In his essay, called We Must Pace the Frontier and made public on Saturday, Amodei proposed a three-point plan that includes independent monitoring of AI models as they are developed, industry-wide regulation and global regulation.

As his proposal made the rounds, even competitors voiced support for the idea of third-party monitors who could evaluate the safety of models as they are developed.

"I agree with Dario that we need to pace the frontier," wrote OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on X. He called independent evaluators "a great idea."

In a new interview with Fortune Magazine, Altman had sounded similar safety concerns, saying standards were "not at a place" to push AI capabilities much further.

He added that he believed AI beyond human control is "absolutely" possible.

Elon Musk meanwhile said the Anthropic boss was "right".

The warnings have prompted calls to action, but US President Donald Trump has so far rejected such fears, saying on Thursday he was concerned "if we don't win AI, we're going to be put in a very bad position".

Some observers have also suggested that Amodei's post may be less about safety than about consolidating control over AI technology.

Cyber-security concerns have grown as new models have exhibited more and more powerful hacking capabilities.

Anthropic withheld its Mythos model from public use when it was announced in April that it could independently escape the testing environment, known as the sandbox.

In the run-up to the release of its most recent Astra model, OpenAI cited cybersecurity concerns as it explained it had paused certain aspects of the model's development.

Safety has also taken centrestage in the rivalry between Anthropic and OpenAI.

Amodei, who had previously worked as a vice president at OpenAI, has said he co-founded Anthropic in 2021 so he could build safer and more trusted AI models.

In his essay, Amodei pointed out that AI had advanced "drastically faster" including its "ability to build the next generation of AI" - and mentioned an incident involving rival OpenAI which has revealed that agents conducted cybersecurity attacks, external on targets they were not asked to attack in July.

The OpenAI agents had "essentially acted as a fanatically devoted collective", Amodei said. OpenAI has said it is slowing down training of certain advanced AI models and tools as a result.

Amodei called for "building AI at a balanced rate that aims to ensure its safety while still achieving its benefits".

This would not mean "halting model training or technical progress, but ensuring companies take adequate time to align and safeguard their models, and for third party evaluators to confirm this".

He was committing Anthropic to this "unilaterally" - as well as calling on governments "to require other frontier companies to match".

Amodei said he recognised that regulation might not be able to keep up with the pace of AI, and therefore called on AI companies to "voluntarily work together to set standard" in parallel with regulation.

The Anthropic CEO went on to address the impact that a slowdown would have on the industry and competition with leading developers worldwide, particularly China.

"I believe that if slowing down bought us even an extra year or two before models reach critical levels of capability, and we used that time to advance alignment, we could greatly reduce the risk that something goes seriously wrong," Amodei said.

This would have to be done in a co-ordinated manner "without sacrificing commercial advantage or the United States' lead in AI". Any slowdown would have to be limited, he said, to avoid allowing China to pull ahead.

He urged the US government to take measures so that US companies' AI chips could not be sold to China - or the technology shared with authoritarian countries.

His former employee, Jacob Coxon, told the BBC, however, that the initiative to slow down must go beyond the US - "there'll need to be some sort of co-ordinated slowdown with China if we're going to avoid a race at an international scale".

Amodei's post has prompted a wide range of responses.

Clement Delangue, the CEO of the AI platform Hugging Face, said he was launching a new project called the Open Alignment Initiative, adding he wanted to be among "embedded evaluators" that Amodei proposed could be part of a solution.

Hugging Face was hacked by OpenAI agents earlier this year prompting an outcry over AI safety.

"Let's make AI safer by making it more transparent." Delangue wrote on X.

Elon Musk also voiced his support, writing that "Dario is right".

Musk, whose SpaceXAI makes the controversial chatbot Grok, once called Anthropic "evil" but has changed his tone since signing a $15bn deal to sell compute capacity to Anthropic in May.

However some observers suggested that Amodei's post was less about safety than about consolidating control over AI technology.

"Dario makes the case to stop open source and concentrate enormous technological and economic power with Anthropic," wrote Chamath Palihapitiya, investor and co-host of the tech podcast "All-In".

Notions of slowing down or even pausing AI development have long been met with such cynicism in certain corners of Silicon Valley, with critics accusing leading AI developers of hyping their technology as a marketing ploy.

Anthropic and OpenAI are both reportedly preparing for potentially record-setting initial public offerings.

Each September, a who's who of executives from across Silicon Valley descends on San Francisco's Palace Hotel to charm investors at a conference hosted by the investment bank Goldman Sachs.

This past week, between talk of growth and potential returns, tech titans found themselves addressing the abrupt resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon.

Coxon, a 27-year-old who worked at OpenAI before joining its chief rival Anthropic, said on Tuesday that people building artificial intelligence (AI) believed the technology could destroy humanity.

