US President Donald Trump has hailed an "amazing" meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, amid rising hopes for a de-escalation of tensions between the world's two biggest economies.

Beijing was less effusive, saying the two side had reached a consensus to resolve "major trade issues" during the leaders' first face-to-face meeting in six years.

Trump's trade war had set off tit-for-tat tariffs that shot past 100% on both sides, but they agreed to a truce in May - although tensions remained high.

Thursday's talks did not lead to a formal agreement but the announcements suggest they are closer to a deal - the details of which have long been subject to behind-the-scenes negotiations.

Trade deals normally take years to negotiate, and countries around the world have been thrown into resolving differences with the current Trump administration within a matter of months.

One key win for Trump is that China has agreed to suspend export control measures it had placed on rare earths, crucial for the production of everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

A jubilant president told reporters on Air Force One that he had also got China to start immediately buying a "tremendous amounts of soybeans and other farm products". Retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans by Beijing had effectively halted imports from the US, harming US farmers - a key voting block for Trump.

There was, however, no mention of a breakthrough on TikTok. The US has sought to take the video-sharing app's US operations away from Chinese parent company ByteDance for national security reasons.

Meanwhile, the US has said it will drop part of the tariffs it has levied on Beijing over the flow of ingredients used in making fentanyl to the US. Trump has imposed severe tariffs on the US's top trade partners for their perceived failure to clamp down on the drug.

However, it seems other tariffs, or taxes on imported goods, will remain in place, meaning that goods arriving in the US from China are still being taxed at a rate of over 40% for US importers.

Beijing will also be able to speak to Jensen Huang, the head of US tech firm Nvidia - according to Trump. Nvidia is at the heart of the two countries' fight over AI chips: China wants high-end chips but the US wants to limit China's access, citing national security.

Beijing has also extended an invitation to Trump to visit China in April - yet another sign of thawing relations.

'A good start'

But the meeting also showed the gulf between the two leaders' approaches.

Xi was self-contained, and said only what he had prepared. He entered the meeting knowing he had a strong hand. China had learned from Trump's first term, leveraging its chokehold on rare earths, and diversifying its trade partners so it is less reliant on the US.

Afterwards, he was far more measured in his language than Trump. The two sides would be working on delivering outcomes that will serve as a "reassuring pill" for both countries' economies, he said.

Trump was - as always - more ad-lib. But the US president was also noticeably more tense than he had been for the rest of his whirlwind trip to South East Asia - a reflection of the high stakes in Thursday's meeting.

The glamour and pageantry on show since he arrived at his first stop in Malaysia just five days ago was also absent.

Gone were the gold-laden palaces of the sort he was welcomed to in Japan on Tuesday. Instead, a building at an airport, lying behind barbed wire and security checkpoints.

The military bands which welcomed Trump to South Korea on Wednesday were nowhere to be seen.

Instead, the only sign something important was going on inside was the heavy police and media presence.

But despite the quieter public face, what was happening inside was arguably the most significant hour and 20 minutes of the trip.

Henry Wang, a former adviser to China's State Council, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that Trump and Xi's talks "went very well".

It may not have been a trade deal, but a "framework and structure has been laid", he added - calling it "a good start".

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted breaking housing rules by unlawfully renting out her family home without a licence.

Reeves has told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, as well as the independent ethics adviser and Parliament's standards commissioner of the error, which was first reported in the Daily Mail.

It is understood the chancellor used a letting agency but was not told the house was in an area that needed a "selective licence" to rent the property.

Reeves rented out her Southwark home after moving into a flat in Downing Street after last year's election win.

A spokesperson for Reeves said it was an "inadvertent mistake" and she has now applied for the licence.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a "full investigation".

In a social media post, Badenoch said if the chancellor broke the law, the prime minister must "show he has the backbone to act".

The family home in London was put up for rent after Labour won the election in July 2024 for £3,200 a month.

It is in an area where Southwark Council requires private landlords to hold a "selective licence".

The council's website states: "You can be prosecuted or fined if you're a landlord or managing agent for a property that needs a licence and do not get one."

A spokesperson for Rachel Reeves said: "Since becoming chancellor Rachel Reeves has rented out her family home through a lettings agency.

"She had not been made aware of the licencing requirement, but as soon as it was brought to her attention she took immediate action and has applied for the licence.

"This was an inadvertent mistake and in the spirit of transparency she has made the prime minister, the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards aware."

Writing on social media, Badenoch said Sir Keir "once said 'lawmakers can't be lawbreakers'. If, as it appears, the chancellor has broken the law, then he will have to show he has the backbone to act."

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The UK government has chartered flights to help British nationals leave Jamaica in the wake of Hurricane Melissa.

As many as 8,000 Britons are understood to be on the Caribbean Island. The Foreign Office has urged them to register their presence to receive updates on the disaster response.

It did not specify how many planes had been chartered, but said Brits and their immediate family would be able to take them as long as they held valid travel documents.

The rare category five storm - the strongest type - made landfall on Jamaica on Tuesday, leaving a trail of destruction, flooding and dozens of people dead, before continuing to move through the Caribbean.

At least five people are known to have died in Jamaica, with at least another 20 fatalities confirmed dead in Haiti.

Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the chartered flights were to "bolster commerical capacity and ensure people who wish to return to the UK can do so as soon as possible".

She added: "The strong links between the UK and Jamaica mean many British nationals were there during the devastation of the hurricane, and we need to ensure they can get safely home, as we know how worrying and difficult the last few days will have been."

The Foreign Office is urging those in Jamaica to contact their airlines first to see if commercial flights are available.

It added that Windrush generations with indefinite leave to remain in the UK were also eligible for the government flights.

Jamaica's Transport Minister Daryl Vaz said on Wednesday that some airports - including Norman Manley in Kingston - would initially open only for humanitarian relief flights only.

Some commercial flights from the capital, Kingston, are scheduled to begin operating again on Thursday.

Sangster International Airport, which serves the badly hit Montego Bay, will reopen on Thursday for relief flights only, with commercial flights to resume at a yet-to-be-determined time later, Vaz said.

The Foreign Office announcement comes a day after the UK government pledged £2.5m to help with the relief effort, with the funds going towards delivering emergency supplies such as shelter kits, water filters and blankets.

Technical experts have also been deployed to assist with the disaster response and recovery efforts.

Melissa first hit Jamaica's southern coast with maximum sustained winds of 295km/h (185mph) - the strongest hurricane so far this year.

Those speeds were above those of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, one of the worst storms in history. With communications largely crippled, the full extent of the disaster remains unclear.

Early images show homes and other structures razed to the ground, debris littering streets and fast-moving floodwater streaming through neighbourhoods.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness declared the island a "disaster area" on Tuesday, warning of "devastating impacts" and "significant damage" to hospitals, homes and businesses.

Three-quarters of the country had no electricity overnight and many parts of Jamaica's western side are under water.

• How do hurricanes form and are they getting stronger?
• What makes Melissa such a dangerous storm?
• 'We are all terrified', say locals in path of Hurricane Melissa

While Melissa has now cleared Jamaica and is moving towards the Atlantic, there will still be some thunderstorms across the island.

The US National Hurricane Center warns that an additional 8-15cm (3-6 inches) of rain is possible in parts, with up to 76cm over mountainous areas, posing an ongoing risk of flash flooding and landslides.

The remnants of Melissa are forecast to move across the UK next week.

The weather system will move across the far north-west late on Sunday and into early Monday - likely as a largely "business as usual" storm, the Met Office said.

Virgin Trains will be able to launch rail services through the Channel Tunnel after the UK's rail regulator approved its application to share a depot with Eurostar.

The decision by the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) means Eurostar's monopoly on passenger services is set to be broken for the first time since the tunnel opened in 1994.

Temple Mills railway storehouse in east London is the only depot in the UK able to accommodate the larger trains used in continental Europe and which is already linked to the cross-Channel line.

Virgin says it wants to start running services from 2030, but the ORR says several steps will need to be taken first.

The ORR had said the Temple Mills depot had enough space to either house an expanded Eurostar fleet or accommodate a rival company's trains – but not both.

The regulator said a number of steps needed to be taken before new international services could run. Virgin needs to enter into a commercial agreement with Eurostar, will have to secure finance, access to track and stations, and have to get safety approvals from UK and EU authorities.

But the ORR said its decision unlocked plans for around £700m of investment and could create 400 new jobs, describing it as "a win for passengers, customer choice, and economic growth".

Martin Jones, deputy director of Access and International at the ORR, said: "While there is still some way to go before the first new services can run, we stand ready to work with Virgin Trains as their plans develop."

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, said: "The ORR's decision is the right one for consumers – it's time to end this 30-year monopoly and bring some Virgin magic to the cross-Channel route."

Several firms had wanted to start operating services between London and mainland Europe, including Spanish start-up Evolyn, Richard Branson's Virgin and a partnership between Gemini Trains and Uber.

The ORR only approved Virgin's application on Thursday and rejected applications from Evolyn, Gemini and Trenitalia.

Virgin said it planned to launch rail services from London St Pancras to Europe from 2030.

This will include services to Paris Gare du Nord, Brussels-Midi and Amsterdam Centraal, with future plans to expand further across France, and into Germany and Switzerland.

Today it sits as a nondescript car park behind a large council office.

Yet hundreds of years ago an unassuming patch of land in Dumbarton was the location for some of Scotland's darkest moments - as locals who had been accused of witchcraft were led there to be executed.

More than two dozen people in the town were accused and tortured in the belief that they were doing Satan's bidding, as religious fervour swept the area during the 17th Century.

Now campaigners are hoping to spotlight the names of those accused and pay tribute to them with a memorial.

In 2022 Nicola Sturgeon offered a formal apology to people accused of witchcraft between the 16th and 18th Centuries.

About 4,000 Scots, mostly women, were accused of breaking the Witchcraft Act between 1563 and 1736, and the vast majority were executed.

Louise Wilson has been researching the history of witches in Dumbarton, where she believes suspicion of witchcraft was common.

Through historical records she has already found 32 cases of people accused from 1624 to 1697 - with 22 of those executed.

Of the remaining 10, one fled the region while the fates of the other nine have been lost to history.

"Port towns had a lot of accused in Scotland," explains Louise, the secretary of Remembering The Accused Witches of Scotland.

"A lot of hustle and bustle leads to more accusations, so as well as Dumbarton it was the same on the coast of Fife and in Ayr. The failing of the crops, or bad trade or a ship having trouble – these would all be blamed on witches."

Witch hunts took place in many countries during that period, but academics have previously said Scotland's execution rate was five times the European average.

For Louise, the most terrifying aspect of the accusations lies in how easily they could be made, often with little evidence.

"These were ordinary people doing ordinary jobs, but if you argue with your neighbour you could end up accused of witchcraft," says Louise.

"There is a woman called Jonet Boyd, in 1628. A man called Robert Glen, who was a notary, accused her.

"He had met her on the street and said she threw words and obscenities at him, grabbed his clock, whipped him around and threw a stone at him. Two witnesses also confirmed this happened.

"The next morning he accused her of witchcraft – however there is nothing in the records about whether he had done something to her to make her act like that. Maybe she turned him down – we don't know."

Jonet Boyd was executed as a result of the accusations from Robert Glen.

Not all the accused were women, though the majority were. Louise recounts a slater called John McWilliam, who fled to Stranraer after being accused of witchcraft for a second time, before going on trial in Edinburgh.

He was then executed in 1655.

Other signs of witchcraft listed in local records include not attending church and talking to animals, which were assumed to be a witch's familiar - meaning a supernatural creature helping the accused.

If someone was accused, they would be subject to brutal torture aimed at securing a confession.

However methods often associated with witch trials, such throwing them into water with hands tied behind their back, were more common in England rather than Scotland.

Scottish alternatives were not any more pleasant, however.

"Things like dooking or hanging weren't done in Scotland – they were strangled and burned instead," says Louise.

"They would be kept awake for three days and three nights, getting beaten told to keep walking while have accusations screamed at them. They also used thumb and finger screws, iron boots and crimp claws.

"They would be stripped naked and their hair shaved, then brought in front of a judiciary of ministers and highly ranked men in the town.

"Someone would search for the devil's mark to prove they were in league with Satan - that could be something like a mole or a birthmark. So by the time they were executed they looked the typical stereotype of a Halloween witch."

Those stereotypes might bring to mind images of black hats, broomsticks and cackling over cauldrons, common in much media.

However for the accused, the effect of the accusations - even if later cleared - were immense.

In Dumbarton the situation was stoked by zealous local ministers, with the Covenanter movement having considerable influence at the time.

"You had ministers saying witches were among us, they are in thrall to Satan and it was being drummed in people that witches were among the community.

"This lasted for over 150 years but it's not well known about, it's not being taught in history classes."

Louise and the rest of the RAWS team are now seeking to place a memorial at the execution site off Church Street in Dumbarton.

They will also host a conference at Maryhill Burgh Halls on 8 November.

Earlier councillors discussed the matter, and agreed that it was important to remember the victims.

A West Dunbartonshire Council spokesperson said: "We have been engaging with Remembering the Accused Witches of Scotland who are keen to install a fitting memorial."

For Louise, a display would be important, as would telling the stories of those accused to future generations.

"When you say their names and tell their stories, it's a way of remembering them."

Well, at least nobody is asking Rachel Reeves about tax rises today.

Not that this will feel like a pleasant episode for the chancellor.

Her failure to apply for a selective licence before renting out her family home is at the very least embarrassing.

But is it more than that?

That's a question that can be answered on multiple levels: ethical, political and legal.

