Young people will be hit hardest by successive governments' failure to focus on financial and societal challenges caused by an ageing population, a House of Lords report has suggested.

They will need to plan and prepare to work longer and save more from a much earlier age, the economic affairs committee said.

The report also found that the crisis in adult social care "remains a scandal" which needs to be addressed urgently.

Committee chair Lord Wood of Anfield told the BBC it was a "struggle to find where in government" there was a focus on ageing and the "transformational effects" it was going to have on people.

"Ageing is something that we're just watching happening", he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme, adding: "We know that adaptation is the way forward".

Policies governments have used to address the impact of declining fertility and rising life expectancy in the UK - raising the state pension age or increasing immigration for example - were not adequate solutions on their own, the report said.

Getting more people in their 50s and 60s to stay in or return to work "is key", the committee said, and the government must prioritise incentives to do so.

It also said an ageing population will need more care workers, leaving fewer workers for other parts of the economy.

There is "widespread ignorance" of how much it costs to retire, it said, and the government should consider an education campaign - as well as finding out if the UK's financial services sector is equipped to provide for the population as it ages.

Lord Wood said that the government and financial services industry needs to devise "more innovative ways of getting younger people to think about lives frankly they can't conceive of at the moment - when they're in their eighties and early nineties."

"There's a long time for them to be financially planning for at a time when we know young people are doing less financial planning," he added.

"Raising the state pension age, which saves the government money, but increases pensioner poverty as many people have already stopped working by their sixties, is a red herring.

"To successfully confront this challenge, the approach to financial management of today's and tomorrow's young people will need to change."

TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance has signed a deal with investors to run its business in the US.

But what does this mean for the over 170 million Americans (or so the social media platform claims) who use the app?

The key may lie in how TikTok's recommendation algorithm - the powerful system that curates the platform's For You Page to predict content you might watch - is managed when it changes hands.

Social media industry expert Matt Navarra told the BBC the question will not be whether TikTok survives, but "what version of TikTok survives".

'Safer' but 'less relevant'

Currently, TikTok's system depends on huge amounts of global data and feedback loops, which can change recommendations in an instant.

Under the terms of the deal TikTok's algorithm, which will be licensed by investor Oracle, is set to be retrained on American user data.

Mr Navarra said this could leave the app feeling "safer and sturdier" but also leaving it at a risk of "becoming less culturally essential" as a result.

"TikTok's power has always come from feeling slightly out of control - weird, niche, uncomfortable, sometimes politically sharp content for anyone else or before it goes anywhere else," he said.

"If you start smoothing those edges, you don't just change moderation. I think you change its relevance."

Matching ByteDance's algorithm

Whether the US version will differ from the TikTok so many know and use already may also depend on if it gets "all the new features, security updates and platform improvements" as soon as the international version does, tech journalist Will Guyatt told the BBC.

And computing expert Kokil Jaidka from the National University of Singapore said she expected the things that make the platform popular - such as its short videos and shopping - are likely to "stay intact" as these features are not dependent on the algorithm.

She said the changes might be more subtle and gradual, depending on if the narrower data inputs of the "siloed" US version can match the app's global reach.

"If TikTok is operating with a licensed or partially diluted version of its recommendation algorithm, some of the system's blind spots may start to matter more," she said.

For users, she said this means in practice the US algorithm may "lag in personalisation" and take longer to adapt to viral content.

To experiment or behave?

Oracle is TikTok's longtime cloud computing partner in the United States, and is chaired by Larry Ellison, an ally of President Trump.

Another foreign entity, MGX - an Abu-Dhabi government investment fund - will join it along with private equity firm Silver Lake as the main incoming investors.

Pressure from these investors may also add to the US app feeling "blander" said Mr Navarra.

"I think the real test won't be whether the users leave," he said.

"It will be whether TikTok still feels the place the internet goes to experiment - or if it becomes the place it goes to behave."

Additional reporting by Peter Hoskins.

Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.

TNT Sports has been confirmed as live UK broadcast partner for the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

The subscription channel takes over from the BBC which had been the principal partner since 1954 and provided free-to-air coverage for 18 games in a row.

TNT Sports is part of Warner Bros Discovery and is best known for screening Uefa Champions League matches as well as selected English Premier League fixtures.

The Glasgow Commonwealth Games will take place from 23 July to 2 August and feature 10 sports and six para sports.

TNT Sports said it would provide more than 600 hours of coverage in a "re-imagining" of the games.

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

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

There's a new boy band on the scene, but there's just one problem - they've never all performed together in person.

Boy Throb have been campaigning to get one million followers on TikTok so fourth member Darshan Magdum can secure a US visa.

He's currently, in his words, "stuck in India".

They've been building up a worldwide fan base with their videos, including a viral recording of their first gig at a Hollywood retirement home last month.

Maybe it was the group's choreography in their signature pink velour tracksuits and bright yellow trainers.

Or maybe it was Darshan, hitting the high notes via a Zoom call from a laptop beside his bandmates.

Whatever it was, it stopped people in their tracks, and Boy Throb smashed their follower target in just one month.

Now, they tell BBC Newsbeat, their two main goals are to win a Grammy and "get Darshan his visa".

But they can't escape the comments asking if it's all one big joke.

Boy Throb's members - Evan Papier, Darshan, Anthony Key and Zachary Sobania - met online, but Evan and Anthony first connected after unsuccessful auditions for US singing competition American Idol.

Anthony tried to impress judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie with his cover of Dynamite by K-pop band BTS in 2021, during season 19 of the show.

And Evan, who auditioned a year later, failed to win Katy over with a rendition of her own song, ET, but the tape never aired.

Refusing to let rejection hold him back, Evan gathered a dedicated TikTok following before joining forces with the rest of Boy Throb.

"We all wanted to get a band together that wasn't just a carbon copy, everybody looks the same, they sound the same," Anthony tells Newsbeat.

"We're all different, very different backgrounds, you can never confuse us."

There's certainly no mistaking Boy Throb for any other acts.

Between their baby pink uniform and quick cut videos - usually featuring Darshan superimposed via green screen - their style is definitely unique.

And then there's the lyrics, which often re-work hit pop songs so the lyrics describe the band's visa battle.

Their version of Manchild, by Sabrina Carpenter, goes: "Oh I'd like Darshan in the USA, oh I need him here by New Year's Day."

Oh, and their fans, who encouraged the group to change their name from @boyband2026, are known as "Throbbers" or, collectively, the "Throb Mob".

When you add it all together it could feel a bit... unserious.

But when Newsbeat asks if Boy Throb are sincere, band member Evan insists they are.

"People love to say something is satirical and people are just having fun, people love to just throw that word around," he says.

The band have also uploaded posts pushing back at "haters", something Evan says only makes them more determined to succeed.

"Honestly, I'm not even fazed because it's just people's opinions. We're doing it seriously," he says.

He recognises that their approach is an unusual route to breaking through, but says: "If parody is what people love, then we'll keep them coming".

Throbbers are asking what is next now that the group has reached their one million follower target.

At the moment it's Darshan and his green screen against the world, but Evan says they hope he will join them in the US in the spring if his visa application is approved.

He is applying for a O-1 US visa which is reserved for individuals with "extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics".

The group have said an immigration lawyer advised them that securing one million followers will help their application.

"Our number one goal is to get Darshan's visa and get him into America so he can perform with us, and to get all those accolades that all these artists we love and know have," Evan says.

The pop-star hopefuls are staying tight-lipped, but Evan says they hope to give their fans "something to smile about".

"We also just want to spread joy," he says.

"I think that's something that has been really hard in the times we're in right now.

"And I think if we're able to spread the joy that we have through TikTok and Instagram and social the way we have the past few months, that feels like we're doing something right."

Listen to Newsbeat live at 12:45 and 17:45 weekdays - or listen back here.

A woman and her ex-marine secret lover have both been jailed for 19 years for plotting to kill her husband in a caravan in south-west Wales.

Christopher Mills was attacked by two masked men with guns, gloves and cable ties at the caravan he shared with his wife in Cenarth, Carmarthenshire, on 20 September 2024.

Ethel Mills, 46, known as Michelle, looked straight ahead - avoiding her husband in the public gallery - as the judge handed down her sentence at Swansea Crown Court after she was found guilty at an earlier trial of conspiracy to murder Mr Mills.