They are "gambling with our lives", he said, "these will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything".

Coxon is by no means the first AI insider to publicly sound the alarm. There have been a string of high-profile resignations from both Anthropic and OpenAI in recent years over apparent safety concerns, and some current Anthropic employees even echoed Coxon's post.

"We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is >10% within the next decade," a team lead at Anthropic, Evan Hubinger, posted on X.

While Coxon said explicitly in his posts that his warnings were "not marketing", some executives and investors in Silicon Valley have reacted with scepticism to a recent flurry of insiders sounding the alarm.

Anthropic and OpenAI are reportedly preparing for potentially record-setting initial public offerings, and some in the tech sector have suggested the latest stark comments about the dangers of AI may be designed to generate hype by signalling the power of these products.

Anthropic's boss, Dario Amodei, has come under fire for saying AI technology could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs and will "test who we are as a species".

One conference speaker, Grindr CEO George Arison, told the BBC he believed this week's comments from Coxon and others were indicative of an "anti-civilisational worldview at Anthropic".

He called them "dangerous" and said they had prompted him to instruct some engineers at the LGBTQ+ dating app to stop using Anthropic's technology.

"It is irresponsible for us as stewards of our shareholders' money to be relying on a business that does what this company does, in terms of its public statements," he said.

"Maybe they actually believe it," Arison said. "Or you could argue they're saying it because it's a great way to gin up more investor support, because the only way to justify these valuations is to actually claim: 'I'm going to take over every industry and I'm going to take over every job, and my AI is going to be doing all that work.'"

Anthropic was valued at $965bn (£713bn) in its most recent fundraising round earlier this year.

The BBC has asked Anthropic for a response to the statements.

In an essay posted early on Saturday, Amodei called for a slowing of AI model development and global regulation - and said the risks associated with AI were "serious".

When another world leader meets US President Donald Trump the only certainty about what might happen is the uncertainty about what might happen.

This was exactly the case ahead of President Trump's two-day visit to Ireland.

Nobody could have predicted that by the end of the first day, the main global headline would be his desire to see a unified Ireland.

As the shockwaves of his remarks rippled through this island and Great Britain, it was unclear whether this represented a new US administration policy, or an off-the-cuff remark from a president who likes to take questions from reporters, and likes to give answers.

On Saturday night, under the world-famous Wembley arch, five words rang out: "Punjabi Aa Gaye Wembley Oye!"

Indian megastar Diljit Dosanjh famously starts all his concerts by announcing that "the Punjabis have arrived".

But this time, it was a play on the usual catchphrase.

Dosanjh is the first ever Punjabi singer to headline Wembley Stadium, the music venue has said.

Addressing his fans, he reflected on the significance of the occasion. "This moment will go down in the history books," he said.

And as Bhangra beats blared out, fans erupted with cheers while Dosanjh launched into his biggest hits, from G.O.A.T. to Lover.

Over two decades, Dosanjh has built a huge global fanbase, topping charts and singing with the likes of Ed Sheeran.

He has even busted Bhangra moves with Jimmy Fallon, external, with the US talk show host labelling him "the biggest Punjabi artist on the planet".

His landmark concert at Wembley further cements his status as a global star.

Ahead of the show, the singer spoke exclusively to the BBC backstage, describing the moment as "a dream" for him.

The quick take is this. The report won't change the narrative about Letby's guilt or innocence because it didn't examine that subject at all. That wasn't its remit.

Lady Justice Thirlwall said she had "approached the inquiry on the basis that Lucy Letby is guilty of the crimes of which she has been convicted".

She emphasised that it was not her role "to set about reviewing the convictions", telling the inquiry: "The Court of Appeal has done that, with a very clear result."

But there is also a longer, more complex answer.

Whatever the report's conclusions, Letby's convictions will stand. However, the inquiry hasn't operated in a vacuum. There are other parts of the legal system which will have an eye on its findings.

And the chairwoman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) - the only organisation with the power to send Letby's case back to the Court of Appeal - has told the BBC the CCRC will be paying close attention to Thirlwall.

Dame Vera Baird said: "We will be looking at the report with interest to assess whether it has any bearing on our review of the case."

The CCRC has given no indication of when it will make its decision.

But while questions over Letby's convictions weren't within the scope of the Thirlwall Inquiry, it didn't stop the subject making itself felt within the hearing room.

Just as the inquiry was wrapping up, the hospital's former executives applied for it to be delayed until the CCRC has made its decision.

Letters pushing for a delay were also written to the inquiry by Letby's lawyers and Sir David Davis, an MP who has campaigned on her behalf.

Sir David argued that an inquiry "predicated on the presumption that Lucy Letby's conviction is safe, when there is now a wealth of authoritative voices questioning that conviction, will only undermine the conclusions arrived at by your inquiry and potentially lead to more babies dying unnecessarily".

