Joe Biden diagnosed with 'aggressive' prostate cancer

Biden and his family are said to be reviewing treatment options. The former president's office added that the cancer is hormone-sensitive, meaning it can likely be managed.

The cancer is a more aggressive form of the disease, characterised by a Gleason score of 9 out of 10. This means his illness is classified as "high-grade" and that the cancer cells could spread quickly, according to Cancer Research UK.

Biden, 82, was diagnosed on Friday after he saw a doctor last week for urinary symptoms.

Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with prostate cancer that has spread to his bones, a statement from his office said on Sunday.

After news broke of his diagnosis, the former president received support from both sides of the aisle.

President Donald Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social that he and First Lady Melania Trump "are saddened to hear about Joe Biden's recent medical diagnosis."

"We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family," he said, referring to former First Lady Jill Biden. "We wish Joe a fast and successful recovery."

Former Vice-President Kamala Harris, who served under Biden, wrote on X that she and her husband Doug Emhoff are keeping the Biden family in their prayers.

"Joe is a fighter — and I know he will face this challenge with the same strength, resilience, and optimism that have always defined his life and leadership," Harris said.

The news comes nearly a year after the former president was forced to drop out of the 2024 US presidential election over concerns about his health and age. He is the oldest person to hold the office in US history.

Biden, then the Democratic nominee vying for re-election, faced mounting criticism of his poor performance in a June televised debate against Republican nominee and current president Donald Trump. He was replaced as the Democratic candidate by his vice president Harris.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer affecting men, behind skin cancer, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that 13 out of every 100 men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives.

Age is the most common risk factor, the CDC says.

Dr William Dahut, the Chief Scientific Officer at the American Cancer Society and a trained prostate cancer physician, told the BBC that the cancer is more aggressive in nature, based on the publicly-available information on Biden's diagnosis.

"In general, if cancer has spread to the bones, we don't think it is considered a curable cancer," Dr Dahut said.

He noted, however, that most patients tend to respond well to initial treatment, "and people can live many years with the diagnosis".

Dr Dahut said that someone with the former president's diagnosis will likely be offered hormonal therapies to mitigate symptoms and to slow the growth of cancerous cells.

Biden had largely retreated from the public eye since leaving the White House and he has made few public appearances.

The former president delivered a keynote speech in April at a Chicago conference held by the Advocates, Counselors, and Representatives for the Disabled, a US-based advocacy group for people with disabilities.

In May, he sat down for an interview with the BBC - his first since leaving the White House - where he admitted that the decision to step down from the 2024 race was "difficult".

Biden has faced questions about the status of his health in recent months.

In an appearance on The View programme that also took place in May, Biden denied claims that he had been experiencing cognitive decline in his final year at the White House. "There is nothing to sustain that," he said.

For many years, the president had advocated for cancer research. In 2022, he and Mrs Biden relaunched the Cancer Moonshot initiative with the goal of mobilising research efforts to prevent more than four million cancer deaths by the year 2047.

Biden himself lost his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

Gary Lineker expected to leave the BBC

17 minutes ago Share Save Katie Razzall Culture and Media Editor Share Save

PA Media

Gary Lineker is set to leave the BBC with an announcement expected on Monday. Speculation is mounting the 64-year-old will step down after he presents his final Match of the Day next weekend. Lineker, listed as the highest-paid BBC presenter, had been due to remain at the forefront of the BBC's coverage of next season's FA Cup and the World Cup in 2026, despite previously announcing he will leave Match of the Day at the end of this season. But last week he had to apologise after sharing a social media post about Zionism that included an illustration of a rat, historically used as an antisemitic insult.

Lineker said he very much regretted the references, adding he would never knowingly share anything antisemitic. Last week, BBC Director General Tim Davie said: "The BBC's reputation is held by everyone, and when someone makes a mistake, it costs us." It is understood that BBC bosses considered Lineker's position untenable.

The former England striker has attracted criticism before for his posts on social media in the past. He was temporarily suspended from the BBC in March 2023 after an impartiality row over a post in which he said language used to promote a government asylum policy was "not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s". The BBC's social media rules were then rewritten to say presenters of flagship programmes outside news and current affairs - including Match of the Day - have "a particular responsibility to respect the BBC's impartiality, because of their profile on the BBC". In November 2024, Lineker announced his departure from Match of the Day, but said he would remain with the BBC to front FA Cup and World Cup coverage. In an interview earlier this year about leaving, Lineker said he believed the BBC wanted him to leave Match of the Day as he was negotiating a new contract last year, saying: "Well, perhaps they want me to leave. There was the sense of that."

Israel says it will allow 'basic amount of food into Gaza', ending 10-week blockade

2 hours ago Share Save Wyre Davies @WyreDavies Reporting from Jerusalem Rushdi Abualouf Gaza correspondent Share Save

Getty Images An injured man is transported to the Kamal Adwan Hospital

Israel has announced it will allow a "basic amount of food" to enter Gaza "to ensure a famine crisis does not develop" after blockading the territory for 10 weeks. A statement from the Prime Minister's Office said: "On the recommendation of the IDF, and out of the operational need to enable the expansion of the intense fighting to defeat Hamas, Israel will introduce a basic amount of food to the population in order to ensure that a famine crisis does not develop". The announcement came hours after after Israel's military said it had begun "extensive ground operations" throughout Gaza. An evacuation order was issued on Sunday evening for several areas it warned would face imminent attacks.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched strikes on sites including a hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday as part of a new offensive called Operation Gideon's Chariot. Israel says it aims to free hostages held in Gaza and defeat Hamas. Strikes hit the southern city of Khan Younis, as well as towns in the north of Gaza, including Beit Lahia and the Jabalia refugee camp, rescuers said. At least 67 people have been killed and 361 injured in Gaza in the last 24 hours, the Hamas-run health ministry said. A woman in Khan Younis told the BBC the situation there was "very difficult" and she had been kept awake by the sound of bombing, while enduring "severe shortages of flour and gas and food". The civil defence, Gaza's main emergency service, said the al-Mawasi camp in the south, where displaced people had been sheltering, was also attacked overnight leading to 22 deaths and 100 people injured. The camp had previously been designated as a "safe zone". In the broad evacuation order on Sunday that it described as a "final warning", the Israeli army said it would "launch a powerful strike on any area used for launching rockets", and urged people to "move immediately west to the known shelters in al-Mawasi".

