The first funeral for one of the victims of the Bondi Beach shooting has taken place in Sydney, with thousands gathering to mourn Rabbi Eli Schlanger.

He was among 15 people killed when two gunmen, alleged to have been motivated by Islamic State ideology, opened fire on a festival marking the first day of Hanukkah.

Rabbi Schlanger, who was known as the "Bondi Rabbi" and had helped organise Sunday's event, was born in the UK. His wife gave birth to their fifth child just two months ago.

Rabbi Levi Wolff, who opened the service, said his death as an "unspeakable loss" for the community, the Chabad of Bondi and "the entire Jewish nation".

"Eli was ripped away from us, doing what he loved best," he said.

"Spreading love and joy and caring for his people with endless self-sacrifice in his life and in his death, he towered above as one of the highest and holiest souls."

He was mourned by his father-in-law as a person beloved by the community. The 41-year-old was "my son, my friend, my confidant," Rabbi Yehoram Ulman told the congregation at the Chabad of Bondi.

"My biggest regret was, apart from the obvious, to tell Eli more often how much we love him, how much I love him, how much we appreciate everything that he does and how proud we are of him," Rabbi Ulman said.

"I hope he knew that but I think it should have been said more often."

Ulman also urged Jewish people not to hide in the aftermath of the attack and said that on Sunday night - the final night of Hanukkah - they would continue a 31-year-old tradition, and light the final candle on Bondi Beach.

"All the rabbis together, under the banner of our Chabat house of Bondi, to which Eli dedicated his life, we are going to gather in Bondi Beach," he said.

The funeral of Rabbi Yaakov Levitan is also expected to take place on Wednesday afternoon, while the funeral of 10-year-old Matilda, the youngest victim, is to take place on Thursday.

Speaking to reporters in Bondi on Wednesday, Matilda's father praised lifesavers, bystanders and police officers who came to their assistance as they struggled to save their daughter's life, and a woman who helped their younger daughter, Summer.

"I must say the biggest thank you to the lady that saved Summer," he said. "I don't know who she was but she literally hugged her for the whole ten minutes of shooting."

Opposition leader Sussan Ley, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, former prime minister Scott Morrison and Israeli Ambassador Amir Maimon were among those attending Schlanger's funeral.

Anthony Albanese was not present. Asked on ABC NewsRadio about his absence, the prime minister said, "I would attend anything that I'm invited to. These are funerals that are taking place to farewell people's loved ones."

The Jewish community has criticised Albanese for not taking enough action on antisemitism.

The prime minister defended himself against those accusations on Wednesday, telling ABC NewsRadio he had taken a series of measures including appointing the country's first antisemitism envoy, toughening hate speech laws and increasing funding for social cohesion projects and Jewish institutions.

He also said that one of the two men accused of carrying out Sunday's attack would be charged later on Wednesday, although NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon later said this may depend on his medical condition.

"It's important he has appropriate cognitive ability. For his fairness, we need him to understand what is exactly happening," he told reporters in Sydney.

Naveed Akram reportedly woke from a coma on Tuesday afternoon after being shot and critically injured by police in Sunday's attack. His father, 50-year-old Sajid Akram was shot dead.

The pair, who allegedly fired on people attending the Hanukkah festival for around 10 minutes, reportedly travelled to the Philippines in November and police are investigating whether they met with Islamic extremists.

Two police officers were critically injured in the shooting and police on Wednesday confirmed that one of them had lost the sight in one eye as a result.

Jack Hibbert, 22, had only been in the police force for four months when he was shot, police said in a statement. During the attack he had "responded with courage, instinct, and selflessness, continuing to protect and help others whilst injured, until he was physically no longer able to."

The second officer, constable Scott Dyson, underwent further surgery this morning and is in a critical but stable condition, Lanyon added.

Simon Atkinson contributed reporting.

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Patients are being told to expect disruption as doctors start their five-day strike in England, with NHS bosses saying they are struggling to keep as many services going as they have done in recent walkouts.

NHS England said with a wave of flu placing pressure on hospitals, non-urgent services would be affected by the strike which begins at 07:00 Wednesday.

This is the 14th walkout by resident doctors, the new name for junior doctors, in the long-running pay dispute.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the strike had been timed to inflict most damage on the NHS and put patients at risk, but the British Medical Association said it would work with NHS bosses to ensure patient safety.

The strike is being held after the two sides held last-minute talks on Tuesday afternoon.

The talks were described as "constructive" by the government, but not enough progress had been made to call off the strike.

Resident doctors represent nearly half of the doctors working in the NHS. They will walk out of both emergency and non-urgent care with senior doctors drafted in to provide cover.

In the two most recent strikes – in July and November – NHS England said it was able to keep the majority of non-urgent operations and treatments, such as hip and knee replacements, going.

But NHS England said it expected more disruption this time. Concern has also been expressed that hospitals may struggle to discharge patients in time for Christmas as the doctors who are working concentrate on providing strike cover.

Medical director Prof Meghana Pandit said: "These strikes come at an immensely challenging time for the NHS, with record numbers of patients in hospital with flu for this time of year.

"Staff will come together as they always do, going above and beyond to provide safe care for patients and limit disruption.

"But sadly more patients are likely to feel the impact of this round of strikes than in the previous two – and staff who are covering will not get the Christmas break they deserve with their families."

Streeting added: "We have been working right up to today to try and avert these strike actions.

"Everyone knows the period leading up to Christmas and into the New Year are always the busiest for the NHS. With super flu, this year is harder.

"And that double whammy of flu plus strikes means that there is an additional burden now on other NHS staff."

NHS England said GP practices will continue to be open and urgent and emergency care services will be available for those who need them.

But even then there is likely to be some disruption. Cheltenham General Hospital's emergency department is closing for emergencies during the strike - it will remain open for minor injuries - with patients advised to use nearby Gloucestershire Royal Hospital.

NHS England said the public should use 111 online as the first port of call for urgent, but not life-threatening issues during the strike.

Patients who need emergency medical care should continue to use 999 or come forward to A&E as normal, it added.

The strike is going ahead despite a new offer from the government being made last week, which included increasing the number of speciality training posts and covering out-of-pocket expenses like exam fees.

Getting job is 'nightmare'

The speciality training jobs, which resident doctors start in year three of their training after completing medical school, have become highly competitive.

This year 30,000 applicants went for 10,000 jobs – although some of the applicants were doctors from abroad.

Dr Tom Twentyman is one of those who lost out after trying to secure an emergency medicine post. He says finding a job is an "absolute nightmare".

Since then he has been struggling to find work, juggling a handful of locum shifts each month at the same time as applying for more than 40 short-term contracts at hospitals across the country – one of which he now secured.

But this will not count towards his training, so he will now look to reapply next year.

"Some of the job adverts were coming down within two hours of going up after they received 650 applications, which is clearly an enormous number to shortlist," he says.

On Monday the BMA announced its members had voted to continue with the strike – effectively rejecting the offer in the process – after the union agreed to hold an online poll of members.

BMA resident doctor leader Dr Jack Fletcher described it as a "resounding response" and said the government needed to go further on jobs as well as pay.

Streeting has maintained he will not discuss pay as doctors have received pay rises totalling nearly 30% over the past three years.

The BMA argues that, despite the pay rises, resident doctors' pay is still a fifth lower than it was in 2008, once inflation is taken into account.

Dr Fletcher added: "It is well past the time for ministers to come up with a genuinely long-term plan.

"If they can simply provide a clear route to responsibly raise pay over a number of years and enough genuinely new jobs instead of recycled ones, then there need not be any more strikes for the remainder of this government."

But the BMA said it was committed to ensuring patient safety.

"We will be in close contact with NHS England throughout the strikes to address safety concerns if they arise," the union added.

Paul Doyle's loss of temper on the day of the Liverpool parade attack, described by the sentencing judge as "incomprehensible", may never be fully explained.

There seemed little cause for the 54-year-old to feel so aggrieved by the crowds blocking the roads as they celebrated at Liverpool FC's Premier League victory parade on 26 May.

Whatever the reason, he is now serving a sentence of 21 years and six months after pleading guilty to 31 offences including dangerous driving, affray and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

This is how Doyle's increasing aggression on the roads developed into catastrophe over one afternoon, starting at 12:34 BST when a friend who he had agreed to drive to the parade arrived at his home.

12:34 – Paul Doyle's friend Dave Clark and his family arrive at his home in Croxteth, Liverpool. The Clark family are Liverpool fans and Doyle, an Everton fan, has agreed to drive them into the city centre to watch the parade.

12:41 – Doyle leaves home with Mr Clark and his family. On the "mundane" journey into the city, they speak about house prices, schools, football, cars, their common work in IT and family matters.

He then drops them off on Exchange Street East, where footage showed him driving calmly and following the traffic measures on Dale Street.

13:35 – Doyle arrives home after dropping his friends off on Exchange Street East. The court heard that while it did not form part of the dangerous driving charge, he "drove in a markedly more aggressive way" on his way home, jumping lanes and undertaking other vehicles.

14:30 – The victory parade starts at Allerton Maze, in the the south of Liverpool.

17:24 – Doyle sends Mr Clark a message asking "how's it going?" and is told his friend is on Castle Street, close to Dale Street and Water Street.

17:29 – Doyle sets off from his house to return to the city centre. He instructs the sat-nav system in his Ford Galaxy car to take him to Castle Street. On the way, he undertakes several cars and runs a red light.

17:40 – The Liverpool FC parade finishes when the buses arrive outside the Liver Building on the waterfront.

17:48 – Mr Clark sends Doyle a message telling him signal is poor. Doyle says he will be at Castle Street in about 10 minutes but does not reply when Mr Clark asks if he wants them to walk anywhere. Mr Clark also tells him he might find the area of Castle Street blocked.

17:54 – Doyle arrives on Dale Street from Byrom Street, having undertaken a series of other vehicles at traffic lights and gone around a roundabout in the wrong lane, coming close to pedestrians who are crossing the road.

He uses his horn and presses on down the road, despite a dense crowd of fans heading back from the waterfront. He drives through a red light at the junction with Stanley Street.

17:58 – A man walking with his child, who has not been identified, becomes concerned about Doyle's driving and places his foot on the bumper of the Ford Galaxy as he moves his child out of the way. He points at Doyle, who responds by shouting: "It's a [expletive] road."

After this interaction, Doyle continues to drive in the direction of the increasingly worried crowd, some of whom bang on his car roof.

He blasts his car horn and shouts further obscenities. Adults jump out of his way and children are pulled from his path.

He initially stops ahead of traffic cones put in place to divert traffic away from Water Street, which is full of fans, but then steers into the left lane.

The first person he hits is Jack Trotter, 23, who attempts to get out of the way but suffers an injury to his leg. He then drives into a group of people who are thrown onto his bonnet. He hits another group of people and then drives into a 10-year-old girl, before shouting "[Expletive] move".

He carries on down Water Street, striking more people, including Jacqueline McClaren, 60, and paramedic Jay Vernon, 34. He reverses and collides with an ambulance.

Doyle stops for a short time and fans surround his vehicle. One, ex soldier Dan Barr, opens the rear passenger door and gets into the car.