One of the masked men, her lover of three months Geraint Berry, 46, of Clydach, Swansea, was also found guilty of conspiracy to murder.

The other masked man, Steven Thomas, 47, who was recruited by Berry, was cleared of conspiracy to murder at the trial.

However, he was jailed for 12 months after previously admitting to possessing a firearm that was used to attack Mr Mills. He will be released once formalities have been completed due to the length of time he has already spent on remand.

During the sentencing hearing, the court was told by 55-year-old Mr Mills' barrister that the attack had "pretty much ruined his life" and that he suffered with flashbacks.

During sentencing, judge Mr Justice Nicklin said there had been "significant planning and premeditation" despite the plot to kill Mr Mills being "poorly executed".

He said there was an element of "coercion or exploitation" by Berry on Thomas, who "bitterly regrets his actions".

Christopher and Michelle Mills had been married for six years when she began having an affair with Berry, a 46-year-old former marine. They were both working at a homeless charity for veterans but, within weeks, they were sharing murderous thoughts about her husband.

The pair hatched a plan to kill Mr Mills and make it look like suicide. The first two attempts in late August 2024 ended in failure after Berry fell and injured himself.

How lovers plotted a murder

The third and final attempt would end in disaster - but only after Mr Mills managed to fight off the two masked men he thought had burst into his caravan intent on attacking him and his wife.

Recalling the night of the attack while giving evidence during the murder trial, Mr Mills said he and his wife were listening to music at about 23:30 after sharing a meal together.

"Michelle had been on her phone," he told the court. "I assumed she was playing a game. Apparently not."

He told the court: "As I opened the door, he literally hit me right in the face with a pistol, 'Get back, get down' he was saying.

"I punched him in his face. I pulled his pistol off of him. He was dressed in overalls, with balaclavas. He was a lot bigger than me," Mr Mills added.

Berry and Thomas fled the caravan after Mr Mills wrestled both their guns from them, but their car had been blocked and they had to escape on foot, eventually finding refuge in some undergrowth in a nearby quarry.

Back in the caravan, his wife was trying to cover her tracks. She dialled 999 and told police two masked men wielding guns had attacked her husband.

She said her husband had sustained a head injury in the attack, and claimed the two men, who were dressed all in black with their faces covered, were unknown to her.

Within minutes, armed officers along with a dog unit and the force helicopter were racing to the scene in Cenarth, near Newcastle Emlyn.

Berry and Thomas were located by heat-seeking helicopter cameras cowering in a hedge. They were both arrested on suspicion of aggravated burglary.

However, the police investigation quickly uncovered a more sinister intent, finding gas masks, balaclavas, cable ties and a fake suicide note purporting to be written by Mr Mills to his wife.

Mills was soon linked to a criminal plot to kill her husband and incriminating text messages were found on her and Berry's mobile phones.

They had made several references about killing Mr Mills, including one message written on 7 August that year, just over a month after their affair had begun, saying simply that Mr Mills "should just die".

Two days later they were planning different ways of achieving their fantasy.

There was talk of poisoning her husband with sleeping pills, while Berry brought up the idea of shooting Mr Mills.

The jury in their trial heard how Berry had asked an army and navy stall holder at Swansea market if he had guns and ammunition, only to be told this was not something they sold.

Berry also asked people how to make a Mini Cooper S - the car Mr Mills drove at that time - explode on starting.

Police found a message from Berry to Michelle Mills saying he was going to meet with some "boys" to plan "what they are going to do with him".

Michelle Mills, whose only concern, say police, was that she would not get caught, replied: "Yes, lovely, thank you."

With her husband injured and still reeling from the attack, Mills sent her final, damning text message to her lover.

Almost immediately after the men had fled the scene, Mills wrote to him: "Police have been called get away, delete all communications … please on both phones … I love you."

Eventually, the police were convinced not only about her guilt but also her central role in the plot to kill her husband.

When she was charged with conspiracy to murder, Mills asked officers: "I'm going to prison for this, aren't I?"

The jury at her trial also convicted her of perverting the course of justice, for which she was jailed for 18 months - to be served concurrently with her 19-year term.

Berry was also convicted of possessing an imitation firearm and handed an 18-month jail term that he must serve alongside his 19-year sentence.

Turkey and sprouts are synonymous with Christmas dinner and this year a rise in the price of both means the festive feast will cost you slightly more at the supermarket.

A typical turkey dinner with all the trimmings will cost about £32.45, according to research done for the BBC - a £1.24 or nearly 4% rise on last year.

It comes after bird flu led to large numbers of turkeys being culled early, while a drier spring and summer hit sprout harvests.

However, the humble but golden potato and parsnip have gone down in price, along with - if you have any room - Christmas pudding and mince pies. Our seasonal snapshot reflects that overall food price rises are beginning to slow down.

The centre piece to the traditional family feast - the turkey - costs £20, for a standard 10lb (4.55kg) frozen one. The same bird was £18.62 last year - that's a 7.37% rise, according to the research from retail tracking platform Assosia.

The ever-divisive Brussels sprouts went up by more than 9% to 94p a bag, it found.

The data is based on prices on 6 December 2025 and the same date in 2024, across own-brand products from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl.

However, every year as supermarkets compete for our Christmas custom many slash the prices of their bags of veg as low as 8p so there are bargains to be had.

The cost of a supermarket shop is now rising much slower than when food prices spiked sharply following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Turkey prices up after bird flu outbreaks

In Potterspury, near Milton Keynes, hundreds of free-range turkeys usually amble around farmer Susan Gorst, pecking at the grass.

But in November, all bird farmers in England were ordered to keep their flocks indoors and many were culled early to limit the spread of bird flu.

She says turkeys eat more feed when they can't graze outdoors so this pushed up her costs. But she says her customers understand she has to pass this on.

"I think people are now generally expecting an increase on most things year on year," she says.

The rising price of turkey "could have been a lot worse," according to John Muff, co-owner of Muff's Butchers in Wirral. He estimates it's up by £1-2 per kilo since last Christmas.

"All year round we've seen price increases, almost on a weekly basis, 5p here, 10p there," he says.

Pork has also gone up in price, with pigs in blankets now £2.59, or 5.3% higher than last year.

John says this didn't surprise him. The cost of making their sausages from scratch has seen a "steady increase throughout the year," he says.

He says "every aspect is going up," from animal feed, energy, transport and wages.

But he thinks higher supermarket prices might be tempting shoppers into a trip to the butchers.

"They're thinking to themselves: If I'm going to pay that sort of price, I may as well come in here and get the proper stuff," he says.

Sprout prices

Whether you celebrate or shun the sprouts at Christmas, the success of this little green veg is highly dependent on the weather.

Alan Steven, a sprout farmer in Fife, says this spring the ground was so dry he had to water his fields before he could plant his seeds - for the first time in 10 years.

He had the cost of irrigating twice more over the summer due to prolonged hot weather.

And so far the winter has been milder which means the sprout plants are more prone to disease, he says.

Spud prices hold steady

The price of root vegetables has remained firmly planted - with no change to the cost of carrots - and potatoes and parsnips just a penny cheaper than last year.

Scott Walker, chief executive of GB Potatoes, said planting and harvesting conditions were favourable this year, but the middle of the season, was "one of the driest in modern memory". The summer was the hottest on record in the UK.

Farmers who didn't have irrigation systems would have suffered and those who could water their crops would have had higher electricity and fuel costs, he says.

"We've had more modest rises than we've had over the past couple of years, but costs have still gone up," he says.

The trouble with potato prices is you never know what you're going to get, says Lucy Munns, a potato farmer in Cambridgeshire.

She said a good price for her potatoes would be £200 a tonne, but she was anticipating prices as low as £80 in December.

Hot spells while potatoes are growing causes them to be oddly shaped and they can be rejected by supermarkets and fish and chip shops, she says.

Pudding and mince pies fall in price

Another side dish which saw a slight dip in price was stuffing mix - dropping 1.32% to 50p for 170g.

And lashings of gravy will also be cheaper this year, with gravy granules dropping 7.35% to 91p for 200-300g.

If after the Christmas feast you still have appetite for a sweet treat you'll be glad to hear that Christmas pudding and mince pies are cheaper this year.