Dozens of displaced people killed as Israel ramps up overnight Gaza airstrikes

Three public hospitals are now "out of action" in the North Gaza governorate, the health ministry said, amid Israel's escalating air strikes. Medical staff at one of them, the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahia, told the BBC at about 21:40 local time (20:40 GMT) that IDF tanks had pulled up outside and were firing at the hospital. They said 55 people were inside, including four doctors and eight nurses. The rest were immobilised patients who were not able to flee the hospital after the morning's attack, they said. About 50 minutes later staff said the IDF had left the vicinity of the hospital. The IDF has said its troops are fighting "terrorist infrastructure sites" in northern Gaza, including the area adjacent to the Indonesian Hospital. Earlier on Sunday, Gaza's health ministry said staff and patients there had come under "heavy fire". It accused Israel of besieging the hospital, cutting off access, and "effectively forcing the hospital out of service". Medics told the BBC no evacuation order or warning was issued before the attacks, and at no point were there any military targets in the Indonesian Hospital. The onslaught comes as negotiators from Israel and Hamas continue trying to reach a ceasefire agreement in Qatar. Israeli media quoted the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as saying Israel's negotiating team was exhausting "every possibility" for a deal on Sunday. Netanyahu's statement said it "would include the release of all the hostages, the exile of Hamas terrorists, and the disarmament of the Gaza Strip", reports said. A senior Hamas source told the BBC that "no breakthrough or progress has been achieved so far in the ongoing negotiations in Doha due to continued Israeli intransigence". The source said Hamas had expressed willingness to release all Israeli hostages in a single phase, "on the condition of reaching a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire agreement - something the Israeli side continues to reject, as their negotiating team lacks the mandate to decide on key issues". The source stressed that Hamas "rejects any partial or temporary arrangements". The group has proposed releasing all hostages in exchange for an agreed number of Palestinian prisoners, a full Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the entry of humanitarian aid - which Israel has now been blockading for 10 weeks. "Israel wants to retrieve its hostages in one or two batches in return for a temporary truce," the Hamas source told the BBC.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Mohammed Salha, director of the al-Awda private hospital in northern Gaza, said the closure of the Indonesian Hospital would affect the care he was able to provide. He said al-Awda depended on the Indonesian Hospital for stores of oxygen and for its intensive care unit. Mr Salha added that there had been a bombing near his hospital overnight causing "a lot of damage" to the facility that staff were attempting to quickly repair.

Watch: UK surgeon shares footage from Gaza hospital after deadly Israeli strike

The latest damage to hospitals comes after Israeli strikes hit two of the largest medical centres in Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex and European Hospital. Israel accused Hamas of hiding a command and control centre beneath the European Hospital, and said it conducted a "precise strike" on "Hamas terrorists". Israeli media reported the target of the strike was senior Hamas figure Mohammed Sinwar - the younger brother of the former Hamas leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar. Thousands of people have been killed since Israel resumed its strikes on 18 March, following the collapse of a fragile ceasefire which lasted two months. Aid agencies have warned about the risk of famine among Gaza's 2.1 million population, as footage and accounts emerge of emaciated children suffering malnutrition. Israel's military has said the expansion of its campaign is aimed at "achieving all the war's objectives" including releasing hostages and "the defeat of Hamas". But the hostages' families group said the operation posed "grave and escalating dangers" to hostages still held in Gaza. "Testimonies from released hostages describe significantly worsened treatment following military strikes, including physical abuse, restraint and reduced food," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said. The war was triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, which saw about 1,200 people killed and more than 250 taken hostage. Some 58 hostages remain in Gaza, up to 23 of whom are believed to be alive. More than 53,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's military campaign in Gaza. Additional reporting by André Rhoden-Paul and Alice Cuddy

UK and EU still locked in deal talks hours ahead of summit

31 minutes ago Share Save Hollie Cole BBC News Share Save

PA Media The prime minister is expected to welcome European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to London on Monday

Negotiations for a deal between the UK and EU are still ongoing hours before the prime minister hosts a UK-EU summit on Monday. Sir Keir Starmer will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the second time in four days as he aims to strike a deal with the EU on a range of issues. This could include a youth mobility scheme, allowing UK passport holders to use EU airport e-gates, and announcements on trade, security, and fishing rights. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have already described the deal as a "surrender" despite the contents not being known.

As the talks continue into the night, the BBC understands, there is no deadline for when they will conclude. Negotiations for the UK are being led by the minister for UK-EU relations, Nick Thomas-Symonds, who told the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that he was driven by "ruthless pragmatism" and was focused on jobs, lower household bills, and stronger borders. But he declined to give specific details of any deal, saying: "Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed." Announcements around trade and security have been expected to include British access to a 150 billion euro (£125 billion) EU defence fund, which could be a boost for UK defence companies. Fishing could also be part of a deal, with a post-Brexit deal on fishing rights set to expire at the end of June 2026. The Conservatives have warned that the government must "make it clear that giving up any rights to UK waters and natural resources would represent a betrayal to British fishermen". Reports have circulated that a youth mobility scheme with the EU could be set up - something that Sir Keir told the Times on Saturday would be a "reciprocal" arrangement in which young people would be able to move abroad for up to two years. No specific details about the ages of those who could be eligible and whether there would be a cap on numbers were given, and it has received mixed responses from opposition parties. Badenoch described the possible scheme as "free movement through the back door" while Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice said earlier this week that such a scheme would be "the thin end" of EU free movement. The Liberal Democrats have backed the idea of a "capped mobility scheme", although the party's Europe spokesperson James MacCleary has accused the government of "dragging their heels when it comes to properly negotiating on the issue".

