The Duchess of Sussex could make a return to acting after she moves back to the UK, according to reports.

Sources close to the Sussexes have not denied reports that Meghan has been offered an acting role in the country.

Australian outlet news.com.au, external first reported that one of the reasons behind Harry and Meghan's decision to return to Britain was that the duchess had been offered a job in an upcoming project.

No details of any role or project have been confirmed. The Sussexes are expected to arrive back in Britain before the end of August, with their children enrolled to start school in September.

Liverpool have had a £50m bid rejected by Brighton for their winger Yankuba Minteh.

The 22-year-old Gambia international has scored 10 goals and provided nine assists in 73 appearances for the Seagulls.

Minteh, who joined Brighton from Newcastle for £30m in 2024, plays primarily on the right wing and is currently recovering from a leg injury sustained in a friendly against Roma earlier this month.

The priority for Reds boss Andoni Iraola for the remainder of the transfer window is to strengthen his wide attacking options after the departure of Mohamed Salah, and Liverpool will continue to look at a number of possibilities to test the market.

They signed Victor Munoz, who can play as a winger or through the middle, from Osasuna for £34m earlier this summer.

Paris St-Germain's Bradley Barcola remains a priority for Liverpool but as it stands the sides are too far apart on their valuation of the 23-year-old France winger, who is open to moving to Anfield.

PSG are holding out for a fee in the region of £145m but Liverpool would be more willing to strike a deal closer to the £100m mark.

Travis Frain was texting his mates a photo he had just taken of Big Ben on a university trip to London when his day turned from normal to anything but.

"One of the guys in my group shouted 'look out' and as I looked up from my phone the terrorist's car was in front of me.

"It was a split second really before the car hit me. I went over the bonnet, into the air, before landing back on the ground."

This was 22 March 2017, when attacker Khalid Masood drove his car into crowds, killing four, before stabbing a police officer to death outside Parliament.

Frain, then 19, was left with multiple injuries including a fractured leg, which took two years to heal. "There will always be a part of you affected by that attack."

Now 28, he spoke to BBC News as the UK's first national day for victims and survivors of terrorism is set to take place on Friday.

High pressure is set to build across the UK over the next few days bringing drier weather for the weekend.

Heavy downpours have brought rain to parts in need this week - albeit with some flash flooding - but these are set to ease.

Many areas will see sunny spells across Saturday and Sunday with daytime temperatures climbing again, perhaps to above the August average in parts of the south of England.

However the nights will turn rather chilly.

Leaving education, getting a job, buying a home and perhaps starting a family: the path previous generations followed may seem a distant dream to many now.

But is it getting a bit easier - at least when it comes to getting on the housing ladder?

Today's prospective first-time buyers may well feel hard done by; they are still worse off than recent generations.

If you were born in the UK in the mid-1990s you've about a 25% chance of owning your own home, as this chart shows.

The El Niño event that is developing over the Pacific Ocean is likely to be the strongest in living memory, the Met Office has warned.

The powerful natural climate phenomenon pushes up global temperatures and can increase the risks of extreme weather.

Added to the effects of human-induced climate change, the Met Office is warning that it is "very likely" to mean 2027 is the hottest year on record.

There is growing evidence that weather patterns around the world are already being affected, with below-average monsoon rains in India and suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean.

El Niño could put the UK at greater risk of a wet, stormy autumn.

"We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event", said Prof Adam Scaife, head of long-range forecasting at the UK Met Office.

"I have never seen an El Niño signal this intense in our forecasts."

Nearly six months after US President Donald Trump vowed a swift victory over Iran, the conflict appears to be at a standstill, with prospects of a military victory or negotiated settlement growing dimmer.

To break the deadlock, Trump has vowed an "economic D-Day" under which any country that does business with Iran would face "tremendous" economic consequences.

Iran, however, has long faced sanctions and has so far shown a willingness to endure pain and a capacity to adapt to immense economic and military pressure as the conflict drags on.

The key question for the US then becomes, will further sanctions work where other strategies have failed?

The exact mechanics of the new US economic pressure campaign remain unclear, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent promising to reveal them in a news conference on 24 August.

But in an interview with CNBC, Bessent made clear that the US is willing to take action against any country - friend or foe - that it believes is extending a lifeline to Iran.

"You are either with us or against us," he said. "If you insist on doing business with [Iran], either transferring money, buying their oil or doing seaborne sea transfers, then the US treasury and the US government... will put its full might and force toward enforcing against you."

Vice-President JD Vance has described the sanctions as a "new phase" of the conflict in which economic pressure is the "most effective" tool available to the US.

"They're going to try to apply economic pressure to us, but what has been true over the last couple of weeks is that they felt a lot more pressure than we have," Vance said on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton show.

"We're going to keep that going because we think that's the best way to ultimately achieve the final objective," he added.

Iran has faced significant US sanctions since nearly the beginning of the Islamic Republic in 1979.

The economic pressure campaign intensified after the first Trump administration withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a 2015 pact between world powers and Iran to curb its nuclear programme.

And in the current conflict, the US government has already announced Operation Economic Fury, a two-pronged US economic campaign combining US treasury-co-ordinated sanctions against regime financial flows and a naval blockade against Iranian ports.

Imran Bayoumi, a geostrategy expert with the Atlantic Council in Washington DC and former policy adviser to the defence department, told the BBC the latest announcement was likely the result of mounting frustration that other options have not delivered the results Trump wants.

"This is really a recognition that the US is almost stuck in this war," he said. "It's another try at economic pressure."

"This is just another tool that the US is using," Bayoumi added. "We've not seen a clear strategy laid out by the administration with either military or economic tools. The question of what the US is trying to achieve is still unanswered."

Michael Parker, an eight-year veteran of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and expert on economic sanctions, said the new strategy will likely represent an effort to "expand the economic blast radius" of sanctions by targeting third countries that still deal with Iran, but have economies that depend on the US dollar.

"Thus far, the US has largely used the threat of these secondary sanctions against foreign financial institutions to encourage compliance with sanctions policy," he said.

"But this is a lever that is sort of unexplored insofar as targeting anything touching the US dollar that is also touching Iran," Parker added.

As an example, Parker pointed to foreign financial institutions that help Iran evade sanctions, or directs money towards Iranian coffers.

How Iran would respond to these moves remains unclear, but sanctions experts say that Iran has so far proved adept at using irregular channels to circumvent sanctions - such as "shadow" vessels transporting oil or new commercial fronts unlisted by US sanctions.

"You keep seeing new names popping up, because Iran is adapting really quickly," said Mohammed Hammouda, an export control and sanctions manager at the London Stock Exchange. "Whatever sanctions one does, they find a new road [around it]."

These Iranian counter-moves, he added, often leave those charged with enforcing compliance playing a game of catch-up.

"Sanctions are all on paper, but the hard work is behind the scenes," Hammouda added. "There are teams worldwide trying to impose sanctions and identify those parties involved, which is why Iran has to try to adapt."

How effective these sanctions are will largely be determined by how the countries that are ultimately targeted - which could include US allies like Turkey and Iraq, as well as China - react.

"Some of this is out of Iran's hands," Parker said. "Iran's ability to evade or avoid sanctions is, in large part, contingent on other countries and financial institution's willingness to give them [Iran] access to the formal banking system."

Parker believes that the sanctions are "only as powerful" as the willingness of targeted countries to comply with American foreign policy objectives, or face potentially painful sanctions on trade involving the US dollar.

Some experts question whether that willingness currently exists.

"I can't really see China agreeing to that, for example," Bayoumi said. "These states have all been able to navigate their own interests with the Trump administration."

"The underlying point is that this is just another tool," he added. "But the broader question of strategy remains. Absent that, I'm not sure this is going to change anything long term."

Two Hong Kong activists who organised annual vigils to commemorate the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown have been found guilty of inciting others to subvert state power under the city's controversial national security law.

Lee Cheuk-yan, 69, and Chow Hang-tung, 41, face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail after being convicted under the China-introduced law. Sentencing is expected at a later date.

A third defendant, 74-year-old former lawmaker Albert Ho, pleaded guilty in January.

Prosecutors argued the defendants "endanger(ed) national security in the name of human rights". Chow, who represented herself, told the court in May that the law itself was on trial.

Hong Kong used to be one of the only places in Chinese territory where people could gather to mark the deadly 1989 crackdown against pro-democracy protesters.

Authorities banned these gatherings in 2020, citing Covid-19 policies, but they have never resumed. This was also the year the national security law, which makes illegal a wider range of dissenting acts, officially came into force.

Lee and Chow were leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance (HKS), which was founded in May 1989 to support students holding pro-democracy rallies.

Weeks later, the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square with troops and tanks. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to many thousands.

Over the next three decades, HKA called on authorities to accept responsibility for the crackdown, free dissidents and introduce democratic reform.

The Alliance's leaders were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since.

Rights group Amnesty International has said the case "relies on vague, overly broad and arbitrary definitions of 'subversion'".

Leaving education, getting a job, buying a home and perhaps starting a family: the path previous generations followed may seem a distant dream to many now.

But is it getting a bit easier - at least when it comes to getting on the housing ladder?

Today's prospective first-time buyers may well feel hard done by; they are still worse off than recent generations.

If you were born in the UK in the mid-1990s you've about a 25% chance of owning your own home, as this chart shows.

Actor Dave Bautista has been cast in the lead role of the upcoming God of War TV show.

The ex-WWE star will play Kratos in the adaptation of the PlayStation video game series, after Ryan Hurst was forced to quit the part due to injury.

Bautista, who had been rumoured to be in line to take the part for weeks, confirmed the casting by posting an image of the character to his Instagram account.

According to Deadline, which first reported the news, external, filming will restart from scratch when it begins later this year.

God of War has become one of Sony's most popular series since the first game was released on PlayStation 2 in 2005.

Its setting and story, inspired by ancient Greek mythology, along with its brutal combat, made it an instant hit with fans.

Many have stuck with main character Kratos, a demi-god who becomes a god, through an ongoing story of revenge and redemption.

In terms of why they were moving now, a source close to the couple said the "stars had aligned" at this time to make the move work for their family.

They are described by the source as an international couple who love to travel - and for the next while they are going to be based in the UK.

As well as surprising the world's media, it was also news to King Charles, who was told about the move on Sunday. He is said to be looking forward to seeing them more often.

The decision follows a visit in July by Prince Harry, Meghan and their children to see the King at his Highgrove home in Gloucestershire.

It was the first time the King had seen his grandchildren in person in more than four years, and the couple's first visit to the UK together since 2022.

It has also been two-and-a-half years since the King was diagnosed with cancer and in Prince Harry's BBC interview last year, he spoke of wanting to spend more time with his father.

Highgrove has the feel of a family home rather than a royal palace - and royal author Valentine Low says a key driver of their return has been the chance for Harry to rebuild links to his family and particularly to "repair his relationship with his father".

The couple will still keep their California home and Meghan's work in the media and her online food business, As Ever, can be carried out from a base in the UK as readily as in the US.

Next year, Prince Harry's Invictus Games are being held in Birmingham, which would have meant extensive travelling to meetings and events in the UK.

It will also mark the 30th anniversary of the death of his mother, Princess Diana, which will bring commemorations and events in the UK.

This summer saw Prince Harry and his family staying at the Spencer family home at Althorp and returning to the UK will be a chance to be closer to his mother's side of his family.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, and their children, are planning on relocating back to the UK from the US later this month.

Prince Harry and Meghan left the UK and stepped back from royal duties in 2020, and family relations have been strained since.

The BBC understands that whilst King Charles III welcomes their return, he wasn't informed of it until Sunday.

There has been no official comment from his brother, the Prince of Wales.

The BBC's Helena Wilkinson looks back over the tumultuous relationship between the brothers and how Prince Harry's return may be received.

Read more here.

You might be forgiven for glancing at this year's GCSE results and thinking not much has changed.

And sure, if you're just looking at the pass rate across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, that would be more or less correct.

But, when you dig into the detail, you'll find a more complicated picture, where some issues from last year have become even more stark.

You'll see the grades of students resitting their English and maths GCSEs in England are dragging down the overall results in those subjects - all part of a system the government itself says is "demoralising" and needs fixing.

You'll see that boys' and girls' grades are looking more similar - though that's more to do with girls slipping than boys improving.

And you'll see that, despite the government's pledges to "tackle entrenched inequality", the regional divide in England has actually grown, and remains stubbornly higher than it was before Covid.

Here are five key things you need to know.

French police tactics are becoming more effective in stopping small boats in the English Channel from reaching Britain, the Home Office has said.

It credits French authorities with intercepting 185 potential crossings involving 4,300 migrants this summer over four separate weeks, as well as stopping 12 boats at sea using new techniques.

Footage released by French police shows officers racing across a beach in jeeps to intercept a launch. Once the boat is abandoned, an officer slashes it lengthways with a knife.

The Conservatives described the announcement as a "joke" and said Channel crossing preventions were "down by half over the past year".

Migrants can be seen throwing objects at the officers, one of whom appears to respond with pepper spray.

While Channel crossings are down about 40% compared to last year, thousands of illegal migrants are getting through with 250 arriving on Monday.

In late July a record 165 migrants reached the UK in a single boat with Border Security Command pictured towing a mega dinghy - estimated to be the same size as a standard bus at 13m (42ft) long - when it arrived in Dover on 23 July.