A pack of six iced mince pies will cost £1.77, which is 2.75% cheaper than in 2024. A standard 400g pudding comes in at £2.35, or a drop of 7.42%.

It's down to falling flour and sugar prices - there is currently a global sugar surplus.

In the UK, falling sugar, jam and chocolate prices contributed to lower inflation rates in December.

How to keep costs down

• Start with a budget: Plan ahead and add up hidden expenses, like tin foil for roasting a turkey.
• Write a food list: Decide on your must haves and what you might not miss.
• Plan your leftovers: A next day meal plan will mean less goes to waste
• Bargain hunt: Look out for online offers as well as yellow sticker items which have been reduced.
• Use your freezer: Christmas foods that freeze well include butter, meat joints and some cheeses like cheddar.
• Join up with friends and family: This means you can buy bigger pack sizes, which are often better value.

Read more from the BBC Food team here

After 17 hours of at times heated debate, EU leaders agreed in the early hours of Friday morning to jointly raise €90bn (£79bn; $105bn) in zero-interest loans to keep Ukraine financially afloat for the next two years.

Kyiv had been clear: the money wasn't a nice-to-have; it was a must-have.

With the US under Donald Trump no longer looking to provide new direct military aid to Ukraine, the war-torn country has turned to Europe.

Without the cash, Volodymyr Zelensky told EU leaders he wouldn't have enough money to pay Ukrainian soldiers or buy the weapons he needed to counter Russian aggression.

The now agreed EU loan will be guaranteed by the bloc's common budget.

But in a blow to Brussels' desire to demonstrate decisive European unity over Ukraine to EU sceptics in Washington and Moscow, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic only agreed to support the plan - it required unanimity to be passed - if they were exempt from it individually.

Yet another indication of the divisions in Europe over attitudes to Ukraine and to Moscow.

Hungary and Slovakia are known to be closer to the Kremlin.

This brings them into direct confrontation with EU countries geographically nearer to Russia such as Poland and the Baltic States.

They view Ukraine's survival against Russia as existential.

If Kyiv were to lose to Moscow on the battlefield because it was cash or weapons-strapped, they believe that would embolden Russia and would be a disaster for European security and stability more broadly.

Arriving at the start of Thursday's fraught summit, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said EU leaders had a clear decision to make: pay money today, he said, or pay in blood tomorrow.

He said he wasn't talking about Ukraine. He was talking about Europe.

The new EU joint-loan plan for Ukraine replaces a much-debated EU proposal to raise the €90bn using frozen Russian state assets held in the bloc (€210bn euros' worth in total), mostly in Belgium.

Kyiv had described that idea as morally justified, considering the billions of dollars' worth of destruction wreaked by Moscow on Ukraine.

But a number of EU countries feared legal retribution by Russia. They worried too that the eurozone's international reputation as a safe destination for global assets could be damaged.

Brussels said on Friday it was considering using the frozen Russian assets eventually, to repay the EU loan to Ukraine. But that would be something to be worked out in the future - if a peace deal is signed.

For now, on top of the new EU loan, it's estimated Ukraine will need another €45bn euros to cover all its costs for 2026/2027.

Brussels hopes non-EU allies of Ukraine like the UK, Japan and Canada might pick up some of that tab. Not going bankrupt now also opens the door for Kyiv to receive loans from banks like the IMF.

The Vatican has announced that Richard Moth will be the new Archbishop of Westminster, making him the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales.

He succeeds Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who has held the role since 2009 and has stepped down aged 80.

For the past 10 years Richard Moth has been Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, and before that served as Bishop to the Forces.

As Archbishop of Westminster he will become president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and lead an estimated six million Catholics.

Cardinal Nichols reached retirement age when he was 75, but was asked to stay on by Pope Francis. In May he took part in the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

The search for a replacement for Cardinal Nichols was led by the Apostolic Nuncio, or papal ambassador to the UK, who presented a list of potential candidates to Pope Leo.

Earlier this week, Archbishop Moth released a joint statement calling for empathy for "those who come to this country for their safety", reminding Catholics that Jesus's family fled to Egypt as refugees.

He has been one of the bishops leading the Church's response to social justice issues in the UK, including praising the scrapping of the two-child benefit cap.

Archbishop Moth will face the challenge of declining numbers of people attending churches nationally, though there is growth in some churches with immigrant Catholics.

In response to the growing use of Christian symbols at, for example, rallies organised by the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, Bishop Moth has talked of his concern.

Last weekend, Robinson held an event in London saying he wanted to "reclaim" the country's heritage and Christian identity.

"We are concerned about the tensions that are growing in society and the desire by some groups to sow seeds of division within our communities. This does not reflect the spirit or message of Christmas," Bishop Moth said in a statement with the Archbishop of Birmingham.

The Catholic Church has been heavily involved in providing assistance to those who have suffered in the cost of living crisis.

As archbishop, Richard Moth will also lead the Church's constant challenge of dealing with safeguarding issues.

In 2020, a wide-ranging inquiry into child sexual abuse found that between 1970 and 2015 the Catholic Church in England and Wales received more than 3,000 complaints of child sexual abuse against more than 900 individuals connected to the Church.

In fact, the leadership of Archbishop Moth's predecessor, Cardinal Nichols, was criticised in the inquiry report, which said he cared more about the impact of abuse on the Church's reputation than on the victims.

At the time, Cardinal Nichols apologised and said he accepted the report, adding: "That so many suffered is a terrible shame with which I must live and from which I must learn."

Cardinal Nichols retires having led the Church in England and Wales for 16 years, during which it faced enormous change.

He is the son of two teachers and was born in Crosby. The lifelong Liverpool FC fan took up his first role as a priest in Wigan.

In 2010, he welcomed Pope Benedict XVI to England on an official visit.

The risks beneath the spectacle

Money and notoriety - what does Joshua have to gain?

Boxing hierachy to be restored or remade

• Boxing schedule and results 2025

  Published
  2 days ago

  

• Watch every Born to Brawl episode

  Published
  28 April 2024

  

More boxing from the BBC

• Notifications, social media and more with BBC Sport

  Published
  16 August

  

UK government borrowing was higher than expected last month, according to the latest official figures.

Borrowing - the difference between public spending and tax income - was £11.7bn in November, whereas analysts had been expecting about £10bn.

However, the figure was £1.9bn lower than in the same month a year earlier and was the lowest November borrowing for four years.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the fall was mainly due to higher receipts from taxes and National Insurance contributions.

Borrowing for the financial year to November has now reached £132.3bn, which is £10bn ahead of where it was at the same point last year.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for the suspect in a mass shooting at Brown University that killed two people and injured nine others, sources close to the investigation told the BBC's US partner, CBS News.

Authorities are now searching for the person and a car the suspect is believed to have rented, according to CBS. They have not publicly identified the suspect.

They also are looking into a possible link between the shooting at Brown and the killing of a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology two days later.

The search is now in its sixth day, with investigators knocking on doors, asking for home-security videos, and appealing to the public for tips to find the gunman.

A news conference that police in Providence, Rhode Island, had planned for Thursday afternoon was abruptly cancelled, but they said they expected to give an update later in the day.

On Thursday, authorities told CBS sources that they are investigating possible connections between the shooting and the killing of an Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) nuclear science and engineering professor two days later.

Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, 47, from Portugal, was shot "multiple times" on Monday at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is about 50 miles (80km) from Providence.

Police have obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect, sources told CBS. The sources said a rental car matching the same description was seen at both crime scenes.

Federal authorities had previously said there was no link between the two murders.

On Wednesday, authorities released a photo of an individual they believe was in close proximity to their primary person of interest.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said they wanted to speak with the person, "who may have information relevant to the investigation".

The chief also said the killer "could be anywhere", adding that "we don't know where the person is or who he is".

A day earlier, police had shown footage of a person of interest where a man was seen walking around the university campus with a black mask over his mouth, possibly "casing" the area before the crime, Perez said.

Members of the public have expressed frustration that the mass shooting investigation has appeared to yield little progress so far.

In response, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said he believed the killer would be caught "and it is just a matter of time before we catch him".

The FBI has offered a $50,000 (£37,350) reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the attack.

The shooting occurred at Brown University's Barus & Holley engineering building during final exams.

Authorities identified the two students killed as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek-American freshman student.

Turkey and sprouts are synonymous with Christmas dinner and this year a rise in the price of both means the festive feast will cost you slightly more at the supermarket.