Start with the ethics - specifically, ministerial ethics.

All government ministers are required to abide by the ministerial code, a 34-page document about standards in public life.

A breach of the ministerial code can often result in a minister's resignation, including less than two months ago that of Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister.

That is why the exchange of letters released between Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer just before midnight was so important, and why Downing Street was not willing to wait for the morning.

The prime minister said that he had consulted Sir Laurie Magnus, the Conservative-appointed independent ethics adviser, whose unflinching approach did for Rayner and several other ex-ministers besides and that they had agreed that no further investigation would be necessary.

Sir Keir said that this was because the breach was inadvertent, Reeves had acted promptly to rectify it by applying for the licence, and had apologised.

"The ministerial code makes clear that in certain circumstances, an apology is a sufficient resolution," Sir Keir wrote.

In terms of the prime minister drawing a line that Reeves's position as chancellor is not at all in question here, he could not have been clearer.

That said, there is still an outstanding question.

Is the prime minister's position that his chancellor did break the ministerial code but that the apology is sufficient resolution?

Or is it that the apology is sufficient for there not to be an investigation into whether she broke the ministerial code?

This may sound niche but it does matter - the chancellor breaking the ministerial code in any way, however minor, is worth noting.

Of course the political implications of this will depend on much less technical questions than that.

The Conservative Party smells vulnerability.

"It's one rule for the Chancellor and another for everyone else," a spokesperson said.

"Keir Starmer pledged to restore integrity to politics, but now he's laughing in the face of the British public. He should grow a backbone and sack the chancellor now."

However, Kemi Badenoch appeared to slightly muddy the position this morning, suggesting that Reeves should be sacked only if she is found to have broken the law.

A demand that Starmer sack his chancellor is not par for the course.

In fact, for all their criticism of Reeves's stewardship of the economy over the past 16 months or so, this is the first time the Conservatives have called for her to be sacked.

It's an important strategic judgment they have made.

Potential fine

As pungent as our political discourse may often be, calling for a sacking still has an extra severity to it. That's a card the Conservatives have now played.

This morning, some in Labour think this is a histrionic overreaction from Kemi Badenoch's party, which would significantly lower the bar for ministerial sackings.

Yet the Conservatives believe that they can make the most toxic charge in politics stick: one rule for them, another for the rest of us.

Whether they are right or wrong may depend in large part on the legal dimension to all this.

Will Southwark Council take action against Reeves for not having had the right licence? We don't yet know.

Would they generally take action against other individuals, non-politicians, caught up in this scenario?

In this pretty niche area of housing law, we don't yet know, though we are trying to find out.

A Freedom of Information request by Direct Line Group in 2024 found that in the financial year 2023-24, 245 councils had levied fines totalling £2.5m for non-compliance with selective licensing rules.

The level of fines imposed can vary massively between different parts of the country.

Under section 95 of the Housing Act 2004. it can be a criminal offence not to have the right licence as a landlord, unless the landlord can show that they had a "reasonable excuse".

Importantly, sources close to the chancellor are adamant that her letting agent had told her it would advise her if a selective licence was needed and did not do so.

Would this typically be considered a reasonable excuse in the eyes of the authorities?

We do not know but are trying to get an answer from experts.

Political judgement

Away from some of these technicalities, the risk for the chancellor is that this episode folds into deeper, pre-existing questions about her personal and political judgment.

Should the kind of person prudent enough to be chancellor at a time of global economic turmoil have been prudent enough to double-check the licensing situation for herself?

Not least given she had backed the expansion of selective licensing in her own Leeds West and Pudsey constituency?

These are the kinds of questions which may now be asked.

Before the general election Labour MPs had a deep and consistent trust in Reeves's decisions on matters big and small.

Her credibility as an economist and an individual was at the heart of Labour's election pitch and its ability to convince the public to trust the party again with the public finances.

After a turbulent period in office so far that perception is under threat like never before.

And even if this development merely goes down as an embarrassing but fleeting row, the Budget looms.

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Jaywick, near Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, has been named the most deprived neighbourhood in England for the fourth consecutive time since 2010, new data shows.

Seven areas in Blackpool are also among the 10 most deprived, alongside one in Hastings and one in Rotherham, according to stats published by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on Thursday.

Half of the neighbourhoods in Middlesbrough are very deprived, making it the local authority with the highest proportion, ahead of Birmingham and Hartlepool.

Deprivation is spread across the country, with 65% of local authorities containing at least one highly deprived neighbourhood, up from 61% in 2019.

The MHCLG's Index of Multiple Deprivation looks at living conditions across an area - but does not mean that everyone in a highly deprived neighbourhood will be struggling, nor will all those in a less deprived area be well off.

The new figures do not show whether an area has become more or less well off since the previous report, but instead can show patterns of how areas have changed relative to each other.

There are pockets of deprivation surrounded by less deprived places in every region of England.

Jaywick topped the list having been previously found to be the most deprived area in the last three reports, released in 2010, 2015 and 2019.

The MHCLG found 82% of areas found to be the most deprived in 2025 were already in that category in 2019.

The department used a number of weighted metrics to determine a neighbourhood's level of deprivation, including income, crime and barriers to housing.

They are then assessed as more or less deprived compared to other neighbourhoods.

The report found that Tower Hamlets and Hackney in London had the highest levels of income deprivation among households with children.

Meanwhile, nine of the 10 local authority districts with the highest levels of income deprivation among older people are in London.

The report is the latest in a long-running series that are used by central and local government and other bodies to target resources for local services.

The government's recently announced Pride in Place funding - offering "overlooked" communities a share of £5bn - was allocated in part based on the deprivation figures from 2019.

Areas with a history of heavy industry or mining are particularly affected, the report's authors highlight, along with parts of East London and several coastal towns including Jaywick.

The former holiday resort was visited by the UN special rapporteur for extreme poverty as part of a fact-finding mission in 2018.

And last year, its local district council, Tendring, agreed a £126m 20-year improvement plan.

The previous Conservative government also used deprivation figures, along with other criteria, when deciding where would receive "Levelling Up" grants.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland also have Indices of Multiple Deprivation which are each published separately. No dates have yet been announced for these updates.

How is deprivation measured?

The Index of Multiple Deprivation ranks all of England's 33,755 neighbourhoods, each with an average of 1,500 people, by their deprivation score.

The score is calculated from data on income, employment, education, crime, health and disability, barriers to housing and services, and the living environment.

Once all the neighbourhoods are ranked, they are split into 10 equal groups called deciles, where the first decile is the 3,375 most deprived neighbourhoods and so on.

We are using terms like "highly deprived" and "most deprived" to refer to this group of neighbourhoods. There are areas of deprivation throughout England and not everyone in a neighbourhood will experience deprivation equally.

Additional reporting by Jess Carr, Libby Rogers and Lucy Dady

The moment Darren Wheatley had to tell his seven-year-old son that his mother had died is something that will stay with him for the rest of his life.

Nicola Wheatley, 40, was one of four paddleboarders killed after descending a weir in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, on 30 October 2021.

Paddleboard firm owner and ex-police officer Nerys Lloyd is currently serving a 10-and-a-half year sentence for causing their deaths.

Darren and his family had spent a frantic morning at Withybush Hospital desperately waiting for news before he was asked to identify Nicola's body while his son Oscar waited nearby with relatives.

"I won't forget the look on his face," said Darren, in his first interview, which marks the fourth anniversary of the tragedy.

Several hours later, 80 miles (128km) away in Merthyr Tydfil, police would tell Teresa Hall they believed her only daughter Morgan Rogers, 24, had also been killed in the incident.

It wasn't until the next day that she was able to identify her body.

"I just remember going over to her and shaking her, trying to wake her up… this couldn't have happened, how could this have happened?" said Teresa, who is also speaking for the first time.

Army veteran and dad-of-three Paul O'Dwyer, 42, also died that day.

Dental hygienist and mother-of-one, Andrea Powell, 41, was resuscitated at the scene but died six days later due to her injuries.

On the day of the tragedy both Darren and Teresa knew nothing of Nerys Lloyd.

More than a year later, a report by the Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) would find the deaths were "tragic and avoidable" and identify a catalogue of errors on the day they died.

Lloyd would eventually plead guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and a judge would criticise her "abysmal" approach to health and safety.

Both Darren and Teresa said they lived with huge anger towards Lloyd, for the errors she made that day, because she has never apologised to her victims' families, and for the way she behaved in the months after the tragedy and while at court.

"She's destroyed my family life, she's destroyed my children's family life… their mother will never come back," said Darren.

"Anger doesn't even come close to how I feel," said Teresa.

"I am in torture... no parent should have to bury their child [because of] something that was so unnecessary."

Recalling the last time she saw her daughter is agonising for Teresa.

"That last conversation we had, I go over it and over it and over it and I just wish I'd told her not to go," said Teresa through tears.

"I just said to look after herself and I hope she had a good time and I gave her a hug.

"I was doing dinner on the Sunday and I said to her 'you couldn't get me some runner beans on your way home?'

"I thought she'd be safe, she was going with what I thought was a reputable tour but it turned out to be the worst mistake of her life."

'Take care, my baby boy'

Darren said Nicola had been excited about going on the trip run by Lloyd's Salty Dog Co Ltd.

Weeks earlier he and her mother had bought her a paddleboard for her 40th birthday.

He too had waved her off on the Friday from the home they shared in Pontarddulais, Swansea, with Oscar and their daughter Ffion.

After spending the Friday night at a rented property in Tenby with the rest of the group, Nicola phoned Darren at 06:40 BST that Saturday morning.

Oscar had been unwell overnight so she wanted to speak to them both to check how he was doing.

"The weather was atrocious and I said to Nicola 'really you're going on the water?'... she said 'they've said to us it's safe, we can do it'."

He broke down recalling the last thing he heard Nicola say.

"Nicola's last words to Oscar were 'take care, my baby boy'... and that's the last I spoke to her," said Darren.

The MAIB report, published in December 2022, sets out exactly what happened that day.

Just before 08:00 the group of nine arrived in a van in Haverfordwest

Before parking up, Lloyd and Paul O'Dwyer, Lloyd's co-instructor, stopped off in the town centre to inspect the river.

By about 08:49 everyone from the group was afloat and they set off downriver heading for Burton Ferry, with Lloyd out in front and Paul at the back.

They passed through Haverfordwest town centre five minutes later, with one of the group playing music through a portable speaker.

Minutes later they approached the weir.

Lloyd instructed those close by to follow her and keep to the centre of the river.

At 08:56, kneeling on her SUP, Lloyd was the first to descend the fish pass in the centre of the weir and was swept quickly downriver.

Andrea was the third paddleboarder to descend, Nicola was the sixth and Morgan was the eighth.

While the rest of the group was washed clear and swept downstream, Andrea, Nicola and Morgan were sucked into the hydraulic jump, or spin, a recirculating flow similar to a washing machine at the foot of the weir.

Monitoring from the rear of the group, Paul saw something was wrong, paddled to the right hand side of the river and left the water.

On spotting some of the group were in difficulty, he removed his leash connecting his SUP to his leg, grabbed his SUP and jumped into the river above the weir before being carried over the right hand side of the weir.

At 09:02 a passerby spotted paddleboarders in difficulty in the water and dialled 999.

He then fetched a lifebuoy and repeatedly threw a line to the struggling paddleboarders but none were able to grasp it.

Eight minutes later, emergency services began to arrive at the scene.

A multi-agency response followed, involving coastguard rescue teams and helicopter, police, fire and ambulance services, air ambulance and RNLI.

Andrea was recovered from the water close to the weir by members of the public.

She was resuscitated at the scene but died six days later due to injuries caused by drowning.

Nicola and Morgan's bodies were recovered from the river by fellow paddleboarders but both died at the scene.

Paul's body was located further downriver by the coastguard helicopter at about 11:00.

Three days after Nicola's funeral, her daughter Ffion turned three.

"It was just hell, it was awful, it was at that point that I crumbled," said Darren, who moved the family in with his parents for support.

Then as they prepared for the first Christmas since losing their loved ones, both Darren and Teresa said Lloyd's social media posts added to their distress.

A photo she shared of herself enjoying a festive day out over Christmas left both reeling.

"We had the worst Christmas I've ever had in my life," said Darren.

"I had crying, grieving children that wanted their mammy there for Christmas morning… Nerys was just living her life as if nothing had happened."

This hit Teresa hard too.

"It's Christmas and I've lost my daughter and she's out and about in Cardiff having a good old time, enjoying her life," she said.

"She's callous, so callous."

Both spent much of that Christmas not knowing the facts of what happened to their loved ones that day. By the following Christmas, the picture was becoming more clear.

What went wrong?

In December 2022, the MAIB report aimed at preventing future incidents found:

• The tour leaders were qualified to teach stand-up paddleboarding to beginners and novices in benign conditions but not lead tours on fast-flowing rivers
• The paddleboarders lost their lives because the leaders were unaware of the treacherous conditions at the weir. They had not visited the weir before setting off so were unaware of the high river level and tidal conditions
• They did not heed a flood alert which was in force at the time of the incident
• The participants were not briefed on the presence of the weir or how to descend it
• The group did not heed a sign close to their launch point which warned users the weir was dangerous and advised them to exit the river and carry their craft around it
• The use of personal protective equipment such as clothing, buoyancy aids and leashes was inconsistent across the group
• The group did not follow recognised advice that stand-up paddleboarders on fast-flowing water should wear a quick-release waist leash and a personal flotation device. At Lloyd's sentencing Mrs Justice Stacey said: "The ankle leashes attached to the boards of those stuck in the hydraulic spin, which are totally unsuitable for fast-flowing water, made it even harder for them to get free."
• Lloyd had not produced a written risk assessment for the trip
• The competency of tour members who had not been previous customers of Salty Dog Co Ltd were not assessed
• Participants were not required to complete a legal disclaimer, medical declarations, or provide emergency contact details before starting the tour, which delayed the police contacting the families of those who had died

The findings left Darren bewildered.

