An independent review into rising levels of youth inactivity is being launched by the government.

Former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn will lead the inquiry into "Neets" - the acronym for one in eight young people who are not in education, employment or training.

According to Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, the persistently high number of 16-24 year olds falling out of education or work is a "crisis of opportunity" requiring urgent action.

It is not a new problem but the number of young people who are Neet has been rising in recent years and is approaching one million.

A quarter cite long-term sickness or disability as a barrier and the number claiming health and disability benefits is rising too.

The government says Alan Milburn's review will dig into the reasons behind the rise and examine ways of cutting the long-term costs of youth inactivity and getting young people off benefits and into work.

Its conclusions will be published next summer.

The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has called the broader benefits system unsustainable and unfair but so far selling welfare reform to Labour backbenchers has proved a political minefield for Number 10.

• Young people who refuse to work to lose benefits - minister
• Reform proposes to cut Pip payments to people with anxiety
• Reeves to guarantee paid work for young people unemployed for 18 months

According to the Department of Work and Pensions, the number of young people claiming UC Health and Employment Support Allowance has risen by more than 50% over the past five years.

Some 80% of young people on the UC Health element currently cite mental health reasons or a neurodevelopmental condition.

Asked whether he thought over-diagnosis was fuelling a mental health crisis among young people, McFadden was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying: "I don't want to play amateur doctor. I want to approach this with sensitivity.

"The question I'm asking is, given the higher reported number of these conditions among young people, what is the best policy response? I don't believe there should be an automatic link between diagnosis and benefits. "

"If we get this right," he added, "the prize is huge: transforming lives and life chances, with the pent-up potential of the next generation firing our economy and building a better future for all.

"We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope."

Milburn said his review would be "uncompromising", and expose any failings in employment support, education, skills, health and welfare.

"We cannot stand by and let a generation of young people be consigned to a life without employment or prospects," he said. "It's clear urgent action is needed."

The Philippines is bracing for the arrival of another potentially devastating typhoon, less than a week after a different storm killed at least 200 people and left a trail of destruction.

Fung-wong, known locally as Uwan, is forecast to intensify to a super typhoon - with sustained winds of at least 185km/h (115mph) - before making landfall on the island of Luzon on Sunday evening local time at the earliest.

The Philippine meteorological service (Pagasa) says the storm will also bring heavy rain and the risk of life-threatening storm surges.

Several schools have either cancelled classes on Monday or moved them online, while Philippine Airlines has cancelled a number of local flights.

Typhoon Fung-wong is expected to weaken rapidly once it makes landfall but will likely remain a typhoon as it travels over Luzon.

Eastern parts of the Philippines have already begun experiencing heavy rains and winds, a Pagasa official said in a briefing on Saturday evening local time.

While much of the country is expected to be impacted, there are particular concerns about those areas that could take a direct hit - including the small island of Catanduanes, which lies off the coast of southern Luzon.

Residents there, as well as in other low-lying and coastal areas, have been urged to move to higher ground ahead of the storm's arrival.

A civil defence spokesman said evacuations had to be carried out by Sunday morning at the latest and should not be attempted during heavy rain and strong winds.

• How do hurricanes or typhoons form and are they getting stronger?

Typhoon Fung-wong has also forced the suspension of rescue operations following the passage of Kalmaegi, one of the strongest typhoons this year.

Heavy rainfall sent torrents of mud down hillsides and into residential areas. Some poorer neighbourhoods were obliterated by the fast-moving flash floods.

At least 204 people are now known to have died in the Philippines as a result of the earlier storm, while more than 100 are still missing.

Five people also died in Vietnam, where strong winds uprooted trees, tore off roofs, and smashed large windows.

The Philippines government declared a state of calamity across the country after Typhoon Kalmaegi and in preparation for the coming storm.

It has given government agencies more power to access emergency funds and fast-track the procurement and delivery of essential goods and services to those in need.

For some Filipinos, the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi earlier this week has left them even more anxious about the storm to come.

"We decided to evacuate because the recent typhoon brought floods in our area, and now I just want to keep my family safe," Norlito Dugan told the AFP news agency.

He is among those who have taken shelter in a church in the city of Sorsogon in Luzon.

Another resident, Maxine Dugan said: "I'm here because the waves near my house are now huge, I live near the shore. The winds there are now very strong, and the waves are huge."

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to tropical cyclones, due to its location on the Pacific Ocean where such weather systems form.

About 20 tropical cyclones form in that region every year, half of which impact the country directly.

Climate change is not thought to increase the number of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones worldwide.

However, warmer oceans coupled with a warmer atmosphere - fuelled by climate change - have the potential to make those that do form even more intense. That can potentially lead to higher wind speeds, heavier rainfall, and a greater risk of coastal flooding.

"Should I feel anything?" asks the beady-eyed man, sitting in a padded cell with handcuffs around his wrists.

He's being grilled by Chinese investigators about the time he allegedly ordered a stranger to be killed - a human offering to celebrate his sworn brotherhood with a business partner.

"Wasn't he a living, breathing person?" an investigator asks.

"I didn't feel much," the man maintains.

The scene may sound like it came straight out of a crime drama. In fact, it is part of a documentary on Chinese state media - a look inside the workings of the justice system almost unheard of in a country where court proceedings are largely kept out the public eye.

The handcuffed man answering questions is Chen Dawei, a member of the infamous Wei family, one of several powerful mafia groups that for years operated with impunity in Myanmar's border town of Laukkaing.

His confession forms just one part of a months-long propaganda push by Chinese officials. It both warns Chinese people of South East Asia's billion-dollar scam industry, and highlights the Chinese government's crackdown on the men behind an industry which has trapped thousands, and stolen billions.

The message China wants to send, as one investigator puts it, is clear: "It's to warn other people, no matter who you are, where you are, as long as you commit such heinous crimes against Chinese people, you will pay the price."

Or, to use a Chinese idiom: kill the chicken to scare the monkey.

Paying the price

There are few chickens bigger than the Weis, Lius, Mings and Bais - Godfather-esque families who rose to power in Laukkaing in the early 2000s.

Under their rule, the impoverished backwater was transformed into a flashy hub of casinos and red-light districts.

More recent are the scam farms - which hold people against their will, forcing them to defraud strangers online, or face brutal punishment or even death. Many of those trapped were Chinese and targeted people in China.

But the families' empires came crashing down in 2023, when Myanmar authorities arrested them and handed them to China. Since then, Chinese courts have tried them for crimes ranging from fraud to human trafficking to homicide.

Examples are now being made out of the families: 11 members of the Ming clan and five of the Bais have been sentenced to death, while dozens have been given lengthy jail terms. Prosecution is under way for the Lius and the Weis.

Their ignominious falls from grace are clear in the documentaries they feature in, from the glint of their handcuffs to the colour of their prison uniforms.

It is a far cry from the lives they were living just two years ago.

The rise of Myanmar's scam clans

The godfathers of Laukkaing rose to power after Min Aung Hlaing, who now heads Myanmar's military government, led an operation to oust the town's then-dominant warlord.

The military leader had been looking for co-operative allies, and Bai Suocheng - then a deputy of the warlord - fitted the bill.

Bai was appointed the chairman of Laukkaing district and his family came to command a 2,000-strong militia, Chinese media reported.

In the power vacuum left by these changes, a handful of families swooped in, securing military and political power.

According to Chinese investigators, the Wei family had one member of parliament and another military camp commander. Meanwhile, the Lius controlled key infrastructure like water and electricity and exerted strong influence over local security forces.

For years they made their money through gambling and prostitution.

But more recently they expanded to cyberscam operations, with each family controlling dozens of scam compounds and casinos that raked in billions of dollars.

While the families lived large with grand banquets and luxury cars, a culture of abominable violence thrived behind the walls of their scam compounds, Chinese authorities said.

Testimonies collected from freed workers point to a common pattern of abuse: fingers chopped off with knives, zaps of electric batons and regular beatings. Unco-operative workers were locked in small dark rooms and starved or beaten until they gave in.

China's war on the 'scamdemic'

Many of the Chinese workers had been lured there with lucrative job offers - no doubt tempting amid China's economic slowdown and high youth unemployment.

Horror stories of such scam centres have seeped into daily chatter in China, from taxi rides to social media and pop culture.

No More Bets, a 2023 blockbuster about Chinese people trafficked to a foreign scam farm, kept millions of Chinese tourists away from Thailand - which has gained a reputation for being a transit hub to scam centres in Myanmar and Cambodia.

In January this year, the national spotlight was on Wang Xing, a small-time Chinese actor who had flown to Thailand for an acting gig, only to be taken to a scam centre across the border in Myanmar.

His family's search for him went viral and he was ultimately rescued.

But Wang is in the lucky minority. Many Chinese people are still looking for their loved ones who have disappeared into South East Asia's scam centres.

"My cousin was lured there four or five years ago. We haven't heard from him at all. My aunt is in tears every day, it's hard to describe her current condition," a Weibo user wrote last month.

Selina Ho, associate professor specialising in Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore, tells the BBC that "by publicising the most recent crackdown, Chinese authorities are aiming to calm domestic sentiments and reassure the families of victims".

The UN estimates that hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped in scam centres worldwide.

Much to Beijing's chagrin, those running many such scam centres are often Chinese themselves.

This is common knowledge among Chinese citizens. "Once you're abroad, the people you should least trust are your own countrymen," reads a comment on Weibo.

"The fact that Chinese nationals are the masterminds behind many of these operations has been deeply damaging to China's image on the international stage," Ivan Franceschini, co-author of Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds, tells the BBC.

As anxieties rise at home, Chinese authorities are eager to show their resolve in eradicating these massive scam networks.

Since 2023, Chinese and Myanmar authorities have arrested more than 57,000 Chinese nationals for their role in cyberscams, state media reported.

And they've made it clear that it's not just the Godfathers they're after.

In October, China announced the prosecution of another syndicate which they described as a "new generation of power" in Laukkaing that's "no less violent" than the infamous families.

In - yet another - state media documentary, a Chinese official investigating this syndicate recalled what his team leader had told him: "If this case can't be solved, there will be a permanent stain on your career."

For all the effort that China is putting into its crackdown and the ensuing publicity, the numbers offer some optimism: cyberscams reported in China have declined steadily over the past year, and authorities say such crimes have been "effectively curbed".

As one official told documentary viewers, investigating scam gangs in Myanmar has made him realise "how happy we are in China, and how important a sense of security is to Chinese people".

Additional reporting by Kelly Ng

King Charles III will lead the nation in a two-minute silence at 11:00 GMT on Sunday during the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph..

He is set to lay a wreath at the monument in central London as part of the service to remember those who died in conflict.

He will be joined by other senior royals and political leaders, including Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the ceremony in Whitehall.

Some 10,000 armed forces veterans will take part in the Royal British Legion's march-past, alongside around 20 World War Two veterans.

Events will take place around the country to mark Remembrance Sunday, which is observed on the closest Sunday to Armistice Day on 11 November - when World War One ended in 1918.

The prime minister said the nation would pause "to honour all those who have served our country".

"We reflect on the extraordinary courage of our armed forces in the world wars and subsequent conflicts, whose service secured the freedoms we cherish today."

On Saturday evening, the King was joined by Prince George, Queen Camilla and Catherine, Princess of Wales, at this year's Festival of Remembrance in London's Royal Albert Hall.

The audience stood and a fanfare played as the royals entered the concert hall to commemorate those who lost their lives in service, on the eve of Remembrance Sunday.

Sir Keir and his wife Victoria also attended the annual event, which this year marked the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two.

It also came 25 years after the end of a decades-long ban on gay people serving in the armed forces, and the event reflected on the discrimination faced by LGBT personnel.

It was believed to be 12-year-old George's first time attending the annual concert. He sat next to his mother, Catherine, who wore a handmade poppy made of silk, glass and other natural materials.

At the Festival of Remembrance, the Royal Family stood and applauded as the Chelsea Pensioners - retired British Army veterans - entered the auditorium and marched across the stage, while an orchestra performed the Boys Of The Old Brigade.