The Home Office, citing French police figures, said that since it struck a deal with France three months ago which included additional funding for authorities, 61% of small boats have been intercepted - a five per cent increase compared to last year.

Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the "UK-France deal is already having a real impact".

The UK-France Border Security deal agreed in April under the Starmer government, includes £501m over three years to strengthen operations in northern France and £161m for new approaches.

Previously the French authorities allowed most dinghies to head towards the UK once they had launched, because of the risk of intercepting them in deep water, while loaded with people.

Of the 12 dinghies stopped so far at sea, three interceptions took place in the last two weeks.

The techniques being used have not been disclosed by the UK or France.

Charlie Eastaugh, director of maritime and small boats at the Border Security Command, told the BBC that "last Thursday alone, the French prevented all three of the boats that tried to cross".

Speaking to the BBC at the Western Jetfoil facility in Dover used to process migrants, he said: "Two of those they prevented at sea, and one they prevented on land."

The Iranian economy has long been struggling under the weight of decades of international sanctions, which left it in tatters.

Earlier this year, Iran experienced weeks of protests due to the spiralling cost of living and inflation – with everyday Iranians blaming the regime for their difficulties.

Official figures show that in the 12 months to February 2026, the price of basic necessities increased by an average 60%, while food prices doubled in the same period.

At the time, Trump told demonstrators "help is on the way" as he urged them to "keep protesting".

The attacks on Iran ensued - and later led to the US to imposed a blockade of Iranian ports, threatening further sanctions.

In April, the US launched a wave of sanctions on foreign banks and firms doing business with Tehran after it became apparent military operations had not led to the overthrow of Iran's regime nor its surrender, as Trump had initially hoped.

Operation Economic Fury, announced by the US Treasury Department and the Pentagon, aimed at degrading Tehran's warfighting capability by cutting off its revenue streams, and also included a naval blockade aimed at stopping Iranian exports.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Iran and the US in June included a clause stating that the US would "terminate all types of sanctions" against Iran in an agreed-upon schedule.

Iran is no stranger to sanctions – a raft were first imposed shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1979, during the US embassy hostage crisis.

Since then, more sanctions have been implemented, but the Iranian government has not collapsed - in fact it has succeeded in controlling dissent, most recently by cracking down on the protesters earlier this year.

One resident in the central Iranian province of Khuzestan told the BBC that a country with a long experience with sanctions will be able to overcome the additional economic pressure that the US is aiming to impose.

"There may be an impact at first, but that doesn't necessarily mean Iran won't be able to overcome the crisis," he said.

Another resident also doubts fresh penalties will have an impact on the longevity of the regime.

"Not everything changes because of statements made by President Trump," she told Middle East Lifeline.

"Iran has been living under sanctions for years, and people have become accustomed to this situation. I'm sure Iran will find other ways to continue trading."

"Of course, there will be some impact and the economy may weaken, but that doesn't mean it will collapse."

An academic who accused the late Cambridge professor Jason Arday of plagiarism has been suspended from his post at a Belgian university.

Nathan Cofnas, a self-defined "race realist", was among those to question Arday's work and achievements - prompting a weeks-long plagiarism row prior to his death on 14 August.

Cofnas said he was under investigation by Ghent University "for discriminating against Arday".

The university said a staff member had been notified of a "preliminary disciplinary investigation" and suspended as a precaution.

In a statement regarding Arday's death, its rector Petra De Sutter and vice-rector Herwig Reynaert said they took "recent public statements made by a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University regarding this matter very seriously", and had taken "appropriate action".

They said the university stood for "respect for human dignity and opposes discrimination, hatred and racism".

"We attach great importance to academic freedom and to open academic debate, even when views are controversial. However, that freedom is not unlimited.

"It goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others."

They said Arday's death should "prompt reflection" and that lessons should be learned "regarding the way we treat one another both within and outside the academic world, particularly when people become the subject of public controversy".

Cofnas works as a postdoctoral researcher at the university's department of philosophy and moral sciences, according to his website.

His role at a Cambridge college was terminated in 2024 after backlash to his view that, under a true meritocracy, black people would "disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment".

Despite an Israeli court challenge to the plans by Bedouin Palestinians living in the area and Israeli peace groups, on Wednesday the Israeli housing ministry issued a tender for 1,234 of the 3,401 housing units approved by the Israeli government last August.

It covers about 12 sq km (4.6 sq miles) between East Jerusalem and the settlement of Maale Adumim.

At the time of their unveiling, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich - an ultranationalist and settler - said the idea of a Palestinian state was "being erased".

The deadline for bids is 19 October, just days before Israel's general election on 27 October, making it much harder for any future government to overturn any tenders issued.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land Palestinians want, along with Gaza, for a hoped-for future state - during the 1967 Middle East war. An estimated 3.3 million Palestinians live alongside them.

Despite the fierce international opposition, successive Israeli governments have allowed settlements to grow.

However, expansion has risen sharply since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022 at the head of a right-wing, pro-settler coalition, as well as the start of the Gaza war, triggered by Hamas's 7 October 2023 attack on Israel.

Opponents of the E1 project have warned that it would effectively block the establishment of a Palestinian state because it would cut off the north of the West Bank from the south, and prevent the development in the centre of a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.

BBC DJ and presenter Trevor Nelson has revealed he stepped away from work after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

Nelson was last on air in June and had announced he was "taking a little break from my work commitments" due to "health issues".

Speaking to his Instagram followers, external, the 62-year-old said that his "world was turned upside down" when a brain tumour was discovered.

He said that he had undergone a "very serious surgery" which "went incredibly well".

Speaking on Instagram on Thursday, Nelson explained: "There's been a lot of speculation as to what's wrong with me, I know that much. My phone's blown up 20 times over with people asking what's wrong with me.

"I felt that I should at least tell you what was wrong with me. I'm not going to go into it all now and I will deep dive into it at a later date so you can hear the full story."

He continued: "I'll tell you this, I was minding my own business and then it was discovered I had a brain tumour.

"I was shocked, my world was turned upside down, it was a shock to myself and close family and friends and you can imagine quite literally my head was all over the place."

A man has been charged in connection with the Manchester synagogue attack in which two men were killed.

Counter terrorism police said Hekmat Omar Ali Hakim, 49, of St James Road, Higher Broughton, Salford, had been charged with failing to disclose information regarding terrorist activity.

Hakim has been remanded into custody to appear before Westminster Magistrates' Court on Friday.

There have so far been eight arrests in connection with the attack, however this is the first charge that "relates directly" to the morning of 2 October, when two men died as the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue was attacked by Jihad Al-Shamie. He was shot by police and died at the scene.

Worshippers Melvin Cravitz, 66, and Adrian Daulby, 53, were killed.

Assistant Chief Constable Rob Potts, from Counter Terrorism Policing North West (CTPNW) , said: "This is a significant development in our investigation, and my thoughts are with all those affected by the attack, particularly the bereaved loved ones and survivors.

"We have updated them and continue to offer them as much support as possible.

"Since the attack took place, we have been unwavering in our commitment to establishing the full picture behind the incident and identifying anybody who may have been involved in any way."

In July, Mohammad Bashir, 31, who planned an attack on a military base with the Manchester synagogue attacker was jailed for life with a minimum term of 17 years.

He drove his friend Jihad Al-Shamie on a 10-hour round trip to conduct hostile reconnaissance at the UK's Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, on 14 August 2025.

Weeks after that journey, Al-Shamie, 35, was shot dead by police after carrying out the Heaton Park Synagogue attack.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has been taken to a hospital in the capital, Islamabad, following complaints about his poor health.

Khan was taken from Adiala jail and sent to Shifa International Hospital under heavy security, according to his party. There is yet to be official confirmation he has been transferred.

The move complied with a ruling by a three-judge panel of the Supreme Court which had ordered that the cricketer-turned-politician be taken to the hospital within 48 hours to be examined by physicians.

This is the most significant relief Khan has received from the courts since he was imprisoned in 2023 on corruption charges, which he says were politically motivated.

As well as being transferred to hospital, this court order also specified Khan should be allowed to see his family, which he has not been able to do in months. On Tuesday night, his sister visited him in prison.

Khan's political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is normally quick to claim court decisions that go against him are politically motivated. It has not publicly been drawn on speculation that the Supreme Court's decision indicates political manoeuvring behind the scenes.

The area around Shifa International Hospital has been sealed off by police with barriers, officers and police vans in place. Outside the hospital the BBC saw cars being moved with a truck to clear the street while police cars and armoured vehicles patrolled.

The Supreme Court told Khan's party not to conduct press conferences outside the hospital. This is a warning not to politicise his hospital stay.

The 73-year-old's lawyers have said he's suffering from various health conditions, including poor eyesight, and has been unable to access specialist medical care.

In February, Khan's lawyer said his client had 15% vision left in his right eye after prison authorities failed to take action - an allegation the government disputed.

In Tuesday's court order, the panel wrote: "We are mindful of the constitutional and legal obligation... to safeguard the life, health, dignity and security of the prisoner."

Judges said an eye specialist would be involved in Khan's hospital treatment.

The judges and members of PTI issued warnings to supporters not to gather outside the hospital - that would be a breach of the court order.

Khan, who previously captained the Pakistan national cricket team, served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

He was imprisoned in August 2023 and has faced charges in more than 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts - all of which he decried as politically motivated.

Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were both sentenced to 17 years late last year.

His jailing triggered large-scale protests by supporters, which were met with a crackdown by authorities.

Despite his jailing, Khan remains a significant presence in Pakistani politics with a large number of supporters.

South Korea's annual military exercises with the US come to an abrupt end on Friday.

Ulchi Freedom Shield, which involves 18,000 South Korean troops and 11 other American ally nations, is being halted with only half of the scheduled programme complete - days after US President Donald Trump announced he had ordered the Pentagon to "substantially reduce" the drill.

This revelation by Trump, who called the exercise "inappropriate and hostile" towards North Korea and costly to the US, caught his allies by surprise.

Seoul's Foreign Minister Cho Hyun tried to paint the decision as one of mutual agreement, but admitted officials did not know of Trump's intent to scale down the exercise in advance.

The move will also have rattled the likes of Taiwan and Japan, which have long relied on US security guarantees in the region.

Trump, who has also criticised Seoul for refusing to take part in action against Iran, has said he expects to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un later this year.

And while South Korea has long been keen on Trump reaching out to Kim as a means of maintaining diplomacy, it would not have wanted it to come with demands for cash and military assistance in Iran.

A new app seen as a spiritual successor to short-form video service Vine has been released to the public.

Much like the original, Divine lets users create and share videos which are just six seconds long and repeat on a loop.

The new app also hosts more than two million original Vine videos and - in a bid to further distance itself from other platforms - bans content made by AI.

Divine's founder, former Twitter employee Evan Henshaw-Plath, told the BBC he wanted to create the app because he felt social media needed "a reset".

"I want to see it rival other apps because I think we have gone awry," he said in an interview a few weeks before the public launch.

He said it was important that there was no AI-generated content on Divine, adding he was "sick and tired of seeing videos and not knowing whether it was real".

"I want to be able to have fun and not have to second guess these things," he said.

At its peak, Vine had more than 200 million monthly active users and helped launch the careers of some of the internet's biggest stars.

Jake Paul and Lele Pons are two of those who made their names on the platform before it was shut down by its owner Twitter in 2017.

Divine is backed by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who had a senior role at the social media platform when it purchased the Vine in 2012.

It is built on a decentralised system called Nostr, meaning it is not controlled by a single company in the same way as platforms such as TikTok or Instagram.

This means users can potentially take their accounts and content with them to other services that use the same system, rather than being locked into one platform.

A similar approach has been used by X rivals Bluesky and Mastodon.

Many who have seen the damage caused by the devastating fire in Stourbridge have shared similar thoughts to Pritpal Boyal, whose relatives' house burnt down - why did some homes survive unscathed while others were gutted?

"I was just amazed at how my father-in-law's house was still standing," he said, mystified. "It was like a lottery of whether your house was going to survive or not."

Nineteen homes across five streets in the town were completely destroyed by the fire last week, with eight households left able to view the shells of their former homes.

Aerial images of the aftermath showed some houses looking like they escaped the flames while those not far away from them burnt to the ground.

"It was just a scary sight. I really feel for the people that have lost their homes," Boyal said.

Dozens of people were evacuated as the fire raged but, of the 96 houses that were evacuated, 85 families were able to return, Dudley Council said.

Thirteen households whose homes were damaged by the fire were also able to go back to them.

A spokesman for António Guterres said the UN secretary-general "strongly condemned" the strikes and was "deeply concerned " by the escalation of this conflict.

"This is yet another tragic example of the alarming pattern of escalating strikes against populated areas," he said on Thursday.

The latest strikes on Kyiv began around midnight local time as air raid sirens sounded across the city, followed by the impact of Russian missiles.

The strikes cut power to thousands of properties, plunging parts of the Kyiv region into darkness.

A day of mourning is to be observed on Friday.

At a local school in the Solomyanski disctrict, the windows were knocked out and its playing fields were left covered in debris.

A nearby storeroom was destroyed, exposing the basement. The BBC was told it was a laundry and boiler house supplying heating to the surrounding apartment blocks.