Doyle then accelerates again, hitting Simon Nash, who is thrown into the air. Driving sharply to the right, he hits Sheree Aldridge and the pram she is pushing, carrying six-month-old baby Teddy Eveson.

The pram, with Teddy in, is thrown into the air but the baby is uninjured. Ms Aldridge suffers a serious injury to her left thigh.

From the back of the car, Mr Barr leans forward and holds the automatic gear selector in park mode. Doyle continues to try and accelerate but eventually the car, with four people underneath it, comes to a stop.

18:01 – Doyle is dragged from his vehicle and quickly shielded from the crowd by police officers. In the two minutes since he drove into the crowd, 134 people have been hit.

Doyle pleaded not guilty to 31 charges when he appeared at Liverpool Crown Court on 4 September, with a trial scheduled for November.

Jurors were sworn in on 25 November but he changed his pleas the following day as the prosecution prepared to open its case.

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US President Donald Trump has said he is ordering a "a total and complete" blockade of all sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela.

In a post on Truth Social, he accused Venezuela of stealing US assets, such as oil and land, and of "Terrorism, Drug Smuggling, and Human Trafficking".

"Therefore, today, I am ordering A TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE OF ALL SANCTIONED OIL TANKERS going into, and out of, Venezuela," he added.

His post came a week after the US seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela – a move that marked a sharp escalation Washington's pressure campaign against Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro's government.

In the post, the US president said Venezuela was "completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America".

He added that it will "only get bigger" and "be like nothing they have ever seen before".

Trump also accused Maduro's government of using stolen oil to "finance themselves, Drug Terrorism, Human Trafficking, Murder, and Kidnapping".

Venezuela has not yet responded to Trump's latest remarks.

The Trump administration has repeatedly accused Venezuela of drug smuggling and since September the US military has killed at least 90 people in strikes on boats it has alleged were carrying fentanyl and other illegal drugs to the US.

In recent months, the US has also moved warships into the region.

Venezuela - home to some of the world's largest proven oil reserves - has, in turn, accused Washington of seeking to steal its resources.

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Prosecutors in Los Angeles have filed murder charges against a son of Rob and Michele Reiner, the Hollywood couple who were found dead in their home with multiple stab wounds on Sunday.

Nick Reiner, 32, is facing two counts of first-degree murder and could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. He will be brought to court to formally face charges after he is "medically-cleared" by prison officials, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Hochman also said no decision had yet been made about whether to seek the death penalty.

Rob Reiner directed several iconic films in a variety of genres, including This is Spinal Tap, Misery and A Few Good Men.

Michele Singer Reiner was an actress, photographer and producer, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production company.

Their son Nick Reiner is facing two counts of first degree murder, "with a special circumstance of multiple murders," according to Hochman. That enhancement could lead to a stiffer sentence if he is later found guilty.

District Attorney Hochman said he also is accused of using a "dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife".

The suspect is currently undergoing medical testing to ensure that he can attend court. He is expected to appear before a judge later on Tuesday for an arraignment hearing, where he will be able to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

LA Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell also spoke during the news conference, describing how the case has reverberated throughout the city.

"This case is heartbreaking and deeply personal, not only for the Reiner family and their loved ones, but for the entire city," he said.

"We extend our deepest condolences to everyone affected by this tragedy."

During the news conference, officials declined to say how the suspect was located, attributing his arrest to "good, solid police work".

District Attorney Hochman added that it is too early to say whether any "mental illness" played a role in the crime, and speculated that it could come up at trial.

"If there is evidence of mental illness, it will appear in court, in whatever details the defence seeks to present," he said.

Hollywood star Timothée Chalamet is compiling his list of five Brits who he considers to be all-time greats.

"Lewis Hamilton, David and Victoria," he begins, referring to the seven-time Formula One champion and the Beckhams.

"Fakemink," he continues, naming the underground London rapper who recently teamed up with EsDeeKid, the anonymous Liverpool drill artist who many have linked to Chalamet.

("No comment," is his reply when pressed on this. "All will be revealed.")

But Chalamet's final pick of someone who demonstrated British greatness comes totally out of left field.

After a long pause and some deep thought, he reveals his answer: "Susan Boyle."

Yes, it turns out that one of the biggest movie stars on the planet is an admirer of the 64-year-old former Britain's Got Talent star, who went on to have two US number one albums.

"She dreamt bigger than all of us," he explains, without any hint of irony.

"Who wasn't moved by that?" he says about the 2009 viral clip of the Scottish singer performing I Dreamed A Dream from Les Misérables on the talent show.

"I remember that like it was yesterday," the actor says. "That was like the advent of YouTube, you know."

Chalamet, 29, knows a lot about using social media to advance a career.

The reason he is selecting great Britons, is due to one of the many ways he has found to promote his new 1950s table tennis film, Marty Supreme.

For the last month, he has been presenting jackets bearing the film's title to people he deems as being a great.

Honourees so far include swimmer Michael Phelps, NFL legend Tom Brady and Barcelona's Spanish wonder kid Lamine Yamal.

Now his promotional tour has taken him to London, where he opened a pop-up store and is now sitting in a hotel bar looking out over Hyde Park.

I had asked him which Brits would be worth of receiving a jacket, resulting in the SuBo surprise.

Chalamet's frenetically entertaining performance in Marty Supreme has already landed him best actor nominations at both the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, and the Oscar race is currently seen as a head-to-head between him and Leonardo DiCaprio.

The film is based on real life post-war table tennis star, Marty Reisman. The semi-fictionalised film version Marty Mauser, however, has some dubious morals, getting involved in a heist and trying to destroy the marriage of his biggest sponsor, who he resents.

Despite his questionable on-screen actions, Chalamet is a big fan of his character.

"You know, when you're in your early twenties, you're an idiot," he laughs. "And this movie, in large part, is about being an idiot in your early twenties.

"And if on top of that, you have a passion that you're singular about, you risk looking foolish in addition to being an idiot."

Marty Mauser exudes the same confidence that Chalamet demonstrated while collecting his best actor SAG Award this year for playing Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.

During his acceptance speech he pontificated: "I'm really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don't usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats," before listing Daniel Day Lewis, Marlon Brando, Viola Davis and Michael Jordan, as actors who inspired him.

I ask where his confidence comes from.

"You know, it ebbs and flows. And I feel like that's kind of what keeps me on my toes," he says, in a far more humble way that he demonstrated on stage at the SAGs, wearing a bright green suit.

"It's my New York mentality insofar as if I'm on a movie or in a social situation, if things are going well, you feel great. And if not, the world's falling apart," he says, becoming far more introspective than I had expected.

"And I think increasingly in my life, like as I approach 30 here in a couple weeks, you want to be more on your feet. You want to grow into yourself. But that is a constant learning process. And it's a huge learning curve. And I try not to be too hard on myself or those around me who are also growing."

The actor's landmark birthday presents the perfect chance to ask him how he looks back at his twenties, a decade in which he has twice been nominated for best actor at the Oscars, and starred in huge box office hits including Dune and Wonka.

A huge smile comes over his face as he says: "It's been great. You know, it's been awesome.

"I feel like I'm living in a dream. I'm on top of a fancy hotel in London and talking about a film I'm deeply passionate about.

"And, you know, I got to offend somebody from Scotland the second they walked in with my English shirt," he jokes, referencing my barely disguised displeasure at his choice of interview garb.

Chalamet's dedication to roles is part of his success. He spent five years learning to play the guitar to play Bob Dylan; for Marty Supreme he embarked on seven years of table tennis lessons.

"I got approached with this project in 2018. So that basically gave me six, seven years to prepare on and off. In all my downtime, I would train as much as possible," he enthuses.

"I think the responsibility in this movie, like in the Bob Dylan movie, if you were a Dylan fan or a guitar player, that that looks real to you on screen. Similarly here, if you're a ping-pong aficionado, that that looks believable to you."

His dedication included taking his table tennis table into the desert during Dune and it was oompah-loompah ping-pong between takes on Wonka.

And he's already learning skills for film roles way in the future.

"I can't give anything away, but I do have a couple of white rabbits up my sleeve."

One thing that is totally clear, is his love of the big screen.

In the same month that Netflix has announced its intention to buy one of the major film studios, Warner Bros, Marty Supreme is a film which will have a wide cinema release and has not been made for any streaming service.

It has been produced by A24, the independent film company behind recent Oscar favourites Moonlight, Past Lives and The Brutalist.

"That is an intense question," Chalamet muses after I ask him if he thinks cinemas will actually survive the length of his career.

"I do think with streaming stuff, there's less incentive for these streaming companies to try to put things in theatres, which is dangerous.

"But equally, I do think cinemas will survive and thrive. And that's not to be a false optimist."

And he wants to play his part.

"I feel like my responsibility as a young actor especially, is less to go, 'Hey, how do we get people to revisit this traditional form?' And rather to go, "Hey, how do we take this traditional form and bring it to people?"

Chalamet sincerely believes that Marty Supreme will, in its own way, help cinemas be saved.

"This is an original film at a time where a lot of original films aren't made.

"And there's no part of me that's a salesman that's saying this, but I've never been more confident in saying, "Hey, if you bring yourself to see this movie, you won't be let down. It's really like a slingshot."

Timothée Chalamet – about to turn 30 and more than ready to channel his inner Susan Boyle and dream his dream.

Marty Supreme is released on Boxing Day.

A BBC investigation has uncovered claims that essay cheating remains widespread at UK universities despite the introduction of a law designed to stop it.

Since April 2022, it has been illegal to provide essays for students in post-16 education in England. But so far there have been no prosecutions.

The BBC has spoken to a former lecturer who describes essay cheating as an "open secret" and to a businessman who claims to have made millions from selling "model answer" essays to university students.

Universities UK, which represents 141 institutions, said there were "severe penalties" for students caught submitting work that was not their own.

One international student said the opportunity to study a master's degree at a British university was a dream come true.

Alia, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, said she and her 20 overseas classmates struggled with writing long essays during their course at the University of Lincoln – and many soon stopped engaging.

"It was both their lack of knowledge in English language and the fact that they did not care for the lesson and were talking to each other or playing on their phones," she said.

According to Alia, many of the students turned to essay-writing companies, which were easy to find online and charged about £20 for 1,000 words.

She was determined to do her own work, but said she was laughed at and called stupid by some classmates who told her: "You are losing sleep, missing your meals and getting so tired – just pay someone."

Alia claimed that by the second module, about a third of her cohort missed every class and "some would just stand behind the class door, submit their presence and leave".

It is not illegal to cheat at university, but since 2022 it has been a criminal offence to provide, arrange or advertise cheating services for financial gain to students taking a qualification at any post-16 educational institution in England.

The BBC found dozens of examples of companies continuing to advertise their essay-writing services to UK students, through their own websites and on social media.

However, both the Crown Prosecution Service and the Department for Education, which have powers to prosecute, told the BBC they had no recorded offences reaching a first hearing in a magistrate's court under the Skills and Post-16 Education Act.

Barclay Littlewood, who is from Huddersfield but based in Dubai, says he has made millions from the industry.