The Prince of Wales was not present as he was travelling back from Brazil, where he gave a speech to world leaders gathering for the COP30 UN climate change summit and visited a remote island.

Flu strikes every winter, but something seems to be different this year.

A seasonal flu virus suddenly mutated in the summer; it appears to evade some of our immunity; has kick-started a flu season more than a month early and is a type of flu that history suggests is more severe.

The NHS has now issued a "flu jab SOS" as fears grow that this will add up to a brutal winter.

There is a lot of nuance and uncertainty, but leading flu experts have told me they would not be shocked if this was the worst flu season for a decade.

"We haven't seen a virus like this for a while, these dynamics are unusual," says Prof Nicola Lewis, the director of the World Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute.

"It does concern me, absolutely," she says. "I'm not panicking, but I am worried."

So what's going on? And what can we do?

Scientists track the evolution of influenza viruses because they mutate constantly and the seasonal flu vaccine has to be updated each year to keep up.

This evolution happens in a rhythm known as "shift and drift".

Most of the time the virus drifts along making minor changes and then every so often there is a sudden abrupt shift as the virus mutates substantially.

That happened in June this year.

Seven mutations appeared in a strain of H3N2 seasonal flu and led to a "fast increase" in reports of the mutated virus, says Prof Derek Smith, the director of the centre for pathogen evolution at the University of Cambridge.

Unusually, this happened outside flu season in the middle of the northern hemisphere's summer.

"It almost certainly will sweep the world, so from that standpoint, it's something that will come up quickly," says Prof Smith.

By September, as children went back to school, the nights drew in and the temperatures started to drop, there was an uptick in cases.

Exactly what the mutations are doing is still being explored, but they are probably helping the virus to evade some of the immunity we have built up over years of flu infections and vaccines.

The result is the virus is finding it easier to infect people and spread – that is why the flu season is so early in the UK and other countries including Japan.

If the virus can spread more easily then it does not have to wait for more favourable wintery conditions – when we spend more time indoors with the heating on and the windows shut – to start the flu season.

"We're miles ahead," says Prof Lewis, "I think it's going to be a strong flu season".

If you remember your R numbers from the pandemic (that is the number of people each infected person passes the virus on to), they suggest the new mutant has an edge.

Seasonal flu usually has an R number of around 1.2, while the early estimate for this year is 1.4, said Prof Lewis.

So very roughly, if 100 people had flu, they would pass it to 120 in a typical year and 140 this year.

Worst flu season for a decade?

"It's highly likely it's going to be a bad flu season and it's going to happen quite soon, we're already well into it," says Prof Christophe Fraser, from the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford.

"There are indicators that this could be worse than some of the flu seasons we've seen in the last 10 years."

In a typical flu season around one-in-five of us get infected, but that could be higher this year, he warns.

But all these predictions are still clouded in uncertainty.

Some look to Australia for clues as it had the worst flu season on record this year, although it did not face the same mutated H3N2 we have.

We know the virus is spreading very well in children in the germ-fest that is the school playground.

But the immunity a 10-year-old has developed will be very different from that of their grandparents whose immune defences may have been shaped by six times as many flu seasons.

So, experts will be watching closely as the virus starts infecting older age groups in the coming weeks.

'It's a nastier virus'

History suggests that the form of influenza we are facing this year is more severe, particularly for older people.

There are multiple types of flu and you may have heard some of the names like H1N1 swine flu, which caused a pandemic in 2009, or H5N1 which is the current flu killing birds around the world.

The fresh mutations have happened in a group of H3N2 influenzas.

"H3 is always a hotter virus, it's a nastier virus, it's more impactful on the population," said Prof Lewis.

It is worth remembering that some of us will get flu and develop no symptoms at all, while others get a sudden fever, body aches and exhaustion, but the virus can be deadly in older and more vulnerable groups.

Last year, nearly 8,000 people died from flu, and in the 2022-23 flu season there were nearly 16,000 deaths. The NHS is already anticipating a tough flu season.

So what can we do about it?

The clear advice is to get the seasonal flu vaccine – the NHS in England issued a "flu jab SOS" saying there were 2.4 million vaccine slots available in the next week.

Prof Lewis argues this is "absolutely the most important year" to get vaccinated and that "if you have been called by your GP, please get your flu vaccine as soon as possible".

However, this year's vaccine is not a perfect match to the mutated virus.

The decision on the design of the vaccine was made in February to give enough time to produce the millions of doses necessary - and then the new mutant emerged in June.

"Some protection is better than no protection, but this year is likely to be one of the years where the amount of protection is less than it is in years when the match is better, it's not an ideal situation," said Prof Fraser.

The vaccine will still trigger the body to produce antibodies that can recognise and stick to flu.

But the biggest benefits are anticipated to be in lessening the severity of the disease rather than stopping you get ill or slowing the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, doctors have been sent advice reminding them that early antiviral treatment reduces the risk of complications from flu.

Japan is also going through an early flu season and has closed schools to help contain outbreaks.

These are not Covid-style lockdowns, but short-term measures the country uses to disrupt the spread of the virus.

Nobody knows for certain what will happen in the coming months.

"It might all go away by next week," says Prof Lewis, "but I don't think it will."

An independent review into rising levels of youth inactivity is being launched by the government.

Former Labour Health Secretary Alan Milburn will lead the inquiry into "Neets" - the acronym for one in eight young people who are not in education, employment or training.

According to Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, the persistently high number of 16-24 year olds falling out of education or work is a "crisis of opportunity" requiring urgent action.

It is not a new problem but the number of young people who are Neet has been rising in recent years and is approaching one million.

A quarter cite long-term sickness or disability as a barrier and the number claiming health and disability benefits is rising too.

The government says Alan Milburn's review will dig into the reasons behind the rise and examine ways of cutting the long-term costs of youth inactivity and getting young people off benefits and into work.

Its conclusions will be published next summer.

The Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, has called the broader benefits system unsustainable and unfair but so far selling welfare reform to Labour backbenchers has proved a political minefield for Number 10.

• Young people who refuse to work to lose benefits - minister
• Reform proposes to cut Pip payments to people with anxiety
• Reeves to guarantee paid work for young people unemployed for 18 months

According to the Department of Work and Pensions, the number of young people claiming UC Health and Employment Support Allowance has risen by more than 50% over the past five years.

Some 80% of young people on the UC Health element currently cite mental health reasons or a neurodevelopmental condition.

Asked whether he thought over-diagnosis was fuelling a mental health crisis among young people, McFadden was quoted by the Sunday Times as saying: "I don't want to play amateur doctor. I want to approach this with sensitivity.

"The question I'm asking is, given the higher reported number of these conditions among young people, what is the best policy response? I don't believe there should be an automatic link between diagnosis and benefits. "

"If we get this right," he added, "the prize is huge: transforming lives and life chances, with the pent-up potential of the next generation firing our economy and building a better future for all.

"We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope."

Milburn said his review would be "uncompromising", and expose any failings in employment support, education, skills, health and welfare.

"We cannot stand by and let a generation of young people be consigned to a life without employment or prospects," he said. "It's clear urgent action is needed."

The Philippines is bracing for the arrival of another potentially devastating typhoon, less than a week after a different storm killed at least 200 people and left a trail of destruction.

Fung-wong, known locally as Uwan, is forecast to intensify to a super typhoon - with sustained winds of at least 185km/h (115mph) - before making landfall on the island of Luzon on Sunday evening local time at the earliest.

The Philippine meteorological service (Pagasa) says the storm will also bring heavy rain and the risk of life-threatening storm surges.

Several schools have either cancelled classes on Monday or moved them online, while Philippine Airlines has cancelled a number of local flights.

Typhoon Fung-wong is expected to weaken rapidly once it makes landfall but will likely remain a typhoon as it travels over Luzon.

Eastern parts of the Philippines have already begun experiencing heavy rains and winds, a Pagasa official said in a briefing on Saturday evening local time.

While much of the country is expected to be impacted, there are particular concerns about those areas that could take a direct hit - including the small island of Catanduanes, which lies off the coast of southern Luzon.

Residents there, as well as in other low-lying and coastal areas, have been urged to move to higher ground ahead of the storm's arrival.

A civil defence spokesman said evacuations had to be carried out by Sunday morning at the latest and should not be attempted during heavy rain and strong winds.

• How do hurricanes or typhoons form and are they getting stronger?

Typhoon Fung-wong has also forced the suspension of rescue operations following the passage of Kalmaegi, one of the strongest typhoons this year.

Heavy rainfall sent torrents of mud down hillsides and into residential areas. Some poorer neighbourhoods were obliterated by the fast-moving flash floods.

At least 204 people are now known to have died in the Philippines as a result of the earlier storm, while more than 100 are still missing.

Five people also died in Vietnam, where strong winds uprooted trees, tore off roofs, and smashed large windows.

The Philippines government declared a state of calamity across the country after Typhoon Kalmaegi and in preparation for the coming storm.

It has given government agencies more power to access emergency funds and fast-track the procurement and delivery of essential goods and services to those in need.

For some Filipinos, the devastation wrought by Typhoon Kalmaegi earlier this week has left them even more anxious about the storm to come.

"We decided to evacuate because the recent typhoon brought floods in our area, and now I just want to keep my family safe," Norlito Dugan told the AFP news agency.

He is among those who have taken shelter in a church in the city of Sorsogon in Luzon.

Another resident, Maxine Dugan said: "I'm here because the waves near my house are now huge, I live near the shore. The winds there are now very strong, and the waves are huge."

The Philippines is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to tropical cyclones, due to its location on the Pacific Ocean where such weather systems form.

About 20 tropical cyclones form in that region every year, half of which impact the country directly.

Climate change is not thought to increase the number of hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones worldwide.

However, warmer oceans coupled with a warmer atmosphere - fuelled by climate change - have the potential to make those that do form even more intense. That can potentially lead to higher wind speeds, heavier rainfall, and a greater risk of coastal flooding.

It's the body's superhighway that carries information from your brain to your major organs. You might not have a clue it exists - let alone that you might need to train it.

But a quick scroll through my social media and there's a whole array of tips on how to heal it, stimulate it, even reset it - all to apparently reduce stress and anxiety levels.

Poking your ear with what looks like a rubber toothbrush, moving your eyes from side to side, tapping your body or gargling water while wearing a weighted vest - these are just some of the techniques being recommended to train that nerve and improve your wellbeing.

With our stress levels sky-high, and burnout on the rise among under-35s, it's no wonder many of the posts on socials have gone viral with millions of hits.

Some of these methods might seem a bit absurd. But is it really possible to train your mighty internal messenger, and could that actually bring quick relief to life's stresses?

I decided to find out by coming to small candle-lit studio in Stockport town centre - where I find myself in a small group, humming loudly.

Humming, I am told, can help stimulate our vagus nerve and slow down our heart rate. And I do start to feel a bit more relaxed. I can feel the low hum vibrating in my body and my brain seems a bit less busy.

At this somatics class, yoga therapist Eirian Collinge guides us through a session of gentle moves combining deep breathing, rocking and swaying.

While she doesn't buy into all the techniques on socials, Eirian says there are parts of her practice that use breathwork, eye movements and tapping.

But, she says, "it's a process" and there's no quick fix. It is rooted in a theory that suggests we can calm down our nervous system by connecting with our bodies.

Some scientists say this is an over-simplification of our complex internal systems. But others say it can be effective in helping us find a snippet of calm in a busy, intense world.

Sarah, who is lying down just a few mats away from me, started coming to this class about a year ago. She says the practice has been life-changing.

"I actually cried after the first session," she says. "It felt like the first time my brain has ever switched off."

The 35-year-old, who struggles with her mental health, says it feels like she is "flossing her brain".

Sarah's partner, Xander, agrees. It's made him more aware of his feelings.

"As a man," he explains, "We are not really programmed to do that.

