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Police investigate deaths at Royal Sussex County Hospital - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Police are investigating deaths following surgery at the hospital over a five-year period. | Sussex | Sussex Police is investigating deaths over a five-year period at the hospital
Police are investigating the deaths of patients at a Brighton hospital.
Sussex Police has confirmed it was looking into allegations of medical negligence at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton, East Sussex over a five-year period.
The claims concern alleged failings in neurosurgery and general surgery between 2015 and 2020.
The trust said it was co-operating fully with the investigation.
Police and the hospital trust could not confirm the number of deaths being looked at, but some reports suggested the figure was "about 40".
In May the Care Quality Commission (CQC) downgraded the hospital to "requires improvement" after whistleblowers prompted an inspection.
Lloyd Russell-Moyle, the Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, said he was "deeply worried" about the investigation.
The force said: "Sussex Police has received allegations of medical negligence at the Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton, and is currently assessing these allegations.
"The concerns raised relate to neurosurgery and general surgery in a period between 2015 and 2020.
"Inquiries are at an early stage and this does not necessarily mean this will lead to criminal prosecution."
MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle says there needs to be full co-operation with the police investigation
A trust spokesman said: "The trust has been contacted by Sussex Police as part of their inquiries relating to the care of a number of general surgery and neurosurgery patients at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton between 2015 and 2020.
"It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage other than to confirm that we are co-operating fully to ensure the concerns raised are investigated."
Mr Russell-Moyle added: "I haven't received a briefing from the hospital, which is extremely disappointing, but they have assured me that they will brief us next week and we will get to the bottom of this.
"Those families that will have been affected will have be having sleepless nights now and we need full co-operation with the police. We need to find out if there was something criminal.
"We need to find out what's happening with our hospital trust, it's really struggling at the moment and we need a plan to get out of the mess."
Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-65865956 |
Mirror admits using private investigators in Nikki Sanderson stories, court told - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Former Coronation Street actor Nikki Sanderson is accusing the publisher of breaching her privacy. | UK | The publisher of the Mirror newspapers has made a court apology to the former Coronation Street actor Nikki Sanderson after admitting using private investigators to get stories about her.
A barrister for Mirror Group Newspapers said it "unequivocally apologises" to her, adding "it shouldn't have happened and won't again".
Ms Sanderson was giving evidence in her High Court case against the newspapers.
Despite the admissions, MGN denies targeting her more widely.
She is claiming damages for 37 articles published in the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People newspapers between 1999 and 2009.
Andrew Green KC, for the newspapers, said she had lived through "much press intrusion" and giving evidence would be "unpleasant and stressful."
In her witness statement, Ms Sanderson said she had been "abused" by MGN and "attacked" by people with more power than her.
Ms Sanderson joined Coronation Street in 1999, aged 15, playing the role of Candice Stowe and immediately became of interest to the media, the court heard.
Crowds would regularly gather outside the studios and photographers would appear to get pictures of her.
Ms Sanderson alleges the newspapers used information from her mobile phone voicemails which were hacked, and paid private investigators to get personal information about her.
Mr Green said a small number of records for calls from journalists to her phone numbers had been disclosed, but showed no evidence they were to hack her phone.
However, within invoices for payments to private investigators, Mr Green said four were for the firms ELI and Avalon, which have been implicated in unlawful information gathering
Making the apology, he said MGN admitted on four occasions in 2004 and 2005 journalists used the investigators to target Ms Sanderson.
Mr Green is continuing to cross-examine Ms Sanderson about the stories she has put at the centre of her case.
Prince Harry has said he is suing the publisher of the Daily Mirror to stop "absolute intrusion and hate" towards him and his wife.
The case is also due to hear from other claimants including Coronation Street actor Michael Turner, known professionally as Michael Le Vell, and Fiona Wightman, the ex-wife of comedian Paul Whitehouse.
They all allege unlawful methods were used to obtain information for stories and say senior executives must have known about it and failed to stop it, which MGN denies.
MGN, which has admitted widespread unlawful information gathering against other celebrities, has argued Ms Sanderson should have brought her legal action years ago, under rules that civil claims must be made within six years.
She called this "gaslighting" in her witness statement.
Describing herself as a "young girl" at the time, Ms Sanderson accused the publisher of "hiring random men" to follow her.
"They could have done anything to me," she said, adding that it was "particularly distressing to learn that these illegal activities continued for a period of many years".
Describing her experiences as "abuse", she said she did not use the word "lightly".
"The fact is these people were in positions of power and I was a child and a young female, and I was attacked by people who were more powerful than me - I did nothing to deserve this treatment."
Ms Sanderson also said she was tricked into giving away the name of a hotel she was staying at in Zakynthos, Greece.
She said someone working for "Disney or Universal" contacted her mother saying they were interested in making her part of a film and needed to send a telegram.
"The next thing I know, the paps [paparazzi] and press had managed to find me, she said, adding she "was little more than a child and they deceived me".
Ms Sanderson also said she was subjected to "mental and physical abuse" as a result of public backlash from articles written in the Mirror.
As well as being shouted at in the street, she said on one occasion a group of girls set fire to her hair in the toilets of a club.
"Fortunately, I wasn't wearing any hair product, otherwise, my hair would have gone up in flames," she said.
Ms Sanderson said she came to think that "random people" or others at Coronation Street were selling stories about her.
She also said she was "really hurt" by one article which accused her father of being a "womaniser".
"To have my personal life splashed over the papers for people to indulge in was heart-breaking." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65856719 |
Colombia plane crash: Four children found alive in Amazon after 40 days - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It is a "magical day", says the president, as the four siblings are found after 40 days missing. | Latin America & Caribbean | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Four children have been found alive after surviving a plane crash and spending weeks fending for themselves in Colombia's Amazon jungle.
Colombia's president said the rescue of the siblings, aged 13, nine, four and one, was "a joy for the whole country".
The children's mother and two pilots were killed when their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on 1 May.
The missing children became the focus of a huge rescue operation involving dozens of soldiers and local people.
President Gustavo Petro said finding the group was a "magical day", adding: "They were alone, they themselves achieved an example of total survival which will remain in history."
The children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group. Mr Petro shared a photograph of several members of the military and Indigenous community caring for the siblings, who had been missing for 40 days.
One of the rescuers held a bottle up to the mouth of the smallest child, while another fed one of the other children from a mug with a spoon.
A video shared by Colombia's ministry of defence showed the children being lifted into a helicopter in the dark above the tall trees of the jungle. They have been flown to the nation's capital Bogota, where ambulances have taken them to hospital for further medical treatment.
The children's grandmother, Fatima Valencia, said after their rescue: "I am very grateful, and to mother earth as well, that they were set free."
She said the eldest of the four siblings was used to looking after the other three when their mother was at work, and that this helped them survive in the jungle.
"She gave them flour and cassava bread, any fruit in the bush, they know what they must consume," Ms Valencia said in footage obtained by EVN.
The Cessna 206 aircraft the children and their mother had been travelling on before the crash was flying from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure.
The bodies of the three adults were found at the crash site by the army, but it appeared that the children had escaped the wreckage and wandered into the rainforest to find help.
A massive search began and in May, rescuers recovered items left behind by the children, including a child's drinking bottle, a pair of scissors, a hair tie and a makeshift shelter.
Small footprints were also discovered, which led search teams to believe the children were still alive in the rainforest, which is home to jaguars, snakes and other predators.
Members of the children's community hoped that their knowledge of fruits and jungle survival skills would give them a better chance of remaining alive.
Indigenous people joined the search and helicopters broadcast a message from the children's grandmother, recorded in the Huitoto language, urging them to stop moving to make them easier to locate.
After they were found, their grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, called on the authorities to allow the children to be moved closer to their family in Villavicencio, roughly 130km (80 miles) from Bogota.
"I am asking the president as the highest authority, I am sorry to bother him, but it is my right and my duty, it is my blood, it is my family. I want to see the children, here in Villavicencio," he said in an interview also obtained by EVN.
Earlier Mr Petro said he had spoken to the children's grandfather.
The president came under criticism last month when a tweet published on his account mistakenly announced that the children had been found.
He erased the tweet the next day saying that the information - which his office had been given by Colombia's child welfare agency - could not be confirmed.
The Colombian military shared a photo of the children in the jungle | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-65864158 |
Boris Johnson: Laura Kuenssberg on the facts, farce and his future - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Quitting Parliament is entirely on brand and raises questions about his next move, writes Laura Kuenssberg. | UK Politics | Boris Johnson had to leave Downing Street last summer because a majority of his Conservative colleagues thought he was doing more harm than good.
Now a committee of MPs is set to judge he didn't tell the truth. That committee is made up mainly of Tory MPs. The former PM has faced the same procedure as other MPs that get into trouble. And while Mr Johnson claims he has been "forced out", remember he has chosen to quit before we even see the black and white of their verdict.
It is also a fact there are some Conservatives who begrudge him his success. It is also true that during his last few months in No 10 there were internal enemies trying to force him out.
But to dress that up as a grand conspiracy is, candidly, a stretch. One of those who knows him best told me his resignation announcement was "1,000 words that tell you everything about Johnson's mindset - it's your fault not mine".
Rather than confront what has happened or try to defend himself from the judgement that is coming, Boris Johnson made a political choice this week not to stay and fight.
As ever, the line between farce and tragedy is skinny. While most of the headlines screamed of the shock, the former prime minister's exit from Parliament is entirely on brand.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
The timing on a Friday was unexpected, but no surprise. He never much liked Parliament anyway, even though he managed to find a gong for the Commons' hairdresser.
The idea he would savour being a humble backbencher asking questions about cash for the local hospital or appearing at school fetes was for the birds. And if the Privileges Committee's findings are as savage as expected he would have faced a by-election.
Clues from his track record tell us there is little chance he would have fought if he hadn't been sure he could win. He pulled out of the Tory leadership race in 2016 when Michael Gove's move blew up his status as front-runner.
He didn't run in 2022 despite a dash back from the Caribbean and fevered claims that he had enough support. One former cabinet ally says he is "more calculating than people think and this will have been a calculation - if he thought he would win the by-election he would stay". To win and lose does not match brand Boris. To leave like this absolutely does.
The power of his personality - frankly his fame - means he leaves behind some devastated colleagues and a strand of the public who believe he has been hard done by.
One former cabinet minister says: "The party wounded itself when it defenestrated Boris and continues to bleed."
Some of his hard-core supporters left on the backbenches say his exit is a sad day for democracy and - with some justification believe his leadership is what secured their seats, particularly in parts of the country where the Tories could never have dreamt of doing well before.
Some of his loyal backers do feel like he is the great hero in a tragedy, cast aside unfairly in an epic drama, undone by those who envy his talents.
His exit is arguably a tragedy for those who genuinely believed in and adored him. And there is a political tragedy for the Conservative Party, which many MPs privately believe squandered a once in a generation majority.
2019 gave it one of those rare chances to make radical changes to the country, and while many believe it was thrown away by mismanagement and mistakes, there was of course the unexpected horror of the Covid pandemic too.
For those who deplore Boris Johnson, there is a different kind of tragedy, the damage they believe he did to the UK's reputation. And several of those who have been close to him over the years identify a fourth element of the mess - the fact they believe it was never going to end well.
In the Greek tragedies so beloved of Mr Johnson himself, fate, and inevitability plays an important role. One of them says: "Boris is a genuine tragedy. This was all inevitable. We knew how it would play out, but we are still surprised and shocked about how dreadful it is. All our hard work pissed away."
So what happens next? Some MPs are actually cock-a-hoop despite the colossal mess. One tells me: "The man-baby has gone - so pleased!"
But allies talk up his chances of running for another seat some time. One former senior minister tells me "the question is does he plan to get another seat or even Mid-Beds?" - the constituency his close ally and former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has just left.
Another former cabinet minister says: "It would be very unwise for him to run again. He has a vociferous 20% in the party who like him but 80% don't. If he ran in a by-election the Lib Dems would murder him."
Would party HQ even let that happen? Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has changed the personnel in charge there. One senior figure pours a bucket of freezing water over the idea telling me: "Boris died today."
What is not clear yet is whether as that MP suggests the manner of his departure could "generate so much unrest I fear there will be an election much sooner than thought".
Mr Johnson has thrown grenades at No 10 - not just the committee that has judged him - suggesting Mr Sunak is not running a "proper Conservative" government.
One former ally says the ex-PM has "gone full circle, returning to his political home - a hut across the water where he can now lob rocks without any sense of responsibility or accountability - and that is ultimately very dangerous for his party and Sunak".
But if Boris Johnson is unlikely to run for Parliament again, and is happy to dangle the prospect of a return, what else might he do with his time?
You'll find plenty of people in Westminster chattering that he'll return to his first love - writing - but might there be something bigger?
By chance his old newspaper the Telegraph has just come up for sale and - by chance - its former editor Will Lewis has just been made a knight by Mr Johnson. Is there, by chance, the possibility they might be part of a bid to take it over?
It's been suggested to me that is in fact something that has been discussed. It's no secret that Mr Lewis - now Sir Will - would be keen to take it on.
He advised Mr Johnson in No 10 sometimes and the two men worked together at the Telegraph when the former PM was its star columnist who attracted extra subscribers each week.
Going back as a columnist would be one thing for Mr Johnson and not all that surprising. But for him to take a bigger role - as one source whispers, the editor - might be the Conservatives' worst nightmare.
I'm told that conversations are only at the stage of ideas being scribbled down on paper. A formal sale process, let alone any decisions about actual bids, is a long way off.
But I can't help wondering, what would the consequences be for Downing Street and the Conservatives if their most loyal backer in the press gave a major role to Mr Sunak's bitter rival? Could the next twist in the Boris Johnson story be even wilder than the last? Perhaps.
What will be Boris Johnson's next job - running the Telegraph newspapers?
Some of those who have worked alongside him believe it is more likely to be "terminal Boris". A former ally says "he was obviously once someone with exceptional skills, who came so far, and did so much in the face of incredible opposition".
But they say, perhaps in sorrow and in anger: "His career ends with him alone, a victim of his utter inability to tell the truth to anyone, including himself."
Maybe he will fade into obscurity. Perhaps he'll be back in Parliament one day. He might make millions speaking and writing or become Rishi Sunak's most powerful opposition.
But his name is now on the list of those unprovable political "what ifs' so furiously and perpetually debated by political nerds.
What if Mrs Thatcher hadn't been forced out? What if Tony Blair hadn't invaded Iraq? What if Boris Johnson had given a different answer in the Commons when he was first asked what happened under his roof during the Covid lockdowns?
We will never know. But what we do know this weekend is that one era is over. We know Boris Johnson had huge potential to create, but also to destroy - his extraordinary majority, his reputation, and the party he led too.
He must now decide what to do with the power that he still retains. And his old party must decide how much attention it wants to pay. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65865946 |
Chloe Mitchell: Brother of missing Ballymena woman makes appeal - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A 26-year-old man is being questioned after the disappearance of Chloe Mitchell, 21, in Ballymena. | Northern Ireland | Search and rescue teams have been assisting in the hunt for 21-year-old Chloe Mitchell
The brother of a missing 21-year-old woman has appealed for information about her disappearance.
Chloe Mitchell, who is described as a "high-risk missing person", was last seen in Ballymena last Friday night into the early hours of Saturday.