Mr Littlewood was working as a barrister when he started writing essays for other people in 2003. His company now claims to use a global network of 3,000 freelance writers – some of whom he says are lecturers – covering topics including law, business and sociology.

He said his prices started at £200, though larger orders for doctorate or masters-level essays could cost "up to £20,000".

When challenged by the BBC, he denied breaking English law, claiming his essays were a "model answer" on which students could base their own work.

Mr Littlewood said he had now developed his own artificial intelligence, drawing on hundreds of thousands of essays written by his company. This meant customers could have a university-level, "guaranteed grade" essay in minutes.

The BBC arranged for Steve Foster, a former lecturer, to mark an essay we generated through Mr Littlewood's tool, claiming to be of a 2:1 degree-grade standard.

Mr Foster taught English language at the International Study Centre, affiliated to the University of Lincoln, for eight years, before lecturing for four years at the university's business school.

He said he could tell the essay was not written by a student because there was no "human touch", but it was of a 2:1 standard and had "no mistakes whatsoever".

The scale of essay cheating was an "open secret" and one of the reasons he left the sector in 2024, Mr Foster said.

On one occasion, he saw a receipt from an essay-writing service fall out of a paper as his colleague marked it.

Mr Foster said he believed cheating was more prevalent among international students because some did not have good enough English language skills.

He described one overseas student scoring 2% in an exam and 99% in an essay.

"When you get that kind of disparity in the marks, it's clear the student has been cheating," he said.

"When you see a student who clearly struggled with the language and they submit an essay which William Shakespeare would have been proud of, then immediately that's going to arouse suspicion."

Mr Foster claimed many teachers "turned a blind eye" to cheating, which had allowed the problem to "snowball".

"Would you want to travel over a bridge that's been designed by one of these students?" he asked. "Would you like to put this accountant in charge of your business's operations?"

In a statement, Universities UK said the Home Office set the level of English required as part of the conditions for student visas.

"All universities have codes of conduct that include severe penalties for students found to be submitting work that is not their own," the statement added.

Universities have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students in recent years, as tuition fees from UK students have not kept up with inflation.

Earlier this year, a report warned more than four in 10 universities would soon be in financial difficulty, mostly because of a drop in the number of international students coming to the UK.

In the most recent year of data (2023-24), there were 730,000 non-UK students enrolled at UK universities, making up 25% of the total student population.

The BBC submitted Freedom of Information requests to every university in the UK, asking how many formal academic misconduct investigations into essay cheating had taken place in the academic year ending summer 2024, and how many involved international students.

Of the 53 higher education institutions that provided usable responses, 48 reported that international students were disproportionately represented in academic misconduct investigations.

Penalties for cheating can range from a warning or being awarded zero marks, to suspension or exclusion.

Universities UK declined to comment on the possible reasons for the high proportion of international students being investigated. But one university told the BBC it was likely because many misconduct cases were about poor practice – such as bad referencing – rather than intentional misconduct.

The University of Lincoln was one of the most extreme examples, with 78% of 387 investigations involving non-UK students, who make up only 22% of the institution's student population.

A spokesperson for the university said academic misconduct was a "sector-wide challenge". Alleged breaches were "thoroughly investigated and addressed through our established processes, with appropriate responses where misconduct is confirmed".

Higher education institutions run essays through programmes such as Turnitin, which are designed to detect plagiarism and false authorship.

Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer at Turnitin, said the rise of AI had made detection and deterrence "more critical than ever".

In more than one in 10 papers reviewed since 2023, Turnitin said its detection tool found AI wrote at least 20% of the material.

Turnitin said essay mills were still popular because of a growing demand for services that evade AI detection - preying on students' fear of being caught.

Eve Alcock, the director of public affairs at the Quality Assurance Agency, which aims to improve standards in higher education, said essay mills remained a "threat to academic integrity across the UK".

She encouraged universities to consider moving away from essay-based assessments in response to the rise of generative AI tools, to allow for more "authentic" assessments.

Alia, who has now finished her course, said she felt disillusioned by her experience.

"I have learned a lot myself, and achieved a lot, but how is the employer going to see the difference between someone like me and these people?" she asked.

"When the grades were released, for most of the modules they got better grades and were laughing at me.

"I am not proud of this degree anymore."

An advert which targeted weight-loss injections at new mums has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

MedExpress's social media post used a harmful gender stereotype which suggested women should prioritise losing weight soon after giving birth, the ASA said.

The ad was banned along with two by SkinnyJab and CheqUp for irresponsibly exploiting insecurities around body image. All three firms have removed the ads.

It is illegal to advertise prescription-only weight loss drugs to the public. The ASA said the "scale of the problem" was worst now as people feel extra pressure to lose weight as part of New Year resolutions.

MedExpress's video advert on Instagram featured a woman taking a selfie in the mirror with text reading: "I wish I knew sooner that I could lose post-baby weight with a medicated weight loss treatment from MedExpress".

The ASA said it understood the weight-loss medication "carried safety warnings for people who were breast-feeding". It said the advert was "irresponsible" as it "perpetuated pressure for them to conform to body image stereotypes".

MedExpress told the BBC that as a result of the ASA ban, it had "strengthened our internal sign-off processes, introduced additional sensitivity checks, and enhanced advertising governance across all conditions and categories we serve."

Stigma associated with being a certain size

All three adverts appeared on social media platforms including Facebook and TikTok where online sellers seek to gain space in the hugely popular weight-loss jab market which is now worth billions of dollars globally.

CheqUp's Facebook advert featured a woman looking in the mirror with the quote: "I don't want to be skinny, I just don't want to be the biggest person in the room".

Complaints to the ASA said this suggested a stigma associated with being a certain size.

"Furthermore, by showing the model looking into a mirror, the ad emphasised physical appearance rather than health," the ASA said.

The firm had argued that the advert's text focused on the model not wanting to be "skinny", but rather wanting to get to a healthy weight - but the advertising watchdog disagreed, saying the model was not necessarily unhealthily overweight in the first place.

CheqUp sells prescription-only weight-loss jabs as well as over-the-counter ones, and says it has a three-minute online consultation with a healthcare professional that tests buyers for suitability.

Weight-loss jabs have grown in popularity

A spokesperson for the company said it moved quickly to comply with the ASA, had removed the advert and was fully committed to taking an "ethical approach" to advertising in the health and wellness space.

Weight-loss jabs were originally developed to help patients lose weight to control their diabetes, but soon began to be used for cosmetic purposes. They gained further popularity as celebrities such as Adele, Rebel Wilson, Sharon Osbourne and Tesla-owner Elon Musk were open about the rapid weight loss they've experienced using the jabs.

Meanwhile, SkinnyJab's video of its founder talking about weight loss injections was not an educational and informative resource, as the firm had argued, but was in fact an advert and subject to the ASA's regulations. It said the firm could not promote prescription-only medicines to the public in future by, for example, using the term "SkinnyJab" in marketing material.

The firm said it had removed the advert and was conducting a full review of its branding, terminology and communications.

Learner drivers face months of delays booking practical tests because a backlog will not be cleared until November 2027, a watchdog has warned.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said there was a backlog of 1.1 million tests that were not carried out in the 2020/21 financial year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and around 360,000 of these had still not been booked.

The average waiting time was 22 weeks in September, but at 70% of test centres the wait has hit 24 weeks – the maximum allowed.

The Department for Transport (DfT) said it was "taking decisive action to address the backlog", including employing military driving examiners.

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) had planned to cut waiting times to seven weeks by the end of 2025.

The NAO's inquiry found delays have led to people paying third parties to secure tests, some of whom were "paying significantly inflated prices of up to £500" - nearly eight times the official DVSA fee of £62 for a weekday slot.

It said the DVSA struggled to "understand the real demand for tests" because third party websites quickly book available slots using automated programmes known as bots.

"These delays can have a serious impact on learner drivers' income and the economy, with 30% of respondents to a DVSA survey saying they need to be able to drive for their jobs," the watchdog said.

The NAO also reported a lack of examiners and found many were leaving "due to uncompetitive pay and safety concerns". Despite running 19 recruitment campaigns since 2021, DVSA has only hired 83 extra examiners, far short of its 400 target.

In the 2023/24 financial year, DVSA had a total of 220 staff at its 240 test centres who were qualified examiners.

Learner driver Shiromi Gaughan, a small business owner in London, says she has been trying to book a test for the past eight months since she passed her theory exam two years ago, and felt "sick" when she found out it would cost her £350 for a slot from a third party seller.

She told the BBC: "It's really unfair and I'm extremely frustrated. As a small business owner from London, I've been really struggling over time.

"People like us are just so desperate."

Normally learners must take their practical test within two years of passing the theory test.

She urged the government to "do something about this because it's totally unacceptable".

She added: "I think the government need to review the whole system as they're actually aware of what is happening with the scammers or the third party agencies.

"Now I'm having to retake my theory test and spend more money so I'm extremely disappointed."

Learner driver Martha Machiek, a single parent from Stockport, said she is "very stressed" trying to book a driving test slot.

She needs a licence to save time and money taking her children to and from school and football practice.

Ms Machiek says her theory test certificate expires at the end of the month, and if she cannot book a practical test in time, she will have to start over, which she cannot afford.

"The system is not being fair on people like us," she said.

"I don't have money to book another one."

The NAO urged DVSA and the DfT to assess whether there was enough support for learners booking tests and to investigate how to boost the examiner workforce.

Gareth Davies, the head of the NAO, said "decisive action" needed to be taken to fix the delays and improve service.

"The current system for providing driving tests in England, Scotland and Wales is not working satisfactorily, with long waiting times and exploitation of learner drivers by resellers of test slots."

The DfT said it had inherited a system which was "frustrating" and open to abuse, leaving learners waiting weeks for a test.

A spokesperson said the government was "seeing improvement" with the measures it had been taking.

From spring, only learner drivers will be able to book tests and limits will be placed on the number of times they can move or swap a test.

The government said it hopes this will stop third-party companies "exploiting vulnerable learners and make the whole process more transparent".

"The DVSA has already carried out 74,847 extra tests between June and November this year compared to 2024, and these new measures will deliver thousands more extra tests over the next year," the spokesperson added.

The escalating tension between the US and Venezuela has led to the biggest military build-up in the Caribbean since the end of the Cold War.

The last time so many US warships and troops were sent to the region was in 1989, when Washington removed Panama's President Manuel Noriega – whom it accused of drug-trafficking – from office.

But the similarities between the two moments are outweighed by their differences.

On 16 December 1989, US Marine Lt Robert Paz was in the back of a Chevrolet Impala making his way to the Marriott Hotel in Panama City for dinner, just as US tensions with the Panamanian strongman were reaching boiling point.

When the car, which was carrying four US military personnel stationed in the country, reached a checkpoint of the Panamanian Defence Forces, six soldiers surrounded the vehicle.

Following an altercation, the Panamanians opened fire as it drove away, killing Paz. His death set in motion the US invasion of Panama four days later, on 20 December.

It remains the last major US incursion on foreign soil in the Americas.