"Why didn't you tell the party there was a weir they were going over?" he said.

"Why didn't you tell them it was there because I'm damned sure Nicola wouldn't have got on that water… you don't go over a weir on a paddleboard."

"I want to know why," said Teresa.

"Why didn't she do the safety checks and is she sorry? Is she actually sorry?"

Lloyd pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter and was sentenced during a two-day hearing at Swansea Crown Court in April.

"She came with an entourage of people, supporters - this woman had just destroyed four families and she still carried on as though nothing had happened," said Darren.

"She turned it into a circus," added Teresa.

Darren said he lived with anger every day.

"We haven't even had an apology," he said.

"We've had no acknowledgment of what she's done. Yes, she's put her hands up and pleaded guilty but she's never said anything to us as families."

It has now been four years since the tragedy.

Teresa has taken on Morgan's beloved dog Peaches.

"Peaches was her everything, her best friend," she said.

"I will always look after that to the best I can. She's still Morgan's, she's not mine."

Darren has taken early retirement from work so he can focus on his children.

It pains him knowing that Nicola has missed out on seeing their children grow up.

"She never got to see Ffion start nursery school and the pain of that is horrible," he said.

"But I've got to carry on."

Singer Lily Allen has announced she will perform her new album in its entirety when she tours the UK in March 2026.

West End Girl has become one of the most talked about albums of the year since its release last Friday, due to its candid lyrics.

The album details some of the events that led to the breakdown of her marriage to US actor David Harbour, best known for appearing in Stranger Things.

The tour will stop in Glasgow, Liverpool, Birmingham, Sheffield, Newcastle, Manchester, Nottingham, Cambridge, Bristol and Cardiff, before concluding with two nights at the London Palladium.

Allen last toured between 2018 and 2019, following the release of her fourth studio album No Shame.

She has only made occasional live appearances since then, such as appearing in Glastonbury sets by Olivia Rodrigo and Shy FX.

However, in the intervening years, Allen has also become a successful stage actress, starring in the first production of 2:22 - A Ghost Story when it opened in the West End shortly after the pandemic.

This period is what inspired the title of the album, West End Girl, and Allen appears to sing about how being cast the play sparked the chain of events that led to her separation from Harbour.

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

The album's lyrics, as well as interviews she gave at the time, suggest that Harbour was surprised and envious that Allen had secured a leading West End role without having to audition, and that his "demeanour started to change" after she was cast.

She sings that starring in 2:22 led to a distance developing between the couple, both literally and metaphorically, which resulted in Harbour suggesting an open relationship.

Allen sings on the record about how this led to an "arrangement" with Harbour where he could be with other women, but the rules were "there had to be payment, it had to be with strangers".

But, before long, Allen hears of a relationship her husband appears to have with "Madeline" - a pseudonym - which falls outside their arrangement.

Harbour has not publicly commented on the content of the album.

However, he appears to still have a relationship with Allen and her children, and was seen taking her daughters to a theme park last weekend.

All 14 songs on West End Girl were written by Allen, mainly in collaboration with her musical director Blue May.

Allen has suggested that some of the songs are written "in character", saying that the lyrics "could be considered autofiction" - a genre that combines autobiography and fiction.

She rose to fame in 2006 with her debut album Alright, Still, and had number one hits including Smile, The Fear, and her cover of Keane's Somewhere Only We Know, which was featured in a John Lewis advert.

She had two number one albums in the UK, It's Not Me It's You and Sheezus, while her 2018 record No Shame was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

She released a candid memoir, My Thoughts Exactly, in the same year, but took a break from music shortly afterwards, and began dating Harbour in 2019.

The singer will perform West End Girl in the order the songs appear on the record for her tour in March.

Tickets for the tour, which launches in March 2026, go on sale on 7 November.

Donald Trump came away from his meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping full of bombastic optimism.

He called it a "great success" and rated it 12, on a scale of 1 to 10. China was less enthusiastic. Beijing's initial statement sounds like an instruction manual, with Xi urging teams on both sides to "follow up as soon as possible".

Trump is after a deal that could happen "pretty soon", while Beijing, it appears, wants to keep talking because it's playing the long game.

There was a more detailed second Chinese statement that echoed what Trump had said on board Air Force One.

Among other things, the US would lower tariffs on Chinese imports, and China would suspend controls on the export of rare earths, critical minerals without which you cannot make smartphones, electric cars and, perhaps more crucially, military equipment.

There is no deal yet, and negotiators on both sides have already been talking for months to iron out the details. But Thursday's agreement is still a breakthrough.

It steadies what has become a rocky relationship between the world's two biggest economies and it assures global markets.

But it is only a temporary truce. It doesn't solve the differences at the heart of such a competitive relationship.

"The US and China are going in different directions," says Kelly Ann Shaw who was an economic advisor to President Trump in his first term.

"It's really about managing the breakup in a way that does a limited amount of damage, that preserves US interests, and I think from China's perspective, preserves their own interests. But this is not a relationship that is necessarily going to improve dramatically anytime soon."

'Struggle, but don't break'

There is an art to doing a deal with Donald Trump.

It involves flattery, and most countries have tried it, including on his trip to Asia so far. South Korea gave him an enormous golden crown, while Japan's prime minister nominated him for a Nobel Peace prize.

But the Chinese leader offered only a meeting at a South Korean air base, where he and Trump would cross paths - as one flew in to the country, and the other departed.

It didn't feel out of step with China's guarded but defiant response from the start of Trump's trade war. Just days after the American president increased tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing retaliated with its own levies.

Chinese officials told the world that there would be no winners in a trade war. Like Trump, Xi too believed he had the upper hand – and he seemed to have a plan.

He decided to use the country's economic weight - as the world's factory, as a massive market for its goods - to push back.

Unlike Trump, he does not need to worry about elections or a worried vote base.

That doesn't mean that Xi faces no pressures - he certainly does. He needs China's economy to grow, and create jobs and wealth so the Chinese Communist Party's power is not challenged by instability or discontent.

And yet, despite the country's current challenges - a real estate crisis, high youth unemployment and weak consumer spending - China has shown it is willing to absorb the pain of Trump's tariffs.

Beijing would "fight until the bitter end" was the message from various ministries.

"China's main principle is struggle, but don't break," says Keyu Jin, author of The New China Playbook.

"And it has escalated to de-escalate, which is a very new tactic."

Xi had a plan

That is, China hit Trump where it hurt. For the first time it limited exports of rare earths to the US - and China processes around 90% of the world's rare earth metals.

"The nuance often missed in the rare earths debate is that China has an overwhelming position over the most strategic bit of the rare earth supply chain: the heavy rare earths used in advanced defence systems," says Jason Bedford, macroeconomics expert and investment analyst.

"That advantage is far harder to dislodge than other parts of the rare earths industry."

So getting China to relax those export controls became a priority for Washington - and that was a key bit of leverage for Xi when he sat down with Trump.

China had also stopped buying US soybeans, which was aimed at farmers in Republican states - Trump's base.

Reports this week say Beijing has already started buying soybeans from the US again.

"If the US thinks that it can dominate China, it can suppress China, I think has proven to be wrong," Ms Jin says.

"This is really signalling to the world, especially the United States, that China needs to be respected, that it will not kowtow or give too many political or economic concessions."

Trump's team has found itself dealing with a stronger China compared to his first term. Beijing has learnt lessons too.

It spent the last four years finding new trade partners and relying less on US exports - nearly a fifth of Chinese exports once went to the US but in the first half of this year that figure dropped to 11%.

Xi showed up in South Korea, after officially confirming the meeting with Trump just the day before, to take part in political theatre that seemed to underline a position of strength.

As usual, he was in front of Trump for the handshake. He stood unblinking as Trump leaned forward to whisper in his ear - the kind of ad lib moment China abhors.

At the end of the meeting Trump ushered Xi to his waiting car where the Chinese leader was immediately surrounded by his security team. The US President was then forced to wander off camera to find his vehicle alone.

And yet there are many positives to take away from this superpower summit, the first of Trump's second term in office.

"China wants to be in a position of strength when it comes to negotiations, but it won't break the relationship, because that is in nobody's interest, including China's, Ms Jin says.

For starters, businesses, the markets and other countries caught in between the rivals will welcome the calm. But observers are not sure it will last.

"I think over the medium to long-term, the US and China have very serious differences, and I would not be surprised to see some more destabilisation in the next three to six months," says Ms Shaw.

Has Trump got the bigger, better deal with China he always wanted? Not yet.

Even if he does get a deal, and the two sides put ink on paper, Beijing has now shown that it is not willing to bend to Washington - and that it is more resilient.

The rivalry between the two sides is likely to continue, if or even when there is ever a done deal.

Emerging evidence of systematic killings in the Sudanese city of el-Fasher have prompted human rights and aid activists to describe the civil war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the military as a "continuation of the Darfur genocide".

The fall of el-Fasher, in the Darfur region, after an 18-month RSF siege brings together the different layers of the country's conflict – with echoes of its dark past and the brutality of its present-day war.

The RSF emerged from the Janjaweed, Arab militias who massacred hundreds of thousands of Darfuris from non-Arab populations, in the early 2000s.

The paramilitary force has been accused of ethnic killings since its power struggle with the army erupted into violence in April 2023. The RSF leadership has consistently denied the accusations - although on Wednesday its leader Gen Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo admitted to "violations" in el-Fasher.

The current charges are based on apparent evidence of atrocities provided by the RSF fighters themselves.

They have been sharing gruesome videos reportedly showing summary executions of mostly male civilians and ex-combatants, celebrating over dead bodies, and taunting and abusing people.

• New videos show executions after RSF militia takes key Sudan city
• A simple guide to what is happening in Sudan

Accounts from exhausted survivors also paint a picture of terror and violence.

"The situation in el-Fasher is extremely dire and there are violations taking place on the roads, including looting and shooting, with no distinction made between young or old," one man told the BBC Arabic service. He had escaped to the town of Tawila, a hub for those displaced from el-Fasher.

Another woman, Ikram Abdelhameed, told the Reuters news agency that RSF soldiers separated fleeing civilians at an earthen barrier around the city and shot the men.

And satellite images collected by Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab show evidence of what seem to be massacre sites – clusters of bodies and reddish patches on the earth that the analysts believe could be blood stains.

El-Fasher "appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of… indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution", the Yale researchers say in a report.

There is a clear ethnic element to the battle for el-Fasher, because local armed groups from the dominant Zaghawa tribe, known as the Joint Force, have been fighting alongside the army.

The RSF fighters see Zaghawa civilians as legitimate targets.

That is what many survivors of the paramilitary takeover of the Zamzam displaced persons camp next to el-Fasher reported earlier this year, according to an investigation by the medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The army has also been accused of targeting ethnic groups it sees as support bases for the RSF in areas it has recaptured, including the states of Sennar, Gezira and some parts of North Kordofan.

"Whether you're a civilian, wherever you are, it is not safe right now, even in Khartoum," says Emi Mahmoud, strategic director of the IDP Humanitarian Network which helps coordinate aid deliveries in Darfur.

"Because at the flip of a hat, the people in power who have the guns, they can and will continue to falsely imprison, disappear, kill, torture, everyone."

Both sides have been accused of war crimes - ethnically motivated revenge attacks are part of that.

It was Sudan's military government in 2003 that weaponised ethnicity – enlisting the Janjaweed to put down rebellions by black African groups in Darfur who accused Khartoum of politically and economically marginalising them.

The pattern of violence established then has been repeated in Darfur now, says Kate Ferguson, the co-founder of NGO Protection Approaches.

This was most evident in the 2023 massacre of members of the Masalit tribe in el-Geneina in West Darfur, which the UN says killed up to 15,000 people.

"For more than two years, the RSF have followed a very clear, practiced and predicted pattern," Ms Ferguson said at a press briefing.

"They first encircle their target town or city, they weaken it by cutting off access to food, to medicine, to power supplies, the internet. Then when it's weakened, they overwhelm the population with systematic arson, sexual violence, massacre and the destruction of vital infrastructure. This is a deliberate strategy to destroy and displace, and that's why I feel the appropriate word is genocide."

The RSF has denied involvement in what it has called "tribal conflicts", but Gen Dagalo, widely known as Hemedti, appeared to be hearing expressions of mounting international outrage, including from the UN, the African Union, the European Union and the UK.

He released a video saying he was sorry for the disaster that had befallen the people of el-Fasher in a war that had been "forced upon us" and admitted there had been violations by his forces, promising they would be investigated by a committee that has now arrived in the city.

Any "soldier or any officer who committed a crime or crossed the lines against any person… will be immediately arrested and the result [of the investigation] to be announced immediately and in public in front of everyone," the general pledged.

However, observers have noted that similar promises made in the past - in response to the accusations over el-Geneina, and alleged atrocities during the group's control of the central state of Gezira - were never fulfilled

It is also not clear how much control the RSF leadership has over its foot soldiers – a loose mix of hired militias, allied Arab groups, and regional mercenaries, many from Chad and South Sudan.

"The reality is that the way that the RSF is, it's very, very hard to believe that a command is going to be given by Hemedti, and then people on the ground are going to follow it," says aid co-ordinator Ms Mahmoud. "By that time, we'll have lost many, many people."