Phillip Mitchell said he was "broken" by his sister's disappearance and appealed for privacy for his family.
Police have said they are continuing their searches but are "increasingly concerned" for her safety.
A 26-year-old man who was arrested in Lurgan in County Armagh is still being questioned.
Chloe Mitchell's brother Phillip said he is "broken" after her disappearance
The Community Rescue Service has conducted searches along the Braid River in the County Antrim town.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Ms Mitchell was seen on CCTV walking in the direction of James Street at the weekend.
PSNI Supt Gillian Kearney says Chloe's family are very worried
"It's out of character for her not to have contacted her family or friends," PSNI Supt Gillian Kearney said on Friday afternoon.
"Her family are being supported by specialists but it's a very worrying time.
"I hope she is safe and well and that's why we are appealing for information and for the public to look at her photo and contact us if they have seen her."
A police cordon has been set up near homes on James Street
"Chloe was wearing a green and black The North Face-style jacket, a white t-shirt, leggings and Nike trainers," said Ch Insp Arnie O'Neill.
The Harryville Partnership Initiative, a community group for the area, said Ms Mitchell's family "want left in peace".
"It's a very hard time at present," the group said.
As well as searches along the river, there are also other areas involved in this investigation, including a house on James Street.
The house is cordoned off and forensic enquires were taking place inside it earlier today.
As we head towards a full week from when Chloe Mitchell was last seen heading towards James Street, the thoughts of this community are with her family.
Community Rescue Service searching through dense shrubbery near James Street in Ballymena
On Thursday night, Community Rescue Service teams gathered along the banks of the Braid River while others searched in the river itself.
Spokesperson Darren Harper said it was a "pretty significant operation".
Darren Harper said the search area is significant in size and the terrain is difficult
Mr Harper said the river was not the only area being searched by at least 25 people.
"We do have the water technical team in the water and [on] the river banks and we also have ground teams searching other areas," he added.
He said difficult terrain, with dense shrubbery, brambles and steep river banks made the search difficult.
The hot weather also added to the challenge faced by personnel wearing waterproof gear, flotation devices and dry suits, he said.
Searches are being carried out along the river Braid and near James Street in Ballymena
Asked if the Community Rescue Service had found anything significant, Mr Harper said: "We wouldn't be doing our job right if we didn't have some sort of finds. That's then passed on to the police to find out if it's relevant or not."
One of the search sites on Friday evening was close to the ECOS centre near Ballymena
Another voluntary search and rescue group, K9 Search and Rescue, said in a social media post that its team had assisted in the search for Ms Mitchell in the Harryville area of Ballymena.
The PSNI appealed for anyone with information to contact them by phoning 101. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65849788 |
Donald Trump calls indictment 'ridiculous and baseless' in campaign speeches - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Mr Trump spoke at a Republican convention, his first outing since his indictment were announced. | US & Canada | Former US President Donald Trump made the comments at a speech in Georgia on Saturday
Former US President Donald Trump has called the federal indictment against him "ridiculous and baseless" in his first public appearance since the charges were announced.
A 37-count indictment made public on Friday accuses him of keeping sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago property.
At two campaign speeches on Saturday, Mr Trump said the indictment amounted to "election interference" by the "corrupt" FBI and justice department.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Trump has been charged with mishandling hundreds of classified documents, including some about US nuclear secrets and military plans.
The indictment accused him of keeping the files at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago including in a ballroom and a shower.
He lied to investigators and tried to obstruct their investigation into his handling of the documents, the indictment alleged.
It is the first ever federal criminal prosecution against a former US president.
Speaking at the first Republican Party convention in Georgia, Mr Trump said: "They're cheating, they're crooked, they're corrupt - these criminals cannot be rewarded, they must be defeated."
He joked that every time he flies over a "blue state" - one controlled by the Democrats - he gets subpoenaed.
Mr Trump, who is running for the White House again in 2024, called the indictment a "hoax" by the "corrupt political establishment", also describing it as a "joke" and a "travesty of justice".
Both speeches - in Georgia and later in North Carolina - went on for more than an hour.
He thanked the "record crowd" as well as "patriots" who had supported his White House bid, and went on to criticise "sinister forces" that were running the country.
"We're going to stand up to the current political establishment … and we're going to finish the job we started, the most successful presidency," he said, a line that led to chants of "USA, USA" breaking out in the crowd.
"I will never yield, I will never be deterred," he said, before turning his attention to the groups he said were plotting against him.
This included Marxists, communists, "environmental extremists", Rinos - Republicans in Name Only - as well as "open border fanatics" and "radical left democrats".
Referencing the indictment, he claimed the highly-sensitive documents should have fallen under the Presidential Records Act, rather than the Espionage Act.
Under the Presidential Records Act, White House records are supposed to go to the National Archives once an administration ends. Regulations require such files to be stored securely.
He also said "gun-toting FBI agents" had raided Mar-a-Lago.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the investigation, has denied the charges are politically-motivated, saying: "We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone."
Laws protecting national defence information were critical and must be enforced, he has said.
As momentum starts to build towards the 2024 election, Mr Trump was speaking at a Republican Party convention in Columbus, Georgia, before moving onto another Republican Party event in Greensboro, North Carolina.
He is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
His former vice president Mike Pence - who this week was highly critical of his former boss when announcing his own run for the presidency - spoke earlier at the North Carolina event, although the pair are not expected to cross paths.
Georgia is likely to be a key battleground in the race for the White House, and is where Mr Trump narrowly lost to current President Joe Biden in 2020 - it could also be the scene of further legal jeopardy for the former president.
Officials in the state are currently looking into whether Mr Trump broke the law when he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the exact number of votes he needed to flip the vote in his favour. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65868294 |
Agutaya archipelago doctor who cared for 13,000 people on her own - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The pandemic was far from Dr Alena's only challenge on a far-flung archipelago in the Philippines. | Asia | Dr Alena Yap is the only doctor available to Eleuthera Abus on an archipelago of 13,000 people
When 99-year-old Eleuthera Abus lifts her right arm, she winces as the broken bones move. It's been six months since her fall.
"All I can do is manage her pain," says Alena Yap, the 28-year-old doctor who is examining her on her porch. "She really needs to have the bone pinned. But the family is refusing to take her to hospital."
Eleuthera's daughters are not heartless. They are poor.
The nearest surgical facility is hundreds of miles away across the sea from the tiny island of Diit where they live. It's one of a cluster of islands that make up the Agutaya archipelago, stranded in the middle of the Philippines' Sulu Sea.
For the 13,000 or so people who live here, Dr Alena, as they call her, is the only doctor. Petite, with glasses and long hair tied back in a ponytail, she always wears a broad smile that masks quiet determination.
There is only one island in the archipelago she does not visit - Amanpulo, named after the luxury resort on it, which has reportedly hosted Tom Cruise and Beyoncé. On a clear day, it's visible from the beaches of Diit, just 20km (12 miles) away.
Dr Alena arrived just before the coronavirus - and learned to live with the death threats that came when she insisted people isolate. But the pandemic that swallowed the world was far from her only challenge in this oft-forgotten corner of the Philippines. She battled new diseases and old, and came up against her country's biggest challenges. She says she came to Agutaya to make "real changes" - but she left deeply disillusioned.
These remote, volcanic islands are not where you expect to find a graduate of the country's top medical school, who had spent all her life in Manila, the teeming Philippine capital. Unlike so many of her peers who have left to seek careers in Australia, America and Britain, Dr Alena volunteered to join a government programme that sent her here, to one of the poorest municipalities in the country.
The main island of Agutaya is a two-and-half day journey from Manila. It includes one flight, followed by a sleepless 15-hour night crossing on an open-deck ferry from the port city of Iloilo to a bigger island called Cuyo. Then the only way in and out of Agutaya is a drenching, two-hour roller coaster ride in an outrigger canoe.
These islands, floating in startlingly clear waters over white sands, look like they are straight out of paradise
As the skilled boatman guides the outrigger across the reef and into the shallows, Agutaya looks like a piece of paradise. Below the palm-fringed shoreline, a broad swathe of white sand stretches in each direction. Colourful outrigger canoes bob around on water so clear they could be floating in mid-air.
But geography is both a blessing and a curse. Scattered over hundreds of square kilometres of sea, the dozen or so islands that make up the archipelago are cut off for days, even weeks, when the monsoon comes, winds in tow. Covered with dense forest, the hillsides sit atop large fields of basalt boulders. There is little tillable soil. The islanders rely almost entirely on the ocean.
Dr Alena made her first crossing to Agutaya in February 2020. "When I started here, I was 26 and a lot of people would mistake me for a high school student," she says with a chuckle. "People wouldn't believe I was a doctor."
Her first challenge arrived within a month when the coronavirus sent the Philippines into a lockdown. The islands were sealed off.
"The first year wasn't too bad," Dr Alena says. "There weren't any local cases. But the second year [2021], that is when the government allowed everyone to travel back to their hometowns. Suddenly we had people coming back from as far away as Manila."
Dr Alena was in charge of enforcing their quarantine. "When people learned they would be quarantined they reacted violently," she says. "I received death threats. People said they wanted to shoot me."
She understood why. People here live day to day. What they catch in the morning they eat for dinner. If they couldn't leave their homes to fish, they would go hungry.
So far from being embraced by the local community, Dr Alena, who had left her fiancé in far-away Manila, was now resented as a government enforcer. "There were days when I couldn't do anything but cry. There were a lot of tears," she says.
To ease the loneliness she began adopting dogs. Bruno is large with a big tail that never stops wagging, while Vigly is small and shy. They follow her everywhere.
"I spent a lot of time going to the beach with them and watching the sunset. I also started to draw. My pictures aren't any good, but it's a type of art therapy."
The pandemic, and the loneliness it bought, was especially trying for the 28-year-old
The next challenge emerged when the vaccines started to arrive in the summer of 2021.
"We had to go house to house to every island barangay [village]," Dr Alena says. "The farthest island is nearly three hours away by boat, and many people can't afford the fare [to come to the clinic]. So they wouldn't come."
Gruelling as it was, the distance wasn't the only problem: "There was a lot of hesitancy, a lot of fake news about the vaccines being bad or that they can kill people. A lot of people get their news from social media here, and they were not getting the facts."
By autumn 2022, the threat from Covid had begun to abate. Despite the resistance, the vaccine rollout was successful. Only eight islanders across the archipelago had died of the virus.
But that brought little respite.
A line starts to form on every weekday morning outside the main clinic on Agutaya while the daily meeting between Dr Alena and her team is still under way.
On that day, first in line is a man in his 50s who has had a suspected stroke.
"Before I came here, I thought everything would be fresh and organic," Dr Alena says, laughing at her own naivete. "But it's very difficult to get a nutritious diet here."
For one, locals salt and dry their fish, leading to high blood pressure. Diabetes is also common because it's easier to find soft drinks than clean water.
A boy walks to school on the island of Diit
A sign at the entrance to the clinic announces the other major health problem: "sputum sampling" for tuberculosis or TB.
Dr Alens says they recorded 45 cases in 2022, but many more go undiagnosed.
A bacterial infection, TB is fatal if left untreated. It kills millions yearly, although a combination of vaccines and antibiotics eradicated it from some parts of the world before the middle of the last century.
But the Philippines is still estimated to have more than a million cases. "The long-term plan is to eradicate it," Dr Alena says, adding it's "impossible in the near future". She says because of poor access to healthcare people often relapse, and have even begun to develop drug-resistant strains.
Later that morning, a woman brings her young son to the clinic. Pale and listless, the boy slumps on a chair. Dr Alena suspects he has dengue. A few minutes later, it's confirmed. She prescribes paracetamol, and tells his mother to keep him hydrated.
Dengue is new here. The one case in January turned to 10 by March even as Dr Alena and her team sprayed school grounds to kill the mosquitoes that spread it, and handed out treated nets.
By 11:00 the doctor is extricating herself from the growing line of patients. They will have to be dealt with by her capable nursing staff because she has to get across to Diit, 40 minutes away by boat.
It is more beautiful than Agutaya, but poorer. It has no electricity or a mobile phone tower, and only one concrete road that runs out after a few hundred metres.
The arrival of the "medicine lady" as Dr Alena is fondly called is greeted with much excitement. Dozens of school children come running down the beach. They've been given the day off so Dr Alena's dengue control team can spray their school grounds with insecticide. As she walks through the village, she's like the pied piper, with a long stream of laughing children following.
She visits an elderly couple sitting outside their house along the beach in wheelchairs. Both have had strokes and are partially paralysed. She checks his blood pressure - 150 over 90. "It's high, but acceptable for his age," she says.
On these islands, a hernia, like the one this boy has, can bankrupt a family
A woman in her 40s pushes her way through the crowd that has gathered around. She is carrying a boy, who is perhaps five or six years old. Dr Alena tells her to sit down on a chair and begins to examine the child. He has a hugely enlarged left testicle. The torch reveals a hernia in his lower abdomen. A part of his intestine has penetrated the bowel wall, pushing into his testicles.
"He will need surgery," Dr Alena tells the mother. The hope in the woman's eyes turns to anxiety.
Dr Alena asks her if she knows anyone who she can stay with on one of the bigger islands. Yes, the woman says - in Culion, a 12-hour boat ride away.
"Once I tell them they need to have an operation, you see in their faces the fear and the sadness because they realise there isn't any medicine I can give them to cure this," Dr Alena says. "You see in their minds [the thought] how are they going to afford this? It's hard being the one to deliver the news."
In another part of the world, a hernia is a minor medical procedure. But here it can wipe out a family's savings, leaving them in debt for years.
"If we could make travel easier that would make a lot of difference," she adds. "But that's hard because it will take a lot of resources."
After three years on the island, Dr Alena's optimism and ambition have given way to the disheartening realisation that resources - or money - will always be the biggest challenge.
A concrete all-weather road runs along the base of the rocky hills that circle the main island of Agutaya. Construction began alongside campaigning for the local election last year. One lane was finished before election day, but islanders say work stopped after that. There is no second lane yet.
"We'll have to wait for the next elections to get the road finished," quips one local.
Agutaya and the islands around it are too tiny to matter to Manila, locals say
On the other end of the island, rusting steel bars stick out of an incomplete concrete structure that is gradually being overrun by vegetation.
It was supposed to be the new rural health unit, Dr Alena says. Work stopped last year because the local government ran out of money. "But they haven't completed their part of the deal," she says, her frustration palpable.
Philippine politics is not driven by parties, but personalities, and dominated by large, powerful clans whose chiefs promise resources from Manila in return for votes. As one local woman put it, Agutaya is too small a community: "There aren't enough votes here that make it worth the money."
Local politicians have little incentive to change and come election time, vote-buying is common enough that it now seems to have a well-worn price: 500 pesos, or $9 (£7). Corruption runs deep, and the money pouring in doesn't seem to reach its destination.
"I came here very idealistic," Dr Alena says, sighing. "I was very aggressive to try and change the way the local health system worked. But then as time goes on you realise that three years is far too short to make any big changes."
As her time on Agutaya - a three-year-contract - drew to an end, many islanders told her they would be sad to see her go. "Time flies fast," said Ricardo, one of the senior nursing assistants, who described her as "selfless and hardworking".
As much as she helped, Dr Alena says she feels deeply frustrated at the end of her stint
But in the weeks since returning to Manila, Dr Alena says she has felt disappointed and even cynical about her experience working for local government. She was offered a job at the provincial health administration in Palawan but turned it down. Instead she wants to work in a medical charity or NGO.