Lady Justice Thirlwall refused the requests to pause the inquiry. She said that she was not scrutinising Letby's actions, but those of the officials and managers who were responsible for responding to the crisis.

University applicants in England will be given clearer information about student loans before they take them out, the government has said.

Ministers said they would spell out that governments can change repayment rules and that different career choices can affect how much borrowers repay.

They agreed to some but not all of the recommendations made by MPs after an inquiry into student loans, and did not say whether they would reverse a freeze to the repayment threshold for some graduates.

The inquiry found the way loans had been presented to teenagers amounted to mis-selling, after the BBC revealed the Department for Education (DfE) had compared repayments to £30-a-month phone contracts.

The recent debate has centred around Plan 2 loans, which were issued in England between September 2012 and July 2023, and are still issued in Wales.

The interest rate on those loans is the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation plus up to 3% depending on earnings, and borrowers repay at a rate of 9% of everything they earn over a repayment threshold, which is meant to rise with inflation every year. The loans are written off after 30 years.

Campaigners want a lower interest rate, a lower repayment rate and for the government to reverse a decision last year to freeze the threshold at £29,385 for three years in England.

Freezing that threshold means graduates start repaying their loans sooner and, once they do, they pay more than they would have done if it had risen with inflation.

MPs on the Treasury Committee called for a U-turn on that decision as part of a series of recommendations after an inquiry this summer.

The Treasury and the DfE did not say whether ministers would unfreeze the threshold in their response, but said: "We keep all aspects of the student finance system under review."

The government rejected recommendations to:

An Afghan woman living in Texas with legal US permanent residency has been deported from the country in the first-ever use of a secretive court.

Nazira Haji Zada, 47, chose to leave the US rather than continue to argue her case before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, according to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and her lawyers.

The Alien Terrorist Removal Court was created in 1996, but had never heard a case before the proceedings in July. It is meant for non-US citizens facing terrorism-related charges when the evidence is confidential and related to national security.

Lawyers for Haji Zada argued that the case violated her right to due process under the US Constitution.

Afghanistan citizen Haji Zada was never charged with a crime, but prosecutors had tried and convicted her son and son-in-law for terror offenses.

Her son, Abdullah Haji Zada, and son-in-law, Nasir Ahmad Tawhed, were both found guilty of a plot to carry out a mass shooting on Election Day in 2024, inspired by the group calling itself Islamic State

Haji Zada, who has been living in Fort Worth, Texas, was accused by prosecutors of being the "matriarch" of the group, who had worked "to radicalize the family".

In a statement on Friday, the justice department said she "conceded that she is an alien terrorist and waived appeal of the removal order, terminating her previous [immigration] status".

"This landmark case, resulting in the prompt removal of this alien terrorist to her country of origin, is a win for national security and the rule of law," said US Attorney General Todd Blanche.

"Those who support and condone terrorism should not be living in the United States, and this first-ever case before the ATRC shows how the Department will use every tool at its disposal to protect our country."

Court-appointed lawyers for Haji Zada said they were denied access to the evidence in her case.

"Our client's choice to consent to removal should not be seen as an endorsement of this court's legitimacy," public defenders Matthew Farley and Mary Manning Petras said in a statement to The Washington Post.

"Dragging lawful permanent residents into court but refusing to show them or their attorneys the evidence that will be used against them is a plain violation of due process. We are confident that the Alien Terrorist Removal Court will be struck down as unconstitutional as soon as a judge is asked to address the issue," they said.

Rugby's Greatest Rivalry - Fourth Test

South Africa (17) 43

Tries: de Allende (2), van den Berg, PS du Toit, Arendse, Hanekom Cons: Feinberg-Mngomezulu (2), van den Berg, Libbok (2) Pens: Feinberg-Mngomezulu

New Zealand (14) 28

Tries: Taylor, Jordan, Blackadder, B Barrett Cons: McKenzie (4)

South Africa completed a 3-1 series win over New Zealand as the world champions' consistency, power and cohesion once again proved too much in the fourth Test in Baltimore.

After victory in the series opener in Johannesburg last month, the All Blacks jumped to the top of the world rankings and threatened to shake up rugby's world order.

However, South Africa clawed their way back to triumph - just as their director of rugby Rassie Erasmus had predicted.

While New Zealand were spirited and skilful in pursuit of a win to square the series, the Springboks' go-forward up front and the depth of their bench kept the All Blacks at bay.

The match played out in front of a near-capacity crowd of 68,173 at the M&T Bank Stadium, the largest-ever crowd to watch a rugby match in the USA.

A successful stateside excursion completes a series that has been compelling viewing and stress-tested both sides' aspirations of lifting the Rugby World Cup next year - the two nations have won the past five editions of the tournament.