The secretive US factory that lays bare the contradiction in Trump's America First plan

32 minutes ago Share Save Faisal Islam • @faisalislam Economics editor Reporting from Arizona Share Save

BBC

Among the cactuses in the desert of Arizona, just outside Phoenix, an extraordinary collection of buildings are emerging that will shape the future of the global economy and the world. The hum of further construction is creating not just a factory for the world's most advanced semiconductors. Eventually, it will mass produce the most advanced chips in the world. This work is being done in the US for the first time, with the Taiwanese company behind it pledging to spend billions more here in a move aimed at heading off the threat of tariffs on imported chips. It is, in my view, the most important factory in the world, and it's being built by a company you've never heard of: TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. It makes 90% of the world's advanced semiconductors. Until now they were all made in Taiwan, the island off the Chinese mainland. The Apple chip in your iPhone, the Nvidia chips powering your ChatGPT queries, the chips in your laptop or computer network, all are made by TSMC. Its Arizona facility "Fab 21" is closely guarded. Blank paper or personal devices are not allowed in case designs are leaked. It houses some of the most important intellectual property in the world, and the process to make these chips is one of the most complicated and intensive in global manufacturing.

TSMC's Arizona factory is closely guarded

They're hugely protective of the secrets that lie within. Important customers, such as Apple and Nvidia, trust this company to safeguard their designs for future products. But after months of asking, TSMC let the BBC in to look at the partial transfer of what some argue is the most critical, expensive, complex and important manufacturing in the world.

The poster child for Trump's policy

President Trump certainly seems to think so. He often mentions the factory in passing. "TSMC is the biggest there is," he has said. "We gradually lost the chip business, and now it's almost exclusively in Taiwan. They stole it from us." This is one of the US President's regular refrains. TSMC's recent decision to expand its investments in the US by a further $100bn (£75bn) is something Trump attributes to his threats of tariffs on Taiwan and on the global semiconductor business. The expansion of the Arizona facility, which was announced in March is, he believes, the poster child for his economic policies - in particular the encouragement of foreign companies to relocate factories to the US to avoid hefty tariffs.

Getty Trump heralded TSMC's decision to invest in the US as proof of success for his tariff policy

China is also watching developments carefully. Taiwan's chip making prowess has been part of what its government has called its "Silicon Shield," against a much-feared invasion. While the original strategy was to make Taiwan indispensable in this area of critical technology, the pandemic supply chain difficulties changed the calculus because relying on a single country seemed like a greater risk. So, many currents of the world economy, frontier technology and geopolitics flow through this one site and within it lies the essential contradiction of Trump's economic and diplomatic policy. He sees this plant as the exemplar of America First, and the preservation of economic and military superiority over China. Yet the manufacture of these modern miniaturised miracles at the frontier of physics and chemistry inherently rely on a combination of the very best technologies from around the world.

The cleanest environment on Earth

Greg Jackson, one of the facilities managers, takes me around in a golf buggy. The factories are almost a carbon copy of the TSMC spaces in Taiwan, where he trained. "I would say these facilities are probably some of the most advanced and complicated in the world," he says. "It's quite the dichotomy. You've got really, really small chips with really small structures, and it takes this massive facility with all the infrastructure to be able to make them... Just the sheer complexity, the amount of systems that it takes, is staggering." Inside the "Gowning Building," workers dress in protective clothing before crossing a bridge that is supposed to create the cleanest environment on Earth, in order to protect the production of these extraordinary microscopic transistors that create the microchips underpinning everything. Konstantinos Ninios, an engineer, shows me some of the very first productions from TSMC Arizona: a silicon wafer with what is known as '4 nanometre chips'.

Each silicon wafer is roughly the size of an LP record

"This is the most advanced wafer in the US right now," he explains. "[It] contains about 10 to 14 trillion transistors… The whole process is three to 4,000 steps." If you could somehow shrink your body to the same scale and get inside the wafer, he says that the many different layers would look like very tall streets and skyscrapers.

Manufacturing manipulation of atoms

TSMC was founded at the behest of the Taiwanese government in 1987, when chip executive Morris Chang was directed to start the business. The model was to become a dedicated foundry for microchips - manufacturing other companies' designs. It became wildly successful. Driving the advancement of the technology is the miniaturisation of the smallest feature on chips. Their size is measured these days in billionths of a metre or nanometres. This progress has enabled mobile phones to become smartphones, and is now setting the pace for the mass deployment of artificial intelligence. It requires incredible complexity and expense through the use of "extreme ultraviolet (UV) light". This is used to etch the intricate building blocks of our modern existence in a process called "lithography".

The world's dependence on TSMC is built on highly specialised bus-sized machines, which are in turn sourced almost entirely from a Dutch company called ASML, including in Arizona. These machines shoot UV light tens of thousands of times through drops of molten tin, which creates a plasma, and is then refracted through a series of specialised mirrors. The almost entirely automated process for each wafer of silicon is repeated thousands of times in layers over months, before the $1m LP-sized wafer of 4nm silicon chips is formed. "Just imagine a particle or a dust particle falling into this," Ninios says to me incredulously. "The transistors are not going to work. So all of this is cleaner than hospital operating rooms."

Caution in Taiwan

Taiwan does not have special access to the raw materials - but it has the know-how to stay years ahead of other companies in the intricate process of producing these atomic building blocks of modern life. Some in the Taiwanese government are cautious about spreading the frontier of this technology off the island. Trump wasted little time in claiming the firm's decision to bring its highest level of technology to the US was due to his economic policies. He said this would not have happened without the stick of his planned tariffs on Taiwan and semiconductors. Those I speak to at TSMC are diplomatic about that claim. Much of this was already planned and subsidised under former US President Biden administration's Chips Act.

The supply chain for semiconductors is global as no single country can do everything at the moment, says Rose Castanares, President of TSMC Arizona

On the walkway into the building are photographs showing Biden's visit in 2022, with the building site draped in the Stars and Stripes and a banner saying "a future Made in America". "The semiconductor supply chain is global," says Rose Castanares, the President of TSMC Arizona. "There's really no single country at this moment that can do everything from chemicals to wafer manufacturing to packaging, and so it's very difficult to unwind that whole thing very quickly."