"I've struggled with depression for most of my adult life, but now, instead of trying to fix my thoughts I can sit with my emotions and accept them.

"If things get a bit much for me I can peel back a little from work. Go for a run, get out in the hills, for example.

"Understanding my nervous system is a huge part of that."

The vagus - Latin for "wandering" - starts in the brain as two main branches - left and right - that connect to every major organ, constantly relaying vital information back and forth.

It's part of the autonomic nervous system, which controls things we don't think about, like breathing, heart rate and digestion.

The system, in part, is made up of:

• the sympathetic nervous system - which triggers "fight or flight", preparing us for anything from being chased by a wild animal to that all important job interview, and
• the parasympathetic nervous system - which relies on the vagus nerve to help put the brakes on and brings the body back into a state of calm

If one of these is out of sync we start to see problems. But can we really reset the balance ourselves, by attempting to activate the vagus nerve?

Consultant psychiatrist Prof Hamish McAllister-Williams is sceptical.

"We have good evidence vagus nerve stimulation can help with neurological disorders like epilepsy and mental illnesses like treatment-resistant depression," he says, "but that comes from a device that is fitted in the body - a bit like a pacemaker which sends pulses of electrical energy to the vagus nerve."

That device sends mild electrical stimulations through the vagus nerve to the brain, sparking a release of chemicals like serotonin and dopamine which help us regulate our mood.

While vagus nerve stimulation inside the body requires invasive surgery and is available for a small cohort of patients on the NHS, there is now a growing market for wearable - non-invasive - technology.

These devices, which cost anything from £200 to more than £1,000, tend to be clipped on the ear, worn round the neck or placed on the chest.

"The are some credible studies that suggest these external stimulators can potentially impact on brain activity," Prof McAllister-Williams explains. "But there is a lot less evidence than for the internal devices."

With external devices, the electrical impulses need to travel through skin, tissue, muscle and fat so it's not as simple and direct as a stimulator in the body.

After she experienced burnout, Lucy Lambert says such non-invasive vagus nerve stimulators helped her.

The mother-of-three left her job as a primary school teacher because she was so completely "stressed, tired and anxious".

"I had been running on empty for so long - I didn't realise," Lucy says. "Then it hit. The to-do list of life became too much.

"The mental load was so huge I couldn't get out of bed."

After exhausting various medical routes and feeling like she was getting nowhere, Lisa's brother recommended one of these devices which vibrates, claiming to send low-level electrical pulses to the vagus nerve, often through the skin in the neck or ear area.

"I noticed that when I started to feel overwhelmed, I would get a headache first.

"I would then wear a device for 10 minutes twice a day; the pain from the headache would go, and my whole body would calm down.

"The vibrations, they really do something."

She says the devices didn't fix burnout but they helped her create "conditions where real healing can happen".

Dr Chris Barker, who works in pain management, says this area of medicine is still developing.

He says there is a growing understanding of the importance of the vagus nerve, but while there is "clear evidence" around the impact an unbalanced nervous system can have on everything from our mental health to our heart rate and our ability to digest food, it does not mean we have the all the answers - yet - on how to correct the problems.

"It's really rational to focus on something that's problematic - and try to fix it.

"Our bodies are, of course, really complex, and sometimes the problem we see may be part of an imbalance in a wider system."

It's not about going to extremes, he says. It's "about figuring out what works for you" - and that can often take time.

It's worth noting if you have underlying heart or respiratory conditions you should seek medical advice before trying to rebalance or stimulate your nervous system.

Now, several years after experiencing burnout, Lucy, 47, is launching her own business helping others to build emotional resilience and confidence.

She still uses her devices daily, meditates, and regularly checks in with how she is feeling. "The devices make me rest and switch off."

But she agrees it is difficult to know whether it's the devices making the difference or the fact she is taking some much-needed time out.

There is a lack of robust scientific evidence behind these devices but for Lucy, they've played an important part in her recovery. Understanding her nervous system and the importance of the vagus nerve has empowered her, she says.

"It's helped me take ownership of my own mental health and wellbeing, and that's massive."

It's still only early November, but Christmas adverts are already coming thick and fast.

While they feature the usual sprinkle of festive cheer, experts say this year’s ads have also been tapping into some of 2025’s biggest themes, from the cost of living to masculinity.

The idea of hardworking families trying to get by is at the centre of Asda’s advert, which depicts the Grinch trying to do his Christmas shopping.

Meanwhile, John Lewis’s festive advert explores masculinity and emotion, leading some analysts to suggest it has undertones of one the year's biggest TV shows, Netflix drama Adolescence.

“What's striking this year is how the Christmas adverts are letting real life in,” said retail expert Kate Hardcastle.

TV historian Dr Richard Wallace adds that if retailers can find a way to “incorporate a topical social issue in a careful way”, it can lead to an advert “really cutting through”.

The BBC has looked at the Christmas adverts that are out so far - and asked experts what they tell us about the past year.

John Lewis ‘responds to the crisis of masculinity’

The John Lewis Christmas advert - seen by many as marking the start of the festive season - was beamed into our homes on Tuesday.

Set to Alison Limerick's 1990s track Where Love Lives, reimagined by British artist Labrinth, it's the first time the retailer has centred an ad around a father-son relationship.

The ad depicts a teenage boy, who struggles to express his emotions for his dad, using music as a way to connect with him.

We see the dad discovering an unopened Christmas present with his name on it - a vinyl record of Where Love Lies - which he immediately puts on.

As the song fills the room, he's transported back to a 90s club, dancing with his friends, before seeing flashbacks of his son as a baby.

When we return to the present day, the teenage son and dad share a slightly embarrassed hug and laugh together.

Reacting to the ad, retail expert Catherine Shuttleworth said it has "Adolescence written all over it".

"Especially with its focus on the lack of communication between father and son," she told BBC News.

Dr Wallace agreed, saying the advert had given a classic Christmas message of togetherness "a 2025 twist".

"There is clearly a desire to incorporate topical issues into this year's adverts," he said.

"John Lewis has responded to the crisis of masculinity, so evocatively addressed in one of this year's standout TV dramas Adolescence, to make a touching piece that speaks to the challenges of navigating inter-generational male relationships."

John Lewis's director of brand Rosie Hanley told BBC News that the script had been planned in January, before Adolescence came out.

But the drama's huge success "gave us reassurance that we were telling a story that was really relevant in 2025," she said.

'An affordable Christmas'

Other retailers appear to have nodded to the cost of living.

The Asda advert, set to the song Let it Snow, follows The Grinch reluctantly doing his festive shop.

But the green cynic changes his tune once he's wowed by some of the low price products on offer.

For Dr Wallace, the ad sends a message that "an affordable Christmas" is possible, by "placating the cash-strapped 'Grinch' that threatens to spoil everyone's Christmas".

This message is echoed in Lidl's Christmas advert, which focuses on generosity and small acts of kindness rather than abundance and excess.

The ad also has a real-world action point, by pointing viewers towards Lidl's Toy Bank scheme.

According to Lidl, the nationwide scheme has seen over 250,000 gifts donated since launch.

The theme of community and affordable, practical cheer, is also present in the M&S food advert.

The ad sees the return of Dawn French as a festive fairy, and she also appears as herself.

We see the actress and comedian stuck in gridlocked traffic, but with a wave of the fairy's wand, a delivery truck is converted into a Christmas party.

The festive snacks served at the party are modest and a far cry from the tables of food that we've seen in past adverts.

But not all of the retailers have toned it down this year.

Beauty retailer Sephora's advert stars none other than Mariah Carey as an angel.

She later transforms into a Santa Claus bodysuit, and takes off in a sleigh filled with bags of shiny gifts.

Experts say that as a whole, this year's adverts are reflecting the fact many shoppers will be worrying about costs this Christmas.

“Value framing is part of the campaign this year,” said Shuttleworth. “And of course that’s relevant this Christmas.”

"We're seeing themes that reflect the world as we actually live it," agrees Hardcastle.

"Audiences don't want fantasy; they want recognition. It's proof that even at Christmas, the stories that move us most are the ones that see us."

Elsewhere, a number of retailers have gone for fictional characters. Again, this is being seen as a deliberate move given the economic backdrop.

"If you're struggling and someone's showing you a glossy life on screen, it's not going to make you feel particularly great," Hardcastle said.

In the Aldi advert, its mascot Kevin the Carrot is back. This time, he is set to pull our heart strings as he pops the question to his beloved Katie the Carrot.

Not to be outdone, Sainsbury's advert also features a famous animated character - Roald Dahl's beloved Big Friendly Giant.

And Argos has also gone for the same characters as last year - cartoon duo Connie the doll and Trevor the dinosaur - who are joined this year by Inbetweeners star Simon Bird.

'The mood of the nation'

Advertisers are set to spend a total £12bn during this festive period, according to the latest Advertising Association and World Advertising Research Centre data.

John Lewis, for its part, doesn't disclose how much it spends on its Christmas advert, but Ms Hanley said they are "confident it pays off".

And experts say it's about more than just getting consumers through the doors.

"Fundamentally, the Christmas advert is about emphasising a sense of community and togetherness," Dr Wallace told BBC News.

Dr Wallace said that while the ads are still made for broadcast television, they are also now viral internet events, and are shared widely online.

The challenge for retailers, he said, is reflecting the "mood of the nation" when Christmas adverts are planned months in advance.

"If they can get it right, they can really become TV moments," he said.

"They can set the tone for that particular year, and shape the way you remember that Christmas."

This Remembrance Sunday, Ben Soppitt will be honouring the sacrifice of his grandfather at Basra War Cemetery in Iraq. He'll be among the very few, honouring many.

His small service will be in stark contrast to the large, solemn ceremony at the Cenotaph in London. Nor do the monuments in Iraq bear any resemblance to the carefully maintained war memorials and manicured cemeteries all across Europe.

Ben Soppitt says the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has "catastrophically failed" in its duty to honour the dead in Iraq. He says it "shames the men and women who gave their lives in Iraq".

More than 50,000 soldiers from the UK and Commonwealth nations lost their lives in Iraq in both World Wars. Most were casualties of the Mesopotamian Campaign during World War One, when British and Commonwealth troops fought the Ottoman empire. And most of those killed were Indian nationals.

Ben Soppitt's grandfather, Gunner Joseph Soppitt, is among those buried at Basra War Cemetery. He died in 1941 of dysentery when British forces briefly fought there during World War Two. His grave – like the rest of the nearly 3,000 men buried there – has no official marking. Others buried there include a recipient of the Victoria Cross, George Wheeler, and the grandfather of the actress Charlotte Rampling – Sapper Harris Johnson Rampling.

The Commonwealth War Grave Commission cleared the site of all headstones after many had been vandalised or fallen into disrepair. There is a long-term plan to replace them, but the CWGC withdrew from Iraq in the 1990s for security reasons. Since then, Basra War Cemetery has become a deserted wasteland, used by the locals for football or to dispose of rubbish. Basra is not alone. There are more than a dozen such sites across the country.

Some sites have weathered the heat and dust of Iraq better than others. The giant Basra War Memorial nearby, the third largest in the world, is still largely intact. It commemorates more than 40,000 soldiers. 7,385 are individually named on panels – all the British personnel and Indian officers. But 3,256 Indian nationals who served in the ranks are only listed by unit and number.

CWGC has promised to address this "inequality in commemoration", which has favoured British nationals. Ben Soppit says "this historical wrong cannot be completed without addressing the Indian casualties in Iraq". He argues that its another compelling reason why it should resume its work there.

Over the past two weeks, Ben Soppitt has been visiting most of the CWGC sites in Iraq to honour the dead - but also to highlight what he believes is Britain's failure to do the same. He's been documenting what he's seen on social media.

He found the CWGC site in Mosul to be in a similar state to the one in Basra.

"Nothing is left but the pedestals of the memorials and a few of the stones from them," he wrote online. "If my opinion of the CWGC was low before it's reached a new depth".

