More than 20 nations supporting Ukraine have pledged to "take Russian oil and gas off the global market" as part of efforts to pressure President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

"We're choking off funding for Russia's war machine," said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, after hosting a summit of the "coalition of the willing" in London.

The UK and US have in recent days sanctioned Russia's two biggest oil companies, while the EU targeted Moscow's liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was also in London, said "pressure" on Russia was the only way to stop the fighting. However, no long-range missile deliveries to Ukraine were announced at the summit.

Zelensky has long argued that US-made Tomahawks and European missiles would help make the war costs heavier for Moscow by hitting key military targets - including oil refineries and weapons depots - deep inside Russia.

But during last week's talks in Washington, US President Donald Trump indicated to Zelensky that he was not ready to supply Tomahawks.

On Thursday, President Putin warned that if "such weapons are used to strike Russian Federation territory the response will be... overwhelming".

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Speaking at a joint press conference after the London summit, Starmer said Putin was "not serious about peace", and therefore Ukraine's allies agreed a "clear plan for the rest of the year" on supporting Ukraine.

The UK prime minister said this also included targeting Russia's sovereign assets to "unlock billions to help finance Ukraine's defence". He gave no further details.

On Thursday, EU leaders agreed to help support Ukraine's "financial needs" for the next two years - but stopped short of agreeing to use frozen Russian assets worth €140bn (£122bn).

Asked about a so-called "reparations loan" for Ukraine funded by the Russian assets, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she hoped a decision would be made by Christmas Eve

In London, the "coalition of the willing" also pledged to strengthen Ukraine's air defences" amid almost daily Russian air assaults on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure.

Zelensky warned that Russia "wants to make the winter cold a tool of torment", adding that "they want to break us".

Further support for Ukraine's energy infrastructure was among the issues discussed at the summit - however, no specific announcements were made.

Ukraine and its western allies have publicly agreed with President Trump's proposal that the fighting should be immediately frozen along the vast front line for negotiations to begin.

Russia has rejected this idea, repeating demands that Kyiv and its allies describe as de facto capitulation by Ukraine.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out an income tax rise in next month's Budget, amid speculation she is considering breaking a key Labour election pledge.

Asked about reports, first published in The Guardian newspaper, that the Treasury is in active discussions over raising the rate, Reeves said she would "continue to support working people by keeping their taxes as low as possible".

Reeves' refusal to rule out a rise does not mean one is inevitable as Chancellors rarely confirm or deny specific tax measures ahead of a Budget.

But her careful language contrasts with comments in September that "manifesto commitments stand" on not raising income tax, National Insurance or VAT.

Labour's 2024 general election manifesto contained a pledge not to raise "the basic, higher, or additional rates of income tax".

The party also promised not to increase National Insurance - prompting a row last autumn when it announced a hike in the contributions paid by employers.

Speaking to journalists in Leeds on Friday, Reeves said: "Although I can't talk about individual measures at this stage, I understand that the cost of living is still people's number one concern."

She went on to say that her aim was to "ensure that we continue to support working people by keeping their taxes as low as possible" but that she was still "going through the process" of writing her Budget.

She also said that although the inflation figures this week "came in better than expected" there was "obviously much more to do."

The chancellor has signalled she is likely to focus on wealthy individuals at the Budget, saying "those with the broadest shoulders should pay their fair share".

This week, reports suggested officials are exploring a mix of measures, including higher taxes on partnerships used by lawyers and accountants.

However, economists say such steps will not raise enough to close the hole in the government's finances, leaving Reeves under pressure to consider more politically sensitive options.

Influential think-tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says Reeves will "almost certainly" have to raise taxes to make up a £22bn shortfall in the government's finances.

The gap has been driven by the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) decision to downgrade productivity forecasts, wiping out much of the £10bn "headroom" Reeves set aside at the spring statement.

Government borrowing - the difference between public spending and tax income - in September rose to £20.2bn, the highest for that month in five years, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The effective interest rates on UK government debt has fallen sharply, but Reeves has been left with very little room to meet her self-imposed fiscal rules without increasing taxes.

These rules mean her plans must be projected to get government debt falling as a share of national income by 2029-30, and day-to-day government costs must be paid for by tax income rather than borrowing.

