The Alan Turing Institute Chair has told the BBC there is "no substance" to a number of serious accusations which rocked the organisation in the summer.

In August, whistleblowers accused the charity's leadership of misusing public funds, overseeing a "toxic internal culture", and failing to deliver on its mission.

They said the Turing Institute, the UK's national body for artificial intelligence (AI), was on the brink of collapse after Peter Kyle, the then technology secretary, threatened to withdraw its £100m funding.

But speaking exclusively to the BBC, Chair Dr Doug Gurr said the whistleblower claims were "independently investigated" by a third party which found them to have "no substance".

"I fully sympathise that going through any transition is always challenging," he said.

"It's been challenging for a lot of people and a number of concerns have been raised.

"Every single one of those has been independently investigated and we've not found any substance."

He did not name the third party which had carried out the investigation.

But the Turing's woes go beyond the allegations themselves, with three senior directors, the chief technology officer and most recently the chief executive all leaving their jobs.

It is also under investigation by the Charity Commission - and Dr Gurr did not give any indication he would consider standing down himself if it concluded there were issues.

Instead, he said he loved his job and was proud of what the organisation had achieved under his tenure.

'We have fantastic talent'

Dr Gurr acknowledged for some staff it had been a "tough" period, but said he believed the Turing was now "match fit".

"There are two things that we have in the UK that are truly special," he said.

"We have fantastic talent and we have unbelievable data sets - let's get in, let's focus on those areas that really matter."

He said he sympathised with staff who had criticised their workplace under his leadership, but did not apologise.

And he agreed with Kyle, who is now business secretary, that the Institute should focus on defence - but added it would continue with other projects themed around the environment, sustainability and health.

Current projects include increasing the accuracy of weather forecasting, reducing transport emissions, and cardiac research on human hearts using digital twins.

Questions remain over how much overlap there will be between the Turing Institute's new direction and other UK agencies carrying out similar work - such as UKRI and the MOD - in addition to commercial tech firms.

Dr Gurr acknowledged its defence work, which includes research on how best to secure the UK's national critical infrastructure, was "not exclusive" but said it was responding to a request at a time of need.

"The world probably feels like it's become a much more dangerous place over the last couple of years," he said.

"I think the other thing that's become very clear when you look at some of the theatres of conflict around the world is that data and technology is to play an increasingly critical role in whatever form of hostilities happen.

"The Turing has had a long track record of working in these spaces."

But the original whistleblowers, who still remain working at the organisation, believe the reputation of the Institute is "in tatters" following recent events.

They spoke to me on the condition of anonymity because they fear losing their jobs.

"This is not a new chapter for the Turing," they said.

"It is the same words under a new heading."

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There weren't many boybands bigger than Five in the late 1990s.

But at the height of their popularity they dramatically called it a day in 2001, as the stress and pressures of fame and an unrelenting schedule took a toll on all of them.

Now, decades later - and to the delight of Millennials - Scott, Ritchie, J, Sean and Abz are back.

"It was too much too fast. Way too fast," Abz tells me, while Ritchie explains it was "like being strapped to a rocket".

"I think I was just in survival mode for five years, because I can't remember a thing," Sean adds, who was just 15 when the band was formed.

They have invited me into the rehearsal studio ahead of their upcoming tour, 25 years after they were last on the road together.

And it's clear they're much more comfortable this time around, with J saying they feel "spectacularly fortunate" to have a second chance.

The group sold more than 20 million records in the late 1990s and early 2000s, with tracks such as Keep on Movin' and Everybody Get Up.

But reuniting after more than 20 years doesn't come without risk. Oasis may have sold out a stadium tour in seconds, but others haven't been as fortunate.

Scott says all five of them didn't sleep the night before their reunion was announced.

"I phoned my wife, Kerry, in the middle of the night and asked: 'What if no one cares? What if we think it's going to be this big thing and everyone goes, so what?'"

'Could we still perform together?'

But fortunately, the group's fans did care, and the band's arena tour of the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand is almost sold out.

"We knew we'd done well but I don't think we realised how well our younger selves had done. And how much we'd affected some peoples lives and how much they'd loved us," Ritchie says.

Another thing the band were unsure about was the prospect of singing and dancing together again.

Sean explains: "We sold a tour without even knowing [we could do it]. We believed it but we had to get into rehearsals to actually find out, but we can confirm it's still there!"

The band are now all in their 40s but had barely left school when they formed. It was clearly an overwhelming time.

Ritchie tells me: "We got into it very young and we thought we'd won the lottery and all our dreams were coming true. In many ways, they did, but in some ways it turned into a nightmare psychologically, [there were] a lot of things we weren't expecting.

"We'd wake up on a tour bus and think, not what country are we in, but what continent are we in?"

J agrees: "There are loads of blank spots in our memories, and we've spoken about it and come to the conclusion that it was all so fast, and we were in flight or fight mode for the whole thing. It was like you were being chased by something."

So after all that time apart, I want to know who made the first move about the prospect of reuniting.

Scott says that not even being in the same room with his four former bandmates for over 20 years had been playing on his mind.

"I phoned Abz and I hadn't spoken to him for 10 years, and one of the first things he said to me was 'It's so nice to hear your voice'. So we just got together - it wasn't about a tour, it was about being friends again.

"No one outside this bubble knows what we went through," he adds.

Though one person who knows more than most about what Five experienced is Robbie Williams, who was a member of Take That before finding success as a solo artist.

Five performed Keep On Movin' with him at one of his shows in London this summer.

Ritchie says he had "performer insecurity" and feared the crowd wouldn't know who they were, "but it went off".

Sean adds that Robbie "knew everything we've been through", adding the six of them sat for two hours chatting.

On the emotional trauma Five went through, Scott says Robbie told them it was like "carrying a big bag of rocks and you need to empty it day by day."

For J, the whole experience of being back in the band is "the antithesis of what it was before."

"The people we've got around us, how we're being managed. how we're being looked after, which is the most important thing. We were last time but people were kind of learning on the job."

They've reconciled and reunited now but would Five go back in time and do it all again?

Abz says he would "but differently", while Ritchie laughs: "With this head, I'd love to do it, because I'd be checking the accounts a lot more!"

Five: Still Movin' is on the BBC iPlayer from Tuesday 28 October. Five begin their tour on Wednesday 29 October in Cardiff.

Hundreds of asylum seekers could be housed in military barracks as the government seeks to end the use of hotels.

Discussions are underway over the use of two sites - one in Scotland, the other in the south of England - for accommodation for 900 men, as first reported in the Times.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has instructed Home Office and Ministry of Defence officials to accelerate work to locate appropriate military sites, the BBC understands.

The government has pledged to end the use of asylum hotels, which have cost billions of pounds and become a focal point for anti-migrant protests, by the next election.

Migrants could be housed in the Cameron Barracks in Inverness and Crowborough army training camp in East Sussex by the end of next month, under plans being drawn up by ministers.

Industrial sites, temporary accommodation and otherwise disused accommodation are also being considered.

Government sources told the BBC that all sites would comply with health and safety standards.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We are furious at the level of illegal migrants and asylum hotels.

"This government will close every asylum hotel. Work is well underway, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities and cut asylum costs."

Around 32,000 asylum seekers are currently being accommodated in hotels, a drop from a peak of more than 56,000 in 2023 but 2,500 more than last year.

A report on Monday found billions of taxpayers' money had been "squandered" on asylum accommodation.

The Home Affairs Committee said "flawed contracts" and "incompetent delivery" had resulted in the Home Office relying on hotels as "go-to solutions" rather than temporary stop-gaps, with expected costs tripling to more than £15bn.

Commenting on the report's findings, Sir Keir said he was "determined" to close all asylum hotels, adding: "I can't tell you how frustrated and angry I am that we've been left with a mess as big as this by the last government."

Two former military sites - MDP Wethersfield, a former RAF base in Essex, and Napier Barracks, a former military base in Kent - are already being used to house asylum seekers after being opened under the previous Tory government.

The chancellor is facing a larger-than-expected gap in initial Budget numbers as a result of long-running poor productivity in the UK economy.

The downgrade to productivity performance from the government's official forecaster could lead to a £20bn gap in the public finances on its own, the BBC understands.

The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will deliver its final draft forecast, showing the output of the economy per hour worked, to the Treasury on Friday.

The Treasury declined to comment on "speculation" ahead of the OBR's final forecast, which will be published on 26 November.

It comes as speculation is growing over what choices Chancellor Rachel Reeves will take for tax and spending in the run up to her Autumn Budget.

The OBR previously assumed a partial bounce back in productivity growth, but it has never materialised.

This productivity assumption is essential to long-term growth prospects and so, under the current system, even a fraction of a percentage point change can alter how much money a Budget needs to raise by several billion pounds.

The OBR is understood to have downgraded this by 0.3 percentage points - a figure first reported by the Financial Times - bringing its assumption closer to that of the Bank of England.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies think-tank has calculated that for every 0.1 percentage point downgrade in the productivity forecast, public sector net borrowing would increase by £7bn in 2029-30 - meaning a 0.3 point cut could add £21bn to the Budget hole.

The changes open up an initial gap of some £20bn, rather than the £10-£14bn widely anticipated.

Such a hole could be plugged by hiking taxes, reducing public spending or increasing government borrowing.

Reeves admitted on Monday to business leaders in Saudi Arabia that the OBR was "likely to downgrade productivity" which has been "very poor since the financial crisis and Brexit".

The OBR is expected to explain the decision in detail, but some ministers have privately pointed out that if it had done this earlier, different choices could have been made at this summer's Spending Review.