It was New Zealand who started fastest in Maryland on Saturday.

Eight minutes in, their breathtakingly quick tiki-taka catch-pass, with the backline holding their depth, outflanked South Africa's blitz defence to set up the first try of the match for hooker Codie Taylor.

However, the Springboks' brute strength in the close quarters meant they could collect points without needing to resort to such high-risk passages of play.

With their forward pack on top in the scrum and winning collisions, Damian de Allende burrowed over from short range, before scrum-half Morne van den Berg flashed a dummy and darted past Sam Darry for a similar score.

Those tries opened up a 17-7 lead for the Springboks. With Eben Etzebeth crunching returning New Zealand fly-half Richie Mo'unga in the tackle and Jasper Wiese stampeding around in the loose, the Boks seemed poised to stretch away and out of sight.

Fly-half Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu, who had pushed a long-range penalty to the right of the uprights early on, missed a drop-goal shot. An overcooked attempt to find the corner also cost his team.

New Zealand's combination of hard toil and sparkling hands then bought them a way back into the game just before half-time.

Will Jordan, his nation's all-time leading try-scorer, streaked off his wing on a superb line to dunk down over the line at the end of 32 draining phases.

Four points down at the break, Dave Rennie's side had hopes of taking home half of a specially-designed series trophy, which, held together by magnets, can be shared between the two sides.

But South Africa ensured that innovation went unused.

Malcolm Marx trundled over at the back of a rolling maul after the interval and, three minutes later, Pieter-Steph du Toit barged over after a sharp blindside break by the impressive Van den Berg.

Ethan Blackadder's score in the final quarter cut the Boks' lead to eight points, but South Africa hit the accelerator once again as the toll taken by a high-paced match and a long tour caught up on both teams and space opened up.

Kurt-Lee Arendse sliced through open field after Damian McKenzie had broken through in the opposite direction, but Josh Moorby failed to gather his pass.

Four minutes later, Cameron Hanekom scooped up scrappy ball to put the result beyond doubt and render replacement Beauden Barrett's late try only a footnote.

South Africa: Willemse; Arendse, Kriel, de Allende, Hooker; Feinberg-Mngomezulu, van den Berg; Nche, Marx, Louw, Etzebeth, Nortje, Kolisi, du Toit, Wiese

Replacements: Fourie, Steenekamp, du Toit, de Jager, Esterhuizen, Hanekom, Reinach, Libbok

New Zealand: McKenzie; Jordan, Lienert-Brown, Barrett, Moorby; Mo'unga, Roigard; de Groot, Taylor, Newell, Tuipulotu, Darry, Vaa'i, Blackadder, Lakai

Aumua, Numia, Lomax, Lord, Sititi, Preston, Ioane, Barrett

Referee: Karl Dickson (England)

Assistant referees: Matthew Carley (England), Christophe Ridley (England)

TMO: Andrew Jackson (England)

The new Madring street circuit is in an unprepossessing location, snaking around an exhibition centre near the Spanish capital's international airport, about a 15-minute drive from the city with no traffic.

But as a test for the drivers, it is right up there.

"Very high risk" and "less margin than Monaco" were two remarks made by Mercedes driver George Russell over the weekend.

The walls are close and the demands of the circuit are amplified by the fact that the barriers angle back towards the track on the exit of many corners, making it all too easy to hit them.

Despite that, qualifying ran incident-free, which was very much not the prediction, especially after there were two red flags in final practice earlier in the day, one caused by seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, the other by Haas driver Oliver Bearman.

Whether the race goes the same way is an altogether different matter.

This was Norris' third pole of the year, and after the first two he took dominant wins in Hungary and the Netherlands.

At those races, though, McLaren were in a very different place.

"Tomorrow is going to be a very tough day," Norris said. "It's not going to be as straightforward as in Zandvoort and Budapest. There we were the quickest car. Yes, I'm on pole now, but we're not in the quickest car. It took a perfect lap to get me on pole by 0.011secs today."

Norris, it's worth saying, also took pole despite missing virtually all of second practice with a gearbox problem.

Not only does that make the achievement all the more impressive, it also means he missed out on potentially crucial information about race-distance running, as that session is when the teams do their race simulations.

Tyre degradation is expected to be high. The high-grip, smooth new track surface, combined with the longest pit lane of the year - Norris jokingly described it as "6km long", cut in half as it is by a building - should in theory lead to a one-stop strategy.

But the high tyre degradation could well push it to a two-stop, and because teams will try to avoid that, Antonelli said, "probably is going to be grandmother driving in the first 10 laps - we saw how steep the degradation can be, especially if you push too early".

In Norris' favour is that overtaking is expected to be especially difficult.

