prison.

Dylan Earl, 21, admitted a National Security Act offence over the attack on industrial units in Leyton, east London, on 20 March 2024.

He was jailed alongside five other men for their part in the plot.

An investigation by the Metropolitan Police's Counter Terrorism Command found Earl, from Leicestershire, was working under the instruction of Russian mercenary Wagner Group, who are proscribed by the UK government as a terrorist organisation. The case is the first to be brought under the National Security Act 2023.

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

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The number of 16-24 year olds in England reporting symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, has more than tripled in a decade, BBC analysis of NHS data has found.

The condition is now the second-most widespread mental health disorder for young adults, according to statistics from a major NHS England survey.

"OCD, I like to think of it as a bully, it attacks everything, everything you care about, everything you love," says Sophie Ashcroft.

"A lot of people do associate OCD with cleanliness, and being clean, and getting all your socks in a certain order. It's so much more than that."

The 22-year-old is one of a number of young people and their families to have contacted us through Your Voice, Your BBC News explaining how they can't access NHS treatment for their symptoms.

Those who could get seen spoke of a shortage of expert staff and effective treatments.

The average referral time figure for young people to be seen at a national OCD centre in London was 41 weeks last year, nearly three times as long as it was five years previously.

The government told us it was "turning services around", hiring 8,500 extra mental health workers, delivering more talking therapies and providing better access to help through the NHS App. It also said it was expanding the rollout of mental health support teams in schools.

Sophie sometimes struggles to leave her home because she feels compelled to repeat small tasks - such as getting into the shower or cleaning her teeth - to dispel intrusive or distressing thoughts.

"If I had a bad thought during the day, it would ruin the rest of my day. I'd think something bad was gonna happen," she tells us.

'Behind closed doors it's sheer panic'

The people who have contacted BBC News say lives have been devastated, with some families who haven't been able to get NHS help telling us they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on private care.

Charities insist there is an OCD crisis and say the figures should be a wake-up call for the government.

OCD symptoms can affect adults and children, and can begin as early as six years old - but they are often triggered during puberty and early adulthood.

Sophie's symptoms first appeared when she was aged nine, she says, but it was a decade later, when a close friend died, that things became a lot worse.

To dispel troubling thoughts, she says it led her to repeat actions again and again - things most people would consider mundane and would do without a second thought.

"It's something telling me you have to do that again, you have to hug that person again, and it just takes over," says Sophie. "It's such an awful, awful feeling."

Despite all this, Sophie has just finished drama school. "I'm really, really good at hiding it, but behind closed doors it's sheer panic," she explains.

About 370,000 young people in England reported OCD symptoms in the financial year 2023/24, our analysis of the latest NHS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (June 2025) has found.

That is more than three times the number from 2014, when the figure stood at around 113,000.

It means OCD is now second in the list of named mental health disorders - placing it and other anxiety disorders well ahead of depression:

• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 7.6%

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) 5.7%

• Phobias 4.8%

• Depressive episodes 3.8 %

Why is OCD on the rise among young people?

Improved awareness of the condition has likely contributed to people seeking help, say experts - but, according to charities and many of those with OCD, societal problems, combined with the pressure of social media, are the main driver for the reported rise.

Leigh Wallbank, chief executive of charity OCD Action, describes many young people's lives as a "pressure pot".

"They're facing financial issues, educational issues, global issues - the environment is such a big issue," she tells us. "I think of them living in this pressure pot, and then underneath that, giving heat to this pressure pot, is social media."

The Covid-19 pandemic also played a part, says Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and influencing at the mental health charity, Mind.

The pandemic put a "particular and unique strain" on people with OCD, with disruption to routine, an inversion of social norms and a hyperfocus on hygiene, he says.

"Barriers to social interaction, including treatment and support services, meant that many coping mechanisms were disrupted or unavailable for an extended period of time," he adds.

NHS help for OCD patients includes specialist talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - which can include Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

Through ERP patients are helped to manage their anxiety by gradually being exposed to their fears, while preventing them from performing their usual compulsive behaviours.

Medication is also offered - usually a type of antidepressant.

But not everyone can access these treatments.

Sophie was told by her GP that it is likely she does have OCD - but, two years on, she still hasn't received an appointment to see a specialist for a formal diagnosis.

In the meantime, her GP has referred her for a limited course of CBT which comes to an end soon. Sophie says she is "absolutely petrified" of what the future holds.

Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action is critical of the government for failing to collect regular quarterly data on obsessive compulsive disorder, and outcomes for patients who have it, as it does for many other conditions.

Without data, says the charity, the NHS is blind to the real scale of OCD, the success of treatments and who is being left behind.

We asked health officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland if they knew the number of young people with OCD symptoms, but they all said they do not collect that information.

'The system could not, or would not, provide help'

A mum from the south of England, who wants to remain anonymous, told us her autistic daughter first showed signs of OCD when she was 10 years old. Her daughter is now 17 and the OCD is severe, she says.

"My daughter has gone from being a scholarship-winning student, to being sectioned multiple times."

Some specialist treatment has been offered to the teenager, but her mum tells us her daughter is often too unwell to leave the house to attend appointments, or even take her medication.

"The impact on [all] our children, and us, is devastating. Our lives have been decimated not just by the illness, but by a system that could not, or would not, provide the help she needed, when she needed it."

The mother says the UK is failing in its treatment of young people with severe OCD. There are not enough specialists, beds or treatment options, she believes.

Children and adolescents with OCD across England can receive treatment at a national centre at the Maudsley Hospital in London.

However, the average wait time for a referral to the service rose from 15 weeks in 2020, to 41 weeks in 2024, according to a response to the BBC's Freedom of Information Act request.

But the hospital trust says that wait time is being cut.

Ade Odunlade, chief operating officer for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said: "We have worked incredibly hard to reduce delays and have lowered the average wait for assessments to around 20 weeks.

"We empathise with anyone who has had to wait for their assessment as we know how difficult that is."

The trust says it has now been able to secure additional funding which will allow them to employ further staff and drive down the waiting list even further.

It expects an approximate wait for assessment of about 12-16 weeks by early Spring 2026, it told us.

But even when people can access all the available help, it is sometimes not enough.

Graham and Marie Fuller, from Norwich, contacted the BBC to say their daughter had been hospitalised with OCD aged 12.

They described a revolving-door pattern of going backwards and forwards between NHS services for different treatments, with their daughter improving and then repeatedly relapsing.

After years of their daughter struggling with the condition, the family then decided to go to Texas to try a rare and radical procedure.

Their daughter, who is now 20, underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery - where electrodes are implanted in the brain to deliver electrical impulses to help manage OCD symptoms.

The treatment is approved by US regulators, but in the UK the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says DBS can only be used for research studies, because there is not enough evidence on how safe or effective the practice is for OCD.

Having a loved one with OCD "has taken its toll on all of us, but we had to do all we could to help", says Marie, explaining how, before undergoing DBS, her daughter had discussed going to Switzerland to end her life.

Marie says her daughter is now back at university, though she concedes it is still early days in terms of the success of the treatment.

• OCD information and support from BBC Action Line

The UK's health guidelines for obsessive compulsive disorder are 20 years old - they are currently being reviewed by NICE. In 2019, it was agreed that policy around OCD treatment needed to reflect updated technologies and possible new drugs.

But for Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action she says better funding is imperative if young people are to get the help they need.

"Policymakers and the government need to invest in OCD services. [OCD] is preventable and it is a crisis that can be changed."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the government had inherited a broken NHS with mental health services suffering following years of neglect - adding that funding was now being boosted by £688m.

But people with OCD such as Sophie are scared about what the future holds.

The limited course of CBT that she's been prescribed is coming to an end and she fears a return of her symptoms.

"What am I going to do? What if it happens again?"

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A key witness in the China spying case removed the term "enemy" from the final draft of a witness statement submitted to prosecutors, because it did not reflect government policy at the time.

In a letter to MPs, deputy national security adviser Matthew Collins said the word "enemy" was included in the draft witness statement written when the Conservatives were in power.

But he said he told police investigating the case he could not call China an "enemy" as this did not reflect government policy".

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has been accused by the Conservatives of allowing the case to collapse earlier this year by not describing China as a threat to national security.

Charges against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry - who deny the allegations - were dropped in September.

The Labour government, the Conservatives and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are facing questions over the collapse of the case and who was to blame.

Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) said the case fell apart because evidence could not be obtained from the government referring to China as a national security threat.

The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, which is made up of senior MPs and peers, launched an inquiry last week.

Among those giving evidence at a next week will be Collins, who provided prosecutors with three witness statements - two written while the Conservatives were in power and one under Labour.

The three statements were published by the government last week.

Collins - the deputy director of national security (DNSA) - has now submitted evidence in a letter to the committee before appearing in front of MPs.

Cash and Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act 1911.

Under the legislation, anyone accused of spying can only be prosecuted if the information they passed on was useful to an enemy.

In his letter, Collins said Counter Terrorism Police (CTP) requested that he act as a witness in the case in August 2023, including to support the "enemy" description needed to mount a prosecution under the 1911 Act.

Collins said his legal counsel worked with junior officials to prepare "a draft text which could form the basis of a witness statement".

He said he reviewed the "draft wording and amended the statement to ensure factual accuracy and that it was in line with current government policy".

In his letter, Collins wrote: "These amendments reflected the DNSA's assessment of the evidence provided by operational partners based on his professional experience in advising the prime minister on national security threats, and to accurately represent the government's view of the range of national security threats posed by China.