'Non Red' supply chains to counter China

As for the semiconductor supply chain, tariffs will not help. The supply chain stretches all over the world. Whether it's the silicon wafers from Japan, the machines required from the Netherlands, or mirrors from Germany, all sorts of materials from all around the world are required. Now, they could face import charges. That said, TSMC's boss was quick off the mark in confirming the expansion of the US site at an event with Trump at the White House. In recent weeks, America's tech elite - from Apple's Tim Cook, to Nvidia's Jensen Huang - have been queueing up to tell the world that TSMC Arizona will now produce many of the chips in their US products. The global chip industry is very sensitive to the economic cycle, but its cutting edge technology enjoys very healthy margins, that could cushion some of these planned tariffs.

The company was founded in Taiwan in 1987. In March this year, they announced an expansion of their Arizona facility.

There are many geopolitical subtexts here. The factory sits at the heart of US strategy to gain technological, AI and economic supremacy over China. Both the Biden and Trump administrations have developed policies to try and limit Chinese access to the frontier semiconductor technology - from a ban of exports to China of ASML's machines, to new legislation to ban the use of Huawei AI chips in US software or technology anywhere in the world. Taiwan's President Lai this week urged democracies such as Japan and the US to develop "non-Red" supply chains to counter China. Not everyone is convinced that this strategy is working, however. Chinese technologists have been effective at working around the bans to develop competitive indigenous technology. And Bill Gates this week said that these policies "have forced the Chinese in terms of chip manufacturing and everything to go full speed ahead". Trump wants TSMC Arizona to become a foundation stone for his American golden age. But the company's story to date is perhaps the ultimate expression of the success of modern globalisation. So for now, it's a battle for global tech and economic supremacy, in which Taiwan's factory technology, much of which is now being moved to the Arizona desert, is the critical asset.

Top picture credit: Getty

Russia launched war's largest drone attack ahead of Putin-Trump call, Ukraine says

5 hours ago Share Save Danai Nesta Kupemba BBC News Share Save

Reuters Residents survey the damage to their homes after a Russian drone strike on Saturday night on suburbs outside of Kyiv

Ukraine says Russia has launched its biggest drone attack since the full-scale invasion began, targeting several regions including Kyiv, where one woman died. The barrage came just a day before a scheduled call between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. The US President has been urging a ceasefire. Russia and Ukraine held their first face-to-face talks in more than three years on Friday in Turkey, agreeing a new prisoner swap deal but little else. Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched 273 drones by 08:00 Sunday (05:00 GMT) targeting the central Kyiv region, and Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions in the east.

It said 88 drones were intercepted and another 128 went astray "without negative consequences". The strikes killed one person in Obukhiv district in the Kyiv region, and injured at least three others - one of whom was a four-year-old child - officials reported. The previous largest drone attack from Russia happened on the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion on 23 February, when Moscow launched 267 drones. Russia's military said it had intercepted 25 Ukrainian drones overnight and on Sunday morning. Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday that he and leaders of the UK, France, and Poland would have a virtual meeting with Trump before his conversation with Putin on Monday morning. The four leaders jointly visited Ukraine over two weeks ago to spearhead calls for a 30-day-ceasefire, backed by the so-called "coalition of the willing". Ukraine's intelligence agency has said it believes Russia could be planning to carry out a "training and combat" launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile overnight, as an attempted intimidation. Russia has not responded to the claim.

Reuters Firefighters at a site outside Kyiv that was hit on Sunday morning

Teenager arrested after beach disturbance death

5 hours ago Share Save Andrew Picken BBC Scotland News Share Save

Police Scotland Kayden Moy, 16, was taken to hospital in Kilmarnock but died from his injuries on Sunday

Detectives investigating the death of a 16-year-old boy after a disturbance on Irvine beach have made an arrest. Police Scotland said Kayden Moy, from East Kilbride, was seriously injured at about 18:45 on Saturday. He was taken to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock but died from his injuries on Sunday. Officers said a 17-year-old boy had been arrested and inquiries into the death were ongoing.

Writing on Facebook Kayden's father, Paul, said his son was "my everything". Det Ch Insp Campbell Jackson earlier said an extensive investigation was under way to establish the full circumstances surrounding the death.

Police tape on the litter-strewn beach where Kayden was seriously injured

He added: "Our officers are supporting the boy's family at this very difficult and heartbreaking time." The senior officer confirmed that a number of people were on the North Ayrshire beach during one of the warmest days of the year. He said: "We believe several of them were filming at the time and may have footage of what happened." Kayden's father, Paul, led tributes to his son on social media. He posted: "My first born son my big boy my best friend my main man my everything rest easy my boy."

Flowers were left next to a walkway leading to the beach on Sunday

US officials investigating fatal Mexican Navy ship crash

Authorities in New York are investigating the site where a Mexican sailing ship struck the Brooklyn Bridge for clues about how the fatal collision occurred.

Two people on board were killed and at least 19 others were injured when the Mexican Navy training ship crashed into the bridge on Saturday night.

Police said early investigations showed the ship had lost power before the collision. Video showed the ship's three tall masts crumbling as horrified onlookers watched from the shore.

It's not clear how the vessel came to approach the bridge, which authorities confirmed was not damaged by the strike. It had reopened to traffic late on Saturday.

Remember Monday singer says she's lost wedding ring after Eurovision

6 hours ago Share Save Grace Dean BBC News Share Save

Getty Images Holly-Anne Hull (right) said in a video posted the day after Eurovision that she had lost her wedding ring

A member of the UK's Eurovision entry Remember Monday said she lost her wedding ring in a video posted the morning after their Basel performance. "I've lost my wedding ring and my engagement ring," Holly-Anne Hull said in footage posted on Instagram on Sunday. In the clip, the singer and her two bandmates are sitting on a plane, seemingly leaving Switzerland. Hull did not give further details, such as where she might have lost the ring or when it happened. The country-pop trio came 19th of the 26 countries in this year's Eurovision Song Contest with their track What The Hell Just Happened.