By the end of what Washington dubbed "Operation Just Cause", around 30,000 US troops had been mobilised, and Noriega had been forced from power and whisked to Miami to face trial on drug-smuggling charges.

The UN estimates around 500 Panamanian civilians were killed in the invasion. The US claims it was far fewer, while its critics say it was many more.

The invasion of Panama was also the last time there was a major US military build-up in the Caribbean on the level we are now seeing in the waters around Venezuela.

The parallels between the two moments are noticeable, but so too are the differences.

Firstly, the similarities. They may be separated by several decades but in each instance, an escalating war of words between Washington and a Latin American strongman after years of enmity led to a major US military deployment in the region.

Both involve allegations by Washington of presidential involvement in drug trafficking which have increased the internal pressure on a beleaguered Latin American leader.

In the cases of both Noriega and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, the US government's core argument is that they and their governments trafficked drugs.

Ultimately, the premise that the opposing president is, in essence, a drug lord has become the justification Washington has provided to the US public for all subsequent steps.

Both nations also have huge strategic importance – in the Panama Canal and Venezuela's vast oil reserves – which raises the stakes considerably.

However, the differences are also stark.

The Cold War and the 21st Century are very different moments, and George HW Bush – who was at the helm in the US in 1989 – and Donald Trump are very different leaders.

Noriega had been a CIA asset for many years and was eventually convicted on some irrefutable evidence which ranged from financial records to the testimony of men who had run drug flights or laundered drug money in Panama for the Medellín Cartel. Even one of the cartel's top leaders fingered Noriega as personally involved the illegal trade.

In the instance of Maduro, the Trump administration makes a direct link between go-fast boats which they have hit with lethal air strikes in the Caribbean and Maduro himself.

Washington's accusation against Maduro is that he heads the Cartel of the Suns, a group which allegedly comprises members and ex-members of the Venezuelan top military brass.

But many drug war analysts question whether the Cartel of the Suns is a formal criminal group or rather a loose alliance of corrupt officials who have enriched themselves from the smuggling of drugs and natural resources via Venezuelan ports.

For their part, Maduro and his administration deny the existence of any such cartel, painting it as an unfounded "narrative" disseminated by Washington to dislodge them from power.

"They have suddenly dusted off something called the Cartel of the Suns," said Venezuela's powerful Interior Minister, Diosdado Cabello. "They've never and will never be able to prove its existence because it doesn't exist. It's an imperialist invention," he said last month.

There is, however, evidence of drug-trafficking within the first family in Venezuela.

Two of Maduro's nephews through marriage were arrested in Haiti in a sting operation by the US Drug Enforcement Administration in 2015.

The children of the sister of Maduro's wife were caught trying to smuggle 800kg of cocaine into the US.

Since known as the "narco-nephews", Francisco Flores de Freitas and Efrain Antonio Campo Flores spent several years in a US prison before being returned to Venezuela in 2022 as part of a prisoner swap under the Biden administration.

The Trump administration has now hit the two alongside a third nephew, Carlos Erik Malpica Flores, with fresh sanctions.

Announcing the sanctions, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said: "Nicolás Maduro and his criminal associates in Venezuela are flooding the United States with drugs that are poisoning the American people."

"Treasury is holding the regime and its circle of cronies and companies accountable for its continued crimes," he added.

"Circle of cronies" sounds like the kind of language Washington used to describe Noriega's government in the 1980s. A US Senate subcommittee report at the time called it "the hemisphere's first narco-kleptocracy".

Fast-forward 36 years and the key plank of the Trump administration's strategy against Maduro hinges on the use of the term "narco-terrorism".

It is controversial because of the broad scope of its legal definition. As early as 1987, the US Department of Justice defined narco-terrorism as "the involvement of terrorist organisations and insurgent groups in drug trafficking" which it noted "has become a problem with international implications".

The issue in the Venezuelan context is the legal basis under international law for Washington's latest actions as it pursues its stated aim of combating "narco-terrorism" in the Americas.

The Trump administration has said it is now engaged in a "non-international armed conflict" with the drug cartels and has justified its strikes on alleged narco-boats in the Caribbean under that definition.

The Pentagon argues the vessels are valid targets under the rules of engagement. In recent days, though, serious questions have been raised over a second strike on an alleged drug-boat on 2 September, in which two survivors from an initial strike were killed.

The Trump administration has robustly defended itself against allegations that the second strike amounted to extrajudicial killings. However, the issue has not gone away nor have the calls for video footage of the strike – recently seen by senior lawmakers during a closed-door briefing to members of Congress – to be made public.

After initially suggesting he would have "no problem" with the footage of the follow-up strike being published, Trump said the decision was up to the Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth.

So far, the Pentagon has not published the video or the legal advice around the second strike, but the White House insists it was carried out "in accordance with the law of armed conflict".

US-Venezuela tensions continue to escalate and intensify, not least following the seizure by US forces of a tanker filled with Venezuelan crude oil.

Trump has indicated that after the US take control of the airspace and the seas around Venezuela, all that is left is to control the land. Many are holding on to the hope that some kind of negotiated solution may yet be possible – although it is hard to see one which would satisfy both Maduro and the White House.

From examining the lesson of Panama, though, one thing remains clear: while this modern conflict may be less conventional than the invasion of Christmas 1989, the combustible situation in Venezuela has no less potential to be detonated by a single moment – like the killing of Lt Robert Paz in Panama – into something much larger.

Prosecutors in Los Angeles have filed murder charges against a son of Rob and Michele Reiner, the Hollywood couple who were found dead in their home with multiple stab wounds on Sunday.

Nick Reiner, 32, is facing two counts of first-degree murder and could be sentenced to life in prison if found guilty. He will be brought to court to formally face charges after he is "medically-cleared" by prison officials, District Attorney Nathan Hochman said.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Hochman also said no decision had yet been made about whether to seek the death penalty.

Rob Reiner directed several iconic films in a variety of genres, including This is Spinal Tap, Misery and A Few Good Men.

Michele Singer Reiner was an actress, photographer and producer, and the founder of Reiner Light, a photography agency and production company.

Their son Nick Reiner is facing two counts of first degree murder, "with a special circumstance of multiple murders," according to Hochman. That enhancement could lead to a stiffer sentence if he is later found guilty.

District Attorney Hochman said he also is accused of using a "dangerous and deadly weapon, that being a knife".

The suspect is currently undergoing medical testing to ensure that he can attend court. He is expected to appear before a judge later on Tuesday for an arraignment hearing, where he will be able to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

LA Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell also spoke during the news conference, describing how the case has reverberated throughout the city.

"This case is heartbreaking and deeply personal, not only for the Reiner family and their loved ones, but for the entire city," he said.

"We extend our deepest condolences to everyone affected by this tragedy."

During the news conference, officials declined to say how the suspect was located, attributing his arrest to "good, solid police work".

District Attorney Hochman added that it is too early to say whether any "mental illness" played a role in the crime, and speculated that it could come up at trial.

"If there is evidence of mental illness, it will appear in court, in whatever details the defence seeks to present," he said.

The UK is set to rejoin the Erasmus scheme, the BBC understands, five years after announcing that it would end its participation as part of the Brexit deal with the European Union.

The EU provides funding through the scheme for people to study, train or volunteer in other European countries for up to a year.

The UK replaced it with its own Turing scheme in 2021, which funds similar placements worldwide.

The government said it would not comment on ongoing talks.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer had suggested in May that a youth mobility scheme could be part of a new deal with the EU.

The Erasmus scheme was scrapped in the UK in December 2020, when the government announced its post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.

Boris Johnson, prime minister at the time, said it was a "tough decision", but the scheme had become "extremely expensive".

He said it would be replaced by the Turing scheme, which has operated since then.

Both schemes are open not just to university students, but also to people doing vocational courses, as well as apprentices and people training at college or school.

In 2020, the last year in which the UK participated in Erasmus, the scheme received 144m euros (£126m) of EU funding for 55,700 people to take part in Erasmus projects overall.

The UK sent out 9,900 students and trainees to other countries as part of the scheme that year, while 16,100 came the other way.

Glasgow, Bristol and Edinburgh were the three universities to send the most students, and Spain, France and Germany were the most popular countries which UK students went to.

In the 2024/25 academic year, the Turing scheme had £105m of funding, which paid for 43,200 placements, with 24,000 of those being in higher education, 12,100 in further education and 7,000 in schools.

The majority (38,000) were from England, with 2,900 from Scotland, 1,000 from Wales and 1,200 from Northern Ireland.

Ministers who introduced the Turing scheme in 2021 said it was designed to benefit more people from disadvantaged backgrounds and provide greater support for travel costs than the Erasmus scheme did.

It is not yet clear what will happen to the Turing scheme once Erasmus is reintroduced for UK students.

At least 15 civilians have been confirmed dead in Sunday's shooting attack at Bondi beach.

Many were attending an event to mark the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.

Authorities have confirmed that two rabbis, a Holocaust survivor and a 10-year-old girl were among the victims.

This is what we know about those identified so far:

Matilda, 10

Authorities confirmed that a 10-year-old girl, named by her family to local media as Matilda, was among the dead.

Irina Goodhew, who organised a fundraiser for the girl's mother and said she was the child's former teacher, wrote: " I knew her as a bright, joyful, and spirited child who brought light to everyone around her.'

The Harmony Russian School of Sydney also confirmed that she was one of its students.

"We are deeply saddened to share the news that a former student of our school has passed away in the hospital due to injuries sustained from a gunshot," the school wrote on Facebook.

"Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences go out to her family, friends, and everyone affected by this tragic event … Her memory will remain in our hearts, and we honor her life and the time she spent as part of our school family."

Meanwhile her aunt spoke to ABC news and said that Matilda's sister, who was with her when she was shot, was struggling to come to terms with the loss.

"They were like twins — they've never been separated," she told the ABC.

Rabbi Eli Schlanger

Known as the "Bondi Rabbi", Eli Schlanger, 41, was one of the key organisers of Sunday's event. He was head of the local Chabad mission, an international Hasidic Jewish organisation based in Brooklyn.

The death of the British-born father of five was confirmed by his cousin, Rabbi Zalman Lewis.

"My dear cousin, Rabbi Eli Schlanger @bondirabbi was murdered in today's terrorist attack in Sydney," Zalman wrote on Instagram. "He leaves behind his wife & young children, as well as my uncle & aunt & siblings … He was truly an incredible guy".

In a post on its website, Chabad said Schlanger's youngest child was just two months old.

"He was the most godly, humane, kind, gracious human being I think I've ever met," Alex Ryvchin of the Executive Council of Australia Jewry, told reporters at Bondi on Monday morning.

Dan Elkayam

The death of French national Dan Elkayam was confirmed by Frances's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.

"It's with immense sadness that we have learnt that our compatriot Dan Elkayam was among the victims of the terrorist attack that hit Jewish families gathered on the beach at Bondi in Sydney," he wrote on social media. "We mourn with his family and loved ones, with the Jewish community and the Australian people."

According to his LinkedIn profile, Elkayam worked as an IT analyst for NBCUniversal and had moved to Australia last year.

He was also a keen footballer, and "an integral member" of our premier league squad, the Rockdale Ilindin Football Club in west Sydney wrote on its Facebook page.