"Drafts of a statement provided to DNSA included the term 'enemy' but he removed this term from the final draft as it did not reflect government policy."

Labour's Attorney General Lord Hermer has also submitted evidence to the same committee.

In it, he revealed he was informed on 3 September that prosecutors were dropping the case - but was told not to alert other ministers, including the prime minister.

Lord Hermer said he received routine updates from the CPS in August indicating the trial was expected to proceed.

But during a meeting on 3 September, DPP Parkinson confirmed the decision to drop the case.

Lord Hermer said at the DPP's request, he kept the information confidential until police and defendants were informed.

The attorney general said "there is nothing unusual" in the law officers "being requested to keep information about individual prosecution decisions confidential even from senior colleagues".

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Wednesday's tale of woe

A gallery attendant on duty at the Louvre when thieves broke in and stole eight of France's crown jewels has said "no-one could have been prepared" for what unfolded as visitors began to arrive on Sunday morning.

"All of a sudden we heard an huge noise," she told radio station France Inter, in the first account given by an attendant at the scene.

The unnamed attendant and two colleagues initially thought the noise to be an angry visitor, but it was not a normal sound: "It was a dull, slightly metallic noise."

It was, in fact, the moment thieves had used an angle grinder to burst through a reinforced window into the Gallery of Apollo, where the Louvre's collection of historic jewelry is kept.

Within eight minutes, the gang seized treasures, including a necklace that belonged to Napoleon's wife Empress Marie-Louise and a diadem of Napoleon III's wife Empress Eugenie, worth an estimated total of €88m (£77m).

The thieves used a mechanical ladder on the back of a lorry to lift them to a first-floor balcony to gain entry to the gallery.

Two tourists ran towards them in panic, she said.

"I saw one of the criminals turn around with something that looked to me like a chainsaw, then I yelled at my colleagues to get out," she recalled. She shouted a second time that it was a robbery and that they should run.

One of her colleagues raised the alarm over a walkie-talkie and then "we finished evacuating the visits without quite realising really what was going on". They shut all the doors as they left to protect the neighbouring galleries.

On reflection, the attendant said "for us it was unbelievable the display cases could have been broken... never for a moment did we think there was such a risk... nobody can be prepared for that".

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Another Louvre employee came forward to describe the moments after the gang escaped.

The anonymous security guard spoke of a very strong smell of petrol as he arrived at the scene outside the Louvre where the gang had parked their lorry.

"I ran outside through the [glass] pyramid and across the courtyard... I got there at the very moment the criminals got away by scooter," he told BFMTV.

The gang had ruptured the lorry's fuel tank and there was a blowtorch near by, he said. "It's clear they intended to set fire to their vehicle. I genuinely think we thwarted their plan because they would never have left behind so much evidence."

"They even lost one of the pieces they'd meant to steal, because they'd lost [Empress] Eugenie's crown, which they'd just stolen and it had fallen on the ground."

The security guard and his colleagues were the first to find the crown, he said: "I can't say I jumped for joy, especially because the piece had obviously been damaged."

The director of the museum, Laurence des Cars, said the empress's crown appeared to have been damaged when the gang prised it out of a narrow gap they had cut in one of the two display cases with an angle grinder.

She told French senators this week that initial indications were that "delicate restoration" would be possible for the 19th-Century crown inlaid with diamonds and emeralds.

Although French ministers insist security at the museum had worked properly on the day, the Louvre director has spoken of years of underfunding and of just one external security camera, facing the wrong way, where the break-in took place.

Her damning assessment was backed up by the attendant, who complained that "for some time we've felt the culture of security is in decline at the museum".

After a night of high drama in Caerphilly, Plaid Cymru is celebrating a stunning by-election victory.

Reform piled on the votes but suffered a setback after "throwing everything" at victory, only to finish second.

Labour is nursing its wounds after a truly appalling result, coming a poor third in a part of the world it has owned for more than a century.

As eyes turn to the full Senedd election in May, and the prospect of an exciting pre-election six months ahead, last night's result raises some key questions about what is clearly now a very different political world in Wales.

How did Plaid Cymru pull it off?

It is difficult to overstate how ecstatic the party, and its leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, will be with Plaid Cymru's victory.

Labour may reasonably point out that Plaid has long had a presence here, but this was a Senedd seat the late Hefin David won with 46% of the vote in 2021 and a constituency that has always been Labour in Cardiff Bay and Labour-owned for more than 100 years at Westminster.

Plaid Cymru successfully presented itself as the vehicle for change from a deeply unpopular Labour UK government and a Welsh Labour party that's been ruling the roost since Tony Blair's landslide victory in 1997.

Aided by opinion polling showing Labour on the slide and Reform on the rise, Plaid Cymru was able to frame the by-election as straight choice between itself and Nigel Farage's party.

Plaid's challenge has long been to break out of its traditional Welsh-speaking heartlands in north and west Wales.

Parking the potentially divisive issue of independence for Wales, front and centre under previous leader Adam Price, has been part of the solution,

Ap Iorwerth is downplaying independence for now, promising to publish a plan for Welsh independence - but not within the first term of a Plaid-led government.

The party campaigned in this by-election for a better funding deal for Wales from Westminster, attracting jobs and improving healthcare - nothing to scare the horses.

Expect a similar approach for the 2026 election.

The momentum is clearly with Plaid Cymru now, the question is whether it can maintain that between now and May.

Where does Labour go from here?

The result for Labour's Richard Tunnicliffe is abysmal.

A Labour loss was widely expected, so a victory for the party would have been astonishing, but that does not diminish the significance or nature of this defeat.

There are, naturally, caveats. By-elections are frequently different beasts from full elections, Caerphilly voters might behave differently in just a few short months.

But this close to that full Senedd election, Labour appear to be in deep in the mire.

Crucially, last night's result goes with the grain of everything we have been hearing about the trouble Labour is in across Wales - from pollsters, voters, rival parties and even figures within the party itself.

Welsh Labour figures blame Sir Keir Starmer for their Caerphilly woes rather than First Minister Eluned Morgan.

They want more muscular efforts to distinguish her Welsh administration from his.

Others call for a "big retail offer" to capture voters' imagination come May.

It is beginning to look desperate. Could the real game be about limiting Labour losses, rather than expecting to be the biggest party in Cardiff Bay?

Might Labour's best hope be to win enough seats in six months time to give it the option of joining a Plaid-Labour Welsh government as junior partner, perhaps with some Greens and Liberal Democrats - a "progressive coalition" to keep Reform out?

How big a setback is the result for Reform?

There are no prizes for coming second in first-past-the-post, but capturing 36% of the vote after winning just 2% in 2021 is no mean feat.

Reform UK is developing an increasingly sophisticated campaign machine and will have learned from this experience.

Interesting trends were at play in Caerphilly.

The Nigel Farage media show, when it comes to town is great at capturing attention and so it was here.

But did the Farage fireworks, appearing to dominate the discourse, in some ways, aid Plaid campaigners' efforts to urge Labour voters to back them to stop Reform?

Reform figures say they still expect to win the coming Senedd election.

Whether or not this is the case, anything like this result in May would mean a major Reform presence in Cardiff Bay under a new, proportional system.

What does Caerphilly mean for the Senedd election?

It is the start of what is likely to be the most exciting six months in Welsh politics most of us can remember.

The record turnout of 50.43% suggests that, when you introduce some jeopardy into the mix, voters do become engaged.

The message of change, mixed with some voters being motivated to back Plaid to stop Reform, proved the winning formula for Plaid Cymru this time.

Devolved elections, let's be frank, haven't been the most exciting experiences over the past couple of decades.

Whatever happens between now and May's Senedd election, it will not be boring!

Prince Andrew was paid tens of thousands of pounds by a British businessman linked to a wealth management company which ripped off pension savers.

The King's brother, who last week said he would no longer use his titles including the Duke of York, has long faced questions about his finances and how he is funding his lifestyle.

He stepped down as a working royal in 2019 because of his association with the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and no longer receives any money from the King.

Although his finances remain opaque, details of some of his arrangements and controversial business associates have occasionally emerged from court cases.

Prince Andrew did not respond to requests for comment.

Documents from the High Court in London show that Andrew received £60,500 from a British businessman, Adrian Gleave in December 2019, a few weeks after the BBC Newsnight interview which led to his withdrawal from public life.

The payments came to light in a High Court case brought by an elderly Turkish millionaire, Nebahat Isbilen, who claimed money she had paid to Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson had been misappropriated by a business adviser.

That money was funnelled through a British company owned by Mr Gleave, Alphabet Capital Limited.

According to an "agreed statement of facts signed by or on behalf of the Duke and Duchess, Mr Gleave and Alphabet", Mr Gleave's company Alphabet had "previously made, and might in the future make, substantial payments to HRH Prince Andrew the Duke of York".

The payments Prince Andrew received directly from Mr Gleave and his businesses, which were also sent via Alphabet Capital, came months after the businessman had stepped down as a director of SVS Securities - a company which had been ordered to stop trading by the financial regulator over pension mis-selling allegations.

SVS Securities collapsed in August 2019, days after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) had ordered it to stop regulated activities.

Clients' pension funds were found to have been invested in high-risk bonds against their interests in order to generate large commissions for SVS.

Some investments made on the basis of the undisclosed commissions then defaulted, leaving customers with substantial losses. Investors were also charged large fees to withdraw funds in an effort to boost profits, the FCA found.