Hull got married in Surrey in June 2023. In the video posted on Instagram the group parodied the lyrical style of their entry - which tells the tale of the morning after a big night out - saying they are still wearing "last night's hair gel" and their knees hurt, before Hull jokes: "I'm gonna have a breakdown 'cause I've lost my wedding ring." Lauren Byrne adds the trio are "so grateful" for their supporters and Charlotte Steele says their fans are "amazing".

Remember Monday got 88 points on Saturday night, all of which were from the jury - like last year's entrant Olly Alexander, the band received no points from the public vote. Austrian singer JJ won the competition with his electro-ballad Wasted Love, with a total of 436 votes, after beating Israel at the last minute. Estonia came third, followed by Sweden, which had been the frontrunner going into Saturday night. The country's entrant, comedy troupe KAJ, performed Bara Bada Bastu, a song about saunas, which has has topped Swedish music charts for three months.

Reuters Remember Monday came joint 10th in the jury vote

FBI says suspect in California blast targeted fertility clinic

4 hours ago Share Save Nadine Yousif BBC News Share Save

AFP via Getty Images

Authorities have identified the suspect in a deadly car blast that targeted a fertility clinic in Palm Springs, California as Guy Edward Bartkus, a 25-year-old man they said "had nihilistic ideations". The FBI said they believe he is the sole fatality in the incident. They said on Sunday that he detonated explosives outside the clinic and tried to livestream the attack, but investigators are still piecing together his movements before the explosion. The blast happened just before 11:00 local time (19:00 BST) on Saturday, less than a mile from downtown Palm Springs, near several businesses including the American Reproductive Centers (ARC). The clinic said no-one from the facility was harmed.

The FBI had called the attack an "intentional act of terrorism". They believe the suspect deliberately targeted the in vitro fertilisation (IVF) facility. They added they are reviewing a manifesto they believe is linked to Bartkus. Police said Bartkus is a resident of Twentynine Palms, home to a large marine base about an hour away from Palm Springs. The FBI has executed a search warrant on his residence in Twentynine Palms, they said. Nearby residents had been evacuated. Police stressed that there is no on-going threat to the public, both at the site of the blast and near the suspect's home. The blast was a result of a large vehicle-borne improvised explosive device, law enforcement sources told BBC's US partner CBS News. Akil Davis, the FBI's assistant director in the Los Angeles field office, said the suspect used a 2010 silver Ford Fusion sedan in the attack. Mr Davis said the FBI is still looking for the public's help to piece together the suspect's whereabouts before the blast, and will remain on scene for the next day or two to continue their investigation.

FBI The FBI identified the suspect in the Palm Springs blast as 25-year-old Guy Edward Bartkus

Police get more time to question man over fires at homes linked to PM

4 hours ago Share Save Euan O'Byrne Mulligan BBC News Share Save

Supplied The arrest relates to three incidents, including a vehicle fire in Kentish Town

Police have been given more time to question a second man arrested in connection with alleged arson attacks at properties connected to Sir Keir Starmer. The 26-year-old was arrested on Saturday afternoon at London Luton Airport on suspicion of conspiracy to commit arson with intent to endanger life. The arrest relates to three incidents: a vehicle fire in Kentish Town, a fire at the prime minister's private home on the same street, and a fire at an address where he previously lived in north-west London. On Sunday, a warrant of further detention was obtained at Westminster Magistrates' Court, meaning the man can be detained for an additional 36 hours, the Metropolitan Police said.

Mission: Impossible returns, and Nine Perfect Strangers: What's coming up this week

5 hours ago Share Save Noor Nanji • @NoorNanji Culture reporter Share Save

Getty Images

Tom Cruise is back in action this week, with Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning hitting cinemas. But that's not all the week has in store. Sex Education's Connor Swindells stars in new BBC drama series The Bombing of Pan Am 103, Nicole Kidman returns for season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers, and Peter Andre's controversial film Jafaican is coming out. Read on for what's coming up this week...

Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning

Getty Images

The highly anticipated eighth film in the long-running Tom Cruise-led spy action series is almost here. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits cinemas on Wednesday, and sees Ethan Hunt - played by Cruise - racing against time to find a rogue artificial intelligence, known as the Entity, that can destroy mankind. Many reviews have been positive. Writing in the Independent, Clarisse Loughrey awarded it four stars, saying she "adored it". Peter Bradshaw awarded it five stars in the Guardian, labelling it "wildly entertaining". But Hollywood Reporter's chief film critic David Rooney was more critical, calling it "a disappointing farewell with a handful of high points courtesy of the indefatigable lead actor". As ever, there's loads of focus on the stunts, with the film's social media account and trailer promoting plenty of impressive sequences, including 62-year-old Cruise hanging precariously off a helicopter. "Your jaw will detach and your palms will leak sweat," writes John Nugent in Empire.

How Lockerbie changed how air disasters are handled

By Helen Bushby, entertainment reporter

The BBC's new six-part drama, The Bombing of Pan Am 103, is about the UK's most deadly terror atrocity, when a bomb in the hold of a flight from London to New York exploded above the Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people in 1988. A drama exploring what happened in the aftermath, a co-production with Netflix, reveals the painstaking police operation to find out who was behind the bombing. But it also explores the impact on victims' families, and the huge kindness they were shown by the town's volunteers. Its cast includes Sex Education star Connor Swindells, Peter Mullan, Phyllis Logan, Patrick J Adams, Merrit Wever and Lauren Lyle. Kara Weipz, whose brother Richard died in the crash, told me that "lessons were learned" in how victims' families were treated, after she and her family found out her brother Richard was among the dead via a news report. They should, of course, have been told in person. She hopes the drama will generate some positivity after so much pain and anguish. It's on BBC iPlayer and BBC One from 9pm this Sunday, and will be on Netflix globally at a later date.