Ukraine's deputy intelligence chief told the BBC this was the kind of attack Russia was planning ahead of the winter in order to make life difficult.

Anastasiia Kovtun's flat was in a nine-storey building that was hit in the attack.

The primary school teacher said she felt like her "head was going to blow" when she heard the explosions in her area from the shelter.

"It's so frightening to realise it's your house, you never think you're going to be next," she told the BBC.

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is set to make his return at the US Open after missing four months with a wrist injury.

The 23-year-old triumphed at the Australian Open in January to become the youngest man to win all four Grand Slam titles.

However, the Spaniard has not played a competitive match since 14 April after injuring his right wrist at the Barcelona Open.

The news was confirmed by football influencer Fabrizio Romano in a joint post with Alcaraz on Instagram.

Seven-time major champion Alcaraz also wrote "here we go!" - Romano's catchphrase - in a post on X, external with an emoji of the American flag and a plane.

As well as playing singles, Alcaraz could also enter the mixed doubles competition that takes place the week before the US Open, with three wildcards still to be handed out.

Alcaraz played in the revamped event last year alongside Britain's Emma Raducanu, who is out of this year's tournament with injury.

Alcaraz has been replaced as world number two by Alexander Zverev after being unable to defend his Cincinnati Open title.

Rival Jannik Sinner is well clear at the top of the world rankings, having won Wimbledon in July, while Zverev won the French Open and finished runner-up at SW19.

Sinner - as he did at Wimbledon - will go into the US Open with no match time on a hard court after withdrawing from Cincinnati with a knee injury.

The US Open singles event begins on Sunday, 30 August in New York.

The mayor of Como has banned riding bicycles in certain areas of the historic Italian city after he was hit by an electric one.

Alessandro Rapinese said the ban was necessary to improve public safety. It means from September, cyclists will have to dismount through an area of around 30 streets.

He told Italian news agency Ansa: "People act based on their own experiences and I know what it's like to be hit by one of these beasts."

Several other local authorities around Europe, including in the UK, have restricted where and how e-bikes and other single-person vehicles can be used.

The measure put forward by Rapinese is part of a package of new traffic regulations, establishing a Limited Traffic Zone (ZTL) to manage tourist growth, and which impose stricter rules on cars and vans in the city centre.

Many of the roads covered by the ban are the widest in the old town and are popular with delivery drivers.

The measure applies to both electric and push bikes, as the Italian highway code does not distinguish between models.

Rapinese explained his decision in a video as part of a series of online videos he produces himself, known as RapiNews24.

He recounted an incident in which he had been leaving city hall in July and collided with an e-bike shortly after his administration had discussed traffic restrictions in the city centre.

The cyclist involved in the collision has not been identified.

"In this case, I didn't even end up in the hospital," Rapinese said. "I was hit by a bike. I gathered information, and that's where the measure came from."

It is no surprise this version of Brook has come immediately after he was overlooked as captain.

He was seriously considered by managing director Rob Key and others at the England and Wales Cricket Board before ultimately being overlooked.

I am sure he will have asked himself why that was the case and, after incidents like the one in Wellington and some of the things he has said to the media in the past, it comes back to maturity.

Yes, Brook has shown himself an able tactician and leader of the white-ball team but at no point did I believe he was ready to be England's Test captain.

That role is about more than purely the decisions made on the field.

It is about representing your country, and sometimes stepping up when needed to talk about difficult topics around the world. We have seen that in the episodes involving Zimbabwe and Afghanistan in the recent past.

Brook has not shown he has the maturity to do that part of the job, meaning Joe Root was the only candidate. The hierarchy had no choice.

But Root's second stint is unlikely to last long, possibly only until the end of next year's Ashes, and the ball is in Brook's court to show before then that he is the best candidate next time around.

Who knows, Jacob Bethell, who is highly rated as a leader, may have overtaken him by then but there is no reason Brook cannot be Test captain when Root leaves the role, especially if he is showing maturity through batting like this.

Of course, some people will view Brook's innings through the prism of what has come before. They may say it only adds to the frustration around why Brook could not bat more sensibly during the Ashes.

Who knows what may have happened if he did.

I get that argument – the winter was one of the biggest disappointments in recent memory in English cricket - but it is now time to look to the future, and time to put the Ashes behind us.

Lessons have been learned; you can see that by the decisions made and the people now in charge. Root and Stephen Fleming should be more astute operators.

So, with big series on the horizon after this - a winter trip to South Africa and then the Ashes next summer – it has got to the stage where we have to move on.

With that in mind, it was not just Brook's performance that has been encouraging so far.

Though he will be annoyed to get out misjudging the length of spinner Usman Ali as Brook did, Jordan Cox batted with similar restraint and class for his 73.

Root batted as he does, holding together a more measured batting performance. It was something every England fan will be happy to see.

While two calm days have been most welcome after what we have witnessed in recent months, we do not want England to dispense with everything we saw under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes' Bazball regime.

This team should retain a lot of their positivity, but do so without delving into the recklessness and inflexibility we saw before.

Ruthlessness was another thing the Bazballers were often lacking and this Test has presented Root's England the perfect opportunity to show what they have learned.

Pakistan have picked the wrong team. They should have picked another seamer and are desperately missing some pace in their attack.

It means this is as kind an opponent England could have wished for to start their long-awaited reset.

England can now press home their advantage and go 1-0 up in this series. Brook has begun to show them the way.

Jonathan Agnew was speaking to BBC Sport's Matthew Henry

Of all the dullness on display at Ibrox, Cammy Devlin's five-minute cameo stood apart. A blink-and-you'll-miss-him appearance from a substitute who was supposed to be a leader, a senior man, a guy to nurse Rangers to the endgame with their flimsy 1-0 lead intact.

Devlin's night ended with a deserved red card for a ridiculous and entirely needless lunge that fried the brain.

The midfielder was brought to Rangers to add steel, not to contribute to the mental frailties that dogged them on the run-in last season. He was meant to be part of the solution, not at risk of being part of the problem.

The red could have put Rangers' win in jeopardy, had Jablonec been up to much, which they weren't. They were organised but unthreatening. They were committed but lacked much resembling a goal threat.

They were creative only in their histrionics and their survival tactics. You haven't seen such swooning since the golden age of the Hollywood diva.

Rangers should put them out of the competition next week. Should. There are no guarantees. Derek McInnes is experienced and wily and hard working, but his team is not a smart team, not yet anyhow.

They're not coached to find space, to drag defences out of shape and then hit them hard. They're workmanlike in the main. Honest, but awfully lacking in inspiration.

Last season, Arsenal's extremely well drilled backline, aided by the effective partnership of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, helped them win their first title in 22 years. They only conceded 27 league goals.

But half of their title-winning defence is not going to be fit for the first part of the season.

Saliba has been ruled out for an 'extended period' with a long-term back issue which he had been managing last season and which ended his World Cup with France early.

Jurrien Timber, Arsenal's first-choice right-back, is also out for the opening weeks of the season with a groin problem that caused him to pull out of the Netherlands World Cup squad.

That leaves Ben White, who has had his own fitness issues in recent seasons, as Arsenal's only fit right-back and 21-year-old Cristhian Mosquera as the only right sided centre back to partner Gabriel Magalhaes.

It could be argued that Arsenal, who also made defender Piero Hincapie's loan deal permanent this summer, could be able to cope without signing another defender.

But Arteta does not seem to like fielding two left-footed players at centre-back - which would happen if White got injured and Mosquera had to move to right-back.

Riccardo Calafiori is preferred at left-back by Arteta, because of the unpredictability he brings to the Arsenal attack. Hincapie is left-sided too.

Highly rated 16-year-old academy defender Marli Salmon is also on the books but is most likely to be used sparingly in cup competitions as he continues to develop.

BMW Championship - round one leaderboard

-6 R McIlroy (NI), W Clark (US), C Gotterup (US), J.J. Spain (US), G Woodland (US); -5 R Hisatsune (Jpn)

Selected others: -4 A Fitzpatrick (Eng), L Aberg (Swe), M Thorbjornsen (US); -3 M Fitzpatrick (Eng); -2 R MacIntyre (Sco), A Rai (Eng); -1 T Fleetwood (Eng), J Rose (Eng)

Full leaderboard

Rory McIlroy said a bit of "good work" with his team helped him rediscover his form and take a clubhouse lead in the first round of the BMW Championship.

The world number two, who finished 66th at the St Jude Championship last weekend, finished six under par at Bellerive Country Club.

Having reached the turn at two under, McIlroy birdied the 13th and then three of the last four holes, sharing his lead with the American quartet of Gary Woodland, Wyndham Clark, JJ Spaun and Chris Gotterup.

McIlroy stated that working with his swing coach Michael Bannon and caddie Harry Diamond helped him restore his touch after last week's tournament in Memphis.

"I felt at least like I got myself back going in the right direction, and what I wanted to do with my swing, but still you never know when you turn up here," McIlroy told the Golf Channel.

"This golf course sets up a lot better for me than Memphis did last week. You can miss it a little bit off the tee, and the playing corridors are a lot wider, so you can get away with it, which I needed to get away with it a couple of times today.

"But this set-up suits my game a little bit better, and I definitely feel a little bit more comfortable on this golf course than I did last week."

Japan's Ryo Hisatsune came in at five under, while Englishman Alex Fitzpatrick, American Michael Thorbjornsen and Sweden's Ludvig Aberg were in a group tied for seventh on four under.

Scotland's Robert MacIntyre closed on two under, having withdrawn from the St Jude Championship before the second round following an opening 12-over 82.

World number one and defending champion Scheffler, who had also triumphed in Memphis on Sunday, suffered a run of four bogeys through the opening seven holes, finding himself far down the field.

Player representatives have also not seen the figures. However, if you allow for 10% growth to the $559.7m (£410.5m) the US Open generated in revenue in 2024, then prize money of $98.5m would have be in line with player expectations.

The USTA says the financial statement will be published before the start of the main draw.

Chief executive Craig Tiley, who previously headed up Tennis Australia, described the offer as "a significant first step in a multi-year investment in athletes".

In a BBC interview in March, world number three Jessica Pegula highlighted how last year's US Open increase was targeted primarily at those who needed it least -the players who made the second week.

This year, however, the percentage increase is highest in the first round, then falls in every subsequent round.

There are also greater rewards for those competing in the mixed doubles event, which takes place during qualifying week.

The winners will still share $1m, but there is more for everyone else who enters, with first-round prize money doubled.

Player representatives had asked each Grand Slam to contribute $4m in benefit payments this year. The USTA is the first to ring-fence this money for the players, but it will come out of the overall prize fund.

The money for the new US Open player support programme will be placed in an independent holding account while the details are worked through.

The Grand Slam Player Council will have input into this. It will launch after the US Open "with a focus on player input into sporting matters at the four Grand Slam tournaments".

The exact framework is yet to be decided, but players have been invited to apply and told the council will allow them to discuss specific prize money concerns directly with the Grand Slam in question.

Player representatives "welcomed" the various announcements and noted the "substantial increase" in prize money.

"Players look forward to building on today's positive announcements and ensuring the Council develops into a genuinely representative and effective forum for player consultation, while continuing to work through their representatives on prize money and player welfare," a statement read.

The US Open begins on Sunday, 30 August.

Watch highlights as Harry Brook shines in the Headingley gloom as England build a commanding 195-run lead over Pakistan on a shortened second day of the first Test.

READ MORE: Sparkling Brook builds England lead over Pakistan

Available to UK users only.

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex quit working for the Royal Family in 2020 and moved to California, they brought something even Hollywood can't manufacture: royalty.

But while Harry and Meghan enjoyed some success in showbusiness, their Hollywood reign proved short-lived and California has greeted news of their departure back to the UK with a shrug.

In pursuing their American dream, they said they were seeking more than financial independence.

In their 2021 blockbuster interview with Oprah Winfrey, Meghan described the freedom to make her own choices as "liberating".

Harry later said America offered his family a degree of privacy and freedom they "undoubtedly wouldn't be able" to enjoy in the UK - and that it was the life his mother, Diana, would have wanted for him.

The couple settled in Montecito - a celebrity enclave a few hours north of Los Angeles with neighbours like Oprah Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rob Lowe.

Multimillion dollar podcast and Netflix deals followed.

"They were so sought after, they were names that would hit the press and command attention right away," says Stacy Jones, chief executive of Hollywood Branded, a marketing and PR agency.

A Swiss tourist has been sentenced to one year in prison for insulting a sacred religious event on Indonesia's holiday island of Bali.

In a now-removed video, Luzian Andrin Zgraggen, 26, had filmed himself walking to an empty beach during the Hindu holiday of Nyepi, describing the scene as "crazy".

He was arrested in March after the video sparked widespread anger among Balinese on social media.

Nyepi, also known as the Day of Silence, is an annual holiday during which the usually bustling tourist island goes quiet, as people stay home and refrain from making loud noises. The restrictions apply to everyone on the island regardless of religion, including tourists.

On Nyepi, the island's airport shuts down and internet access is cut.

Entertainment events are restricted and even the use of electricity is discouraged.

Residents typically stock up on groceries ahead of Nyepi so they can stay at home during the holiday.

On Nyepi, which fell on 19 March this year, Zgraggen filmed himself breaking the ban on going out, in an Instagram post captioned with expletives, local media reported.