Aid groups and activists warn that if the pattern of the past two years is allowed to continue, it could happen again. They stress that the el-Fasher killings were entirely predictable, but the international community failed to act to protect civilians despite ample warning.

"The reality is that we laid these options out multiple times over six meetings with UN Security Council elements, with the US government, with the British government, with the French government, basically saying they had to be ready for a protection kinetic option [direct military action] in the summer of last year," says Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.

"This cannot be something settled by a press conference. It has to be something settled by immediate action."

In particular, activists are urging pressure on the United Arab Emirates, which is widely accused of providing military support to the RSF. The UAE denies this despite evidence presented in UN reports and international media investigations.

"This is exactly like the siege of Sarajevo," says Ms Mahmoud, referring to the Srebrenica massacre during the Bosnia war, which galvanised international action. "This is the Srebrenica moment."

More BBC stories on Sudan:

• Sudan's years of war - BBC smuggles in phones to reveal hunger and fear
• A pregnant woman's diary of escape from war zone
• El-Fasher siege: My son's whole body is full of shrapnel
• Sudan's fertile region where food is rotting amid famine and war

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

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

Homeowners who say that botched insulation under government schemes left them living in mouldy conditions are calling for an investigation into the problem to be widened.

One woman has told the BBC that damage from works to her home in 2013 has left her bedroom too damp to sleep in, and may be causing her breathing difficulties.

Around 280,000 properties in Britain were offered free insulation - either external wall or other types of solid wall – under government schemes between 2013 and 2025. Billions of pounds of public money was spent on the projects.

Earlier this month, the government said that 92% of external wall insulation put in place under these schemes over the last three years has at least one major issue.

The government did not respond to a question from the BBC on why it was not reviewing all work carried out before 2022, but said it was "fixing the broken system by introducing comprehensive reforms".

Imran Hussain, the Labour MP for Bradford East, has called on the government to widen its investigation to include all insulation fitted under these schemes.

"Families who tried to do the right thing to make their homes warmer and greener have been left paying the price for failure and negligence," he says.

The BBC has been told that serious problems were known to the then-Conservative government as long as a decade ago.

One 2013 scheme in Preston, Lancashire, quickly became a byword for failure, according to Andrej Miller of the fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA). He worked in the government's climate and energy teams for 18 years as a civil servant and says it was seen as "the ultimate project gone wrong".

Under the scheme, 350 homes in the town's Fishwick area were fitted with external wall insulation.

Bushra Rashid lives in one of these properties. She says she has been living with damp and mould for years. The 72-year-old has told the BBC she can't sleep in her own bedroom, where the damp plaster is crumbling, and she fears it's affected her health.

Bushra and her husband, Abdul, bought their home in the early 1970s. In 2013, insulation boards were fixed to the exterior brickwork of the Victorian homes and render applied with the purpose of making it waterproof.

The idea behind many of the government schemes was to cut carbon emissions by getting energy companies to install energy-saving measures, including insulation, on people's homes. The schemes were targeted at low-income households and paid for via the "green levy" on energy bills.

However, "bad design and bad workmanship" on the Fishwick project meant that rainwater got trapped behind the insulation and penetrated walls in houses such as the Rashids', according to building surveyor David Walter.

Abdul Rashid, who was a bus driver, died from Parkinson's disease four years ago. His son, Atif, says that despite his illness, his father knew the house was being destroyed by the botched installation.

"He spent time crying because he felt helpless,'' says Atif. He adds that his father ''felt betrayed'' and had ''nowhere to go'' to get help.

The Fishwick project had not even been completed before Preston City Council - which had encouraged residents to sign up for the insulation - started receiving complaints about the quality of the work.

"Horrifying" stories about poor workmanship, mushrooms growing on walls and light fittings being turned into "water features", were being reported back to Andrea Howe, the council's energy officer at the time.

The installer went bust soon after the project finished, and any guarantees were considered worthless because the insulation wasn't fitted properly.

Ms Howe says she took her concerns to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and showed photographs of the damaged homes to officials. In the winter of 2015, a group of civil servants were taken on a tour of Fishwick's homes.

She recalls what one official told her he had seen: ''He went into one house and in the small child's bedroom there was a sheet kind of pinned all around the ceiling because the ceiling was falling down - it was that wet."

Ms Howe says he told her he was heartbroken: ''He said he had never seen anything like it.''

The problems at Fishwick highlight a "systemic issue in how government works" because ministers and officials have never been around long enough to find a solution, says Miller.

In 2018, the then-minister for energy and clean growth, Claire Perry, told MPs that 62 homes had received repairs following enforcement action by Ofgem.

NEA later completed repairs on a further 45 homes in Fishwick, at an average cost of £70,000 per property. The charity estimates it could cost up to £22m to fully rectify problems in that area, but it has run out of funding to carry out further work.

In 2019, a government-commissioned report estimated there was failure on all 350 properties in the Fishwick scheme, caused by poor design, assessment, ventilation and workmanship. It also suggested that many of the properties were unsuitable for the insulation in the first place. But the government never published the report or shared it with Fishwick residents.

Tasneem Hussain had external wall insulation installed on her home in Fishwick at about the same time as the Rashid family. She says she has been forced to redecorate more than 20 times over the last decade because of damp in her home, caused by the insulation.

She is also concerned about what effect the conditions could be having on her 14-year-old son, Mohammed, who has disabilities.

"He's prone to infections, and he had pneumonia a few months ago. I feel this is not going to be helping him," says Tasneem.

She says she does not know where to go or how to get help for her family's situation: "It needs to be sorted."

Preston City Council told the BBC the external wall insulation scheme in Fishwick was a "significant failure", but the council "did not directly deliver, oversee or have any project management oversight of the contractors and the work they completed".

It added: "It is hugely regrettable that neither the original installers nor indeed the government have provided the level of support so obviously required when the scale of failed external wall insulation became apparent."

It's unclear how many other schemes involving this type of insulation have gone wrong.

The National Audit Office's recent report suggests the government doesn't have an accurate picture of failure rates in earlier schemes.

It says of one scheme, ECO3, which ran from 2018 to 2022, ''we do not know how many measures were audited for quality compliance''.

Dr Peter Rickaby, an energy expert who contributed to an independent review of the sector published in 2016, said problems with external wall insulation can take up to 10 years before they appear as damp on people's homes.

Industry insiders have told the BBC that Fishwick is now regarded as an object lesson in how not to run an installation project.

However, similar problems have arisen in later government insulation schemes.

In February, BBC News reported on a scheme in County Durham, which was carried out in 2021.

Jean Liddle, 82, was among a number of Chilton residents who had external wall insulation fitted on her home. The work was organised by her local council, and paid for by central government.

"We were more or less pushed into it," Jean told the BBC.

She said that damp and mould had been spreading in her home since the insulation was installed. A survey report commissioned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero highlighted what it called an ''immediate risk to the fabric of the building and health of the occupant''.

It said Jean should not be living in the property in its ''current condition'' and that substantial work would be required before it would be safe to live there.

The primary cause of the damp in Jean's home is believed to be a damaged drainage pipe. The subcontractor disputes that the damage was caused when the insulation was fitted.

The report was given to the council, but its warning about the danger to Jean's health was not shared with her. She eventually found out via a freedom of information request.

Some repair work has now been carried out on Jean's home, organised by the council and the subcontractor, but building surveyor David Walter believes it's still not safe for her to be living there, because of the presence of "dampness and mould and powder and dust".

Durham County Council said it was ''working with residents and the subcontractor to address any outstanding issues'' and gave ''sincere apologies for any distress caused''.

It added that conflicting findings from different surveys had complicated attempts to rectify the reported faults, and gave ''sincere apologies for any distress caused'

Jean accuses the council and the government of showing a disregard for her welfare: "I'm just nothing to them. I'm a number," she told the BBC.

In a statement, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said that the residents of Fishwick and Chilton had been ''let down by poor installation''.

It added that it was introducing comprehensive reforms, and in future, in cases "where rare things go wrong", there would be clear lines of accountability, and a guarantee to get any problems fixed quickly.

Meanwhile in Fishwick, Atif says he is disgusted by the behaviour shown by successive governments to his parents.

"I think people have to be held to account," he says. "Whether it's the government, the energy firms, their local suppliers, the councils... responsibility has to sit somewhere, and it shouldn't be the homeowners."

"It's been our busiest year yet for Halloween," says cafe and gift shop owner Charlotte Brennan.

"People have been asking for pumpkin spiced lattes since August, so I feel like it's getting earlier."

Charlotte says as soon as shopping for back-to-school essentials was in the bag, she saw a switch to "cosy" autumnal spending.

And there is some data to suggest what Charlotte is seeing is a wider trend of Halloween spending creeping in long before 31 October.

More than £100m was spent on sugar confectionery at British supermarkets in the four weeks to 5 October - up 5% on the same period a year ago, according to data from Worldpanel by Numerator.

Its figures also suggest more than a million shoppers had already bought pumpkins from the supermarkets by the start of October, with sales totalling £1.4m in the four weeks prior, doubling the amount spent in the similar pre-Halloween period in 2023.

Charlotte, who owns Bloom & Brew in Ormskirk says Halloween is now her second-busiest time of year, after Christmas.

She says social media food and decor trends heavily influence what and when people buy for Halloween and on TikTok "the build-up starts in July".

"For our sales, where previously it was just a two-week period from mid-October to the 31st, now it's much longer - people want pumpkins and decorations."

Ms Brennan says many of her customers bought one or two reusable decorative items for the season to build a collection, as they do for Christmas.

"When I was growing up, you'd get a couple of plastic throwaway items from the supermarket in the days before Halloween, and then they were binned," she says.

Overall spending on Halloween hit £2bn two years ago and is predicted to grow again this year. In 2024, as many as 91% of people bought something Halloween-related, Worldpanel's data suggests.

It's too early for this year's full Halloween spending data but last year's Worldpanel figures suggest the spooky spending period is getting longer.

There was a 37% growth in retail spending on categories associated with Halloween and autumn in the two weeks leading up to October 31 2024, compared with a standard two-week period.

And it's not just sellers of costumes and sweet treats benefiting: candles and pyjama sales were up nearly 20% too.

Vikash Kaansili, senior retail analyst at Kantar ,says the data suggests Halloween spending is about more than dressing up and carving pumpkins.

"Halloween is no longer just for kids. The growth in sales of pyjamas and candles suggests adults are embracing Halloween as an opportunity for a night in at home, not just for children's trick-or-treating.

"Despite cost-of-living pressures, Halloween continues to prove resilient," Mr Kaansili says.

"Shoppers made more trips in the two weeks leading up to Halloween [2024] and spent 16% more than they usually do, suggesting it's a "must-do" occasion that people are unwilling to cut back on.

Pumpkins remain the unofficial symbol of Halloween, and we're buying them earlier. Worldpanel data found in the four weeks to 29 September 2024, just under £1m was spent on pumpkins in British supermarkets, nearly doubling figures for the same period in 2023.

Supermarket Asda said this year it is on track to sell 400,000 mini, or "munchkin" pumpkins - for use in displays rather than in the kitchen - up from 200,000 last year.

And it's not just supermarkets and retailers getting in on the action: leisure and entertainment businesses now see it as a season in itself.

Fiona Eastwood, the boss of Merlin Entertainment, which owns Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and Legoland told the BBC that the lead up to Halloween now rivals its peak summer season in driving profits at some sites.

"Take Thorpe Park: increasingly Halloween is almost half of its annual profit and that's because we have special rides in the dark, you have mazes, and that whole thrill that we're tapping into," she told the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast.

The season's popularity has also allowed other businesses, such as farming, to diversify.

The Halloween pumpkin patch has more than doubled at Andy Owens' farm in Herefordshire after the sheep and crop farmer set it up in 2021.

"Pumpkins for us only use a small amount of land, but generate income in October in what can be a volatile month.

"It's snowballed. When we set up only four years ago, there were only two others in the county. Now there are many more."

He charges £5 per person and after initial growth, visitor numbers are up around 10% so far in 2025 compared with last year.

"We're told the economy isn't doing well, but families still want a day out and we see that they still have money for pumpkins," he says.

Owens' five-acre pumpkin patch expanded last year to include a horror maze that employs local actors.

"Halloween in this country has grown massively. When I was growing up there was barely trick-or-treating, there was just The Simpsons Halloween special [on TV]. Now it's everywhere," he says

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted breaking housing rules by unlawfully renting out her family home without a licence.

Reeves has told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, as well as the independent ethics adviser and Parliament's standards commissioner of the error, which was first reported in the Daily Mail.

It is understood the chancellor used a letting agency but was not told the house was in an area that needed a "selective licence" to rent the property.

Reeves rented out her Southwark home after moving into a flat in Downing Street after last year's election win.

A spokesperson for Reeves said it was an "inadvertent mistake" and she has now applied for the licence.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a "full investigation".

In a social media post, Badenoch said if the chancellor broke the law, the prime minister must "show he has the backbone to act".

The family home in London was put up for rent after Labour won the election in July 2024 for £3,200 a month.

It is in an area where Southwark Council requires private landlords to hold a "selective licence".

The council's website states: "You can be prosecuted or fined if you're a landlord or managing agent for a property that needs a licence and do not get one."

A spokesperson for Rachel Reeves said: "Since becoming chancellor Rachel Reeves has rented out her family home through a lettings agency.

"She had not been made aware of the licencing requirement, but as soon as it was brought to her attention she took immediate action and has applied for the licence.