A typical turkey dinner with all the trimmings will cost about £32.45, according to research done for the BBC - a £1.24 or nearly 4% rise on last year.

It comes after bird flu led to large numbers of turkeys being culled early, while a drier spring and summer hit sprout harvests.

However, the humble but golden potato and parsnip have gone down in price, along with - if you have any room - Christmas pudding and mince pies. Our seasonal snapshot reflects that overall food price rises are beginning to slow down.

The centre piece to the traditional family feast - the turkey - costs £20, for a standard 10lb (4.55kg) frozen one. The same bird was £18.62 last year - that's a 7.37% rise, according to the research from retail tracking platform Assosia.

The ever-divisive Brussels sprouts went up by more than 9% to 94p a bag, it found.

The data is based on prices on 6 December 2025 and the same date in 2024, across own-brand products from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl.

However, every year as supermarkets compete for our Christmas custom many slash the prices of their bags of veg as low as 8p so there are bargains to be had.

The cost of a supermarket shop is now rising much slower than when food prices spiked sharply following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Turkey prices up after bird flu outbreaks

In Potterspury, near Milton Keynes, hundreds of free-range turkeys usually amble around farmer Susan Gorst, pecking at the grass.

But in November, all bird farmers in England were ordered to keep their flocks indoors and many were culled early to limit the spread of bird flu.

She says turkeys eat more feed when they can't graze outdoors so this pushed up her costs. But she says her customers understand she has to pass this on.

"I think people are now generally expecting an increase on most things year on year," she says.

The rising price of turkey "could have been a lot worse," according to John Muff, co-owner of Muff's Butchers in Wirral. He estimates it's up by £1-2 per kilo since last Christmas.

"All year round we've seen price increases, almost on a weekly basis, 5p here, 10p there," he says.

Pork has also gone up in price, with pigs in blankets now £2.59, or 5.3% higher than last year.

John says this didn't surprise him. The cost of making their sausages from scratch has seen a "steady increase throughout the year," he says.

He says "every aspect is going up," from animal feed, energy, transport and wages.

But he thinks higher supermarket prices might be tempting shoppers into a trip to the butchers.

"They're thinking to themselves: If I'm going to pay that sort of price, I may as well come in here and get the proper stuff," he says.

Sprout prices

Whether you celebrate or shun the sprouts at Christmas, the success of this little green veg is highly dependent on the weather.

Alan Steven, a sprout farmer in Fife, says this spring the ground was so dry he had to water his fields before he could plant his seeds - for the first time in 10 years.

He had the cost of irrigating twice more over the summer due to prolonged hot weather.

And so far the winter has been milder which means the sprout plants are more prone to disease, he says.

Spud prices hold steady

The price of root vegetables has remained firmly planted - with no change to the cost of carrots - and potatoes and parsnips just a penny cheaper than last year.

Scott Walker, chief executive of GB Potatoes, said planting and harvesting conditions were favourable this year, but the middle of the season, was "one of the driest in modern memory". The summer was the hottest on record in the UK.

Farmers who didn't have irrigation systems would have suffered and those who could water their crops would have had higher electricity and fuel costs, he says.

"We've had more modest rises than we've had over the past couple of years, but costs have still gone up," he says.

The trouble with potato prices is you never know what you're going to get, says Lucy Munns, a potato farmer in Cambridgeshire.

She said a good price for her potatoes would be £200 a tonne, but she was anticipating prices as low as £80 in December.

Hot spells while potatoes are growing causes them to be oddly shaped and they can be rejected by supermarkets and fish and chip shops, she says.

Pudding and mince pies fall in price

Another side dish which saw a slight dip in price was stuffing mix - dropping 1.32% to 50p for 170g.

And lashings of gravy will also be cheaper this year, with gravy granules dropping 7.35% to 91p for 200-300g.

If after the Christmas feast you still have appetite for a sweet treat you'll be glad to hear that Christmas pudding and mince pies are cheaper this year.

A pack of six iced mince pies will cost £1.77, which is 2.75% cheaper than in 2024. A standard 400g pudding comes in at £2.35, or a drop of 7.42%.

It's down to falling flour and sugar prices - there is currently a global sugar surplus.

In the UK, falling sugar, jam and chocolate prices contributed to lower inflation rates in December.

How to keep costs down

• Start with a budget: Plan ahead and add up hidden expenses, like tin foil for roasting a turkey.
• Write a food list: Decide on your must haves and what you might not miss.
• Plan your leftovers: A next day meal plan will mean less goes to waste
• Bargain hunt: Look out for online offers as well as yellow sticker items which have been reduced.
• Use your freezer: Christmas foods that freeze well include butter, meat joints and some cheeses like cheddar.
• Join up with friends and family: This means you can buy bigger pack sizes, which are often better value.

Read more from the BBC Food team here

More on this story

• Head century drives England closer to Ashes defeat

  Published
  3 hours ago

  

• 'Class act' - how BBC Radio 5 Live and Barmy Army has kept Adelaide tidy

  Published
  12 minutes ago

  

• Captain Stokes 'knackered' but 'fit to bowl'

  Published
  1 hour ago

  

Government data has been stolen in a hack though officials believe the risk to individuals is "low", a minister has said.

Trade Minister Chris Bryant told BBC Breakfast "an investigation is ongoing" into the hack, adding that the security gap was "closed pretty quickly".

A Chinese affiliated group is suspected of being behind the attack, but Bryant said investigators "simply don't know as yet" who is responsible.

"We think that it's a fairly low-risk that individuals will have been compromised or affected," Bryant said.

It comes after the Sun newspaper reported that the hack took place in October with information possibly including visa details targeted.

It said in its report that hackers affiliated to the Chinese state were thought to be involved.

The incident has been referred to the Information Commissioners Office.

UK intelligence agencies have warned about increasing, large-scale espionage from China, using cyber and other means, and targeting commercial and political information.

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

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

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

Slow death for England

Head boy

Stokes and Archer stand up for England

More on this story

• Head grinds England down on third day - as it happened

  

• 'Pope has one innings to save his England place'

  Published
  19 hours ago

  

• Get cricket news sent straight to your phone

  Published
  16 August

  

Joshua makes weight, Paul unleashes bizarre tirade

Smiling Dubois makes weight for MVP debut

5 Live Boxing podcast with Bunce in Miami

• Paul v Joshua: Fight week begins

• Hearn on Paul v Joshua

• Boxing schedule and results 2025

  Published
  2 days ago

  

• Watch every Born to Brawl episode

  Published
  28 April 2024

  

More boxing from the BBC

• Notifications, social media and more with BBC Sport

  Published
  16 August

  

TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance has signed binding agreements with US and global investors to sell the majority of its business in America, TikTok's boss told employees on Thursday.

Half of the joint venture will be owned by a group of investors, including Oracle, Silver Lake and the Emirati investment firm MGX, according to a memo sent by chief executive Shou Zi Chew.

The deal, which is set to close on 22 January, would end years of efforts by Washington to force ByteDance to sell its US operations over national security concerns.

The deal is ​line with one unveiled in September, when US President Donald Trump delayed the enforcement of a law that would ban the app unless it was sold.

In the memo, TikTok said the deal will enable "over 170 million Americans to continue discovering a world of endless possibilities as part of a vital global community".

The White House referred the BBC to TikTok when contacted for comment.

Turkey and sprouts are synonymous with Christmas dinner and this year a rise in the price of both means the festive feast will cost you slightly more at the supermarket.

A typical turkey dinner with all the trimmings will cost about £32.45, according to research done for the BBC - a £1.24 or nearly 4% rise on last year.

It comes after bird flu led to large numbers of turkeys being culled early, while a drier spring and summer hit sprout harvests.

However, the humble but golden potato and parsnip have gone down in price, along with - if you have any room - Christmas pudding and mince pies. Our seasonal snapshot reflects that overall food price rises are beginning to slow down.

The centre piece to the traditional family feast - the turkey - costs £20, for a standard 10lb (4.55kg) frozen one. The same bird was £18.62 last year - that's a 7.37% rise, according to the research from retail tracking platform Assosia.

The ever-divisive Brussels sprouts went up by more than 9% to 94p a bag, it found.

The data is based on prices on 6 December 2025 and the same date in 2024, across own-brand products from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl.