He was "an extremely talented and popular figure amongst team mates. Our deepest and sincerest condolances to Dan's family, friends and all that knew him. He will be missed," the club wrote.

Alexander Kleytman

Alexander Kleytman was a holocaust survivor who came to Australia from Ukraine.

"I have no husband. I don't know where is his body. Nobody can give me any answer," his wife Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside a Sydney hospital late on Sunday.

"We were standing and suddenly came the 'boom boom', and everybody fell down. At this moment he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me," she told the Australian.

Chabad wrote on X that Alexander "died shielding her from the gunman's bullets. In addition to his wife, he leaves behind two children and 11 grandchildren."

The couple shared some of their life story with Jewish Care in 2023.

"As children, both Larisa and Alexander faced the unspeakable terror of the Holocaust," the health organisation wrote in its annual report.

"Alex's memories are particularly harrowing; recalling the dreadful conditions in Siberia where he, along with his mother and younger brother, struggled for survival."

Peter Meagher

Former police officer Peter Meagher was working as a freelance photographer at the Hanukkah event when he was killed, his rugby club confirmed.

"For him it was simply a catastrophic case of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time," Mark Harrison, the general manager of Randwick Rugby Club, wrote on its website.

"'Marzo, as he was universally known, was a much loved figure and absolute legend in our club, with decades of voluntary involvement, he was one of the heart and soul figures of Randwick Rugby."

The club said he had spent almost four decades in the NSW Police Force where he was "hugely respected by colleagues".

"The tragic irony is that he spent so long in the dangerous front line as a Police Officer and was struck down in retirement while taking photos in his passion role is really hard to comprehend," the club said.

Reuven Morrison

Reuven Morrison migrated to Australia from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s as a teenager, according to an interview he gave to the ABC exactly a year ago.

"We came here with the view that Australia is the safest country in the world and the Jews would not be faced with such anti-Semitism in the future, where we can bring up our kids in a safe environment," he told the national broadcaster.

Confirming his death, Chabad said that he was a longtime resident of Melbourne, but that he "discovered his Jewish identity in Sydney".

"A successful businessman whose main goal was to give away his earnings to charities dear to his heart, notably Chabad of Bondi," the organisation wrote on X.

To his close friends and family, Paul Doyle was a "diamond". A dependable, generous and successful father-of-three.

To his 134 victims - the babies, children and adults mown down at the Liverpool FC victory parade on 26 May - he represents sheer terror.

That is the paradox of Paul Doyle: Why did a man who served in the Royal Marines and then built a successful and stable life plough a 1.9 tonne Ford Galaxy Titanium into a joyous crowd of Liverpool FC fans?

The 54-year-old, from Croxteth in Liverpool, was jailed for 21 years and six months at Liverpool Crown Court earlier after admitting 31 offences - including dangerous driving, affray and multiple counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

• As it happened: Liverpool parade attacker Paul Doyle sentenced to 21 years and 6 months in prison

Over two days of extraordinary proceedings, the court heard and saw how IT networking engineer Doyle's car knocked prams aside and dragged children and an elderly woman under the wheels on Liverpool's packed Water Street.

Those victims included Ukrainian war refugee Anna Bilonozhenko and Manchester Arena bombing survivor Francesca Massey, who surely thought they had experienced more than their share of trauma before 26 May.

And yet, Doyle is still a man with friends.

"It's quite hard for some people to understand but from my perspective, he's still Paul to me," said one, who did not wish to be named.

"Obviously the harm he's caused to the victims isn't great, but I'm still grateful he's in my life."

That loyalty was a result of 32 blameless years of education and hard work.

He was a man who avoided drugs and alcohol and who loved the outdoors. His hobbies included triathlons and hiking with his close circle of friends in Eryri National Park or the Lake District.

One friend said Doyle would "drop anything to help you".

He highlighted how the 54-year-old had agreed to drop off and pick up his wife's friends in the city centre on the day of the parade amid crowds of around a million.

"If someone had asked me to do that, I probably would have told them to [expletive] off, but that was Paul," he said.

Those who worked with him in various companies across the UK, including fellow ex-soldier Mike Hern, told the BBC he was a well-liked colleague.

Mr Hern described him as a "mentor" with a "good sense of humour".

His neighbours in the smart, quiet Croxteth cul-de-sac on Burghill Road, where Doyle lived with his wife and three sons for around 10 years, saw the family as "lovely people".

Catherine Tremarco, who used to live next door to Doyle and his wife at a previous address before he moved to Burghill Road, echoed those sentiments.

She said: "They were lovely neighbours. When they moved in they were getting married and they invited the whole close to the wedding.

"My husband and I couldn't go because we had a pre-booked holiday, but I couldn't do them any injustice, they were lovely."

One man, who serviced the car that Doyle "used as a weapon" in the words of prosecutors, told the BBC: "To me he seemed like a sensible, family man.

"He gave no indication of being capable of something like that. I'm very surprised something like this happened."

Doyle 'bit sailor's ear off'

The news that Doyle was responsible for injuring and maiming helpless pedestrians was met by his friends and family with astonishment.

When he got the message to say Doyle was responsible for the carnage being broadcast on every national news network, his friend said: "I just went blank."

But deeper in his past, and unknown to even some of his closest friends, was evidence of a dangerous, explosive temper.

We now know that between the ages of 18 and 22, Doyle's life seemed likely to be heading down a troubling path.

Despite making it into the Royal Marines, he had racked up a series of convictions including for serious violence and was forced out of the military.

Most alarmingly, on 2 July 1993, a drunken fight in a Lancashire pub ended with Doyle biting the ear off a sailor, leading to a 12-month prison sentence for causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) without intent.

That offence was not out of the blue. While in the army he had military convictions for common assault, criminal damage, and using "violence against a superior officer".

He had also been convicted of another GBH offence over a drunken nightclub brawl.

That side of Paul Doyle appears to fit more with the man depicted in dashboard camera footage from inside his vehicle on 26 May, screaming obscenities at his innocent victims as they thud against the bonnet.

But after his release from prison in 1994, Doyle underwent a remarkable transformation.

He enrolled at the University of Liverpool where he studied maths and psychology. A successful career in IT followed.

One friend who met Doyle in the early 2000s told the BBC: "I don't suffer fools gladly, but he was just really competent.

"If he could help you he would, and if he didn't know he would say 'let me find that out for you'."

Companies House records indicate Doyle started a business selling baseball caps.

But his friends said that was a venture started to show his three sons how business worked and was never intended as a real source of income.

In the words of prosecutor Paul Greaney KC: "Those efforts to rehabilitate himself after a difficult early adulthood only serve to make more shocking, and tragic, what he did in Liverpool that day this May."

The court heard Doyle himself had taken months to get to grips with the reality of what he had done before pleading guilty.

His barrister, Simon Csoka KC, said: "The defendant wasn't able immediately to reconcile the man that he has been for the last 30 years with the way he behaved on 26 May.

"In the same way that nobody who knows him well could believe it; neither could he for some time."

'The fans were not to blame'

Whether Doyle has truly accepted responsibility for his atrocious decisions on 26 May is in dispute.

The court heard how his police interviews were peppered with false claims and outright lies, blaming the fans for making him fear for his life.

He claimed he had seen someone with a knife, he claimed a bottle had been thrown, he claimed he stopped as soon as he realised he had struck someone.

It was all untrue.

"The position should be stated clearly," said Judge Andrew Menary KC, as he passed sentence.

"The crowd did not cause this incident; they reacted to it... The chaos that unfolded was caused solely by your driving, and any attempt to place responsibility on the public or the Liverpool supporters present would be unfair and wholly unfounded."

Listen to the best of BBC Radio Merseyside on BBC Sounds and follow BBC Merseyside on Facebook, X, and Instagram, and watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer.

The European Union has watered down its plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035.

Current rules state that new vehicles sold from that date should be "zero emission", but carmakers, particularly in Germany, have lobbied heavily for concessions.

Under the European Commission's new plan, 90% of new cars sold from 2035 would have to be zero-emission, rather than 100%.

According to the European carmakers association, ACEA, market demand for electric cars is currently too low, and without a change to the rules, manufacturers would risk "multi-billion euro" penalties.

The remaining 10% could be made up of conventional petrol or diesel cars, along with hybrids.

Carmakers will be expected to compensate for the extra emissions created by these vehicles by using biofuels and so-called e-fuels, which are synthesised from captured carbon dioxide.

They will also be expected to use low-carbon steel made in the European Union in the vehicles they produce.

Opponents of the move have warned that it risks undermining the transition towards electric vehicles and leaving Europe exposed in the face of foreign competition.

The green transport group T&E has warned that the UK should not follow the EU's lead by weakening its own plans to phase out the sale of conventional cars under the Zero Emission Vehicles Mandate.

"The UK must stand firm. Our ZEV mandate is already driving jobs, investment and innovation into the UK. As major exporters we cannot compete unless we innovate, and global markets are going electric fast", said T&E UK's director Anna Krajinska.

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A couple killed in the Bondi Beach shooting tried to stop one of the alleged attackers by grabbing his gun, dramatic dashcam footage shows.

Boris Gurman, 69, and his wife Sofia, 61, courageously stepped in to try and protect others before being shot themselves, their family said in a statement.

Video of the incident shows Mr Gurman, who was retired, wrestling with one of the alleged gunmen and taking the weapon off him, before they both fall onto the road.

Mr Gurman then gets up and appears to hit the suspected attacker with the gun. The attacker is then thought to have got another gun which he used to kill them.

"While nothing can lessen the pain of losing Boris and Sofia, we feel an overwhelming sense of pride in their bravery and selflessness," the family said.

"This encapsulates who Boris and Sofia were - people who instinctively and selflessly tried to help others."

The Gurman couple, who were Jewish, were the first two people killed in Sunday's attack, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

At least 15 people have been confirmed dead in the shooting, which happened during an event to mark the first day of Hanukkah.

In their statement, the family said the couple had been married for 34 years.

"We are heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Boris and Sofia Gurman.

"Boris was a retired mechanic, known for his generosity, quiet strength and willingness to lend a hand to anyone in need.

"Sofia worked at Australia Post and was deeply loved by her colleagues and community.

"Bondi locals, together they lived honest, hardworking lives and treated everyone they met with kindness, warmth and respect. Boris and Sofia were devoted to their family and to each other. They were the heart of our family, and their absence has left an immeasurable void."

Witnesses have described Mr Gurman as a "hero".

The woman who owns the dashcam footage told Reuters that Mr Gurman "did not run away - instead, he charged straight toward the danger, using all his strength trying to wrestle away the gun and fighting to the death".

"I can see from my camera that the elderly man was ultimately shot and collapsed. That moment broke my heart," she said.

Another person who said they witnessed the incident told 9News: "He was a hero. He tried, he tried. We need to let his family know.

"Everyone needs to know what he tried, because it was right in the beginning. And he put himself in that face of danger. There were bullets flying already, and he put his self in the face of danger."

Police have described the attack as a terrorist incident targeting the Jewish community.