"What the defendant did offended the Balinese people, hurt their faith and provoked public outrage," the presiding judge said, according to the Associated Press.

Zgraggen said during his trial that he did not understand the extent of Nyepi restrictions and did not mean to insult the Balinese.

"I deeply regret what I did, I apologise to the Balinese people," the Associated Press reported him as saying in court.

Tourists have previously been detained or deported for violating Nyepi restrictions.

Bali has seen tourist numbers recover past its pandemic lull. Last year it welcomed a record seven million international visitors.

But along with the surge in tourism comes misbehaviour that has vexed locals and Balinese authorities. Foreigners have been penalised for offensive acts at religious sites, forming exclusive tourist enclaves and flouting traffic laws.

Authorities have vowed to tighten scrutiny of the island's tourists and crackdown on unruly foreigners.

In recent weeks, white trailer homes have appeared on the hilltop here again, in preparation for families to return.

Our request to speak to people at the opening ceremony was refused; we were told no media were allowed to enter the settlement today.

Driving along a dirt track on the hill behind it, we met a Palestinian vegetable farmer, living in the house he was born in 53 years ago.

He told me how, as a boy, he watched Kadim being built for the first time, then watched again as the settlers there were forced out by the government twenty years later.

"Back then, the settlers were living alongside us, and we coexisted peacefully. They lived their lives and we lived ours," he told me.

Now, watching them return, he's fearful.

"I'm afraid of the events spreading around us, and the bypass road [where] they demolished shops and businesses," he said.

"They drove my nephews away from their vegetables and citrus trees, telling them 'you have no place here, don't come back'".

He said his family fled here from Haifa during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

"There's no more displacement left in me," he said. "We're living with a sense of resignation. It's a life of fear."

After Kadim and the three other settlements here were evacuated in 2005, Israelis were banned from settling in this area. Israel's current government overturned that ban.

Kadim is the last of the settlements evacuated in 2005 to reopen. Ganim, Sanur and Homesh have already been formally opened, and families moved in.

But they are a drop in the ocean of the Israeli government's settlement project here. Since it took power in late 2022, it has approved more than 100 new settlements across the West Bank, including nineteen in the northern West Bank.

A new shop opened along Greenock's fading High Street in May. Anik African Store has brought a small corner of Nigeria to the Scottish town, selling yams, plantain, okra and catfish.

It is not the only African food shop here - there is another just metres away, responding to the area's changing population.

Five years ago, locals say, it would have been rare to see a black person in Greenock. Now hundreds of Africans and refugees have moved to the area.

The local council has in fact come up with a plan to attract even more to this corner of the west of Scotland as a means of stemming its falling population.

Scottish people "are lovely and accommodating", says Anik's owner, Christianah Omilana, who came to the UK in 2021. "Immigrants will come when there is work", she adds.

If someone asked you to think of an autistic person, who would come to mind?

The world's richest man, Elon Musk?

Maybe Greta Thunberg, who says being different can be a superpower.

Or Robbie Williams, who has recently revealed he's found out that he has "a bit of autism".

What about someone like 34-year old James Fitzpatrick? He doesn't talk, has a learning disability and needs constant care.

A diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) means someone has certain core characteristics including differences in how they communicate and behave. It's an umbrella term that includes people with very different experiences.

In recent years there has been an explosion in the number of people with an autism diagnosis on their GP record. In England, it has gone from just over 700,000 three years ago to around 1.1 million today.

The National Autistic Society (NAS) says "evidence suggests there is a significant underdiagnosis of autism, particularly among women and older people".

But what if some people with a diagnosis aren't actually autistic? What if they've really been misdiagnosed?

These questions largely come from 85-year-old Professor Dame Uta Frith - one of the key figures in autism research since the 1960s.

They go to the heart of a debate that is central to the identity of many autistic people.

Tighthead prop Donna Rose has had an unforgettable 12 months on the rugby pitch. Last year, she proudly represented Wales at her second World Cup before helping Saracens lift the Premiership Women's Rugby title in June.

From the outside looking in, she is known as a hard-hitting player with a big personality.

But off the pitch, few see the daily struggles the 35-year-old copes with.

Rose has borderline personality disorder (BPD), a mental health condition that causes unstable moods, behaviours and relationships.

"When people hear the words 'borderline personality disorder', they tend to think I've got 10 personalities," she told BBC Sport.

Rose says her BPD often presents itself as severe self-doubt and that it is like having a "devil" telling her she is not good enough.

"It affects me every day of my life," she adds. "If I feel something, I feel it twice as much as someone else. Something that is so little to someone could be so big to me.

"You wake up and you'll be in your head. You don't want to get out there, you're being told you're worthless and what's the point of getting out of bed.

"It's exhausting."

This isn't a regular sibling fallout. It is a deep-rooted fracture filled with anger, resentment and a total loss of trust.

And much of it has played out in public.

The Prince of Wales remains in no mood to forgive and forget. The hurt he feels lingers.

"William is very stubborn," a family friend told the BBC. "To feel cheated by your own brother has been painful. He can't just put it behind him."

But in his interview with the BBC last year, Harry offered a different view.

"I would love reconciliation with my family. There's no point in continuing to fight any more."

The problem for Prince William now is proximity. Harry will be in the UK within two weeks, probably a short drive away from Windsor where William's family lives.

There will be pressure on the elder brother to take the lead, ease the pain and just make up with Harry now the siblings will be living in the same country.

"I think William doesn't care about the pressure to reconcile," said royal author, Valentine Low. "If he doesn't want to reconcile with his brother because of the things he's done, the wrongs that he feels Harry's done to him, he's not going to reconcile. But it does improve the chances I think."

The Prince of Wales will prioritise his public work in the coming months and try not to get drawn into the drama around the UK return of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Several people from organisations who have worked with Prince William told BBC News of their desire to support William and help avoid Harry and Meghan becoming a distraction.

One source, who has worked on charity projects with the Royal Family, described wanting to protect the future King.

"This is a hard situation for him full of emotion and anger and we will support him," the source said. "It is really important for me to ensure that any work we do with William will be focused on making a positive change and won't be affected by the Harry and Meghan drama."

In the courtroom, Chow smiled as the verdict was read out, while Lee showed little emotion as he made a heart gesture and folded his hands to show his gratitude to those in the gallery.

Lee, a lawmaker, and Chow, a lawyer, were also leaders of the now-defunct Hong Kong Alliance (HKA), which has been described as a "toxic tumour" by Chinese authorities.

The HKA was founded in May 1989 to support students holding pro-democracy rallies. Weeks later, the Communist Party crushed pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square with troops and tanks. Estimates of the death toll range from a few hundred to many thousands.

Over the next three decades, HKA called on authorities to accept responsibility for the crackdown, free dissidents and introduce democratic reform.

The Alliance's leaders were charged in 2021 and have been behind bars since.

Rights group Amnesty International has said the case "relies on vague, overly broad and arbitrary definitions of 'subversion'".

Sarah Brooks, Amnesty International's deputy regional director, said Chow and Lee had "not committed any recognisable crime".

"Chow Hang-tung and Lee Cheuk-yan are prisoners of conscience who should never have been prosecuted in the first place. They must be released immediately and unconditionally," she added.

Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the convictions showed "how public displays of mourning have become a crime in Hong Kong".

In a separate case, Chow was arrested in June 2021 for "inciting" the public to take part in that year's vigil and later found guilty.

However, Hong Kong's top court overturned that conviction in 2022, with a judge ruling the police hadn't properly justified the vigil's ban.

Chow Hang-tung spoke to the BBC in 2021, weeks before her arrest on 4 June 2022.

"I am prepared to be arrested. That is how Hong Kong is now," she had said.

"I am willing to pay the price for fighting for democracy."

Tottenham have agreed a deal with Manchester City to sign winger Savinho for £75m, with a further £10m in potential add-ons.

Savinho, 22, has now been given permission to undergo a medical in north London before signing a long-term deal with Spurs.

More to follow.

Panama Canal's operator is to cut the number of vessels passing through the key waterway due to low rainfall caused by El Niño.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) told shipping firms on Thursday that 32 vessels a day will be able to pass through it from 15 September, compared to 36 currently.

El Niño, a pattern of periodical sea surface warming, effects weather systems globally. This year is expected to be particularly strong, with its effects made more intense by climate change.

The shipping industry is already dealing with severe disruptions due to the Iran war causing a large reduction in the number of vessels passing through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The ACP said the measures were being put in place to preserve service reliability and safeguard water resources for human consumption.

It added that despite the arrival of the rainy season in Central America and some water-saving measures already being put in place in the canal, additional action was needed "to support the long-term sustainability of transit operations".

The new measures will be phased in from 3 September.

The Panama Canal greatly reduces the time and distance ships have to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

About 14,000 ships per year use the artificial waterway - which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

As well as being a crucial route for global trade, it is also a key source of income for Panama, bringing in about $3bn (£2.2bn) a year.

In 2023, the ACP cut the number of vessels using the waterway during the last El Niño period after Panama was hit with its driest October since records began in 1950.

Since then, the authority has introduced measures to cut the amount of water it uses.

Many forecasts suggest that this year's El Niño, which is a naturally occurring pattern, could be one of the strongest ever recorded, with disruptions to weather, food supplies and economies.

Tottenham have agreed a deal with Manchester City to sign winger Savinho for £75m, with a further £10m in potential add-ons.

Savinho, 22, will now have a medical before signing a long-term deal with Spurs.

The Brazilian's move to north London has been more than 12 months in the making, with Spurs failing in a bid to sign him last summer.

Savinho opted to remain at Etihad Stadium, but his game time was limited under Pep Guardiola last term when he made just seven Premier League starts.

Having spent a combined £185m on midfielders Mateus Fernandes from West Ham and Sandro Tonali from Newcastle, Tottenham head coach Roberto de Zerbi next looked to strengthen his side's attack.

But Spurs are unlikely to end their spending here, with sources telling BBC Sport talks for Savinho's City team-mate Omar Marmoush are progressing positively.

The Egypt forward, a £59m signing from Eintracht Frankfurt in 2025, fell down the pecking order at City last season.

Spurs also remain interested in Liverpool forward Cody Gakpo, but it is unclear whether they could finance a deal for the Netherlands attacker as well as moves for Marmoush and Savinho.

Savinho's arrival will push Spurs' spending this summer past £300m, although they have recouped about £140m through the sales of Cristian Romero, Djed Spence and Luka Vuskovic.

Tottenham kick off their Premier League campaign at Brentford on Saturday (17:30 BST), while City host Bournemouth on Sunday (14:00 BST).

MKM Stadium, 12:30

Hull's assistant head coach Dean Holden came on the Monday Night Club this week and spoke really well about how they will approach the Premier League. It sounds like they will be horrible to play against, and will be happy to go direct when they have to.

With them starting at home, getting a result against Manchester United - who Holden is a big fan of - could really make their season.

I think they will be competitive, but my worry for Hull is from looking at how they did last year, when they lost a third of their games in the Championship.

As a story, Sergej Jakirovic getting them from 21st place into the play-offs, and then up, is remarkable. Now they just need to hang on in there in the Premier League, but that will be very difficult.

United have not done much in the transfer market this summer, but Youri Tielemans is a really good signing - a safe signing, if there is such a thing - like Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo were last year.

As things stand, they are going to be stretched by being in the Champions League and I do feel like Carrick over-achieved by getting them there.

Now the expectations are rising following their third-place finish, but they are nowhere near Arsenal at the moment.

I think them having European football, while Tottenham and Chelsea don't, will have a huge bearing on the season, which is why I left United out of my top four.

They should begin with a win, but this is the start of a full-on campaign for them, which makes it far more difficult, and they will need to add to their squad.

Sutton's prediction: 1-2

Liam's prediction: There will be a party atmosphere at Hull but that might play into our hands. Hopefully we can start this season the way we finished the last one - I had us down to win this 2-0 but I hate that because it sounds conservative, so I am going bigger. 0-3

Liam on Marcus Rashford's future at United: I love Marcus, and the fact he is one of ours, and I would love him to come back and be as good as he was for us. We know what a player he can be and if anyone can get it out of him at United, it is Michael Carrick - he might know exactly what Marcus needs.

I think about walking on stage at a hometown gig and I know how that feels. If I was Marcus, I'd be thinking 'I am going to make this work' because of how special it could be if it does. Every part of me wants that to happen, but I don't know if it will.

AI's prediction: 1-3

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At a petrol station in the south-east of Moscow, Svyatoslav has been queuing in his car for two hours.

The sign board up ahead has just been changed to show there's no fuel.

"They say there will be petrol here," Svyatoslav tells me optimistically. "They just don't know when. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow."

I ask him why he doesn't drive off and look for another place to fill up.

"I haven't got enough in the tank to do that," Svyatoslav replies.

Even if he had, there'd be no quick fuel fix for Svyatoslav. This week across Moscow, and in other parts of Russia, there have been long queues for petrol.

"Unscheduled repairs at oil refineries," explain Russian officials.

Those repairs have been triggered by Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil facilities. Such long-range attacks sparked major fuel shortages earlier this summer. The targeting of oil refineries has continued apace.

This time the queues in Moscow are even longer than before. The authorities appear to be struggling to resolve problems with refining capacity and logistics.