Jafacian starring Peter Andre is out

Radioactive Pictures

There has been a fair bit of controversy over Peter Andre's new film, Jafaican, which hits cinemas on Tuesday. The trailer saw the Mysterious Girl singer donning long dreadlocks and speaking in a Jamaican accent, which led to criticism from some viewers. Andre did not respond to a request for comment from BBC News. But speaking to Australia's Channel 7, he addressed the backlash, saying: "I think it's good to get all sorts of feedback." "For me, it's acting - I get to do something light-hearted, something funny. Something that is the kind of film I'd want to watch." The film tells the tale of a small-time crook, Gazza, who hatches a scam in a bid to secure £35,000 for his grandmother's care. With just 21 days to pull it off, he must immerse himself in Jamaican culture to con his way between London and Jamaica.

From Babygirl to Nine Perfect Strangers

Nicole Kidman is having quite the year. She's already been in Babygirl, a film that sparked hundreds of memes, and starred alongside Succession's Matthew Macfadyen in Holland. Now, she's back for season 2 of Nine Perfect Strangers, which drops on Prime Video on Thursday. The show sees nine new strangers, connected in ways they could never imagine, invited by celebrity wellness guru Masha Dmitrichenko (played by Kidman) to join a wellness retreat in the Austrian Alps. Over the course of a week, she takes them to the brink. The first season got mixed reviews, with some critics noting it suffered from comparison with The White Lotus. But others praised the performances, with this season's cast also including Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Lena Olin (Alias) and Annie Murphy (Schitt's Creek).

Other highlights this week

The blue smoke could be seen rising around Goodison Park almost four hours before kick-off. This grand old arena was not built for serene farewells, so a day of history and high emotion was never going to pass off quietly.

A football match broke out briefly, separating the celebrations marking the end of 133 years of men's senior football here, Everton delivering a fitting farewell as Southampton surrendered to the mood and Iliman Ndiaye's two first-half goals.

The familiar sights and sounds of Goodison Park still assaulted the senses as Evertonians made their way to this richly atmospheric place three miles outside the city centre to simply say they were there, whether they had match tickets or not.

Ten-minute walk from the car park? Make that nearly an hour.

Thousands thronged the streets from 8am, Goodison Road close to impassable, forcing Everton's team to take a different route into the stadium, the coach arriving on Bullens Road hidden behind more blue plumes of smoke rising into the Merseyside sunshine.

Everton's fans were drawn to the famous landmarks.

'The Holy Trinity' statue, commemorating the 1970 title-winning midfield of Alan Ball, Colin Harvey and Howard Kendall and opposite St Luke the Evangelist church on the corner of Gwladys Street, was swamped, as was that of former striker Dixie Dean, who still holds the record of 60 league goals in 1927-28.

They will stay in place while Everton move to the spectacular 53,000-capacity stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock, now known as the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Pope Leo XIV calls for unity at inaugural mass and meets Zelensky

2 hours ago Share Save Gabriela Pomeroy BBC News Bethany Bell and Giulia Tommasi Reporting from the Vatican Share Save

Watch: Thousands attend Leo XIV's inauguration Mass

Pope Leo XIV has called for unity at his inaugural Mass at the Vatican attended by thousands of faithful and world leaders including Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky. During the address on Sunday, he criticised economic systems which he said exploited "Earth's resources" and and marginalised the poor. He also said he would seek to govern "without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat". The Pope noted efforts to end the war in Ukraine in a prayer after the service and also held a meeting with Zelensky. The pontiff had called for an end to the war in his first days in office.

The Ukrainian leader thanked the new Catholic leader for his "support for Ukraine" and "clear voice in defence of a just and lasting peace".

Reuters Zelensky thanked the Pope for being a 'clear voice in defence' of peace in Ukraine

Earlier on Sunday, the Pope had addressed worshippers in St Peter's Square. Thousands of pilgrims stood in reverence as the pope received the symbols of office, blessed the people and issued a strong call for unity. The Mass from the first US and Peruvian pontiff also drew attendance from dignitaries including US Vice President JD Vance as well as politicians from Germany to Peru as well as faith leaders and European royals. "We still see too much discord, too many wounds caused by hatred, violence, prejudice, the fear of difference, and an economic paradigm that exploits the Earth's resources and marginalises the poorest," he said. In a prayer afterwards, he noted the efforts for a ceasefire in Ukraine, before holding a private audience with Zelensky and his wife. "The martyred Ukraine is waiting for negotiations for a just and lasting peace to finally happen," Pope Leo said. Last week, he had offered the Vatican as a venue for possible peace talks after Russian President Vladimir Putin turned down Zelensky's offer to meet face-to-face in Turkey for negotiations.

Prior to giving his Mass, there had been cheers from the crowd when the pontiff appeared in his popemobile as it drove around St Peter's Square and down Via della Conciliazione to the river Tiber and back. There was a strong sense of excitement in the square. Michelle, from Germany, told the BBC she "came on purpose to see the Pope". "I arrived yesterday in the morning and I'm leaving in a few hours, so I don't have much time. It's very crazy because there's so many people. I wanted to see the Pope."

Reuters Worshippers gathered in St Peter's Square during the Mass on Sunday

Many of the tens of thousands attending were Catholics, but tourists also came to be part of the historic occasion. Joe from the US state of Missouri said: "We're on vacation, but it's great timing. We're here to see the Pope's inaugural Mass. It's very special. I'm glad we came early." He said he was "extra proud" to see the first Pope from the United States. "That was a surprise. He's gonna be a wonderful Pope. I am not Catholic, but I grew up Catholic, but this is just inspiring no matter what denomination of Christian you are." Also in the crowds was Pia, from Chile, a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome. She told the BBC she felt there was "a new hope in the church". Pia said that among the Pope's first words when he was elected was "Let the peace be with you", the words of Jesus. And then he said "don't be afraid". "He knows what the world and the church needs. A church that is preaching hope, preaching peace. I think many people are waiting for that," she said. The Pope's official inauguration followed the Mass, with a pallium garment - a white woolen band - placed on the pope's shoulders, and fixed in place with three pins to represent the nails on the cross. Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines then placed on the pope's finger the Ring of the Fisherman, a symbol of the papacy which bears an image of St Peter. Pope Leo then took the book of the gospels to bless the people.