Mr Gleave, 55, was head of business development at SVS, which he had joined in 2013.

He remained a registered director on the FCA's register until late July 2019, less than two weeks before the regulator's intervention.

He had been a company director registered with Companies House until a couple of months earlier, although on LinkedIn he claims to have left the business in November 2018.

Three SVS directors were later banned and fined by the FCA but Mr Gleave was not one of them. Two are appealing the decision.

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has paid out more than £41m to former SVS customers.

At the time of his dealings with Prince Andrew, Mr Gleave also ran a number of caravan and mobile home parks in Northern Ireland and England.

At one point, he was reported to have worked out of one of the parks, a retirement village for over-55s on the east coast of Northern Ireland.

Ten of the parks have since gone into administration and Mr Gleave, who did not respond to a request for comment, now works for a renewable energy company with a focus on AI and crypto financing.

Neither Prince Andrew nor Mr Gleave have ever explained the reason for the payments or the nature of any contractual relationship between the two men.

Baroness Margaret Hodge, a former chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said Mr Gleave's business background raised questions for Prince Andrew about his judgement and financial dealings.

"This is yet another instance where a dose of transparency would help answer legitimate questions about the origins of the money and the purpose of the payment," she said.

"Without those answers any sceptical person would be worried that there might be some financial wrongdoing taking place and this would risk sullying the reputation of the Royal family," she added.

As well as the payments he made himself, Mr Gleave's company, Alphabet Capital, was also used to funnel significant sums which had originated from Ms Isbilen to Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, court documents show.

Ms Ferguson was paid £50,000 by Alphabet Capital in February 2020. It has previously been reported that she was paid £20,000 by Alphabet for a role advising the company and that she also received more than £200,000 to cover work she had done as a brand ambassador for a US solar energy company.

Prince Andrew was separately given £750,000 directly by Ms Isbilen, money which he has repaid.

Another £10,000 was paid from Alphabet Capital to the couple's daughter, Eugenie. This, along with a £15,000 payment from Ms Isbilen's business adviser has previously been described by Eugenie as a gift from a "long-standing family friend" which she said was to pay for a surprise birthday party for her mother, Sarah.

Alphabet Capital filed accounts claiming it was a dormant company at the time of the payments. These were later corrected but listed a turnover of just £80,000.

Prince Andrew and Mr Gleave did not respond to requests for comment.

Disgraced Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins died after being stabbed in the neck in an alleged prison attack, an inquest has heard.

Watkins, 48, died on 11 October after being assaulted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been serving a 29-year jail sentence for child sex offences including the attempted rape of a baby.

The inquest, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was adjourned pending the completion of an associated murder trial.

Two men have been charged with murder in connection with Watkins' death while two other men, aged 23 and 39, arrested earlier this week on suspicion of conspiracy to murder were returned to prison as inquiries continued.

Coroner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was referred to by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the brief hearing, had been pronounced dead at the West Yorkshire jail by an attending doctor and was formally identified by a prison officer.

Mr Longstaff said paramedics were called to the jail "following a report he had been stabbed in the neck".

The coroner said a post-mortem report gave the cause of death as an incision to the neck.

'Depths of depravity'

In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins denied rape but admitted the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13.

He admitted 13 offences, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme image involving a sex act on an animal.

Prosecutors had described him as a man corrupted by fame, drugs, and power who had committed crimes "beyond imagination."

Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "new ground" and "plunged into new depths of depravity".

Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. Following that attack, he was taken to hospital with injuries which were not life-threatening.

Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, appeared in court last week charged with his murder, but were not asked to enter pleas.

Who was Ian Watkins?

Watkins was once one of Wales' most recognisable musicians - the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets.

The band formed in Pontypridd in 1997, and sold millions of albums around the world.

They released five studio albums, one of which reached number one in the UK.

The group also had some success in the US, with their second and third albums reaching the top-40.

They disbanded immediately after Watkins was convicted in 2013.

His former bandmates spoke publicly about their shock and disgust.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Even though I was completely done with him, I hoped it was all a mistake, he was innocent, he had to be.

"The first time, we knew the band was done. You can't go back from that."

The remaining bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, soon after.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North

Celebrities, professional sports stars and wealthy gamblers sat at a table hoping to win big in a game of Texas Hold 'Em.

But they didn't know it was nearly impossible. They were "fishes" allegedly being targeted by the mafia in an elaborate poker gambling scheme that included X-ray card tables, secret cameras, analysers in chip trays and sunglasses and contact lenses that could read their hand.

In what sounds like an Ocean's Eleven film plot, prosecutors say these "unwitting" victims were cheated out of at least $7m (£5.25) in poker games - with one person losing at least $1.8m (£1.35m).

The scheme, which US prosecutors described as "reminiscent of a Hollywood movie," was dismantled in a sprawling federal investigation that led to more than 30 arrests, including members of the La Costra Nostra crime families, Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and former player Damon Jones.

FBI director Kash Patel called it a "mind-boggling" fraud scheme that cheated victims in New York, Miami, Las Vegas and other US cities.

The underground poker scheme started as early as 2019, prosecutors say, and was allegedly operated the mafia - specifically by members of notorious crime families, including Bonnano, Gambino, Luchesse and Genovese. A cut of the profits, prosecutors say, helped fund their criminal enterprise.

Former professional athletes, described by prosecutors as "face cards", were enlisted to help in the scheme and entice victims into playing.

Lured in by the opportunity to play with a high-profile celebrity - such as Billups or Jones - a wealthy, "unwitting victim" would be recruited for illegal, underground poker games where tens of thousands of dollars were on the line, prosecutors allege.

Unbeknownst to the lured-in players - referred to in the scheme as a "fish" - everyone surrounding them was in on the elaborate scam - from the players to the dealers, even the technology used to shuffle the deck and count the chips, according to a lengthy federal indictment.

Sophisticated wireless technology was also used to deceive the players during the games, most commonly in Texas Hold'em.

• NBA stars and mafia among dozens arrested in illegal gambling crackdown
• NBA injuries, poker and the mafia: What we know about gambling arrests

The technology was everywhere - an X-ray table that read any face-down card, analysers inside chip trays, a rigged shuffling machine that read cards and predicted who would have the best hand, and pre-marked cards that allowed those wearing special sunglasses and contact lenses to read what was in everyone's hands.

Secretive cameras - built into tables and light fixtures - also helped convey information to those helping in the plot, authorities say.

Then there was also a sophisticated method of communicating and rigging the game, prosecutors allege.

Information from the game would be sent to an off-site conspirator - called an "operator" by prosecutors - who then would send information to another player sitting at the table who was in on the scheme - which prosecutors call a "quarterback" or "driver".

That person would then secretly signal to others, prosecutors allege, effectively stealing money and making it impossible for victims to win.

Authorities estimate that each game would leave a victim out of tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prosecutors say the defendants allegedly laundered the funds from the scheme through cryptocurrency, cash exchanges and shell companies.

A cut of the profits went to those who helped in the plot, prosecutors say, and some allegedly went to fund the mafia's criminal enterprise.

"This alleged scheme wreaked havoc across the nation, exploiting the notoriety of some and the wallets of others to finance the Italian crime families," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia.

Arrests in the scheme were announced Thursday along with a basketball betting plot, where professional National Basketball Association (NBA) players are accused of faking injuries to influence betting odds.

Billups, who was accused of being a face card in the fixed card games, was arrested in Portland and was placed on leave by the NBA. In a statement, the Portland Trailblazers said that they are aware of the allegations involving their head coach and are "fully cooperating with the investigation".

Jones was arrested in relation to both the poker and NBA injuries scheme. He is charged with two counts each of wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy.

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  19 September

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Spoiler warning: This article reveals details from the sixth episode of The Celebrity Traitors.

It started with a cliffhanger and ended with a cliffhanger.

And host Claudia Winkleman was in no mood for messing around.

"Silence please," she barked at the contestants seated at the round table as the banishment vote was split and had to be decided for the first time by chance - or should we say, the Chest of Chance. A dramatic version of flipping a coin, if you will.

Poor Mark Bonnar - an actor punished for overacting - took the high road (perhaps he shouldn't have sung The Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond on Wednesday's episode) after the chest he picked was empty. Historian David Olusoga luckily found a protective shield in his.

One fan on X was clearly amused. "Imagine the first time they do this chest's of chance thing and it's over 2 faithfuls," they mused, later joking: "They've literally just made this up behind the cameras."

But it was no laughing matter for the faithfuls, who are now officially the worst performing group of all time on the UK version of the show.

In the first series of The Traitors, it took the faithfuls six episodes to get a traitor. And the game was new. This lot are still on the hunt going into episode seven, with only nine players now left from the original 19. And three of those are traitors. The faithfuls have just three episodes left to catch them.

Once again, the faithfuls were left to mull over another failure.

Claudia sounded genuinely distraught, her voice breaking as she told the group: "You are breaking my heart, you are not getting it, what are you not seeing? You have to open your eyes please."

"I feel that we are disastrously losing this game. And I think it's going to get worse," David added gloomily.

On a lighter note, while we all know someone who fast forwards the challenges when watching on catch-up, there was some real excitement on Thursday night thanks to the return of last season's life-size chessboard and larger-than-life traitor figures. Think Darth Vader after a growth spurt.

Sir Stephen Fry lived up to his brainy reputation over breakfast, by predicting the chessboard was back: "I could be a knight - oh, I already am," he joked. Comic Alan Carr was predictably quick to prick any potential pomposity: "Or an old queen," he quipped.