The straights are short, and some of the corner entries, which combine braking and turning, mean, as Verstappen put it, "there are no corners where you can pass".

The drivers generally liked the challenge of the new track, Norris described it as "a little bit of everything".

But all agreed on the fact that the corner entries need to be changed to facilitate racing.

Verstappen, who qualified third, said: "You can't overtake. So, in some places, the braking zones, like, they need to learn that it should never be that you have to steer, that you have to combine under braking, because it doesn't allow any kind of overtaking."

Antonelli said: "It's going to be tight. I spent two laps behind the Williams, trying to painfully get past. But it's just really difficult.

"And when you're behind, it's tough. Yeah, the only thing you can do is try to put pressure on the car in front, trying to make them do mistakes or make them deg a bit more."

The difficulty in overtaking is what makes this a real opportunity for Norris to take a third win of the season, even if the McLaren is not the fastest car.

As he put it: "It's a long race, it's a new track. You've got to know what corners to push, what corners not to push, all of these different things, what the battery's then going to do.

"There's a lot of stuff that I've got to spend my time doing tonight. So, it's probably going to be a late one to try and get ahead of the game in some sorts. But the main part of the job was done today, so that's the bit I'm most happy about."

Keely Hodgkinson was again denied a major prize by rival Audrey Werro - but revealed she had overcome a torn hamstring to make the start line at the World Athletics Ultimate Championship.

Britain's Olympic 800m champion sustained the injury while competing in the European Championship final less than a month ago, when she was dethroned by 22-year-old Swiss sensation Werro.

Hodgkinson was forced to miss Diamond League races in Zurich and Brussels, and said following her second-place finish in Budapest that it was "touch and go" whether she would be fit to compete at the sport's new global event.

Werro controlled Saturday's 800m race from start to finish, winning in one minute 55.88 seconds to underline her position as the event's current leading athlete.

Despite her injury setback, Hodgkinson overtook Femke Broeders-Bol on the home straight for second in 1:56.26.

"On the outside, people might think I'm disappointed - but I'm actually quite proud of how I approached that," Hodgkinson told BBC Sport.

"When was Europeans? Four weeks ago. I unfortunately tore my hamstring during that race, so I didn't know if I was going to be here.

"It's been a bit of a frustrating season but, I think overall, I'm finishing second in the world and I can't really be too hard on myself for that."

That vessel was also able to recover the bodies of his two relatives.

"Our hearts go out to the families, friends, and communities affected by the tragic loss of these two mariners," said Rear Adm. Bob Little, the commander of the Coast Guard's Arctic District.

The boy had signs of hypothermia when he was rescued, the USCG said.

The captain of the fishing boat that pulled Aghnaanga to safety told a local Anchorage news outlet that the teen had clung to the skiff through darkness and water temperatures around 50F (10C).

"That's one tough kid," the captain, Adam White, told KTUU-TV.

"Through the teeth chattering, he had mentioned that his brother was still under the skiff," White added. "And then he said that, in the previous night, before our rescue, that his cousin had slipped away."

Their fishing boat capsized on Saturday, leaving Aghnaanga without food or water for two days at sea, the boy's mother wrote on Facebook.

Vina Kulowiyi, the mother of Aghnaanga and his older brother, said her sons were doing what they loved: fishing to provide for members of their community who don't always have access to meat at their local store in Savoonga.

Savoonga - a village of around 800 residents, located on St Lawrence Island off Alaska's coast - is primarily inhabited by Siberian Yupik peoples. English and St Lawrence Island Yupik are the island's main languages.

"My boys were born and raised to be providers. A tradition that is passed on," Kulowiyi wrote on Facebook. "We hunt and provide for families and share the community."

Kulowiyi said her surviving son is recovering at home.

"My survivor," she wrote. "His story is amazing. He was never afraid the whole time."

He sat "praying the whole time", she added.

A growing trend of supermarkets selling a cheaper, less nutritious alternative to tinned mackerel is an example of "skimpflation", a consumer group has said.

Princes - which supplies major supermarkets - has substituted jack mackerel, an entirely different species, for mackerel, with similar tins also being sold by Lidl.

The switch has been spurred by dwindling stocks of Atlantic mackerel after years of overfishing, with its Chilean counterpart more sustainable and a third of the cost.

"It's a real concern when manufacturers quietly downgrade everyday staples like these as shoppers can end up paying the same price for a product that delivers significantly less nutritional quality," Sue Davies, head of food policy at Which?, said.

Jack mackerel contains about half as much omega-3 and around a third as much vitamin B12 as traditional mackerel.

The shift has prompted complaints from some consumers over differences in taste and texture, as well as concerns about how clearly the replacement fish is being labelled.

Princes announced last October, external that it was changing all of its tinned mackerel products to jack mackerel, saying the species meets the Marine Stewardship Council's sustainability standards.