The other victims killed include a 10-year-old girl, a British-born rabbi, a retired police officer, and a Holocaust survivor.

The ages of the victims range from 10 to 87.

A further 22 people remain in hospital, nine of whom are in a critical condition.

Another bystander named Ahmed al Ahmed, 43, was also hailed a "hero" after he wrestled a gun from one of the attackers. He was shot multiple times and has since undergone surgery for his wounds.

Earlier this week, his father told BBC Arabic his son "saw the victims, the blood, women and children lying on the street, and then acted".

"Ahmed was driven by his sentiment, conscience and humanity," he said.

Self-evidently, the BBC has a big decision to make. If it hoped the President might not follow through on his threat to sue, the reality check has arrived.

Now it's about gaming out the options but current indications are it plans to fight.

"We will be defending this case", the BBC repeated after the $5bn (£3.7bn) lawsuit was filed over an edit of Trump's 6 January 2021 speech in a Panorama documentary.

But what are the pros and cons of that stance - and will it change its position?

The positives of the BBC fighting the case

Many, both inside and outside the BBC, have told me the BBC has to fight. It has to defend its journalism against a litigious president who, some claim, has been using legal action against US media companies to cow them into submission.

So one positive - particularly if the BBC is confident it would win - is to take on Trump and show the world it isn't afraid of the president and his multi-billion dollar threats.

Legally, the BBC considers itself on good ground.

Trump's case appears to rely on two main points - jurisdiction and malice.

He is suing from Florida and needs to prove that audiences in the so-called Sunshine State saw the Panorama programme, in order to prove that it impacted him negatively.

One claim in his filing is that viewers watched via virtual private networks (or VPNs). Even if that is correct, did that happen in significant numbers to cause him reputational damage and can the BBC really be held responsible for the behaviour of unlawful users of its services?

Claims about a Canadian company called Blue Ant Media distributing the documentary in the US would be more problematic if true.

The company has since confirmed it had the rights to distribute the programme but "none of Blue Ant's buyers have aired it in the US," a spokesperson said. They added that the international version of the Panorama episode didn't actually contain the clip of the Trump speech in question, as the programme had been cut down in a number of places for time.

If that is correct, that leaves the question of whether audiences viewed the Panorama via a subscription to Britbox, as has also been alleged. We haven't yet heard back from Britbox on that point.

The BBC is adamant the programme wasn't broadcast in the US.

The president's case also relies on a claim of malice; that the BBC intended to do him harm. He's arguing it published the documentary one week before the election with "the express intent of interfering with it and trying to undermine President Trump's odds of winning re-election".

I watched the documentary. I viewed it as an assessment of the approach taken by Trump's most fervent supporters and whether claims about him, including about 6 January, have dented their admiration.

The clip of the speech is 12 seconds, in a 57-minute programme. The BBC admits the edit was an unintentional mistake. The president's filing argues the corporation would not have spliced two parts of his speech together unless it was intentional.

He is also relying on other examples he claims show the BBC has a history of reporting on him in a negative manner. The filing says "the BBC had no regard for the truth about President Trump" and characterises the BBC as making an effort "to craft as one-sided an impression and narrative against President Trump as possible".

The BBC rejects this. Which will make for a fascinating court debate - if it actually gets that far.

Another potential positive of fighting, though the BBC would never acknowledge this, could be how it cements its brand, with a section of US consumers at least. The corporation is making a big play of bundling its content in the US via an app it hopes people will pay for. Would a high profile fight with Trump make some parts of the US more likely to sign up? It's certainly a high risk strategy.

The negatives of the BBC fighting the case

Clearly one downside of fighting is that it will be costly. Chris Ruddy, a friend and ally of Donald Trump and chief executive of the US news network Newsmax, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that going to court would cost between $50-100 million, whereas he claimed the BBC could settle for $10 million.

Any suggestion of using funds from licence fee payers to pay off President Trump as part of a settlement would be a difficult look for the corporation. Equally, spending millions to fight the case in court would open the BBC up to claims it had squandered precious funds.

The BBC has insurance - but we don't know what that covers. Is it the legal costs or only the settlement, and is that up to a maximum amount?

Another negative is how much it will divert the institution when top executives need to be fully focused on the negotiations with the government over the next BBC Charter, the framework for the BBC's very existence, which is up at the end of 2027.

At a time of leadership vacancies, with the director general and the CEO of news having resigned, instead of fighting for the future of the BBC and its funding model and role here in the UK, it is having to navigate what is arguably the most serious legal moment in its history. It can try to do both - but can it do them both well?

The point about "lawfare", as it's often termed, is that it's less about the outcome and more about the toll it takes to fight.

There is no reason for Donald Trump to back down. It suits him to pick a fight with the BBC - and the BBC has already acknowledged it made an error. He appears to want to demonstrate there is bias and it goes wider than one TV edit.

But how many hours of BBC time will have to be expended to fight the case?

If you look at some of the previous cases the resident has fought, some media companies agreed to settle (including ABC for $15 million and Paramount/CBS for $16 million), even when legal commentators argued they could have won their cases. In the end, they took the view that the negatives outweighed the positives (although the CBS case was made more complicated by Paramount's efforts to take over Skydance Media which needed regulatory approval).

Other US titles are fighting back, including the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) which faces at $10 billion claim over a story about Trump and a note it reported he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein. The WSJ says its stories are factually accurate.

The New York Times faces a $15 billion lawsuit over the President's claims it sought to undermine his 2024 candidacy and disparage his reputation as a businessman. That paper is also fighting back - and characterises what is happening as part of a wider global attack on media freedom.

But the BBC has a different equation to calculate as it has already accepted it made a mistake.

Does the BBC have other options?

Is there a world in which the BBC asks the Prime Minister to intervene and Starmer calls Trump and asks President Trump to be magnanimous?

We know this Labour government backs the BBC. Despite a series of controversies and mistakes including around two Israel/Gaza documentaries and the Panorama edit, when the Culture Secretary launched the green paper into charter renewal on Tuesday, she was fulsome in her praise of the corporation as being vital for the health of democracy and a light on the hill in dark times.

But at a Downing Street briefing, the PM's spokesperson wasn't exactly leaping at the idea that his boss would use up any leverage he might have with Donald Trump to persuade him to back down over the BBC.

Will the case reach court?

The next stage is for the BBC to respond to the filing - not in any detail, but if it doesn't respond, Trump's lawyers can ask a court to make a judgement by default. There is no definitive smoking gun in this lawsuit. But these are perillous times and, whatever it says publicly, the BBC will be weighing up its next steps with a great deal of caution.

Labour's flagship workers' rights bill has passed its last parliamentary hurdle and is set to become law before Christmas.

Lord Sharpe, the shadow business and trade minister, had tabled an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill during its latest stage of parliamentary ping pong in the House of Lords.

But he withdrew the amendment after a short debate, removing the final block on the bill's passage.

Business Secretary Peter Kyle he was "delighted" the bill had made its way through the House of Lords.

"This landmark legislation, now soon to be in law, will drag Britain's outdated employment laws into the 21st century and offer dignity and respect to millions more in the workplace," he said.

Most of the bill's measures will require secondary legislation before coming into force.

The government has described the bill - which applies to England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland - as the "biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation".

It will give workers access to sick pay and paternity leave from the first day on the job and contains new protections for pregnant women and new mothers.

In November, Labour backed down from its plan to give all workers the right to claim unfair dismissal from their first day in a job. But the government will bring in enhanced protections from six months in employment, the bill's most significant measure.

It is expected to gain royal assent this week.

Unite union's general secretary Sharon Graham said the bill must now be implemented "without any further dilution or delay".

"Labour need now to stop being embarrassed by these new laws for workers. The bill had already been watered far too much, not least the failure to ban fire and rehire and zero hours contracts," she said.

The Trades Union Congress's (TUC) general secretary Paul Nowak said it was a "historic day and early Christmas present for working people across the country".

"Finally, working people will enjoy more security, better pay and dignity at work thanks to this bill," he said, echoing Unite's calls for the legislations to be implemented "at speed".

But the Conservatives said it was "ironic Labour's job-destroying unemployment bill passed the very same day official figures confirmed unemployment has risen every month this government has been in office".

The party was referring to figures published on Tuesday showing UK unemployment rose to 5.1% in the three months to October, from 4.3% a year earlier.

Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said: "[The bill] will pile costs onto small businesses, freeze hiring, and ultimately leave young people and jobseekers paying the price for Labour's capitulation to their union paymasters."

In a joint statement on Monday, ahead of the deadlock ending, business groups including the British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses said they remained concerned about some of the bill's changes.

But they said to keep the six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal the legislation as it currently was should now be passed.

One lucky couple has beaten extraordinary odds to win £1million on the National Lottery - for the second time.

Richard Davies, 49, and Faye Stevenson-Davies, 43, first scooped a seven-figure jackpot playing the EuroMillions Millionaire Maker in June 2018.

And now they have done it again by matching five main numbers and the Bonus Ball in the Lotto draw on 26 November - the chances of which are more than 24-trillion-to-one, say experts.

"We knew the odds of it happening again were outrageous, but we're proof that if you believe anything is possible," said Faye, from mid Wales.

But, as Richard explained, their second win was not a case of simply picking the right numbers.

"It came to us through a series of four consecutive Lotto draws," he said.

"When you match two numbers in the Lotto draw, you automatically win a Lucky Dip for the next game and that's what's happened to us.

"We matched two numbers and won a free Lucky Dip from one draw which put us into the next draw and so on, until the winning draw on 26 November."

However, this latest windfall is unlikely to change the couple's community-minded attitude.

Former hairdresser Richard uses his skills at a shelter for the homeless in Cardiff, a project which received vital National Lottery funding, while also helping out friends by working as a delivery driver.

Meanwhile, ex-nurse Faye is a volunteer cook at Cegin Hedyn community kitchen in Carmarthen, while also providing mental health counselling services to local organisations such as Brecon & District Mind charity.

"The first time we won we gifted people cars, donated a minibus to the local rugby team and did our best to help friends and family," said Faye, who will even be working on Christmas Day.

"It was all new and it was amazing to be able to make a difference.

"This time around, who knows? We're just going to take our time and enjoy the moment."

Andy Carter, senior winners' adviser at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, said: "I can still remember the day I met Richard and Faye for the first time, and it's just as special to be with them as they celebrate their second £1m win.

"I saw the positive impact of that first win and know this second one will be just as meaningful."

Thousands of dinosaur footprints dating back 210 million years have been found in a national park in northern Italy.

The footprints - some of which are up to 40cm (15in) in diameter - are aligned in parallel rows, and many show clear traces of toes and claws.

It is thought the dinosaurs were prosauropods - herbivores with long necks, small heads and sharp claws.

"I never would have imagined I'd come across such a spectacular discovery in the region where I live," said Milan-based paleontologist Cristiano Dal Sasso.

Last September a photographer spotted the footprints stretching hundreds of metres on a vertical mountain wall in the Stelvio national park, north-east of Milan.

In the Triassic period - between about 250 and 201 million years ago - the wall was a tidal flat, which later became part of the Alpine chain.