Last week, she returned to Agutaya as part of an NGO-run programme. For decades, the NGO, with the help of local and international donors, has been regularly sending specialist doctors to the islands to do minor surgeries.
But this time Dr Alena's journey didn't last two and half days. She, along with other doctors, arrived there three hours after taking off from Manila - they touched down on a runway on the luxury island of Amanpulo. | https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64948453 |
Newhaven: Man arrested after man and woman found dead - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A 64-year-old man has been arrested after the bodies of a man and woman were found on Friday. | Sussex | Part of the graveyard in Lewes Road has been cordoned off by police
A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the bodies of a man and a woman were found at an address in East Sussex.
The 33-year-old man and 30-year-old woman were discovered in a property in Lewes Road, Newhaven, just after 19:00 BST on Friday.
A 64-year-old man from Brighton is in custody.
Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.
Part of the graveyard on Lewes Road has been cordoned off, which is next to the house at the centre of the investigation.
The house at the centre of the investigation is next door to a graveyard
Det Ch Insp Kimball Edey said: "We are in the early stages of this fast-moving investigation, following a tragic incident in which two people have sadly lost their lives.
"I understand this will be alarming to the community and there will be an increased police presence in the area for some time.
"I would like to thank the public for their patience and understanding while we establish the full circumstances."
Police said the two victims were discovered in a property in Lewes Road
Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected]. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-65866092 |
Canadian province of Quebec sees progress in wildfire battle - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Quebec has seen improvements in the last 48 hours but country's west coast warns fire challenges ahead. | US & Canada | Quebec has put out more than a dozen fires since 1 June. The province is still battling 127 fires as of Friday
Quebec has made progress in its battle to fight wildfires that have contributed to the smoke that blanketed large parts of North America this week.
"We're really happy with the last 48 hours," said Philippe Bergeron, with Quebec's firefighting agency, on Friday.
Some evacuees in the province are hopeful they can soon return home.
Canada is currently battling more than 400 wildfires burning across the country.
Mr Bergeron said that firefighters have been successful in putting out a few fires, as well as containing larger ones in the province that have not grown as much in the last few days.
On Friday, Quebec said it had allocated C$1,500 ($1,120; £890) for every household that had been forced to evacuate in the province because of the fires.
But despite improvements in that province, on the west coast, officials in British Columbia (BC) are warning of a "wild" fire season ahead.
On Thursday, residents of the town of Tumbler Ridge, in north-eastern BC, were ordered to evacuated due to a rapidly growing fire nearby.
In Quebec, where about 120 fires are currently burning, residents from Oujé-Bougoumou told the BBC that they are getting regular updates about the fire threatening their Cree community.
Oujé-Bougoumou evacuees have been sheltering in local colleges in the city of Saguenay, around 392km (243 miles) southwest of their community.
Several fires are also threatening other nearby indigenous communities, like Chibougamau, which has also been evacuated.
Lance Cooper, the deputy chief of Oujé-Bougoumou, said his town of some 650 people had to evacuate quickly as thick clouds of smoke and flames encroached on Tuesday.
He said when evacuation efforts began, the town was focused on getting its most vulnerable people out, like the elderly and people with respiratory issues, due to concerns about air quality.
But within hours, they received a call from Quebec's firefighting agency warning the situation had grown more dangerous.
"They had told us that everybody must go," Mr Cooper told the BBC.
They cleared the community very quickly after that, he said.
Wildfire smoke filled the skies of Ouje-Bougoumou on Tuesday, hours before the entire community was forced to evacuate.
Mr Cooper said that by the time he left, on the only highway out of town, what would have been a two-hour trip turned into a six-hour journey, with cars of evacuees from the region driving bumper-to-bumper .
He said his community's evacuees have been welcomed in Saguenay, a city of 145,000 people, where they have spent the past few days at makeshift shelters set up in local colleges, sleeping on military beds.
But they are well taken care of, he said and the Cree community has been organising activities for the evacuated youth, like paintball games and movie nights.
"It's like we're on a camping trip," Mr Cooper joked.
But he said the situation has been scary for the community, who has never been forced to evacuate due to wildfires before.
People are hopeful that their homes will be spared, he said.
Some communities across Canada have already lost homes as a result of this year's devastating wildfire season.
In Alberta, around 85 structures have been destroyed on the Little Red Cree Nation, a spokesperson told Global News.
At least another 150 homes were destroyed in the Atlantic province of Nova Scotia, local authorities had said.
Canada is relying on the help of firefighters from around the world, who have come to battle the unprecedented wildfire season.
Just over 100 arrived from France to Quebec on Thursday and they will be deployed on the ground by Saturday.
The unusual scale and number of fires this season have raised questions in Canada on whether the country needs to bolster its firefighting ability to grapple what the government has said is the result of climate change.
Mr Cooper said his community is already reckoning with a warming climate around them.
"I think we're gonna probably see more and more of these fires down the road," he said.
"Hopefully many of us will be spared from ever having to experience our homes burning." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65864198 |
Carlton Queen capsize: Passengers plan to sue owners of boat - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The passengers narrowly escaped with their lives when the Carlton Queen capsized. | Nottingham | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. The Carlton Queen capsized in the Red Sea during a diving trip
Passengers who narrowly escaped with their lives from a yacht when it capsized are planning legal action in order to hold the owners to account.
They do not believe the Carlton Queen, which capsized during a diving trip in the Red Sea, was seaworthy.
The size of the boat had been increased as part of a recent refurbishment, and it was visibly listing to one side after it set off from Egypt.
The owners told the BBC the matter was being investigated.
There were 26 passengers - whose nationalities included British, Belgian, Swiss and German - on board the Carlton Queen when it capsized on 24 April.
David Taylor, from Treswell in Nottinghamshire, thought he and his son Christian were going to die when they realised they were trapped below deck.
"I started to lose the plot. I really was panicking we were going to die. There was no way to get out," he said.
He said they and a Spanish passenger, Fernando Suarez Mella, had tried and failed to open an escape hatch.
"Fernando was desperately trying to find a way to open this escape hatch but all we saw was a decorative wooden façade with no handles," he said.
David and Christian Taylor had been enjoying their trip to Egypt before the boat capsized
They were unable to walk up a set of stairs because the boat was on its side.
Christian was only able to escape by climbing up his dad, who then escaped by climbing up Fernando, who potentially sacrificed himself because there was nobody left for him to climb on.
"This for me was the hardest part of the escape, because Fernando looked up at me and he said 'You've got to go'," said David.
"He said 'Go, you've got to save your son'. And I left him. And I didn't know if he was going to survive."
David, Christian and Fernando could not get up the stairs, because the boat was on its side
David said he had decided to speak about what happened in order to raise awareness and warn others.
"We missed so many indicator signs that things were wrong," he said.
"A few of our group did approach the captain with their concerns and they were told numerous things but not to worry.
"The question is, why did a brand-new refurbished boat capsize in calm waters? It makes no sense."
The owners, Carlton Fleet, told the BBC: "The Egyptian authorities are conducting an investigation into the matter.
"We are awaiting the results of the investigation."
Sally Nolan, pictured here with her son in Australia, feared she might die
Sally Nolan was also among the passengers. She is British but has lived in Altea, Spain, for 20 years.
"I remember thinking it was like a scene out of a disaster movie and I may not see my children again," she said.
She was thrown off a sofa when the boat started tipping over and had to hang on to a table leg.
"I had a horrible feeling of dread at this point and instinctively knew that the boat was going to capsize," she said.
"The boat then went totally on its side to 90 degrees and I was left hanging on with all my strength hoping that the table was secure enough to hold me.
"My friend, Terri, who had been sat to the left of me, was unable to hold on. She fell past me over furniture and railings into the sea and I lost sight of her."
The passengers were rescued with the help of another boat, the VIP Shrouq.
"Our friend, Fernando, still remained missing for quite a while and his story is still so hard to hear," said Sally.
Fernando Suarez Mella said he took the biggest breath he had ever taken to escape
Fernando, who was still trapped and unable to climb the stairs, waited until the water level inside the boat was higher, which meant he could float up.
He then reached the saloon, which was flooded, so he had to dive under the water to get out.
"I took the biggest breath I've ever taken in my life. I filled my lungs, because I didn't know how long I needed to stay under the water," he said.
Fortunately, another passenger - Christian Hanson - had the foresight to smash the glass doors leading out of the saloon. If he had not done this before the saloon flooded, the water pressure would have prevented Fernando opening the doors, and he would still have been trapped.
All 26 passengers were rescued, and the captain and crew also survived
A GoFundMe page has been set up by a German passenger called Dominic Schmitt, in order to fund the legal action against Carlton Fleet.
Mr Schmitt said he wanted to "make sure that no one has ever to experience what we have experienced and what could have been easily prevented".
Michèle Colenso, who lives in Dorset, fears that other people will be killed.
"As a group we are acutely aware that a number of factors coincided so that we were all rescued, most significantly the fact the incident occurred in daylight and we were a single group with an unusually high degree of survival and rescue training," Michèle said.
She believes there are wider problems with diving boats in Egypt, because they are often refurbished to increase their size, due to a restriction on building new boats.
"We would like to see significant improvements to how maritime practices are applied to diving services worldwide and especially in Egypt," she said.
Michèle Colenso (in the foreground, wearing a grey and green top) fears other people will be killed
Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, on Twitter, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
• None Yacht escape was life and death situation, man says | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-65832699 |
More than 600 Glasgow City Council vehicles not LEZ compliant - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Glasgow City Council is having to hire vans as vehicles in its fleet are banned from the low emission zone. | Glasgow & West Scotland | Glasgow City Council is having to hire vehicles because some of its own fleet does not meet new rules on emissions.
More than 600 of its vehicles are not allowed inside the city's Low Emission Zone (LEZ) introduced last week.
The council said only a small number of the non-compliant vehicles were required to enter the zone but they include all its uplift trucks used for parking enforcement.
The GMB union said the cost of hiring vehicles was a waste of resources.
Of the 1,615 vehicles owned by Glasgow City council, 616 are non-compliant meaning they are no longer allowed inside the council's new LEZ.
A spokeswoman for Glasgow City Council told the BBC: "New LEZ compliant vehicles are expected to be delivered to us in the near future and we are also retrofitting existing vehicles to improve emissions standards across our fleet.
"LEZ compliant vehicles have been hired in the short term to ensure emissions standards are met and this will allow older vehicles to be taken out of service in line with our ongoing fleet replacement programme."
The spokesperson added the LEZ was crucial to improving air quality in the city centre.
The council's fleet includes a variety of cars, buses, lorries and vans used by to carry out various aspects of council business.
Among the non-complaint vehicles is a limousine used to by the council's Lord Provost, according to the Scottish Daily Express.
The LEZ covers an area from the M8 motorway to the north and west of Glasgow, the River Clyde to the south, and the Saltmarket/High Street to the east.
The restrictions were introduced last week but similar restrictions have been in place for buses and heavy good vehicles since 2018.
Speaking on BBC Scotland's Drivetime, Chris Mitchell from the GMB union said the council "should have thought of this a long time ago".
Mr Mitchell, who works as a refuse collector for the council said: "The majority of the vehicles I deal with are non-complaint for the LEZ because they are the best part of 15 years old and obviously we still need to provide a service within the city centre.
"Unfortunately they've had to hire in a number of vehicles at a pretty penny, at a cost to the council - well, at a cost to the taxpayer."
Mr Mitchell said the types of vehicles being hired were "small flat-bed" vehicles, used for collecting rubbish.
The Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said no new bin lorries had been hired to meet LEZ requirements although some lorries were hired under a pre-existing arrangement.
She was unable to provide a figure at this time for the cost of hiring replacement vehicles. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-65861870 |
Key allies rewarded in Johnson resignation honours list - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The former PM's close allies are given honours in a list published just before he resigned as an MP. | UK Politics | Some of Boris Johnson's closest allies - including Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg - have been rewarded with peerages and other awards in the former PM's honours list.
It was published hours before Mr Johnson stepped down as an MP.
Former secretaries of state Simon Clarke and Mr Rees-Mogg were knighted, while Ms Patel was made a dame.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen and London Assembly member Shaun Bailey are among seven new peers.
No serving MPs were given peerages, avoiding by-elections for the Tories. But there will now be one in Mr Johnson's own constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Former Conservative minister Nadine Dorries was not put forward for the House of Lords, despite speculation she would be on the published list.
Ms Dorries - who served as culture secretary under Mr Johnson - stood down as an MP "with immediate effect" just over an hour before the honours list was released.
The resignation honours list is a tradition that gives outgoing prime ministers the opportunity to nominate people for honours.
The long-awaited list, approved nine months after Mr Johnson resigned as prime minister, included 38 honours and seven peerages.
Kulveer Singh Ranger, a former director of transport while Mr Johnson was London mayor, and former Downing Street chief of staff Dan Rosenfield are also among those who will enter the Lords.
Charlotte Owen, a former adviser to Mr Johnson, will become one of the youngest peers, as will fellow advisers Ben Gascoigne and Ross Kempsell.
Honours were handed out to some of Mr Johnson's closest advisers during his premiership, including former directors of communications Jack Doyle and Guto Harri, who were both made CBEs.
Also among recipients were aides who served with Mr Johnson during the scandal over lockdown parties in Downing Street during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Martin Reynolds, Mr Johnson's former principal private secretary, was awarded the Order of Bath.
In May 2020, Mr Reynolds sent an invite to a "bring your own booze" party to Downing Street staff when the nation was under lockdown.
Ben Elliot, the former co-chair of the Conservative Party, has also been awarded a knighthood, as have Tory MPs Michael Fabricant and Conor Burns, two Mr Johnson loyalists.
The first name on the list was Tory MP and long-standing Brexit backer Bill Cash, who has become a companion of honour.
Membership is a special award granted to those "who have made a major contribution to the arts, science, medicine, or government" and it is only held by up to 65 people at any one time.
Rishi Sunak has approved Mr Johnson's resignation honours list and "forwarded it unamended" to King Charles, the prime minister's press secretary said.
"He had no involvement or input into the approved list," the press secretary said.
By convention, a former prime minister's resignation list of new peers is forwarded to the House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC), which vets appointments.
Another Tory MP who did not feature on the list, despite being widely tipped for a peerage, was Alok Sharma, who was president of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Usually when sitting MPs are given peerages, they resign their seats, triggering by-elections.
Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen was among those to be made a peer
Following the Partygate scandal and the political turbulence of Mr Johnson's premiership, the former PM's honours list was always expected to be controversial and to provoke fierce criticism.
Some of the reaction to the names published on Friday has met those expectations.
A formerly loyal aide to Mr Johnson branded the honours list "an utter disgrace", telling the BBC it was "rewards for failure all round".
They said: "Boris has slammed the door shut on the prospect of any return to the frontline of British politics and trashed what remained of his legacy."
Labour's deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said it was "shameful" that Mr Sunak had "failed to stand up to his former boss's outrageous demands and agreed to hand out prizes to this carousel of cronies".
"He promised integrity, but this weak prime minister is once again showing his appalling judgement by doing Boris Johnson's bidding," Ms Rayner said.
And Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: "Boris Johnson has been allowed to hand out gongs to his Partygate pals, and Rishi Sunak has just waved it through."