There are many other moving parts in the Budget which may lean in the other direction, such as the decline in the interest rates paid on government debt.

However, with other pressures such as the U-turns on welfare spending and a desire to rebuild a bigger buffer in the public finances, speculation is pointing towards significant tax rises including some possible breaches of manifesto commitments, points towards significant tax rises, including possible breaches of manifesto commitments like income tax.

The Treasury will inform the OBR of its first draft Budget measures next week.

Listen to Pallab reading this article

Hidden away in a lab in north-west London three black metal robotic hands move eerily on an engineering work bench. No claws, or pincers, but four fingers and a thumb opening and closing slowly, with joints in all the right places.

"We're not trying to build Terminator," jokes Rich Walker, director of Shadow Robot, the firm that made them.

Bespectacled, with long hair and a beard and moustache, he seems more like a latter-day hippy than a tech whizz, and he is clearly proud as he shows me around his firm.

"We set out to build the robot that helps you, that makes your life better, your general-purpose servant that can do anything around the home, do all the housework..."

But there's a deeper ambition: to address one of the UK's most pressing challenges - the escalating crisis in social care.

There were 131,000 vacancies for adult care workers in England, a report by charity, Skills for Care, found last year. And in all, around two million people aged 65 and over in England are living with unmet care needs, according to Age UK.

By 2050, one in four people in the UK expected to be aged 65 or over, potentially putting more strain still on the care system.

Which is where robots come in.

The previous government announced a £34m investment in developing robots that could potentially be used to give care. It went as far as saying, in 2019, that "within the next 20 years, autonomous systems like… robots will become a normal part of our lives, transforming the way we live, work and travel."

Could this "techno-solutionism" - which sounds more like something out of a sci-fi film - really be the solution? And would you really trust your elderly relatives, or yourself when you're at your most vulnerable with what is essentially a very strong machine?

Workouts with Pepper the robot

Japan offers a peek into a future with robots living among us.

Ten years ago, its government began offering subsidies to robot manufacturers to develop and popularise the use of robots in care homes - fuelled in part by an ageing population and relative lack of care home staff.

Dr James Wright, an AI specialist and visiting professor at Queen Mary University of London, spent seven months observing them. And specifically, looking at how well they worked in a Japanese care home.

In all, three types of robots were studied: the first, called HUG, was designed by Fuji Corporation in Japan and looked like a highly sophisticated walking frame. It had support pads that people could lean right into, and it helped carers lift people from bed to, say, a wheelchair or the toilet.

The second, meanwhile, looked a bit like a baby seal and was called Paro. This robot, intended to stimulate dementia patients, was trained to respond to being stroked through movements and sounds.

The third was a small friendly-looking humanoid robot called Pepper. It could give instructions and also demonstrate exercises by moving its arms - and was used to lead exercise classes in the care home.

Even before he started observing them, Dr Wright had bought into the hype a little.

"I was expecting that the robots would be easily adopted by care workers who were massively overstretched and extremely busy in their work.

"What I found was, almost the opposite."

He discovered that, in fact, the biggest drain on the time of care home staff was cleaning and recharging the robots - and above all troubleshooting when they went wrong.

"After several weeks the care workers decided the robots were more trouble than they were worth and used them less and less, because they were too busy to use them," he tells me.

"HUG had to be moved around all the time to get [it] out of the residents' way. Paro caused distress to one of the residents who had become overly attached to it. And they couldn't follow Pepper's exercise routines because it was too short for people to see - and they couldn't hear it properly because its voice was too high-pitched."

The teams behind the robots had their own responses to Dr Wright's research.

The developers behind HUG says that since then they've refined the design to make it more compact and user-friendly. Paro's creator Takanori Shibata said that Paro has been used for 20 years and pointed to trials that demonstrated "clinical evidence of [the] therapeutic effects". Pepper is now owned by a different company and its software has been substantially updated.

And yet the study was not without merit.

Mr Walker of Shadow Robot is adamant that the use of robots in care should not be dismissed. For one thing, he argues, the next generation of them will be much more capable.

From labs to the real world

Praminda Caleb-Solly, a professor at the University of Nottingham is determined to make these robots work well in practice. "We are trying to get these robots out of the labs into the real world," she says.

To do this she has set up a network, Emergence, to help connect robot makers with businesses and individuals who will use them - and to find out from elderly people themselves that they'd want from robots.

The answers vary.

Some people have said they want robots with voice interaction and, understandably, a non-threatening appearance. Others want a "cute design". But many requests come down to the practical way they'd like the robot to adapt to their changing needs - and for the robot to charge and clean itself.

"We don't want to look after the robot – we want the robot to look after us," said one person who was asked the question.

Some businesses in the UK are testing out robots too.

Home care provider, Caremark has been trialling Geni, a small voice-activated robot, with some people who use their services in Cheltenham.

One man who has early-onset dementia explained he enjoyed asking Genie to play Glenn Miller songs.

Overall, however, reactions have been "like Marmite," according to director Michael Folkes – with some people living Geni, and others less complimentary.

But Mr Folkes also stresses these devices aren't about replacing people. "We're trying to build a future where carers have more time to care."

Robot hands: learning from evolution

Back in the laboratory of the Shadow Robot Company in London, Rich Walker points out another big challenge: mastering the perfect robotic hand.

"For the robot to be useful, it needs to have the same ability to interact with the world as [a] human does," he explains. "And for that it needs human-like dexterity."

The robot hand Mr Walker shows me certainly seems nimble. It's made from metal and plastic, and fitted with 100 sensors, with the dexterity and strength of a human hand. Each finger moves to touch its thumb smoothly, quickly and precisely, finishing with an 'OK' to sign off.

It can even do a Rubik's Cube, one-handed.

Yet it is still a long way from doing the more delicate tasks, like using a pair of scissors or picking up smaller, more fragile objects.

"The way we use a pair of scissors is quite mind-blowing when you think about it," Mr Walker says.

"If you try and analyse what happens, you're using your sense of touch in subtle and precise ways and receiving feedback, which makes you adjust the way you cut. How do you tell a robot how to do that?"

Mr Walker's team, together with 35 other engineering firms, are working to design a hand more like ours - it's part of what's known as the Robot Dexterity Programme.

It's one of the projects run by a government agency called the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) that sets out to support scientific research that is high risk (because it might well not work) but also high-reward for its potential to transform society.

The project's leader, Professor Jenny Read, explains they are looking at how animals move as part of this, to better inform the design not only of the hand but to inform a complete rethink of how robots are made. "One of the very striking things about animal bodies is their grace and efficiency, evolution has ensured that, in fact.

"I think gracefulness really is a form of efficiency."

Replicating human muscles

Guggi Kofod, an engineer turned entrepreneur from Denmark, is trying to develop artificial muscles for robots that can be used instead of motors.

His Denmark-based firm, Pliantics, is at an early stage of development, but have made the key breakthrough of finding a material that seems to do the job and is durable.

He is driven by deeply personal reasons too.

"Several people near me died from dementia very recently," he explains. "I see from the people who are caring for dementia patients, and it is very challenging.

"So, if we could build systems that help them to not be scared, and that help them live at least a decent level of life… That's incredibly motivating for me."

The muscles his firm designs are made from a soft material that extends and contracts, much like real muscles, when an electric current is applied.

Guugi Kofod is working with Shadow Robot, as part of the ARIA project to develop a robotic human-sized hand whose artificial muscles could give it a more precise and delicate grip.

The ultimate aim is for it to detect small pressure changes when it grips an object, and to know when to stop squeezing, just as the skin on fingertips does.

What robots mean for carers

Dr Wright, who observed the robots in Japan, has one final concern. That is, if they catch on, robots could end up making life worse for human carers.

"The only way that economically you can make this work is to pay the care workers less and have much larger care homes, which are standardised to make it easy for robots to operate in," he argues.

"As a result, there would be more robots taking care of people, with care workers being paid a minimum wage to service the robots, which is the opposite of this vision that robots are going to give time back to care workers to spend quality time with residents, to talk."

• The debate: Are facial recognition cameras in shops a step too far?

Other experts are more positive. "It's going to be a huge industry, given the deficit we have in the workforce right now. The demand for carers as our population ages will be huge," argues Gopal Ramchurn, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of Southampton.

He is also CEO of Responsible AI, which is involved in trying to ensure that artificial intelligence systems are safe, reliable, and trustworthy.

But he cites Elon Musk's Optimus humanoid robot, which served drinks and mingled at a Tesla event last year, as a sign that - like it or not - the robots are coming.

"We are trying to anticipate that future, before the big tech companies come in and deploy these things without asking us what we think about them," he adds.

So now is the time to develop the right regulations to ensure that the robots work for us, he argues, rather than the other way round.

"We need to be ready for that future."

Additional reporting: Florence Freeman. Top image credit: Jodi Lai/BBC (Picture is illustrative and not representative of any specific robots in the article)

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Growing concern among drivers, who say they struggle to drive at night due to the dazzle from oncoming lights, is prompting the government to take a closer look at the design of cars and headlamps on UK roads, the BBC understands.

Research into the issue on behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT), conducted last winter, has still not been published.

However, the government now plans to launch a new assessment of the causes and remedies, the BBC has learned.

New measures will be included in the government's upcoming Road Safety Strategy, reflecting what is becoming an increasingly fraught issue for road users.

Both Ruth Goldsworthy and Sally Burt say bright headlamps makes it harder for them to get to their weekly SO Sound choir meetings in Totton, in Hampshire.