"This was an inadvertent mistake and in the spirit of transparency she has made the prime minister, the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards aware."

Writing on social media, Badenoch said Sir Keir "once said 'lawmakers can't be lawbreakers'. If, as it appears, the chancellor has broken the law, then he will have to show he has the backbone to act."

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Five more suspects have been arrested over their involvement in the Louvre heist, Paris' public prosecutor has said.

They were arrested on Wednesday night in the Paris region, Laure Beccuau's office said.

A main suspect was among those arrested, AFP reported. The new arrests come after two men taken into custody in connection with the brazen theft "partially recognised" their involvement.

Items worth €88m (£76m; $102m) were taken from the world's most-visited museum on 19 October, when four thieves broke into the building in broad daylight.

The jewels had not been recovered yet, and the gang involved could be bigger than the four people caught on CCTV, Beccuau had said on Wednesday.

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Homeowners who say that botched insulation under government schemes left them living in mouldy conditions are calling for an investigation into the problem to be widened.

One woman has told the BBC that damage from works to her home in 2013 has left her bedroom too damp to sleep in, and may be causing her breathing difficulties.

Around 280,000 properties in Britain were offered free insulation - either external wall or other types of solid wall – under government schemes between 2013 and 2025. Billions of pounds of public money was spent on the projects.

Earlier this month, the government said that 92% of external wall insulation put in place under these schemes over the last three years has at least one major issue.

The government did not respond to a question from the BBC on why it was not reviewing all work carried out before 2022, but said it was "fixing the broken system by introducing comprehensive reforms".

Imran Hussain, the Labour MP for Bradford East, has called on the government to widen its investigation to include all insulation fitted under these schemes.

"Families who tried to do the right thing to make their homes warmer and greener have been left paying the price for failure and negligence," he says.

The BBC has been told that serious problems were known to the then-Conservative government as long as a decade ago.

One 2013 scheme in Preston, Lancashire, quickly became a byword for failure, according to Andrej Miller of the fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA). He worked in the government's climate and energy teams for 18 years as a civil servant and says it was seen as "the ultimate project gone wrong".

Under the scheme, 350 homes in the town's Fishwick area were fitted with external wall insulation.

Bushra Rashid lives in one of these properties. She says she has been living with damp and mould for years. The 72-year-old has told the BBC she can't sleep in her own bedroom, where the damp plaster is crumbling, and she fears it's affected her health.

Bushra and her husband, Abdul, bought their home in the early 1970s. In 2013, insulation boards were fixed to the exterior brickwork of the Victorian homes and render applied with the purpose of making it waterproof.

The idea behind many of the government schemes was to cut carbon emissions by getting energy companies to install energy-saving measures, including insulation, on people's homes. The schemes were targeted at low-income households and paid for via the "green levy" on energy bills.

However, "bad design and bad workmanship" on the Fishwick project meant that rainwater got trapped behind the insulation and penetrated walls in houses such as the Rashids', according to building surveyor David Walter.

Abdul Rashid, who was a bus driver, died from Parkinson's disease four years ago. His son, Atif, says that despite his illness, his father knew the house was being destroyed by the botched installation.

"He spent time crying because he felt helpless,'' says Atif. He adds that his father ''felt betrayed'' and had ''nowhere to go'' to get help.

The Fishwick project had not even been completed before Preston City Council - which had encouraged residents to sign up for the insulation - started receiving complaints about the quality of the work.

"Horrifying" stories about poor workmanship, mushrooms growing on walls and light fittings being turned into "water features", were being reported back to Andrea Howe, the council's energy officer at the time.

The installer went bust soon after the project finished, and any guarantees were considered worthless because the insulation wasn't fitted properly.

Ms Howe says she took her concerns to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and showed photographs of the damaged homes to officials. In the winter of 2015, a group of civil servants were taken on a tour of Fishwick's homes.

She recalls what one official told her he had seen: ''He went into one house and in the small child's bedroom there was a sheet kind of pinned all around the ceiling because the ceiling was falling down - it was that wet."

Ms Howe says he told her he was heartbroken: ''He said he had never seen anything like it.''

The problems at Fishwick highlight a "systemic issue in how government works" because ministers and officials have never been around long enough to find a solution, says Miller.

In 2018, the then-minister for energy and clean growth, Claire Perry, told MPs that 62 homes had received repairs following enforcement action by Ofgem.

NEA later completed repairs on a further 45 homes in Fishwick, at an average cost of £70,000 per property. The charity estimates it could cost up to £22m to fully rectify problems in that area, but it has run out of funding to carry out further work.

In 2019, a government-commissioned report estimated there was failure on all 350 properties in the Fishwick scheme, caused by poor design, assessment, ventilation and workmanship. It also suggested that many of the properties were unsuitable for the insulation in the first place. But the government never published the report or shared it with Fishwick residents.

Tasneem Hussain had external wall insulation installed on her home in Fishwick at about the same time as the Rashid family. She says she has been forced to redecorate more than 20 times over the last decade because of damp in her home, caused by the insulation.

She is also concerned about what effect the conditions could be having on her 14-year-old son, Mohammed, who has disabilities.

"He's prone to infections, and he had pneumonia a few months ago. I feel this is not going to be helping him," says Tasneem.

She says she does not know where to go or how to get help for her family's situation: "It needs to be sorted."

Preston City Council told the BBC the external wall insulation scheme in Fishwick was a "significant failure", but the council "did not directly deliver, oversee or have any project management oversight of the contractors and the work they completed".

It added: "It is hugely regrettable that neither the original installers nor indeed the government have provided the level of support so obviously required when the scale of failed external wall insulation became apparent."

It's unclear how many other schemes involving this type of insulation have gone wrong.

The National Audit Office's recent report suggests the government doesn't have an accurate picture of failure rates in earlier schemes.

It says of one scheme, ECO3, which ran from 2018 to 2022, ''we do not know how many measures were audited for quality compliance''.

Dr Peter Rickaby, an energy expert who contributed to an independent review of the sector published in 2016, said problems with external wall insulation can take up to 10 years before they appear as damp on people's homes.

Industry insiders have told the BBC that Fishwick is now regarded as an object lesson in how not to run an installation project.

However, similar problems have arisen in later government insulation schemes.

In February, BBC News reported on a scheme in County Durham, which was carried out in 2021.

Jean Liddle, 82, was among a number of Chilton residents who had external wall insulation fitted on her home. The work was organised by her local council, and paid for by central government.

"We were more or less pushed into it," Jean told the BBC.

She said that damp and mould had been spreading in her home since the insulation was installed. A survey report commissioned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero highlighted what it called an ''immediate risk to the fabric of the building and health of the occupant''.

It said Jean should not be living in the property in its ''current condition'' and that substantial work would be required before it would be safe to live there.

The primary cause of the damp in Jean's home is believed to be a damaged drainage pipe. The subcontractor disputes that the damage was caused when the insulation was fitted.

The report was given to the council, but its warning about the danger to Jean's health was not shared with her. She eventually found out via a freedom of information request.

Some repair work has now been carried out on Jean's home, organised by the council and the subcontractor, but building surveyor David Walter believes it's still not safe for her to be living there, because of the presence of "dampness and mould and powder and dust".

Durham County Council said it was ''working with residents and the subcontractor to address any outstanding issues'' and gave ''sincere apologies for any distress caused''.

It added that conflicting findings from different surveys had complicated attempts to rectify the reported faults, and gave ''sincere apologies for any distress caused'

Jean accuses the council and the government of showing a disregard for her welfare: "I'm just nothing to them. I'm a number," she told the BBC.

In a statement, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said that the residents of Fishwick and Chilton had been ''let down by poor installation''.

It added that it was introducing comprehensive reforms, and in future, in cases "where rare things go wrong", there would be clear lines of accountability, and a guarantee to get any problems fixed quickly.

Meanwhile in Fishwick, Atif says he is disgusted by the behaviour shown by successive governments to his parents.

"I think people have to be held to account," he says. "Whether it's the government, the energy firms, their local suppliers, the councils... responsibility has to sit somewhere, and it shouldn't be the homeowners."

It is a question that successive governments have struggled with: what kind of threat does China really pose to the UK?

Trying to answer it may have contributed to the high-profile collapse of the case in which two British men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, were accused of spying for China and charged under the Official Secrets Act.

Both deny wrongdoing - but when charges were dropped last month, it sparked political outcry.

Prosecutors and officials have since offered conflicting accounts about whether a failure or unwillingness to label China as an active threat to national security led to the withdrawal of the charges. And yesterday Lord Hermer, the attorney general, blamed "out of date" legislation for the case's collapse.

But this all raises the question of what exactly Chinese espionage looks like in the modern world.

On one level, China spies within the traditional framework of the old ways of human espionage associated with the Cold War, with spies working under the cover of being diplomats, and recruiting people to pass secrets.

The witness statement by a deputy national security adviser for prosecutors investigating the now-collapsed case of Cash and Berry outlines this kind of work.

"The Chinese Intelligence Services are interested in acquiring information from a number of sources, including policymakers, government staff and democratic institutions and are able to act opportunistically to gather all information they can."

Here is the thing though. Pretty much every country does this kind of spying - wanting insight into what other countries are up to is as old as the hills. The UK conducts this kind of espionage against China (as China itself has publicly complained about). When countries get caught there is normally a public row but each side knows it is normal business.

But this barely covers the breadth of the Chinese behaviour that worries security officials.

"Try not to think too much just in terms of classic card-carrying spies based out of the embassy in the John le Carre mould," the head of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum said during a briefing on national security threats earlier this month.

For what truly sets China apart - and what lies at the heart of the problem - is that the national security threats China poses go beyond traditional notions of espionage.

To complicate matters further, some of the threats are also closely tied up with the reasons many believe we need to engage with China.

China's economic power, for example, presents many potential benefits for a UK desperate for growth.

Labour is reported to be seeking to improve ties with China. However, securing the benefits of a relationship while navigating the associated risks is the hard task that has bedevilled governments.

Growing concerns about political influence

The sheer size of Chinese intelligence – which some estimates put at half a million when you account for the entire workforce operating on security both at home and abroad – means they can afford to pursue their work at a larger scale than many other countries.

Every country uses its intelligence services differently - how it does so throws a spotlight on the priorities of the state - and in China, the top priority is ensuring the continued rule of the Communist Party.

In practice this has meant influencing political debate abroad, going after dissidents, collecting data at a large scale and ensuring economic growth at home.

In the UK, concerns about Chinese political influence have been growing.

MI5 issued an "interference alert" in January 2022 about the activities of an alleged Chinese agent, Christine Lee, who was believed to have infiltrated Parliament.

Ms Lee denied the allegations. She later took unsuccessful legal action against MI5, and told a tribunal that the spy agency's alert about her carried a "political purpose".

MI5 has also warned that Beijing was cultivating local politicians in the early stages of their career with the hope of seeding them into more senior positions - a sign of a long-term, patient strategy to build influence.

Here, the purpose was not stealing secrets or gaining information so much as manipulating political debate – having people in influential positions who will take a pro-China view of issues and the world.

Another area that worries UK security officials is China's predilection for spying on dissidents, known as transnational repression, something that has been a primary target for Chinese intelligence for years with a focus on groups like Tibetan campaigners.

But the arrival in the UK of many young pro-democracy activists from Hong Kong, following Beijing's clampdown, has heightened the concerns.

According to MI5, Hong Kong police have issued bounties against more than a dozen pro-democracy activists here in the UK and there have been increased reports of harassment and surveillance.

Beijing has always dismissed accusations of espionage as attempts to "smear" China.

"China never interferes in other countries' internal affairs and always acts in an open and aboveboard manner," the Chinese embassy in London has previously said.

In a statement issued earlier this month, it added: "The so-called 'China spy-case' hyped up by the UK is entirely fabricated and self-staged. China strongly condemns this...

"China's development is an opportunity for the world, not a threat to any country. We firmly oppose attempts to smear China by peddling unfounded allegations of 'spying activities, or concocting the so-called 'China threat'."

Sophisticated cyber-espionage

Yet China has been linked to some large scale cyber operations. Some of this sits within modern notions of espionage – stealing secrets.

Last year Beijing was accused of trying to hack into the emails of MPs.

"China represents an economic threat to our security and an epoch-defining challenge," Rishi Sunak, the then-prime minister, said at the time, while avoiding formally labelling Beijing as a "threat".

Then, in August, the UK finally revealed what many suspected – that it had been hit as part of a highly sophisticated espionage campaign codenamed Salt Typhoon, which compromised telecoms companies around the world.

The UK remained quiet about who exactly was hit and only spoke out in conjunction with a dozen other countries and after months of discussion behind the scenes about what it should say.

"The data stolen through this activity can ultimately provide the Chinese intelligence services the capability to identify and track targets' communications and movements worldwide," the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, an arm of GCHQ, warned in a statement.

The US had spoken out months earlier, and there it has been reported that senior politicians, including Donald Trump and JD Vance, had their communications targeted during the 2024 election.

An 'alarming' appetite for data

Now, in the UK, plans for a new Chinese Embassy at the former Royal Mint building in London have drawn attention for fears that it could offer the chance for espionage by tapping data cables which run underground beneath it.

But some security officials downplay those dangers - not only because those cables can be physically protected and monitored - but because of Beijing's capacity for large cyber-espionage.

The reality is that it has shown itself perfectly capable of collecting data through remote cyber-access.

That kind of targeting, though, still sits broadly within traditional state-on-state espionage and the kind of thing Western governments carry out.