The firm said its jack mackerel products were "clearly identified" and had been introduced following extensive product and consumer testing, describing it as having a "milder flavour and meatier texture".

Lidl is selling jack mackerel under its house brand. Lidl GB said it was "committed to sourcing fish and seafood from responsibly managed fisheries".

Davies from Which? said: "While manufacturers face genuine supply chain pressures and sustainability challenges, they have a responsibility to shoppers to be completely upfront when they change a product's recipe."

She added: "Skimpflation - quietly changing ingredients to cut costs - has become increasingly common, but it can feel particularly sneaky as shoppers may not realise a product has changed until they get it home and eat it."

When I attended pregnancy scans a decade ago, the best the sonographer could do to involve this blind expectant mum was to turn up the volume on the heartbeat.

But now, parents like me can receive tactile 3D models created from their scans, allowing them to have a special moment with their unborn baby.

Reece Finnegan-Knight, who has been blind since his teens, is one of the first people to experience a 3D-printed model of his baby's scan with his wife, Sophy, as part of a new pilot scheme.

At their routine 12-week scan, Sophy had attempted to describe what she was seeing for Reece, but he struggled to feel involved in the moment.

Afterwards, when the couple showed the sonogram to their loved ones, Reece said it felt like "friends and family knew more about my baby than I did".

But he said the 20-week scan was more positive.

"The sonographer described everything to me, and explained why what she was seeing meant that everything looked good," he says.

Oscar-winning producer Jeremy Thomas, whose films included The Last Emperor and Sexy Beast, has died aged 77.

The British filmmaker "passed away peacefully" surrounded by family and loved ones at his home in Oxfordshire on Friday, his publicist said in a statement.

Thomas built an international reputation over a career spanning five decades, working with directors including David Cronenberg, Nagisa Oshima, Julien Temple and Nicolas Roeg and backing independent films alongside mainstream successes.

His best known film, Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, won nine Academy Awards, including best picture, and earned Thomas an Oscar as producer in 1988.

The critically-acclaimed biographical drama about the final monarch of China's Qing dynasty starred Joan Chen, Peter O'Toole and Vivian Wu.

Thomas repeatedly collaborated with Bertolucci, also producing The Sheltering Sky, Little Buddha, Stealing Beauty and The Dreamers.

He worked with several British directors at the start of their careers including Ben Wheatley, Jonathan Glazer, Stephen Frears and David Mackenzie.

Thomas's other credits included Oshima's Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence - starring David Bowie - Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method, Roeg's Bad Timing and Eureka, and Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio.

He also produced Fast Food Nation, The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, The Hit and adaptations of the JG Ballard books Crash and High-Rise.

After beginning as a film editor, London-based Thomas landed his first production role on the 1976 Australian film Mad Dog Morgan.

A former chairman of the British Film Institute, he won a Bafta for outstanding British contribution to cinema in 1990. Thomas received the European Film Academy's award for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema in 2006 and was made a CBE in the New Year Honours in 2009.

Thomas's latest collaboration with Japanese director Takashi Miike, Bad Lieutenant:Tokyo, is due to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Monday.

Ukrainian tennis player Dayana Yastremska has said her family's flat has been destroyed in a Russian aerial strike on the Black Sea port of Odesa.

"This is what the 'Russian world' looks like. A direct hit by a Kalibr cruise missile," she wrote on social media, showing a photo of a burning multi-storey residential building.

"The only thing that survived was a Roland Garros... towel," the 26-year-old added, posting an image of a famous clay orange towel from Paris's Grand Slam tournament hanging from the wreckage.

Odesa regional head Oleh Kiper said 37 people were injured, including a baby, and two missing in the missile and drone attack on Odesa and nearby Chornomorsk on Friday night.

The new powers came into effect at 10:00 BST. Participants on both sides were not seen to be wearing any face coverings when the marches started.

The city centre protests follow disorder on 6 September, when police attended Eastney Marina as hundreds of demonstrators blocked roads in an attempt to stop coaches carrying 120 migrants, who had crossed the Channel in a dinghy, from leaving the city.

On Saturday, up to 500 anti-migrant protesters held Union and St George flags while some wearing Portsmouth Patriot branded clothing gathered outside All Saints Church on Commercial Road shortly before midday on Saturday.

The crowd chanted "stop the boats" as they marched to Guildhall Square.

About 300 people joined the counter-protest.

Both sets of demonstrators were kept apart by police when they arrived at the square.

Speaking before the march, Simon Magorian, of Stand up to Racism Portsmouth, described the demonstrations in Eastney as a "horrible spectacle".

He said: "Portsmouth is actually a good functioning multi-cultural city.