"The second wave of the fuel crisis is building," declared broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta this week.

Driving around Moscow this week two things catch the eye: patriotic announcements on giant billboards about Russian Flag Day…and giant petrol queues.

Outside one Moscow petrol station I count 80 vehicles waiting in line.

The search for fuel is now a constant struggle.

"Last night I went to get petrol at 11pm," says Elizaveta who's queuing again for fuel. "By midnight I'd reached the front of the queue. Then they shut the petrol station until 2am."

"I drove into Moscow yesterday from the provinces," says Lyubov. "It was empty petrol stations all the way."

A major search has been launched for a passenger feared to have fallen from a cruise ship docked in Dundee.

Ambassador Cruise Lines said the captain of the MS Ambition raised the alarm after a man was reported missing before it arrived in the city from Lerwick earlier.

Lifeboats and coastguard crews, alongside aerial support, have been dispatched as part of the search.

A Police Scotland spokesperson said the man's next of kin were aware and inquiries were ongoing.

BBC Scotland News understands that the passenger's luggage was still onboard and his bed had not been slept in.

One passenger said that tannoy announcements had repeatedly called the name of a specific passenger on Friday morning.

The alarm was raised onboard the ship at about 08:35, roughly 36 nautical miles from Arbroath.

They were then told a passenger was missing.

Castleford Tigers head coach Ryan Carr has left the club for "personal reasons".

The Australian was stood down two weeks ago and last week the director of rugby Chris Chester said the club were "following a process".

Carr, 38, was appointed Tigers head coach on a three-year deal last August after a spell as assistant at NRL side St George Illawarra Dragons.

"The club would like to thank Ryan for his efforts and wish both him and his family all the best for the future," the club said in a statement., external

Carr won seven of his 21 Super League matches in charge and leaves with the Tigers ninth in the 14-team table.

Chester, who has led the team in the past two matches, said last week that they were not "actively looking" for a new head coach.

Owner Martin Jepson said he was "sorry" that Carr had left the club.

"We have had a difficult set of circumstances to deal with and unfortunately not been in a position to provide more information to the fans. However, our actions have been, and always will be, in the best interests of the club," he said.

Jepson confirmed that Jason Netherton would assist Chester and Luke Robinson for the remaining four games of the campaign.

The Tigers visit St Helens on Saturday, looking to build on last week's win at Hull FC.

More to follow.

Vulnerable people are being warned not to eat under-cooked or runny eggs when they are eating out because of the developing salmonella outbreak.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) told the BBC the under fives, over 65s, women who are pregnant and those with health conditions should avoid them along with freshly-made products that might contain uncooked eggs, such as mayonnaise, souffle and hollandaise sauce.

But the FSA said well-cooked eggs in restaurants, cafes and from takeaways were fine to eat.

It comes after the UK Health Security Agency declared a national outbreak of salmonella food poisoning after one person died and hundreds more fell ill.

It is thought imported eggs or dishes containing them are behind the outbreak.

FSA chief scientific adviser Ian Young said: "If people are eating out or consuming eggs or egg-containing products from cafes and restaurants then for those people in particular who are young, elderly, pregnant or vulnerable, it's important to make sure that any eggs or egg products that you consume in those settings have been very well cooked."

But he reiterated the message that it was fine for people to buy British eggs from supermarkets as chickens bred here are vaccinated against common strains of salmonella.

"There is no link to those eggs to this current outbreak."

He described the outbreak as "unusually large and rapidly increasing".

"People need to be careful," he added.

Tyson Fury says his fight with Anthony Joshua "doesn't look like it's going to happen" in a verbal tirade against his British rival and promoter Eddie Hearn posted on social media.

The pair had been expected to meet in November in one of the biggest fights in British boxing history, but uncertainty over where the bout will take place has cast fresh doubt over the deal.

Joshua and his promoter Hearn have signed a contract for it to be staged in the United Kingdom, while Saudi organisers are pushing for a move to the United States.

"Doesn't look like they're going to sign the fight and it doesn't look like it's going to happen all because Eddie Hearn and that want more money," Fury said in a series of Instagram stories.

Joshua and Fury have separate contracts with Saudi Arabian-owned Sela. New York's Madison Square Garden is understood to be Sela's preference so that the fight - which will broadcast on Netflix - can cater for American audiences.

On Thursday, Hearn told IFL TV that a list of changes required for the fight to take place in America had been sent to Sela.

Hearn says the main change concerns compensation for Joshua because of the different tax implications of fighting in America.

"In layman's terms, by staging the fight in America, Anthony Joshua receives less money than he would do if the fight was in the UK where he was contractually agreed," he said.

Fury responded by calling Joshua and Hearn "disgusting" and "money-thirsty".

"It is what it is. Same old cliche a decade later. Keep running you little cowards," he added.

In further posts containing expletives, Fury called Hearn a "bag carrier" and criticised Joshua's mindset.

"I'll move on and fight somebody else but just know you never had the guts to fight Tyson Fury, ever, you little coward," Fury added.

Three people have admitted being involved in an arson attack at the offices of a Persian media organisation in north-west London.

On 15 April, police were called to the offices of Volant Media in Park Royal, the parent company of Persian news channel Iran International, after an "ignited container" was thrown towards the site.

Appearing at the Old Bailey, Nathan Dunn, 19, pleaded guilty to arson being "reckless as to whether life is endangered", while a 17-year-old boy denied that same charge but admitted the lesser alternative offence of arson. This was not accepted by the prosecution, and he will stand trial on 1 February 2027.

Oisin McGuinness, 21, previously pleaded guilty to arson.

He also admitted dangerous driving and possession of the Class A drug cocaine, with those pleas being accepted by the court.

No-one was injured in the attack, with the fire immediately going out after the container landed in a car park.

McGuinness and Dunn, both from Watford, Hertfordshire, were remanded in custody.

The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was remanded into local authority care.

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If there are no players, there is no LIV 2.0.

So the next few weeks will be critical in providing the specific details players say they're currently lacking to make decisions over their future.

When asked if there was a critical mass of players needed to sign up for the future before a transaction could be done, O'Neil said: "The entirety of our focus is to get to this transaction and get through it.

"Without the players, that becomes very difficult. I have a good level of confidence in my conversation that we'll have a critical mass of the right players to move this league forward."

Northern Ireland's Graeme McDowell, who joined LIV in 2022, told BBC Sport the mood among the players was "subdued".

"There are 57 players out here on LIV and there are 57 different mindsets," said the 2010 US Open champion.

"Some guys have some exemptions in other tours, some have nowhere to go [if LIV folds]."

He said he would be "taking a step back" to work out his future after the Indianapolis event.

"If LIV 2.0 goes ahead, we'll look at the schedule and how it all plays out, and see if that suits me and my lifestyle," McDowell added.

"I have an opportunity to go back to the European Tour and play there as well.

"Whether the two of those can happen simultaneously, whether I can only do one or the other, there are questions like that we don't know the answers to. Until I get that, it's very difficult to make any decisions."

When asked by BBC Sport about his future, Smith, who joined LIV just after winning The Open in 2022, said there would be a "little bit of time to think about that once the season is done".

Would he like to stick with LIV? "I really love LIV," he said. "It has done wonders for my family, for golf in Australia, my friends, the people that we've got to meet around the world. It would be a shame for it to be done, but we'll see what happens."

Other players did not feel comfortable speaking on the record.

One senior player said there is an "emotional" feeling among the group as they await clarity.

Another told BBC Sport "it's been great", before quickly adding "it is great".

It was made clear Jon Rahm - whose future is the source of considerable speculation - would not speak to media aside from his tournament obligations.

American Bryson DeChambeau declined an interview request from BBC Sport.

But after Thursday's first round, he said: "We definitely have a lot against us.

"If it works, it works, awesome. If it doesn't, we'll figure things out. Time will move on, and I would say that time heals things.

"I hope people can see that we actually bring value to the game of golf. My wish is that people give us one more shot and be open minded."

Prince Harry and a group of six other high-profile figures have been ordered to make an initial payment of £9.54m in legal costs to the Daily Mail's publisher after they lost their High Court privacy case.

The seven claimants, also including Sir Elton John and Liz Hurley, must pay the initial figure by 28 August - and could potentially pay up to £25m more after that in a victory for Associated Newspapers Limited (ANL).

The group had sued ANL over allegations of unlawful information-gathering, which the publisher had strenuously denied.

On 7 July, Judge Mr Justice Nicklin dismissed the claims and said the public figures had failed to prove the allegations.

The judge ruled that he was making an exceptional order to force the Duke of Sussex and others to pay up to £34.5m in costs incurred by the newspaper group because of the way the case had been brought - including unsupportable claims that top executives from the group had lied to the Leveson public inquiry.

Prince Harry and the other six claimants including Sir Elton John have until 2 October to attempt to launch an appeal.

The judge also ruled that ANL's costs should be determined on an indemnity basis, which is more favourable to the publisher in terms of the amount it can recover, aside from where orders had already been made.

In a statement released on Friday, the publisher called the ruling " a devastating critique of an attempt to destroy a newspaper and the reputations of its journalists, editors and executives".

Friday's decision comes just days after the Duke and Duchess announced their plan to return to the UK, with their children Prince Archie, seven, and Princess Lilibet, five, enrolled to start school in September.

The seven claimants who have been ordered to pay an initial £9.5m in the coming week are Prince Harry, Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish, Sir Simon Hughes, Sadie Frost, Liz Hurley, and Baroness Doreen Lawrence.

During the trial, dozens of people gave evidence including Prince Harry and the other claimants. The Duke of Sussex flew in from the US to attend court in person.

Many current and former Associated Newspapers journalists and executives gave evidence denying illegal activity.

Former England bowler Kate Cross has announced she will retire from cricket at the end of the summer.

The 34-year-old, who played 102 times for England between 2013 and 2025, has been playing in domestic cricket since losing her England contract last year.

"It is incredibly hard to imagine ever saying goodbye to playing the sport that has been such a huge part of my life and shaped me into the person I am today but the final chapter is in sight," Cross said.

"I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to play the game I love professionally and get to do it at the highest level."

Dame Sarah Storey, the chair of Lancashire where Cross made her debut aged 14 and became the first woman on the county's academy, described Cross as a "true Lancashire legend", adding she "made an incredible contribution to both Lancashire and England Women".

Cross, who played in The Hundred final for Sunrisers Leeds last weekend, is due to play the reminder of the season for Lancashire, including against The Blaze on Sunday in Nottingham.

Cross made her England debut aged 22 in a T20 in West Indies and featured in England's 2013-14 Ashes win - their most recent victory in the Women's Ashes - that winter.

The seamer fell out of favour after a run across formats, meaning she watched England's iconic 2017 World Cup win at Lord's from a hospitality box.

But Cross regained her place and was a regular in the Test and 50-over England side until being left out by new coach Charlotte Edwards last summer.

Her last international was an ODI against India last July.

She finishes her career with 25 Test wickets, 101 in one-day internationals and 14 in T20s.

A man has denied failing to disclose information in relation to the Manchester synagogue attack.

Hekmat Omar Ali Hakim appeared before Westminster Magistrates' Court and pleaded not guilty to failing to disclose information regarding terrorist activity.

The 49-year-old, of St James Road in Higher Broughton, Salford, spoke only to confirm his name and indicate his plea. He was remanded into custody to appear at at the Old Bailey on 25 September.

Worshippers Melvin Cravitz and Adrian Daulby were killed when Jihad Al-Shamie, 35, a Syrian-born British citizen, drove into the gates of the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation Synagogue on 2 October.

He then began attacking with a knife, while wearing a fake suicide belt, before being shot dead by police outside the synagogue.

Royal Mail has once again missed its delivery targets for first and second class post, but said it is making progress towards the goals as its turnaround plan continues.

The postal service delivered 85% of first class deliveries the next day between March and June, up from 76% in the same three months of 2025, but below regulator Ofcom's 90% target.

Second class mail was delivered within three days 91% of the time, another improvement from the previous year, but short of Ofcom's 95% target.

Royal Mail said the results are "encouraging and show that the work we are doing to improve the service is having an impact".

Royal Mail, which is owned by International Distribution Services (IDS), has struggled with rising competition in the delivery market, fewer people sending letters and fines from the regulator for missing targets in recent years.

But it said that, compared with the same period last year, the portion of first class mail delivered next-day had risen significantly while the amount of second class mail delivered within three days had improved slightly.

Chief operating officer Jamie Stephenson said: "These results are encouraging and show that the work we are doing to improve the service is having an impact.

"First Class performance is well ahead of where we expected to be at this stage of our Improvement Plan, while Second Class is tracking in line with the plan."

Stephenson added that there is "more to do", pointing to a £500m investment plan to improve the firm over the next five years. The plan includes a commitment to meet Ofcom's delivery targets by May 2027.

The postal service has faced years of criticism from politicians and the public over the slowness of its letter delivery.

It is currently under investigation by Ofcom for the second year running for failure to meet its delivery targets.

The regulator fined it a record £21m in October last year for missing targets in 2024-25.

In March, postal workers from across the UK told the BBC they were being asked to move or hide mail from senior bosses so it looks like delivery targets were being met.

The firm apologised to Gloucester residents where post was sometimes delayed for months, admitting its service there was "totally unacceptable".