However, every year as supermarkets compete for our Christmas custom many slash the prices of their bags of veg as low as 8p so there are bargains to be had.

The cost of a supermarket shop is now rising much slower than when food prices spiked sharply following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Turkey prices up after bird flu outbreaks

In Potterspury, near Milton Keynes, hundreds of free-range turkeys usually amble around farmer Susan Gorst, pecking at the grass.

But in November, all bird farmers in England were ordered to keep their flocks indoors and many were culled early to limit the spread of bird flu.

She says turkeys eat more feed when they can't graze outdoors so this pushed up her costs. But she says her customers understand she has to pass this on.

"I think people are now generally expecting an increase on most things year on year," she says.

The rising price of turkey "could have been a lot worse," according to John Muff, co-owner of Muff's Butchers in Wirral. He estimates it's up by £1-2 per kilo since last Christmas.

"All year round we've seen price increases, almost on a weekly basis, 5p here, 10p there," he says.

Pork has also gone up in price, with pigs in blankets now £2.59, or 5.3% higher than last year.

John says this didn't surprise him. The cost of making their sausages from scratch has seen a "steady increase throughout the year," he says.

He says "every aspect is going up," from animal feed, energy, transport and wages.

But he thinks higher supermarket prices might be tempting shoppers into a trip to the butchers.

"They're thinking to themselves: If I'm going to pay that sort of price, I may as well come in here and get the proper stuff," he says.

Sprout prices

Whether you celebrate or shun the sprouts at Christmas, the success of this little green veg is highly dependent on the weather.

Alan Steven, a sprout farmer in Fife, says this spring the ground was so dry he had to water his fields before he could plant his seeds - for the first time in 10 years.

He had the cost of irrigating twice more over the summer due to prolonged hot weather.

And so far the winter has been milder which means the sprout plants are more prone to disease, he says.

Spud prices hold steady

The price of root vegetables has remained firmly planted - with no change to the cost of carrots - and potatoes and parsnips just a penny cheaper than last year.

Scott Walker, chief executive of GB Potatoes, said planting and harvesting conditions were favourable this year, but the middle of the season, was "one of the driest in modern memory". The summer was the hottest on record in the UK.

Farmers who didn't have irrigation systems would have suffered and those who could water their crops would have had higher electricity and fuel costs, he says.

"We've had more modest rises than we've had over the past couple of years, but costs have still gone up," he says.

The trouble with potato prices is you never know what you're going to get, says Lucy Munns, a potato farmer in Cambridgeshire.

She said a good price for her potatoes would be £200 a tonne, but she was anticipating prices as low as £80 in December.

Hot spells while potatoes are growing causes them to be oddly shaped and they can be rejected by supermarkets and fish and chip shops, she says.

Pudding and mince pies fall in price

Another side dish which saw a slight dip in price was stuffing mix - dropping 1.32% to 50p for 170g.

And lashings of gravy will also be cheaper this year, with gravy granules dropping 7.35% to 91p for 200-300g.

If after the Christmas feast you still have appetite for a sweet treat you'll be glad to hear that Christmas pudding and mince pies are cheaper this year.

A pack of six iced mince pies will cost £1.77, which is 2.75% cheaper than in 2024. A standard 400g pudding comes in at £2.35, or a drop of 7.42%.

It's down to falling flour and sugar prices - there is currently a global sugar surplus.

In the UK, falling sugar, jam and chocolate prices contributed to lower inflation rates in December.

How to keep costs down

• Start with a budget: Plan ahead and add up hidden expenses, like tin foil for roasting a turkey.
• Write a food list: Decide on your must haves and what you might not miss.
• Plan your leftovers: A next day meal plan will mean less goes to waste
• Bargain hunt: Look out for online offers as well as yellow sticker items which have been reduced.
• Use your freezer: Christmas foods that freeze well include butter, meat joints and some cheeses like cheddar.
• Join up with friends and family: This means you can buy bigger pack sizes, which are often better value.

Read more from the BBC Food team here

When bullets began flying at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday, strangers Wayne and Jessica found themselves in the same nightmare scenario. They couldn't find their three-year-olds.

In the chaos, separately, they desperately scanned the green. People who'd gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah screamed and ducked. Others ran. Some didn't make it far.

The 10-odd minutes that followed were the longest of their lives.

Wayne's body was acting as a human shield for his eldest daughter, but his mind was elsewhere: with his missing daughter Gigi.

"We had to wait all that time for the gunshots to stop. It felt like eternity," he tells the BBC.

Unbeknown to him, Jessica's gaze had caught on a little girl in a rainbow skirt, confused, scared and alone - calling out for her mummy and daddy.

In that moment, the pregnant mother couldn't protect her own child, so she'd protect this one, she decided. She smothered Gigi's body with her own, and uttered "I've got you", over and over again. They could feel the moment a woman about a metre away was shot and killed.

By the time the air finally fell silent, Wayne had become all but convinced Gigi was dead.

"I was looking amongst the blood and the bodies," he says, growing emotional.

"What I saw - no human should ever see that."

Eventually, he caught a glimpse of a familiar colourful skirt and found his daughter, stained in red - but okay, still shrouded under Jessica. Her son too would soon be found, unharmed.

"She said she's just a mother and she acted with mother instincts," Wayne says.

"[But] she's a superhero. We'll be indebted to her for the rest of our lives."

It is one of the incredible accounts of selflessness and courage that have emerged from one of Australia's darkest days.

Declared a terror attack by police, it is the deadliest in Australian history. Dozens were injured and 15 people - including a 10-year-old girl - were killed by the two gunmen, who police say were inspired by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).

More people undoubtedly would have been harmed if it weren't for Ahmed al Ahmed.

A Syrian-Australian shop owner, he'd been having coffee nearby when the shooting began. His father told BBC Arabic Ahmed "saw the victims, the blood, women and children lying on the street, and then acted".

Footage of the moment he sprung out from behind a car and wrestled a gun off one of the attackers immediately went viral. He was shot multiple times, and may lose his arm.

Another man, Reuven Morrison, was also seen on the video hurling objects at the same attacker in the moments after Ahmed disarmed him.

Sheina Gutnik easily recognised her dad in the footage.

"He is not one to lie down. He is one to run towards danger," Ms Gutnick told BBC partner CBS News.

He had jumped up the second the shooting started, she said, and was throwing bricks at one of the gunmen before he was fatally shot.

"He went down fighting, protecting the people he loved most."

The first two victims of the assault, Boris and Sofia Gurman, were also captured on dashcam footage grappling with one of the men for his weapon. When they succeeded, he got another gun from the car he'd just climbed out of and killed 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 couple's family said in a statement.

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

The list goes on.

Chaya, only 14 years old, was shot in the leg while shielding two young children from gunfire.

Jack Hibbert - a beat cop just four months into the job - was hit in both the head and the shoulder but continued to help festival attendees until he physically couldn't, his family said. The 22-year-old will survive, but with life-changing injuries.

Lifeguard Jackson Doolan was photographed sprinting over from a neighbouring beach during the attack, armed with critical medical supplies. He didn't even pause to put on shoes.

Others at Bondi rushed from the beach into the fire, their red-and-yellow lifesaving boards working overtime as stretchers. One lifeguard even dived back into the surf to save swimmers who'd been sent into a panic by the shooting.

Student Levi Xu, 31, told the BBC he felt he could not shout for help, as he didn't want to draw attention to himself or risk any potential saviours being targeted.

But lifeguard Rory Davey saw him and his friend struggling, and dragged them back to shore.

"We stood up and wanted to thank him, but he had already gone back into the sea to rescue other people," says Mr Xu.

Thousands of Australians flocked to donate blood, dwarfing the previous record.

Authorities say many off-duty first responders travelled to Bondi on Sunday - from as far as two hours away - simply because they knew there was a need.

Healthcare workers rushed to hospitals when they heard of the attack, whether or not they were on shift, confronting unspeakable trauma to save lives.

"Normally on a Sunday night, there is staff available to run one operating theatre [at St Vincent's Hospital]. There were eight operating at once," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

State premier Chris Minns, too, has been quick to praise the heroics of ordinary, everyday Australians.

"This is a terrible, wanton act of destructive violence. But there are still amazing people that we have in Australia, and they showed their true colours last night," he said, the day after the attack.