"We are now organising to have the broadest possible opposition to what we see as a fascist street movement and we're not going to allow them to get a grip on Portsmouth or any other town - this is quite terrifying."

Bulgaria is investigating the cause of an overnight fire at an ammunition storage site run by a private defence company.

Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said the authorities "are not ruling out outside interference" in the incident in central Bulgaria. No-one was injured in the blaze that triggered a series of explosions.

EMCO company, whose weapons are used by Ukraine against invading Russian forces, said the fire at its site was sabotage and that human error was "completely ruled out". It did not say who might be responsible.

The latest incident follows last month's fire and blasts at another EMCO ammunition warehouse in the area.

In a statement, EMCO said the storage facility that was burned this time - near the central village of Gorni Varpishta, some 170km (106 miles) east of the capital Sofia - had not been used for months and was inspected just 20 days ago, when full compliance with all regulations was confirmed.

It cited a number of similar incidents at Bulgarian defence firms since 2011, saying that the latest was "no exception to the series of acts of sabotage against the Bulgarian defence industry".

"As the EU and Nato member state most severely affected by such actions, Bulgaria must join the collective effort to prevent and neutralise these attacks," EMCO said.

The firm is run by Bulgarian arms dealer Emilian Gebrev, who Bulgarian prosecutors allege has already been targeted by Russian agents.

This includes a poisoning attempt in 2015 of Gebrev, his son and another company employee - three Russian nationals were later charged in absentia for attempted murder.

Bulgaria is a major weapons supplier to Ukraine, as it continues to repel a full-scale Russian invasion launched in 2022.

And although Sofia has recently halted state-owned arms supplies to Ukraine, Bulgarian private defence companies continue such transfers.

Russia appears to have recently escalated its sabotage campaign across Europe.

Last week, Germany said Russia was responsible for August's drone attack at Leipzig's airport - a claim denied by Moscow as "absurd".

There have also been a number of suspicious fires at defence facilities from Italy to Estonia, with some of the affected countries blaming Russia.

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Today, we look at two record breaking donations to Reform UK of £72 million. The money has been given to the party by two crypto billionaires, Ben Delo and Christopher Harborne. Laura and Paddy discuss who they are, and why they’ve decided to hand over such a massive amount of cash. Delo said he wants a "fair fight and a level playing field", before Harborne said his "competitive spirit" inspired him to equal the £36 million. But what effect will this actually have on UK politics? And could it change the date of the next General Election? 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 presenters were Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O’Connell. It was made by Chris Flynn with Jem Westgate. The social producer was Joe Wilkinson. The technical producer was Jonathan Greer. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

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Arsenal's duality was there for all to see in their 2-0 win at Sunderland: gritty defence and moments of genius.

But things could have turned out very differently had a crucial 121-second period gone the other way.

After close to an hour of physical, full-blooded football, Sunderland were given a penalty when Ezri Konsa fouled Dan Ballard at a corner.

It proved the turning point - David Raya tipped Enzo le Fee's spot kick on to the post, and just over two minutes later, Arsenal substitute Bruno Guimaraes crashed in the opener off the underside of the crossbar.

Arteta's side left the north-east of England with their ninth successive Premier League victory. Not since the days of the Invincibles, in 2003-04, have the Gunners done that.

Yet Arteta was furious about the Sunderland penalty that could have cost his side.

"It's a judo roll from the opponent. Ezri [Konsa] does nothing. Just watch it," Arteta told BBC Match of the Day.

"We have a lot of cameras and VAR, we have to take responsibility to protect the game. Today the game was unprotected and it could have cost us the game and the momentum which is a really, really serious thing."

Elena Rybakina demonstrated why she is the best women's player in the world by beating two-time defending champion Aryna Sabalenka to win her first US Open title.

Kazakhstan's Rybakina already knew she would be the new world number one after Saturday's final regardless of the result, and she celebrated with a 6-4 5-7 6-2 victory over the player she will replace.

Rybakina was the more composed of the two throughout as she claimed the third Grand Slam title of her career, having triumphed at Wimbledon in 2022 and the Australian Open earlier this year.

Sabalenka hoped to soften the blow of losing the top ranking by winning a third consecutive US Open title - but looked fraught in a tense performance.

Rybakina and Sabalenka have developed a strong rivalry built not only on their outstanding talent but their contrasting personalities.

And Rybakina's ice-cool composure - the direct opposite of the Belarusian's combustible nature - was a key difference as she took control at Flushing Meadows.

The banner held aloft by a Tottenham Hotspur supporter before kick-off was not so much a plea for action as a cry for help.

"Please Score A Goal" was the message brandished in the direction of the Spurs players as they came out against Everton in search of their first in the Premier League this season.

After another goalless 45 minutes, there was a compelling case for a hasty rewrite asking "Please Have A Shot" as, for all their possession, Roberto de Zerbi's expensively assembled side struggled to get anywhere near Jordan Pickford's goal.