Most recently, people in Worcestershire hit out over postal delays, complaining of weeks-long delays for important post to arrive, with some missing hospital appointments.

Royal Mail recently said it aims to meet regulator Ofcom's targets by May 2027 as part of a turnaround plan costing around £500m in the next five years.

"We know there is more to do," Stephenson wrote in a statement. "We are investing £500 million over five years and making significant changes across our network... None of this progress would be possible without the continued hard work of our frontline colleagues, including through the recent extreme heat."

IDS was bought in 2025 by Czech billionaire Daniel Kretinsky.

World number one Jannik Sinner has pulled out of the upcoming US Open with a knee injury.

The 25-year-old Italian has not played competitively since winning the Wimbledon title in July.

Sinner's decision comes a day after his great rival Carlos Alcaraz announced he is competing at Flushing Meadows following a four-month absence with a wrist injury.

With the Spaniard sidelined, Sinner has dominated the men's tour in 2026 and stands comfortably clear at the top of the world rankings.

Sinner lifted his fifth career Grand Slam singles title by beating Alexander Zverev in the All England Club final.

"Even though I have been working hard with my team and my medical staff, we have now had to make the difficult decision that I will not be able to compete at the US Open this year," he said.

"We have been back on court in Monte Carlo over the last couple of days and have realised that I still need more time to recover from my right knee issue.

"I'm obviously very sad and disappointed, as New York has a special place in my heart."

Argentina midfielder Leandro Paredes has been given a 10-match ban for the role he played in on-field clashes after his side were beaten 1-0 by Spain in the 2026 World Cup final.

Fifa's disciplinary committee has also handed his team-mate Nahuel Molina a seven-match suspension.

Argentina have also been ordered to play their next two home matches behind closed doors, though one match of that sanction is suspended.

More to follow.

Like many, Villa are a selling club, mainly due to necessity, and have been for a number of years.

They must comply with Uefa's squad cost ratio (SCR) which restricts them to spending 70% of their football related revenue on player and staff wages, transfer fees and agent fees.

They have already been fined twice by Uefa for breaches, being hit with a £9.5m sanction last year and a £19.4m fine in June, although £12.9m was suspended after Villa came to a settlement agreement with Europe's governing body. But it has meant the club's hands are tied in the transfer window.

The Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) also limited financial losses to a maximum of £105 million over a rolling three-year period.

In their latest accounts, ending 30 June 2025, Villa had a post-tax profit of £17m but their two previous years showed losses of £119.6m (2023) and £85.4m (2024).

The regulations have now been replaced by SCR, which sees the Premier League fall in line with Uefa's model

"It's necessity because of the rules," one former Villa executive told BBC Sport, when asked about the sales. "The PSR, the SCR, issues are well documented.

"It does seem slightly unfair they're having their ambition capped at this level. But it has forced this very big churn of players, which is unfortunate.

"Some will be forced due to PSR, some will be player demand. Combined it makes a big problem for Emery and certainly it is a lot to swallow in one go and to try and replace. "

This summer has crystalised their situation further because of the high profile nature of the departures.

Villa had raised just over £200m with the sales of Jhon Duran (£71m), Douglas Luiz (£42.5m), Jacob Ramsey (£40m) and Moussa Diaby (£50m) over the past two years.

This window will see them bank, once the Konsa deal goes through, around £212m, including £9m for Lewis Dobbin who never played a senior game for Villa before leaving for Southampton.

The academy has also paid its way comfortably with Jaden Philogene and Cameron Archer being bought back to be sold again, while Burnley spent £12m on Aaron Ramsey in 2023.

Internally, when Villa first returned to the Champions League in 2024, it was recognised it would be harder for academy prospects to break into the squad which left Villa more open to selling them.

Samer is partially blind and has a leg injury that makes moving difficult.

"Fear dominates everything. We are completely defenceless," he said. "All of them have weapons. I'm bringing concrete blocks to close off this side of the house because I'm afraid for my children."

Samer has watched settlements – and settler attacks – grow in other parts of the West Bank over the past few years, despite international pressure.

"Europe has no time for us, America is preoccupied with Iran, China has no interest," his analysis began. "Russia is busy with Ukraine, the United Nations is finished, and the Arab countries have their own internal problems."

"Democratic systems are over, they're finished," he concluded, anger and bitterness leaking out. "Civilisation, progress and modernity are lies."

Alongside the new settlements around Jenin, two new Israeli military bases are rapidly going up – construction vehicles churning up dust behind high concrete walls topped with watchtowers and barbed wire, Israeli flags flapping in the wind.

A military outpost is also being built on seized Palestinian land beside Jenin Refugee Camp – the first Israeli military base to be built on land under full Palestinian Authority control since the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993.

Israel's military evacuated thousands of residents from Jenin Refugee camp before occupying it in 2025.

The Israel Defence Forces confirmed that construction of the outpost in Jabriyat had been ordered "in accordance with operational needs".

The Palestinian Authority Governor for Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, told me he was worried that Israel's seizure of land around the refugee camp signalled a plan to house settlers there, right in the heart of a Palestinian city, dividing it up like Hebron or Jerusalem.

He described the past two decades without settlers around Jenin as "bliss".

"Now, we live in the hell orchestrated by them and their assaults," he said. "It limits our movement. They cut off roads, bulldoze lands and cut down trees."

The speed of change here is breathtaking.

A few weeks ago, I sat drinking coffee in a café on the road that runs from Kadim through the northern West Bank to Israel: now that café – and dozens of Palestinian shops and businesses around it – are just piles of rubble along the road; demolished by the Israeli army.

The countdown to Israeli elections in October marked in the number of Palestinian buildings demolished, the number of new settler caravans.

Travis Frain was texting his mates a photo he had just taken of Big Ben on a university trip to London when his day turned from normal to anything but.

"One of the guys in my group shouted 'look out' and as I looked up from my phone the terrorist's car was in front of me.

"It was a split second really before the car hit me. I went over the bonnet, into the air, before landing back on the ground."

This was 22 March 2017, when attacker Khalid Masood drove his car into crowds, killing four, before stabbing a police officer to death outside Parliament.

Frain, then 19, was left with multiple injuries including a fractured leg, which took two years to heal. "There will always be a part of you affected by that attack."

Now 28, he spoke to BBC News as the UK's first national day for victims and survivors of terrorism is set to take place on Friday.

The world's oldest living person celebrates turning 117 years old in Surrey on Friday with her family and friends.

Ethel Caterham, who lives at Hallmark Lakeview Care Home in Lightwater, took on the mantle in April 2025 after the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas at the age of 116.

Born three years before the Titanic disaster and eight years before the Russian Revolution, Caterham has also lived through two world wars.

In addition, she is one of the oldest people to survive Covid-19, after contracting it in 2020 at the age of 110, according to Guinness World Records.

Originally from Shipton Bellinger in Hampshire, the second youngest of eight children, Caterham was raised in Tidworth, Wiltshire.

The last surviving subject of King Edward VII, as a teenager she travelled to India in 1927 and began working as an au pair to a military family there.

Dozens of people have accused TUI River Cruises of operating vessels with faulty facilities including persistently broken air conditioning, after they spent thousands of pounds on holidays.

Earlier this year passengers on the Skyla, a ship operated by TUI, contacted BBC Your Voice to say they had been stranded in Budapest during a heatwave with little to no air conditioning.

Following that report more people got in touch to say they faced similar problems on both the Skyla and its sister vessel, the Isla. They criticised TUI's customer service and said the refunds offered were inadequate.

TUI apologised to customers where trips "fell short of the standards we aim to deliver".

A spokesperson for TUI, said: "We understand the disappointment and frustration caused to affected customers."

Passengers described stifling conditions as well as problems with plumbing after paying thousands of pounds for European cruises, including on the Danube River.

Andy Peach and his wife booked a seven-day trip on the Skyla in June, travelling through Budapest, Vienna and Linz.

It turned out to be "the worst TUI holiday we've ever been on", he said.

Instead of air conditioning, Peach said there were "big blowers" on board, expelling hot air.

"One was in the middle of the corridor, blocking the exit," he said. "It didn't seem to cool the place down."

Temperatures onboard climbed as the holiday went on leaving him "exhausted", he said. By the end of the week, Peach said the air conditioning in cabins had broken too.

On the second-to-last day passengers were transferred to hotels, which Peach said were "really basic".

He and his wife had paid nearly £4,000 for the holiday but they were offered only £300 as a refund and given 72-hours to accept it.

He said: "TUI know there's problems on these boats, but continue to sell them to people as a full luxury cruise."

The cost of studio memberships can be pretty high, so people are increasingly organising their own free or affordable wellness-based gatherings - these can usually be found through local groups on social media, and on platforms like Meetup.

Yoga teacher Anastasiia Mirraslavska, for example, hosts a meetup called Sunday Reset in London. Every month the group meets in a different city park to do yoga and meditate together, and they also come together for online meditation sessions over Zoom. Some of the sessions are paid-for - about £10 - and others are free.

"I wanted to create a space where people could experience [yoga and meditation] in a simple and accessible way," she told the BBC.

Erica Correa, a model, is trying to do something similar in Liverpool. She's started arranging a regular meetup called Soft Sunday, where people come together for curated wellness experiences. The last session was a pilates class, followed by a beauty experience.

"Everything about Soft Sunday is intention over expense," she told the BBC. "Wellness is more about the decisions that you make in life, how you protect your time."

For now they're invitation-only, but she's hoping to open them up to more people soon.

This week, millions of Brits were sent a phone alert warning them against starting wildfires, scientists found giant whales were moving to Greenland, and there were courtroom clashes during Tupac's murder trial.

But how much attention did you pay to what else happened in the world over the past seven days?

Quiz collated by George Sandeman and Grace Dean.

Keith Elias's family have been fishing on the river for 300 years - he said he only caught one fish this season.

"It's been in my family for so long, I love carrying the tradition on but it's getting to the point where you get to the end of the season and you're not hitting fish.

"You just don't want to go."

Last year, the nearby River Teifi was noted as one of the UK's most polluted rivers, with 2,232 spills lasting more than 22,000 hours recorded in 2024.

It has been reported that some incidents of pollution were made by Welsh Water.

The company said it was investing £889m on storm overflows between 2025 and 2030, including six projects to reduce their impact on the Tywi.

It added: "We are determined to play our part to improve river water quality on the Tywi, but this isn't just an issue for water companies, collaboration is needed across sectors, including industry and agriculture, to ensure improvements."

Local people have also shared videos online of discharge across the river, which they claim appear to be from a nearby electronics recycling company Mekatek.

The company has a discharge licence from NRW.

Mekatek said it shared concerns about the drop in sewin and had spent more than "40 years developing and improving our processes to ensure we are not a factor in that reduction".

It added: "Anyone wishing to understand what we do and how well we do it is more than welcome to arrange to visit the site and view our operations for themselves."

Image caption,

Security for the Sussexes once they are back in the UK could cost the taxpayer £5m a year, according to the Daily Mail. The paper writes that it is "not known" if Prince Harry's security will be paid for privately or by the taxpayer, but says his family's return to the UK could "risk a clash" with Buckingham Palace and the government over who will foot the bill for protecting them.

Brandon Flowers has a confession.

For the last 25 years, he's been the frontman of The Killers, channelling his love of stadium rock and British new wave on songs like Mr Brightside, When You Were Young and Human.

But in the back of his mind, there's always been an alternative soundtrack.

"You know, a lot of guys in my line of business develop drug addictions," he says.

"I got a country addiction."

It started when he was a kid in Nephi, Utah. His dad would play Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard and John Conlee on the car stereo. School dances, held at the local golf club, would always feature country and western slow dances.

So when Flowers moved back home and started revisiting his childhood haunts, his passion for country was rekindled.

You can hear the results on his third solo album, Thrasher, recorded in Nashville's famed RCA Studio A - home to Dolly Parton's Jolene and I Will Always Love You - with a group of veteran musicians that included pedal steel legend Bruce Bouton, 85-year-old harmonica player Charlie McCoy, and Americana musician Margo Price.

"I sang live with them and I think they really appreciated that, because it's a very romantic way of doing it," he says.

"It's not something that people do anymore. To actually get that energy down on tape is a different thing."

It's an album he couldn't have made in his 20s.

It is unclear whether she plans to fight the charges.

Bowie, from Albany in upstate New York, had allegedly discussed her plans with FBI informants and spent weeks with agents posing as IS members.

She selected the New York statehouse in Albany because she thought it would be an easier target than the White House, prosecutors say.

"I want it to have an affect on the American system," she allegedly told agents. Prosecutors say she visited the building at least five times on reconnaissance missions ahead of the attack.

As part of her plot, she planned to use a food delivery bag to hide her bomb, officials say. The charging documents include an image of the DoorDash bag she brought to agents.

Agents allegedly also gave Bowie $200 (£147) to buy bomb making material from a local hardware store. They drove her to the Home Depot store, and when she emerged from the store she allegedly said she hoped those were the right kind of nails.

"I hope the nails are big enough... because the nails work as shrapnel, right?" she allegedly told the two undercover operatives.

She was arrested on Wednesday, and was also found carrying knives, and a written oath of allegiance to IS, according to the complaint.

This isn't a regular sibling fallout. It is a deep-rooted fracture filled with anger, resentment and a total loss of trust.

And much of it has played out in public.