Princess Eugenie opens up about childhood back surgery

7 hours ago Share Save Hollie Cole BBC News Share Save

Getty Images The King's niece had scoliosis surgery when she was aged 12

Princess Eugenie has said she "couldn't get out of bed or do anything for myself" while recovering after scoliosis surgery as a child. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the King's niece opened up about her surgery, saying that she felt "very embarrassed" ahead of the operation and later struggled with the emotional impact of post-surgery care. Surgeons inserted titanium rods into her spine to correct a curvature caused by scoliosis when she was 12 years old and she spent 10 days on her back after the operation. She said that her mother, the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, helped her see the post-surgery scar on her back as a "badge of honour".

Scoliosis is a condition where the spine twists and curves to the side. The cause of it is often unknown, and commonly starts in children aged between 10 and 15, according to the NHS. Eugenie was treated at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, in north London, and it was four months before she was able to return to school after it. "I had a corner room in the hospital with two windows looking out over a car park," the 35-year-old said. "I was too young to notice I couldn't get outside; all I cared about was where my parents and sister were. "But I do remember watching someone waving to my incredible red-haired nurse through the window and having this feeling that I couldn't reach them," she said. "I couldn't get out of bed or do anything for myself." Speaking about how she felt ahead of the operation, she said she felt "very embarrassed about the whole thing". "I remember being woken up really early before my surgery – I pulled my blanket over my head. I said: 'I don't want to see anyone and I don't want them to see me'," she said. The operation left a visible scar on her back and she said her mother helped to "train" her brain to think that "scars are cool".

AFP/Getty Images For her wedding in 2018, Eugenie wore a wedding dress that showed her scar from surgery

"She was amazing. She'd ask me if she could show it to people, then she'd turn me around and say, 'my daughter is superhuman, you've got to check out her scar'," Eugenie said. "All of sudden it was a badge of honour – a cool thing I had," she added. "It became a positive memory, a part of me, that I could do something with in the future. I could help heal other people." The princess's wedding dress in 2018 showed the scar at the top of her back and ahead of the wedding, she spoke of the importance of showing "people your scars". Speaking to ITV's This Morning at the time, she described it as a "lovely way to honour the people who looked after me and a way of standing up for young people who also go through this". "I think you can change the way beauty is, and you can show people your scars and I think it's really special to stand up for that," she added.

Is The UK About To Rejoin The EU Passport Queue? Is The UK About To Rejoin The EU Passport Queue?

Five Premier League teams will battle it out for three Champions League places on the final day of the season, with Newcastle boss Eddie Howe saying he "had the feeling it would go right to the end".

Arsenal's 1-0 win over the Magpies on Sunday ensured they join champions Liverpool in next season's Champions League.

But it leaves Newcastle as one of three teams on 66 points, alongside Chelsea and Aston Villa, with Manchester City and Nottingham Forest on 65 points.

Five English sides will qualify for the Champions League through the league, up from the usual four, with an extra place secured because of positive results by Premier League clubs in Europe this season.

Sixth-placed Manchester City have a game in hand, at home to Bournemouth on Tuesday, meaning their fate is in their own hands, unlike Villa.

Beaten FA Cup finalists City then visit Fulham on the final day.

Newcastle, meanwhile, know a home win against Everton next Sunday (16:00 BST) would successfully finish the job.

Chelsea also know a win would be enough. But... they visit Forest, who beat West Ham 2-1 on Sunday to keep their own hopes alive.

Forest need to beat the Blues and hope at least one team above them slips up.

Villa will probably need to win at Manchester United and hope for favours elsewhere.

Still following?

The winners of Wednesday's Europa League final between Manchester United and Tottenham will also qualify for next season's Champions League, meaning there will be a sixth English team in the competition, but that has no impact on any league permutations.

With Spurs and United in the bottom five of the Premier League, whoever loses in Bilbao will have no European football of any kind next season.

Another European finalist, Chelsea, could have a say in what other English teams qualify for various European competitions, but more on that later.

What it means for everyone else is a scary prospect - this is just the start of Chelsea under Bompastor.

It's a new era, there are new ambitions and there is new investment at Chelsea.

Having smashed the world record transfer fee to sign USA defender Naomi Girma in January, she is likely to become a mainstay in the team next season after recovering from injury and returning to full fitness.

Ohanian's investment could mean more spending in the summer, while Australia striker Sam Kerr is still to return following an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury.

They are still chasing an elusive maiden Champions League trophy - having been humbled by Barcelona in the semi-finals this season - and that is what is driving them. So are Chelsea only going to get better?

"I mean, that's our ambition for sure. Maybe everyone is saying 'Chelsea will run away from the pack in England' but our goal is to compete against the best in Europe," said Bompastor.

While Chelsea celebrated with their fans, FA Cup medals around their necks, Bompastor said some had pointed out the missing Champions League trophy.

"What sets them apart from everyone else is they don't stand still. They always want to move forward," said White.

"Everyone needs to look at their blueprint and be like 'how can we reach what they are and bridge that gap?' This team is phenomenal and they're going places."

Manchester United are one of those chasing.

Sunday's result was proof there is still work to do and manager Skinner knows they cannot compete financially - but what else can they do?

"We have to maximise what we have got. We have to come back fitter, stronger, more aggressive and concentrate more," he said.

"I still believe this - I think we have the best team spirit in the country. I think I have to go and find the other answers.

"We vastly and quite openly spend less than Chelsea. I won't rest over the summer. I have to find a way to close that gap but we need investment as well."

Skinner's plea for more investment is supported by Bompastor, who said Chelsea will only improve on the European stage if they are pushed by others in England.

"If you have more competition you are able to perform better. This is what we want to be a better team," she added.

"We want to be at the top of the league and bring everyone with us. We need the other teams to still invest and come with us."