Wayne says he shudders to think what would have happened without people like Jessica and Ahmed.

When he speaks to the BBC, he's just attended a funeral for the gunmen's youngest victim, 10-year-old Matilda.

"I was sitting at this funeral and I was just thinking, tears pouring out of my eyes... I could have been in the front... It could have been my little girl."

"There could have been so much more devastation without the bravery of [these] people... someone who could run just comes in. Someone who could worry about their own child looks after another child.

"That's what the world needs more of."

Additional reporting by Fan Wang.

Britain's roads, railways and airports are set to be thronged by festive travellers on what is is anticipated to be the busiest day for Christmas trips.

The AA has warned of gridlock on Friday as 24.4 million cars are expected to hit the roads.

It is also expected to be the busiest day of the Christmas period for airports, with 460,000 journeys planned.

Network Rail has also advised travellers to check their journeys and book a seat if possible.

Drivers told to allow extra time

The AA said this Christmas could be the busiest on record for UK roads, and advised drivers to allow extra time to complete their journeys.

The insurance company said most people driving during the festive period travelled less than 100 miles, meaning congestion is likely around motorway interchanges and retail destinations.

AA patrol expert Shaun Jones said patience behind the wheel "will be your best present this year".

"Plan ahead, check your route, and allow extra time," he said.

• The M27 will be closed between Junction 9 (Whiteley/Park Gate) and Junction 11 (Fareham East/Gosport) from Christmas Eve to 4 January, so anyone travelling in Hampshire should plan alternative routes.

Rail closures

Network Rail also encouraged passengers to allow extra time for train travel. Improvement works taking place over the Christmas period mean several routes will be closed or restricted.

Information on what routes will be closed for repairs can be found on the Network Rail website.

National Rail trains do not run on Christmas Day and only a small number will run on Boxing Day.

Daniel Mann, Director of Industry Operations at the Rail Delivery Group, said: "We encourage customers to reserve seats where possible, bring only luggage that is easy to carry and fits in designated storage areas, and allow extra time for their journeys."

Flights

Friday is expected to be the busiest day of the festive season for airports, but the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said flying on Christmas Day was becoming more popular.

It advised customers to know their rights in case their flight is cancelled or delayed.

If this happens, airlines are required to support passengers. This can include:

• Providing food and drink during extended delays
• Covering accommodation if passengers are delayed overnight
• Offering a refund or alternative travel if a flight is cancelled

If your flight is cancelled, and it is covered by UK law, your airline must let you choose between either getting a refund or being booked on to an alternative flight.

You can check if your flight is covered under UK law here.

The CAA also said that travellers can minimise their risk of delays by ensuring their cases are packed correctly.

This includes leaving presents unwrapped as they may need to be inspected.

Turkey and sprouts are synonymous with Christmas dinner and this year a rise in the price of both means the festive feast will cost you slightly more at the supermarket.

A typical turkey dinner with all the trimmings will cost about £32.45, according to research done for the BBC - a £1.24 or nearly 4% rise on last year.

It comes after bird flu led to large numbers of turkeys being culled early, while a drier spring and summer hit sprout harvests.

However, the humble but golden potato and parsnip have gone down in price, along with - if you have any room - Christmas pudding and mince pies. Our seasonal snapshot reflects that overall food price rises are beginning to slow down.

The centre piece to the traditional family feast - the turkey - costs £20, for a standard 10lb (4.55kg) frozen one. The same bird was £18.62 last year - that's a 7.37% rise, according to the research from retail tracking platform Assosia.

The ever-divisive Brussels sprouts went up by more than 9% to 94p a bag, it found.

The data is based on prices on 6 December 2025 and the same date in 2024, across own-brand products from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons, Aldi and Lidl.

However, every year as supermarkets compete for our Christmas custom many slash the prices of their bags of veg as low as 8p so there are bargains to be had.

The cost of a supermarket shop is now rising much slower than when food prices spiked sharply following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Turkey prices up after bird flu outbreaks

In Potterspury, near Milton Keynes, hundreds of free-range turkeys usually amble around farmer Susan Gorst, pecking at the grass.

But in November, all bird farmers in England were ordered to keep their flocks indoors and many were culled early to limit the spread of bird flu.

She says turkeys eat more feed when they can't graze outdoors so this pushed up her costs. But she says her customers understand she has to pass this on.

"I think people are now generally expecting an increase on most things year on year," she says.

The rising price of turkey "could have been a lot worse," according to John Muff, co-owner of Muff's Butchers in Wirral. He estimates it's up by £1-2 per kilo since last Christmas.

"All year round we've seen price increases, almost on a weekly basis, 5p here, 10p there," he says.

Pork has also gone up in price, with pigs in blankets now £2.59, or 5.3% higher than last year.

John says this didn't surprise him. The cost of making their sausages from scratch has seen a "steady increase throughout the year," he says.

He says "every aspect is going up," from animal feed, energy, transport and wages.

But he thinks higher supermarket prices might be tempting shoppers into a trip to the butchers.

"They're thinking to themselves: If I'm going to pay that sort of price, I may as well come in here and get the proper stuff," he says.

Sprout prices

Whether you celebrate or shun the sprouts at Christmas, the success of this little green veg is highly dependent on the weather.

Alan Steven, a sprout farmer in Fife, says this spring the ground was so dry he had to water his fields before he could plant his seeds - for the first time in 10 years.

He had the cost of irrigating twice more over the summer due to prolonged hot weather.

And so far the winter has been milder which means the sprout plants are more prone to disease, he says.

Spud prices hold steady

The price of root vegetables has remained firmly planted - with no change to the cost of carrots - and potatoes and parsnips just a penny cheaper than last year.

Scott Walker, chief executive of GB Potatoes, said planting and harvesting conditions were favourable this year, but the middle of the season, was "one of the driest in modern memory". The summer was the hottest on record in the UK.

Farmers who didn't have irrigation systems would have suffered and those who could water their crops would have had higher electricity and fuel costs, he says.

"We've had more modest rises than we've had over the past couple of years, but costs have still gone up," he says.

The trouble with potato prices is you never know what you're going to get, says Lucy Munns, a potato farmer in Cambridgeshire.

She said a good price for her potatoes would be £200 a tonne, but she was anticipating prices as low as £80 in December.

Hot spells while potatoes are growing causes them to be oddly shaped and they can be rejected by supermarkets and fish and chip shops, she says.

Pudding and mince pies fall in price

Another side dish which saw a slight dip in price was stuffing mix - dropping 1.32% to 50p for 170g.

And lashings of gravy will also be cheaper this year, with gravy granules dropping 7.35% to 91p for 200-300g.

If after the Christmas feast you still have appetite for a sweet treat you'll be glad to hear that Christmas pudding and mince pies are cheaper this year.

A pack of six iced mince pies will cost £1.77, which is 2.75% cheaper than in 2024. A standard 400g pudding comes in at £2.35, or a drop of 7.42%.

It's down to falling flour and sugar prices - there is currently a global sugar surplus.

In the UK, falling sugar, jam and chocolate prices contributed to lower inflation rates in December.

How to keep costs down

• Start with a budget: Plan ahead and add up hidden expenses, like tin foil for roasting a turkey.
• Write a food list: Decide on your must haves and what you might not miss.
• Plan your leftovers: A next day meal plan will mean less goes to waste
• Bargain hunt: Look out for online offers as well as yellow sticker items which have been reduced.
• Use your freezer: Christmas foods that freeze well include butter, meat joints and some cheeses like cheddar.
• Join up with friends and family: This means you can buy bigger pack sizes, which are often better value.

Read more from the BBC Food team here

The widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is "likely" to displace people from jobs in a similar way seen during the Industrial Revolution, the governor of the Bank of England has said.

Andrew Bailey said the UK needed to have the "training, education, [and] skills in place" so workers could shift into jobs that use AI.

He told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme people looking for a job would find securing employment "a lot easier" if they had such skills.

However, he warned that there was an issue with younger, inexperienced professionals finding it difficult to secure entry-level roles due to AI.

"We do have to think about, what is it doing to the pipeline of people? Is it changing it or not?" he said.

"I think if it's people working with AI, I'm not sure it will change the pipeline, but I think we're right to have a have an eye on that point."

Artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life in recent years and is increasingly being adopted by businesses and the public sector.