In fact it was the revelations about the scale of UK and US digital eavesdropping by former contractor Edward Snowden that may have spurred China to become more ambitious in cyber-space.

But in cyber-space, the real concern is broader.

What is notable about Chinese intelligence activity online is an appetite for data on a massive scale. Beijing's pursuit of what is often called bulk data - large scale data sets which might contain financial, personal, health or other types of information - is what alarms Western security officials.

"China has been trying to collect population level data on British people," according to Ciaran Martin, a former head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre.

"That may be useful to train artificial intelligence or to better understand the country or even influence opinion or possibly even to work out what our vulnerabilities are individually and collectively.

"It is not always effectively carried out but it is very different from the kind of 'normal' spying on government and politics that virtually all countries undertake.

"In this other respect, China is notable only for how brazen its spying sometimes is."

Some of this data is stolen but sometimes it is suspected to be acquired through Chinese companies with access to the Western market.

The stream of attempts to 'lure academics'

There is one element that is trickiest for national security officials to deal with when it comes to China: how to balance the risks and the benefits of China's growing economic power.

A priority for the Chinese state - and its spies - is ensuring economic growth.

Observers often point to a kind of unspoken bargain: the Chinese public will tolerate the relative lack of political freedom and continued one-party rule as long as the state delivers economic benefits.

That is one reason that China has also been active for decades in pursuing economic as well as political and diplomatic secrets in a way Western countries have not.

Sometimes this has been business secrets of companies – whether designs for new products or negotiating positions.

There are types of sensitive information that are not state secrets, like high-tech research into a new advanced material at a university, which has military as well as civilian applications.

MI5 says it is tackling "a steady stream of attempts to lure UK academic experts" in order to get hold of technology they are working on, often starting with approaches over networking sites like LinkedIn.

"In a world where the 'DNA' of military and economic power is built on ones-and-zeros [of digital information], when core intellectual property and process knowledge leak, entire industries can be upended - and with them move jobs, capital, and geopolitical leverage," says Andrew Badger, a former US intelligence official and co-author of an upcoming book, The Great Heist: China's Epic Campaign to Steal America's Secrets.

"The UK's current debate about how to prosecute spies, strengthen laws, and balance commerce with security should start from this historical truth: economic power can only be sustained with the resolute custody of secrets."

The hardest risk to measure

As China's economic power grows – especially in advanced technology – one of the hardest risks to measure is the UK and other Western states' dependence on China in critical fields, including electric vehicles and critical minerals used in manufacturing.

This underpinned the debate about the Chinese telecoms company Huawei building a large part of the country's new 5G phone infrastructure.

Chinese equipment was cheaper and often seen as better than those of competitors - but were there risks?

It was less about using it to spy - and more the fact that a relationship of dependency on another country for technology on which daily life depends opens the way to influence and even coercion. If you do something or say something Beijing does not like, could it cut you off?

In the end, technology from Huawei - which always denied it was a security risk - was excluded from 5G. But it was only the first Chinese company to go global and now there are many more.

So, does it matter if China builds new nuclear reactors? Or becomes the main supplier of green technology? And what about if people depend on the Chinese-originated social media platform TikTok for their news and information?

This is the area where the tension with the economic growth agenda become clearest. China is the second largest economy in the world, an important export market and source of investment. If we want to secure the benefits of this relationship then it becomes much harder to exclude Chinese companies from the UK market.

Any kind of blanket ban on Chinese technology or companies would be absurd. But just how much should we open ourselves?

The other challenge for Britain is that, in many of these areas where economic and national security mix, the US is taking a tougher stance - and Washington is seeking to pressure London to come into line.

That leaves London caught between pressure from Beijing and Washington and trying to work out how to address these threats while also maintaining productive relationships.

None of this is easy - and not much of it is to do with traditional spying. In this new world, threats are far broader and more complex.

But without a clear, consistent China strategy that is confidently expressed, this government – like previous governments - will continue to find it hard to know how to navigate.

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Virgin Media O2 is set to become the first mobile operator to offer UK customers automatic connectivity via satellite in places without mobile signal.

O2 Satellite will be an optional service due to launch in the first half of 2026.

The firm has not yet revealed how much it will cost, but it will be an additional fee to pay each month.

O2 has partnered with Elon Musk's satellite business Starlink to offer the service.

Enabled smartphones will automatically switch to satellite coverage in parts of the UK where there is no terrestrial signal available - for example in rural areas.

However those who sign up for it will not be able to make phone calls via satellite to begin with.

The service will only work with messaging, maps and location apps. O2 says this is because Starlink's current satellites do not support calls, although the next generation of them will.

Calls made via WhatsApp, which uses data rather than phone signal, may work though - O2 intends to trial this before the service launches to the public.

The satellites will effectively act like "phone masts in the sky", said Luke Pearce from analysts CCS Insight.

"In today's world, connectivity is no longer optional," he said.

"Whether it's emergency SOS in life-saving situations or keeping a software-defined vehicle online, people now expect constant access.

"Satellite is the only technology that can truly close the coverage gap across mountains, oceans and rural areas."

Satellite battle takes off

O2's move comes several months after rival Vodafone carried out a successful live video call via satellite from a mountain in Wales where there was no other signal.

It claimed this was a UK-first, but it has not yet revealed any plans to roll out satellite-to-device services to customers.

Vodafone's tech worked with the satellite firm AST, which currently has six satellites in orbit and aims to have up to 60 by the end of 2026.

Starlink meanwhile has more than 650, and has already launched similar services with phone networks in other countries including Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and Japan.

In the UK, Ofcom tweaked its regulations in September to enable satellite connectivity directly to smartphone devices.

Currently it is only possible to use it to text emergency services from newer iPhone and Android handsets.

But the use of low earth satellites for mobile communications has been criticised by astronomers, who say they pollute the night sky and make it more difficult to spot potential hazards such as asteroids.

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Sir Keir Starmer round the back of Downing Street being handed a disposable camera to take with him to India.

Ed Miliband in front of a fake pub backdrop eating from a bag of crisps while talking about green energy.

The senior cabinet minister Darren Jones drinking from a big, government-branded mug while explaining plans to introduce digital ID.

Just three recent examples of short-form videos made by the government for social media in an attempt to find new ways of communicating its message.

"Storytelling". It's a word which comes up again and again at the moment in off-the-record conversations with ministers, government advisers and Labour MPs.

Their candid contention: this government isn't good enough at explaining what it's doing, who it's for and what the prime minister is all about.

Part of this is frustration at the mechanics of how the government tries to sell its message to the public.

But part of it reflects deeper anxieties and frustrations about the message itself, rather than simply the medium by which it is communicated.

"We still need to define ourselves," one cabinet minister said. "If we end up defining ourselves in response to the left or the right we will veer off to extremes and chase what others are saying.

"We need to stand alone with our own bold, credible, modern agenda."

At least two of the prime minister's senior ministers have been given the task of finding ways to improve the government's storytelling.

Picking fights with opponents

Jones, the first ever minister to be given the title chief secretary to the prime minister, has started a "Darren explains" short video series where as well as ID cards he has described the government's new towns policy, but is also spending much of his time trying to hone the message the rest of the government communicates.

David Lammy, the new deputy prime minister, is also advising Sir Keir on the issue including in weekly bilateral meetings.

At a recent meeting with Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, on the sidelines of a conference of European socialist parties, Lammy was advised to find ways to proactively pick fights with other political parties on the right and the left, campaign groups and even parts of the Labour coalition as a way to define more sharply for the public what this government believes.

But what does the government actually believe? What are the priorities it needs to find a way to reflect?

Ask those questions of some of the most senior figures in government and you still get different answers.

For some there are now three clear priorities - improving living standards, combatting illegal immigration, and improving the NHS.

Present others in government with that formulation, though, and they quibble, arguing for example that growth should be, indeed already is, the driving economic focus; or that targets on housebuilding and planning reform deserve a more central role.

Of course this is a question which Sir Keir has sought to answer repeatedly before, not least with the five missions he unveiled in February 2023, or the six milestones which made him his "plan for change" in December 2024.

Yet there is still frustration from some of those most loyal to the prime minister that he has not quite found a way to land his message.

"We're just not good enough at painting a picture of what we want the country to be in 10 years' time," one senior government source said.

"We say we have a plan for change and national renewal but we don't spell out what that means for schools, for hospitals, for people.

"We just sound like we're supervising things carrying on as they are."

Others are more optimistic.

"We have the agenda, we just need to find a way to hang it together as a more coherent story," an official said.

'We just need to get on with it'

Among rank-and-file Labour MPs, especially the vast caucus first elected at last year's general election, there is a recurrent feeling that the government is not doing enough in parliament to demonstrate the urgency of its approach.

"We don't actually seem to be doing anything at the moment," one MP fumed last week.

Those in government counter that this is the natural rhythm of the parliamentary session, with fights on flagship legislation having already taken place much earlier after the election and several bills now in their later, more granular, stages.

Laws nearing conclusion include a gradual smoking ban, changes to planning rules, schools reform and enhanced workers' rights.

According to analysis by the BBC's Political Research Unit, in its 16 months in office the Starmer government has passed more new laws than the coalition government did after the 2010 election, and about the same number that David Cameron's majority government did after 2015.

However, the governments of Sir Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher passed more legislation through parliament in their first 16 months in office.

In legislative terms, the question of what Sir Keir's priorities are now will be answered in the next King's Speech, which will unveil the next set of laws he wants to take through parliament.

Ministers began the process of making formal "bids" for laws they want included about a month ago.

'A lot of anger out there'

Others are restless to sharpen the government's agenda long before that King's Speech, which may well come after an extremely tricky set of local and national elections in May.

"There's so much we can do that doesn't rely on legislation," one cabinet minister said.

"We just need to get on with it. I've got a handful of colleagues who really get that. And some who simply don't."

Yet to others, questions about the government's message are inseparable from their misgivings about the messenger: Sir Keir himself.

On the evidence of at least one pollster, he is the least popular prime minister in British history.

Even so, some in government see the positive side.

"Remarkably for a politician who's been a party leader for a long time he's still not defined for a lot of the public," one senior ally of the prime minister said.

"There's a lot of anger out there but I still really believe that they're willing to change their minds about him.

"A lot of people still don't quite know what they think of him."

Some Labour MPs are more pessimistic.

One said: "Our problem is that if Keir Starmer went into a room and shouted 'fire', everyone would stay sat down."

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When now 16-year-old Helen got her first period, it was her dad who helped her with it as he was the parent who happened to be at home.

Chatting about periods with young people can be awkward, even more so if you don't experience them yourself, but Helen says her dad had always spoken openly about what to expect which made that first time much easier.

Dads "can't tell you how it actually feels or how it can affect your life sometimes, but they can still provide advice and talk about it," she says.

Yet talking about periods can still feel like uncomfortable for many and even today, it's often left to mothers to handle.

Helen's father John Adams is one of a growing number of dads who are challenging the unfounded stigma.

John was a stay-at-home parent when his two daughters - now 16 and 12 - were younger, and said some parents he'd spoken to felt too uncomfortable to talk to their kids about periods.

"They were waiting for them to learn about it at school, but I don't believe it's just a teacher's job to talk about this."

John spoke to both daughters about what they might experience, the level of pain they could be in and the various sanitary product options.

"Men maybe blunder in but they go in without that baggage and just sort of talk about things practically," he tells BBC Radio 5 Live's Time of the Month.

John, who now works in education, admits he's no expert but he spoke to his wife and mother about it and used books and online resources to guide him.

'You can't hide from it'

For him, periods are a matter of health, not embarrassment and while the idea of dads discussing menstruation still divides opinion, John says it's important to "be there and approachable for your children".

As a widowed father, Roy had no choice. He has been raising his daughter alone after his wife died from cancer.

He started talking about periods when she was nine, by going through some books with her about what to expect.

"Initially the colour drained from her face, but we spoke about it openly."

Later, he showed his daughter a pad and demonstrated how she should stick it onto her pants and suggested she have a test drive of one.

"Things are scary when you don't know what's going on.

"I'm preparing my daughter for life and part of that is periods, sex, boyfriends, relationships. It's all difficult but you can't hide from it."

For many women, the memory of their first period is far less open.

Hannah Routledge, who works for the not-for-profit group Hey Girls, which works to stop period poverty, remembers hers with discomfort.

"I started my periods really young. I was only 10," she says. "I went to a school that had no provision, no bins even."

Hey Girls launched its Pads for Dads campaign in 2019, offering free guidance and resources to help fathers have those early talks.

"It was designed to break the stigma around periods for dads and parents in general," she explains. "Don't wait for a big conversation, it's about having lots of smaller ones, making sure you've got products in the house and just being supportive."

Hannah says it's also essential parents talk to their sons about periods to make them aware.

Dr Nighat Arif, a GP who specialises in women's health, started talking to her six-year-old son when he found one of her tampons in the bathroom.

"I said 'This is something that mummy uses because she bleeds'". Initially, this made him anxious, but she told him it was normal and happened to all women every month.

Hannah says attitudes are changing fast and has even noticed a shift in her own dad who would have once avoided period conversations but now "if his granddaughters needed something or wanted to have that conversation, I think he'd be much more open".

Reducing workplace stigma

Consultant gynaecologist Dr Christine Ekechi, who works in the NHS, says there's often a double standard when it comes to parents talking to their children about puberty.

"There are so many single mothers with sons and we don't tell them they cannot talk to their sons about puberty and adolescence and about protective sex.

"So why do we still have this hang up if it's the other way around?"

An increase in openness at home also has wider effects and Dr Ekechi believes informed fathers make better colleagues and leaders too.