The seven new peers on Mr Johnson's honours list will enter a House of Lords that already has more than 800 members.
The Electoral Reform Society campaign group said Mr Johnson's resignation list "demonstrates just how discredited and partisan the honours system has become".
"It's time to end this rotten system of patronage and replace the unelected Lords with a smaller elected chamber, where the people of this country - not former prime ministers - choose who shape the laws we all live under," its chief executive Darren Hughes said.
Boris Johnson is loyal to those who are loyal to him. And his resignation honours list underlines this - until the ink runs out.
Almost all of the 45 names know him personally. Many worked for him either at No 10 or when he was London mayor.
Even his current spokesman has been transformed into a legislator, with a seat in the House of Lords.
And for anyone who assumed that meritocracy might play a part in the honours system, a long-standing parliamentary hairdresser, Kelly Dodge, gets a gong for doing... Mr Johnson's hair.
Yes, you read that correctly. Mr Johnson's mop.
But just as Mr Johnson rewards loyalty, he has more subtly made clear disloyalty comes at a price.
He must know that a list strewn with reminders of the Partygate era will make the current PM uncomfortable.
The list is crammed with dames and knighthoods for some of Mr Johnson's defenders in the parliamentary party.
But there are plenty of Conservative detractors, those who describe the list as "ghastly" or full of "sycophants".
For them, the list has damaged their party specifically and trust in politics more generally.
But it also allows the opposition to portray Rishi Sunak as weak for not blocking the list.
But Mr Johnson was a very unconventional occupant of No 10. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65861936 |
John Finucane: Celebrating terrorism a disgrace, MP told - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Relative of IRA bomb atrocity victim criticises MP's planned attendance at an IRA commemoration event. | Northern Ireland | John Finucane is the MP for North Belfast
A relative of one of the victims of an IRA bomb atrocity in Coleraine nearly 50 years ago has criticised a Sinn Féin MP's planned attendance at a "South Armagh Volunteers commemoration".
North Belfast MP John Finucane is billed as the main speaker at the event in Mullaghbawn on Sunday.
The move has been condemned by victims and unionist politicians.
Sinn Féin has said everyone has the right "to remember their dead with dignity and respect".
Nan Davis was among six Protestants killed in the Coleraine attack on 12 June 1973.
Her granddaughter Lesley Magee said celebrating terrorism is "a disgrace".
"I don't think we should be commemorating terrorism on any level, whether it be Protestant, whether it be Catholic," she told BBC News NI.
"I have equal animosity towards both. I have no issue with anyone's religion, whether it be Protestant, Catholic, Judaism - whatever; I don't care.
"All I am interested in is the person that I know. But when we are celebrating terrorism, I think it is a disgrace."
Ms Magee said she did not think Mr Finucane should be at the event on Sunday.
"I don't think any MP should be at some kind of commemoration to celebrate a terrorist," she added.
"I mean what did that bomb in Coleraine achieve, by killing six pensioners? What did it achieve, other than it robbed families of their loved ones?"
An event to remember those killed in the Coleraine atrocity is due to take place on Monday, and a permanent memorial to the victims will be unveiled.
Ms Magee was 10 at the time of her grandmother's death and described the impact on the family.
"I remember vividly my mum being hysterical," she added.
"It was just an awful time for the family.
"There were three siblings and the youngest one lived in England and he was very, very close to his mother.
"He's still alive. He's 80-odd now and if you were to speak to him about it now, at 80-odd he would still cry."
Six people were killed when the bomb exploded in Coleraine in 1973
Mr Finucane's father, solicitor Pat Finucane, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen at his home in Belfast in 1989.
A woman whose husband was shot dead by loyalists in Kennedy Way in west Belfast in January 1973 called BBC Radio Ulster's The Nolan Show on Friday.
Mary from Lurgan, County Armagh, said Mr Finucane should "think strongly" about what he was planning to do.
"John should know exactly how I feel. I always thought at the time of his father, when we lose someone like that we have a bond with each other, we all have a bond as a victim," she added.
"So I would love to see what John is going to say to that commemoration.
"If he has a heart at all, he should know how we feel."
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said Mr Finucane's plan to go to the IRA commemoration is "wrong" and reopens wounds for victims
Democratic Unionist Party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson has said Mr Finucane's plan to go to the IRA commemoration is "wrong" and reopens wounds for victims.
"The scars are still there, the broken homes remain, the broken lives are still there," he said.
"I would simply say to John Finucane, do you believe that your attendance and participation in that event is conducive towards what we are trying to build for Northern Ireland in the future, a shared future?"
Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie has said he thought the commemoration was "scandalous", while Tánaiste Micheál Martin urged Mr Finucane not to address the commemoration, saying any attempt to "celebrate or glorify horrible deeds from the past" was not the correct way forward.
However, earlier this week Sinn Féin assembly member Conor Murphy dismissed the row as a diversionary tactic by the DUP.
"I think what we are in here is distraction politics," Mr Murphy said.
"The real issue is here is the fact that public services are crashing round our ears."
Conor Murphy said the row over Mr Finucane's attendance at a republican event in south Armagh was a DUP diversionary tactic
BBC News NI has made a number of attempts to speak to Mr Finucane about Sunday's IRA commemoration event, but to no avail.
In a statement to BBC News NI previously, Sinn Féin said: "Everyone has the right to remember their dead with dignity and respect.
"We will continue to stand with families who have lost loved ones in the conflict."
Last year in a BBC interview, Sinn Féin's vice-president Michelle O'Neill said "the only way that we're ever going to build a better future is to understand that it's OK to have a different take on the past".
"My narrative is a very different one to someone who has perhaps lost a loved one at the hands of republicans," she continued.
"So I think that we need to be mature enough to say, that's OK, we'll have to agree to differ on that one, but let's make sure the conditions never exist again that we find ourselves in that scenario."
• None Finucane urged to 'step away' from commemoration | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65854549 |
Fake grass: Minister performs artificial turf ban U-turn - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Julie James says she will not try to ban artificial grass, despite suggesting she would like to. | Wales | Minister Julie James has said artificial grass "isn't the short-term solution it looks like"
Fake grass will not be banned in Wales, a minister has said, just days after she said she was exploring the idea.
On Wednesday, Climate Change Minister Julie James said she wanted to see whether a new law banning some single-use plastics could be used for this.
Her comments sparked a backlash from a business owner who said a ban would put her livelihood at risk.
"I don't have the power to ban artificial grass tomorrow morning. And even if I did, I wouldn't," she said.
Instead, she said she wanted to help people understand the environmental impact of using it in their gardens.She told Politics Wales: "I think we can help people understand how you can have an environmentally friendly bio diverse small space that is very low.
Julie James said she does not have the power to ban artificial grass
"And what we'll do is we'll, you know, embark on a journey with the Welsh public as we always do, to get people to understand."
Businesswoman Carol Hustwitt sells artificial grass on Anglesey and previously said a possible ban on the synthetic material would be "very extreme".
"If that were to come into play, I would have no business," she said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65861623 |
Tom Holland: Spider-Man star to take a year-long break from acting - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The English Spider-Man star says his "tough" latest project had left him feeling broken. | Entertainment & Arts | Holland said working on his latest TV series The Crowded Room left him feeling broken
Tom Holland has said he will take a year-long break from acting in order to look after his mental health.
The English Spider-Man star admitted he had a "tough time" while working on his latest project, The Crowded Room, and had been left feeling broken by it.
Holland, 27, both stars in and produced the Apple TV+ thriller series.
It sees him play a character loosely based on "the campus rapist" Billy Milligan, a US man who claimed to have 24 alternate personalities.
Milligan was the first person to be found not guilty of his crimes by reason of insanity - on the basis of dissociative identity disorder - and instead of going to prison he spent a decade in psychiatric hospitals.
Holland, pictured on set during the filming of his new series, The Crowded Room, in New York last year
In an interview with Extra TV on Wednesday, Holland said the role found him "exploring certain emotions that I have definitely never experienced before", while the off-camera responsibilities had added an "extra level of pressure".
"I'm no stranger to hard work," he said. "I've lived by the idea that hard work is good work. Then again, the show did break me.
"There did come a time where I needed a break and disappeared and went to Mexico for a week and had time on a beach and laid low.
"I'm now taking a year off, and that is a result of how difficult this show was. I am excited to see how it turns out. I feel like our hard work wasn't in vain."
"It was a tough time, for sure," he added.
In a separate interview with Entertainment Weekly last month, the Bafta-winner revealed he'd had a "a bit of a meltdown" after being unable to switch the character off, and wanted to shake his head just to be rid of him.
"I was seeing myself in him, but in my personal life," he said "I remember having a bit of a meltdown at home and thinking, like, 'I'm going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character.'
"And, obviously, we were mid-shooting, so I decided not to… It was unlike anything I've ever experienced before."
It is not the first time the London-born actor has addressed such concerns. As last year, he announced he was stepping back from social media, saying he finds it can be "detrimental" to his mental health.
The year before Holland said he was considering giving up acting, which he began aged 11, altogether in order to be able to "go and do other things".
You may also be interested in: | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65854793 |
Swashbuckling poet Cranogwen is third woman in Wales to get statue - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Cranogwen has become only the third real woman in Wales to have a statue built commemorating her. | Wales | A statue of Cranogwen was unveiled in Llangrannog on Saturday
A statue of the poet Cranogwen has become only the third sculpture in Wales of a real woman.
The image was unveiled in Llangrannog, Ceredigion, on Saturday as part of a campaign to recognise women's contribution in Wales.
It is part of Monumental Welsh Women's plan to erect five effigies of Welsh women in five years.
Cranogwen - the writer's bardic name - was the first woman to win a poetry prize at the National Eisteddfod.
A pioneer in many fields she challenged expectations of women during the Victorian era.
Born in Llangrannog 1839 as Sarah Jane Rees, she became one of Wales' most popular poets and also worked as a head teacher, ship's captain, campaigner and journalist.
The first woman to edit a Welsh-language women's magazine, called 'Y Frythones', she used it to encourage female talent and gave women a platform.
More than £75,000 was raised to fund the sculpture.
Monumental Welsh Women founder, Helen Molyneux, said: "This permanent memorial of Cranogwen will stand in the heart of her beloved community of Llangrannog, and will serve as both commemoration of a remarkable, brave and pioneering woman and her many ground-breaking achievements and as inspiration to all of us who came after her."
She was one of Wales' most popular poets and also worked as a head teacher, ship's captain, campaigner and journalist
Sculptor Sebastien Boyesen said creating the statue had been "a long journey".
He said he hoped people would like it, adding: "I looked at it this morning and I am quite happy. It's been an absolute privilege to do this work."
A colourful procession was held to mark the unveiling
The other statues that have been erected are of Wales' first black headteacher, Betty Campbell, in Cardiff, and writer Elaine Morgan in Mountain Ash, in Rhondda Cynon Taf.
Sculpture steering committee and Senedd member, Elin Jones, said she achieved locally, nationally and internationally "when it was not acceptable for women to do such things".
Colourful flags were on show depicting the Welsh poet
The unveiling was marked by a procession from the Gwersyll to the village led by Owerin dancers and songs were performed by the community choir.
A talk about Cranogwen was also held about her life and achievements.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65867326 |
Welsh language: Driver wins case over English-only parking fine - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A parking firm has lost a case against a driver after she requested the details of a fine in Welsh. | Wales | Ms Thomas initially received a £60 fine after parking at Lligwy beach, near Moelfre, Anglesey, in August 2021
A parking firm has lost a civil case against a motorist over an unpaid £160 fine after she requested the details in Welsh rather than just in English.
A judge ruled against Simple Intelligent Parking Ltd, which had not provided information bilingually.
Elysteg Llwyd Thomas from Dyffryn Nantlle, Gwynedd, had been sent details of an initial £60 fine in English.
The firm told S4C Newyddion that it was disappointed and intended to appeal against the decision.
Ms Thomas sent a reply to say that she would be ready to pay once the company sent all correspondence bilingually, including a copy of the fine, following a stay at Lligwy beach, near Moelfre, Anglesey, in August 2021.
Her request was ignored and she was informed that the penalty had increased to £100, which was later raised again to £160.
Ms Thomas was represented in the civil case in Caernarfon by her father, Eifion Lloyd Jones, a member of Welsh language campaign group Dyfodol i'r Iaith.
The civil case centred on the parking firm sending details in English only
Judge Merfyn Jones-Evans rejected the parking company's application and issued a judicial warning that all signs in car parks in Wales should be bilingual.
Referring to the Protection of Freedom Act 2012, his ruling stated that notices in Welsh or English only were not "sufficient notices" in Wales.
After the case, Mr Jones from Prion, Denbighshire, said he hoped the judge's warning would lead to the end of Welsh people being penalised for asking for correspondence in Welsh but said he anticipated the "struggle will continue for a while yet".
Dylan Rhys Jones, head of the School of Law at Wrexham's Glyndwr University, said he believed "absolutely no precedent" had been set by the case.
"There can be another case heard next week and a decision to the contrary made," he added.
"If people continue to challenge fines that are given in English only like this, and that companies realise that it is cheaper for them in a way to provide documentation in Welsh rather than going to court... then it is going to be cheaper for them to provide documents in Welsh."
Simple Intelligent Parking Ltd said: "We are waiting for the written judgment so that we can take the appropriate steps.
"However, we anticipate that we will appeal against the decision as it is wrong according to the law."
Welsh Language Commissioner Efa Gruffudd Jones said she was in "direct contact with a number of parking companies and... many have already and are adapting their machines, websites and apps to include the Welsh language". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65865223 |
Puberty blockers to be given only in clinical research - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | NHS England says the drugs will only be prescribed for those signed up to a clinical research programme. | UK | The controversial Tavistock Centre was earmarked for closure in 2022
Puberty blockers will only be prescribed to children attending gender identity services as part of clinical research, NHS England has announced.
The move comes after an interim report into children's gender services said there were "gaps in evidence" around the drugs.
Blockers are used to "pause puberty" and work by supressing hormone release.
Dr Hilary Cass's report called for a transformation in the model of care for children with gender-related distress.
Currently, if a child seeks medical help, the drugs are one of the options a doctor could offer to help delay the onset of physical changes that do not match a child's gender identity.
This change will come into effect when new clinics replacing the Gender Identity and Development Service (Gids) begin to open later this year. No patients being treated by the current Gids service will be affected.
Children and their families will also be "strongly discouraged" from obtaining gender-affirming drugs such as hormones, from "unregulated sources" or online providers.
A clinical study, run by the new Children and Young People's Gender Dysphoria Research and Oversight Board, will look at the impact of drugs which delay puberty.
Further details on how the study will run will be released in the coming weeks, but only those signed up to take part in the research will be prescribed puberty blockers, except in exceptional circumstances on a case-by-case basis.
It is expected that the study will mostly involve looking at patient data and records.
Recent data from Gids looked at a random selection of 312 patients in one year and found 47 of them accessed hormone suppressants.
An NHS spokesperson said: "The NHS is today publishing an interim specification for gender services for children and young people in line with advice and recommendations from the Independent Cass Review - this will allow the new centres to finalise their preparation for service provision later this year.
"The NHS is now engaging on the proposal that puberty blockers will not be made routinely available outside of research. We will develop a study into the impact of puberty blockers on gender dysphoria in children and young people with early-onset gender dysphoria, which aims to be up and running in 2024."