In fact, Alan continues to relish his role as a traitor with increasing enthusiasm.

When in the turret discussing who to murder next, he asked fellow traitors singer Cat Burns and presenter Jonathan Ross: "Stephen Fry: Shall we just get on with it and kill him? What's a knighthood when you're dead?"

"Brutal," Jonathan replied, and he wasn't wrong.

"Gets easier every time," Alan said later.

"I'm bursting with confidence now... not a single bead of sweat."

But it was comedian Joe Wilkinson who was sent to meet his maker, another faithful put to the sword.

Leopard-print PJs

Alan's strategy skills were then put to the test on the giant chess board.

The contestants split into teams, but former rugby player Joe Marler wasn't happy, believing (correctly) that the traitors were all on one team and would know all the answers to Claudia's questions (which the traitors had set).

So some swapping between the groups ensued.

To audible gasps, Nick Mohammed later admitted at the round table that he and Joe Marler had colluded by sabotaging the final round of the chess game so that Nick's team lost. He wanted to protect more faithfuls as he believed there were more traitors in his own team. But that only caused journalist Kate Garraway to be suspicious.

One viewer, posting on X, noted: "Nick has done a faithful sabotage! Unheard of games!"

Speaking of Kate, she also used her profession as a journalist to defend her performance on the show (she was voted the weakest player during the chess game).

"My weakness has become a strength. At last, I've been of use," she joked, explaining that she wasn't very good at the game because she just asked questions and didn't give opinions in her job.

It was also her turn for a fashion moment when she was later spotted sitting at her dressing table in leopard-print pyjamas. Luckily, there was no clash with Jonathan, a man partial to an animal print, who instead opted for a Showaddywaddy-style long checked jacket (if you're old enough to remember them).

Other notable moments on the show included Celia bringing Alan's name up at breakfast.

"I woke up thinking about you..." she told him over a plate of croissants.

"A fantasy?" Alan giggled. Actress Celia Imrie confessed to a crush on Jonathan in a previous episode, so perhaps it's Alan's turn now.

The Big Dog theory reared its head once again - would Jonathan or Sir Stephen be put to the sword?

"I am one of the whimpering hounds it seems - it's either Jonathan or Alan I would say," said Sir Stephen earlier in the day.

They finally seemed to be getting closer to the truth. Or were they?

Joe Marler called Jonathan "the wolf of The Traitors," saying "time's up for Mr Ross."

It was the most tetchy round table so far, as the pressure and frustration mounted.

Sir Stephen stated that traitors don't get as much sleep as the faithfuls do, pointing at Cat. But she said her autism and ADHD meant she "found it a lot more effort to speak".

After much debate, one of the Big Dogs was finally removed. But not the right one (for the faithfuls at least). The knight in shining armour, AKA Sir Stephen, was banished.

Following the show, on the podcast Traitors Uncloaked, Sir Stephen found out who the Traitors were.

"Two big dogs and one small Cat," was his response.

On the losing chess team, Jonathan, Kate, Nick and Lucy are now up for murder. And it will be a face-to-face killing, back at the chess board. Your move, Traitors.

The Celebrity Traitors is on BBC One on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:00 BST and on BBC iPlayer. There will be nine episodes.

The prestigious Booker Prize organisers have launched a new prize for children's fiction, featuring a panel of child and adult judges.

The Children's Booker Prize, which will launch in 2026 and be awarded annually from 2027, will celebrate the best contemporary fiction for children between the ages of eight and 12.

UK Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce, whose books include the hugely popular Millions, published in 2004, will be the inaugural chair of judges for 2027.

He said: "I am absolutely buzzing about the news that I'm going to be chairing the judging panel. It's going to be - as they say - absolute scenes in there. Let the yelling commence."

Cottrell-Boyce and two other adult judges will select a shortlist of eight books, with three children then joining to help choose the winning book.

Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, said: "The Children's Booker Prize is the most ambitious endeavour we've embarked on in 20 years – and we hope its impact will resonate for decades to come."

At least 30,000 copies of the shortlisted and winning books will be gifted to children.

Wood said the award aimed to "champion future classics" and was also designed "to inspire more young people to read".

Other authors and previous Children's Laureates who have welcomed the announcement included Dame Jacqueline Wilson, who said it was "a marvellous idea".

Fellow children's author Anne Fine said: "When it comes to book prizes, we all say, The More The Merrier [in a nod to her book of the same name], and especially when it comes to writing for children, which has all too often been the overlooked Cinderella of the book world."

As with the Booker Prize and International Booker Prize, the shortlisted authors will each receive £2,500 and the winning author £50,000.

The prize will accept submissions from publishers in spring 2026, when the remaining two adult judges will be announced.

The shortlist of eight books – and the three child judges – will be revealed in November next year, while the winner will be announced at an event for young readers in February 2027.

The prize will be open to global authors for books written originally in English and for those translated into English, as long as they are published in the UK or Ireland between 1 November 2025 and 31 October 2026.

News of the prize is being announced at a time when children's reading for pleasure is reportedly at its lowest in 20 years, according to the National Literary Trust, which has announced the National Year of Reading 2026 in an effort to change the nation's reading habits.

Amid the blizzard of nocturnal numbers any by-election generates, three stand out in Caerphilly this morning.

Labour, so long the victor of so many a south Wales political contest, humbled, pummelled, crushed - attracting just 11% of voters.

The Conservatives, so often the victor of many a UK-wide election - 2%.

Yes, you read that right - the two big beasts of Westminster politics managed just 13% of the vote between them.

Just one in seven voters backed either Labour or the Conservatives, which is extraordinary.

This contest, for weeks, was instead a race between an outfit, Reform UK, which barely existed a few years back and another, Plaid Cymru - until now the perpetual bridesmaid in contests in Caerphilly.

Between them, Plaid and Reform attracted 83% of the vote – and Plaid beat Nigel Farage's party easily.

• Follow our live updates

As so often in election contests, there is a striking human story that illustrates the wider picture.

Today's victor, Lindsay Whittle, a Plaid Cymru councillor for nearly half a century, told me he remembers standing in the crowds in Caerphilly in 1968 as a 15-year-old new recruit to the party.

The party, then, came pretty close to toppling Labour in a Westminster by election.

But here is the thing: they didn't, they were second.

Defeat at Labour's hands was something Whittle was to get very used to - he has stood for election to Westminster ten times, and stood repeatedly for election to Cardiff Bay too. He had always lost - until now.

Now in his 70s, he tastes victory for the first time.

Speaking to senior Plaid figures, they detect - and have for some time - a sense that the tide may finally be going out for Labour in Wales.

They are determined to capitalise and allow themselves to dream of governing Wales, at least as the main party, after next May's Senedd elections across the nation.

So, what next for Reform? A solid second place with 36% of the vote, is a solid performance for an upstart, but insurgencies remain insurgent by winning – and they were easily beaten.

It is clearly not easy for them to be the first choice "none of the above" alternative to Labour and the Conservatives when there is another party also claiming that mantle.

That is a challenge for them in Wales, as it is in Scotland with the SNP, in a way that it isn't in England.

And then there are the consequences for Labour.

Labour's heritage in these parts includes some of the most consequential names in its long history: founding father Keir Hardie, NHS founder Nye Bevan, former leaders Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock.

This morning, the prospect for Labour of heavy defeat across Wales next May - ending 27 years of continuous devolved power - looks more likely than ever.

And the questions for the Prime Minister pile up higher.

The number of 16-24 year olds in England reporting symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, has more than tripled in a decade, BBC analysis of NHS data has found.

The condition is now the second-most widespread mental health disorder for young adults, according to statistics from a major NHS England survey.

"OCD, I like to think of it as a bully, it attacks everything, everything you care about, everything you love," says Sophie Ashcroft.

"A lot of people do associate OCD with cleanliness, and being clean, and getting all your socks in a certain order. It's so much more than that."

The 22-year-old is one of a number of young people and their families to have contacted us through Your Voice, Your BBC News explaining how they can't access NHS treatment for their symptoms.

Those who could get seen spoke of a shortage of expert staff and effective treatments.

The average referral time figure for young people to be seen at a national OCD centre in London was 41 weeks last year, nearly three times as long as it was five years previously.

The government told us it was "turning services around", hiring 8,500 extra mental health workers, delivering more talking therapies and providing better access to help through the NHS App. It also said it was expanding the rollout of mental health support teams in schools.

Sophie sometimes struggles to leave her home because she feels compelled to repeat small tasks - such as getting into the shower or cleaning her teeth - to dispel intrusive or distressing thoughts.

"If I had a bad thought during the day, it would ruin the rest of my day. I'd think something bad was gonna happen," she tells us.

'Behind closed doors it's sheer panic'

The people who have contacted BBC News say lives have been devastated, with some families who haven't been able to get NHS help telling us they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on private care.

Charities insist there is an OCD crisis and say the figures should be a wake-up call for the government.

OCD symptoms can affect adults and children, and can begin as early as six years old - but they are often triggered during puberty and early adulthood.

Sophie's symptoms first appeared when she was aged nine, she says, but it was a decade later, when a close friend died, that things became a lot worse.

To dispel troubling thoughts, she says it led her to repeat actions again and again - things most people would consider mundane and would do without a second thought.

"It's something telling me you have to do that again, you have to hug that person again, and it just takes over," says Sophie. "It's such an awful, awful feeling."