The technology allows computers to process large amounts of data, identify patterns and follow detailed instructions about what to do with that information.

However, there are concerns over the impact it may already be having on the jobs market.

Official figures released this week revealed the UK unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in the three months to October, with younger workers particularly affected.

The number of unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds increased by 85,000 in the three months to October, the largest rise since November 2022, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Some have argued rises to the minimum wage and increased taxes has made it less appealing for businesses to hire entry-level staff.

However, some firms have said the growth of AI may eventually lead to fewer junior staff, particulary graduates being hired.

Entry-level professional jobs are thought to be most impacted by AI, particularly in sectors such as law, accountancy and administration.

The boss of accountancy giant PwC recently told the BBC that the firm was scaling back plans to increase its headcount.

"Now we have artificial intelligence. We want to hire, but I don't know if it's going to be the same level of people that we hire - it will be a different set of people," said global chairman Mohamed Kande.

Firms who would have previously contracted PwC consultants to sift through data and documents may now use AI models instead, turning weeks of costly work into minutes.

Mr Bailey said worries over the impact of technology on populations cropped over at various times in history, stretching back centuries to when Queen Elizabeth I was worried about the impact of the invention of the knitting machine on her then subjects.

"As you saw in the Industrial Revolution, now over time, I think we can now sort of look back and say it didn't cause mass unemployment, but it did displace people from jobs and this is important.

"My guess would be that it's most likely that AI may well have a similar effect. So we need to be prepared for that, in a sense."

Mr Bailey said AI was the "most likely source of the next leg up" for UK economic growth.

"In terms of its potential to improve productivity growth, I think it's pretty substantial. It will get used across the economy. How quickly it comes through is another question, history would suggest that it does take some time."

Mr Bailey said the Bank of England, which sets UK interest rates, were using AI but added the institution, along with others, were "probably all still experimenting".

"To get it into sort of mainstream, everyday use will take some time, but it's critically important that we obviously focus on getting the pre-conditions and all the conditions in place for that to happen," he added.

AI bubble fears

Aside from the jobs market being impacted by AI, there are concerns there could be an AI bubble - whether the big tech firms are being overvalued.

The Bank of England has recently sounded the alarm over a potential crash in the value of AI firms reminiscent of previous incidents such as the dotcom bubble.

Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of US bank JP Morgan, told the BBC in October he was "far more worried than others" about the risk of a serious market correction in the coming years.

Mr Bailey told the Today programme that policymakers would "have to watch the valuation question".

However, he did acknowledge that the majority of the big companies were generating cash flow.

"Of course, it's still the case that it doesn't mean they'll all be winners. We're watching it very closely, because we do need to watch, obviously, what the consequences of any sharp unwinding could be."

The future of the economy can sometimes be seen in minor gestures of a Bank of England governor, such as the arch of his eyebrows. So what to make of Andrew Bailey sporting a rather exuberant festive tie full of Christmas trees at the moment he delivered his so-called "Santa cut"?

It probably means nothing. Just maybe it is a sign that the timing and messaging behind this cut is designed to pump life into a "subdued" economy.

It was a narrow decision, with the governor as the swing voter after he said the UK had "passed the peak of inflation", and the target of 2% now in sight in April rather than early 2027.

Mr Bailey was at pains to say the direction of travel next year remained cuts, but that decisions would now be a closer call.

"We're going to come back to target sooner than we thought. So that's encouraging. All of this is very encouraging, and for me certainly, you know, it was a strong basis to cut today," he said.

"Looking forwards, I do think we'll continue to have something of a gradual downward path... the calls do get closer."

There has been a debate on the Monetary Policy Committee about what a normal level of interest would be, with some members seeing that as low as 3%. Markets interpreted the deliberations of the committee as meaning just two further cuts next year.

Much is up in the air, however, about what the committee said was a "lacklustre" economy, that they forecast is not growing in the current quarter.

The uncertainty around the Budget has now lifted, but businesses told the Bank there had been no rebound yet. The Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, said that the cuts showed the economy was on "life support" and rate cuts were "CPR".

Governor Bailey said the Budget measures aimed at containing inflation had helped the Bank's decision to lower interest rates.

"It's part of the reason I can be more confident inflation is going to come down sooner," he said.

The governor has also identified an unusually high rate of savings as holding back the economy, driven by a lack of consumer confidence among older savers in particular. Rate cuts mechanically lower the incentive to save, and help spending.

He said he didn't want to be "judgemental" about how much people save, but that it was true "how confident and cautious" people feel about the global and local economy does affect savings.

More economic policy stability, lower inflation and lower interest rates should help the economy gain some new momentum in the new year. It certainly needs it.

But it might take a lot more for the much-needed jolt of confidence and festive spirit to spread across the economy.

European Union leaders have struck a deal to give Ukraine a €90bn (£79bn; $105bn) loan after failing to agree on using frozen Russian assets.

The agreement, which leaders said would meet Ukraine's military and economic needs for the next two years, came after more than a day of talks at a summit in Brussels.

"We committed, we delivered," EU chief Antonio Costa wrote on X as he announced the deal to provide a loan backed by the bloc's common budget.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had urged leaders to use €200 billion of frozen Russian assets but Belgium, where the vast bulk of the cash is held, demanded guarantees on sharing liability that proved too much for other countries.

In another development, French President Emmanuel Macron said he believed it would be "useful" for Europe to re-engage with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"I believe that it's in our interest as Europeans and Ukrainians to find the right framework to re-engage this discussion," he said, adding that Europeans should find the means to do so "in coming weeks".

EU ⁠leaders avoided "chaos ‍and ‍division" ​with ‌their decision to provide Ukraine with a loan through borrowing cash rather than ​use frozen Russian assets, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De ​Wever said early on Friday.

"We remained united," De ‌Wever added.

Ukraine is months from running out of cash and Zelensky said without an injection by spring Ukraine would "have to reduce production of drones".

The EU estimates Ukraine needs an extra €135 billion to stay afloat over the next two years, with the cash crunch set to start in April.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who had pushed for the asset plan, said the final decision on the loan "sends a clear signal" to Putin.

Russia had warned EU leaders not to use its money, but Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said they had to "rise to this occasion".

The agreement offers Kyiv a desperately needed lifeline amid a flurry of diplomacy as US President Donald Trump pushes for a quick deal to end Russia's war.

US and Russian officials are due to meet in Miami this weekend for further talks on a peace plan, a White House official has told AFP news agency. It is thought Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev will talk to Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Miami.

Meanwhile, Zelensky announced Ukrainian and US delegations would hold new talks on Friday and Saturday in the United States.

He said he wanted Washington to give more details on the guarantees it could offer to protect Ukraine from another invasion.

Police have issued an arrest warrant for the suspect in a mass shooting at Brown University that killed two people and injured nine others, sources close to the investigation told the BBC's US partner, CBS News.

Authorities are now searching for the person and a car the suspect is believed to have rented, according to CBS. They have not publicly identified the suspect.

They also are looking into a possible link between the shooting at Brown and the killing of a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology two days later.

The search is now in its sixth day, with investigators knocking on doors, asking for home-security videos, and appealing to the public for tips to find the gunman.

A news conference that police in Providence, Rhode Island, had planned for Thursday afternoon was abruptly cancelled, but they said they expected to give an update later in the day.

On Thursday, authorities told CBS sources that they are investigating possible connections between the shooting and the killing of an Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) nuclear science and engineering professor two days later.

Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, 47, from Portugal, was shot "multiple times" on Monday at his home in Brookline, Massachusetts, which is about 50 miles (80km) from Providence.

Police have obtained an arrest warrant for a suspect, sources told CBS. The sources said a rental car matching the same description was seen at both crime scenes.

Federal authorities had previously said there was no link between the two murders.

On Wednesday, authorities released a photo of an individual they believe was in close proximity to their primary person of interest.

Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez said they wanted to speak with the person, "who may have information relevant to the investigation".

The chief also said the killer "could be anywhere", adding that "we don't know where the person is or who he is".

A day earlier, police had shown footage of a person of interest where a man was seen walking around the university campus with a black mask over his mouth, possibly "casing" the area before the crime, Perez said.

Members of the public have expressed frustration that the mass shooting investigation has appeared to yield little progress so far.

In response, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha said he believed the killer would be caught "and it is just a matter of time before we catch him".