More than 5,000 people responded to a consultation on the new service specification last year, and the new model will be implemented when the first of the new clinics opens in the south of England this autumn in partnerships with children's hospitals.
The current service, run by the Tavistock and Portman Trust, is to close in March 2024 following an independent review carried out by Dr Cass - the paediatrician found the service is "unsustainable" and said a new model of care is needed.
Dr Cass said many children referred to Gids have complex needs that can be sometimes overlooked and around a third have autism or other types of neurodiversity.
The NHS says a "significant proportion" of young people with concerns related to their gender can also experience other complexities related to mental health, neuro-development and family or social matters.
The new service will take a new "holistic" approach, focusing on the needs of each child individually with "careful therapeutic exploration".
It will be updated further after the final report by Dr Cass is published.
In order to be prescribed puberty blockers on the NHS, a patient would currently need to first be assessed by Gids and referred to an endocrinologist.
More than 7,000 young people under the age of 18 are awaiting their first appointment, with the waiting list thought to be more than three and a half years long. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65860272 |
I've been forced out over Partygate report, says Boris Johnson - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Boris Johnson is to step down as an MP but insists that "I did not lie" over Covid lockdowns. | UK Politics | Boris Johnson was fined for attending a birthday gathering in the Cabinet Room in 2020
Boris Johnson has stepped down as a Tory MP after claiming he was "forced out of Parliament" over Partygate.
The ex-PM saw in advance a report by the Commons Privileges Committee investigating if he misled the Commons over Downing Street lockdown parties.
In an explosive and lengthy statement, he called the committee a "kangaroo court" whose purpose "has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts".
The committee said it had "followed the procedures and the mandate".
The cross-party committee of MPs - the majority of which are Conservative - added it would conclude its inquiry on Monday and "publish its report promptly".
Mr Johnson's resignation now triggers a by-election in his marginal constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
Delivering his announcement late on Friday evening, Mr Johnson said the draft report he had seen was "riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice", adding it was clear the committee was "determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament".
"They have still not produced a shred of evidence that I knowingly or recklessly misled the Commons," he said, insisting "I did not lie".
He also accused its chairwoman, Labour's Harriet Harman, of "egregious bias", saying he was "bewildered and appalled" at how he was being forced out.
The ex-prime minister previously admitted misleading Parliament when he gave evidence to the committee in a combative hearing in March - but denied doing it on purpose.
He said social distancing had not been "perfect" at gatherings in Downing Street during Covid lockdowns but insisted the guidelines, as he understood them, were followed at all times.
Mr Johnson also used his letter to attack the direction of the government, saying "we must not be afraid to be properly Conservative" and warning the party's majority was at risk.
"We need to show how we are making the most of Brexit and we need in the next months to be setting out a pro-growth and pro-investment agenda," Mr Johnson argued.
"Why have we so passively abandoned the prospect of a Free Trade Deal with the US? Why have we junked measures to help people into housing or to scrap EU directives or to promote animal welfare?"
It was a direct aim at Prime Minister Rishi Sunak - hours after he stepped off a plane from Washington where Mr Sunak was not talking about a free trade agreement with the US.
And Mr Johnson's statement was an attempt to rally Brexiteers in his party, suggesting his demise was driven by a motivation to "reverse the 2016 referendum result".
The statement contained further criticism of former senior civil servant Sue Gray, who investigated lockdown gatherings at Number 10.
"I am afraid I no longer believe that it is any coincidence" that she will soon become "chief of staff designate" of the Labour leader Sir Kier Starmer, Mr Johnson wrote.
Ending his 1,000-word letter, Mr Johnson said he was "very sad to be leaving Parliament" before adding - "at least for now" - for anyone thinking he is about to retreat into obscurity.
Mr Johnson's exit will trigger a by-election in his west London seat, which he held with a 7,000 vote majority in the 2019 election.
The Conservatives will also have to defend the Mid Bedfordshire seat of Nadine Dorries - a close ally of Mr Johnson - after she stepped down as an MP earlier on Friday.
Mr Johnson claims his removal is a "necessary first step" in attempts by some to reverse the 2016 Brexit result
Mr Johnson's dramatic move came after he was given the committee's findings, including details of criticisms it intended to make and evidence to support its conclusion.
He had faced a potential by-election if MPs recommended a suspension from the Commons as a punishment for misleading Parliament.
Responding to his statement, a Privileges Committee spokesperson said: "The committee has followed the procedures and the mandate of the House at all times and will continue to do so.
"Mr Johnson has departed from the processes of the House and has impugned the integrity of the House by his statement. The committee will meet on Monday to conclude the inquiry and to publish its report promptly."
Elsewhere, Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner condemned what she called a "never-ending Tory soap opera".
For the Liberal Democrats, deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: "Good riddance."
And SNP deputy Westminster leader Mhairi Black said Mr Johnson "jumped before he was pushed", adding "no-one in Scotland will be sorry to see the back of him".
However, former home secretary Priti Patel, who was made a Dame in his resignations honours list also announced on Friday, praised Mr Johnson for his work as prime minister on the issues of Ukraine and Brexit, describing him as "a political titan".
Boris Johnson's local Conservative association chairman, Richard Mills, said the former PM "has delivered on his promises to local residents".
Another sitting MP announced in the resignation honours list, Sir Michael Fabricant, criticised the Privileges Committee for what he called its "disgraceful treatment" of the former prime minister.
Mr Johnson was prime minister from July 2019 until September 2022, and has been an MP since 2001 - although not continuously, having served as mayor of London between 2008 and 2016. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65863267 |
Wildfire takes hold near caravan park at Daviot in Highlands - BBC News | 2023-06-10T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Fire crews are tackling a blaze at Daviot, south of Inverness, on the hottest day of the year. | Highlands & Islands | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Crews were sent to tackle the flames on the hottest day of the year for Scotland
Firefighters are tackling a wildfire which broke out south of Inverness.
Crews and six fire engines were sent to the Daviot area, near the Auchnahillin Holiday Park, at about 14:45 on Saturday.
The blaze is about 30 miles (48km) from Cannich - the site of another recent wildfire, thought to be the largest recorded in the UK.
It comes on the hottest day of the year for Scotland, after 29.8°C was recorded in Auchincruive, Ayrshire.
The SFRS had warned of a "very high" risk of wildfire this weekend.
A spokesperson told BBC Scotland that information about the latest blaze was limited as the incident was ongoing.
Six fire appliances were at the scene on Saturday evening
Local residents have been advised to keep windows and doors closed due to smoke.
Anita Gibson is the owner of the nearby Auchnahillin Holiday Park.
"There's a fire up on the hill across the road," she said. "We've been told we don't have to evacuate or anything. But the fire in Cannich was on our minds.
"We are just waiting to hear if we have to do anything, but we are not panicking yet."
Smoke from the blaze has affected the area stretching for several miles.
Smoke from the hill fire could be seen from all around the area
A spokesperson for the Meallmore care home in Inverness - about seven miles (11km) from the caravan park - said they had not been evacuated, but were "monitoring the situation closely and following advice".
The SFRS alert for wildfire risk covers most of Scotland. Parts of the Highlands, Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders were expected to reach "extreme" risk.
The blaze at Cannich burned for two weeks, causing extensive damage to an RSPB Scotland nature reserve.
Police Scotland said: "Emergency services are currently in attendance at a wildfire in the Daviot area south of Inverness.
"The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are currently dealing with the fire and we would ask local residents to keep windows and doors closed due to smoke." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-65867733 |
French Open 2023 results: Novak Djokovic beats Casper Ruud to win Paris title and claim 23rd major - BBC Sport | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | null | Novak Djokovic shows his greatness once again by beating Casper Ruud to win the French Open and claim a men's record 23rd Grand Slam title. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Novak Djokovic showed his greatness once again by overcoming a sticky start to win a men's record 23rd Grand Slam title with victory over Norway's Casper Ruud in the French Open final.
Djokovic, 36, was far from his best in the initial stages but his quality in a first-set tie-break laid the platform for a 7-6 (7-1) 6-3 7-5 victory.
The Serb moves into the outright lead of men's majors ahead of Rafael Nadal.
He also becomes the first man to win all four majors at least three times.
Victory on the Paris clay moves Djokovic alongside Serena Williams in terms of Grand Slam titles, with only Margaret Court standing in front of him with 24 majors.
"I'm beyond fortunate to win 23 Grand Slams in my life, it is incredible," said Djokovic, who also won the French Open in 2016 and 2021.
"I was a seven-year-old dreaming I could win Wimbledon one day and become number one in the world. I'm beyond grateful and and blessed to be standing here.
"I feel I had the power to create my own destiny. I want to say to every young person if you want a better future, you can create it."
Minutes after Djokovic won, Nadal paid tribute to his long-time rival.
"Many congratulations on this amazing achievement, 23 is a number that just a few years back was impossible to think about and you made it," the Spaniard wrote.
• None I don't want to say I'm the greatest - Djokovic
Djokovic will have the opportunity to tie Court's record at Wimbledon next month - a place where he has already won seven times and will be the favourite to equal Roger Federer's record tally of men's titles.
Djokovic instantly fell flat on his back in celebration as Ruud pulled a forehand wide on the second championship point.
After a commiserating hug with his opponent, Djokovic ran up to his support box where he celebrated with coach Goran Ivanisevic, wife Jelena, his two children, parents Dijana and Srdjan and NFL superstar Tom Brady.
The victory will also see Djokovic return to the top of the world rankings.
Fourth seed Ruud, who has lost all three of his major finals, congratulated Djokovic on "another day, another record".
Addressing his opponent, he added: "It is another day where you rewrite tennis history. It is tough to explain how great you are and what an inspiration you are."
Djokovic delivers on his date with destiny
Having made no secret of his ambition to win more major titles than fellow greats Nadal and Federer, this was Djokovic's date with destiny.
He pulled level with the pair on 20 triumphs at Wimbledon in 2021, but fell behind Nadal after missing the 2022 Australian Open following a row over his Covid-19 vaccination status that led to him being deported.
Nadal extended the advantage when he won last year's French Open but Djokovic has surged ahead after winning three of the past four Grand Slams.
Even before 14-time French Open champion Nadal pulled out of this year's tournament with injury, Djokovic was considered by many as the favourite, even though his own build-up had been hampered by physical problems.
Spanish top seed Carlos Alcaraz was the other main contender, but Djokovic beat him in the semi-finals after the 20-year-old suffered body cramps caused by the tension of facing one of the all-time greats.
It was Djokovic who looked more nervous in the early part of Sunday's final against 24-year-old Ruud.
Tight and tense, the third seed made a number of unforced errors as Ruud pushed him deep in the court and trailed 4-2 in the first set.
But Djokovic grew in stature as a long opening set wore on.
With a star-studded crowd including French footballer Kylian Mbappe and British actor Hugh Grant watching on, Djokovic used all of his vast experience to dominate the tie-break as Ruud wilted - and from that point on it felt there was only likely to be one outcome.
After Djokovic used his momentum to win a comparatively quick 48-minute second set, the third remained delicately poised until the Serb cranked up the pressure at another crucial juncture.
At 5-5, a blistering backhand winner instantly put Ruud on the back foot, with the Norwegian making an error before two more superb winners from the Serb set him up to serve for the title.
Djokovic raced into a 40-0 lead and, while pulling a forehand wide on the first championship point was slightly anti-climatic, he secured more history at the next time of asking.
'Close but no cigar' for Ruud
Ruud was aiming for his first major at the third attempt, following a chastening defeat by Nadal at Roland Garros and a four-set loss to Alcaraz in New York last year.
The world number four said reaching a second successive French Open final was important to show he was "not a one-time case".
"Probably that is going to plant some respect in my opponents' eyes and hopefully I can build on that," the Norwegian said.
"That [a Slam title] is my biggest goal, my biggest dream in my career and my life.
"It's been close but no cigar, so I'm going to keep working and try to get it one day."
'Nobody looks like stopping him' - reaction
Spain's Carlos Alcaraz, who Djokovic has replaced as world number one, on Twitter: "Many congrats for the trophy and for the new record!"
American 12-time major singles champion Billie Jean King on Twitter: "Congratulations to Novak on winning the Roland Garros men's singles title for the third time. He now has a record 23 Grand Slam tournament singles titles."
Former British number one Greg Rusedski on BBC Radio 5 Live: "He's just won the first two majors of the year. I wouldn't be surprised if he's on for the calendar Slam this year. Wimbledon is usually the easiest one for him to win.
"His health is still there, his mindset, his drive. It is incredible what this man has achieved.
"There is nothing and nobody out there who looks like they are going to stop him at the moment."
• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/65873164 |
Newhaven: Man charged with couple's murder after bodies found - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Derek Martin, 64, also known as Derek Glenn, of Brighton, is charged with two counts of murder. | Sussex | The bodies of Josh Bashford, 33, and Chloe Bashford, 30, were found by police at a house in Newhaven
A man has been charged with the murder of a married couple in East Sussex, police have confirmed.
The bodies of Josh Bashford, 33, and Chloe Bashford, 30, were found by police at a house in Lewes Road, Newhaven, on Friday night.
Derek Martin, 64, also known as Derek Glenn, of Moulsecoomb Way, Brighton, has been charged with two counts of murder.
He is due to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court on Monday.
Police said the two victims were discovered in a property in Lewes Road
Det Ch Insp Kimball Edey, of the Surrey and Sussex Major Crime Team, said: "Our thoughts remain with the families of the two victims at this extremely difficult time.
"While our work to establish the exact circumstances of what happened are ongoing, we are not seeking anyone else in connection with the matter.
"I'd like to thank the public for their understanding and remind them not to speculate or comment on anything which could jeopardise our investigation in the meantime."
The victims' next of kin have been informed and are being supported by police.
A post-mortem examination is due to take place next week.
Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected].
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-65870186 |
I am certain I committed no offence - Sturgeon following police questions - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Live updates after the former FM's arrest, questioning and release as part of an investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP. | Scotland | Police searched the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh in April Image caption: Police searched the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh in April
Over the coming days and weeks, Police Scotland is likely to continue to investigate and gather more evidence. They can also ask for guidance from the body which prosecutes crimes in Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
If a suspect is charged with a crime, they generally cannot be questioned again by the police, although they can make a statement.
Ultimately, the detectives will send what is called a standard prosecution report to COPFS.
Prosecutors will then consider whether there is sufficient evidence to suggest a crime was committed and that the suspect was responsible.
They will take the public interest into account. That can be influenced by the particular circumstances of the case - for example, whether the person involved was in a position of trust or authority.
If they feel the evidence meets the necessary tests, the case will go to court.
Alternatively, COPFS can instruct the police to carry out further inquiries if they decide there is insufficient evidence.
If they are still not satisfied there is enough to justify a prosecution, the case would go no further.
Read more: Why was Nicola Sturgeon arrested and what happens next? | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-65872495 |
Boris Johnson: People don't miss the drama, says Shapps - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The energy secretary tells Laura Kuenssberg people – both inside the Tory party and out - don't miss the drama of Johnson's premiership. | UK Politics | We're ending our live coverage now. Thanks for following along as Laura Kuenssberg and her guests have dug into the detail of Boris Johnson's resignation and its aftermath - as well as her interview with Scotland's new First Minister Humza Yousaf.