Despite all this, Sophie has just finished drama school. "I'm really, really good at hiding it, but behind closed doors it's sheer panic," she explains.

About 370,000 young people in England reported OCD symptoms in the financial year 2023/24, our analysis of the latest NHS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (June 2025) has found.

That is more than three times the number from 2014, when the figure stood at around 113,000.

It means OCD is now second in the list of named mental health disorders - placing it and other anxiety disorders well ahead of depression:

• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 7.6%

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) 5.7%

• Phobias 4.8%

• Depressive episodes 3.8 %

Why is OCD on the rise among young people?

Improved awareness of the condition has likely contributed to people seeking help, say experts - but, according to charities and many of those with OCD, societal problems, combined with the pressure of social media, are the main driver for the reported rise.

Leigh Wallbank, chief executive of charity OCD Action, describes many young people's lives as a "pressure pot".

"They're facing financial issues, educational issues, global issues - the environment is such a big issue," she tells us. "I think of them living in this pressure pot, and then underneath that, giving heat to this pressure pot, is social media."

The Covid-19 pandemic also played a part, says Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and influencing at the mental health charity, Mind.

The pandemic put a "particular and unique strain" on people with OCD, with disruption to routine, an inversion of social norms and a hyperfocus on hygiene, he says.

"Barriers to social interaction, including treatment and support services, meant that many coping mechanisms were disrupted or unavailable for an extended period of time," he adds.

NHS help for OCD patients includes specialist talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - which can include Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

Through ERP patients are helped to manage their anxiety by gradually being exposed to their fears, while preventing them from performing their usual compulsive behaviours.

Medication is also offered - usually a type of antidepressant.

But not everyone can access these treatments.

Sophie was told by her GP that it is likely she does have OCD - but, two years on, she still hasn't received an appointment to see a specialist for a formal diagnosis.

In the meantime, her GP has referred her for a limited course of CBT which comes to an end soon. Sophie says she is "absolutely petrified" of what the future holds.

Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action is critical of the government for failing to collect regular quarterly data on obsessive compulsive disorder, and outcomes for patients who have it, as it does for many other conditions.

Without data, says the charity, the NHS is blind to the real scale of OCD, the success of treatments and who is being left behind.

We asked health officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland if they knew the number of young people with OCD symptoms, but they all said they do not collect that information.

'The system could not, or would not, provide help'

A mum from the south of England, who wants to remain anonymous, told us her autistic daughter first showed signs of OCD when she was 10 years old. Her daughter is now 17 and the OCD is severe, she says.

"My daughter has gone from being a scholarship-winning student, to being sectioned multiple times."

Some specialist treatment has been offered to the teenager, but her mum tells us her daughter is often too unwell to leave the house to attend appointments, or even take her medication.

"The impact on [all] our children, and us, is devastating. Our lives have been decimated not just by the illness, but by a system that could not, or would not, provide the help she needed, when she needed it."

The mother says the UK is failing in its treatment of young people with severe OCD. There are not enough specialists, beds or treatment options, she believes.

Children and adolescents with OCD across England can receive treatment at a national centre at the Maudsley Hospital in London.

However, the average wait time for a referral to the service rose from 15 weeks in 2020, to 41 weeks in 2024, according to a response to the BBC's Freedom of Information Act request.

But the hospital trust says that wait time is being cut.

Ade Odunlade, chief operating officer for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said: "We have worked incredibly hard to reduce delays and have lowered the average wait for assessments to around 20 weeks.

"We empathise with anyone who has had to wait for their assessment as we know how difficult that is."

The trust says it has now been able to secure additional funding which will allow them to employ further staff and drive down the waiting list even further.

It expects an approximate wait for assessment of about 12-16 weeks by early Spring 2026, it told us.

But even when people can access all the available help, it is sometimes not enough.

Graham and Marie Fuller, from Norwich, contacted the BBC to say their daughter had been hospitalised with OCD aged 12.

They described a revolving-door pattern of going backwards and forwards between NHS services for different treatments, with their daughter improving and then repeatedly relapsing.

After years of their daughter struggling with the condition, the family then decided to go to Texas to try a rare and radical procedure.

Their daughter, who is now 20, underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery - where electrodes are implanted in the brain to deliver electrical impulses to help manage OCD symptoms.

The treatment is approved by US regulators, but in the UK the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says DBS can only be used for research studies, because there is not enough evidence on how safe or effective the practice is for OCD.

Having a loved one with OCD "has taken its toll on all of us, but we had to do all we could to help", says Marie, explaining how, before undergoing DBS, her daughter had discussed going to Switzerland to end her life.

Marie says her daughter is now back at university, though she concedes it is still early days in terms of the success of the treatment.

• OCD information and support from BBC Action Line

The UK's health guidelines for obsessive compulsive disorder are 20 years old - they are currently being reviewed by NICE. In 2019, it was agreed that policy around OCD treatment needed to reflect updated technologies and possible new drugs.

But for Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action she says better funding is imperative if young people are to get the help they need.

"Policymakers and the government need to invest in OCD services. [OCD] is preventable and it is a crisis that can be changed."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the government had inherited a broken NHS with mental health services suffering following years of neglect - adding that funding was now being boosted by £688m.

But people with OCD such as Sophie are scared about what the future holds.

The limited course of CBT that she's been prescribed is coming to an end and she fears a return of her symptoms.

"What am I going to do? What if it happens again?"

Retail sales hit their highest level since 2022 in September, with good weather giving a boost clothes shopping, according to new data.

Retail sales between July and September were 0.9% higher than the previous three months, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.

Retail sales rose by 0.5% on the month in September 2025, following a similar increase in August 2025.

Computer and telecoms retailers grew strongly, while within non-store retailing, online jewellers reported strong demand for gold.

ONS statistics are used in deciding government policy, which affects millions, and are also used by the Bank of England to make key financial decisions, such as setting interest rates.

A German company inadvertently embroiled in the Louvre Museum heist after one of its lifts was used in the theft is making the most of its free publicity - by launching a new advertising campaign.

Werne-based firm Böcker this week published a social media post featuring the now famous image of its furniture ladder extending up to a balcony outside the Gallery of Apollo.

"When you need to move fast," reads a banner under the image. "The Böcker Agilo transports your treasures weighing up to 400kg at 42m/min - quiet as a whisper."

Video has emerged of the alleged thieves escaping on the mechanical ladder after stealing €88m worth (£76m; $102m) of France's crown jewels on Sunday.

Speaking to the AFP news agency on Wednesday, the company's managing director, Alexander Böcker, said when it became clear no one was injured in the heist they used "a touch of humour" to draw attention to the family-run business.

"The crime is, of course, absolutely reprehensible, that's completely clear to us," Mr Böcker said.

"It was... an opportunity for us to use the most famous and most visited museum in the world to get a little attention for our company."

• How Louvre gang carried out France's most shocking theft
• Stolen Louvre jewellery worth €88m, prosecutor says
• Can France retrieve its priceless crown jewels - or is it too late?

Reaction to Böcker's new campaign have been enthusiastic, with responses on social media including "marketing genius" and "excellent, that is German quality".

"Your messaging takes the crown," one commenter quipped.

Mr Böcker told AFP he recognised his company's device from news reports, saying the machine was sold "a few years ago to a French customer who rents this type of equipment in Paris and the surrounding area".

The alleged jewel thieves had arranged to have the machine demonstrated to them last week and had stolen it during the demonstration, he added.

The thieves arrived at the Louvre on Sunday shortly after the museum opened its doors and visitors had started to file through its corridors.

Within eight minutes, they made off with some of France's most valuable treasure belonging to former royalty or imperial rulers.

Among the eight items stolen were diadems, necklaces, ear-rings and brooches adorned with thousands of diamonds and other precious gemstones.

The Louvre reopened on Wednesday, a few days after what has been called France's most shocking theft.

The museum's director admitted on Wednesday that the Louvre failed to spot the gang early enough to stop the theft and that CCTV around its perimeter was weak and "aging".

"We failed these jewels," Laurence des Cars said, adding that no-one was protected from "brutal criminals - not even the Louvre".

"We've had a terrible failure at the Louvre. I've taken responsibility for it," she added.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told France's Europe1 radio that he had "every confidence" the thieves would be caught.

Prosecutors said they believed the robbers acted under orders from a criminal organisation.

In a matter of moments, more than 100 years of history came crashing down for Labour as the results were read out.

For Plaid Cymru's Lindsay Whittle, his victory - at the 14th time of asking - must feel like it has been a long time coming.

This could be the sign that voters see his party as a viable alternative to Labour, with next May's Welsh Parliament election on the horizon.

The Labour stronghold has been breached and Plaid has stormed it.

• Watch: The moment Plaid wins the Caerphilly by-election
• What's your Senedd constituency?
• As it happened: Historic by-election victory for Plaid Cymru

For Reform, who had such high expectations, there are lessons to be learned.

Despite surging across the UK, they fell short in this big test.

Their ambition to be the biggest party after next year's Welsh Parliament election has taken a knock.

There will be questions about how effective the party is at getting their supporters out to vote, as the party had been banking on a high turnout being good for them.

The turnout was 50.43% - higher than any previous Senedd election.

For Labour, this was an awful result.

If their 11% vote share is mirrored across Wales next May, under the new proportional voting system, they could be facing a wipeout.

Before the vote, one source told me about the concept of a good defeat - something the party could work off.

This was not it.