And so it went on in an increasingly angry and frustrated atmosphere inside Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as Spurs' goalless league streak extended to 407 minutes as a stuttering start to what was meant to be brave new era continued.

It was the first time they have failed to score in their opening four league games across all four tiers - and also in four successive Premier League matches since September 2006.

The grim statistic would be bad enough in any circumstances, but it is even worse after Spurs spent in excess of £300m in the summer, much of it designed to give De Zerbi's side an added edge.

Instead, they are a blunt instrument.

This was the first Premier League goalless draw, in the 140th game, at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

On this evidence, there will be more.

It may seem early days for an apology to the supporters, but De Zerbi felt the need as he said: "I'm sorry to the fans. We are sorry to the fans.

"They were fantastic, especially in the first part of the game because when they see the team is playing well, pushing to find the solution they were inside the pitch with my players. Then the reaction of the fans is normal. We have to say thanks all the time to them."

Everton could have actually made matters worse, but they are also short of attacking threat themselves - luckily for Spurs.

As the second half wore on, the resilient visitors actually missed the game's two best chances through Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Brennan Johnson, while the mood became increasingly sour as nerves and anxiety grew.

When £85m summer signing Mateus Fernandes had Spurs' first shot on target after 46 minutes, the stadium rattled to the sound of ironic applause.

There was no irony when they played the ball around at the back with only seven minutes left, and when the final whistle sounded it was just like old times - or at least like last season - as jeers sent De Zerbi's players on their way.

He went through the card in an attempt to change this embarrassing barren sequence in front of goal, playing new signings from Manchester City, Omar Marmoush and Savio, in the attacking positions, with Dominic Solanke handed his first league start of the campaign.

As time went on and the tension mounted, Mohammed Kudus and James Maddison were sent on, but it was another substitute, Lucas Bergvall, who almost snatched victory with a late long-range effort, saved by Everton goalkeeper Pickford after he had gifted the Swede possession and an opportunity.

Watching it all from close quarters was a grim-faced Richarlison, the 29-year-old Brazil striker in dispute with the club over the remaining nine months of his contract.

He was left out of De Zerbi's Premier League squad after a proposed deadline-day return to former club Everton collapsed. A switch back to Brazil with Vasco da Gama has also failed to materialise.

Two Premier League matches at Anfield. Two draws.

For just the third time in 63 years, Liverpool have failed to win either of their opening home games of a league season - not exactly the flying start new boss Andoni Iraola would have been dreaming of.

After such an encouraging midweek performance against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, full of urgency, Saturday's goalless draw against Fulham was a flat follow-up, especially with the Cottagers lacking in confidence and having conceded seven goals in their first three league games.

The Reds looked physically and mentally tired and, to put it bluntly, like an entirely different team to the one that won against a Diego Simeone side that made it to the Champions League semi-finals last season.

On the first real look at how Iraola's style will cope with two games a week, this was certainly not what the Liverpool head coach, nor the Anfield crowd, would have wanted to see.

Former boss Jurgen Klopp would often speak about recognising his team based on their identity and intensity rather than just their colours and judging by Iraola's words since he took over, the Spaniard wants the same too.

Iraola said: "What was lacking was quite clear, it is the first game we had problems to create chances and score goals and make the difference offensively, and that is the main reason we couldn't create chances."

His side are still unbeaten and it is hardly a crisis, but he will look at a return of six points from their first four Premier League games as disappointing, particularly by dropping four points at home to Nottingham Forest and Fulham, with another draw coming at Newcastle and their sole success at Ipswich.

Keeper Alisson told Sky Sports: "We are not happy at all with the draw. It is not something that should happen with Liverpool. To be unbeaten, but with three draws, is not something to celebrate too much with this shirt.

"If we want to do something special [this season] we have to cope with playing a game Wednesday, Saturday and then Tuesday.

"We need to have the right mental state and that was not the case from what we showed. Inside we have it, but we have to just put it out and put more energy on the pitch."

The £364m attacking trio of Alexander Isak, Bradley Barcola and Florian Wirtz started together for the first time in a league game and although Liverpool had decent chances, they created nowhere near enough.

Isak's 16 touches in 90 minutes was the second fewest for an outfield Reds player on record, having had the fewest (14) against Forest a fortnight ago.

German Wirtz looked a shadow of the player who was terrific in midweek against Atleti and while Barcola and Isak had a few encouraging moments, that is a partnership that will take time to develop.

"Bradley is one we are building up physically with games and the games will give him the condition we want," Iraola told Match of the Day.

"But it is not just Bradley, we lack the freshness. I only remember one clear chance [for Fulham] and we kept the structure but offensively we need to do much better."