We've loads more for you to read:
• Country wants to move on from Boris Johnson, says Shapps
• Boris Johnson: Laura Kuenssberg on the facts, farce and his future
And of course we'll be back in a week for next Sunday's programme - by which time we expect there will have been plenty of time for everyone to trawl through that Privileges Committee report on Johnson.
Today's coverage was written by Ece Goksedef, Alexandra Binley and Heather Sharp. It was edited by Jamie Whitehead. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-65861772 |
Ukraine counter-offensive actions have begun, Zelensky says - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Ukraine's president refused to say which stage the counter-offensive against Russian forces was in. | Europe | Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have confirmed that his country's long-awaited counter-offensive against Russia has started.
"Counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place," he said.
But he added that he would not talk in detail about which stage or state the counter-offensive was in.
The comments come after an escalation of fighting in the south and east of Ukraine and speculation about progress of the widely anticipated push.
Ukrainian troops are reported to have advanced in the east near Bakhmut and in the south near Zaporizhzhia, and have carried out long-range strikes on Russian targets.
But assessing the reality on the front lines is difficult, with the two warring sides presenting contrasting narratives: Ukraine claiming progress and Russia that it is fighting off attacks.
Meanwhile in Russia's Kaluga region - which borders the southern districts around Moscow - governor Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram that a drone crashed near the village of Strelkovk early on Sunday. The BBC has not independently verified the report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video interview published Friday that Ukrainian forces had certainly begun their offensive but that attempted advances had failed with heavy casualties.
Speaking in Kyiv on Saturday after talks with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Mr Zelensky described the Russian leader's words as "interesting".
Shrugging his shoulders, raising his eyebrows and pretending not to know who Mr Putin was, Mr Zelensky said it was important that Russia felt "they do not have long left".
He also said that Ukraine's military commanders were in a positive mood, adding: "Tell that to Putin."
Mr Trudeau announced 500 million Canadian dollars (£297m) in new military aid for Ukraine during the unannounced visit.
A joint statement issued after the talks said Canada supports Ukraine becoming a Nato member "as soon as conditions allow for it", adding that the issue would be discussed at the Nato Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.
Meanwhile, fighting has escalated in recent days in the key southern Zaporizhzhia region, Russian officials say. Ukrainian forces are thought to be trying to push south to split Russian forces in two, breaking through the occupied territory which connects Russia to Crimea.
Ukraine's hope of advances in the region could be hindered by huge flooding in the south of the country after the Nova Khakovka dam was destroyed last week.
The flooding has covered around 230 square miles (596 sq km) either side of the Dnipro River.
In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said 3,000 people have been evacuated from the flooded Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
And Kherson's regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said water levels had dropped by 27cm, but more than 30 settlements on the right bank of the river - which is Ukrainian-held territory - were still flooded and almost 4,000 residential buildings remained underwater.
Nato and Ukraine's military have accused Russia of blowing up the dam, while Russia has blamed Ukraine.
However, it seems highly likely that Russian forces, which controlled the dam, decided to blow it up in order to make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to cross the river as part of their ongoing counteroffensive, the BBC's Paul Adams says. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65866880 |
Colombia plane crash: Children reunited with family after 40 days in Amazon - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The children have begun playing again in hospital, officials say, as the eldest is praised for her care. | Latin America & Caribbean | The four children are at the central military hospital in the capital Bogota
Four children who survived weeks alone in Colombia's Amazon jungle have been reunited with relatives as they recover in hospital.
The siblings, aged 13, nine, five and one, are "very weak" but "happy to see their family", said their grandfather, Fidencio Valencia.
They are speaking a little and two of them have begun playing, officials say.
The four children were found on Friday after more than a month of searching by the military and local people.
They went missing after the plane they were in crashed on 1 May. Their mother and two pilots were killed in the crash.
Rescuers tracked them down after spotting signs in the jungle, including footprints and fruit that had been bitten into.
Two of the children, the one-year-old baby and five-year-old, spent their birthdays in the jungle, as the eldest Lesly, 13, guided them through the ordeal.
They survived by eating flour that they found in the plane's wreckage and then seeds, Mr Valencia said.
Colombia's Defence Minister Ivan Velasquez, who visited them in the hospital with President Gustavo Petro on Saturday, praised Lesly for taking care of her younger siblings.
"It is thanks to her, her value and her leadership, that the three others were able to survive, with her care, her knowledge of the jungle," Mr Velasquez said.
"In general the children, the boy and the girls are in an acceptable state, according to the medical reports they are out of danger."
Military doctor Carlos Rincon said they have "nutritional deficiencies" but had survived with only "some soft tissue injuries, bites, and skin lesions".
They are not yet able to eat, he said, adding: "We will begin the process of incorporating food when we complete the process of clinical examinations that will be done today. If things go well, we believe they will stay in the hospital for two to three weeks."
Astrid Caceres, the general director of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, said the children "don't talk as much as we would like them to" and need time to recover.
But she said two of the children had been playing.
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The children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group. General Pedro Sanchez, who led the search operation, credited Indigenous people who volunteered to help the rescue effort.
"We found the children: miracle, miracle, miracle!" he told reporters.
Some rescuers are continuing to search the jungle for a rescue dog, a Belgian Shepherd, that went missing during the hunt for the children.
The children's grandmother, Fatima Valencia, said after their rescue: "I am very grateful, and to mother earth as well, that they were set free."
She said the eldest of the four siblings was used to looking after the other three when their mother was at work, and that this helped them survive in the jungle.
"She gave them flour and cassava bread, any fruit in the bush, they know what they must consume," Ms Valencia said in footage obtained by EVN.
The Cessna 206 aircraft the children and their mother had been travelling on before the crash was flying from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure.
The bodies of the three adults were found at the crash site by the army, but it appeared that the children had escaped the wreckage and wandered into the rainforest to find help.
In May, rescuers recovered items left behind by the children, including a child's drinking bottle, a pair of scissors, a hair tie and a makeshift shelter.
Small footprints were also discovered, which led search teams to believe the children were still alive in the rainforest, which is home to jaguars, snakes and other predators.
Members of the children's community hoped that their knowledge of fruits and jungle survival skills would give them a better chance of remaining alive.
Indigenous people joined the search and helicopters broadcast a message from the children's grandmother, recorded in the Huitoto language, urging them to stop moving to make them easier to locate. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-65869284 |
Country doesn't miss drama of Boris Johnson, says Shapps - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The energy secretary dismisses Boris Johnson's claim that he was the victim of a "witch hunt". | UK Politics | People want to move on from the "drama" of Boris Johnson, Grant Shapps has said, dismissing the ex-PM's claim that he was the victim of a witch hunt.
Mr Johnson resigned as an MP, saying he had been forced out by a "kangaroo court" of MPs investigating Partygate.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Shapps said it was Mr Johnson's "own decision" to stand down.
The energy secretary denied reports Rishi Sunak's team prevented Mr Johnson handing out honours to key allies.
Mr Johnson dramatically stood down from Parliament, just hours after Downing Street published his resignation honours list without the names of key allies including Nadine Dorries, Sir Alok Sharma and Nigel Adams.
All three had been expecting to be appointed to the House of Lords, the BBC has been told.
Competing claims about how and why the names were removed are now at the heart of a rift within the Tory party following the former PM's resignation.
A source familiar with the process has told the BBC that Mr Sunak's political team removed some of Mr Johnson's suggestions months ago.
Asked if rumours were true that Mr Sunak's team had removed the names, Mr Shapps said: "No."
"The prime minster has exactly followed the very longstanding conventions" over honours, Mr Shapps said.
The House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) - the official body for checking and vetting new peers - has confirmed it rejected eight of Mr Johnson's nominations on the grounds of propriety.
Pressed on whether Mr Sunak's team had taken names off the list months before the nominations were sent to HOLAC, Mr Shapps said: "As far as I'm aware that is not true."
The spat might look grubby from the outside - but some of Mr Johnson's allies have no desire to let this lie.
Within 24-hours of the list being published both Ms Dorries and Mr Adams resigned as MPs - triggering by-elections in their constituencies, both of which are considered safe seats for the Conservatives.
Mr Johnson's resignation also triggers a by-election in his marginal constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
This hat-trick of by-elections have the potential to create major problems for Mr Sunak at a time when the Conservatives are trailing Labour by an average of 15 points in national polls.
Pressed on whether Mr Johnson had been the victim of a witch hunt, Mr Shapps said: "I don't think that's true."
"Boris himself has decided to step down - that is his own decision."
"People don't miss the drama" of Mr Johnson's time in office, Mr Shapps added.
Mr Johnson announced he was leaving parliament a day after seeing advance a report of the findings of the Commons Privileges Committee investigating into whether he misled the Commons over Partygate.
In an explosive and lengthy statement, he called the committee a "kangaroo court" whose purpose "has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts".
In a written statement, Mr Johnson said the draft report from the committee was "riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice".
He said the committee was "determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament".
Asked about Mr Johnson's comments, Mr Shapps said: "I haven't seen what they've written, but I have no particular reason to think that is the case."
Labour's shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the fallout from Mr Johnson's resignation shows "there should be a general election".
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Lammy said: "We have a former prime minister crafting a letter undermining the sitting prime minister.
"And we've got three by-elections brought about, not in the usual way because an MP has passed away, or there has been wrongdoing, but simply because these MPs want to put pressure on the current government.
"I don't say this with any glee, I say it because I genuinely believe, in the interests of this country, we need certainty." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65870635 |
Illegal Migration Bill breaches human rights obligations, MPs and peers warn - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Most refugees coming to the UK would be denied access to the asylum system under the law, MPs and peers warn. | UK Politics | Migrants wait to be processed after arriving by small boat off the Kent coast.
The Illegal Migration Bill breaches a "number of the UK's human rights obligations", MPs and peers have said.
The bill, which aims to deport those arriving in the UK without permission, would deny the majority of refugees any access to the asylum system, the Joint Committee on Human Rights said.
Children and victims of trafficking and modern slavery would be impacted, chairwoman Joanna Cherry added.
The government said it took its international obligations seriously.
However, it has faced criticism from opposition parties and charities, who argue the bill is unworkable and could breach international law.
The legislation, intended to try to stop people crossing the English Channel in small boats, has already passed the Commons but has run into strong opposition in the House of Lords.
It would give ministers the power to remove anyone arriving in the UK illegally, and migrants would then be barred from claiming asylum.
Instead they would be detained and removed, either to Rwanda - with which the UK has an agreement - or another "safe country".
The bill would enshrine in law broad detention and search powers, and deny protections to modern slavery victims, as well as removing the right of appeals following age assessments.
Most asylum seekers arriving in the UK irregularly and indirectly after the legislation is passed would have their claim "declared inadmissible", the committee's report, Legislative Scrutiny: Illegal Migration Bill, says.
Ms Cherry, an SNP MP and a barrister, said the most vulnerable would be disproportionately affected.
"They will also be subject to detention without time limit and removal from the UK irrespective of the merits of their claims," she said.
"By treating victims of modern slavery as 'illegal migrants' subject to detention and removal, this bill would breach our legal obligations to such victims and would risk increasing trafficking of vulnerable people."
She added that most people fleeing persecution or conflict currently have "no safe and legal way of getting here".
The committee chairwoman also highlighted that Home Secretary Suella Braverman had taken the "unusual step of making a statutory declaration under the Human Rights Act that she was unable to state that the bill was compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)" when she introduced the bill to Parliament.
"However, she has stated elsewhere that the bill is compatible with international law. We disagree.
"Having carried out legislative scrutiny of the bill, it is overwhelmingly clear that it breaches a number of the UK's international human rights obligations including the ECHR, and risks breaching others."
The government has said the plans are central to achieving Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's pledge to stop small boat crossings - one of his five key priorities.
The Home Office also argued that excluding children and modern slavery victims from the scope of the bill could provide "incentives" to human traffickers.
A spokesperson said: "It is not compassionate to allow people to die in the Channel.
"We cannot allow a system to continue where people are incentivised to make dangerous, illegal and unnecessary journeys to the UK, which is why the Illegal Migration Bill will see people who enter the country swiftly returned home if it is safe or removed to a safe third country."
They continued, saying the legislation would send "a clear message that the exploitation of people ferried across the Channel must end", adding: "We remain committed to ensuring the bill passes through Parliament as soon as possible so we can stop the boats." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65869514 |
SNP could make life difficult for Labour - Humza Yousaf - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Scotland's first minister says SNP would not cooperate if Labour refuse indy powers in hung parliament. | Scotland politics | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Humza Yousaf has said the SNP could make life "very difficult" for Labour in a hung parliament.
Humza Yousaf has said the SNP could make life "very difficult" for Labour in a hung parliament if it refused to give Scotland the power to call a referendum.
Scotland's first minister reiterated devolving this power would be the price for SNP support on Labour's agenda.
However he said it was "obvious" that independence was not the "consistent settled will of the Scottish people".
Labour have repeatedly said they would not do a referendum deal with the SNP.
UK leader Sir Keir Starmer has called for a snap general election following Boris Johnson's shock resignation as an MP.
Last month senior figures in the SNP said they could hold the balance of power in the next parliament - the most explicit statement yet of their strategy ahead of the next general election.
They told the BBC they would make the demand for a referendum a central part of their general election campaign.
Speaking on BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Yousaf said having an independence referendum would be "top of the list" if Labour wanted SNP cooperation.
He said: "We would never prop up a Conservative government, ever. And underline that and put that in bold. But of course if Labour do not want to cooperate with us then we would make life very difficult for them."
Asked what he meant by this, Mr Yousaf pointed to budgets and the "legislative process".
"There were some tricky times when we were a minority government," he said. "What you want is a government, particularly if you're coming in fresh as a new government, you want stability.
"You want to be able to get your budget through, you want to be able to get your legislative agenda through, you don't want frustrated at every single corner and every single turn."
Scottish Labour's deputy leader Jackie Baillie said Mr Yousaf's comments were an admission that he would "usher in a Tory government".
She said: "That threat is a betrayal to the people of Scotland, who are dealing with soaring living costs and falling wages."
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said Mr Yousaf appeared confident he could "hold a minority Labour government to ransom" - and that Keir Starmer would "cave to demands" for an independence vote.
Mr Yousaf was sworn in as first minister in March after he defeated rivals Kate Forbes and Ash Regan in a leadership contest that exposed deep divisions within the party.
The 37-year-old became the first Muslim to lead a major UK party.
He was widely assumed to be Nicola Sturgeon's preferred successor, although she did not explicitly back any of the candidates in the contest.
Ms Sturgeon wanted to use the next general election in Scotland as a de facto referendum, though this would have no effect in law.
But in a rethink of strategy, Mr Yousaf has said he wanted to focus on making the case for independence because he knows pushing for a vote immediately will be rejected.
In opinion polls, support for Scottish independence consistently sits in the mid to high forties.
He said: "We're there or thereabouts in relation to support for independence. I don't want to be there or thereabouts, I want to make sure that independence is a consistent settled will.
"So at the moment for example it's pretty obvious that independence is not the consistent settled will of the Scottish people."
Mr Yousaf later added that support for independence is "still rock solid".
He said: "I've got no doubt at all, that I will be the leader that will ensure that Scotland becomes an independent nation."
Humza Yousaf's interview comes as the SNP prepares for a special convention to discuss the way towards independence.
His comments will be looked at closely by both supporters and opponents.
In many respects, he merely restated his position.