The Commonwealth War Grave Commission says it has detailed plans in place to restore its sites in Iraq. It says it has already carried out some renovation work but adds that "determining the right time to undertake full restoration is a complex judgement". One of the key determinations, it says, is safety and security in the region. It follows UK foreign office advice for Iraq which currently advises against travel to the country. It says that it keeps the public informed of its work on its website.

But there is clearly frustration at the pace of progress. Baroness Emma Nicholson too highlighted the state of the CWGC sites at Basra during one of her visits in 2007. She says she understands that as a government body the CWGC must heed the Foreign Office's travel advice. But she adds they "must do more".

For Ben Soppitt and his family, the campaign for the CWGC to do more is deeply personal. He had hoped to visit the site of his grandfather's grave in Basra with his own father. But he's now passed away.

"I don't intend to pass this on to my own sons," Ben says. "So I'm doing everything I can to have these men and women properly commemorated before I pass on too."

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What does Bollywood have to do with Christmas?

I put this question to film director Gurinder Chadha and the answer, it turns out, is quite a lot.

"Bollywood is all about singing, dancing, joy," she said. "So I think that for me, the idea of making a joyful Christmas film, with singing and dancing, it comes naturally for this time of year."

And that's exactly what Chadha - best known for directing the 2002 film Bend It Like Beckham - has just done.

With a cast including Kunal Nayyar, Hugh Bonneville, Pixie Lott, Boy George, Danny Dyer, Charithra Chandran and Eva Longoria, her new musical film Christmas Karma is a Bollywood spin on Charles Dickens' classic, A Christmas Carol.

But Chadha says it's also "a British film" celebrating a wide range of musical traditions.

The 65-year-old, who wrote and directed it, has also been busy working on her sequel to Bend It Like Beckham. This summer, she confirmed to the BBC that a revival is in the works.

Speaking to me at a central London hotel earlier this week, she indicated she was feeling the pressure to get it right.

“I’m working on the characters. These are big boots to fill,” she said. “I don’t want to rush it. The last thing I want is people to go, 'it's not as good as the original'.”

First published in 1843, A Christmas Carol tells the story of the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, who hates Christmas, but is transformed after a series of ghostly visits.

In Christmas Karma, we are met with a modern-day Scrooge called Mr Sood, who goes on a similar journey of redemption.

Nayyar, best known for playing Raj in The Big Bang Theory, plays Mr Sood - but says he is nothing like Scrooge in real life. "I love Christmas," he tells me. "Who doesn't love Christmas? Of course I love Christmas."

The actor said he always celebrated Christmas growing up in New Delhi. "Indians have a beautiful procurement to celebrate all festivals," he said.

The first ghost to visit Mr Sood is his former partner, Jacob Marley, played by Paddington and Downton Abbey star Hugh Bonneville.

He's also visited by American singer and actor Billy Porter, who acts as The Ghost of Christmas Present.

Porter says that up until this film, he was "definitely" more of a Scrooge.

But Bonneville professes to be a huge Christmas fan. He also rejects suggestions that November is too early for a festive film to come out in cinemas.

"I used to be Bah Humbug about it, and want Christmas decorations to go up on, frankly, Boxing Day, but I'm getting earlier and earlier," he said.

"Although I do draw the line at certain Christmas songs being played too early, I think they should be banned."

As a sidenote, I had to ask Bonneville about whether he's planning to go and see the new Paddington musical. "I'm going next week," he told me. "I'm looking forward to seeing that equally timeless story being told."

In Christmas Karma, Mr Sood is depicted as being among the 28,000 Ugandan Asian refugees who came to the UK in 1972 after being given 90 days to leave the African country by military dictator Idi Amin.

In later life, we see Mr Sood being dismissive of refugees seeking asylum in the UK. "The rich ones always forget their roots," one bystander remarks.

But after being guided by the ghosts of Christmas - played by Eva Longoria, Billy Porter, and Boy George - Mr Sood reconnects with his past.

Chadha says the inspiration for her Scrooge came from a “Grinch-like” family member who used to criticise them for celebrating Christmas. “‘I don’t know why you’re all doing this. You’re not white’,” she says he would tell them.

Later, she came to understand that, like Mr Sood, he was “carrying the trauma” of having been forced to leave his home country as a child.

But she also says she was inspired by certain politicians.

“It also made sense to me to make my Sood say slightly right-wing things, because when I was writing it [during lockdown], we did have a government that had members of the Asian community who would have a similar background,” she said.

For Leo Suter, who plays Mr Sood's underpaid employee Bob Crachett, there’s an important message he hopes people take away from the film.

“Dickens's work has lasted… a very long time, because of the message at the core of it. The original text is that empathy, morality, generosity is better than being a Scrooge and being miserly,” he said.

“And what the film does so well is totally bring that spirit into quite a complex and nuanced discussion of migration and racial things going on in modern Britain,” he said.

The film also has a Bhangra Christmas song, and a tribute to George Michael with Bollywood superstar Priyanka Chopra Jonas singing a desi take on Last Christmas.

“I feel like it's got all the things that you want in a Christmas film,” adds Pixie Lott, who plays Suter's on-screen wife Mary Crachett.

“It makes you cry, it makes you laugh. It's so feel good, but it also touches you in a way that makes you think about your own life.”

Christmas Karma is in cinemas from 14 November.

Honesty boxes: traditionally found on rural lay-bys, offering local produce like eggs and apples in exchange for a small donation.

With cash use falling, they might be expected to disappear - a roadside relic as we all pull onto the technology superhighway.

But, in fact, many are flourishing.

Cash payments are being replaced with online transfers via QR codes, and small traders are using honesty boxes as part of their marketing on social media.

That online marketing has a payoff. Some are finding that instead of just attracting passing trade, customers are making a special journey to buy from them.

'Part of my community'

On the side of an A-road between Canterbury and the north Kent coast is a small but colourful honesty box.

Packed inside the Blean Bakery Box are cookies for £3.50 in an assortment of unusual flavours, and tubs of dunkable cookies with dips from candyfloss to brownie - all baked by Annabelle Cox.

The 36-year-old founded Dunk Cookies just before the pandemic. She installed the honesty box earlier this year and it has brought in enough money to pay the rent at her bakery on a nearby industrial estate.

"The honesty box means we can be part of my community - bringing something to them, rather than the business being solely online," says the affable Annabelle.

Various food festivals gave her a following and some local custom. Now, she opens the honesty box every day at 9am until locking it back up at 8pm. Despite plans to scale back the bakery next year, to spend more time with her young son, the honesty box will remain.

It is on a school run route, can empty within hours, and is regularly refilled.

Annabelle films the re-stock and posts it on Instagram. The coverage has brought in customers from further afield. Annabelle also posts pictures of her adding up the takings, to test the honesty or dishonesty of customers.

Almost without exception, they pay. One customer who arrived during the BBC's visit filled a bag, scanned the QR code, and promised to transfer the money once she had a signal. There was no doubt she would.

Annabelle says 90% of customers pay online after scanning the QR code inside the box. Many other honesty boxes around the UK use the same technology, some even leaving a calculator inside for customers to tot up the cost of what they take.

Anyone who is confused can press the video doorbell, for a hotline to Annabelle's bakery a few miles away.

That also helps with security, as does the fact the box is placed outside the window of the local pub - The Hare at Blean.

Matthew Hayden, the chef-owner of the pub, says he is happy to support another local business, and lends the space for the box free of charge. Occasionally, it brings in custom for him too.

Having spent time in Byron Bay in Australia, where he saw honesty boxes at the end of people's driveways, he says he liked the idea of seeing something similar at home.

At the box outside the window, and inside at the bar, customers are mostly, and increasingly, using their smartphones to pay.

Both take cash - the honesty box has envelopes and a letterbox for change. But Matthew says payment for food and drinks in the pub is now "almost entirely" by phone.

Half of UK adults now pay for things by tapping their phone, according to the latest data from banking trade body, UK Finance.

Graham Mott, director of strategy at Link - which oversees cash access and the UK's ATM network - says that has been a rapid change, meaning many shoppers now only go out with a phone and carry coins less.

Casual payments, such as charity donations, honesty boxes, crafts stalls and rewarding buskers, are increasingly made digitally.

"There are positives, as traders don't have to rely on customers having available change. They may also have the opportunity to upsell items at higher prices," he says.

But some charities are worried that the disappearance of cash will shut some people out of all types of retail.

Affordable food club charity The Bread-and-Butter Thing says many of its younger members use notes and coins, alongside banking apps, to make their limited budgets stretch further.

Social following

As well as phones as a method of paying, people are discovering honesty boxes by scrolling through social media. Some small businesses, like Annabelle's have spotted the opportunity.

Bakeries, in particular, seem to have taken to the idea of advertising via honesty boxes - the contents of which are filmed, pictured and posted online. A quick search on social media quickly highlights bright young bakers with bright boxes.

But the range of produce in honesty boxes goes far beyond cookies and cakes. Oysters and dog treats are among the more unusual contents for sale at these stalls.

In Scotland, where honesty boxes are commonly found, a golf course allowed people to pay for their round by dropping money into a collection box.

Even so, the traditional honesty box lives on in many areas. Many farms and smallholdings sell eggs, seasonal vegetables and fruit for cash in collection boxes.

For the most part, this is still the image conjured up when people talk of honesty boxes they have used.

These images were literally the source of a collection by photographer Kathryn Martin, who spent a couple of years charting these quirky stalls during travels around Suffolk, Essex, Somerset and Sussex.

In her notes, she says she loves an honesty box "not just for the delight of the home grown and the childish excitement and memories of playing shop but the discovery of the simple, unpretentious, local and handmade in a world saturated with high tech, fake news and globalisation".

She also enjoys seeing the stalls themselves, and the ice cream tubs inside them to collect customers' cash.

But she says QR codes change the dynamics of an honesty box, and the sense of trust.

Perhaps, as with other technology, it brings a loss of innocence.

"On the whole, most people are honest," she writes about the traditional honesty box.

"Maybe it's the uncertainty of being watched from behind that twitching curtain or perhaps it's the nostalgic feel-good factor from playing shop, or the untainted natural beauty of their rural locations that remind us that honesty is indeed the best policy."

Additional reporting by Connie Bowker

Flu strikes every winter, but something seems to be different this year.

A seasonal flu virus suddenly mutated in the summer; it appears to evade some of our immunity; has kick-started a flu season more than a month early and is a type of flu that history suggests is more severe.

The NHS has now issued a "flu jab SOS" as fears grow that this will add up to a brutal winter.

There is a lot of nuance and uncertainty, but leading flu experts have told me they would not be shocked if this was the worst flu season for a decade.

"We haven't seen a virus like this for a while, these dynamics are unusual," says Prof Nicola Lewis, the director of the World Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute.

"It does concern me, absolutely," she says. "I'm not panicking, but I am worried."

So what's going on? And what can we do?

Scientists track the evolution of influenza viruses because they mutate constantly and the seasonal flu vaccine has to be updated each year to keep up.

This evolution happens in a rhythm known as "shift and drift".

Most of the time the virus drifts along making minor changes and then every so often there is a sudden abrupt shift as the virus mutates substantially.

That happened in June this year.

Seven mutations appeared in a strain of H3N2 seasonal flu and led to a "fast increase" in reports of the mutated virus, says Prof Derek Smith, the director of the centre for pathogen evolution at the University of Cambridge.

Unusually, this happened outside flu season in the middle of the northern hemisphere's summer.

"It almost certainly will sweep the world, so from that standpoint, it's something that will come up quickly," says Prof Smith.

By September, as children went back to school, the nights drew in and the temperatures started to drop, there was an uptick in cases.

Exactly what the mutations are doing is still being explored, but they are probably helping the virus to evade some of the immunity we have built up over years of flu infections and vaccines.

The result is the virus is finding it easier to infect people and spread – that is why the flu season is so early in the UK and other countries including Japan.

If the virus can spread more easily then it does not have to wait for more favourable wintery conditions – when we spend more time indoors with the heating on and the windows shut – to start the flu season.