The Prince of Wales remains in no mood to forgive and forget. The hurt he feels lingers.

"William is very stubborn," a family friend told the BBC. "To feel cheated by your own brother has been painful. He can't just put it behind him."

But in his interview with the BBC last year, Harry offered a different view.

"I would love reconciliation with my family. There's no point in continuing to fight any more."

The problem for Prince William now is proximity. Harry will be in the UK within two weeks, probably a short drive away from Windsor where William's family lives.

There will be pressure on the elder brother to take the lead, ease the pain and just make up with Harry now the siblings will be living in the same country.

"I think William doesn't care about the pressure to reconcile," said royal author, Valentine Low. "If he doesn't want to reconcile with his brother because of the things he's done, the wrongs that he feels Harry's done to him, he's not going to reconcile. But it does improve the chances I think."

The Prince of Wales will prioritise his public work in the coming months and try not get drawn into the drama around the UK return of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Several people from organisations who have worked with Prince William told BBC News of their desire to support William and help avoid Harry and Meghan becoming a distraction.

One source, who has worked on charity projects with the Royal Family, described wanting to protect the future King.

"This is a hard situation for him full of emotion and anger and we will support him," the source said. "It is really important for me to ensure that any work we do with William will be focused on making a positive change and won't be affected by the Harry and Meghan drama."

British rapper Yung Filly will face a retrial on three rape charges in Australia, after a jury cleared him of several sexual assault offences but could not reach a decision on others.

The YouTuber, whose real name is Andres Felipe Valencia Barrientos, was charged with repeatedly raping and assaulting a fan after performing at a nightclub in Perth in 2024.

He denied all 10 charges, and last month a jury found him not guilty on three counts of sexual penetration without consent.

He was also acquitted of one assault charge and another of strangulation, but was found guilty of two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm, for which he'll be sentenced after his retrial.

The West Australian court heard that the 31-year-old social media star had consensual sex with a 20-year-old fan in his hotel room, before she alleged he turned violent and ignored her cries to stop.

Barrientos will next appear in court 27 August for an application to vary his bail. A retrial date has not been set.

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

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Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan has been moved back to prison early on Friday after being examined by doctors at a hospital in Islamabad, who deemed him "medically fit".

Khan was seen by "a team of qualified doctors" including an ophthalmologist, a cardiologist and a physician, Pakistan's information minister Attaullah Tarar said.

The Supreme Court had on Tuesday ordered that the cricketer-turned-politician be taken to the hospital within 48 hours to be examined by physicians, following complaints about his health.

It was the most significant relief Khan has received from the courts since he was imprisoned in 2023 on corruption charges, which he says were politically motivated.

As well as being transferred to hospital, this court order also specified Khan should be allowed to see his family, which he has not been able to do in months. On Tuesday night, his sister Azma Khan visited him in prison.

She was present throughout all stages of the medical examination overnight on Thursday, Tarar said.

Khan's political party, Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is normally quick to claim court decisions that go against him are politically motivated. It has not publicly been drawn on speculation that the Supreme Court's decision indicates political manoeuvring behind the scenes.

The area around Shifa International Hospital has been sealed off by police with barriers, officers and police vans in place. Outside the hospital the BBC saw cars being moved with a truck to clear the street while police cars and armoured vehicles patrolled.

The Supreme Court told Khan's party not to conduct press conferences outside the hospital. This is a warning not to politicise his hospital stay.

The 73-year-old's lawyers have said he's suffering from various health conditions, including poor eyesight, and has been unable to access specialist medical care.

In February, Khan's lawyer said his client had 15% vision left in his right eye after prison authorities failed to take action - an allegation the government disputed.

In Tuesday's court order, the panel wrote: "We are mindful of the constitutional and legal obligation... to safeguard the life, health, dignity and security of the prisoner."

Judges said an eye specialist would be involved in Khan's hospital treatment.

The judges and members of PTI issued warnings to supporters not to gather outside the hospital - that would be a breach of the court order.

Khan, who previously captained the Pakistan national cricket team, served as the country's prime minister from 2018 to 2022.

He was imprisoned in August 2023 and has faced charges in more than 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts - all of which he decried as politically motivated.

Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were both sentenced to 17 years late last year.

His jailing triggered large-scale protests by supporters, which were met with a crackdown by authorities.

Despite his jailing, Khan remains a significant presence in Pakistani politics with a large number of supporters.

With reporting by Usman Zahid

In recent weeks, white trailer homes have appeared on the hilltop here again, in preparation for families to return.

Our request to speak to people at the opening ceremony was refused; we were told no media were allowed to enter the settlement today.

Driving along a dirt track on the hill behind it, we met a Palestinian vegetable farmer, living in the house he was born in 53 years ago.

He told me how, as a boy, he watched Kadim being built for the first time, then watched again as the settlers there were forced out by the government twenty years later.

"Back then, the settlers were living alongside us, and we coexisted peacefully. They lived their lives and we lived ours," he told me.

Now, watching them return, he's fearful.

"I'm afraid of the events spreading around us, and the bypass road [where] they demolished shops and businesses," he said.

"They drove my nephews away from their vegetables and citrus trees, telling them 'you have no place here, don't come back'".

He said his family fled here from Haifa during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

"There's no more displacement left in me," he said. "We're living with a sense of resignation. It's a life of fear."

After Kadim and the three other settlements here were evacuated in 2005, Israelis were banned from settling in this area. Israel's current government overturned that ban.

Kadim is the last of the settlements evacuated in 2005 to reopen. Ganim, Sanur and Homesh have already been formally opened, and families moved in.

But they are a drop in the ocean of the Israeli government's settlement project here. Since it took power in late 2022, it has approved more than 100 new settlements across the West Bank, including 19 in the northern West Bank.

The government borrowed slightly more than expected in July, according to figures published as Chancellor John Healey draws up his first Budget.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said borrowing was £2.3bn more than official forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Borrowing, the gap between what the government spends and what it takes in tax receipts, was £1.8bn in July, two thirds higher than the same month last year.

Economists warned the figure will restrict Healey and Prime Minister Andy Burnham's room for manoeuvre as they target measures aimed at easing the cost of living for households, with little room to increase borrowing in the Budget on 27 October.

Healey has made it clear he will oversee "strong fiscal discipline" at the Budget – which will limit how much the government has to spend.

He has adopted his predecessor Rachel Reeves' fiscal rules, which commit the government to funding all day-to-day spending through tax receipts by the end of the decade.

Responding to the borrowing figures, Healey said: "We are cutting the deficit faster than any other G7 economy, while giving people a bit of breathing space with cost of living pressures and focusing support to get young people into work."

The government borrowed £16bn less in July than it did in June, helped by a surge in self-assessed income tax receipts.

But the figure came in higher than expected due to increased welfare spending, including benefits and other payments such the state pension. Social payments were £2bn higher than the same period last year.

The ONS said borrowing from April to July, the first four months of the government's fiscal year, has reached £56.7bn. This is lower than last year, but £2.3bn higher than forecasts from the OBR, which the government uses when drawing up its spending plans.

Senior economist at Capital Economics Ashley Webb said the figure continued a "run of bad news" for the economy and that "there will be little scope to raise borrowing in the Budget later this year".

He said the borrowing overshoot "will probably get bigger" this year as economic growth slows and the government rolls out more measures to support households with the cost of living.

The ONS also said Britain's overall debt pile is approaching £3tn, having grown by £127.2bn a year earlier. The Conservatives said Labour's spending would leave "ordinary families" left to cover the bill.

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said: "We spend more on just the interest of our soaring debt than we do on our defence, police, and prisons combined. We simply cannot afford the price of Labour."

A book about the life of Sir Keir Starmer has become the newest addition to the Downing Street library, after being donated by Sir Keir himself.

Keir Starmer: The Biography, written by journalist and former Labour adviser Tom Baldwin, has now joined the collection of more than 400 books, some of which are kept in two bookcases in Downing Street's Cabinet Room.

The library was established in 1931 by the first Labour Prime Minister, Ramsay MacDonald, and since then prime ministers and ministers have been invited to make contributions.

Seven ministers who served in Sir Keir's government have also added books to the shelves.

The new donations include:

Former Chancellor Rachel Reeves added her own book, Alice in Westminster: The political life of Alice Bacon

Darren Jones, who served as a senior minister between 2024 and 2026, gave Laudato Si: On Care for our Common Home - a book by Pope Francis which calls for greater protection of the environment

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy offered her book All In: How we build a country that works

Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister in the last government, also chose his own book - a biography of former Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson

Women and Equalities minister Bridget Phillipson picked Choose Freedom: The Future for Democratic Socialism by former Labour deputy leader Roy Hattersley

Former Wales Secretary Jo Stevens gave The Fed: a history of the South Wales miners in the twentieth century by Hywel Francis and Davis Smith

Treasury minister James Murray donated Instruction to Deliver - a book by Sir Michael Barber about his experience being a civil servant in Tony Blair's government

As Labour leader, Sir Keir did not appear to be much of a reader. In one interview in 2024, he struggled, external to name a favourite novel and when he appeared on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs he picked an atlas as the book he would take with him.

In contrast, his successor Andy Burnham, an English Literature graduate, has spoken of his fondness for poetry, in particular the works of Tony Harrison and Philip Larkin.

He is unlikely to donate a volume to the library at this early stage of his premiership, but if he finds time to peruse the shelves, he will find an eclectic collection.

After 17 years, 54 fights and world titles across seven weight classes, Amanda Serrano is still making history. This time, she's coming for your algorithm too.

The Puerto Rican defends her WBA and WBO featherweight titles against Argentina's Lucrecia Manzur on Friday in California, in the first world championship boxing event to be streamed live on TikTok.

A 33rd stoppage triumph, in what would be Serrano's 50th professional victory, would give her the most knockout wins in women's boxing history, eclipsing pioneer Christy Martin.

"That's what gets me up in the morning, working hard, training hard," Serrano tells BBC Sport.

"I always set myself little goals. Because if your dreams don't scare you, they're not big enough.

"To tie was an honour, but now we have to break it. I don't like being tied."

The bout is Serrano's penultimate appearance in an illustrious career, and another chance for the 37-year-old to add to a legacy that has transformed women's boxing.

"This is the social media era. We're in 2026. A lot of these young generations are constantly on the phone," she adds.

"They're always scrolling, scrolling and scrolling. So what better place [than TikTok]?"

For someone who has enjoyed a glittering 21-year career, winning titles across multiple promotions, you would think it would be difficult to pinpoint one standout moment.

For Cris Cyborg however, the decision comes easy.

In 2009, the Brazilian knocked out American Gina Carano to win the Strikeforce featherweight title in a landscape-shifting moment for MMA.

The fight was the first women's title bout to headline a major event and was broadcast live on primetime TV in America.

It was also the first women's MMA bout to feature five, five-minute rounds instead of three, three-minute rounds.

At 41, Cyborg has achieved almost everything you can in MMA, but regards this as the most significant moment of her career - not only because it opened up opportunities for her, but also paved the way for other women to follow in her footsteps.

It is a testament to Cyborg's character that - despite all the challenges and opponents she has overcome - her proudest moment is the fight she won against the glass ceiling.

"I believe a lot of people over the world watched that fight and it opened a lot of doors," Cyborg tells BBC Sport.

"We were training hard saying one day the opportunity is going to come and we're going to be ready to show that girls can fight. And I had the opportunity to show this - not just for me, but to give the opportunity to other women.

"Now I can see how big the sport has grown. It makes me happy because the reality of the dream isn't just for me, it's for all the women in the world. I know the girls before me didn't have this."

Panama Canal's operator is to cut the number of vessels passing through the key waterway due to low rainfall caused by El Niño.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) told shipping firms on Thursday that 32 vessels a day will be able to pass through it from 15 September, compared to 36 currently.

El Niño, a pattern of periodical sea surface warming, affects weather systems globally. This year is expected to be particularly strong, with its effects made more intense by climate change.

The shipping industry is already dealing with severe disruptions due to the Iran war causing a large reduction in the number of vessels passing through the crucial Strait of Hormuz.

The ACP said the measures were being put in place to preserve service reliability and safeguard water resources for human consumption.

It added that despite the arrival of the rainy season in Central America and some water-saving measures already being put in place in the canal, additional action was needed "to support the long-term sustainability of transit operations".

The new measures will be phased in from 3 September.

The Panama Canal greatly reduces the time and distance ships have to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

About 14,000 ships per year use the artificial waterway - which operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

As well as being a crucial route for global trade, it is also a key source of income for Panama, bringing in about $3bn (£2.2bn) a year.

In 2023, the ACP cut the number of vessels using the waterway during the last El Niño period after Panama was hit with its driest October since records began in 1950.

Since then, the authority has introduced measures to cut the amount of water it uses.

Many forecasts suggest that this year's El Niño, which is a naturally occurring pattern, could be one of the strongest ever recorded, with disruptions to weather, food supplies and economies.

An academic who accused the late Cambridge professor Jason Arday of plagiarism has been suspended from his post at a Belgian university.

Nathan Cofnas, a self-defined "race realist" who argues genes play a "non-trivial role" in intelligence differences between racial groups, was among those to question Arday's work and achievements. This prompted a weeks-long plagiarism row prior to his death on 14 August.

Cofnas said he was under investigation by Ghent University "for discriminating against Arday".