"This place was full of dinosaurs; it's an immense scientific treasure," Mr Dal Sasso said.

The herds moved in harmony, he added, "and there are also traces of more complex behaviours, like groups of animals gathering in a circle, perhaps for the purposes of defence."

The prosauropods, which could be up to 10m (33ft) long, walked on two legs but in some cases handprints were found in front of footprints, indicating that they probably stopped and rested their forelimbs on the ground.

Elio Della Ferrera, the photographer who discovered the site, said he hoped the discovery would "spark reflection in all of us, highlighting how little we know about the places we live in: our home, our planet."

According to a press release from the Italian culture ministry, the area is remote and not accessible by paths, so drones and remote sensing technology will be employed instead.

The Stelvio national park is located in the Fraele valley by Italy's border with Switzerland, near where the Winter Olympics will take place next year.

"It's as if history itself wanted to pay homage to the greatest global sporting event, combining past and present in a symbolic passing of the baton between nature and sport," said the Italian Ministry of Culture.

The European Union has watered down its plans to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2035.

Current rules state that new vehicles sold from that date should be "zero emission", but carmakers, particularly in Germany, have lobbied heavily for concessions.

Under the European Commission's new plan, 90% of new cars sold from 2035 would have to be zero-emission, rather than 100%.

According to the European carmakers association, ACEA, market demand for electric cars is currently too low, and without a change to the rules, manufacturers would risk "multi-billion euro" penalties.

The remaining 10% could be made up of conventional petrol or diesel cars, along with hybrids.

Carmakers will be expected to compensate for the extra emissions created by these vehicles by using biofuels and so-called e-fuels, which are synthesised from captured carbon dioxide.

They will also be expected to use low-carbon steel made in the European Union in the vehicles they produce.

Opponents of the move have warned that it risks undermining the transition towards electric vehicles and leaving Europe exposed in the face of foreign competition.

The green transport group T&E has warned that the UK should not follow the EU's lead by weakening its own plans to phase out the sale of conventional cars under the Zero Emission Vehicles Mandate.

"The UK must stand firm. Our ZEV mandate is already driving jobs, investment and innovation into the UK. As major exporters we cannot compete unless we innovate, and global markets are going electric fast", said T&E UK's director Anna Krajinska.

The man whose instinctive act stopped the car that injured 134 fans at the Liverpool FC victory parade has insisted he was "not a hero".

Dan Barr, 41, managed to get inside the automatic Ford Galaxy and forced its gear selector into 'park' mode as driver Paul Doyle tried to accelerate further into the dense crowd of pedestrians on Liverpool's Water Street.

Mr Barr, a former solider, described the "horrendous" sight of seeing victims pleading in vain for Doyle, 54, to stop, and told the BBC: "I'm not the same since that day."

Despite being hailed for his bravery by police and prosecutors, Mr Barr said being called a hero makes him "cringe" and added: "Every man that I seen was trying to do the same."

Earlier Doyle, from Croxteth in Liverpool, was jailed for 21 years and six months at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting 31 offences including causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent.

The court head Doyle, an IT networking engineer and former Royal Marine, was motivated by nothing other than "blind rage" as he grew frustrated about being unable to get through the crowds while on his way to pick up a friend.

His victims ranged in age from six-month-old Teddy Eveson, whose pram was knocked to the ground, to 77-year-old Susan Passey who was trapped under the wheels of the car.

Liverpool fan Mr Barr, from Birkenhead in Wirral, had watched the parade on the city's waterfront and found himself in the throngs of people heading back to the city centre along Water Street, shortly before 18:00 BST.

The former Royal Engineer said he noticed an ambulance trying to get through the dense crowd and moved to the right of where it was heading.

Mr Barr said his memory of what happened next is "blurry", but he described seeing the roof of a dark coloured car "snaking through" the crowd, knocking people into the air as it got closer to where he was standing.

"I just remember for some reason, I don't know why, but his vehicle stopped for a bit," he said.

Mr Barr said realised he had a clear path to the rear left hand side door and instinctively ran towards the car.

"There was already other men at different positions around the car trying to get in, desperately trying to punch their way in," he said.

"Just the sheer desperation of the situation, you knew it wasn't over."

Mr Barr said he assumed the car doors would be locked and braced himself to try and punch the window through.

However at the last moment he tried the door handle, and was able to open it and climb inside.

However as Mr Barr climbed into the back seat Doyle accelerated forwards and the door slammed shut.

"We've gone from total chaos - panic, screaming - to relative silence as he's accelerated off," he said.

"Then you can just hear the people being hit and run over, like ten-pin bowling, pretty horrendous. I could see everything from where I was.

"I could see people's faces, I could see the looks of just, like they were trying to plead but wasting their time.

"That's all that they could do, there was nowhere to go, nowhere to get out of the way for them."

Mr Barr said at that stage he desperately searched for a way to stop the car, and noticed the gearstick in drive mode.

He reached between the front seats and jammed it forwards to park mode.

"Things are fuzzy but I kept my hand on there," he said.

"Nothing would have moved my arm, no way."

With the car not able to accelerate and with injured victims trapped under the wheels, Doyle's rampage was over.

As the vehicle came to a stop other people shattered the windows and tried to drag Doyle out, which they succeeded in doing after Mr Barr reached forward and released the driver's seatbelt.

Detectives viewing dashcam footage from within Doyle's vehicle have said they believe Doyle may not have been aware of Mr Barr's presence in the car.

The labourer said he is unsure.

"I find it a very interesting question," he said.

"He was repeating the same thing over and over, 'why won't they move out my way?'

"Was he asking me? Was that a statement? I don't know."

'I'm not the same'

Although he escaped with a minor cut to his head, Mr Barr said the psychological impact of 26 May is ongoing.

"I don't think I have processed it, to be honest with you," he said.

"It doesn't mean that I don't think I ever will be, but I'm not the same since that day.

"Big things don't bother me, it's little things. Little things are starting to agitate me every day.

"I'm different in work, I struggle to take on instruction, I struggle to watch telly, take things on board. I'll have to keep rewinding it. It's mad.

"I don't really know what I'm saying, I'm just not myself, I'm very forgetful."

Mr Barr said despite having been in the army for eight years, including tours in Iraq where his role was searching for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), he rarely talked about his service.

However he said the impact of what happened on Water Street and concern from his family and friends has led him to seek professional help.

When asked about people describing him as "brave" or "heroic", he said: "It makes my toes curl to be honest with you...

"If they could have, who wouldn't have done what I did?"

The man charged with leading the investigation into the Water Street attack, Det Ch Insp John Fitzgerald, however, had a different view.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Doyle would have continued to drive and cause further injuries had Daniel not acted with such bravery." he said.

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Liverpool supporters who were injured when Paul Doyle drove his car through crowds at the team's victory parade have spoken about their experiences from that day.

Before Doyle, 54, was jailed for 21 years and six months for charges including dangerous driving and causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, Liverpool Crown Court heard statements from his victims.

One statement after another, the court heard about the psychological and physical impact of that day.

One of the most shocking was from Ian Passey, 47, who described the moment he saw his 77-year-old mother pinned beneath Doyle's car, her head "in a pool of blood".

Another, the mother of an 11-year-old boy who was trapped beneath the wheels of the car, told the court the collision "didn't just injure his body, it left emotional scars on our entire family".

Footage of the moment he was freed by emergency service personnel was shown to the court on Monday.

'The nightmares are the worst'

Prosecution barrister Philip Astbury read the statement from his mother, which said: "My son is only a young child, with his whole life ahead of him.

"There are good days and bad days. On the good days we try to hold on to hope. But the bad days are heavy – filled with fear, anxiety and sadness."

She said her son has become scared of cars since the attack.

"He's also become self-conscious about the scar on his face," she said.

"He worries what people will think when they see it. He asks me if people will laugh at the bald patch on the left side of his head.

"As a mother it breaks my heart to see him question his appearance and fear being judged or bullied.

"The nightmares are the worst. He wakes up crying, reliving the incident.

"And it's not just him, we all do."

A total of 78 people submitted victim personal statements to the court, in which they described how the "best day ever" soon became the worst.

'I thought my baby was dead'

One mother told the court how a pram with her six-month-old baby inside was struck by Doyle's Ford Galaxy.

She said: "I relive the moment of the collision repeatedly, especially the terrifying image of my pram being struck and taken by the car with my six-month-old baby inside.

"The horror of not knowing whether he was alive or dead in that instant will haunt me forever."

Doyle was seen to cry as Mr Astbury read the words of one of his victims, a 12-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The boy said: "I found myself on the floor having been hit by a car I did not see coming, I have never felt so scared before in my life."

The boy's mother said she saw her son motionless on the floor and her heart sank.

She said the incident "caused me much anxiety having to watch my son deal with the pain, the frustration, him feeling down and isolated from his friends in school, the nightmares and the after-effects on him".

'Don't cry for yourself'

As the statements were read to court on Monday and Tuesday, one was from a woman telling Doyle to take responsibility for what he had done.

Susan Farrell, 55, addressed Doyle directly, confronting him about the tears he had been seen to shed during court proceedings.

Speaking on behalf of herself and her 62-year-old husband Colin Farrell, she said: "There are hundreds of people affected by your actions. I want you to think about them all.

"Don't sit in the dock and cry for yourself. Be brave and take accountability for what you did."

The court heard from Anna Bilonozhenko, 43, who came to the UK from Ukraine in 2024, to escape the war.

She said she thought spending the day at the parade with her 22-year-old daughter Sasha would "lift our spirits".

Instead she was left with an injury that required metal plates to be inserted into her leg.

Ms Bilonozhenko said: "We came to this country because of the war in our homeland, hoping to finally feel safe. At first, we did.

"But now that feeling has been taken away.

"Realising that is deeply painful - it feels like losing our safety all over again."

Joy 'taken'

John Davey, 31, said after the events of 26 May, "the joy of football, the joy of family outings, the joy of living freely - all of it has been taken from me."

He said: "The collision left me with spinal fractures in three places. Since then, the pain has been relentless, day and night.

"I cannot work, which means I cannot provide for my family. I have three children, and the weight of responsibility has fallen on my partner.

"That has left me feeling ashamed, embarrassed, and broken - because it is not fair that they must suffer for what happened to me."

He added: "This incident has stolen my independence, my happiness, and my peace of mind.

"It has changed me forever, and it has changed my family's life forever."

A 16-year-old boy described feeling "scared, angry and sad".

The boy said: "I sometimes think that things could have been a lot worse and that frightens me, but equally the incident should never have happened, and that's why I find it hard to accept and move on with my life.

"This is just not fair to have to cope with all this at my age."

I should have been able to protect my younger sister and my niece."

Meanwhile Amanda Gardener, 52, described her feelings of "guilt" after the attack.

"My sister didn't really want to go [to the Liverpool FC victory parade] but I convinced them it would be a good day," she wrote.

"I then saw my sister go flying into the air.

"We lost our sister last year; I thought I was losing another and thought I was going to have tell her family that she had died."

'Feared the worst'

Ian Passey said he got up from the ground after being hit by Doyle's car to realise he had lost sight of his mother.