"We're miles ahead," says Prof Lewis, "I think it's going to be a strong flu season".

If you remember your R numbers from the pandemic (that is the number of people each infected person passes the virus on to), they suggest the new mutant has an edge.

Seasonal flu usually has an R number of around 1.2, while the early estimate for this year is 1.4, said Prof Lewis.

So very roughly, if 100 people had flu, they would pass it to 120 in a typical year and 140 this year.

Worst flu season for a decade?

"It's highly likely it's going to be a bad flu season and it's going to happen quite soon, we're already well into it," says Prof Christophe Fraser, from the Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford.

"There are indicators that this could be worse than some of the flu seasons we've seen in the last 10 years."

In a typical flu season around one-in-five of us get infected, but that could be higher this year, he warns.

But all these predictions are still clouded in uncertainty.

Some look to Australia for clues as it had the worst flu season on record this year, although it did not face the same mutated H3N2 we have.

We know the virus is spreading very well in children in the germ-fest that is the school playground.

But the immunity a 10-year-old has developed will be very different from that of their grandparents whose immune defences may have been shaped by six times as many flu seasons.

So, experts will be watching closely as the virus starts infecting older age groups in the coming weeks.

'It's a nastier virus'

History suggests that the form of influenza we are facing this year is more severe, particularly for older people.

There are multiple types of flu and you may have heard some of the names like H1N1 swine flu, which caused a pandemic in 2009, or H5N1 which is the current flu killing birds around the world.

The fresh mutations have happened in a group of H3N2 influenzas.

"H3 is always a hotter virus, it's a nastier virus, it's more impactful on the population," said Prof Lewis.

It is worth remembering that some of us will get flu and develop no symptoms at all, while others get a sudden fever, body aches and exhaustion, but the virus can be deadly in older and more vulnerable groups.

Last year, nearly 8,000 people died from flu, and in the 2022-23 flu season there were nearly 16,000 deaths. The NHS is already anticipating a tough flu season.

So what can we do about it?

The clear advice is to get the seasonal flu vaccine – the NHS in England issued a "flu jab SOS" saying there were 2.4 million vaccine slots available in the next week.

Prof Lewis argues this is "absolutely the most important year" to get vaccinated and that "if you have been called by your GP, please get your flu vaccine as soon as possible".

However, this year's vaccine is not a perfect match to the mutated virus.

The decision on the design of the vaccine was made in February to give enough time to produce the millions of doses necessary - and then the new mutant emerged in June.

"Some protection is better than no protection, but this year is likely to be one of the years where the amount of protection is less than it is in years when the match is better, it's not an ideal situation," said Prof Fraser.

The vaccine will still trigger the body to produce antibodies that can recognise and stick to flu.

But the biggest benefits are anticipated to be in lessening the severity of the disease rather than stopping you get ill or slowing the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, doctors have been sent advice reminding them that early antiviral treatment reduces the risk of complications from flu.

Japan is also going through an early flu season and has closed schools to help contain outbreaks.

These are not Covid-style lockdowns, but short-term measures the country uses to disrupt the spread of the virus.

Nobody knows for certain what will happen in the coming months.

"It might all go away by next week," says Prof Lewis, "but I don't think it will."

There's a famous motto in the cut-throat world of television that many presenters live by: "Don't quit a hit."

It's one of the reasons Claudia Winkleman's departure from Strictly Come Dancing, along with Tess Daly, took many by surprise when it was announced last month.

But in Winkleman's case, the huge Saturday night hit she'd co-hosted for 15 years had actually been eclipsed by an even bigger one.

The Traitors, which Winkleman began fronting in 2022, has become the jewel in the BBC's crown, with its recent celebrity spin-off attracting more than 13 million viewers.

The show has proven a perfect vehicle for Winkleman to showcase her range. She's stern and severe, with a dark side viewers hadn't previously seen, but also silly, camp and warm - always seeming to be genuinely on the side of the contestants.

"It'd be hard to argue against her being the number one presenter in the country right now," says Alex Segal, managing director of talent agency InterTalent.

"Yes, you can of course still make a case for Ant and Dec, but in terms of the number of great shows, her trajectory, the love for her... people watch a show for her as much as they watch it for the format, I think she's in that moment now."

In an average year, viewers see Winkleman bouncing between a Scottish castle, a Hertfordshire ballroom and a train station piano (the latter, for Channel 4’s The Piano, which she also fronts). But another place the 53-year-old might soon be popping up is on her own chat show.

Industry reports suggest Winkleman is in advanced talks to host her own talk series - with Graham Norton's own production company So Television, which also makes his chat show for the BBC, said to be potentially producing it.

"It's an endorsement of Claudia's meteoric rise over the last few years," says Deadline’s Jake Kanter, who reported the negotiations. "She will be very keen to do this, I'm told it's a personal ambition of hers as well."

Although Winkleman is seemingly being positioned as Norton's successor, there would be no direct clash. Her show would be broadcast in the months The Graham Norton Show - still a huge draw for audiences on TV and socials - is off air.

Kanter notes that Winkleman stepped in for Norton on an episode of his chat show earlier this year. "I'm sure that would've been either a catalyst or starting point for some of these discussions," he says.

"They would've seen what she did, the BBC would've liked it, and I'm sure they have done other work behind the scenes to make sure the format is right with her."

The BBC declined to comment on reports of the chat show when asked by BBC News, which is editorially independent from the corporation. So Television were also approached for a response.

A chat show would, however, be a logical next step given Winkleman's current hot streak, which comes after her three-decade rise through television.

Fringe benefits

Winkleman is the daughter of newspaper editor Eve Pollard and book publisher Barry Winkleman. She studied art history at Cambridge, before launching a TV career in her twenties.

Willing to turn her hand to anything, she became a familiar face in the 1990s on BBC travel series Holiday, and her CV expanded with gameshows, dating formats and children's programmes.

But in typically self-deprecating fashion, Winkleman suggested her haircut had more to do with her success than her on-screen ability.

"You may loathe my fringe, but, and I'm being perfectly serious here, it's given me a career," she wrote in her 2020 memoir, Quite.

"I'm sure I got work because all those times producers were in a room ruminating on the next TV show, handing round digestives and they couldn't remember names, they said, 'We could always get the orange one with the fringe'.

"Believe me, it's not because I read out loud better than anyone else... It's because I have a thing, an epithet, a focus."

Early in her career, Winkleman was also used as a pundit on daytime TV shows. In 1996, for example, she was billed as a "chat-up connoisseur" during a dating segment on Good Morning with Anne and Nick.

It is a fascinating clip. Aged 24, Winkleman's voice is higher than it is today, and her cut-glass English accent more refined. But she was comfortable on camera, and, three decades later, her appeal remains the same now as it was then.

"First and foremost, she's funny," says Frances Taylor, TV previews editor at Radio Times. "She has that natural comic timing and ability to be entertaining.

"And an extra layer on top of that is how self-deprecating that sense of humour is, that's her secret weapon to me, she's always willing to make herself the butt of the joke."

She's also "incredibly authentic", Kanter adds. "When you see her at industry events, she is her TV persona. She's the best friend you'd love to have. She's fun, empathetic, understanding, sharp, and those qualities exude from the screen."

Although her salary is no longer published by the BBC, Winkleman is among the corporation's top earners. She was listed as making more than £450,000 in 2017.

But not everything she's done has been a hit.

Britain's Best Home Cook on BBC One, for instance, achieved relatively middling ratings despite the combined star power of Winkleman and Mary Berry.

Meanwhile, some felt she was less successful in Radio 2's Saturday morning slot than Norton, her predecessor. The Spectator described the show as "brainless", suggesting Winkleman "gushed" over her guests and asked obvious questions.

She also hosts Channel 4 quiz show One Question, notes Taylor. "But not many people have heard of it, and not many people watched it."

Away from the screen, London-based Winkleman shares three children with her husband of 25 years, film producer Kris Thykier. She has often spoken of her close-knit family life, including a desire to spend more time at home with her children.

The family have also faced personal struggles. Her daughter Matilda was seriously injured in 2014 when, aged eight, the witch's costume she was wearing for Halloween caught fire while she was out trick-or-treating.

Winkleman, who put out the flames with another parent, took a short break from Strictly, and later campaigned for tougher fire safety laws on fancy dress costumes. Matilda, now 19, has gone on to study at the University of Bath.

'Whatever you do, don't have an opinion'

Unlike some of her peers such as Gary Lineker or Rylan Clark, Winkleman is almost never involved in controversy. She doesn't share her political views and rarely grants interviews with news outlets.

"I do have opinions, but opinions are never a good idea, are they?" she told Gabby Logan's podcast The Mid Point. "Whatever you do, don't have an opinion, is my general view.

"And also, I don't think I've got anything that interesting to say. So I'm happy to talk about napping and my love of eyeliner. I have nothing to add, I really don't."

She has, however, still had to navigate the occasional tricky situation, such as when she was a presenter on the BBC's entertainment bulletin Liquid News.

During a 2003 interview with S Club 7 about their impending break-up, Winkleman asked a delicate question about reports they were unhappy with their earnings. The group's publicist walked into the studio and halted the interview.

But despite her rise, audiences could be seeing less of Winkleman in the future, and not just because Strictly is losing its Clauditorium.

"The more successful you become, the less work you do, for a variety of reasons," says Segal.

"If you get to a certain level, you become above a lot of stuff. Your rates go up financially. Also, the more work you take on, the more risk you have of failing. And sometimes, the way you limit that risk is to do less."

Segal suspects there are "a lot of shows out there hosted by other people that Claudia was first choice for", adding that Winkleman is "probably inundated daily with new ideas, and she will have to say no to 99% of them" - chat show or not.

Peak Claudia?

Of course, Winkleman's popularity doesn't guarantee she will make a successful chat show host. Norton makes it look easy, but he is a master of his craft.

Even Davina McCall, a highly capable and popular presenter, struggled with her own chat show in 2006 - saying later it was the career move she most regretted.

"Davina was as hot then as Claudia is now, but her chat show didn't work for the audience," said former BBC One controller Peter Fincham on his podcast Insiders.

"Chat shows hosted by people who are currently riding high on television in other sorts of shows, don't necessarily work."

And as Claudia's stardom continues to rise, doing less may help save her from something else - the risk of public fatigue - which Kanter cautions "is a thing" for presenters at her level.

"Are we getting to the point of peak Claudia? Possibly," he says.

"So that is something that I'm sure she and her agent are giving some thought to."

Tawana Musvaburi's 33,000 Instagram followers may feel like they know all about her life - but most don't know what her partner looks like.

There might be subtle signs she has a boyfriend, like the back of a head, or two clinking wine glasses at dinner, but the 24-year-old says she has no intention of posting his face.

"I'm just girl-coded," Tawana says. "As a woman, you want to come across strong, like, 'I've got my stuff together'."

The influencer has curated a brand that doesn't include a boyfriend.

"You don't want any part to feel like it's been helped by a man. It brings me more pleasure to say, 'I did this myself'."

And her stance isn't changing any time soon - even if she and her boyfriend take things to the next stage she says, "a ring's still not enough for me to post my relationship".

That Vogue article

Tawana is one of many women reluctant to hard-launch their relationship online and social media users are picking up on it.

So much so that last month, British Vogue published an article titled Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?, which inspired TikTok and Instagram posts asking the same question.

In the viral article, writer Chante Joseph suggests there has been a shift in how heterosexual women present their relationships online, writing that women want to reap the "social benefits" of having a partner, without appearing "boyfriend-obsessed".

Posting your partner frequently can come across as "cringe" and "culturally loser-ish", Joseph writes.

On a more serious note, she says having a boyfriend is no longer "considered an achievement", and isn't seen to make you any more - or less - of a woman in the way it might once have done.

She believes women are hesitating to post their partners because of the "patriarchy we live under, and how oppressive it is to women".

"A lot of women have been saying, it's cool to have a fiance. It's cool to have a husband," Joseph told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour on Wednesday.