If Reeves increases income tax it will be the first rise in the rate since 2010, when Labour introduced a 50% additional rate on incomes over £150,000 which was reduced to 45% by the coalition government.

Currently, Income tax is charged on earnings above the personal allowance of £12,570, which is tax-free.

The basic rate of 20% applies to income between £12,571 and £50,27, while earnings from £50,271 to £125,140 are taxed at the higher rate of 40%. Income above £125,140 is subject to the additional rate of 45%.

These thresholds apply to most taxpayers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, while Scotland has a separate system.

The Guardian reported that Treasury officials are in "active discussions" about adding 1p to the basic rate of income tax, which could raise more than £8bn as well - as looking at increasing higher rates for top earners.

The basic rate of income tax has not been raised since the 1970s.

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An asylum seeker has been found guilty of murdering a hotel worker, who he stabbed 23 times with a screwdriver at a railway station.

Deng Chol Majek had denied killing 27-year-old Rhiannon Whyte, who died three days after being attacked at Bescot Stadium station, in Walsall, in October 2024.

The killer was staying at the nearby Park Inn Hotel, where Ms Whyte worked, and staff reported Majek, originally from Sudan, had earlier been staring at her and others, in a "scary" and "spooky" manner.

CCTV captured Majek following Ms Whyte to the station before he fled minutes later. He was then seen dancing and drinking in the hotel car park, behaviour described as "callous" by prosecutors.

Majek denied he was the killer, repeatedly telling the court that CCTV and DNA evidence was wrong. No motive for why he attacked Ms Whyte has ever been established.

He showed no emotion when the jury returned its verdict after a little over two hours of deliberations.

Ms Whyte's mother Siobhan put her head in her hands and started crying when the verdict was read out, while Ms Whyte's two sisters were also in tears.

In a statement outside court, her sister Alexandra, who is now raising Ms Whyte's son, aged only five at the time, said: "Deng Chol Majek stalked, hunted and then preyed on our defenceless Rhiannon, before cornering her and unleashing a vicious attack – and for what purpose?

"She was at work, helping people as she always did, and he chose her for no purpose other than cold-blooded self-gratification."

Alexandra said Majek had stolen a "crucial piece" of her family.

"He took so many opportunities from Rhiannon, she will never watch her son grow up, we will never watch her marry, build a family, buy her first house or learn to drive," she said.

She said getting justice for her sister was not the end of her story and her family would continue to "advocate to evoke change" in her name.

"Many have tried to imply this is about immigration, but these are the choices of one man, not an ethnic group," she added.

Before he was convicted, in a trial that lasted two weeks at Wolverhampton Crown Court, the jury heard Majek travelled to the UK on a small boat, arriving on 29 July 2024.

He was living at the Park Inn Hotel, which was owned by Radisson but was then being managed by Serco as an asylum hotel.

On 20 October 2024 Ms Whyte, who had worked at the hotel for three months, was on a late shift from 15:00 to 23:00 BST.

The court heard that earlier in the day her co-workers noticed Majek staring at her and other colleagues, in a manner described as "intimidating, scary and spooky".

At the end of her shift, Ms Whyte went outside for a vape, before walking across the road to the station to catch a train home.

'Terrified screams'

Majek was seen on CCTV following her from a distance to the station and stalking her over the bridge to platform two.

Ms Whyte had called her friend Emma Cowley, who she had known since they were five, while she was on the way to the station.

During video evidence to the court, Ms Cowley said she heard two "terrified, high pitched" screams and then a long breath, before the phone went dead.

At that point on the deserted station platform, Ms Whyte had been stabbed 23 times, 11 of which penetrated her skull, with one cutting through her brain stem.

Minutes after the attack, she was found slumped in a platform shelter by a member of railway staff, who was assisted by a hotel worker.

Ms Whyte initially survived, but never regained consciousness and died in hospital three days later.

After he launched the attack, Majek was caught on camera walking quickly away from the scene before throwing Ms Whyte's phone into the River Tame.

The murder weapon, believed to be a screwdriver, has never been found.

Less than 90 minutes later, more footage showed Majek dancing at the hotel, while emergency services were still working at the nearby scene.

Prosecutors told the jury Majek's actions after the murder had been "utterly callous".