"Some of the lights are so bright you are blinded by them, for seconds," says Ruth.

Drivers say it is LED headlamps, increasingly common in new vehicles, that are causing them problems. The beam is whiter, more focused and brighter than the more diffuse light from halogen lamps fitted in older cars.

"I'm not sure where to look, I look into the gutter," says Sally. They are both relieved if someone else offers to drive.

Evening driving becomes a bigger problem as the winter evenings draw in, and especially after the clocks change, which means more people are driving home after dark.

The problem is worse for older people, whose eyes take around nine seconds to recover from glare, compared to one second for a 16-year-old, according to road safety consultant, Rob Heard.

"In severe cases, we might need to stop until our sight can recuperate," he said.

A new survey from the motoring organisation, the RAC, has found that more than a third of drivers are nervous about getting behind the wheel as the evenings get darker. Three quarters of respondents said driving was getting more difficult due to brighter lights.

The RAC's senior policy officer, Rod Dennis, said so far little progress has been made on tackling glare, with regulations governing headlights dating back to 1989.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "We know headlight glare is frustrating for many drivers, especially as the evenings get darker."

What to do in the face of brighter headlamps:

• Ensure your windscreen is clean
• Wear glasses and keep them glasses
• Avoid looking straight ahead, instead focus on the edge of the road
• Do not wear night sunglasses sold for night-driving, as they reduce overall light and won't reduce glare.

Source: College of Optometrists

New research

The results of last winter's government commissioned research into the "causes and impact of glare" have been delayed since the summer but are now expected in the next few weeks, the DfT said.

They will inform the upcoming Road Safety Strategy, which is also expected to tighten rules on drink-driving and eye-sight tests for older drivers.

In addition the BBC understands the government is commissioning new research into the role of vehicle design in causing glare, and possible solutions, which will feed into international discussion of the issue.

One already well-understood source of glare is drivers retrofitting their vehicles, replacing old halogen bulbs with LEDs.

The housing for halogen bulbs is not compatible with LED bulbs, and a retrofitted car will not pass its annual MOT check-up.

As part of the government's new approach the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) has "stepped up surveillance" to stop the sale of illegal retrofit headlamp bulbs, the DfT said.

Seeing better

Cars sold with LED lights can improve road safety, Thomas Broberg, senior advisor for safety at Volvo told the BBC.

"Headlights have become brighter over the years to help drivers see better," he said.

"You want to have a lot of light in front of you to understand where the road is going."

However avoiding dazzle was "equally important", he said.

"I would say poor aiming of the headlights and also the road shape are the major factors for glare," he told the BBC.

For larger vehicles, such as SUVs, where lamps are higher off the ground, there is a requirement for the beam to point more sharply downwards, to protect oncoming drivers. But the angle can be affected by how many passengers it is carrying.

Some new cars with "adaptive features" adjust the lamps automatically if there is a change in load, but cars without that will need manual adjusting, Mr Broberg said.

Some new cars also have automatic headlamp dipping, which lowers the lights when an oncoming vehicle is detected.

However, Daniel Harriman-McCartney, clinical advisor at the College of Optometrists, said automatic dimming features can be "slow to kick in".

"If it only works when the car is closer than it needs to be, or doesn't work for cyclists, that can be a problem," he said.

He is seeing an increasing number of patients concerned about headlamp glare, he added.

Dazzling headlights are cited as a factor in around 250 accidents a year, but there is no evidence that brighter lights are causing more collisions than previously, the RAC concedes.

Instead, worried drivers may simply be "taking the risk off the road" by not driving at night, with a big social impact, the RAC's Mr Dennis warned.

He would like to see action that "strikes a balance".

"We don't want to go back to worse headlights. It is about what is bright enough."

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  18 June 2023

  

OpenAI has released new estimates of the number of ChatGPT users who exhibit possible signs of mental health emergencies, including mania, psychosis or suicidal thoughts.

The company said that around 0.07% of ChatGPT users active in a given week exhibited such signs, adding that its artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot recognizes and responds to these sensitive conversations.

While OpenAI maintains these cases are "extremely rare," critics said even a small percentage may amount to hundreds of thousands of people, as ChatGPT recently reached 800 million weekly active users, per boss Sam Altman.

As scrutiny mounts, the company said it built a network of experts around the world to advise it.

Those experts include more than 170 psychiatrists, psychologists, and primary care physicians who have practiced in 60 countries, the company said.

They have devised a series of responses in ChatGPT to encourage users to seek help in the real world, according to OpenAI.

But the glimpse at the company's data raised eyebrows among some mental health professionals.

"Even though 0.07% sounds like a small percentage, at a population level with hundreds of millions of users, that actually can be quite a few people," said Dr. Jason Nagata, a professor who studies technology use among young adults at the University of California, San Francisco.

"AI can broaden access to mental health support, and in some ways support mental health, but we have to be aware of the limitations," Dr. Nagata added.

The company also estimates 0.15% of ChatGPT users have conversations that include "explicit indicators of potential suicidal planning or intent."

OpenAI said recent updates to its chatbot are designed to "respond safely and empathetically to potential signs of delusion or mania" and note "indirect signals of potential self-harm or suicide risk."

ChatGPT has also been trained to reroute sensitive conversations "originating from other models to safer models" by opening in a new window.

In response to questions by the BBC on criticism about the numbers of people potentially affected, OpenAI said that this small percentage of users amounts to a meaningful amount of people and noted they are taking changes seriously.

The changes come as OpenAI faces mounting legal scrutiny over the way ChatGPT interacts with users.

In one of the most high-profile lawsuits recently filed against OpenAI, a California couple sued the company over the death of their teenage son alleging that ChatGPT encouraged him to take his own life in April.

The lawsuit was filed by the parents of 16-year-old Adam Raine and was the first legal action accusing OpenAI of wrongful death.

In a separate case, the suspect in a murder-suicide that took place in August in Greenwich, Connecticut posted hours of his conversations with ChatGPT, which appear to have fuelled the alleged perpetrator's delusions.

More users struggle with AI psychosis as "chatbots create the illusion of reality," said Professor Robin Feldman, Director of the AI Law & Innovation Institute at the University of California Law. "It is a powerful illusion."

She said OpenAI deserved credit for "sharing statistics and for efforts to improve the problem" but added: "the company can put all kinds of warnings on the screen but a person who is mentally at risk may not be able to heed those warnings."

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Just a week before she was due to give birth, Jacqui Hunter was given the devastating news that her daughter had died in the womb.

Less than 24 hours later, Jacqui was also dead.

The 39-year-old had been told she would have to give birth to her stillborn daughter, who was called Olivia, and was given medication to bring on the labour.

Within hours Jacqui was having intense contractions and at one point slumped into the arms of her husband, Lori Quate, who thought she had fainted.

As staff at Ninewells Hospital rushed to help her, she suffered a cardiac arrest.

Jacqui died two hours later from an amniotic fluid embolism – a rare and life-threatening emergency.

It was not until the next day that Lori found out his wife had been given eight times the recommended dose of the drug to bring on labour – a mistake which some experts say may have contributed to her death.

Lori is one of dozens of people - families, midwives and experts - who have told a BBC Disclosure investigation that urgent action is needed to improve maternity safety in Scotland.

They shared details of many of examples of poor and sometimes deadly care, with NHS resources increasingly stretched.

The Scottish government say "significant progress" has been made in the last 20 years in reducing infant mortality and neonatal deaths, while a new programme of maternity unit inspections is helping to raise standards.

But there are calls for a national inquiry similar to one being carried out in England, where a series of independent reviews have found that hundreds of mothers and babies could have survived with better care.

The devastation of losing his wife and baby in the space of 24 hours is still firmly etched on Lori's face five years on from the tragic incident.

He says his wife was let down "in the most horrific way".

Jacqui was not told she had been given an overdose of Misoprostol, the drug used to bring on labour, even though some staff were aware of the error before her contractions started.

Lori says that in Jacqui's medical notes there is no mention of the drug error until after she was declared dead.

He says, "Not going to Jacqui, their patient, and saying we have messed up. Jacqui had a right to know about that, and they kept it from her."

An investigation into Jacqui's death in 2020 was carried out by an NHS Tayside review panel. It acknowledged that amniotic fluid embolism (AFE) "can occur in any labour and it is not possible to be certain that in this case an AFE would not have occurred with the correct dose of Misoprostol".

But the panel added that "as it is known that higher doses of Misoprostol increase the risk of AFE, the incorrect dose must be considered as a major contributing factor to AFE and subsequent death".

The panel also said Jacqui should have been informed of the medication error.

A fatal accident inquiry was then carried out, which published its findings last year. It concluded that it was possible, but not probable, that Jacqui's death could have been prevented if she had been given the correct dose.

The inquiry also made no finding in respect of discussing the overdose with Jacqui.

A spokeswoman for NHS Tayside said it was "deeply sorry" for Lori's loss and had carried out a number of internal investigations, and taken part in external reviews, following the death.

"All recommendations identified in the reviews were fully accepted and, as a result, our systems and processes have been strengthened where required and improvements have been made to how we provide care," she added.

Lori fears that failings in maternity care in Scotland are not being examined in the same way that services are reviewed in England.

He wants a Scotland-wide review similar to the one which is examining 2,297 cases of harm to babies and women under the care of Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.

Baby and maternal deaths are rare in Scotland but while making this documentary, we heard time and again from families, experts and staff about the challenges being faced by maternity and newborn baby services.

We spoke to families left angry because they had to fight for answers after going through devastating experiences.