"It's not. We need to re-evaluate our relationship with men in this political climate."

'1,000 people unfollowed me'

Stephanie Yeboah, a content creator and author from South London, told British Vogue she regretted posting her boyfriend on Instagram.

She tells BBC News she received a "plethora of DMs" from people telling her they'd unfollowed her because they could no longer relate to her content once she had a boyfriend.

"That day I think about 1,000 people unfollowed me," Yeboah recalls.

But she says she understands why people can find boyfriend-related content too much.

"A lot of relationship content is corny - I think people kind of just cringe now when they see it."

For people who make money from social media, not posting a new partner may be a question of consistency, says Dr Gillian Brooks, associate professor of influencer and social media marketing at King's College London.

"They're selling a distinct aesthetic, a distinct taste," Dr Brooks explains. "They're catering to a very devoted and distinct audience, so if they go off brand they confuse their audience base, and people will just leave them."

'I don't want to come across as reliant'

But it's not just influencers who don't want to post their boyfriends.

Milly is engaged to her partner of nearly five years, but the 25-year-old says she is hesitant to post her fiance on social media.

"I don't want to come across as reliant on my partner, or that our relationship is my entire personality," she explains.

"Social media creates a very narrow image of a person," she adds. "When it's just pictures and stories of me and my partner, it creates an image of a little bit of obsession."

'Relationships should be more private'

Charlotte has been with her partner for two years. The 20-year-old says she chooses to not post her boyfriend on social media for a few reasons.

On an aesthetic level, she says they don't have many pictures together she would "consider Instagrammable".

But beyond this, she believes a relationship should be "more private than friendship".

She continues: "I also feel like if I posted [my relationship], it would be to say, 'Look at me and my perfect relationship', which, unfortunately, isn't the case."

Athera, not her real name, also prefers privacy. The 21-year-old says a lot of her friends are the same and reference the "evil eye" as a reason for not posting their partners.

"Evil eye" is a supernatural belief in a curse transmitted through a malicious glare, usually one inspired by envy.

"I wouldn't post him to prevent someone accidentally putting their jealousy, even if it's unintentional and subconscious, as evil eye onto my relationship," says Athera.

Anxiety behind posting

Dr Gwendolyn Seidman, a social psychologist at Michigan State University, studies how people communicate online - with a particular focus on romantic relationships.

Sharing such a personal part of your life online can sometimes come with anxiety - something Seidman believes is down to a fear of online permanency.

"People are not posting as much stuff online [now]," Dr Seidman observes, "and part of it is that people sort of realise that this stuff is eternal.

"You can't really get rid of it and so you want to be a little bit more careful."

An early morning police chase in Tampa, Florida, ended with the "reckless" driver crashing into a bar, killing four people and injuring 13 others.

In a police pursuit, authorities were unsuccessful at stopping the speeding driver before he lost control of the car and slammed into the bar's outdoor patio, the Tampa Police Department said in a statement.

Three victims died on the spot and another died at the hospital, police said. The remaining injuries range from life-threatening to minor, police said.

The 22-year-old suspect is in custody and an investigation is underway.

The Tampa Police Department's air service first spotted a car driving recklessly on the highway just before 01:00 local time (06:00 GMT) on Saturday morning, the department said in a statement.

After the car, which had previously been seen street racing, got off the interstate, the Florida Highway Patrol began to chase after it as it continued speeding through the city streets.

The highway patrol then attempted a "PIT manoeuvre", a controversial technique law enforcement use to force a fleeing vehicle to suddenly spin sideways and stop.

PIT manoeuvres sometimes result in the deaths of innocent bystanders, the federal government wrote in a 2023 report that urged officers to consider less dangerous pursuit techniques.

When the manoeuvre failed, the highway patrol stopped their pursuit and the driver continued speeding on, police said.

He then lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a bar named Bradley's, where he hit more than a dozen people who were gathered on the patio, according to police.

The bar is a popular LGBTQ spot, but police say there is currently no evidence suggesting that the suspect was targeting any specific individuals or businesses.

In addition to the four people killed, 13 were injured, including two in critical condition and seven in stable condition. Two have been discharged from the hospital and two were treated at the scene.

Authorities have not released their names.

"What happened this morning was a senseless tragedy, our hearts are with the loved ones of the victims and all those who were impacted," Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement.

"Reckless driving put innocent lives in danger," he said. "The Tampa Police Department and the Florida Highway Patrol are committed to seeking justice for the victims and their families."

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor called the incident "devastating" in a statement on X.

"Families are grieving, first responders are hurting, and our city feels this loss," she wrote.

Former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson has died aged 68 after a short illness.

Willson was a co-host on the BBC motoring show between 1991 and 2001 - working alongside the likes of Jeremy Clarkson - before going on to present Fifth Gear on Channel 5.

He later worked as a campaigner, fronting the FairFuel campaign to lower the cost of fuel duty, and became an early advocate of electric vehicles.

The father-of-three was described as a "true national treasure" and "true consumer champion" in a statement from his family, who said he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and died on Saturday.

"Quentin brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms," they said in a statement.

"The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach...

"Quentin will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who knew him personally and professionally.

The family statement also highlighted his championing of General Motors' EV1 electric car in the 1990s, saying it proved he was "always ahead of the curve".

They added: "More recently he had worked tirelessly to make EVs affordable for all."

Willson also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, where his eight-point total on one dance still stands as the lowest score given by judges on the show.

On Top Gear, Wilson was known for his wry delivery and scathing reviews.

He also presented The Car's the Star for the BBC and Classic Car Show on Channel 5 and worked as a motoring journalist.

A man has been charged with attempted murder after a woman was stabbed in the neck in Birmingham city centre.

Djeison Rafael, 21, is accused of the attack outside the Bullring shopping centre, and is also charged with two counts of assault and possession of a blade.

The woman was attacked on Smallbrook Queensway, outside the Bullring shopping centre, shortly before 21:00 GMT on Friday.

The victim, in her 30s, is in hospital with critical injuries.

West Midlands Police said Mr Rafael, who they described as a black British national, had been remanded to appear before magistrates in Birmingham on Monday.

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

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

More than 1,000 flights to, from, or within the US were cancelled on Saturday after airlines were told this week to cut traffic during the federal government shutdown.

Nearly 4,000 flights were also delayed, down from over 7,000 delays on Friday, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced earlier in the week that it would be reducing air travel capacity by up to10% at 40 of the nation's busiest airports as air traffic controllers, who are working without pay during the shutdown, report fatigue.

Republicans and Democrats remain divided over how to end the impasse in Congress as the shutdown, which began 1 October, continues.

New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport was experiencing some of the longest wait times. As of Saturday afternoon, arrivals to the airport were delayed by an average of more than four hours, while departures from the airport were delayed by an average of 1.5 hours, according to the FAA.

The airports with the most cancelled flights on Saturday, both to and from the location, were Charlotte/Douglas International, Newark Liberty International, and Chicago O'Hare International, according to FlightAware.

Departures to John F Kennedy International, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, and La Guardia were delayed by nearly three hours, over 2.5 hours, and about an hour, respectively, the FAA reported as of Saturday afternoon.

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching on 27 November, it's one of the busiest travel seasons of the year in the US.

It's not just commercial flights that have been affected. Restrictions on private jets are also in place, Secretary Duffy said in a Saturday post on X.

"We've reduced their volume at high traffic airports — instead having private jets utilize smaller airports or airfields so busy controllers can focus on commercial aviation," Duffy wrote. "That's only fair."

And things will likely get worse in the coming days as the FAA increases the percentage of cancelled flights.

On Thursday, the agency announced that the flight reductions would be gradual, starting at 4% of flights on Friday before rising to 6% by 11 November, 8% by 13 November, and the full 10% by 14 November.

The FAA said the cuts were necessary to maintain safety as air traffic controllers have been overworked during the shutdown.

As essential workers, the controllers are required to continue working without pay, and as a result, many have called out sick or taken on second jobs to afford necessities, unions say.

The controllers are just some of the 1.4 million federal workers who have either been working without pay or been put on forced during the shutdown.

Saturday marked the 39th day of the longest shutdown in history as Republicans and Democrats still have not agreed on a funding resolution to reopen the government.

Senators are in Washington over the weekend for bipartisan negotitations aimed at ending the shutdown.

Another factor impacting air travel is that most of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) 64,000 agents are also not being paid while the shutdown is in place.

During the previous government lockdown, under US President Donald Trump in 2018, it was found that up to 10% of TSA staff chose to stay at home rather than work for free.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is set to announce a major shake-up of the immigration and asylum system later this month, the BBC has learned.

And she will model some of her new measures on the Danish system – seen as one of the toughest in Europe.

We understand officials have been looking at Denmark's tighter rules on family reunion and restricting most refugees to a temporary stay in the country.

Mahmood wants to reduce incentives that draw people to the UK, while making it easier to expel those with no right to be in the country.

But some in her own party are against going down the Danish route, with one left-wing Labour MP saying it was too "hardcore" and contained echoes of the far right.

At the Labour conference in September, Mahmood promised to "do whatever it takes" to regain control of Britain's borders.

She is impressed that Denmark has driven down the number of successful asylum claims to a 40-year low – with the exception of 2020, amid pandemic travel restrictions.

And we have been told that she dispatched senior Home Office officials to Copenhagen last month to study what lessons could be applied to the UK.

Last week, we also made the journey to Denmark to find out how their immigration system operates.

Mahmood's opposite number Rasmus Stoklund, Denmark's minister for Immigration and Integration, is a member of Labour's sister party the Social Democrats.

He told us: "We have tightened our laws in many ways.

"We return more people back home. We have made it quite difficult to have family reunification in Denmark.

"You will get expelled a lot easier if you commit crimes. And we have made different programmes to help people go back home voluntarily."

There is no indication that the UK government would follow the Danish example of offering substantial sums - as much as the equivalent of £24,000 - for asylum seekers to return their country of origin, including making a contribution to the cost of their children's education.

But the BBC understands some of what Stoklund outlined to us is being closely scrutinised in the Home Office.

In Denmark, refugees who have been personally targeted by a foreign regime are likely to be given protection.

But most people who have been successfully granted asylum when fleeing conflicts are now only allowed to remain in the country on a temporary basis.

When the Danish government decrees that their home country is safe, they can be returned.

Four years ago, 200 refugees from Syria had their residency rights revoked even before the Assad regime fell, although they were not subsequently deported.

For those who have already been in Denmark for a longer period, the length of time necessary to acquire settlement rights has been extended and conditions - such as being in full-time employment - have been added.

Denmark's tighter rules for family reunions have also attracted the interest of UK Home Office officials.

If you are a refugee who has been given residency rights in Denmark, both you and your partner who is applying to join you in the country must be 24 or older.

The Danish government says this is to guard against forced marriages.

The partner in Denmark must not have claimed benefits for three years and also has to put up a financial guarantee - and both partners have to pass a Danish language test.

Refugees who live in housing estates designated as "parallel societies" – that is where more than 50% of residents are from what the Danish government considers to be "non-Western" backgrounds – will not be eligible for family reunion at all.

In September, the UK Home Office suspended new applications under the Refugee Family Reunion scheme, pending the drawing up of new rules.

The pre-September scheme allowed spouses, partners and dependents under 18 to come to the UK without fulfilling the income and English-language tests that apply to other migrants.

Mahmood is unlikely to go as far as Denmark when she announces the UK's replacement rules for family reunions, but it seems likely that she will take steps along a more restrictive route.

For Rasmus Stoklund, tighter immigration and integration rules are about protecting the nature of Danish society.

Denmark is a small country, he says, with a population less than a tenth of the UK's.

"We live peacefully and quietly with each other. I guess you could compare us to the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings.

"We expect people who come here to participate and contribute positively and if they don't, they aren't welcome."

So, picking up on his Tolkein analogy, if the Danes are the Hobbits, who are their enemies, the Orcs?