Despite the figure in the CCTV footage being of a similar build and wearing identical clothing as Majek, the killer repeatedly argued in court it was not him.

He also said other evidence, which included Ms Whyte's DNA under his nails and her blood on his clothing, was wrong.

Because of discrepancies over how old Majek is the judge, Mr Justice Soole, has ordered an age assessment report be drawn up before he is sentenced.

In court, Majek claimed he was aged 19, but prosecutors said they believed him to be in his mid 20s. Establishing accurately how old he is, will have a bearing on how he is sentenced.

'Quiet dignity'

A sentencing hearing is scheduled to take place at the same court on 15 December.

After thanking the jury, the judge referred to the "quiet dignity" Ms Whyte's family had shown throughout the "demanding" two-week trial.

"It is unimaginable and I thank you and admire you for it," he said.

Following Majek's conviction Carla Harris, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Rhiannon Whyte should have been able to go to work and come home safely – but Deng Chol Majek robbed her of her life and future.

"He attacked her for no reason, and callously left her bleeding on a station platform.

"He then appeared to rejoice in his actions, having been caught laughing and dancing on footage an hour later."

Det Ch Insp Paul Attwell, of British Transport Police, said it was very unlikely the motive behind Majek's decision to "launch his savage attack" will ever be known.

He said the killer appeared "completely unbothered, bored even" throughout the trial, much to the distress of Ms Whyte's family.

"It was a brutal, cowardly and unprovoked attack on a vibrant and selfless young woman, who had her whole life ahead of her," Det Ch Insp Atwell said.

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The director of public prosecutions has said the China spy case collapsed because a top national security official could not say the country had been classed as an "enemy" when the Conservatives were in power.

In a letter to MPs, Stephen Parkinson said the unwillingness of Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Collins to say that China had been an active threat to national security between 2021 and 2023 was "fatal to the case".

Parkinson has been under pressure to explain why two men were charged with spying only for the case against them to collapse 16 months later without going to trial.

A political blame game erupted over the case - but the focus has now switched to the role of officials. And government witnesses are expected to query some of the DPP's written evidence when they appear before the parliamentary committee next week.

In April 2024, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry were charged under the Official Secrets Act 1911 over allegations that they had passed information to a Chinese intelligence agent.

They were cleared of all wrongdoing in September after the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) withdrew its case. Both men always denied wrongdoing.

After weeks of pressure, Parkinson, who is the head of the CPS and director of public prosecutions, has now written a long letter to the national security strategy committee, ahead of appearing before it on Monday.

It sets out his account why Mr Cash and Mr Berry were first charged - and how the case then unravelled.

The men were first arrested in March 2023 on suspicion of offences under the Official Secrets Act - and if the case were to go before a jury, the prosecution would have to prove that the defendants had carried out activity "prejudicial to the safety or interests of the State".

Secondly, a jury would also have to be sure that the UK government had considered between 2021 and 2023 - when the alleged offending occurred - that China was an "enemy".

Prosecutors concluded that they would need to show a jury that China was an "enemy" with the help of expert factual evidence from Matt Collins, the Deputy National Security Adviser (DNSA).

As DNSA, Mr Collins is responsible for coming up with an assessment of threats to the UK's national security.

He began drafting, with advice from his own lawyers and other officials, a statement which had to be solely focused on the then Conservative government's official and publicly disclosable conclusions about the threat, if any, that China posed.

This evidence is separate from any information generated by the intelligence services that remains secret.

The eventual statement went into detail about the activities of Chinese intelligence agencies and how they seek to obtain information about the UK's political workings - but the word "enemy" was removed by the time a final version was completed in December 2023 and shared with Downing Street.

Mr Collins, in his own letter to MPs, said he told police investigating the case he could not call China an "enemy" as this "did not reflect government policy".

In July 2024, a Court of Appeal ruling on the legal definition of enemy, in a separate case concerning Russian interference in the UK, set off alarm bells in the CPS.

It underlined the need to provide a jury with a factual account of why a state could be considered an enemy under the Official Secrets Act - and while the government had provided a clear conclusion about Russia, it had not done so for China.

In his letter to MPs, Parkinson said that ruling meant the CPS and police had to go back to the DNSA to ask him for more evidence about China.