An emotional Scottie Scheffler held off the rejuvenated Jon Rahm to convert his 54-hole lead into a maiden US PGA Championship title.

While the winning margin of five strokes suggest his third major was a formality, a different story threatened to unfold at Quail Hollow.

Scheffler began three shots ahead and five clear of Rahm, but it became a two-way duel for the Wanamaker Trophy.

A patchy front nine from Scheffler, along with Spaniard Rahm's flurry of birdies around the turn, meant they shared the lead midway through the final round.

However, Rahm collapsed over his final three holes and Scheffler coasted to a major title that joins his Masters victories in 2022 and 2024.

Max Verstappen caught McLaren by surprise at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to seal his second win of the year and lay down a reminder - as if one was needed - that he cannot be ruled out of this year's Formula 1 championship fight.

The surprise came in two forms - firstly, by the spectacular move the Red Bull driver pulled to take the lead from McLaren's Oscar Piastri at the first corner; and then by the pace Verstappen showed once out in front

In Miami two weeks ago, Verstappen also led the early laps, but he was devoured by the McLarens of both Piastri and Lando Norris in the first 20 laps of the race and then left far behind.

Not so this time.

Verstappen never looked like losing the race once he was in the lead. And while McLaren were left to rue some of what Piastri described as "wrong calls" during the race, they were also realistic enough to know that none of them would have made a difference to the outcome.

The decision to pit early for fresh tyres cost Piastri in the context of the way the race unfolded, with first a virtual safety car and then an actual one. And the season's protagonists finished in reverse championship order, with Norris second and Piastri third.

"It was the best result I thought we could really achieve today," Norris said. "I probably just didn't expect the Red Bull to be quite as quick as they were."

Piastri still leads the championship from Norris and Verstappen, but the gaps have compressed as the drivers head to Monaco this weekend. Where form may shift again.

Sunday's win over Newcastle means Arsenal will almost certainly finish second in the Premier League for the third year running, and of course people are asking how they might take the next step and land a major trophy.

I've been there myself and, while it can sometimes feel very easy when you are always winning things, I know how difficult it is as a player when you keep getting so close without getting any reward.

As well as your own disappointment, you have to deal with all the noise around what has gone wrong - all the doom and gloom about how you have either bottled it or your team is missing an ingredient to make you into winners.

That's what Mikel Arteta and his players are hearing now, and my Arsenal team had exactly the same issue when we finished second to Manchester United three seasons running without winning a trophy between 1998-99 and 2000-01.

Looking back now I don't feel any shame in that but, at the time, it was the toughest thing to take.

Liberal mayor Dan beats nationalist in tense race for Romanian presidency

8 minutes ago Share Save Sarah Rainsford, Paul Kirby & Olimpia Zagnat In Bucharest and London Share Save

Andrei Pungovschi/Getty Images Nicusor Dan had to wait until late into the night before he could be certain of victory

The liberal, pro-EU mayor of Bucharest, Nicusor Dan, has fought off a strong challenge from a Romanian right-wing nationalist to win the presidency after months of political turbulence. George Simion, the leader of the far-right AUR party, won a dramatic first-round victory earlier this month, riding a wave of anger from Romanians who had seen the presidential race annulled late last year because of claims of Russian interference. But it was the softly spoken Nicusor Dan who swept to victory, winning 55% of the vote in Romania, even though Simion was well ahead in the diaspora. "We need to build Romania together irrespective of who you voted for," said Dan, once his victory was secure.

More than 11.6 million Romanians voted in Sunday's run-off, and Dan won the support of more than six million of them. The mathematician waited until after midnight on Sunday before he could be absolutely sure that the numbers were on his side and he could join his supporters in a park opposite City Hall in Bucharest. They went wild, chanting his name and cheering. At one point he was almost mobbed but this was a huge moment for the president-elect and for his supporters after months of political tension. "A community of Romanians who want a profound change in Romania won," he said. Romanians are broadly unhappy with the dominance of mainstream parties and the turbulence in this European Union and Nato member state intensified earlier this month when the government collapsed because its candidate had failed to make the second round. While Nicusor Dan campaigned on fighting corruption and maintaining support for northern neighbour Ukraine, Simion attacked the EU and called for cutting aid to Kyiv. "Russia, don't forget, Romania isn't yours," Dan's supporters chanted.

Getty Images Supporters of president-elect Nicusor Dan welcome him after his victory

Even though exit polls had given him victory, they did not include the all-important diaspora vote and Simion clung to the belief that he could still win. "I won, I am the new president of Romania and I am giving back power to the Romanians," he insisted initially. It was not until the early hours of Monday that he conceded victory on Facebook. His supporters were planning a protest hours later. During the election campaign Simion had stood side by side with Calin Georgescu, the far-right fringe figure who had stunned Romania with a first-round presidential victory at the end of last year, buoyed by an enormous TikTok campaign. The vote was annulled over allegations of campaign fraud and Russian interference and Georgescu was barred from running again. Russia denied any involvement. Asked by the BBC on Sunday whether he was acting as Georgescu's puppet, George Simion said: "The puppets are those who annulled the elections... I am a man of my people and my people voted for Calin Georgescu. "Do we like democracy only when the good guy has won? I don't think this is an option." He said he was a patriot and accused what he called the mainstream media of smearing him as a pro-Russian or fascist.

George Simion says he is "a man of my people and represent change"

The key to Simion's success in the first round was his extraordinary win among diaspora voters in Western Europe, including in the UK. His supporters turned out in force again on Sunday, with partial results giving him 68.5% support in Spain, 66.8% in Italy and 67% in Germany. He also had the edge in the UK, where voters said they would have picked Calin Georgescu if authorities had not barred him from running. "We didn't know anything about [Georgescu] but then I listened to what he was saying, and you can tell he's a good Christian," said 37-year-old Catalina Grancea. She had vowed to go back to Romania if Simion had won and her mother Maria said she too had voted for change: "Our children were forced to leave Romania because they couldn't find any jobs there."

BBC/Olimpia Zagnat Catalina Grancea and her mother Maria had been impressed by Calin Georgescu