"Well, I wouldn't call them Orcs but, of course, the biggest challenge we are facing is our lack of ability to expel some foreign criminals."

In Denmark - as in Britain - there is a live political debate on whether the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) makes the expulsion of foreign criminals more difficult.

Like the UK government, Stoklund does not want to leave the ECHR but believes changes could be made.

The Danish government has launched a review into how this could be done and Stoklund agreed he could make common cause with his British counterparts.

"I think it's very positive every time I hear that other countries have the same concerns and are frustrated the same way as many of us in Denmark are."

Mahmood is understood to be keen to meet Stoklund at the earliest opportunity.

For Labour ministers, there are political, as well as practical lessons, to learn from Denmark.

In 2015, the country had a centre-left government in trouble and a right-wing populist party surging in the polls, with immigration increasingly worrying voters.

There are parallels with the UK today, as Reform UK maintains its poll lead over Labour.

Downing Street is interested in how a centre-left party managed to defeat the Danish People's Party, one-time allies of Nigel Farage's UKIP in the European Parliament, to return to power.

Ida Auken, the Social Democrats' environment spokesperson, said adopting a tougher stance on immigration neutralised a toxic issue for the left - and gave it space to pursue progressive policies in other areas.

"For us, it was a licence to operate on the things we want to do.

"We want have a workforce that are educated, that have a social security and we do want to do a green transition.

"And we would never have been able to do this unless we've had those strict migration policies."

Some senior ministers in the UK are thought to find that argument persuasive.

Critics would point out that while there are similarities with the UK, the Danish political and electoral systems are different – as are some of the challenges.

The country is not facing flotillas of small boats arriving from the North Sea or the Baltic.

Danish is not as widely spoken as English, so language requirements are likely to discourage at least some potential refugees.

And while the vast majority of Social Democrat parliamentarians were on board for more hardline policies, there is far more wariness amongst some Labour MPs.

Off the record, some mainstream Labour MPs say they would oppose the transplantation of Danish policies to the UK.

On the left of the party, former frontbencher Clive Lewis argues strongly against going down the Danish route in an effort to outflank Reform UK.

"Denmark's Social Democrats have gone down, what I would call a hardcore approach to immigration." he says.

"They've adopted many of the talking points of what we would call the far right.

"Labour does need to win back some Reform-leaning voters but you can't do that at the cost of losing progressive votes.

"And that's what we're doing at the moment. We're haemorrhaging that support on the centre and the left."

Jo White, who leads a 50-strong group of Labour MPs in "Red Wall" seats in the Midlands and North of England, would like to see ministers go further in a Danish direction.

She argues that Labour pay will pay a heavy political price if it does not adopt policies such as requiring some asylum seekers to contribute to the cost of their stay.

"The consequences are that we go into a general election where Reform will be the biggest challenger in most Labour seats... and we will be annihilated."

"Immigration: the Danish Way" will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 13:30 on Sunday, 9 November, and will be available on BBC Sounds.

Prince George has joined King Charles, Queen Camilla and the Princess of Wales at this year's Festival of Remembrance in London's Royal Albert Hall.

The audience stood and a fanfare played as the royals entered the concert hall to commemorate those who lost their lives in service, on the eve of Remembrance Sunday.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Lady Victoria Starmer also attended the annual event, which this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two.

It also comes 25 years after the end of a decades-long ban on gay people serving in the armed forces, and the event reflected on the discrimination faced by LGBT personnel.

Princess Catherine sat beside her eldest son George, 12, and wore a handmade poppy made of silk, glass and other natural materials.

The Royal Family stood and applauded as the Chelsea Pensioners - retired British Army veterans - entered the auditorium and marched across the stage, while an orchestra performed the Boys Of The Old Brigade.

The Prince of Wales was not present as he was travelling back from Brazil, where he gave a speech to world leaders gathering for the COP30 UN climate change summit and visited a remote island.

The event - which is being broadcast on BBC One at 21:00 - was hosted by actress Hannah Waddingham and featured performances by musicians including Sir Rod Stewart.

Several armed forces bands were also set to take to the stage to accompany the artists and perform military music, including the RAF Squadronaires.

Veterans in attendance included some who had helped to plan D-Day - when Allied troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, marking the start of the campaign to liberate north-west Europe during World War Two - and some who had been prisoners of war.

Events will take place around the country tomorrow to mark Remembrance Sunday, which is observed on the closest Sunday to Armistice Day on 11 November.

Marking the moment World War One ended in 1918, it will see two minutes of silence held at 11:00 on the 11th day of the 11th month.

Former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson has died aged 68 after a short illness.

Willson was a co-host on the BBC motoring show between 1991 and 2001 - working alongside the likes of Jeremy Clarkson - before going on to present Fifth Gear on Channel 5.

He later worked as a campaigner, fronting the FairFuel campaign to lower the cost of fuel duty, and became an early advocate of electric vehicles.

The father-of-three was described as a "true national treasure" and "true consumer champion" in a statement from his family, who said he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and died on Saturday.

"Quentin brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms," they said in a statement.

"The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach...

"Quentin will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who knew him personally and professionally.

The family statement also highlighted his championing of General Motors' EV1 electric car in the 1990s, saying it proved he was "always ahead of the curve".

They added: "More recently he had worked tirelessly to make EVs affordable for all."

Willson also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, where his eight-point total on one dance still stands as the lowest score given by judges on the show.

On Top Gear, Wilson was known for his wry delivery and scathing reviews.

He also presented The Car's the Star for the BBC and Classic Car Show on Channel 5 and worked as a motoring journalist.

Hundreds of people have attended a protest against plans to house asylum seekers at a military site in East Sussex.

The government recently announced that 600 people would be temporarily housed at a training camp on the outskirts of Crowborough.

Local resident Keith Brown said: "If you dump any 600 young men of undocumented, unknown origin in a small town, you're asking for trouble."

A Home Office spokesperson said "the right to protest is fundamental to our democracy".

The spokesperson added: "This government will close every asylum hotel.

"Work is well under way, with more suitable sites being brought forward to ease pressure on communities across the country."

Steve Smith, from refugee charity Care4Calais, told the BBC: "In terms of people seeking asylum, the government has a duty, under the Refugee Convention, to house those who would be otherwise destitute."

He said Crowborough was a "dilapidated old army camp", adding it would "cost a lot to set up" as accommodation for asylum seekers.

"From my point of view, shovelling people into former barracks is not the best use of money and for those seeking asylum," said Mr Smith.

He said because many had been through traumatic experiences, including war, detention and modern day slavery, housing them in old barracks was "not the best accommodation for people who had undergone these experiences".

Resident Ben Grant told the BBC that the plans were "concerning many residents".

"Straight after our last council meeting, I had a lot of our vulnerable, elderly and especially women who told me they are really worried about their safety," he said.

Resident Rachel Nichols added: "We shouldn't be put in a position where we have to stretch ourselves further to accommodate people who are not offering something back to our community."

Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne was at the protest.

She said: "I'm here today because I'm as disgusted as local residents are about this migrant camp that's being opened up."

Bourne said the plan had been "dumped on everybody" and there was "no consultation".

"Not even I was warned about this," she said.

Earlier this week, the government said military sites were being considered with the aim of reducing the impact on communities and delivering better outcomes for taxpayers.

Wealden District Council has called for the reversal of the plans, claiming it had "totally failed" to engage with the community or provide assurances around safeguarding for both asylum seekers and residents.

Moving asylum seekers to military sites is part of the government's attempt to end the controversial use of hotels – something it has pledged to do before the next election.

The government added that the site would comply with safety and security standards.

As of June, about 32,000 asylum seekers were being housed in hotels, down from a peak of more than 56,000 in 2023, according to government figures.

Wealden District Council raised concerns about "staffing at the camp, police provision and the additional strain on already overstretched public services".

A petition against the move has been set up, which has attracted about 6,000 signatures.

A Sussex Police spokesperson said: "A planned peaceful protest took place in Crowborough on Saturday morning.

"Officers worked to keep any disruption to the public and businesses in the locality to a minimum."

Follow BBC Sussex on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250.

On the surface, the Hungarian prime minister's trip was exactly what he went to Washington for: luxuriant praise and an exemption from sanctions on Russian oil, gas and nuclear supplies.

And all that just five months out from a difficult election.

Look closer, however, and the picture is less clear cut. The US side struck a hard trade deal - and an expensive one for Hungary.

And there's no progress on Viktor Orban's biggest headache: ending the war in neighbouring Ukraine, and with it the long shadow the conflict casts over Hungary.

Let's look first at Orban's key win - a year's exemption from US sanctions.

The time span is interesting. Trump clearly wants to help his friend win the election in April. And the exemption even partially dovetails with the European Commission demand to all member states to end the import of Russian oil, gas and nuclear fuel by the end of 2027.

What is missing, from an EU perspective, is any political commitment from Orban to meet that demand - a commitment made and fulfilled by the Czech government. And the EU is trying to tighten energy sanctions - to the fury of Hungary and Slovakia.

Away from the media spotlight, the Hungarian energy company MOL has been upgrading two of its refineries - Százhalombatta in Hungary and the Slovnaft facility in Bratislava - to process Brent crude instead of the high-sulphur Urals crude which flows through Russian pipelines.

On Friday, MOL said 80% of its oil needs could be imported through the Adria pipeline from Croatia, albeit with higher logistical costs and technical risks.

So Orban's argument, which so impressed Trump, that Hungary, as a landlocked country, has no alternative to Russian oil may not strictly be true.

Overall, Hungary and Slovakia have together paid Russia $13bn (£10bn) for its oil between its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the end of 2024.

The one-year window granted by the US is nevertheless a valuable respite for Hungarian households this winter.

Orban told pro-government reporters who travelled with him to Washington that otherwise utility bills "could have gone up by up to three times in December". Capping those bills by various means has been a central plank of his popularity in Hungary since 2013.

Under the US exemption, Hungary can also continue to buy Russian gas through the Turkstream pipeline, which traverses the Balkans, and pay for it in hard currency ($185m in August alone) using a Bulgarian loophole. Orban has agreed to buy LNG from the US worth $600 million, according to Bloomberg.

Another key part of the Washington deal is nuclear.

Hungary agreed to buy US nuclear fuel rods for its Paks 1 nuclear power station (at a cost of $114m), in parallel to those bought from Russia's Rosatom and France's Framatome.

Russian plans to finance and build the nuclear extension, called Paks 2, have been long delayed by technical and licensing issues. The US agreement to lift all nuclear sanctions on Hungary may help restart that project, but thorny problems remain.

Hungary has also agreed to buy US technology to extend the short-term storage of spent nuclear fuel at Paks for between $100m and $200m.

Perhaps the biggest part of the deal was a Hungarian commitment to buy up to 10 small modular nuclear reactors from the US, for somewhere between $10bn and $20bn.

Hungary needs electricity to power the huge Chinese battery plants being built around the country. Smaller nuclear plants are less plagued by building delays, and are easier to licence.

Finally, a currency swap deal - similar to a recent US-Argentina deal to prop up the peso - under which US and Hungarian central banks can exchange currency is being discussed.

This would mean that in a future financial crisis in Hungary, the US central bank could feed dollars to Budapest, which boosts financial security in Hungary.

So in summary, Hungary struck a deal to buy US gas, nuclear energy and unspecified weapons systems in exchange for a temporary waiver from US sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

But it failed to get the re-introduction of the US visa waiver system, abolished in 2022, which harms mutual trade. And it did not get a new date for a potential Trump-Putin summit in Budapest as part of efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war.

Critics say energy dependence on Russia is being replaced by energy dependence on the US. The Orban government argues it is achieving greater diversity of supply.

Former Top Gear presenter Quentin Willson has died aged 68 after a short illness.

Willson was a co-host on the BBC motoring show between 1991 and 2001 - working alongside the likes of Jeremy Clarkson - before going on to present Fifth Gear on Channel 5.

He later worked as a campaigner, fronting the FairFuel campaign to lower the cost of fuel duty, and became an early advocate of electric vehicles.