They also feel shut out by health boards who they believe are more concerned with reputational damage than honesty and transparency.

Staff members tell us they are working in conditions that are often not as safe as they should be for women and babies - sometimes due to understaffing, sometimes because less experienced employees have had to take on additional duties.

Like the rest of the UK, Scotland has seen an increase in Caesarean sections, inductions of labour, serious tears during childbirth and the proportion of babies born in poorer health.

There have also been several spikes in neonatal deaths in recent years.

These are clues that the system is not working as well as it should.

Experts say there is no reason to believe Scotland is any different to other parts of the UK, where a series of independent reviews have identified common failings relating to staffing, poor workplace culture, listening to families and learning from mistakes.

There are two independent safety investigation and inspection bodies in England, which are regularly reporting on their findings.

In Scotland, the last major review of maternity care was in 2017 after a BBC investigation revealed a number of babies had died at Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock.

In 2022, a targeted investigation was launched into two spikes in the neonatal death rate over a six-month period.

It found no evidence of systematic failures in care but noted that some deaths may have been preventable.

The report's publication in 2024 led to the introduction of independent inspections of maternity units for the first time.

The first review was at Ninewells Hospital, where Jacqui and Olivia died. It found a series of patient safety concerns, including staffing shortages and delays in assessing expectant mums.

If a serious incident which affects patient safety takes place in any hospital or healthcare facility, the health board can decide to carry out a Significant Adverse Event Review (SAER).

These internal investigations are used to learn from incidents and try to prevent them happening again.

There have been 143 SAER reviews related to maternity care in total since 2020 with the most, 44, occurring in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

By contrast, England's Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations programme completed 613 independent safety investigations in 2024/25 alone.

One of the maternity SAER reviews carried out was after the death of three-day-old baby Mason Scott McLean in 2023.

His parents Julie and Angus had been elated after his birth in Glasgow's Princess Royal Maternity Hospital.

But shortly after being sent home the next day, they noticed Mason was lethargic and no longer interested in feeding.

A community midwife visited and, after carrying out routine checks, offered reassurances but the couple remained concerned so they took Mason to the emergency department at the Royal Children's Hospital that night to be checked.

Julie is an NHS intensive care nurse and used to looking after patients who need critical care.

But she felt nobody grasped how serious things were for Mason: "It was the most basic nursing care and they would have known how sick he was."

After three hours in accident and emergency, Mason was transferred to the neonatal unit - but critical information wasn't passed on.

Julie remembers hearing a gasp from Mason.

"I think it was his last breath. Angus asked the doctor... is he still breathing?"

Julie says that when the doctor could not get bloods, she realised Mason wasn't breathing - and says the medic then "went into total panic".

Baby Mason's death was caused by feeding issues and sepsis after being in the hospital for six hours.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde produced a SAER into his death.

It concluded that staff recorded Mason's temperature incorrectly and his records were incomplete, meaning staff failed to recognise how sick he was.

Mason had hyperthermia but equipment wasn't sourced to heat him up.

And key tests were missed that would have indicated he had a life-threatening infection.

The SAER review pointed to "several systematic issues" that may have caused Mason's death.

"You just think, are the mistakes going to happen again?" Julie adds.

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it had "undertaken to action the recommendations identified in the SAER" including updating its neonatal guidance.

A spokeswoman extended the health board's "heartfelt condolences" to Mason's family.

"The report recognises, despite staff documenting concerns raised about Mason, that there were some missed opportunities for care, and we are very sorry for this," she said.

The health board also said it was introducing new infant feeding guidance, which was now going through the appropriate approval process.

Retired consultant neonatologist Dr Helen Mactier was the author of the review of neonatal deaths in Scotland which was published last year.

She says families affected by poor maternity care are looking for an apology and an "open and an honest" account of what happened.

Dr Mactier believes that improvements are still needed in the way the deaths of newborn babies are investigated – and that some issues are common across the whole of the UK.

"We find that serious adverse event reviews are not always undertaken quite as thoroughly as they might be and that the learning from these reviews is not always made," she says.

"It's very concerning that review after review says essentially the same thing. It says that we commonly fail to listen to patients."

"We get so tied up in protocols and systems and processes, that we actually forget to use our ears and listen to what the patient's telling us."

Dr Mactier says action, rather than more reviews, is what is needed to tackle "the systemic issues" and improve care for patients.

Public Health and Women's Health Minister Jenni Minto said Scotland had made "significant progress" in reducing infant mortality, neonatal deaths and stillbirths in the last 20 years.

She said: "We are committed to learning from every case to improve care, strengthen safety, and support women and their families.

"We are providing record funding to NHS boards and have strengthened guidance on SAERs to ensure lessons are learned and care improves continuously."

She also welcomed Healthcare Improvement Scotland's decision to conduct unannounced inspections of all obstetric units.

"In addition, we have commissioned HIS to develop a set of national standards for maternity care, which are expected to publish shortly," she added.

Minto pointed to safe staffing legislation and all pregnant women being allocated a primary midwife as examples of initiatives which were raising standards of care.

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

"I think I might be an incel."

It's the first line Jack Lowden speaks in The Fifth Step, a two-hander play that focuses on the relationship between a recovering alcoholic and his sponsor.

"The line is a bomb - a hot button thing that's really funny," says Martin Freeman, who stars alongside Lowden.

From the opening line, audiences may think they know what kind of show they are about to see, but what follows in the 90-minute play isn't a social lecture, rather a darkly funny conversation between two men – one seeking redemption, the other offering it.

"The incel line doesn't sum the play up at all," says Freeman. "It might touch on that, but it has a lot of other components too."

Lowden agrees, describing it as a "current and easy label" that risks simplifying a piece about shame, honesty and the need to be understood.

Written by David Ireland and directed by Finn den Hertog, The Fifth Step sees Lowden play Luka, a newcomer to Alcoholics Anonymous, while Freeman is an older sponsor guiding him through the 12-step recovery programme.

The play was met with rave reviews by critics during its West End run earlier this year and it is now being released in cinemas.

"It's actually very TV and camera friendly," Lowden explains. "It's just two actors in an open space and there's no complicated staging."

"Really the only thing that was different was that we had mics on," adds Freeman. "The cameras are so well hidden that it's not intrusive at all."

Both actors were drawn to the project for the writing's precision and nerve.

Freeman says he wasn't in the market to do a play when he received the script just before Christmas but it was "so enjoyable and some things come along that are too good not to do, and this was one of those".

Lowden, best known for Slow Horses and The Gold, has long admired Ireland's work and says it's "purposefully very shocking and funny".

"That's what I love to go to the theatre for, I get quite bored unless a show is one of those two things."

'It's a minefield'

We talk about how the play explores the confusion around modern masculinity and fatherhood, something both actors are acutely aware of - Freeman shares a teenage son and daughter with his ex-wife Amanda Abbington, while Lowden has just welcomed his first child with Saoirse Ronan.

"I think about the messages young people are getting all the time," Freeman says. "There's so much that's very positive and hopeful in the world but there's also so much that's trash, awful and frightening.

"It can feel like a minefield sometimes and I'm very alive to those things, but I try not to lose my mind over it."

Given how many topics the play touches upon, it's impossible for the actors to give it one neat label or find one overarching theme.

"I don't think this play is about the male experience of anything - it explores the relationship between an older and a younger man, but if you take 'man' out of that, it's just a generational exploration of shame," Lowden says.

In fact, the 35-year-old actor says he finds it "reductive how society pigeonholes a piece of art straight away", referencing how some people have focused too much on the incel culture aspect of the play rather than "seeing it as two people talking very openly".

The Fifth Step is Lowden's first play since 2018 and critic reviews from the theatrical run praised his performance - The Times said he was "staggeringly good as a young loner, Luka, all jitters and tics and swear words, who is trying to pull himself out of an alcoholic spiral".

Similarly, The I's Isobel Lewis said Lowden's greatest triumph is that "despite Luka's propensity for violence, extreme misogyny and casual homophobia, he's still ultimately empathetic, someone you come to understand as a product of his environment".

A four-star review from The FT summarised the play as "interweaving serious questions with crisply funny dialogue and combining the absurd with the profound".

Freeman says it's that balance of darkness and humour that makes The Fifth Step so unique.

"It's shocking and violent, and people say things to each other that are horrible and funny in the same beat."

Ultimately, the Sherlock actor wants "people to take enjoyment out of it" and doesn't want an audience to see this as a play that's good for them, but one that's interesting and enlightening.

He tells me that every evening during the play's run at @sohoplace, the audiences would "let out an enjoyable sigh, as if someone had just had a really good meal".

Now, as The Fifth Step makes its way from the stage to cinema screens, Freeman and Lowden are hoping for that same collective sigh after each screening.

The Fifth Step will be in cinemas globally from 27 November - with select preview screenings across the UK on 18 November.

Prince Andrew hosted Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein at Royal Lodge, the publicly-owned home where he effectively lives rent-free.

The trio visited the Windsor mansion as part of his daughter Beatrice's masked ball 18th birthday celebrations in 2006, two months after a US arrest warrant had been issued for Epstein for the sexual assault of a minor.

It had previously been reported that Epstein, Maxwell and Weinstein visited Windsor Castle for the event, but not that they had been hosted at Andrew's private home.

Andrew, who is facing increased scrutiny over his living arrangements in light of his relationship with Epstein, has not responded to a request for comment.

It is understood that Epstein, Maxwell and Weinstein visited Royal Lodge ahead of the main party, which took place in the state rooms of Windsor Castle and involved a champagne reception and banquet.