The party's Members of the Senedd meet on Friday to start the difficult conversation of how to turn this round.

One Labour source suggested to me that the party will need a "retail offer" - something stand-out - that will grab voters' attention.

"People are desperate for material improvement to their lives," the source said.

"We can talk about improvements and we can talk about legacy issues like free prescriptions but there needs to be a big sell on something new."

The deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies said the party needed a "compelling story".

Another source said that First Minister Eluned Morgan needs to try to differentiate herself even further from her UK colleagues.

She has tried this with her concept of the Red Welsh Way, but has also spoken of a partnership in power.

Welsh Labour and UK Labour working together has its benefits, but it was never going to be easy.

Voters in Caerphilly have not bought the idea that two Labour governments working together is better for Wales.

Next May, the entire Welsh electorate could deliver the same verdict.

For now, whatever happens, Caerphilly has written itself into the pages of Welsh political history.

We are about to find out if this result is an eye-opening anomaly or a genuinely new chapter.

The number of 16-24 year olds in England reporting symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, has more than tripled in a decade, BBC analysis of NHS data has found.

The condition is now the second-most widespread mental health disorder for young adults, according to statistics from a major NHS England survey.

"OCD, I like to think of it as a bully, it attacks everything, everything you care about, everything you love," says Sophie Ashcroft.

"A lot of people do associate OCD with cleanliness, and being clean, and getting all your socks in a certain order. It's so much more than that."

The 22-year-old is one of a number of young people and their families to have contacted us through Your Voice, Your BBC News explaining how they can't access NHS treatment for their symptoms.

Those who could get seen spoke of a shortage of expert staff and effective treatments.

The average referral time figure for young people to be seen at a national OCD centre in London was 41 weeks last year, nearly three times as long as it was five years previously.

The government told us it was "turning services around", hiring 8,500 extra mental health workers, delivering more talking therapies and providing better access to help through the NHS App. It also said it was expanding the rollout of mental health support teams in schools.

Sophie sometimes struggles to leave her home because she feels compelled to repeat small tasks - such as getting into the shower or cleaning her teeth - to dispel intrusive or distressing thoughts.

"If I had a bad thought during the day, it would ruin the rest of my day. I'd think something bad was gonna happen," she tells us.

'Behind closed doors it's sheer panic'

The people who have contacted BBC News say lives have been devastated, with some families who haven't been able to get NHS help telling us they have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on private care.

Charities insist there is an OCD crisis and say the figures should be a wake-up call for the government.

OCD symptoms can affect adults and children, and can begin as early as six years old - but they are often triggered during puberty and early adulthood.

Sophie's symptoms first appeared when she was aged nine, she says, but it was a decade later, when a close friend died, that things became a lot worse.

To dispel troubling thoughts, she says it led her to repeat actions again and again - things most people would consider mundane and would do without a second thought.

"It's something telling me you have to do that again, you have to hug that person again, and it just takes over," says Sophie. "It's such an awful, awful feeling."

Despite all this, Sophie has just finished drama school. "I'm really, really good at hiding it, but behind closed doors it's sheer panic," she explains.

About 370,000 young people in England reported OCD symptoms in the financial year 2023/24, our analysis of the latest NHS Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (June 2025) has found.

That is more than three times the number from 2014, when the figure stood at around 113,000.

It means OCD is now second in the list of named mental health disorders - placing it and other anxiety disorders well ahead of depression:

• Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) 7.6%

• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) 5.7%

• Phobias 4.8%

• Depressive episodes 3.8 %

Why is OCD on the rise among young people?

Improved awareness of the condition has likely contributed to people seeking help, say experts - but, according to charities and many of those with OCD, societal problems, combined with the pressure of social media, are the main driver for the reported rise.

Leigh Wallbank, chief executive of charity OCD Action, describes many young people's lives as a "pressure pot".

"They're facing financial issues, educational issues, global issues - the environment is such a big issue," she tells us. "I think of them living in this pressure pot, and then underneath that, giving heat to this pressure pot, is social media."

The Covid-19 pandemic also played a part, says Minesh Patel, associate director of policy and influencing at the mental health charity, Mind.

The pandemic put a "particular and unique strain" on people with OCD, with disruption to routine, an inversion of social norms and a hyperfocus on hygiene, he says.

"Barriers to social interaction, including treatment and support services, meant that many coping mechanisms were disrupted or unavailable for an extended period of time," he adds.

NHS help for OCD patients includes specialist talking therapy called Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) - which can include Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).

Through ERP patients are helped to manage their anxiety by gradually being exposed to their fears, while preventing them from performing their usual compulsive behaviours.

Medication is also offered - usually a type of antidepressant.

But not everyone can access these treatments.

Sophie was told by her GP that it is likely she does have OCD - but, two years on, she still hasn't received an appointment to see a specialist for a formal diagnosis.

In the meantime, her GP has referred her for a limited course of CBT which comes to an end soon. Sophie says she is "absolutely petrified" of what the future holds.

Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action is critical of the government for failing to collect regular quarterly data on obsessive compulsive disorder, and outcomes for patients who have it, as it does for many other conditions.

Without data, says the charity, the NHS is blind to the real scale of OCD, the success of treatments and who is being left behind.

We asked health officials in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland if they knew the number of young people with OCD symptoms, but they all said they do not collect that information.

'The system could not, or would not, provide help'

A mum from the south of England, who wants to remain anonymous, told us her autistic daughter first showed signs of OCD when she was 10 years old. Her daughter is now 17 and the OCD is severe, she says.

"My daughter has gone from being a scholarship-winning student, to being sectioned multiple times."

Some specialist treatment has been offered to the teenager, but her mum tells us her daughter is often too unwell to leave the house to attend appointments, or even take her medication.

"The impact on [all] our children, and us, is devastating. Our lives have been decimated not just by the illness, but by a system that could not, or would not, provide the help she needed, when she needed it."

The mother says the UK is failing in its treatment of young people with severe OCD. There are not enough specialists, beds or treatment options, she believes.

Children and adolescents with OCD across England can receive treatment at a national centre at the Maudsley Hospital in London.

However, the average wait time for a referral to the service rose from 15 weeks in 2020, to 41 weeks in 2024, according to a response to the BBC's Freedom of Information Act request.

But the hospital trust says that wait time is being cut.

Ade Odunlade, chief operating officer for South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust said: "We have worked incredibly hard to reduce delays and have lowered the average wait for assessments to around 20 weeks.

"We empathise with anyone who has had to wait for their assessment as we know how difficult that is."

The trust says it has now been able to secure additional funding which will allow them to employ further staff and drive down the waiting list even further.

It expects an approximate wait for assessment of about 12-16 weeks by early Spring 2026, it told us.

But even when people can access all the available help, it is sometimes not enough.

Graham and Marie Fuller, from Norwich, contacted the BBC to say their daughter had been hospitalised with OCD aged 12.

They described a revolving-door pattern of going backwards and forwards between NHS services for different treatments, with their daughter improving and then repeatedly relapsing.

After years of their daughter struggling with the condition, the family then decided to go to Texas to try a rare and radical procedure.

Their daughter, who is now 20, underwent deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery - where electrodes are implanted in the brain to deliver electrical impulses to help manage OCD symptoms.

The treatment is approved by US regulators, but in the UK the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) says DBS can only be used for research studies, because there is not enough evidence on how safe or effective the practice is for OCD.

Having a loved one with OCD "has taken its toll on all of us, but we had to do all we could to help", says Marie, explaining how, before undergoing DBS, her daughter had discussed going to Switzerland to end her life.

Marie says her daughter is now back at university, though she concedes it is still early days in terms of the success of the treatment.

• OCD information and support from BBC Action Line

The UK's health guidelines for obsessive compulsive disorder are 20 years old - they are currently being reviewed by NICE. In 2019, it was agreed that policy around OCD treatment needed to reflect updated technologies and possible new drugs.

But for Leigh Wallbank from OCD Action she says better funding is imperative if young people are to get the help they need.

"Policymakers and the government need to invest in OCD services. [OCD] is preventable and it is a crisis that can be changed."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said the government had inherited a broken NHS with mental health services suffering following years of neglect - adding that funding was now being boosted by £688m.

But people with OCD such as Sophie are scared about what the future holds.

The limited course of CBT that she's been prescribed is coming to an end and she fears a return of her symptoms.

"What am I going to do? What if it happens again?"

Out of a single room, with no DNA testing facilities or cold storage units of its own, the forensics team at Gaza's Nasser hospital face the challenges brought by peace.

Over the past eleven days, 195 bodies have been returned to Gaza by Israeli authorities, in exchange for the bodies of 13 Israeli hostages, under the terms of Donald Trump's ceasefire deal.

Photographs released by Gaza's medical authorities show some of the bodies badly decomposed, and arriving in civilian clothes or naked except for underwear, some with multiple signs of injury. Many have their wrists tied behind their backs, and doctors say some bodies arrived blindfolded or with cloth roped around their necks.

The forensic team at Nasser hospital are working with almost no resources to answer vast questions about torture, mistreatment and identity.

The head of the unit, Dr Ahmed Dheir, said one of their biggest limitations is a lack of cold storage space. The bodies arrive in Gaza thoroughly frozen and can take several days to thaw out, ruling out even basic identification methods like dental history, let alone any deeper investigation or post-mortem (autopsy).

"The situation is extremely challenging," he said. "If we wait for the bodies to thaw, rapid decomposition begins almost immediately, putting us in an impossible position [because] we lose the ability to examine the remains properly. So the most viable method is to take samples and document the state of the bodies as they are."