This can help reduce period stigma in the workplace and improve menstrual equity at work.

Above all though, "it's a fantastic way to improve a bond between a father and a daughter," she says.

"It's been our busiest year yet for Halloween," says cafe and gift shop owner Charlotte Brennan.

"People have been asking for pumpkin spiced lattes since August, so I feel like it's getting earlier."

Charlotte says as soon as shopping for back-to-school essentials was in the bag, she saw a switch to "cosy" autumnal spending.

And there is some data to suggest what Charlotte is seeing is a wider trend of Halloween spending creeping in long before 31 October.

More than £100m was spent on sugar confectionery at British supermarkets in the four weeks to 5 October - up 5% on the same period a year ago, according to data from Worldpanel by Numerator.

Its figures also suggest more than a million shoppers had already bought pumpkins from the supermarkets by the start of October, with sales totalling £1.4m in the four weeks prior, doubling the amount spent in the similar pre-Halloween period in 2023.

Charlotte, who owns Bloom & Brew in Ormskirk says Halloween is now her second-busiest time of year, after Christmas.

She says social media food and decor trends heavily influence what and when people buy for Halloween and on TikTok "the build-up starts in July".

"For our sales, where previously it was just a two-week period from mid-October to the 31st, now it's much longer - people want pumpkins and decorations."

Ms Brennan says many of her customers bought one or two reusable decorative items for the season to build a collection, as they do for Christmas.

"When I was growing up, you'd get a couple of plastic throwaway items from the supermarket in the days before Halloween, and then they were binned," she says.

Overall spending on Halloween hit £2bn two years ago and is predicted to grow again this year. In 2024, as many as 91% of people bought something Halloween-related, Worldpanel's data suggests.

It's too early for this year's full Halloween spending data but last year's Worldpanel figures suggest the spooky spending period is getting longer.

There was a 37% growth in retail spending on categories associated with Halloween and autumn in the two weeks leading up to October 31 2024, compared with a standard two-week period.

And it's not just sellers of costumes and sweet treats benefiting: candles and pyjama sales were up nearly 20% too.

Vikash Kaansili, senior retail analyst at Kantar ,says the data suggests Halloween spending is about more than dressing up and carving pumpkins.

"Halloween is no longer just for kids. The growth in sales of pyjamas and candles suggests adults are embracing Halloween as an opportunity for a night in at home, not just for children's trick-or-treating.

"Despite cost-of-living pressures, Halloween continues to prove resilient," Mr Kaansili says.

"Shoppers made more trips in the two weeks leading up to Halloween [2024] and spent 16% more than they usually do, suggesting it's a "must-do" occasion that people are unwilling to cut back on.

Pumpkins remain the unofficial symbol of Halloween, and we're buying them earlier. Worldpanel data found in the four weeks to 29 September 2024, just under £1m was spent on pumpkins in British supermarkets, nearly doubling figures for the same period in 2023.

Supermarket Asda said this year it is on track to sell 400,000 mini, or "munchkin" pumpkins - for use in displays rather than in the kitchen - up from 200,000 last year.

And it's not just supermarkets and retailers getting in on the action: leisure and entertainment businesses now see it as a season in itself.

Fiona Eastwood, the boss of Merlin Entertainment, which owns Thorpe Park, Alton Towers and Legoland told the BBC that the lead up to Halloween now rivals its peak summer season in driving profits at some sites.

"Take Thorpe Park: increasingly Halloween is almost half of its annual profit and that's because we have special rides in the dark, you have mazes, and that whole thrill that we're tapping into," she told the BBC's Big Boss Interview podcast.

The season's popularity has also allowed other businesses, such as farming, to diversify.

The Halloween pumpkin patch has more than doubled at Andy Owens' farm in Herefordshire after the sheep and crop farmer set it up in 2021.

"Pumpkins for us only use a small amount of land, but generate income in October in what can be a volatile month.

"It's snowballed. When we set up only four years ago, there were only two others in the county. Now there are many more."

He charges £5 per person and after initial growth, visitor numbers are up around 10% so far in 2025 compared with last year.

"We're told the economy isn't doing well, but families still want a day out and we see that they still have money for pumpkins," he says.

Owens' five-acre pumpkin patch expanded last year to include a horror maze that employs local actors.

"Halloween in this country has grown massively. When I was growing up there was barely trick-or-treating, there was just The Simpsons Halloween special [on TV]. Now it's everywhere," he says

Homeowners who say that botched insulation under government schemes left them living in mouldy conditions are calling for an investigation into the problem to be widened.

One woman has told the BBC that damage from works to her home in 2013 has left her bedroom too damp to sleep in, and may be causing her breathing difficulties.

Around 280,000 properties in Britain were offered free insulation - either external wall or other types of solid wall – under government schemes between 2013 and 2025. Billions of pounds of public money was spent on the projects.

Earlier this month, the government said that 92% of external wall insulation put in place under these schemes over the last three years has at least one major issue.

The government did not respond to a question from the BBC on why it was not reviewing all work carried out before 2022, but said it was "fixing the broken system by introducing comprehensive reforms".

Imran Hussain, the Labour MP for Bradford East, has called on the government to widen its investigation to include all insulation fitted under these schemes.

"Families who tried to do the right thing to make their homes warmer and greener have been left paying the price for failure and negligence," he says.

The BBC has been told that serious problems were known to the then-Conservative government as long as a decade ago.

One 2013 scheme in Preston, Lancashire, quickly became a byword for failure, according to Andrej Miller of the fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA). He worked in the government's climate and energy teams for 18 years as a civil servant and says it was seen as "the ultimate project gone wrong".

Under the scheme, 350 homes in the town's Fishwick area were fitted with external wall insulation.

Bushra Rashid lives in one of these properties. She says she has been living with damp and mould for years. The 72-year-old has told the BBC she can't sleep in her own bedroom, where the damp plaster is crumbling, and she fears it's affected her health.

Bushra and her husband, Abdul, bought their home in the early 1970s. In 2013, insulation boards were fixed to the exterior brickwork of the Victorian homes and render applied with the purpose of making it waterproof.

The idea behind many of the government schemes was to cut carbon emissions by getting energy companies to install energy-saving measures, including insulation, on people's homes. The schemes were targeted at low-income households and paid for via the "green levy" on energy bills.

However, "bad design and bad workmanship" on the Fishwick project meant that rainwater got trapped behind the insulation and penetrated walls in houses such as the Rashids', according to building surveyor David Walter.

Abdul Rashid, who was a bus driver, died from Parkinson's disease four years ago. His son, Atif, says that despite his illness, his father knew the house was being destroyed by the botched installation.

"He spent time crying because he felt helpless,'' says Atif. He adds that his father ''felt betrayed'' and had ''nowhere to go'' to get help.

The Fishwick project had not even been completed before Preston City Council - which had encouraged residents to sign up for the insulation - started receiving complaints about the quality of the work.

"Horrifying" stories about poor workmanship, mushrooms growing on walls and light fittings being turned into "water features", were being reported back to Andrea Howe, the council's energy officer at the time.

The installer went bust soon after the project finished, and any guarantees were considered worthless because the insulation wasn't fitted properly.

Ms Howe says she took her concerns to the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and showed photographs of the damaged homes to officials. In the winter of 2015, a group of civil servants were taken on a tour of Fishwick's homes.

She recalls what one official told her he had seen: ''He went into one house and in the small child's bedroom there was a sheet kind of pinned all around the ceiling because the ceiling was falling down - it was that wet."

Ms Howe says he told her he was heartbroken: ''He said he had never seen anything like it.''

The problems at Fishwick highlight a "systemic issue in how government works" because ministers and officials have never been around long enough to find a solution, says Miller.

In 2018, the then-minister for energy and clean growth, Claire Perry, told MPs that 62 homes had received repairs following enforcement action by Ofgem.

NEA later completed repairs on a further 45 homes in Fishwick, at an average cost of £70,000 per property. The charity estimates it could cost up to £22m to fully rectify problems in that area, but it has run out of funding to carry out further work.

In 2019, a government-commissioned report estimated there was failure on all 350 properties in the Fishwick scheme, caused by poor design, assessment, ventilation and workmanship. It also suggested that many of the properties were unsuitable for the insulation in the first place. But the government never published the report or shared it with Fishwick residents.

Tasneem Hussain had external wall insulation installed on her home in Fishwick at about the same time as the Rashid family. She says she has been forced to redecorate more than 20 times over the last decade because of damp in her home, caused by the insulation.

She is also concerned about what effect the conditions could be having on her 14-year-old son, Mohammed, who has disabilities.

"He's prone to infections, and he had pneumonia a few months ago. I feel this is not going to be helping him," says Tasneem.

She says she does not know where to go or how to get help for her family's situation: "It needs to be sorted."

Preston City Council told the BBC the external wall insulation scheme in Fishwick was a "significant failure", but the council "did not directly deliver, oversee or have any project management oversight of the contractors and the work they completed".

It added: "It is hugely regrettable that neither the original installers nor indeed the government have provided the level of support so obviously required when the scale of failed external wall insulation became apparent."

It's unclear how many other schemes involving this type of insulation have gone wrong.

The National Audit Office's recent report suggests the government doesn't have an accurate picture of failure rates in earlier schemes.

It says of one scheme, ECO3, which ran from 2018 to 2022, ''we do not know how many measures were audited for quality compliance''.

Dr Peter Rickaby, an energy expert who contributed to an independent review of the sector published in 2016, said problems with external wall insulation can take up to 10 years before they appear as damp on people's homes.

Industry insiders have told the BBC that Fishwick is now regarded as an object lesson in how not to run an installation project.

However, similar problems have arisen in later government insulation schemes.

In February, BBC News reported on a scheme in County Durham, which was carried out in 2021.

Jean Liddle, 82, was among a number of Chilton residents who had external wall insulation fitted on her home. The work was organised by her local council, and paid for by central government.

"We were more or less pushed into it," Jean told the BBC.

She said that damp and mould had been spreading in her home since the insulation was installed. A survey report commissioned by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero highlighted what it called an ''immediate risk to the fabric of the building and health of the occupant''.

It said Jean should not be living in the property in its ''current condition'' and that substantial work would be required before it would be safe to live there.

The primary cause of the damp in Jean's home is believed to be a damaged drainage pipe. The subcontractor disputes that the damage was caused when the insulation was fitted.

The report was given to the council, but its warning about the danger to Jean's health was not shared with her. She eventually found out via a freedom of information request.

Some repair work has now been carried out on Jean's home, organised by the council and the subcontractor, but building surveyor David Walter believes it's still not safe for her to be living there, because of the presence of "dampness and mould and powder and dust".

Durham County Council said it was ''working with residents and the subcontractor to address any outstanding issues'' and gave ''sincere apologies for any distress caused''.

It added that conflicting findings from different surveys had complicated attempts to rectify the reported faults, and gave ''sincere apologies for any distress caused'

Jean accuses the council and the government of showing a disregard for her welfare: "I'm just nothing to them. I'm a number," she told the BBC.

In a statement, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said that the residents of Fishwick and Chilton had been ''let down by poor installation''.

It added that it was introducing comprehensive reforms, and in future, in cases "where rare things go wrong", there would be clear lines of accountability, and a guarantee to get any problems fixed quickly.

Meanwhile in Fishwick, Atif says he is disgusted by the behaviour shown by successive governments to his parents.

"I think people have to be held to account," he says. "Whether it's the government, the energy firms, their local suppliers, the councils... responsibility has to sit somewhere, and it shouldn't be the homeowners."

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted breaking housing rules by unlawfully renting out her family home without a licence.

Reeves has told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, as well as the independent ethics adviser and Parliament's standards commissioner of the error, which was first reported in the Daily Mail.

It is understood the chancellor used a letting agency but was not told the house was in an area that needed a "selective licence" to rent the property.

Reeves rented out her Southwark home after moving into a flat in Downing Street after last year's election win.

A spokesperson for Reeves said it was an "inadvertent mistake" and she has now applied for the licence.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a "full investigation".

In a social media post, Badenoch said if the chancellor broke the law, the prime minister must "show he has the backbone to act".

The family home in London was put up for rent after Labour won the election in July 2024 for £3,200 a month.

It is in an area where Southwark Council requires private landlords to hold a "selective licence".

The council's website states: "You can be prosecuted or fined if you're a landlord or managing agent for a property that needs a licence and do not get one."

A spokesperson for Rachel Reeves said: "Since becoming chancellor Rachel Reeves has rented out her family home through a lettings agency.

"She had not been made aware of the licencing requirement, but as soon as it was brought to her attention she took immediate action and has applied for the licence.

"This was an inadvertent mistake and in the spirit of transparency she has made the prime minister, the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards aware."

Writing on social media, Badenoch said Sir Keir "once said 'lawmakers can't be lawbreakers'. If, as it appears, the chancellor has broken the law, then he will have to show he has the backbone to act."

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.

Hurricane Melissa has continued its devastating sweep across the Caribbean, decimating homes and infrastructure, flooding neighbourhoods and leaving dozens dead.

The impact in Jamaica was clearer on Wednesday, after the island nation was targeted squarely by the category five monster - one of the most powerful hurricanes ever measured in the region. At least five people have been confirmed dead there.

At least another 20 died during flooding in Haiti as Melissa, now a category one storm, tears through the region.

In Jamaica, people remain stranded on roofs and without power. Prime Minister Andrew Holness noted the "total devastation" across the island-nation.

He added that "80-90% of roofs were destroyed", along with hospitals, libraries, police stations, port houses and other urban infrastructure.