He said he found her pinned under the car in a pool of blood.

He said in a statement: "Not being able to get close to her, hold her hand and reassure her, I feared the worst.

"I thought my mum had been killed, and called my brother on the telephone to tell him just that."

He said he still had vivid nightmares and was unable to go into large crowds.

He said: "The actions on May 26 of one man will change mine and mum's life forever."

Doyle, of Burghill Road in West Derby, admitted a total of 31 charges last month.

The court heard how he "lost his temper" and drove his car directly into supporters making their way home from the Premier League title celebrations.

Dashcam footage from the vehicle, played in court, showed the shocking moments when fans were thrown onto the bonnet of the car or fell underneath it as he accelerated down Water Street, which had been closed to traffic, at about 18:00 BST on 26 May.

Doyle had denied the charges but changed his plea to guilty at the start of his trial.

The former Royal Marine admitted 31 charges including causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent, dangerous driving and affray, with victims aged between six months and 77 years.

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A man who used his car as a "weapon" to plough into more than 130 people at Liverpool FC's victory parade has been jailed for 21 years and six months.

Paul Doyle, 54, drove at crowds "in a rage" after his "anger had completely taken hold of him" shortly before 18:00 BST on 26 May, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

Judge Andrew Menary KC said the ex-Royal Marine, who stared straight ahead with no expression as he was sentenced, had generated "fear and panic" and his "disregard for human life defied ordinary understanding".

He admitted 31 charges including causing grievous bodily harm with intent, and dangerous driving and affray, with victims ranging from a six-month-old baby to a 77-year-old woman.

• LIVE: Liverpool parade attacker Paul Doyle jailed
• Man who stopped Paul Doyle says he 'isn't a hero'
• Moment Paul Doyle told police 'my life is ruined'

The married father of three was travelling into the city centre to collect friends from the parade when he "lost his temper" and drove his Ford Galaxy directly into supporters making their way home from the Premier League title celebrations.

Dashcam footage from Doyle's vehicle, played in court, showed the moments when fans were thrown onto the bonnet of his car or fell underneath as he accelerated down Water Street, which had been closed to traffic.

In the footage, Doyle can be heard shouting "move" and swearing at the crowd, including after he hit a 10-year-old girl.

Judge Menary told Doyle as he sentenced him: "It is difficult, if not impossible, to convey in words alone the scene of devastation you caused.

"It shows you, quite deliberately, accelerating into groups of fans time and time again.

"You struck people head-on, knocked others onto the bonnet, drove over limbs, crushed prams and forced those nearby to scatter in terror."

Judge Menary continued: "You ploughed on at speed and over a considerable distance, violently knocking people aside or simply driving over them - person, after person, after person.

"You accelerated forwards and backwards repeatedly, several victims became trapped beneath the vehicle as you continued to move it.

"Others were thrown into the air or propelled across the ground."

He added Doyle acted in an "inexplicable and undiluted fury" when he ploughed into the crowds.

Doyle, from Croxteth, Liverpool, spent large portions of the two-day sentencing hearing in tears - with dashcam and CCTV footage of his attack played multiple times to the public gallery.

He gave no reaction as he was taken down from the dock by prison officers.

Victims of the rampage on Water Street in the city centre spoke of their terror and injuries during the two-day hearing.

Sheree Aldridge, 37, said she thought her baby son Teddy Eveson had died after his pram was thrown into the air after being hit by Doyle's car, adding that she thought she would "be next".

"I thought my children would grow up without a mother," she said.

A 12-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said: "I found myself on the floor having been hit by a car I did not see coming, I have never felt so scared before in my life."

The boy's mother said her heart sank when she saw her child motionless on the floor.

She said: "The sight of my son lying motionless on the road, not moving for those few seconds, and the sound of the car hitting people will live with me forever."

When interviewed by police, Doyle said he had seen someone with a knife and had driven in panic for fear he would be attacked.

But police found no evidence from CCTV footage or witnesses that anyone in the area had a knife.

No defects were found with the car and Doyle was not under the influence of drink or drugs.

He changed his plea to guilty on the second day of his trial last month, with the judge telling him his sentence reflected the fact he could have admitted the offences "much earlier than you did".

Following sentencing, Judge Menary said he wished to formally commend Daniel Barr, who climbed into the back seat of Doyle's car and held the automatic gear stick in park mode to bring the vehicle to a stop.

"His actions on that day were outstandingly brave," the judge said.

"At a moment when many understandably feared for their own safety, he ran towards the danger, entered a moving vehicle and brought it to a halt, thereby preventing further injury and quite possibly saving lives."

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The man whose instinctive act stopped the car that injured 134 fans at the Liverpool FC victory parade has insisted he was "not a hero".

Dan Barr, 41, managed to get inside the automatic Ford Galaxy and forced its gear selector into 'park' mode as driver Paul Doyle tried to accelerate further into the dense crowd of pedestrians on Liverpool's Water Street.

Mr Barr, a former solider, described the "horrendous" sight of seeing victims pleading in vain for Doyle, 54, to stop, and told the BBC: "I'm not the same since that day."

Despite being hailed for his bravery by police and prosecutors, Mr Barr said being called a hero makes him "cringe" and added: "Every man that I seen was trying to do the same."

Earlier Doyle, from Croxteth in Liverpool, was jailed for 21 years and six months at Liverpool Crown Court after admitting 31 offences including causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent.

The court head Doyle, an IT networking engineer and former Royal Marine, was motivated by nothing other than "blind rage" as he grew frustrated about being unable to get through the crowds while on his way to pick up a friend.

His victims ranged in age from six-month-old Teddy Eveson, whose pram was knocked to the ground, to 77-year-old Susan Passey who was trapped under the wheels of the car.

Liverpool fan Mr Barr, from Birkenhead in Wirral, had watched the parade on the city's waterfront and found himself in the throngs of people heading back to the city centre along Water Street, shortly before 18:00 BST.

The former Royal Engineer said he noticed an ambulance trying to get through the dense crowd and moved to the right of where it was heading.

Mr Barr said his memory of what happened next is "blurry", but he described seeing the roof of a dark coloured car "snaking through" the crowd, knocking people into the air as it got closer to where he was standing.

"I just remember for some reason, I don't know why, but his vehicle stopped for a bit," he said.

Mr Barr said realised he had a clear path to the rear left hand side door and instinctively ran towards the car.

"There was already other men at different positions around the car trying to get in, desperately trying to punch their way in," he said.

"Just the sheer desperation of the situation, you knew it wasn't over."

Mr Barr said he assumed the car doors would be locked and braced himself to try and punch the window through.

However at the last moment he tried the door handle, and was able to open it and climb inside.

However as Mr Barr climbed into the back seat Doyle accelerated forwards and the door slammed shut.

"We've gone from total chaos - panic, screaming - to relative silence as he's accelerated off," he said.

"Then you can just hear the people being hit and run over, like ten-pin bowling, pretty horrendous. I could see everything from where I was.

"I could see people's faces, I could see the looks of just, like they were trying to plead but wasting their time.

"That's all that they could do, there was nowhere to go, nowhere to get out of the way for them."

Mr Barr said at that stage he desperately searched for a way to stop the car, and noticed the gearstick in drive mode.

He reached between the front seats and jammed it forwards to park mode.

"Things are fuzzy but I kept my hand on there," he said.

"Nothing would have moved my arm, no way."

With the car not able to accelerate and with injured victims trapped under the wheels, Doyle's rampage was over.

As the vehicle came to a stop other people shattered the windows and tried to drag Doyle out, which they succeeded in doing after Mr Barr reached forward and released the driver's seatbelt.

Detectives viewing dashcam footage from within Doyle's vehicle have said they believe Doyle may not have been aware of Mr Barr's presence in the car.

The labourer said he is unsure.

"I find it a very interesting question," he said.

"He was repeating the same thing over and over, 'why won't they move out my way?'

"Was he asking me? Was that a statement? I don't know."

'I'm not the same'

Although he escaped with a minor cut to his head, Mr Barr said the psychological impact of 26 May is ongoing.

"I don't think I have processed it, to be honest with you," he said.

"It doesn't mean that I don't think I ever will be, but I'm not the same since that day.

"Big things don't bother me, it's little things. Little things are starting to agitate me every day.

"I'm different in work, I struggle to take on instruction, I struggle to watch telly, take things on board. I'll have to keep rewinding it. It's mad.

"I don't really know what I'm saying, I'm just not myself, I'm very forgetful."

Mr Barr said despite having been in the army for eight years, including tours in Iraq where his role was searching for improvised explosive devices (IEDs), he rarely talked about his service.

However he said the impact of what happened on Water Street and concern from his family and friends has led him to seek professional help.

When asked about people describing him as "brave" or "heroic", he said: "It makes my toes curl to be honest with you...

"If they could have, who wouldn't have done what I did?"

The man charged with leading the investigation into the Water Street attack, Det Ch Insp John Fitzgerald, however, had a different view.

"There is no doubt in my mind that Doyle would have continued to drive and cause further injuries had Daniel not acted with such bravery." he said.

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The government has ordered an independent review into foreign financial interference in UK politics.

It comes after the former leader of Reform UK in Wales, Nathan Gill, was jailed for 10-and-a-half years after admitting to taking bribes for pro-Russian interviews and speeches.

Announcing the review, Communities Secretary Steve Reed said the government must "learn the lessons" from the case so "this can never happen again".

The review will be led by former senior civil Philip Rycroft and will report back in March.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Reed said: "The facts are clear. A British politician took bribes to further the interests of the Russian regime, a regime which forcefully deported vulnerable Ukrainian children and killed a British citizen on British soil using a deadly nerve agent.

"This conduct is a stain on our democracy. The independent review will work to remove that stain."

The government says the review will conduct an "in-depth assessment of the current financial rules and safeguards and offer recommendations to further mitigate risks from foreign political interference".

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

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A teenage boy has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a nine-year-old girl.

Police were called to Lime Close in the Mead Vale area of Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, at 18:09 GMT on Monday, where the girl was pronounced dead at the scene.

The boy was arrested in nearby Worle at 18:19 and is currently in police custody.

House-to-house inquiries are being carried out, with a police cordon in place.

Supt Jen Appleford, of Avon and Somerset Police, said: "We know the whole of Weston-super-Mare will be distraught and shocked to learn of this utterly dreadful news."

She said the girl's family had been informed on Monday evening, adding: "It is impossible for us to adequately put into words the pain and anguish they are feeling right now."

A criminal investigation is underway, with a post-mortem examination to be carried out.

"Out of respect for the family we'd please ask people not to speculate on the circumstances, or the identities of those involved, because that will only add to their enormous distress," Supt Appleford added.

The community has been asked to remain patient as inquiries are carried out at the house and in the surrounding area.

There will be an increased police presence around the residential close in the coming days, though the force said it was not aware of any increased risk to public safety.

Mike Bell, the leader of North Somerset Council, said he was "shocked and saddened" to hear of the incident.

In a post on social media, he said: "My thoughts are with all those affected, particularly the family and friends of the girl who has lost her life.

"The community will, I am sure, pull together to support each other at this difficult time."

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