His preferred option would be a referendum. He did not describe the next general election as a "defacto referendum" but believes each vote for the SNP demonstrates support for independence.
He hopes the right to hold a referendum could be extracted from Labour if it is the biggest party in a hung parliament.
But Labour is clear this will not happen: It believes any deal with the SNP could harm its recovery in England and fears it could drive away Scots who do not support another referendum.
It was, perhaps, surprising to hear Mr Yousaf explicitly say that independence is "not the consistent settled will of the Scottish people".
This may seem like a simple statement of fact given recent polling. But they are not words you would expect to hear from a first minister committed to independence as they could be seized on by opponents.
Of course, Mr Yousaf wants that to change and wants support for independence to increase.
He also confirmed that there needs to be a consistent majority for independence before a referendum should be held.
So is the first minister making a distinction between wanting Holyrood to have the right to hold a referendum and actually holding one?
Clearly the consequences of losing a second referendum are something Mr Yousaf is well aware of and he may be playing the longer and more subtle game. He only wants a vote to take place if it will secure independence.
But will more impatient supporters of independence be content?
Mr Yousaf's early days as first minister have proved to be challenging, with the arrest and release of the SNP's chief executive - and Nicola Sturgeon's husband - Peter Murrell over a police investigation into the party's finances.
There is also a looming legal row over Scotland's gender reform legislation and a row with the UK government over Scotland's deposit return scheme.
The DRS was last week postponed until October 2025 when, despite an ultimatum from the first minister, the UK government excluded glass from the Scottish scheme.
Mr Yousaf has already warned that devolution is "becoming unworkable" and criticised the "interfering" Conservative government at Westminster.
It comes after the Scottish government's independence minister Jamie Hepburn told the Daily Record that the SNP should consider a "multi-option referendum", including a devo-max option. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65866154 |
Thunderstorm warnings to continue into Monday - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Music at the Parklife festival in Manchester was paused as a storm hit the area. | UK | People sheltering from the rain under umbrellas at Bournemouth beach
The Met Office has issued a new yellow warning for thunderstorms across parts of the UK after the hottest days of the year so far.
The new warning was put in place at noon on Sunday. It will run until 21:00 BST on Monday, the Met Office said.
Forecasters have warned torrential downpours may cause challenging conditions in parts of the UK.
On Sunday afternoon the Parklife festival in Manchester had to be briefly halted as one thunderstorm hit.
In Wales, one weather warning for heavy rain covers a large section of the country apart from the six council areas in the north. It will be in place for Sunday evening into Monday morning.
A yellow thunderstorm warning means there is a small chance homes and businesses could flood quickly and damage buildings.
The Met Office said delays and some cancellations to train and bus services could happen as a result of any flooding or lightning strikes.
Difficult driving conditions could also be expected as a result of spray and sudden flooding and there is a slight chance of power cuts.
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The UK Health Security Agency has an amber hot weather alert in place until 09:00 BST on Tuesday for much of south England and the Midlands.
It means high temperatures could affect all ages and impact the health service.
A temperature of 32.2°C in Chertsey, Surrey, made it the UK's hottest day of the year too.
Temperatures reached 29.8 C in Auchincruive, Ayrshire, on Saturday - making it the warmest day of the year in Scotland.
The Met Office forecasts that next week the risk of thundery downpours will continue in some areas and temperatures are likely to remain above average.
Have you been affected by storms or flooding where you are? You can get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at [email protected]. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65869518 |
Man City beat Inter Milan 1-0 in Champions League final to claim Treble - BBC Sport | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | null | Manchester City win their first Champions League title by beating Inter Milan in Istanbul to claim the Treble. | null | Last updated on .From the section European Football
Manchester City's long quest to win the Champions League finally ended in triumph against Inter Milan in Istanbul as Pep Guardiola's side completed the Treble.
After winning the Premier League and FA Cup, City emulated Manchester United's triple trophy haul in 1999 as they became only the second English club to achieve the feat after Rodri's crisp 68th-minute strike settled an attritional final.
Guardiola's all-conquering side were never at their best against a brilliantly organised Inter and had to cope with the loss of Kevin de Bruyne to injury in the first half.
But the massed ranks of City fans inside Ataturk Stadium did not care about that as they joyously celebrated the greatest night - and season - in the club's history.
And for Guardiola, it seals his status as one of the managerial greats as he added a third Champions League to the two he won at Barcelona, the last coming in 2011.
This was never the walkover many predicted and City had to survive a few scares when Federico Dimarco's header bounced off the bar and Ederson made a stunning late save to deny Romelu Lukaku but ultimately this was all about the victory.
Now Guardiola and his players can take their place in history.
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The Champions League has brought suffering to City and Guardiola - especially when they lost to Premier League rivals Chelsea in the 2021 final - but all the pain disappeared just before midnight on a sultry night in Istanbul.
City survived late anxiety, especially when Inter substitute Lukaku headed straight at Ederson with the goal at his mercy, but there was an explosion of joy on the pitch and in the stands at Ataturk Stadium as they finally secured the giant trophy that has remained so elusively beyond their grasp for so long.
Guardiola said, whether it was fair or not, that his time at Manchester City would be judged on whether he was able to bring the Champions League to the club. Now that judgement can be made.
The Catalan, who won the Champions League with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, will now be an iconic figure at City as well as Barcelona.
• None 'Hysterical and hated at times' - but Guardiola is the greatest
It is a simple fact that many outside the Abu Dhabi-owned club will always view their triumph through the prism of the charges of 115 financial breaches brought against them by the Premier League, charges they fiercely deny.
For City's owners, with Sheikh Mansour attending only his second game since taking control in 2008, this was the night they have planned for and the one when they finally claimed that holy grail.
This was an evening when only the result mattered to City, not the manner in which their greatest victory was achieved.
This was not a win secured with the dazzling style and creation that is usually their hallmark. In fact for long periods it was a scrappy, sloppy performance in the face of a well-drilled Inter side who were right in this Champions League Final until the whistle went.
None of that will matter now. All that will be recalled forever about this game by City's fans was the moment when Rodri arrived on the end of build-up play from Manuel Akanji and Bernardo Silva to send that precise right-foot finish away from the reach of Inter's outstanding keeper Andre Onana.
And of course the triumphant Champions League trophy lift.
City lived dangerously in the closing minutes and, when it was all over, Guardiola, so agitated in his technical area, was relatively calm as he sought out opposite number Simone Inzaghi for consoling words.
John Stones was once again outstanding for City while keeper Ederson made key contributions when required.
The celebrations at the final whistle reflected a magnificent season as City finally got their hands on the Champions League trophy and prepared to parade it around the streets of Manchester along with the Premier League and FA Cup on Monday.
• None Attempt saved. Robin Gosens (Inter Milan) header from a difficult angle on the right is saved in the top left corner. Assisted by Federico Dimarco with a cross.
• None Attempt missed. Nicolò Barella (Inter Milan) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top right corner following a set piece situation.
• None Marcelo Brozovic (Inter Milan) wins a free kick on the right wing.
• None Erling Haaland (Manchester City) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
• None Attempt missed. Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan) left footed shot from the left side of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Lautaro Martínez with a headed pass.
• None Attempt saved. Romelu Lukaku (Inter Milan) header from very close range is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Robin Gosens with a headed pass. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page
• None Our coverage of Manchester City is bigger and better than ever before - here's everything you need to know to make sure you never miss a moment
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Manchester City fans celebrate historic Treble win - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Thousands gathered at live screenings where they watched the Blues secure the Treble. | Manchester | Blues fans across Manchester have been celebrating their club's first Champions League title.
Thousands gathered at live screenings, where they watched Manchester City secure the Treble after beating Inter Milan 1-0 in Istanbul.
Others continued celebrations late into the night outside the Etihad Stadium.
Ecstatic fans told the BBC they were "over the moon".
One woman said: "It was honestly the best moment - it's never over until the 90 minutes are over."
Another fan said: "I couldn't have ever dreamt this but over the last 10 years, I suppose it's been coming."
City captain Ilkay Gundogan paid for 120 local people involved with the Community Integrated Care charity to have a Turkish meal while watching the game.
The German midfielder, who was born to Turkish parents, has supported the group since the coronavirus pandemic and wrote a letter, saying: "The challenges you face on a daily basis require immense courage, and your ability to overcome them is remarkable."
Greater Manchester Police said the night "passed without any significant trouble" locally but one man was arrested on suspicion of damaging a police vehicle.
A man was detained after a police vehicle's window was smashed
Officers added they made "several arrests" on suspicion of public order offences following "minor incidents" in Piccadilly Gardens.
In Istanbul, players celebrated with their families.
At least 20,000 City fans travelled to watch the final in Turkey.
The triumphant squad are due to land at Manchester Airport later and will hold a trophy parade on Monday.
Sections of Oxford Street and Hall Street will close in Manchester city centre on Sunday in preparation.
Thousands are expected along the route, which starts at Tonman Street, Deansgate, at 18:30 BST on Monday, before travelling through St Mary's Gate, Cross Street, King Street and then finishing on the corner of Princess Street and Portland Street.
A stage show will be held in Oxford Street, where entertainment starts at 17:30 BST with the squad expected to arrive at about 19:30.
Transport officials urged fans to travel by tram to St Peter's Square and Victoria but to avoid alighting at Deansgate.
Workers in the area were also advised to expect a longer journey time.
Supt Gareth Parkin, from Greater Manchester Police, said: "The parade will be a joyous occasion... and while we expect the vast majority of people coming together to be genuine fans, we urge you not to drink in excess or be involved in anti-social behaviour."
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Third by-election for Tories as Boris Johnson ally quits - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Boris Johnson quit as an MP, saying he was the victim of a "witch hunt" over Partygate report. | UK Politics | An ally of Boris Johnson has resigned, triggering a third by-election for the Tories and creating deepening political problems for Rishi Sunak.
Nigel Adams did not say why he was leaving immediately but his decision follows that of Boris Johnson and, earlier on Friday, Nadine Dorries.
In a statement Mr Johnson lashed out at a Partygate report into whether he deliberately lied to Parliament, describing it as a "witch hunt".
Mr Adams, a Cabinet Office minister without portfolio under Mr Johnson's government, had previously announced he would not be standing at the next general election - but has now brought that decision forward.
In a tweet announcing he was going immediately, the MP for Selby and Ainsty said his local Conservative Association had selected a new parliamentary candidate on Friday.
By-elections sap energy, money and attention that the party would rather use to focus on governing and the general election.
The BBC has made dozens and dozens of phone calls and exchanged hundreds of WhatsApp messages since Boris Johnson made his shock resignation announcement on Friday evening.
It is clear there is deep - and wide - anger, if not surprise, at the way Mr Johnson and his allies have criticised the Commons Privileges Committee and the integrity of its members, who are duty bound to put party affiliation to one side, and not speak publicly about their report until it is published.
Announcing his resignation as MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip late on Friday evening, Mr Johnson issued an eviscerating 1,000-word statement.
The committee was preparing to recommend a 10-day suspension for Mr Johnson from the Commons, the BBC has been told, which would have resulted in a recall petition among his constituents and a potential by-election.
Mr Johnson said the draft report he had seen was "riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice".
He described the committee as a "kangaroo court" whose purpose "has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts".
The committee is due to meet on Monday to finalise its conclusions and is expected to publish its findings shortly after - likely to be on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Angela Rayner, Labour's deputy leader, said the former prime minister had "jumped" and told BBC Radio 5 Live "to me, he is a coward".
Sir Chris Bryant, the Labour chairman of the Privileges Committee, said it was possible that Mr Johnson's statement could lead to further contempt of Parliament charges as the conclusion of the report is not supposed to be revealed before its publication and Mr Johnson had "effectively leaked" it.
Sir Chris, who had recused himself from the investigation into Mr Johnson told Radio 4's Today programme, the "attacks on the committee are in effect an attack on the whole House".
Boris Johnson was fined for attending a birthday gathering in the Cabinet Room in 2020
However, former home secretary Priti Patel, who was made a Dame in Mr Johnson's resignation honours list, also announced on Friday, praised the former prime minister, describing him as a "political titan".
Sir Michael Fabricant - another sitting MP announced in the resignation honours list - criticised the Privileges Committee for what he described as its "disgraceful treatment" of the former prime minister.
There has been no statement as yet from Prime Minister Rishi Sunak or any members of the Privileges Committee.
The BBC has tried to speak to all of those involved, but none would speak on the record.
But privately, Conservatives are all talking about it, trying to work out what might happen next.
Loads have told the BBC they are just totally fed up with the pantomime.
There is deep frustration there will now be three by-elections that the party could really do without.
The surprise exit of Boris Johnson followed that of Nadine Dorries, who announced she was standing down as MP of Mid Bedfordshire shortly before.
The Conservatives have a current working majority of 64 (before the resignations of Mr Johnson and Ms Dorries).
This is less than the 80-seat majority held by the Conservatives when Mr Johnson led the Tories to a landslide general election in 2019.
Meanwhile, Bill Cash, Conservative MP for Stone in Staffordshire, announced on Saturday evening that he would not be standing at the next general election. He was first elected in 1984.
Conservative backbencher Sir John Redwood said Rishi Sunak must make a statement "urgently reassuring those who were very strong Boris fans and strong Liz [Truss] fans that his party is for all Conservatives."
He told the BBC News channel the party will need "a bit of Boris magic" in their offer to voters.
But Tory grandee Chris Patten said he hoped Mr Johnson's resignation "is the end of a rather miserable period in British politics and a miserable period for the Conservative Party."
Lord Patten, who was party chairman under John Major, rejected claims the Privileges Committee's report was "anti-democratic".
"Of course it's not," he told the BBC. "What he means is it's criticised him... he should stop whining about it and get on with what he's plainly going to do best, which is going around making dishevelled speeches and making lots of money from them."
A former adviser to Mr Johnson said his decision to quit as an MP ahead of publication of the Partygate report did not mean it was the end of his political career.
Will Walden, who was chief media adviser to the former prime minister when he was foreign secretary, said Mr Johnson "had seen the writing on the wall".
Speaking to Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Walden said he would not have wanted to fight a by-election he was almost certain to lose.
"There is only one thing driving Boris and that is that he likes to win, or at least not to lose".
He added: "So, by going as he has, all guns blazing, he is able to avoid defeat, he is able to blame pretty much everyone else including it seems anyone that voted Remain in 2016."
Asked whether this was the end for Mr Johnson, he said: "I don't think it's the end. I don't know where we are on the panoply of beginning, middle and end, but this is typical Boris."
It is worth reflecting on what people mean by "the end".
It may well be the end of the road for him in Parliament - although that is not for certain - but it is certainly not the end of the road for him in terms of his influence. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/65866187 |
Don't block Boris Johnson returning to Parliament, Jacob Rees-Mogg warns Tories - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The party risks "civil war" if the ex-PM is ever stopped from returning to Parliament, Mr Rees-Mogg says. | UK Politics | Former Cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg has warned the Conservatives against any attempt to block Boris Johnson if he seeks to stand in another parliamentary constituency.
Mr Rees-Mogg told the Mail on Sunday that to do so could plunge the party "into civil war".
Mr Johnson resigned as the MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip on Friday over the investigation into Partygate.
Mr Rees-Mogg was knighted in his resignation honours earlier that day.
A Conservative Party spokesman said all potential constituency candidates, former MPs or otherwise, went through the same process.