The BBC has matched the trees and patio wall in a previously published image of the trio to other pictures of Royal Lodge.

Epstein was arrested by police in Florida eight days after the event.

Asked by BBC Newsnight in 2019 why he invited Epstein to his daughter's 18th birthday two months after the US arrest warrant was issued, Andrew said: "Certainly I wasn't aware when the invitation was issued what was going on in the United States and I wasn't aware until the media picked up on it because he never said anything about it."

Andrew relinquished his titles earlier this month amid renewed scrutiny of his links with Epstein following the posthumous publication of Virginia Giuffre's memoir.

In the memoir, Ms Giuffre said she had sex with the prince on three separate occasions, including once with Epstein and "eight other young girls".

Andrew, who reached a financial settlement with Ms Giuffre in 2022, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. In 2019, he told BBC Newsnight he did not remember meeting Ms Giuffre "at all" and that they "never had any sort of sexual contact".

Fresh questions have also been asked about how he is able to fund his lifestyle despite not being a working royal.

The revelation that he has only ever paid a token annual rent on his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge, has intensified the questions over his living arrangements - even though he made large payments up front, including for renovations.

Buckingham Palace has not commented on whether Prince Andrew might move out of his home - or where he might go.

But BBC News understands that two other properties in the grounds of Windsor Castle, Adelaide Cottage and Frogmore Cottage, were options suggested to both Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson some months ago.

Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell seemed to be regular guests at royal residences in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

An image of the pair at Balmoral, the royals' private Highland estate, was released by prosecutors during Maxwell's sex trafficking trial.

It is thought to have been taken in 1999, when Andrew reportedly invited the couple to stay at the Scottish castle

In 2000, Epstein was a guest at Windsor Castle and the prince hosted a birthday event for Maxwell at Sandringham, the monarch's private country retreat in Norfolk.

He told BBC Newsnight the latter event was "a straightforward shooting weekend".

Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail cell in August 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.

In 2008, he reached a plea deal with prosecutors after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence in the US for recruiting and trafficking four teenage girls for sexual abuse by Epstein, her then boyfriend.

Weinstein has been convicted of sexual assault by courts in New York and Los Angeles, but has secured a retrial on some of his convictions.

The government confronts a cluster of catastrophes on the very topic that is arguably the most visible state failure they are trying to deal with: small boat crossings.

The numbers of migrants arriving on small boats is big and the knock-on consequences of those arrivals are bigger: the costs, the hotels, the public anguish.

The accidental release of one of the most high profile prisoners jailed this year left jaws on the floor at Westminster just as it did around the country.

Hadush Kebatu was sentenced last month for sexually assaulting a 14 year old girl and a woman in July in Epping in Essex, where he had been living in an asylum hotel since arriving in the UK on a small boat.

His arrest led to a series of protests in the area, which spread to other hotels around the country housing asylum seekers.

In other words, he personified the scale of the issue and the depth and breadth of the anger provoked by it – and yet he was let out of prison by accident.

How on earth did that possibly happen? Have a listen to the conversation I had with His Majesty's Inspector of Prisons, Charlie Taylor, in which I asked him exactly this, on BBC Newscast.

And, on top of this, a report by MPs has concluded the Home Office has "squandered" billions of pounds of taxpayers' money on asylum accommodation.

There is a recurring theme here.

I have reported from Westminster for more than 20 years. Not long after I first arrived, the then Home Secretary, Labour's John Reid, repeated a line he had heard from one of his then department's senior officials – that parts of the Home Office were "not fit for purpose."

One of the solutions back then was to take some of the Home Office's responsibilities away and set up a new department – the Ministry of Justice.

The thing is, of the two issues we are talking about here, one lands at the Home Office's door (asylum accommodation arrangements) and the other is down to the Ministry of Justice (letting prisoners out by accident).

And the criticisms of the Home Office have continued.

A report compiled under the last government by a now serving Conservative MP, Nick Timothy, who used to work as a special adviser at the Home Office, paints a deeply unflattering picture.

To be fair, the nature and responsibilities of the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice are among the thorniest domestic policy issues.

But I am struck when I speak to political figures inside the Home Office that they privately acknowledge that not only was Timothy onto something, but many of his observations from a few years ago are still visible to them today.

They hope new leadership – a new Permanent Secretary, Dame Antonia Romeo and a new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, can help change that.

But there have been plenty of new lead civil servants and new home secretaries in that department over the last two decades.

Why all this matters acutely right now is all this represents an overlap of failings on that most prominent of issues – small boats.

Little wonder we had the Health Secretary Wes Streeting over the weekend publicly fretting that there is a "deep disillusionment… and a growing sense of despair about whether anyone is capable of turning this country around".

And that is an analysis coming from one of those who is responsible for doing so.

People in Jamaica are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Melissa, which is forecast to unleash destructive winds and bring catastrophic flooding to the Caribbean nation in the coming hours.

Melissa was upgraded to a category five hurricane - the maximum strength - early on Monday, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The authorities fear that Melissa, which has already been blamed for the deaths of four people on the island of Hispaniola, could become the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica.

The Jamaican government has ordered evacuations for parts of the capital, Kingston, and the entire island has been classed as "threatened".

An update from the NHC at 09:00GMT said that Melissa was about 130 miles (209km) south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica.

It has maximum sustained wind speeds of 160mph (260km/h) and could strengthen further in the next 12 to 24 hours, forecasters warned.

If it continues on the forecasted track, its core is expected "to move near or over Jamaica tonight and Tuesday, across south-eastern Cuba Tuesday night, and across the south-eastern Bahamas on Wednesday".

The storm is particularly slow moving, which makes it very dangerous in terms of expected rainfall amounts.

According to the NHC, 40 inches of rain (100cm) are possible in parts of Jamaica over the next four days.

Forecasters warn that destructive winds and life-threatening storm surges are expected to hit Jamaica overnight or early on Tuesday.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness has ordered the immediate evacuation of several vulnerable communities across the island.

Officials also urged residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to seek shelter in safer areas.

Jamaica's Minister of Local Government, Desmond McKenzie, told local media that all of the island's 881 shelters were open.

At least three people are known to have died and hundreds of homes have been flooded in Haiti as Melissa brought torrential rainfall to the island of Hispaniola.

In the Dominican Republic, located on the eastern side of Hispaniola, one person also died.

Local media identified the victim as a 79-year-old man who had been swept away by floodwaters in the capital, Santo Domingo.

A 13-year-old has also been reported missing after being dragged away by strong currents as he was swimming in the sea.

Several people were rescued after being trapped in their cars by the rising floodwater.

One longer walk a day is better for your heart than lots of short strolls, especially if you don't exercise much, according to new research published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Walking for at least 15 minutes without stopping is ideal, it says. That's about 1,500 steps in a row, which gives your heart a good workout.

Many people aim for 10,000 steps a day, but that number came from a Japanese pedometer advertisement - not science. Still, experts agree more steps are generally better for your health.

The study looked at 33,560 adults aged 40–79 in the UK who walked fewer than 8,000 steps a day.

They were grouped by how long their walks were (measured with a step-counter over a week):

• less than 5 minutes (43%)
• 5 to 10 minutes (33.5%)
• 10 to 15 minutes (15.5%)
• 15 minutes or more (8%)

The researchers, from the University of Sydney and the Universidad Europea in Spain, tracked their health over eight years.

People who walked in longer stretches had a lower risk of heart problems than those who walked in short bursts.

Even among the least active - those walking under 5,000 steps a day - longer walks made a big difference. Their risk of heart disease and death dropped significantly.

Whether that's because they were fitter to begin with isn't fully clear from the study, but the researchers did try to control for this by taking into account factors like whether the person smoked, was obese or had high cholesterol.

Focus on how you walk – not just how much

The researchers say how you walk matters - not just how much. Walking for longer at a time, even if you don't walk much overall, appears to help your heart.

Simple changes, like setting aside time for a longer walk, could make a big difference, they suggest.

Co-lead researcher Prof Emmanuel Stamatakis said: "We tend to place all the emphasis on the number of steps or the total amount of walking but neglect the crucial role of patterns, for example 'how' walking is done.

"This study shows that even people who are very physically inactive can maximise their heart health benefit by tweaking their walking patterns to walk for longer at a time, ideally for at least 10-15 minutes, when possible."

Prof Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said while the study shows a link between walking and better heart health, it doesn't prove that walking directly causes the improvement.

The NHS recommends 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, like brisk walking, ideally spread out evenly across the week.

Older adults over 65 should try to move every day, even if it's just light activity around the house, the advice says.

Emily McGrath, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "Exercise helps everyone live a happier and healthier life. If you have heart and circulatory disease, it can help you manage your condition and make you feel better overall.

"You may find it hard to be more active at first, but as time goes on it'll get easier as your body gets used to the activity. You may only notice small improvements at first, but it all adds up and counts towards keeping your heart healthy."

How to stay safe while walking

If you are walking or cycling at night or in low light conditions, wear reflective clothing or use a flashlight or headlamp to increase your visibility to other road users.

Stay alert and be aware of your surroundings.

Use designated lanes or paths, if available. Always cross at designated crossing points where road traffic is more likely to see and expect you to be crossing the road.

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  18 June 2023

  

The man accused of killing right-wing activist Charlie Kirk will be allowed to wear civilian clothes during pre-trial hearings to avoid prejudicing potential jurors, a Utah judge has said.

Judge Tony Graf said Tyler Robinson will be required to wear restraints during hearings, but photo or video of him in restraints will be barred.