That evidence was essential because prosecutors knew that the defendant's barristers would question whether there was no evidence at all that the UK had regarded China overall as a threat between 2021 and 2023.

In July, the Director of Public Prosecution's team told the Cabinet Office: "To prove the offence, the jury would need to be satisfied so that they were sure that, at the material time, China was an enemy.

"That China was an active espionage threat would not be sufficient without examples which adequately demonstrate the nature and extent of the threat, such as to ground a finding that China was an enemy."

That led to two crunch meetings - which led to the case's collapse.

At the first meeting on 14 August, Mr Collins told the prosecution team that "he would not state in evidence, if asked, that China posed a risk to our national security at the material time, either in open Court or in a private session.

"He would also not accept that China was opposed or hostile to the interests of the United Kingdom at the material time," says Mr Parkinson's letter.

"He would accept, if asked [at trial], that China was not an enemy in the ordinary meaning of the word, and would not answer the question, if asked, whether China is an enemy within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act. He would say that is a matter for the jury."

By a meeting on 9 September this year, Mr Collins had been told that without such evidence, the case would collapse.

Mr Parkinson's letter tells MPs the official reiterated he could not provide the evidence they sought because it would not reflect the former government's position.

"In the conference, the DNSA [Mr Collins] confirmed to counsel that, in relation to the 2021-2023 situation, he would not say that China was an active threat.

"Successive governments had declined to categorise it as such."

Mr Parkinson tells the MPs that given the defence teams knew what Mr Collins had said in his statements, prosecutors were under a duty to call him to give evidence at a trial - and he would be cross-examined.

The CPS could not go to the DNSA and then, on discovering he could not provide the facts prosecutors needed, choose an alternative witness.

[The DNSA's] unwillingness to say that at the material time China was an active threat to national security was fatal to the case," said Mr Parkinson.

More than 20 nations supporting Ukraine have pledged to "take Russian oil and gas off the global market" as part of efforts to pressure President Vladimir Putin to end the war.

"We're choking off funding for Russia's war machine," said UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, after hosting a summit of the "coalition of the willing" in London.

The UK and US have in recent days sanctioned Russia's two biggest oil companies, while the EU targeted Moscow's liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was also in London, said "pressure" on Russia was the only way to stop the fighting. However, no long-range missile deliveries to Ukraine were announced at the summit.

Zelensky has long argued that US-made Tomahawks and European missiles would help make the war costs heavier for Moscow by hitting key military targets - including oil refineries and weapons depots - deep inside Russia.

But during last week's talks in Washington, US President Donald Trump indicated to Zelensky that he was not ready to supply Tomahawks.

On Thursday, President Putin warned that if "such weapons are used to strike Russian Federation territory the response will be... overwhelming".

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Speaking at a joint press conference after the London summit, Starmer said Putin was "not serious about peace", and therefore Ukraine's allies agreed a "clear plan for the rest of the year" on supporting Ukraine.

The UK prime minister said this also included targeting Russia's sovereign assets to "unlock billions to help finance Ukraine's defence". He gave no further details.

On Thursday, EU leaders agreed to help support Ukraine's "financial needs" for the next two years - but stopped short of agreeing to use frozen Russian assets worth €140bn (£122bn).

Asked about a so-called "reparations loan" for Ukraine funded by the Russian assets, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said she hoped a decision would be made by Christmas Eve

In London, the "coalition of the willing" also pledged to strengthen Ukraine's air defences" amid almost daily Russian air assaults on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure.

Zelensky warned that Russia "wants to make the winter cold a tool of torment", adding that "they want to break us".

Further support for Ukraine's energy infrastructure was among the issues discussed at the summit - however, no specific announcements were made.

Ukraine and its western allies have publicly agreed with President Trump's proposal that the fighting should be immediately frozen along the vast front line for negotiations to begin.

Russia has rejected this idea, repeating demands that Kyiv and its allies describe as de facto capitulation by Ukraine.

Georgia's former Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili has appeared in court charged with large-scale money laundering - a shocking turnaround for one of the most loyal allies of billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, widely seen as Georgia's de facto leader.

Prosecutors said when his home was raided by investigators earlier this month they discovered $6.5m (£4.9m) in cash.