The BBC has viewed dozens of photographs of the bodies, many of them shared by Gaza's health authorities, others taken by colleagues on the ground.

We spoke to several of those involved in examining the bodies in Gaza, as well as families of the missing, human rights groups, and Israeli military and prison authorities.

We also spoke to three forensic experts outside the region, including one specialising in torture, to educate ourselves about the medical processes involved in this kind of investigation – all agreed that there were questions that were difficult to answer without post-mortems.

Dr Alaa al-Astal, one of the forensic team at Nasser hospital, said some of the bodies arriving there showed "signs of torture", such as bruises and marks from binding on the wrists and ankles.

"There were extremely horrific cases, where the restraint was so tight that blood circulation to the hands was cut off, leading to tissue damage and clear signs of pressure around the wrists and ankles," he said.

"Even around the eyes, when the blindfolds were removed, you could see deep grooves - imagine how much force that took. The pressure left actual marks where the blindfold had been tied."

Dr Astal also mentioned the loose cloths tied around the necks of some bodies as needing further investigation.

"In one case, there was a groove around the neck," he said. "To determine whether the death was due to hanging or strangulation, we needed to perform a post-mortem, but because the body was frozen, it was not dissected."

Sameh Yassin Hamad, a member of the Hamas-run government committee responsible for receiving the bodies, said there were signs of bruising and blood infiltration indicating that the bodies had been severely beaten before death. He also said there were stab wounds on the chest of face of some of them.

Some of the images we saw from the unit clearly show deep indentations or tightly-fastened cable-ties on the wrists and arms and ankles. One photograph appears to show the bruising and abrasion that would confirm that ties had been used while the person was still alive.

Other bodies showed only deep indentation marks, meaning a post-mortem would be needed to determine whether the ties had been used before or after death. Cable-ties are sometimes used when transporting bodies in Israel.

When we asked Israel's military about the evidence we gathered, it said it operates strictly in accordance with international law.

We showed the photographs we were given to the outside forensic experts. The images represent a fraction of the bodies transferred to Gaza by the Red Cross.

All three experts said that some of the markings raised questions about what had happened, but that it was difficult to reach concrete conclusions about abuse or torture without post-mortems.

"What is happening in Gaza is an international forensic emergency," said Michael Pollanen, a forensic pathologist and professor at the University of Toronto. "Based upon images like this, there is an imperative for complete medical autopsies. We need to know the truth behind how deaths occurred, and the only way to know the truth is to do autopsies."

But even with limited forensic data, doctors at Nasser hospital say the routine cuffing of wrists behind the body rather than in front, along with the marks observed on the limbs, points to torture.

"When a person is naked, with their hands tied behind their back, and visible restraint marks on their wrists and ankles, it indicates that they died in that position," Dr Dheir told us. "This is a violation of international law."

And there is strong evidence to suggest widespread abuse of detainees - including civilians - in Israeli custody in the months after the war began in October 2023, particularly in the military facility of Sde Teiman.

"At least in the first eight months of the war, the detainees from Gaza were cuffed behind their backs, and had their eyes covered, 24 hrs, 7 days a week, for months," said Naji Abbas, head of the Prisoners and Detainees Programme at the Israeli human rights organisation, Physicians for Human Rights (PHRI).

"We know that people developed serious infections on their skin, hands and legs because of the cuffs."

We have spoken to several people who worked at Sde Teiman over the past two years, who confirm that detainees were cuffed hand and foot – even while undergoing medical treatments, including surgery.

One medic who worked there said he had campaigned to loosen the cuffs, and that the treatment of detainees there was "dehumanisation".

But many of those detained during the Gaza war are held as unlawful combatants, without charge.

One complication for doctors at Nasser Hospital now is determining which of the returned bodies are Hamas fighters killed in combat, which are civilians and which are detainees who died in Israeli custody.

Some of the bodies returned by Israel are still wearing Hamas headbands or military boots, but doctors say most are either naked or in civilian clothing, making it difficult to distinguish their role, interpret their injuries, and assess human rights violations.

Photographs seen by the BBC show mostly naked or decomposed bodies. One dressed in civilian clothing and trainers has what officials say are two small bullet wounds in his back.

Sameh Yassin Hamad, from Gaza's Forensics Committee, said that Israel had sent back identification with only six of the 195 bodies it had returned – and that five of those names turned out to be wrong.

"Since these bodies were held by the Israeli authorities, they will have full data about them," said Dr Dheir. "But they haven't shared that information with us through the Red Cross. We were sent DNA profiles for around half the total number of dead, but have not received any details about the dates or circumstances of death, or the time or place of detention."

We asked Israel's army about the details in this report, including striking allegations by Gaza's forensic team that Israel had removed single fingers and toes from the bodies for DNA testing.

Israel's military said "all bodies returned so far are combatants within the Gaza Strip." It denied tying any bodies prior to their release.

A spokeswoman for the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, Shosh Bedrosian, on Wednesday described the reports from Gaza as "just more efforts to demonise Israel" and suggested the media focus instead on the experience of Israeli hostages.

As families of those missing gather at the hospital gates, Dr Dheir and his staff are under intense pressure to identify the dead and provide answers about what happened to them.

So far, only some 50 bodies have been positively identified – mostly through basic details like height, age and obvious previous injuries. Another 54 have been buried, unidentified and unclaimed, because of intense pressure on space at the unit.

Many families of the missing attended the burial of the unnamed dead this week, just in case one of them was theirs.

"Honestly, it's hard to bury a body when you don't know whether it's the right one or not," said Rami al-Faraa, still searching for his cousin.

"If there was [DNA] testing, we'd know where he is – yes or no," said Houwaida Hamad, searching for her nephew. "My sister would know if the one we're burying is really her son or not."

Donald Trump's ceasefire deal has brought some relief for Gaza, but little closure for the families of most of those missing, left burying a body in place of a brother, husband or son.

Retail sales hit their highest level since 2022 in September, with good weather giving a boost clothes shopping, according to new data.

Retail sales between July and September were 0.9% higher than the previous three months, new figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) shows.

Retail sales rose by 0.5% on the month in September 2025, following a similar increase in August 2025.

Computer and telecoms retailers grew strongly, while within non-store retailing, online jewellers reported strong demand for gold.

ONS statistics are used in deciding government policy, which affects millions, and are also used by the Bank of England to make key financial decisions, such as setting interest rates.

Hong Suk-hui was waiting on the shore of South Korea's Jeju Island when the call came. His fishing boat had capsized.

Just two days earlier, the vessel had ventured out on what he had hoped would be a long and fruitful voyage. But as the winds grew stronger, its captain was ordered to turn back. On the way to port, a powerful wave struck from two directions creating a whirlpool, and the boat flipped. Five of the 10 crew members, who had been asleep in their cabins below deck, drowned.

"When I heard the news, I felt like the sky was falling," said Mr Hong.

Last year, 164 people were killed or went missing in accidents in the seas around South Korea – a 75% jump from the year before. Most were fishermen whose boats sunk or capsized.

"The weather has changed, it's getting windier every year," said Mr Hong, who also chairs the Jeju Fishing Boat Owners Association.

"Whirlwinds pop up suddenly. We fisherman are convinced it is down to climate change."

Alarmed by the spike in deaths, the South Korean government launched an investigation into the accidents.

This year, the head of the taskforce pinpointed climate change as one of the major causes, as well as highlighting other problems — the country's aging fishing workforce, a growing reliance on migrant workers, and poor safety training.

The seas around Korea are warming more rapidly than the global average, in part because they tend to be shallower. Between 1968 and 2024, the average surface temperature of the country's seas increased by 1.58C, more than double the global rise of 0.74C.

Warming waters are contributing to extreme weather at sea, creating the conditions for tropical storms, like typhoons, to become more intense.

They are also causing some fish species around South Korea to migrate, according to the country's National Institute of Fisheries Science, forcing fisherman to travel further and take greater risks to catch enough to make a living.

Environmental campaigners say urgent action is needed to "stop the tragedy occurring in Korean waters".

On a rainy June morning, Jeju Island's main harbour was crammed with fishing boats. The crews hurried back and forth between sea and land, refuelling and stocking up for their next voyage, while the boats' owners paced anxiously along the dock watching the final preparations.

"I'm always afraid something might happen to the boat, the risks have increased so much," said 54-year-old owner, Kim Seung-hwan. "The winds have become more unpredictable and extremely dangerous."

A few years ago, Mr Kim began to notice that the popular silvery hairtail fish he relied on were disappearing from local waters, and his earnings plunged by half.

Now his crews have to journey into deeper, more perilous waters to find them, sometimes sailing as far south as Taiwan.

"Since we're operating farther away, it's not always possible to return quickly when there's a storm warning," he said. "If we stayed closer to shore it would be safer, but to make a living we have to go farther out."

Professor Gug Seung-gi led the investigation into the recent accidents, which found that South Korea's seas appear to have become more dangerous. It noted the number of marine weather warnings around the Korean Peninsula - alerting fishermen to gales, storm surges, and typhoons - increased by 65% between 2020 and 2024.

"Unpredictable weather is leading to more boats capsizing, especially small fishing vessels that are going further out and are not built for such long, rough trips," he told the BBC.

Professor Kim Baek-min, a climate scientist at South Korea's Pukyong National University, said that although climate change was creating the conditions to make strong, sudden wind gusts more likely, a clear trend had not yet been established – for that, more research and long-term data is needed.