Robinson, 22, was arrested on aggravated murder charges on 12 September, more than a day after Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at Utah Valley University.

During a Monday court hearing, Judge Graf acknowledged massive interest in the case and urged that Robinson's "presumption of innocence remains".

"Balancing these factors, the court finds that Mr Robinson's right to the presumption of innocence outweighs the minimal inconvenience of permitting civilian attire," Judge Graf said, according to a local Fox News affiliate.

Judge Graf said that given the severity of the charges, Robinson will remain in restraints, but that it must be the "least restrictive" option.

He said although Robinson has no prior criminal history, the charges against him are extremely serious and present courtroom safety concerns.

"The safety of Mr Robinson, the attorneys, court staff, and the public must remain the court's highest priority," Judge Graf said.

"The emotional nature of these proceedings also raise the risk of disruption," he added. "Given these factors, the defendant's request to appear without restraints is denied."

Robinson was not physically present in court for the virtual hearing on Monday. His next in-person court appearance is scheduled for 16 January.

Robinson is accused of seven charges, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, and felony discharge of a firearm.

Utah County prosecutors have said they are seeking the death penalty in his case.

Los Angeles played host to a spectacle of style and storytelling as Vogue World: Hollywood unfolded — an immersive celebration of cinema, couture and celebrity.

Blending the grandeur of classic Hollywood with the innovation of contemporary fashion, the event transformed the city into a living film set, with designers, actors and artists sharing the spotlight.

From cinematic runway moments to bold red carpet statements, the night brought together some of the world's most recognisable names in a seamless blend of performance and pageantry.

Here are some of the standout images capturing the energy, creativity and spectacle.

An independent investigation has been launched after a migrant sex offender was mistakenly released from prison in what appears be "human error", Justice Secretary David Lammy has said.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Lammy said the inquiry will seek to "fully establish the facts" of the release of Hadush Kebatu and whether the staff involved had "sufficient experience, training and technology".

Kebatu, who was set to be deported, was freed in error from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, prompting a 48-hour manhunt that ended with him being re-arrested in north London on Sunday.

Responding to Lammy's statement, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick described the release of Kebatu as a "national embarrassment."

Lammy said Kebatu would be deported back to Ethiopia "as quickly as possible".

Earlier on Monday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested the deportation would happen within a few days.

Kebatu was sentenced last month for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in July in Epping, Essex, where he had been living in an asylum hotel since arriving in the UK on a small boat.

His arrest triggered a series of protests in the area, which spread to hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.

Kebatu was due to be taken to an immigration detention centre to be deported under an early removals scheme (ERS) for foreign national offenders but was instead released in "what appears to have been in human error", Lammy told MPs.

"I've been clear from the outset that a mistake of this nature is unacceptable," he told MPs.

"We must get to the bottom of what happened and take immediate action to try and prevent similar releases in error to protect the public from harm."

Lammy said the independent investigation will be chaired by former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens.

Dame Lynne will also talk to the victims of Kebatu to "understand the effect this incident had on them," Lammy said.

"Her report will highlight points of failure and make recommendations to help prevent further releases in error, which have been rising year-on-year since 2021 - going from nine per month on average in 2023 to 17 per month in the period spanning January to June 2024," he added.

"And I'm clear that a single release in error is one too many, which is why we have launched this independent investigation."

A prison officer has been suspended while the probe takes place.

The government has ordered prison governors to carry out new procedures to avoid a repeat of Kebatu's mistaken release.

Lammy said he had ordered an "urgent review" into the checks that take place when someone is released from prison. New safeguards have been added that amount to the "strongest release checks that have ever been in place," he told MPs.

Foreign criminals facing deportation will only be able to be released from prison when a duty governor is physically present, Lammy, who is also deputy prime minister, said.

No removals from HMP Chelmsford under the ERS will take place this week, he added.

The number of prisoners who have been released mistakenly has risen sharply, with 262 let out in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 over the same period a year earlier.

Lammy suggested the mistaken release of Kebatu was a "symptom" of the prison system Labour inherited from the previous Conservative government.

There had been a 30% cut in prison staffing, and more than half of frontline prison officers now have less than five years' experience, Lammy said.

"It's little wonder when the system has been brought to its knees that errors like this happen," he added.

In response, Jenrick said the mistaken release was "a national embarrassment and today the justice secretary feigns anger at what happened."

He called on Lammy to give his "cast iron assurance" that Kebatu will be deported from the country by the end of the week.

Key figures involved in the failed criminal case against two men accused of spying for China have given conflicting accounts to a parliamentary committee about why the case collapsed.

In September, prosecutors dropped charges against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, who had been charged under the Official Secrets Act. Both men deny any wrongdoing.

The director of public prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, had said charges were dropped because the government's deputy national security adviser, Matt Collins, was unwilling to classify Beijing as an active threat to national security.

However, Mr Collins told the committee he had been given legal advice that his evidence would be "enough".

He said he always knew the case would be "a challenge" but that he had been "trying to ensure that we could support a successful prosecution".

Mr Collins - who was set to be the government's witness in the trial - added: "And so I was somewhat surprised when I was told on 3 September that the intention was to drop the case."

In contrast Tom Little KC - who would have been the lead prosecuting barrister in the case - said he would be "surprised" if Mr Collins had not realised the prosecution would collapsed unless he offered further evidence.

Earlier in the session, Mr Little had said Mr Collins "was clear to me that he would not say that China posed an active threat to national security at the material time".

"That was in answer to what I regard as the million dollar question in the case, and once he had said that the current prosecution for those charges was effectively unsustainable."

Asked by the committee about the evidence he provided, Mr Collins said: "What I was able to say is that China poses a range of threats to our national security.

"I was able to say that these include espionage threats, cyber threats, threats to our democratic institutions, threats to our economic security.

"I would be able to say that these threats are very real and persistent, and the operational partners are dealing with them on a daily basis."

The UK has secured a deal worth up to £8bn to supply Turkey with 20 Typhoon fighter jets.

During a visit to Ankara to sign the agreement on Monday, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer described it as "a win for British workers, a win for our defence industry and a win for Nato security".

It is the largest fighter jet export deal in almost two decades and will support thousands of jobs across the UK for years to come, the government said.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the agreement as "a new symbol of the strategic relations" with Britain.

Announcing the agreement at a press conference in the Turkish capital, Sir Keir called it "a landmark moment".

The provision of 20 Typhoon fighter jets will "bolster security across Nato, deepen our bilateral defence cooperation and boost economic growth" in both the UK and Turkey, he said.

"I'm proud that British Typhoons will form a vital part of the Turkish airforce for many years to come, as you defend Nato's south-eastern flank for the good of all of us," he added.

The Eurofighter jets are jointly produced by Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, and the deal was subject to approval from the other members of the consortium.

About 37% of each jet's production takes place in the UK, including final assembly at BAE Systems plants in Warton and Samlesbury in Lancashire.

The government said the deal would support 6,000 jobs at the two BAE plants, 1,100 in south-west England, including at the Rolls-Royce plant in Bristol, and 800 in Scotland.

It is the first new order of UK Typhoons since 2017.

Describing the agreement as the "biggest jets export deal in a generation", defence secretary John Healey said it would "pump billions of pounds into our economy and keep British Typhoon production lines turning long into the future".

Charles Woodburn, BAE Systems chief executive, said the procurement "marks the start of a new chapter in our longstanding relationship with this important Nato ally" and underscores how "investment in defence can fuel significant economic growth and returns across the UK".

The deal is the culmination of long-running negotiations, with Britain and Turkey signing a preliminary purchase deal for 40 Typhoons in July.

On Monday, Sir Keir said 20 would be supplied to Turkey "with the option to provide more in the future".

The delivery of the first jets is expected in 2030.

As a self-confessed Traitors superfan, you might have expected Line of Duty actor Mark Bonnar to jump at the chance to appear in the celebrity version.

But the Scottish star who has also appeared in Guilt, Shetland, and Dept Q, has revealed he spent some time considering the offer before agreeing to take part.

"I took quite a while to make up my mind about it," he told BBC Radio Scotland's Lunchtime Live. "I really wasn't sure because I've never done anything like that before...I'm not a celebrity, I'm an actor.

"I balked a wee bit at first but I'm so glad I said yes because it's been the most incredible experience."

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

Bonnar - a Faithful - was banished at the beginning of episode six, after a tense round table which ended in deadlock.

Both he and historian David Olusoga received an equal number of votes from their fellow celebrities who suspected them (wrongly) of being Traitors.

It meant their fate was left up to chance and when Olusoga opened a wooden box containing a protective shield, Bonnar knew his time in the Traitors castle was up.

"I was very disappointed at the time," he said. "But with hindsight - first of all I can start to enjoy watching it again.

"If I was to go at any point, that was probably the way I would want to go."

Bonnar, who has famously played a series of particularly nasty villains during his career, blamed fellow Faithful Joe Marler and Traitor Alan Carr for the outcome.

"Joe Marler - bless him, he's a pal - but he'd been watching Line of Duty while we were in there," Bonnar said.

"And I don't think anybody, with the best will in the world, would look at my face across that table and not have suspicions after watching Line of Duty.

"Of course he was egged on by Alan and as we all know, Alan isn't a Faithful. Alan saw an opportunity and jumped on it."

He said that despite being an actor, he harboured no desire to be a Traitor when he entered Ardross Castle in the Highlands, where the show is filmed.

"The Traitors are under intense pressure because they've got to maintain a facade all the time," he said. "Although I think you grow into it, as Alan he shown.