Garibashvili, 43, twice served as prime minister during the Ivanishvili years – first from 2013-15 and then again from 2021 until January last year.

Now he has pleaded guilty to corruption charges that could carry a 12-year jail term and he has been granted bail of one million Georgian lari ($368,000; £277,000).

The charges against the former prime minister are the latest in a string of detentions of ex-government officials.

But the case against Garibashvili is the first prosecution of a senior member of Georgia's governing elite, and it comes amid the ruling party's authoritarian pivot away from the West.

While serving first as defence minister and then as prime minister between 2019 and 2024, he is alleged to have "secretly and covertly engaged in various types of business activities and received a particularly large amount of income of illegal origin".

He is accused of laundering this income and falsely declaring money as gifts from family members.

His lawyer, Amiran Giguashvili, confirmed his client was working with authorities.

"The court took into account that Mr Irakli agrees to the charges, does not hide from the investigation and co-operates," he told the BBC.

The corruption case marks a dramatic fall for a politician who worked in Ivanishvili's companies before entering politics in 2011 as part of the billionaire's Georgian Dream party, which has been in power since 2012.

In February 2014, he signed Georgia's Association Agreement with the European Union.

However, in recent years he has led Georgia's shift away from the EU. He developed close ties with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and said Nato's enlargement was one of the main reasons for the war in Ukraine.

According to Georgian political analyst Ghia Nodia, the former prime minister's downfall reflects Bidzina Ivanishvili's mistrust of his former political appointees.

"Ivanishvili is really the driver, he decided for some reason that there is some kind of treason in his team," Nodia said.

"At this point, he trusts [current PM Irakli] Kobakhidze but stopped trusting his closest lieutenant, not just Garibashvili, but also [ex-security chief] Liluashvili and others."

Meanwhile, Georgia's political turmoil continues, a year after Georgian Dream won contested parliamentary elections which the then president refused to recognise.

There have been daily protests since the government's announcement in November 2024 that it would halt membership talks with the EU, and most opposition leaders are now in jail.

New legislations have targeted civil society, pro-opposition media, and journalists and activists have been imprisoned.

"Ivanishvili seems like [he's] under siege," says Ghia Nodia. "He believes these crazy deep state conspiracies that the West wants to destroy him through these continuous protests in Georgia."

New York Attorney General Letitia James has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution.

James appeared in court in US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, on Friday during a brief hearing where her legal team asked for a speedy trial.

Speaking outside of the courthouse after the arraignment, James accused Trump of using the justice system as a "vehicle of retribution" against her and other critics.

She previously brought brought charges against others he considers political enemies.

"There's no fear today," she said, as supporters outside cheered. On Friday, a judge set a trial date of 26 January.

The federal government alleges James bought a three-bedroom home in Norfolk using a mortgage loan that required her to use the property as her secondary residence, and did not allow for shared ownership or "timesharing" of the home.

The indictment claims the property "was not occupied or used" by James as a secondary residence, but instead was "used as a rental investment property" and was being rented to a family of three.

The "misrepresentation" allowed James to obtain favourable loan terms that would not have been available for an investment property, prosecutors claim.

Sources have told US media that James bought the home for her great-niece in 2020 and that the relative never paid rent for the home.

James' legal team also said in court filings this week that they plan to challenge the appointment of US attorney Lindsey Halligan to James' case.

Trump appointed Ms Halligan, his former personal attorney, to oversee the case after another US prosecutor, Erik Siebert, resigned. Siebert reportedly was ousted after he told the justice department he had not found sufficient evidence to charge James.

James' attorneys also are filing a motion to dismiss the case on the grounds that it is "vindictive".

She is one of several Trump critics who are under investigation or have faced criminal charges in recent weeks. The justice department charged Trump's former Federal Bureau of Investigation director James Comey with making false statements to Congress.

Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, is charged with sending and wilfully retaining national defence information.

Trump last month called on his social media site Truth Social for Attorney General Pam Bondi, to bring charges against his political opponents.

"We can't delay any longer, it's killing our reputation and credibility," he wrote.

James brought a civil fraud case against Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, in 2022. Trump was later found liable of falsifying records to secure better loan deals, leading to a $500m (£376m) fine.

The penalty was thrown out by an appeals court, which called the fine excessive, though it upheld that Trump was liable for fraud.