One foggy morning, we left shore in the dark on a small trawler with Captain Park Hyung-il, who has been fishing anchovies off Korea's south coast for more than 25 years. He sang sea shanties, determined to stay upbeat. But when we reached the nets he had left out overnight, his mood crumpled.

As he wound them in, the anchovies could barely be seen among the hordes of jellyfish and other fodder. Once the anchovies had been separated out, they filled just two boxes.

"In the past, we'd fill 50 to 100 of these baskets in a single day," he said. "But this year the anchovies have vanished and we're catching more jellyfish than fish."

This is the predicament facing tens of thousands of fishermen along South Korea's coastlines. Over the past 10 years, the amount of squid caught in South Korean waters each year has plummeted 92%, while anchovy catches have fallen by 46%.

Even the anchovies Park had caught were not fit for market, he said, and would need to be sold as animal-feed.

"The haul is basically worthless," he sighed, explaining it would barely cover the day's fuel costs, let alone his crew's wages.

"The sea is a mess, nothing makes sense anymore," Park continued. "I used to love this job. There was joy knowing that someone, somewhere in the country was eating the fish I caught. But now, with barely anything to catch, that sense of pride is fading."

And, with livelihoods disappearing, young people no longer want to join the industry. In 2023 almost half of South Korea's fishermen were over the age of 65, up from less than a third a decade earlier.

Increasingly, elderly captains must rely on help from migrant workers from Vietnam and Indonesia. Often these workers do not receive sufficient safety training, and language barriers mean they cannot communicate with the captains – further compounding the dangers.

Woojin Chung, a researcher at the Environmental Justice Foundation, a UK-based charity, described it as "a vicious and tragic cycle".

When you combine more extreme weather with the pressure to travel further, the increased fuel costs this brings, and the need to rely on cheap, untrained foreign labour, "you have a higher chance of meeting disaster", she explained.

On 9 February this year, a large shipping trawler sank suddenly near the coastal city of Yeosu, killing 10 of the crew. It was a bitterly cold, windy day, and smaller boats had been banned from going out, but this trawler was deemed sturdy enough to withstand the gales. The reason it went down is still a mystery.

One of those killed was 63-year-old Young-mook. A fisherman for 40 years, he had been planning to retire, but that morning someone called and asked him to fill a last-minute opening on the boat.

"It was so cold that once you fell in you wouldn't survive the hypothermia, especially at his age," said his daughter Ean, still distraught over his death.

Ean thinks it has become too easy for boat owners to blame climate change for accidents. Even in cases where bad weather plays a role, she believes it is still the owners' responsibility to assess the risks and keep their crew safe. "Ultimately it is their call when to go out," she said.

As a child, she remembers her father's fridge would be filled with crabs and squid. "Now the stocks are gone, but the companies still force them to go out, and because these men have worked as fishermen their whole lives, they don't have alternative job options, so they keep fishing even when they're too frail to do so," she said.

Ean also wants owners to better maintain their boats, which are aging too. "Companies have insurance, so they get compensated after a boat sinks, but our loved ones can't be replaced."

The authorities, aware they cannot control the weather, are now working with fishermen to make their boats safer. As we were with Mr Hong, whose boat capsized earlier this year, a team of government inspectors arrived to carry out a series of on-the-spot checks on two of his other vessels.

The government's taskforce is recommending that boats be fitted with safety ladders, fisherman be required to wear life jackets, and that safety training be mandatory for all foreign crew. It also wants to improve search and rescue operations, and for fisherman to have access to more localised and real-time weather updates.

Some regions are even offering to pay fishermen for the jellyfish they catch, to try to clean up the seas, while squid fishermen are being given loans to protect them from bankruptcy, and encourage them to retire.

Because the problem will likely worsen. The UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation forecasts that total fish catches in South Korea will decline by almost a third by the end of this century, if carbon emissions and global warming continue on their current trajectories.

"The future looks very bleak," said the anchovy fisherman Captain Park, now in his late 40s. He recently started a YouTube channel documenting his catches in the hope of earning some extra money. Park is the third generation of his family to do this work and likely the last.

"Back then it felt romantic getting up early and heading out to sea. There was a sense of adventure and reward."

"These days it's just really tough."

Additional reporting by Hosu Lee and Leehyun Choi

US President Donald Trump has said he is immediately ending all trade negotiations with Canada.

He wrote on Truth Social that the country had run an advert featuring former President Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs.

"Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED," Trump wrote late on Thursday.

The US president has imposed a 35% levy on Canadian imports, although he has allowed exemptions for goods that fall under the USMCA - a free trade agreement with Mexico and Canada that Trump negotiated during his first term.

Trump has also imposed sector-specific levies on Canadian goods, including 50% on metals and 25% on automobiles.

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

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

Sir Keir Starmer will push allies to provide Ukraine with more long-range missiles to strike Russian targets at a meeting in London on Friday.

The prime minister will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky along with the so-called "coalition of the willing", comprising of more than 20 of Ukraine's allies who have agreed to provide Kyiv security guarantees once a ceasefire is brokered.

Zelensky has been pleading for weeks for more long-range weapons from the West, a move Russia has warned would escalate the conflict.

Ukraine's leader is travelling from Brussels, where he met EU leaders on Thursday seeking financial support.

Zelensky arrives off the back of two diplomatic wins this week: Donald Trump's decision to finally apply further sanctions against Russia, and the European Union agreeing to fund a Ukrainian budget hole.

Sir Keir is hoping to maintain the momentum by increasing the pressure on Moscow to negotiate an end to the war.

Among the leaders attending Friday's summit will be Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte, Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen and Netherlands' Dick Schoof. Others including French President Emmanuel Macron will join virtually.

Sir Keir will urge leaders to ramp up the provision of long-range weapons after a successful attack on a chemical plant in Bryansk, Russia, using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.

"The only person involved in this conflict who does not want to stop the war is President Putin," Sir Keir said.

"And his depraved strikes on young children in a nursery this week make that crystal clear," he added.

Two children were among at least seven killed in a wave of Russian strikes on Ukraine, which hit a nursery in the second biggest city Kharkiv.

Sir Keir will also announce 100 additional air defence missiles will be delivered to Ukraine earlier than planned, as outlined in a £1.6bn deal struck between the UK and Ukraine in March.

"Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace," Sir Keir said.

Long-range missiles have become a key demand in Zelensky's talks with allies.

US President Donald Trump floated the possibility of the US selling Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine, but Zelensky came away empty-handed from a White House meeting last week.

Sir Keir will consult Western allies on how to take Russian oil and gas off the global market.

They will also discuss using frozen Russian assets to provide Ukraine with financial loans, although the plan faced a lack of political consensus and legal hurdles at the Brussels summit on Thursday.

The EU stopped short of agreeing to a proposal to use up to €140bn (£122bn) in frozen Russian assets to financially prop up Ukraine.

However, the leaders agreed to help support Ukraine's "financial needs" for the next two years.

The US also announced sanctions on Wednesday against Russia's two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, as part of efforts to add financial pressure on Moscow to enter ceasefire negotiations.

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.

It's a mess. And it is extraordinarily difficult.

To give you a sense of that, one of the candidates to rule themselves out of chairing the grooming gangs inquiry is Jim Gamble.

Gamble's career goes like this: he worked in policing in Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

And then he spent years working to protect children from exploitation.

Neither are roles for the faint hearted, to put it lightly. And yet not even he wanted to take on chairing this inquiry.

So who on Earth would want to do it?

There is a reluctant acceptance in government that finding someone who is willing to do it, will last the course and will be universally accepted among the victims as the right person for the job is almost certainly impossible.

Little wonder then that those in government are making it known they are willing to spend months finding the right person to do it.

The best they can hope for, in all likelihood, is someone backed enthusiastically by some and tolerated by others.

"There is no such thing as a clean skin. Anyone with the necessary expertise and clout will likely come with what some will perceive as baggage," one Whitehall source told me.

And the personnel issues don't end there.

There has been a row over the last few days about whether the Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips should stay in her job – after some of those victims involved in setting up the inquiry said she should be replaced.

When we first reported that news, I was reminded of a thing reporters like me should always keep in mind. Journalists, inevitably, lean towards the outspoken, who generate headlines.

Rightly so – choosing to be outspoken, to go public with deeply held concerns, is often brave and noble. But reporters also shouldn't forget those who have chosen to remain quiet.

The vast majority of the 30 victims recruited to the panel being consulted in setting up the inquiry have not spoken out publicly.

Multiple sources in government are making it clear there is a widespread determination – from No10 to the Home Office - to keep Phillips in post.

And the latest twist is five other abuse survivors have written to the prime minister to say they will only continue to work with the inquiry if Phillips keeps her job.

It is another impossible bind the government finds itself in.

The central truth here is the victims of sexual abuse have been repeatedly and profoundly let down by multiple agencies of the state, over years, even decades.

Little wonder establishing, let alone maintaining trust is incredibly difficult.

"Upset and vulnerable people hit out when they are in pain, and that is entirely understandable," is how one senior government figure put it to me.

The panel members, I am told, are of a range of views and instincts – on their willingness or not to speak out, on their views on those who chose to do so or not, on who should chair the inquiry, how it should be run and on Jess Phillips.

Merely setting up this inquiry, let alone conducting it and then implementing the conclusions it comes to and the recommendations it makes, is already proving to be a huge headache.