The FBI has offered a $50,000 (£37,350) reward for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the attack.

The shooting occurred at Brown University's Barus & Holley engineering building during final exams.

Authorities identified the two students killed as Ella Cook, a sophomore from Alabama, and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov, an Uzbek-American freshman student.

The Australian government has announced a gun buyback scheme in the wake of the Bondi Beach attack - its deadliest mass shooting in decades.

The scheme is the largest since the Port Arthur massacre in 1996, which left 35 people dead and prompted Australia to introduce world-leading gun control measures.

Fifteen people were killed and dozens injured on Sunday when two gunmen, believed to have been motivated by "Islamic State ideology", opened fire on a Jewish festival at the country's most iconic beach.

On Friday police said a group of men who were arrested in Sydney after travelling from the state of Victoria had "extremist Islamic ideology".

Police allege Sunday's attack, which they have declared a terrorist incident, was committed by a father-son duo. Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act. His father Sajid was killed during the attack.

The day after the shooting, national cabinet - which includes representatives from the federal government and leaders from all states and territories - agreed to tighten gun controls.

Speaking to media on Friday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there are now more than 4 million firearms in Australia - more than at the time of the Port Arthur massacre.

"We know that one of these terrorists held a firearm licence and had six guns, in spite of living in the middle of Sydney's suburbs... There's no reason why someone in that situation needed that many guns.

"We need to get more guns off our streets."

Earlier on Friday, a senior New South Wales police officer told national broadcaster ABC seven men arrested by counter terrorism police in Sydney on Thursday evening may have been on their way to Bondi.

Tactical officers swarmed on the group, who had travelled from Victoria and were known to police there, in dramatic scenes in the suburb of Liverpool.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said "some indication" that Bondi was one of the locations they were considering visiting, but "with no specific intent in mind or proven at this stage".

Rarely used national security powers were relied upon to swoop before their plans developed.

"We made the decision that we weren't going to … take any chances in relation to what they might be doing," he said.

Officers found a knife, but no guns or other weapons, Mr Hudson added.

Whale breath collected by drones is giving clues to the health of wild humpbacks and other whales.

Scientists flew drones equipped with special kit through the exhaled droplets, or "blows", made when the giants come up to breathe through their blowholes.

They detected a highly infectious virus linked to mass strandings of whales and dolphins worldwide.

The sampling of whale "blow" is a "game-changer" for the health and well-being of whales, said Prof Terry Dawson of King's College London.

"It allows us to monitor pathogens in live whales without stress or harm, providing critical insights into diseases in rapidly changing Arctic ecosystems," he said.

The researchers used drones carrying sterile petri dishes to capture droplets from the exhaled breath of humpback, fin and sperm whales, combined with skin biopsies taken from boats.

They confirmed for the first time that a potentially deadly whale virus, known as cetacean morbillivirus, is circulating above the Arctic Circle.

The disease is highly contagious and spreads easily among dolphins, whales, and porpoises causing severe disease and mass deaths.

It can jump between species and travel across oceans, posing a significant threat to marine mammals.

The researchers hope this breakthrough will help spot deadly threats to ocean life early, before they start to spread.

"Going forward, the priority is to continue using these methods for long-term surveillance, so we can understand how multiple emerging stressors will shape whale health in the coming years," said Helena Costa of Nord University, Norway.

The study, involving King's College London and The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in the UK, and Nord University in Norway is published in BMC Veterinary Research.

When bullets began flying at Sydney's Bondi Beach on Sunday, strangers Wayne and Jessica found themselves in the same nightmare scenario. They couldn't find their three-year-olds.

In the chaos, separately, they desperately scanned the green. People who'd gathered to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah screamed and ducked. Others ran. Some didn't make it far.

The 10-odd minutes that followed were the longest of their lives.

Wayne's body was acting as a human shield for his eldest daughter, but his mind was elsewhere: with his missing daughter Gigi.

"We had to wait all that time for the gunshots to stop. It felt like eternity," he tells the BBC.

Unbeknown to him, Jessica's gaze had caught on a little girl in a rainbow skirt, confused, scared and alone - calling out for her mummy and daddy.

In that moment, the pregnant mother couldn't protect her own child, so she'd protect this one, she decided. She smothered Gigi's body with her own, and uttered "I've got you", over and over again. They could feel the moment a woman about a metre away was shot and killed.

By the time the air finally fell silent, Wayne had become all but convinced Gigi was dead.

"I was looking amongst the blood and the bodies," he says, growing emotional.

"What I saw - no human should ever see that."

Eventually, he caught a glimpse of a familiar colourful skirt and found his daughter, stained in red - but okay, still shrouded under Jessica. Her son too would soon be found, unharmed.

"She said she's just a mother and she acted with mother instincts," Wayne says.

"[But] she's a superhero. We'll be indebted to her for the rest of our lives."

It is one of the incredible accounts of selflessness and courage that have emerged from one of Australia's darkest days.

Declared a terror attack by police, it is the deadliest in Australian history. Dozens were injured and 15 people - including a 10-year-old girl - were killed by the two gunmen, who police say were inspired by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).

More people undoubtedly would have been harmed if it weren't for Ahmed al Ahmed.

A Syrian-Australian shop owner, he'd been having coffee nearby when the shooting began. His father told BBC Arabic Ahmed "saw the victims, the blood, women and children lying on the street, and then acted".

Footage of the moment he sprung out from behind a car and wrestled a gun off one of the attackers immediately went viral. He was shot multiple times, and may lose his arm.

Another man, Reuven Morrison, was also seen on the video hurling objects at the same attacker in the moments after Ahmed disarmed him.

Sheina Gutnik easily recognised her dad in the footage.

"He is not one to lie down. He is one to run towards danger," Ms Gutnick told BBC partner CBS News.

He had jumped up the second the shooting started, she said, and was throwing bricks at one of the gunmen before he was fatally shot.

"He went down fighting, protecting the people he loved most."

The first two victims of the assault, Boris and Sofia Gurman, were also captured on dashcam footage grappling with one of the men for his weapon. When they succeeded, he got another gun from the car he'd just climbed out of and killed 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 couple's family said in a statement.

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

The list goes on.

Chaya, only 14 years old, was shot in the leg while shielding two young children from gunfire.

Jack Hibbert - a beat cop just four months into the job - was hit in both the head and the shoulder but continued to help festival attendees until he physically couldn't, his family said. The 22-year-old will survive, but with life-changing injuries.

Lifeguard Jackson Doolan was photographed sprinting over from a neighbouring beach during the attack, armed with critical medical supplies. He didn't even pause to put on shoes.

Others at Bondi rushed from the beach into the fire, their red-and-yellow lifesaving boards working overtime as stretchers. One lifeguard even dived back into the surf to save swimmers who'd been sent into a panic by the shooting.

Student Levi Xu, 31, told the BBC he felt he could not shout for help, as he didn't want to draw attention to himself or risk any potential saviours being targeted.

But lifeguard Rory Davey saw him and his friend struggling, and dragged them back to shore.

"We stood up and wanted to thank him, but he had already gone back into the sea to rescue other people," says Mr Xu.

Thousands of Australians flocked to donate blood, dwarfing the previous record.

Authorities say many off-duty first responders travelled to Bondi on Sunday - from as far as two hours away - simply because they knew there was a need.

Healthcare workers rushed to hospitals when they heard of the attack, whether or not they were on shift, confronting unspeakable trauma to save lives.

"Normally on a Sunday night, there is staff available to run one operating theatre [at St Vincent's Hospital]. There were eight operating at once," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

State premier Chris Minns, too, has been quick to praise the heroics of ordinary, everyday Australians.

"This is a terrible, wanton act of destructive violence. But there are still amazing people that we have in Australia, and they showed their true colours last night," he said, the day after the attack.

Wayne says he shudders to think what would have happened without people like Jessica and Ahmed.

When he speaks to the BBC, he's just attended a funeral for the gunmen's youngest victim, 10-year-old Matilda.

"I was sitting at this funeral and I was just thinking, tears pouring out of my eyes... I could have been in the front... It could have been my little girl."

"There could have been so much more devastation without the bravery of [these] people... someone who could run just comes in. Someone who could worry about their own child looks after another child.

"That's what the world needs more of."

Additional reporting by Fan Wang.

Sign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.