The university said a staff member had been notified of a "preliminary disciplinary investigation" and suspended as a precaution.

In a statement regarding Arday's death, its rector Petra De Sutter and vice-rector Herwig Reynaert said they took "recent public statements made by a postdoctoral researcher at Ghent University regarding this matter very seriously", and had taken "appropriate action".

They said the university stood for "respect for human dignity and opposes discrimination, hatred and racism".

"We attach great importance to academic freedom and to open academic debate, even when views are controversial. However, that freedom is not unlimited.

"It goes hand in hand with responsibility and may be restricted in order to protect the rights of others."

They said Arday's death should "prompt reflection" and that lessons should be learned "regarding the way we treat one another both within and outside the academic world, particularly when people become the subject of public controversy".

Cofnas works as a postdoctoral researcher at the university's department of philosophy and moral sciences, according to his website.

His role at a Cambridge college was terminated in 2024 after backlash to his view that, under a true meritocracy, black people would "disappear from almost all high-profile positions outside of sports and entertainment".

But things may be turning a corner.

In the past few years house prices have typically risen more slowly than people's wages which, all things being equal, makes it easier for prospective buyers to save.

That has also changed the ratio between house prices and average incomes. Back in 2021, house prices were nearly 9 times average incomes. Today, they're 7.6 times.

And some lenders will take a smaller deposit - sometimes just 5% - which can help overcome the deposit hurdle, a key difficulty of getting on the ladder. People looking to buy can now, in some instances, get a mortgage by saving significantly less money than a few years ago.

If first-time buyers can cobble together a deposit, lenders have recently been more willing to offer larger loans and with longer repayment times. Some buyers can purchase their homes with terms lasting up to 40 years, significantly longer than the usual 25-30 years. That can help lower monthly repayments.

Crucially, too, because property prices are growing more slowly, and interest rates have fallen from their recent peak, mortgage payments relative to wages are moving back towards the long-term average.

Figures from Nationwide show that, if you were a first-time buyer in 2007, your mortgage payments were about 45% of your take-home pay. Today's first-time buyers are paying 32%. That's still above the long-run average of 30%, but it's moving in the right direction.

Smaller deposits and longer mortgage terms are not without risk, however. Those who take that route will end up paying more interest, and are vulnerable to losing money on their property if the value of their homes doesn't increase.

Ultimately, to make it as easy to get on the ladder as it was for previous generations, we need more homes.

There are moves afoot: Sir Keir Starmer's government introduced plans to streamline planning processes that can be chaotic and slow.

Reforms will also allow more homes to be built on the green belt - not something everyone agrees with.

But to really get things moving, we need to incentivise builders to commit with more confidence to building.

And whatever approach the government takes, the results will take years to come through.

A plane crash at a remote US Air Force site in Alaska has killed all eight people on board, the US military has said.

The civilian-contracted aircraft crashed shortly after midday local time (20:00 GMT) on Thursday near Cape Newenham, which hosts the airport of a long-range radar site.

It is unclear who the passengers were or why they were there, but the US Air Force Alaskan Command chief said they had been "dedicated professionals carrying out a vital mission in a demanding environment".

"This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve," Lt Gen Robert Davis added.

"Our absolute priority right now is providing unwavering support to their families, friends and teammates during this devastating time," he said in a statement.

"We are profoundly grateful for the swift and tireless response of our search and recovery professionals."

The plane originally took off from Anchorage International Airport and was bound for Cape Newenham - 450 miles (725 km) to the west by air - the US Air Force Alaskan Command said.

Rescuers who landed near the crash site "confirmed there were no survivors", it added. An investigation is under way and the deceased will be named once their next of kin had been informed.

Clint Johnson, the chief for the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region, said there had been two pilots and six passengers on board, CBS News, the BBC's US partner, reported.

The Cape Newenham site on Alaska's south-west coast is part of the Alaska Radar System, a network of remote sites that monitor aircraft approaching or operating in Alaskan airspace.

The US is nearing its $41.1tn debt ceiling, with debt forecast to climb to about $64tn by 2036, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But the situation is not yet critical, say economists. The US's position as the world's largest economy and the dollar being the world's reserve currency gives the US a "much longer runway to fiscally misbehave" than other countries, El-Erian says.

"We're getting to a point where it's a flashing yellow light. It's not a flashing red light," he says.

Swanson says other countries have had similar, or higher debt levels.

While US national debt is 126% compared with the size of the economy, it's lower than other G7 nations Japan and Italy.

But investor appetite in lending the US government money through buying bonds is "diminishing", Swanson warns, creating a "vicious" cycle, requiring the government to offer ever higher returns to keep investors purchasing its debt.

And higher US borrowing costs inevitably spill over, raising other countries' borrowing costs too. "What happens in the US never stays in the US," says El-Erian.

Charlie Bean, emeritus economics professor at the London School of Economics, says that if the US debt to economy ratio hits a certain point it could start a fire sale of US bonds and lead to financial market turmoil.

"There probably is a point, but unfortunately we don't know where it is," he says.

"It's not as if there's a fixed number that we could say, you know, 'if it gets to 150 percent, you know, disaster will happen, but we're OK if we stay at 145'."

A rare collection of handwritten notes by Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi has been sold for $1.69m (£1.3m) at an auction in Mumbai city.

The notes, owned and preserved by the family of close associate and freedom fighter Anand T Hingorani, include 688 of Gandhi's handwritten messages on truth, non-violence and self-restraint written between 1944 and 1946.

Auction house Saffronart said the sale set a record for the highest price paid for an Indian historical document at an auction.

Gandhi led India's non-violent struggle against British rule and is fondly known as the father of the nation. But the notes offer a more personal glimpse of the man behind the political leader.

Available for over a year

Today, the surprise news that Prince Harry and Meghan are relocating from the US to the UK, with their children enrolled at a British school. Adam is joined by Daniela Relph, the BBC’s Senior Royal correspondent, to talk about why now, what their lives might be like back in Britain and what the wider implications are for the Royal Family. You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://bbc.in/newscastdiscord Get in touch with Newscast by emailing [email protected] or send us a WhatsApp on +44 0330 123 9480. New episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bbc.in/4guXgXd Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenter was Adam Fleming. It was made by Jon Bithrey with Beth Ashmead Latham. The social producer was Jem Westgate. The technical producer was Jonathan Greer. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Available for over a year

Attorney General Todd Blanche won’t pledge to act “independently” from the White House during an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press. Trump’s former personal attorney said no attorney general should ever “pledge” to act independently from the White House, but assured the public that the president would never ask to do “something illegal”. Blanche’s comments have sparked a debate over the extent to which the justice department should be free from White House control. This comes at a time when Blanche was criticised for helping set up an “anti weaponisation fund” to compensate people who Trump claims were unfairly targeted by the previous Biden administration, such as Jan 6th rioters. There are also fears among Epstein survivors that Blanche - who was criticised for interviewing Ghislane Maxwell in prison - could affect their pursuit of justice. And, a major legal case brought by 29 US states against Meta has begun, which could affect the way social media companies operate in the future. The states involved claim that Meta - which owns Facebook and Instagram - violated federal and state privacy laws for children and are seeking billions of dollars in damages as well as changes to user experience. HOSTS: • Sarah Smith, North America Editor • Sumi Somaskanda, BBC News Chief Presenter • Marianna Spring, Senior Social Media Investigations Senior Correspondent GET IN TOUCH: • Join our online community: https://discord.gg/qSrxqNcmRB • Send us a message or voice note via WhatsApp to +44 330 123 9480 • Email [email protected] • Or use #Americast This episode was made by George Dabby with Alix Pickles. The technical producer was Ricardo McCarthy. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham. If you want to be notified every time we publish a new episode, please subscribe to us on BBC Sounds by hitting the subscribe button on the app. You can now listen to Americast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Americast”. It works on most smart speakers. US Election Unspun: Sign up for Anthony’s BBC newsletter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-68093155 Americast is part of the BBC News Podcasts family of podcasts. The team that makes Americast also makes lots of other podcasts, including Newscast. If you enjoy Americast (and if you're reading this then you hopefully do), then we think that you will enjoy some of our other pods too. See links below. Newscast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/p05299nl Top Comment: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m001mssm Radical: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0gg4k6r The Global Story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/w13xtvsd

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A snake named after the Hollywood star Jodie Foster has made a full recovery after receiving cancer treatment normally used in humans.

The 4m (15ft) reticulated python, who lives at Chester Zoo, was given electrochemotherapy after a cancerous tumour was discovered in its jawbone.

The reptile is believed to be the first snake in the world to receive this kind of treatment, according to the veterinary team at Chester Zoo.

Working alongside specialists at the University of Liverpool, the team adapted the treatment for the snake.

Zoo keepers first became concerned when the snake began eating less and spending more time inactive.

Tests confirmed the reptile had a fibrosarcoma - a malignant tumour - in the jaw.

Although vets initially removed the tumour, it later returned.

Ian Ashpole, veterinary officer at Chester Zoo, said: "When the tumour came back and started destroying part of her jawbone, we knew more surgery on its own probably wasn't going to be enough.

"We were facing the possibility of losing her as the tumour made it more and more difficult for her to eat, so we worked with cancer specialists to see whether we could adapt electrochemotherapy for a snake.

"As far as we're aware, this is the first time it's ever been used in one."

The US is nearing its $41.1tn debt ceiling, with debt forecast to climb to about $64tn by 2036, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

But the situation is not yet critical, say economists. The US's position as the world's largest economy and the dollar being the world's reserve currency gives the US a "much longer runway to fiscally misbehave" than other countries, El-Erian says.

"We're getting to a point where it's a flashing yellow light. It's not a flashing red light," he says.

Swanson says other countries have had similar, or higher debt levels.

While US national debt is 126% compared with the size of the economy, it's lower than other G7 nations Japan and Italy.

But investor appetite in lending the US government money through buying bonds is "diminishing", Swanson warns, creating a "vicious" cycle, requiring the government to offer ever higher returns to keep investors purchasing its debt.

And higher US borrowing costs inevitably spill over, raising other countries' borrowing costs too. "What happens in the US never stays in the US," says El-Erian.

Charlie Bean, emeritus economics professor at the London School of Economics, says that if the US debt to economy ratio hits a certain point it could start a fire sale of US bonds and lead to financial market turmoil.

"There probably is a point, but unfortunately we don't know where it is," he says.

"It's not as if there's a fixed number that we could say, you know, 'if it gets to 150 percent, you know, disaster will happen, but we're OK if we stay at 145'."

A man has been jailed for life for murdering his flatmate in the UK just three years after completing a prison sentence in Romania for a "strikingly similar" killing.

Construction worker Eugeniu Neamtu, 59, known as Jimmy, was found guilty of fatally stabbing his flatmate Gheorghe Trica, 63, in Walthamstow, east London, on 20 February.

Appearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, Mr Justice Marks sentenced Neamtu to life with a minimum term of 27 years.

Neamtu had stabbed his fellow Romanian Trica in the heart in almost identical circumstances to an earlier killing in his home country dating back to 2006, the court heard.

In May 2007, he was jailed for 15 years in Romania for murdering his housemate by stabbing him repeatedly in the chest in a drunken row over money.

Anyone But You

Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell star. Sometimes, the best love stories start with a lie

1h 36m

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli headed McLaren's Lando Norris in first practice at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Championship leader Antonelli was 0.121 seconds clear of Norris - who won the last race in Hungary before Formula 1's summer break - with the Italian's Mercedes team-mate George Russell just 0.004secs further adrift.

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton, who is 50 points behind 19-year-old Antonelli in the championship, was fourth fastest - 0.190secs off the pace.

Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc and the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri completed the top six.

There was an encouraging performance from the new Honda engine in the Aston Martin, with Fernando Alonso ending the session 12th fastest and 1.562secs down.

That appears at first sight to suggest the new engine is providing the 0.3-0.5secs gain in lap time for which Aston Martin had been hoping.

Olympic medallist Jenny Simpson says a "chapter has ended" and she will not return to running after having a cardiac arrest.

The 39-year-old American, a former 1500m world champion, was pacing a mile group at a pop-up event in North Carolina in June when she collapsed.

She required CPR and the use of an automated external defibrillator before being transported to UNC Rex Hospital in Raleigh, where she went into cardiac arrest again.

"My heart was severely injured and stunned. My lungs struggled too," Simpson said in an Instagram post, external on Thursday.

"I was diagnosed with a rare inherited heart condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC)."

ARVC is a genetic condition in which the proteins that normally hold heart muscle cells together do not work properly.

This can cause heart muscle cells to die and be replaced by fatty tissue and scar tissue.

It causes the walls of the heart chambers to become thin and stretched, and the heart cannot pump blood around the body properly.

"My future is an incredible gift. It's hopeful, and it will continue to have great purpose," Simpson said.

"But my diagnosis also means it would be dangerous for me to return to running. That chapter has ended. Thankfully, my story hasn't."

Simpson won 1500m gold at the 2011 World Championships and bronze at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, and retired from competitive racing at the end of the 2024 season.

"I'm profoundly grateful that I got to have the career I did," added Simpson, who also won silver medals in the 1500m at the 2013 and 2017 World Championships.

"I experienced everything - from the trenches of training to standing on the top of the podium while our national anthem filled the stadium."