"I didn't want that pressure. I always maintained that being a Faithful, trying to root the Traitors out, would be the best course of action."

He said he had "fleeting suspicions" about Carr and Tameka Empson at the very beginning of the game.

The EastEnders actress - another Faithful - was banished in episode three.

The programme was filmed earlier this year and the contestants have remained remarkably tight-lipped about it ahead of broadcast.

Asked what it was like to finally be able to watch it back, Bonnar said: "It's great actually.

"What's great is watching it with Lucy [his wife] and the kids because we're a fan of the show and we always watch it. It's such a great series.

"It's fascinating from a personal point of view to see all the conversations that were going on while I wasn't there. Who was talking about me? Who had suspicions about who? It's brilliant, a really great thing to be part of. "

An independent investigation has been launched after a migrant sex offender was mistakenly released from prison in what appears be "human error", Justice Secretary David Lammy has said.

In a statement to the House of Commons, Lammy said the inquiry will seek to "fully establish the facts" of the release of Hadush Kebatu and whether the staff involved had "sufficient experience, training and technology".

Kebatu, who was set to be deported, was freed in error from HMP Chelmsford on Friday, prompting a 48-hour manhunt that ended with him being re-arrested in north London on Sunday.

Responding to Lammy's statement, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick described the release of Kebatu as a "national embarrassment."

Lammy said Kebatu would be deported back to Ethiopia "as quickly as possible".

Earlier on Monday, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer suggested the deportation would happen within a few days.

Kebatu was sentenced last month for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman in July in Epping, Essex, where he had been living in an asylum hotel since arriving in the UK on a small boat.

His arrest triggered a series of protests in the area, which spread to hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.

Kebatu was due to be taken to an immigration detention centre to be deported under an early removals scheme (ERS) for foreign national offenders but was instead released in "what appears to have been in human error", Lammy told MPs.

"I've been clear from the outset that a mistake of this nature is unacceptable," he told MPs.

"We must get to the bottom of what happened and take immediate action to try and prevent similar releases in error to protect the public from harm."

Lammy said the independent investigation will be chaired by former Metropolitan Police deputy commissioner Dame Lynne Owens.

Dame Lynne will also talk to the victims of Kebatu to "understand the effect this incident had on them," Lammy said.

"Her report will highlight points of failure and make recommendations to help prevent further releases in error, which have been rising year-on-year since 2021 - going from nine per month on average in 2023 to 17 per month in the period spanning January to June 2024," he added.

"And I'm clear that a single release in error is one too many, which is why we have launched this independent investigation."

A prison officer has been suspended while the probe takes place.

The government has ordered prison governors to carry out new procedures to avoid a repeat of Kebatu's mistaken release.

Lammy said he had ordered an "urgent review" into the checks that take place when someone is released from prison. New safeguards have been added that amount to the "strongest release checks that have ever been in place," he told MPs.

Foreign criminals facing deportation will only be able to be released from prison when a duty governor is physically present, Lammy, who is also deputy prime minister, said.

No removals from HMP Chelmsford under the ERS will take place this week, he added.

The number of prisoners who have been released mistakenly has risen sharply, with 262 let out in error between April 2024 and March 2025, up from 115 over the same period a year earlier.

Lammy suggested the mistaken release of Kebatu was a "symptom" of the prison system Labour inherited from the previous Conservative government.

There had been a 30% cut in prison staffing, and more than half of frontline prison officers now have less than five years' experience, Lammy said.

"It's little wonder when the system has been brought to its knees that errors like this happen," he added.

In response, Jenrick said the mistaken release was "a national embarrassment and today the justice secretary feigns anger at what happened."

He called on Lammy to give his "cast iron assurance" that Kebatu will be deported from the country by the end of the week.

King Charles was heckled by a protester asking him about Prince Andrew's relationship to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a visit to a cathedral on Monday.

The man asked how long the King had known about his brother and Epstein, and also questioned whether he had asked the police to "cover up" for Andrew.

There were also throngs of fans and cheers for the King, who was visiting Staffordshire for an engagement at Lichfield Cathedral.

Prince Andrew's links with Epstein have been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. The prince, who relinquished his titles earlier this month, has strongly denied any wrongdoing.

The protester, who can be heard clearly in video footage from the event, also asked King Charles whether MPs should be allowed to debate the royals in the Commons.

The King did not respond to the questions but carried on greeting fans, one of whom can be heard asking him for a hug.

One woman outside the cathedral was also heard telling the heckler to "go away" and to "shut up".

The scandal over Andrew's connections to Epstein has been reignited by new sexual abuse allegations contained in Virginia Giuffre's posthumously-published memoir.

While Prince Andrew has always strenuously denied abusing Ms Giuffre, fresh questions have been asked about how he is able to fund his lifestyle despite not being a working royal.

The Liberal Democrats said he should be called in front of MPs to give evidence about his lease of his Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge.

But last Thursday, the government refused to give MPs time to debate the prince's titles or his home, despite growing pressure for scrutiny.

Described as the biggest shake-up to renting in England for more than 30 years, a new law to give renters more rights was formally approved on Monday.

In the coming weeks, the government will announce how - and when - each of the changes will come into force.

With almost 20% of UK households renting privately, the changes will affect millions of people.

How long will I be able to rent a home for?

A home will now be rented on a "periodic" or rolling basis, rather than for a fixed 12 or 24-month contract. That means that if a tenant wants to stay in a property, they can.

The government says this will provide "more security for tenants".

If a tenant wants to leave they can, by giving two months' notice, rather than being tied in for a year or more. The government says this will "end the injustice of tenants being trapped paying rent for substandard properties".

The Renters' Rights Bill applies to England. Scotland has had periodic agreements for tenancies since 2017, but Wales and Northern Ireland still allow fixed term contracts.

The Bill will also end the practice of "bidding wars", where people are encouraged to offer over the asking price to secure a property. Instead, there will now be a set asking price that is clear from the outset.

It comes as average UK monthly private rents increased by 5.5%, to £1,354, in the 12 months to September 2025, according to a provisional estimate by the ONS.

Will a landlord be able to evict me for no reason?

In the year to June, more than 11,000 households in England had their homes repossessed by bailiffs following a no-fault eviction process.

The new law means that if a landlord wants to sell or move in to the property, they will not be able to do so in the first 12 months of a tenant moving in. After this, they will need to give four months' notice.

However, it will still be possible for landlords to evict tenants in certain circumstances.

If a tenant damages the property, commits antisocial behaviour, or falls significantly behind paying the rent - known as rent arrears - the landlord can give notice at any point.

The mandatory threshold for an arrears eviction will increase from two months' to three months' rent.

If the landlord gives notice for these reasons and the tenant does not leave within four months, a court decides whether it is reasonable to order possession of the property.

Further changes mean that it will no longer be possible to evict tenants for complaining about poor conditions.

A "Decent Homes Standard" will be introduced, and the new "Awaab's Law" will also apply at some point. This requires hazards to be repaired within a certain time and is named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak who died after being exposed to mould in his Rochdale home.

When can a landlord increase my rent?

Only once a year and only to "the market rate".

To do so, landlords will need to give two months' notice.

If a tenant believes the amount is excessive, it can be challenged at a first-tier tribunal, a type of civil court.

How much deposit will I have to pay?

There are no changes to the protected deposit schemes currently operating in England. The current rules for deposits still apply. The maximum a landlord can ask for upfront is five weeks' rent, if the rent for the year is less than £50,000, and up to six weeks' rent if the yearly rent is £50,000 or more.

However, the maximum rent a landlord can ask for upfront will be limited to one month.

How are rules changing for student accommodation?

For purpose-built student accommodation, landlords can give two weeks' notice for the student to leave. This applies to specific institutional providers like university-owned accommodation or companies renting to students.

If a private landlord has been renting a house of multiple occupation to students - where the tenancy was agreed at a maximum six months before the tenancy started - landlords can evict them to allow for new tenancies.

More than half the residents need to be students and the landlord needs to give four months' notice.

Can I have a pet in a rented home?

A landlord must consider a request and cannot "unreasonably" refuse. Tenants will be able to challenge "unfair decisions", but landlords will have the right to ensure pet insurance is in place to cover any damage to their property.

What if I receive benefits or have children?

It will be illegal for landlords and agents to discriminate against would-be tenants who receive benefits or who have children.

However, landlords and agents will have the final say on who they let their property to and will continue to do reference and affordability checks.

What has the reaction been?

The Renters Rights Coalition has been campaigning for around 10 years to abolish Section 21 evictions, which allow landlords to evict tenants without a reason within eight weeks.

Director Tom Darling said scrapping them would give tenants "real security in their house".

Elizabeth Sugden, 35, from Manchester, who contacted BBC News, welcomes the changes. She says she was served a Section 21 notice by her landlord last year as she believed her landlord wanted to "double" the rent.

She said: "It's literally ruined my life."

She has been temporarily housed by her local council and her possessions are in storage.

She said: "It's just like our lives are on hold. That's the way it feels, because we can't move forward with anything."

How have landlords responded to the new rules?

Chris Norris, chief policy officer of the National Residential Landlords Association, said landlords were feeling "nervous" and hoped for more clarity from the government.

"They don't really know what will happen in the minority of cases where tenancies go wrong," he added.

Mr Norris said many landlords would now screen tenants more carefully.

"We're going to have to look very, very carefully at what the risk is of those new tenants and that'll be to do with their ability to pay the tenancy, their background, whether they've got county court judgments against their name, whether they've had a good experience of renting in the past."