The father-of-three was described as a "true national treasure" and "true consumer champion" in a statement from his family, who said he had been diagnosed with lung cancer and died on Saturday.

"Quentin brought the joy of motoring, from combustion to electric, into our living rooms," they said in a statement.

"The void he has left can never be filled. His knowledge was not just learned but lived; a library of experience now beyond our reach...

"Quentin will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and all who knew him personally and professionally.

The family statement also highlighted his championing of General Motors' EV1 electric car in the 1990s, saying it proved he was "always ahead of the curve".

They added: "More recently he had worked tirelessly to make EVs affordable for all."

Willson also appeared on Strictly Come Dancing in 2004, where his eight-point total on one dance still stands as the lowest score given by judges on the show.

On Top Gear, Wilson was known for his wry delivery and scathing reviews.

He also presented The Car's the Star for the BBC and Classic Car Show on Channel 5 and worked as a motoring journalist.

"For my money, the best pop groups are girl bands," says Andy McCluskey, frontman of OMD and the mastermind behind Atomic Kitten.

"Boy bands are absolutely horrible. They only sell records because lovestruck girls have their poster on the bedroom wall."

Not the most sensitive observation, perhaps, but McCluskey - speaking to BBC News in 2010 - had a point.

With a few notable exceptions (Blackstreet, Five, One Direction), boy bands coast along on good looks and syrupy ballads that promise "Girl, I know you're the one, girl."

Their female counterparts, from The Ronettes in the 1960s to TLC in the 90s and Katseye in 2025, are more experimental, with more conceptual versatility and, frankly, better songs.

Just look at the anarchic energy of The Spice Girls' Wannabe, or the seven-part pop Frankenstein that was Girls Aloud's Biology and ask yourself, "Could Westlife have pulled that off?" (Hint: Not a chance).

But, for a long time, girl bands were the underdogs, dismissed as vapid and superficial. It took 41 years for an all-female act, in the form of Little Mix, to win best group at the Brit Awards.

The BBC documentary Girlbands Forever aims to set the record straight, celebrating all that melodic brilliance while revealing the darker side of the industry.

In the first two episodes, broadcast last week, Kelle Bryan of the 90s band Eternal recalls a gruelling boot camp where the band's diet was strictly controlled; while a tearful Melanie Blatt of All Saints describes being told to have an abortion in case her pregnancy jeopardised the band (she declined).

This Saturday's final episode focuses on the ever-changing line-up of the Sugababes; illustrating how callous the industry could be.

"It didn't really bother me that Sugababes had a revolving door, because sometimes the brand can be bigger than the individual, and Sugababes were a brand," opines Darcus Beese, former head of the band's record label, Island.

Looking at the group's 2009 line-up – which featured none of the original members – he makes a scathing observation: "I don't even think they were good [enough] to be a tribute band."

Across the documentary, the same story repeats itself, of young singers with high hopes, thrust into an unforgiving industry.

"People only see the glamorous side, but we worked incredibly hard," Atomic Kitten's Kerry Katona tells BBC News.

"At one stage, all three of us was on drips. We had no control and no say."

In an unpublished interview from 2023, Girls Aloud told me a similar story of being cast adrift without an anchor.

Put together on ITV's reality show Pop Stars: The Rivals, they were left to fend for themselves, without a formal day-to-day manager for more than a year.

"It was chaos," said Nadine Coyle. "We were children and nobody was looking after us.

"The marketing team wanted us to do one thing, the live agent wanted us to do another, the TV team wanted us on breakfast TV. And there was nobody looking at the big picture and thinking, 'These girls are working 22 hours a day, seven days a week'."

Cheryl said the band were so clueless that they'd phone the head of their record label to tell him their washing machine had broken down.

"But in the end, we knew how every single part of the business worked," said Kimberley Walsh.

"It gave us a real strength of character," agreed Nicola Roberts. "We weren't afraid to say, 'No, we don't want to do this', because we had no middle man to hide behind."

'Feisty attitudes'

Other groups were less fortunate. Siobhan Donaghy was only 16 when the Sugababes' first single - the nonchalantly brilliant Overload - hit the Top 10. At the time, she had no idea how to speak up for herself.

"We were too young to know that we could make changes," she told me last year. "We didn't question anything, we just rolled with it.

"Now, if something's not working, we understand it's our business and we get everyone on the same page."

Su-Elise Nash, who was part of the R&B crossover act Mis-Teeq between 1999 and 2005, says the band's independence (they managed themselves and co-wrote all their songs) protected them from the worst of the industry.

"We were never scared to speak our mind and I think that feisty attitude steered us in the right direction," she laughs. "People knew they couldn't take the mick."

Inspired by US vocal harmony groups such as En Vogue and SWV, Mis-Teeq cleverly incorporated garage and hip-hop to their sound, with Alesha Dixon's rat-a-tat MC'ing setting them apart from more their pop rivals.

But despite achieving transatlantic success with songs including Why and Scandalous, the trio faced a constant battle with racism.

One record executive told Dixon that "black girls won't sell records in the UK", and the band found it harder than their white counterparts to secure press coverage.

"It wasn't blatantly, outrightly said that they didn't think three black girls would sell magazines, but that was the attitude of the people in power," says Nash, speaking from her home in Australia.

"Rather than being battered down by it. We just thought, 'Let's work harder to get their respect and eventually they'll come back begging for us to be on the front cover'."

In contrast to Mis-Teeq, bands such as Girls Aloud and Atomic Kitten became unwilling cover stars, in an era where tabloid newspapers wouldn't think twice about splashing pictures of drunken and distraught pop stars on their front pages.

"There was around 40 paparazzi outside my house every day," says Katona, and they weren't looking for flattering portraits.

"When I had my first baby, Molly, they printed [my photo with] a circle of shame around my stretch marks," she recalls

"It messes your head up. It made me suicidal. I didn't know how else to cope with it, so I turned to drugs.

"If I didn't have my children, I guarantee it, I would not be sat here today."

The harassment, and a string of revelations about her private life, ultimately prompted her to quit the band.

"I realised I didn't want the fame or the riches. I wanted to be a mum and a wife. Being a kid from foster home, that was all I actually craved."

The dream also came to a premature end for Su-Elise Nash. Mis-Teeq were in the middle of recording their third album when their label, Telstar, went bankrupt.

"It was a tough position to be in," she says. "They went into administration owing us a lot of money."

The band, in the middle of an exhausting six-month tour, decided to call it a day.

"In the same week, my grandmother got diagnosed with thyroid cancer and given months to live," says Nash. "So I got to spend those last six months with her, without having to go back to America, and do all those things that were in the diary,

"I don't have any regrets, because that's time I would never have got back."

The industry has matured since the girl band explosion of the early 2000s. Today, there's a wider awareness about mental health, and more efforts to mitigate the pressures facing young stars.

When Little Mix launched a TV talent show in September 2020, they insisted that the BBC provided aftercare for the contestants.

"We didn't have that, really, on the show that we came from," said Leigh-Anne Pinnock, referring to the band's experiences on The X Factor.

"It was all just go, go, go," agreed Jesy Nelson. "I personally don't feel like there was anyone who cared."

That said, girl groups still maintain shocking schedules. K-pop idols Le Sserafim recently told me they rehearse six hours every day, before fulfilling their other obligations in recording sessions, TV shows, and creating social media content.

So it's no surprise there's a bond between people who've survived the process.

"After the first episode of the documentary went out, I woke up to lovely messages from [Atomic Kitten's] Natasha Hamilton and Keisha from the Sugababes," says Su-Elise Nash.

"There's a lot of good feeling between the girls. It's not a catty, bitchy rivalry."

"And since doing the documentary, it's really resonated with me just how much work we put in and how many attitudes we changed, how many barriers we broke down.

"So when I look back, I feel proud. I feel really proud."

At least six people have died after Russia launched hundreds of missile and drone attacks on energy infrastructure and residential targets in Ukraine overnight.

A strike on an apartment building in the city of Dnipro killed two people and wounded 12, while three died in Zaporizhzhia.

In all, 25 locations across Ukraine, including the capital city Kyiv, were hit, leaving many areas without electricity and heating. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said on Telegram that major energy facilities were damaged in the Poltava, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions, and work was under way to restore power.

In Russia, the defence ministry said its forces had shot down 79 Ukrainian drones overnight.

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched more than 450 exploding bomber drones and 45 missiles. Nine missiles and 406 drones were reportedly shot down.

The Ukrainian Energy Ministry said there were power cuts in the Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhya, Odesa and Kirovohrad regions, but restoration work was ongoing.

Svyrydenko said critical infrastructure facilities have already been reconnected, and water supply is being maintained using generators.

Moscow has been stepping up attacks on civilian and energy infrastructure in Ukraine ahead of winter. Russia argues its attacks on energy targets are aimed at the Ukrainian military.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said the attacks showed there must be "no exceptions" to Western sanctions on Russian energy as a way of putting pressure on Moscow.

The missile strikes came only hours after the US gave Hungary a one-year exemption from restrictions on buying oil and gas from Russia.

In October, the US effectively blacklisted two of Russia's largest oil companies, threatening sanctions on those who buy from them.

But on Friday, during a visit to Washington by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban - a close personal and political ally of Donald Trump - the US president announced the exemption for Budapest.

In a message on Telegram, Zelensky said the overnight attacks showed that "pressure must be intensified" on Russia.

He said "for every (one of) Moscow's strike on energy infrastructure - aimed at harming ordinary people before winter - there must be a sanctions response targeting all Russian energy, with no exceptions".

He said Ukraine expected "relevant decisions from the US, Europe and the G7".

Football pundit Eni Aluko said she was "glad justice has been served" after former England player Joey Barton was found guilty of sending "grossly offensive" social media posts aimed at her and other broadcasters.

In early 2024, Barton compared Aluko and commentator Lucy Ward to serial killers Fred and Rose West, and called Jeremy Vine a "bike nonce".

Prosecutors told Liverpool Crown Court Barton had "crossed the line between free speech and a crime".

In a statement released after Barton's conviction, qualified lawyer Aluko said: "Social media is a cesspit where too many people feel they can say things to others they wouldn't dream of saying in real life under the guise of freedom of speech."

She added: "This is a reminder that actions online do not come without consequences.

"The messages directed at me, Lucy Ward and Jeremy Vine by Joey Barton were deeply distressing and had a real damaging impact on my life and career.

"I am glad that justice has been served."

Jurors convicted former Manchester City, Newcastle and QPR midfielder Barton, 43, of six counts of sending grossly offensive social media posts and cleared him of six others.

He will be sentenced on 8 December.

After the guilty verdicts, Ward - who told the trial that Barton's posts felt like "continuous harassment" - issued an Instagram post in which she wrote: "Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences.

"It's been an extremely difficult and sometimes harrowing last two years."

The pundits had been working on ITV's coverage of an FA Cup tie in January 2024 when Barton suggested they were the "Fred and Rose West of football commentary".

He superimposed the pundits' faces on a photograph of the married serial killers, who also tortured and raped a number of women between 1967 and 1987.

Barton also posted that Aluko was in the "Joseph Stalin/Pol Pot category", saying she had "murdered hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of football fans' ears".

Jurors found him not guilty on the comparison to the 20th Century dictators and the Wests, but ruled the superimposed image was grossly offensive.

Barton, originally from Huyton in Merseyside, was also convicted over a post in which he claimed Aluko was "only there to tick boxes" as he criticised diversity schemes.

His post said her input was "all off the back of the BLM [Black Lives Matter]/George Floyd nonsense", referring to the 2020 killing of a black man by US police.

Barton, who has 2.6 million followers on X, claimed his posts about Vine were merely "crude banter" and that in using the phrase "bike nonce" he had never intended to imply the radio presenter was a paedophile.

He was convicted over posts suggesting Vine had visited "Epstein island" - a reference to the paedophile billionaire Jeffrey Epstein - and one saying: "If you see this fella by a primary school call 999."

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