King Charles, who is the head of state in Jamaica, said in a statement that he is "deeply concerned" and "profoundly saddened" at the damage caused by Melissa in Jamaica and across the Caribbean.

"This most dreadful of record-breaking storms reminds us of the increasingly urgent need to restore the balance and harmony of Nature for the sake of all those whose lives and livelihoods may have been shattered by this heartbreaking disaster," he said.

From Jamaica, where the storm also caused mudslides, and palm trees to be tossed like toothpicks, Melissa moved north to Cuba as a category three storm, bringing 115 mph winds and heavy rain, and battering the south east of the island.

• What makes Melissa such a dangerous storm?
• 'We are all terrified', say locals in path of Hurricane Melissa

Rovier Mesa Rodríguez, a video maker who lives in Santiago de Cuba, called the storm "terrifying" and described it sounding "like a tornado".

Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel asked residents to "not let their guard down" and said that the country prepared for a worst-case scenario, which helped its response.

The hurricane began moving north east towards The Bahamas on Wednesday. A dangerous storm surge is expected there before it moves further north toward Bermuda.

A tropical storm warning is in place for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the speed of the slow-moving hurricane is expected to increase in the coming days.

In Jamaica, three men and a woman were confirmed dead. They were discovered after being washed up by the flood waters in the storm, said Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica's minister of Local Government and Community Development.

About three-quarters of the country lost electricity overnight.

Richard Vernon, mayor of Montego Bay, told the BBC that half of the city had been cut off from the other by floods. He said the priority is to "check if everybody is alive".

A resident in St Elizabeth sheltering in her four-bedroom home described the moment her roof blew off.

Gordon Swaby, a businessman in Kingston, told the BBC that his first cousin's house was completely destroyed. His cousin - who he declined to name - recently moved from the United States to her "dream" house by the sea in the upscale Crane Road area. She lost the entire concrete structure and everything in it.

"She wanted a different kind of life," Gordon said. "She chose the area because she loves the sea, so this is really devastating."

Devastation was evident on Wednesday across central Jamaica. The city of Mandeville was flattened and the main road through town was littered with debris.

Foliage was stuck to everything, and bits of building material were scattered along the road. Clean-up is expected to take months.

Pia Chevallier, who is on holiday in Jamaica, said she felt "sick with worry" during the storm overnight. "The windows didn't stop vibrating."

In Haiti, at least 20 people - including 10 children - died in river floods, local authorities told AFP news agency.

The island, which the country shares with the Dominican Republic, was struck by catastrophic flash flooding and landslides, which forced 3,000 people into shelters.

"Many homes have been washed away on the coast," said Pascal Bimenyimana from the Christian NGO, World Relief, in Port au Prince. Structures also lost their roofing and people were clearing the debris with their bare hands, he said

Torrential winds, violent rain and flooding destroyed crops across the country's south.

The US is sending a disaster response team to Jamaica to assess the scale of need in the hurricane's aftermath. Formal requests for help came from Haiti and The Bahamas, according to senior State Department officials.

The assistance comes in the wake of the Trump administration's closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was the world's biggest aid agency, amid cuts to foreign assistance by billions of dollars.

Melissa is not expected to make landfall in North America, but will still be a formidable extratropical cyclone when it nears St Johns, Newfoundland, in Canada on Friday night.

President Donald Trump called on US military leaders to resume testing US nuclear weapons in order to keep pace with other countries such as Russia and China.

"Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis," he wrote on social media just before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.

The US has more nuclear weapons than any other country, Trump said, with Russia second and China a "distant third". It has not conducted nuclear weapons testing since 1992.

It comes just days after Trump denounced Russia for testing a nuclear-powered missile, which reportedly has an unlimited range.

Trump's post on Wednesday night acknowledges the "tremendous destructive power" of nuclear weapons, but said he had "no choice" but to update and renovate the US arsenal during his first term in office.

He also said that China's nuclear programme "will be even within 5 years".

Trump's post did not include details of how the tests would occur, but wrote the "process will begin immediately".

It marks an apparent reversal of a long-standing US policy. The last US nuclear weapons test was in 1992, before former Republican President George HW Bush issued a moratorium as the Cold War ended.

Trump's post came just before Xi landed in South Korea for his first face-to-face meeting with Trump since 2019. The post appeared as he was aboard a helicopter, Marine One, while en route to meet Xi at Gimhae International Airport.

The last time the US tested a nuclear bomb was 23 September 1992. The test took place at an underground facility in the western state of Nevada.

The project, code named Divider, was the 1,054th nuclear weapons test conducted by the US, according to the Los Alamos National Laboratory, which played a central role in helping develop the world's first atomic bomb.

The Nevada Test Site, 65 miles (105km) north of Las Vegas is known, is still operated by the US government.

"If deemed necessary, the site could be authorized again for nuclear weapons testing," according to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, which is an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution.

The centrist liberals under Rob Jetten have taken a shock lead in the Dutch election, according to the main exit poll, two years after his party languished in sixth place in the last vote.

Jetten staged a remarkable campaign in recent weeks, and the Ipsos I&O exit poll suggests his D66 liberals have won 27 seats, two more than anti-Islam populist Geert Wilders who won the last election.

The final result is too close to call, even though Dutch exit polls are generally considered reliable.

Three other parties are close behind, including the conservative liberals, the left-wing Green-Labour party and the Christian Democrats.

Wilders led the polls throughout the election campaign, but after he pulled the plug on his own coalition in June, all the mainstream leaders made clear they did not wish to work with him again.

Jetten's party, meanwhile, staged a highly successful campaign, capitalising on his polished performances during TV debates. The fact the 38-year-old liberal leader had appeared in a game show during the campaign added to his profile.

There was palpable excitement as party supporters gathered for the results at a hall in Leiden, a city between Amsterdam and The Hague.

The daughter of a woman who was left behind by a cruise ship on a remote island and later died has accused the operator of a "failure of care and common sense".

The body of Suzanne Rees, 80, was found by rescue workers on Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday. The day before, she had been hiking on the island with her fellow passengers but was not on the ship when it left hours later.

Katherine Rees said she was "shocked and saddened" that the Coral Adventurer left "without my mum", whom she described as healthy, active, a keen gardener and bushwalker.

"From the little we have been told, it seems that there was a failure of care and common sense," she said on Thursday.

It's understood that Suzanne Rees, from New South Wales, was on the first stop of a 60-day cruise around Australia, which had left Cairns earlier this week.

Passengers, who pay tens of thousands of dollars to join the cruise, were transported to the exclusive island for a day trip with the option of hiking or snorkelling.

Suzanne joined a group hike to the island's highest peak, Cook's Look, but broke away from the others as she needed to rest.

"We understand from the police that it was a very hot day, and mum fell ill on the hill climb," Katherine said.

"She was asked to head down, unescorted. Then the ship left, apparently without doing a passenger count.

"At some stage in that sequence, or shortly after, mum died, alone."

Katherine said she hoped a coronial inquiry would "find out what the company should have done that might have saved Mum's life".

The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (Amsa) said it was investigating the death and would meet the ship's crew when it is due to dock in Darwin later this week.

A spokesperson for Amsa said it was first alerted to the missing woman at around 21:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Saturday by the ship's captain.

A search party returned to the island a few hours later but efforts to find Suzanne were called off in the early hours of Sunday before a helicopter returned in the morning and found her body.

On Wednesday, the chief executive of Coral Expeditions said the company was "deeply sorry" for the death and were offering their support to the Rees family.

"We are working closely with Queensland Police and other authorities to support their investigation. We are unable to comment further while this process is under way," Mark Fifield said.

The Coral Adventurer caters for up to 120 guests with 46 crew, according to the company's website. It was purpose-built to access remote areas of Australia's coast and is equipped with "tenders" - small boats used to take passengers on day excursions.

Incidents like this are rare, and cruise ships have systems to record which passengers are embarking or disembarking, Harriet Mallinson, cruise editor of travel website Sailawaze told the BBC.

"Sneaking ashore or [back] onboard just isn't an option," she said.

Cruise lines take these procedures very seriously and have "clever tech in place to prevent such incidents from happening. This is most likely a shocking - and tragic - one-off," Ms Mallinson added.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted breaking housing rules by unlawfully renting out her family home without a licence.

Reeves has told Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, as well as the independent ethics adviser and Parliament's standards commissioner of the error, which was first reported in the Daily Mail.

It is understood the chancellor used a letting agency but was not told the house was in an area that needed a "selective licence" to rent the property.

Reeves rented out her Southwark home after moving into a flat in Downing Street after last year's election win.

A spokesperson for Reeves said it was an "inadvertent mistake" and she has now applied for the licence.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has called for a "full investigation".

In a social media post, Badenoch said if the chancellor broke the law, the prime minister must "show he has the backbone to act".

The family home in London was put up for rent after Labour won the election in July 2024 for £3,200 a month.

It is in an area where Southwark Council requires private landlords to hold a "selective licence".

The council's website states: "You can be prosecuted or fined if you're a landlord or managing agent for a property that needs a licence and do not get one."

A spokesperson for Rachel Reeves said: "Since becoming chancellor Rachel Reeves has rented out her family home through a lettings agency.

"She had not been made aware of the licencing requirement, but as soon as it was brought to her attention she took immediate action and has applied for the licence.

"This was an inadvertent mistake and in the spirit of transparency she has made the prime minister, the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards aware."

Writing on social media, Badenoch said Sir Keir "once said 'lawmakers can't be lawbreakers'. If, as it appears, the chancellor has broken the law, then he will have to show he has the backbone to act."

Sign up for our Politics Essential newsletter to keep up with the inner workings of Westminster and beyond.

Hurricane Melissa has continued its devastating sweep across the Caribbean, decimating homes and infrastructure, flooding neighbourhoods and leaving dozens dead.

The impact in Jamaica was clearer on Wednesday, after the island nation was targeted squarely by the category five monster - one of the most powerful hurricanes ever measured in the region. At least five people have been confirmed dead there.

At least another 20 died during flooding in Haiti as Melissa, now a category one storm, tears through the region.

In Jamaica, people remain stranded on roofs and without power. Prime Minister Andrew Holness noted the "total devastation" across the island-nation.

He added that "80-90% of roofs were destroyed", along with hospitals, libraries, police stations, port houses and other urban infrastructure.

King Charles, who is the head of state in Jamaica, said in a statement that he is "deeply concerned" and "profoundly saddened" at the damage caused by Melissa in Jamaica and across the Caribbean.

"This most dreadful of record-breaking storms reminds us of the increasingly urgent need to restore the balance and harmony of Nature for the sake of all those whose lives and livelihoods may have been shattered by this heartbreaking disaster," he said.

From Jamaica, where the storm also caused mudslides, and palm trees to be tossed like toothpicks, Melissa moved north to Cuba as a category three storm, bringing 115 mph winds and heavy rain, and battering the south east of the island.

• What makes Melissa such a dangerous storm?
• 'We are all terrified', say locals in path of Hurricane Melissa

Rovier Mesa Rodríguez, a video maker who lives in Santiago de Cuba, called the storm "terrifying" and described it sounding "like a tornado".

Cuba President Miguel Díaz-Canel asked residents to "not let their guard down" and said that the country prepared for a worst-case scenario, which helped its response.

The hurricane began moving north east towards The Bahamas on Wednesday. A dangerous storm surge is expected there before it moves further north toward Bermuda.

A tropical storm warning is in place for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the speed of the slow-moving hurricane is expected to increase in the coming days.

In Jamaica, three men and a woman were confirmed dead. They were discovered after being washed up by the flood waters in the storm, said Desmond McKenzie, Jamaica's minister of Local Government and Community Development.

About three-quarters of the country lost electricity overnight.

Richard Vernon, mayor of Montego Bay, told the BBC that half of the city had been cut off from the other by floods. He said the priority is to "check if everybody is alive".

A resident in St Elizabeth sheltering in her four-bedroom home described the moment her roof blew off.

Gordon Swaby, a businessman in Kingston, told the BBC that his first cousin's house was completely destroyed. His cousin - who he declined to name - recently moved from the United States to her "dream" house by the sea in the upscale Crane Road area. She lost the entire concrete structure and everything in it.

"She wanted a different kind of life," Gordon said. "She chose the area because she loves the sea, so this is really devastating."

Devastation was evident on Wednesday across central Jamaica. The city of Mandeville was flattened and the main road through town was littered with debris.

Foliage was stuck to everything, and bits of building material were scattered along the road. Clean-up is expected to take months.

Pia Chevallier, who is on holiday in Jamaica, said she felt "sick with worry" during the storm overnight. "The windows didn't stop vibrating."

In Haiti, at least 20 people - including 10 children - died in river floods, local authorities told AFP news agency.

The island, which the country shares with the Dominican Republic, was struck by catastrophic flash flooding and landslides, which forced 3,000 people into shelters.

"Many homes have been washed away on the coast," said Pascal Bimenyimana from the Christian NGO, World Relief, in Port au Prince. Structures also lost their roofing and people were clearing the debris with their bare hands, he said

Torrential winds, violent rain and flooding destroyed crops across the country's south.

The US is sending a disaster response team to Jamaica to assess the scale of need in the hurricane's aftermath. Formal requests for help came from Haiti and The Bahamas, according to senior State Department officials.

The assistance comes in the wake of the Trump administration's closure of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was the world's biggest aid agency, amid cuts to foreign assistance by billions of dollars.

Melissa is not expected to make landfall in North America, but will still be a formidable extratropical cyclone when it nears St Johns, Newfoundland, in Canada on Friday night.