He added that these reforms would put more pressure on the court system - for those wanting to challenge evictions or rent increases - and questioned whether they have capacity to do this.

Landlord Maureen Treadwell said landlords were "losing confidence" and described the bill as a "slow car crash".

She feels the bill will "backfire" on tenants and disproportionately affect those at the bottom of the private rental market.

"I have lovely tenants who I've taken a chance on and they've turned out to be great," she says.

"Would I do that now? No. If they can't meet the affordability targets - absolutely not."

A woman on trial accused of stalking Madeleine McCann's parents told a court she is still questioning her identity after claiming to be the missing girl.

Julia Wandelt, 24, who a jury heard has repeatedly claimed she is the missing child, is charged with stalking Kate and Gerry McCann between June 2022 and February this year.

Taking to the stand at Leicester Crown Court on Monday, she said she had limited memories of her childhood and "could only remember abuse" after experiences with her step-grandfather.

Miss Wandelt, of Jana Kochanowskiego in Lubin, Poland, denies stalking Mr and Mrs McCann, causing serious alarm and distress.

The trial previously heard Miss Wandelt has claimed to be Mr and Mrs McCann's daughter since 2022.

However, a DNA test taken from her on her arrest in February 2025 "conclusively proved" she is not the missing child, the jury has been told.

Miss Wandelt told the court she was abused as a child by her step-grandfather at about nine years old.

She said she told her grandmother in 2010, and she told her not to tell anyone.

Her step-grandfather was convicted and later sentenced to two and a half years in prison, the court heard.

The abuse, Miss Wandelt said, left her feeling suicidal and she started to see a psychologist in about 2020.

She said: "She made me reflect on my life more and think about everything that happened. I realised I only remember abuse. My friends, they could remember things.

"I started with asking questions because I just could not believe there was nothing else in the story of what happened to me."

She added: "I started asking my parents about everything."

When asked by defence barrister Tom Price KC if she still questions her identity, Miss Wandelt said: "Yes, I do."

Madeleine was three years old when she disappeared during a family holiday in Portugal on 3 May 2007. The case remains unsolved.

Miss Wandelt told the court she discovered who Madeleine was when she was in hospital in the summer of 2022.

She said she spoke to her father, who told her the man who had abused her as a child had "been involved in kidnapping".

She told jurors it was at that time that she had been considering whether she had been adopted, and decided to "check out databases" of missing people.

When asked if Miss Wandelt found anyone who matched her, she said: "There were not actually a lot of people my age or around my age, but that is how I found Madeleine."

Miss Wandelt said she started to think she was not her parents' child during 2023.

She told the court she asked them to do a DNA test to confirm she was their child, but they refused.

Miss Wandelt told the court a sketch of a suspect in the Madeleine case looked "quite similar to the person who abused me" and had the same surname, which she said was a "big factor".

Miss Wandelt said she was not attracted to Madeleine's case for fame or financial gain.

"I just wanted to find out who I am," she said.

The defendant said she discovered Operation Grange - the Metropolitan Police investigation into Madeleine's disappearance - and got in touch with them in 2022.

She sent an email stating "I think I could be Madeleine McCann", the court heard, and told investigators that her date of birth was in 2001, but said "documents can be faked".

Miss Wandelt told the court she wanted to try to get in touch with "everyone I could think of" before contacting the McCann family.

"In general, if someone's child is missing I would assume it would be upsetting to raise a lead which could result as a false hope at the end," she said.

"I wanted to try everything before getting in touch with the parents of Madeleine directly.

"I didn't want to give them false hope of cause them any distress."

When asked why she did eventually contact the McCann family, the defendant said she thought they had been "misled".

"The police were not interested in finding Kate and Gerry's daughter," she added.

Karen Spragg, 61, of Caerau Court Road, Cardiff, faces the same charge, which she also denies.

The trial continues.

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The father of a released Israeli hostage who was forced to dig his own grave in a Gazan tunnel by Hamas has told the BBC his son's health is "improving every day".

Avishai David was speaking after his 24-year-old son Evyatar David and two other freed hostages - Guy Gilboa Dalal and Eitan Mor - were discharged from hospital to a hero's welcome at their homes on Sunday.

"I can't explain how happy it makes me feel to see him growing back to his old self," the father added.

In August, two months before Evyatar's release, Hamas had posted a video showing him emaciated in a narrow concrete tunnel - a move that drew condemnation from Israel and many Western leaders.

Avishai David told the BBC he was happy to see his son's "vitality improving every day, his colour returning [to his face], his cheeks getting fuller".

"Thank God, he pulled through it and he's strong."

The father said he had suffered for months knowing that his son was only "80km away... and I can't help him".

"It devastated me," he said, adding that he "couldn't sleep, eat, drink properly."

In August, Evyatar's brother Ilay told the BBC the Hamas video was a "new form of cruelty".

"He's a human skeleton. He was being starved to the point where he can be dead at any moment, and he suffers a great deal," Ilay said at the time.

In the footage itself, Evyatar said: "I haven't eaten for days... I barely got drinking water." He was seen digging what he said would be his own grave.

On Sunday, cheering crowds - including many friends and neighbours - greeted Evyatar David as he returned to his hometown of Kfar Saba in central Israel.

Dr Michal Shteinman, director at Rabin Medical Centre where the three released hostages were treated, told the BBC their bodies still bore the marks of "this horrific captivity".

"We can see their blood tests... and we've also heard their stories... they are not lying. You can see the marks of this metabolic trauma. Their skin tells their story. You can see the scars and the wounds."

But Dr Shteinman added that the hostages "came back stronger than they were".

Evyatar was abducted from the Nova music festival during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023.

He and 19 other living hostages have been released by Hamas under the first phase of a US-brokered ceasefire deal earlier this month.

Hamas has also transferred 15 out of 28 deceased hostages. Thirteen were Israelis, one was Nepalese and the other Thai.

In exchange, Israel has freed 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza, and returned 15 bodies of Palestinians for every Israeli hostage's remains.

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

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

People in Jamaica are bracing for the impact of Hurricane Melissa, which is forecast to unleash destructive winds and bring catastrophic flooding to the Caribbean nation in the coming hours.

Melissa was upgraded to a category five hurricane - the maximum strength - early on Monday, the US-based National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

The authorities fear that Melissa, which has already been blamed for the deaths of four people on the island of Hispaniola, could become the strongest hurricane ever to hit Jamaica.

The Jamaican government has ordered evacuations for parts of the capital, Kingston, and the entire island has been classed as "threatened".

An update from the NHC at 09:00GMT said that Melissa was about 130 miles (209km) south-southwest of Kingston, Jamaica.

It has maximum sustained wind speeds of 160mph (260km/h) and could strengthen further in the next 12 to 24 hours, forecasters warned.

If it continues on the forecasted track, its core is expected "to move near or over Jamaica tonight and Tuesday, across south-eastern Cuba Tuesday night, and across the south-eastern Bahamas on Wednesday".

The storm is particularly slow moving, which makes it very dangerous in terms of expected rainfall amounts.

According to the NHC, 40 inches of rain (100cm) are possible in parts of Jamaica over the next four days.

Forecasters warn that destructive winds and life-threatening storm surges are expected to hit Jamaica overnight or early on Tuesday.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness has ordered the immediate evacuation of several vulnerable communities across the island.

Officials also urged residents in low-lying and flood-prone areas to seek shelter in safer areas.

Jamaica's Minister of Local Government, Desmond McKenzie, told local media that all of the island's 881 shelters were open.

At least three people are known to have died and hundreds of homes have been flooded in Haiti as Melissa brought torrential rainfall to the island of Hispaniola.

In the Dominican Republic, located on the eastern side of Hispaniola, one person also died.

Local media identified the victim as a 79-year-old man who had been swept away by floodwaters in the capital, Santo Domingo.

A 13-year-old has also been reported missing after being dragged away by strong currents as he was swimming in the sea.

Several people were rescued after being trapped in their cars by the rising floodwater.

UK regional airline Eastern Airways is on the brink of collapse, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.

On Monday it filed a notice of intention to appoint an administrator, and several regional flights were cancelled including between between Teesside and Aberdeen.

Eastern Airways operates across the UK, Ireland and Europe, and has run and important service supported by the Scottish government for people in the northernmost point of mainland UK.

Eastern Airways and The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) have been approached for comment.

A notice to appoint administrators is a formal step that gives the business up to 10 days of legal protection from creditors while it explores rescue options, restructures, or prepares for insolvency proceedings.

Airport flight departure boards showed Eastern Airways flights had been cancelled, including a 0700 flight from Newquay to London Gatwick, 1815 flight from Teesside to Aberdeen, 1430 from Aberdeen to Wick and 1645 from Aberdeen to Teesside.

Eastern Airways is one of the UK's last remaining regional airlines.

Eastern Airways has been an operator in the oil and gas sector industry, flying between UK cities with a significant presence in the sector such as Aberdeen, Humberside, Teesside and Wick.

It faced financial challenges following the pandemic, due in part to falling passenger numbers.

The airline was launched in 1997 and is based at Humberside Airport in North Lincolnshire. The airline also operates out of East Midlands, Jersey, Manchester, Newcastle, Newquay and Southampton, as well as Esbjerg in Denmark.

It has run a crucial weekday service between Wick John O'Groats Airport and Aberdeen, which is seen as vital for people living in the most northerly point on mainland UK, which was supported by a Public Service Obligation (PSO) by the Scottish Government.

Eastern Airways initially built up its network of scheduled services around the North Sea offshore industry with flights up the east coast of England to Aberdeen.