Meanwhile, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had "failed to end" what he called "the Tory chaos", and called for a snap election.
Mr Johnson stepped down as an MP after he saw in advance a report by the Commons Privileges Committee investigating whether he deliberately misled the Commons over lockdown breaches in Downing Street.
In an explosive 1,000-word statement on Friday evening, Mr Johnson said: "I have received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear - much to my amazement - that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament."
He argued the draft was "riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice", calling the committee a "kangaroo court" whose purpose "has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts".
The committee will not confirm the sanction recommended until it publishes its report into Mr Johnson, likely this week.
But two sources have told the BBC that the sanction the committee recommended in the documents sent to Mr Johnson was a suspension from the Commons lasting more than 10 days.
The 10-day period is significant because if the House of Commons approves the suspension of an MP for 10 sitting days or more, that MP then faces a recall petition in their constituency, which can lead to a by-election.
Mr Johnson also suggested Mr Sunak was not running a "proper Conservative" government
In his resignation letter, the former prime minister left open the possibility of a return, saying he was "very sad to be leaving Parliament" before adding - "at least for now".
Hours earlier, one of his biggest allies, former Cabinet minister Nadine Dorries, unexpectedly stepped down from her Mid Bedfordshire seat.
And on Saturday, another supporter Nigel Adams resigned, triggering a third by-election for the Tories.
Speculation about Mr Johnson's future in politics has subsequently included the suggestion he could stand in another seat, although there is no indication this is likely.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Rees-Mogg said Mr Johnson could "easily get back into Parliament at the next election" - and he was "in pole position to return as Conservative leader if a vacancy should arise".
But the former business secretary went on: "I would most strongly warn Conservative Party managers against any attempt to block Boris if he seeks the party nomination in another seat.
"Any attempt to do so would shatter our fragile party unity and plunge the Conservatives into civil war."
In contrast, former Conservative deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine has said Mr Johnson should not be allowed to run to be a Tory MP again.
Writing in the Observer, he says: "To me it is inconceivable that in these circumstances he could stand as a Conservative member of parliament again."
Addressing the former PM's resignation letter, Mr Heseltine writes: "Words are designed to make his audience believe whatever they want to believe. There is no anchor to any discernible truth or sense of integrity."
He adds that Mr Johnson will leave Parliament and "have little to do with the reality of the mess he left behind".
Elsewhere in the Sunday Mirror, Sir Keir accused Mr Sunak of failing to stand up to Mr Johnson and agreeing "to hand gongs to a cast list of cronies".
"Rishi Sunak must finally find a backbone, call an election, and let the public have their say on 13 years of Tory failure," he added.
A government source rejected that and said Mr Sunak was focussed on delivering "what the British people want." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65869516 |
Police release Nicola Sturgeon without charge - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Ms Sturgeon says she is "innocent of any wrongdoing" after being released while more inquiries are carried out. | Scotland politics | Nicola Sturgeon had been taken into police custody on Sunday morning
Nicola Sturgeon has been released without charge pending further investigations after being arrested by police.
Scotland's former first minister was arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the SNP's funding and finances at 10:09 on Sunday.
After being questioned by detectives she was released from custody at 17:24.
She has since released a statement saying "I know beyond doubt that I am innocent of any wrongdoing".
Police said a report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
The force has been investigating for the past two years what happened to £660,000 of donations given to the SNP by independence activists for use in a future independence referendum campaign.
Officers had been able to question Ms Sturgeon for a maximum of 12 hours before deciding whether to charge her with a crime or release her while they carry out further inquiries.
A suspect released pending further investigations can be re-arrested at a later date.
Ms Sturgeon published a statement on Twitter shortly after police confirmed her release.
She said: "To find myself in the situation I did today when I am certain I have committed no offence is both a shock and deeply distressing.
"I know that this ongoing investigation is difficult for people, and I am grateful that so many continue to show faith in me and appreciate that I would never do anything to harm either the SNP or the country."
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She went on: "Innocence is not just a presumption I am entitled to in law. I know beyond doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing."
She thanked people for messages of support and also her family for "much-needed strength at this time".
Her statement ended: "While I will take a day or two to process this latest development, I intend to be back in Parliament soon where I will continue to represent my Glasgow Southside constituents to the very best of my ability."
A police patrol at the home of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell on Sunday - it is not known where the police questioning took place
Ms Sturgeon was succeeded as first minister and SNP leader in March by Humza Yousaf, who is now facing calls from opposition politicians and at least one of his own MPs - Angus MacNeil - to suspend her from the party.
Mr MacNeil tweeted: "This soap-opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less!"
Scottish Conservatives chairman Craig Hoy also called on Mr Yousaf to "show some leadership and suspend his predecessor from the SNP", in a statement posted on Twitter.
Ms Sturgeon had attended a pre-arranged police interview and was arrested and questioned after she arrived.
It follows the arrest of her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, on 5 April by officers who searched the couple's home in Glasgow as part of their Operation Branchform probe.
The SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh were searched on the same day and a luxury motorhome valued at about £110,000 was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.
Almost two weeks later, the party's treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested.
Both men were released pending further investigations, with Mr Beattie resigning as treasurer a short time later.
The arrest of the former first minister had been widely expected as she was one of the three signatories on the SNP's accounts alongside Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie - although there was no indication of when it was going to happen.
Police Scotland officers carried out a search of the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh in April
The Branchform investigation began after complaints were made about what happened to £666,954 that was donated to the SNP by activists for a future independence referendum campaign.
The party's accounts later accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.
Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election.
The SNP had repaid about half of the loan by October of that year, but still owes money to Mr Murrell - although it has not said how much.
Ms Sturgeon made a shock announcement on 15 February that she would be standing down as both SNP leader and first minister once a successor was elected, with Humza Yousaf winning the contest to replace her in March.
Ms Sturgeon said at the time that she knew "in my head and in my heart" that it was the right time to go, and has denied the timing was influenced by the ongoing police investigation.
She was Scotland's longest-serving first minister and the only woman to have held the position.
Three things immediately jump out from Nicola Sturgeon's statement.
The most obvious is her vehement denial of any wrongdoing, expressed in emphatic terms.
Another is her pledge to return to Holyrood in short order - something which will no doubt have the parliamentary press pack sharpening their pencils and doorstep questions.
The third highlight is something that isn't mentioned at all - the question of Ms Sturgeon's continued membership of the SNP, which some, including one of the party's own MPs, have been questioning.
When her predecessor Alex Salmond was accused of sexual assault in 2018, he swiftly resigned from the party with a pledge to clear his name. He was subsequently cleared of charges, but never did return to the SNP, instead setting up his own Alba Party.
Ms Sturgeon may well prefer the approach of Colin Beattie, who quit as SNP treasurer but remained within the party after his own arrest and release.
There is a recent precedent there - but this will doubtless still spark questions to Humza Yousaf about how he intends to handle the latest developments. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65873423 |
Daviot wildfire burns next to back garden amid power cuts - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | One local man told the BBC his family had left their Highlands property as the flames were so close by. | Scotland | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. One Daviot resident filmed the wildfire as it reached his garden.
Firefighters are battling a wildfire that broke out in the Highlands for a second day.
The flames burned through the night after taking hold near the village of Daviot, south of Inverness, at about 14:45 on Saturday.
Some homes and businesses close to the fire area have been without power since Saturday as a result.
The fire service said helicopter water bombing was still in operation on Sunday afternoon.
However it said crews were also dampening down hot spots.
People have been urged to stay indoors and close all windows to prevent smoke inhalation.
Crews are still battling a wildfire which took hold near Daviot in the Highlands
The blaze is about 30 miles (48km) from Cannich - the site of another recent wildfire, thought be the largest recorded in the UK.
Locals in Daviot have praised crews who protected properties from the flames.
One resident, whose back garden was feet away from the blaze, told BBC Scotland that he chose to take his family away from the area for the night.
He said the power was still out on Sunday morning.
"Thankfully it has started to rain now. The fire fighters were brilliant, if they had been five minutes later I think it could have been a different story," he said.
Power was also out at the nearby Auchnahillin Holiday Park on Sunday, where owner Anita Gibson had been monitoring the situation and taking advice from the fire service overnight.
Anita Gibson from Auchnahillin Holiday Park praised the emergency services for their efforts
"We are so close, just underneath the hill, so the flames were not so visible for us but there was a lot of smoke.
"The helicopter was going overhead and dropping water up until about 23:00 so it was fairly noisy. I moved some of our tent campers into caravans for the night as I was worried about the smoke."
She said the fire seemed like it was under control on her side of the hill but was still burning into the moors.
She added: "The power is still off but there was no damage to property and we were glad to see a bit of rain this morning.
"We know wildfires do occur but it's not something we thought would happen on our doorstep. We are very grateful to the emergency services."
A spokesman for SSE told the BBC around 12 homes were cut off.
He said: "Following discussion with the SFRS, we were asked to isolate power supplies in the immediate area yesterday evening.
"We now await instruction to reconnect supplies when it is safe to do so and would like to thank customers for their patience."
SFRS had extended an alert for a "very high" risk of wildfire until Monday.
Saturday was the hottest day of the year for Scotland, after 29.8°C was recorded in Auchincruive, Ayrshire.
Duncan Macpherson, a Highland councillor for Inverness South, said firefighters were facing an "almighty challenge" on Saturday night.
He tweeted: "The wildfire at Daviot south of Inverness stretches over a mile long between Craggie and Moy and presents an almighty challenge for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to try and contain as the wind blows the flames further across the landscape."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Crews were sent to tackle the flames at Daviot on the hottest day of the year
Scientist Dr Gail Millin-Chalabi told BBC One's The Sunday Show wildfires have become more common in recent years.
"One of the things to bear in mind is we are seeing hotter, drier, longer summers in the UK and this was predicted back in 2013 when wildfire was first identified as a risk in the UK," she said.
"We are seeing larger, more severe wildfires here. We had the largest number of burnt areas of 30 hectares or larger in 2022, with 151 in total for the wildfire season."
She also said that most of the UK's wildfires were caused by accidental or deliberate ignition.
"We have evidence of that. And there is definitely a requirement to increase awareness of wildfire risk in peatland, moorland and heathlands."
Meanwhile thunderstorms are expected to sweep across much of the Highlands and west coast on Sunday.
The Met Office has issued a yellow alert lasting between 12:00 and 21:00 BST.
Forecasters said conditions would include lightning strikes, strong winds and "torrential" rain in some parts. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65870378 |
John Finucane defends 'right to remember' at IRA commemoration - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Sinn Féin MP John Finucane was speaking at an IRA commemoration in south Armagh on Sunday. | Northern Ireland | A Sinn Féin MP has told an IRA commemoration that everyone has "the right to remember, and the right to commemorate".
John Finucane was the main speaker at what has been billed a "South Armagh Volunteers commemoration".
He said there was "nothing to celebrate in conflict", but commemoration was "a right which everyone is entitled to".
His involvement in the event was condemned by IRA victims, unionists and the Irish government.
Earlier on Sunday, Belfast East MP Gavin Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said Mr Finucane was "a hypocrite" for taking part.
Mr Finucane told the event that truth and justice were "something which every person who has been impacted by our conflict deserves."
"For just as truth and justice applies equally to everyone, so too does the right to remember, and the right to commemorate," he said.
Mr Finucane's father, solicitor Pat Finucane, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen at his home in Belfast in 1989.
The Sinn Féin MP said he would defend commemorations by other groups - including loyalists - "without hesitation".
"There is nothing to celebrate in conflict, or in our difficult and painful past, but to commemorate those we have loved and lost is a right which everyone, including every single one of us gathered here today, is entitled to, and we do so with dignity and with pride," he said.
The event was held earlier in south Armagh
Speaking ahead of the event, Belfast East MP Mr Robinson said Mr Finucane had a few hours to decide if he wanted to "proceed with being a hypocrite on these issues or withdraw".
"You cannot burnish your credentials as a victim one day and then tarnish the memory of victims and their loved ones the next," he told the BBC's Sunday Politics programme.
But Mr Robinson, the newly-elected deputy leader of the DUP said victims were "hurt" by the prospect of Mr Finucane's attendance at the event in Mullaghbawn.
"This should not be happening," he said.
"When we consider the need to reconcile our communities that anybody, let alone a member of Parliament and a victim, would go to a family fun day to show respect for terrorists, shows just how shallow some of the commitments about an Ireland for all are, that have been shared with us over the previous number of weeks."
Gavin Robinson said victims of terrorism were "hurt" at the move
On Friday, a relative of one of the victims of an IRA bomb atrocity in Coleraine nearly 50 years ago criticised Mr Finucane's planned appearance.
Lesley Magee's grandmother, Nan Davis, was among six Protestants killed in the Coleraine attack on 12 June 1973.
"I don't think we should be commemorating terrorism on any level, whether it be Protestant, whether it be Catholic," she told BBC News NI.
"I have equal animosity towards both. I have no issue with anyone's religion, whether it be Protestant, Catholic, Judaism - whatever; I don't care.
"I don't think any MP should be at some kind of commemoration to celebrate a terrorist," she added.
Alliance Party assembly member Sorcha Eastwood said she was disappointed Mr Finucane took part in the event.
"There is a difference between remembering and paying tribute to individuals, and commemorating terrorist organisations, including the IRA and its South Armagh 'brigade', particularly without reference to its many victims," she said.
Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said he thought the commemoration was "scandalous".
Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Micheál Martin had urged Mr Finucane not to address the commemoration, saying any attempt to "celebrate or glorify horrible deeds from the past" was not the correct way forward.
But earlier in the week, Sinn Féin assembly member Conor Murphy dismissed the row as a diversionary tactic by the DUP.
"I think what we are in here is distraction politics," Mr Murphy said.
"The real issue is here is the fact that public services are crashing round our ears." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65870490 |
Gladiator sequel crew members injured in stunt sequence on set - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The crew members are receiving medical treatment after the accident while filming in Morocco. | Entertainment & Arts | The original Gladiator was nominated for 12 Oscars and won five
Several crew members filming the Gladiator sequel in Morocco have been injured in a stunt accident on set.
The film's production company Paramount Pictures said the injuries were non life-threatening and happened while shooting a planned stunt sequence.
The crew members were "all in stable condition and continue to receive treatment", the statement said.
Earlier this week, the Sun reported there had been an explosion and six people went to hospital.
"It was terrifying - a huge ball of fire flew up and caught several crew members in its path. In years of filming I've never seen an accident so scary," a source told the newspaper.
"Everyone involved, from the lowliest runners to the star names, has been shaken up by this," they added.
In a statement, a Paramount Pictures spokesperson said: "The safety and full medical services teams on-site were able to act quickly so that those who were impacted immediately received necessary care."
They said it has "strict health and safety procedures in place on all our productions" and would take "all necessary precautions as we resume production".
According to Variety, no cast members were injured but six people received treatment for burn injuries and four remain in hospital.
Sir Ridley Scott, who directed the original 2000 historical drama film, is returning to direct the second instalment, which is scheduled to be released in November 2024.
No title has yet been announced for the sequel, which stars Normal People actor Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington and Connie Nielsen.
The original film won five Oscars, including best actor for Russell Crowe, who played Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius alongside Joaquin Phoenix as Emperor Commodus.
The movie, set during the height of the Roman Empire, sees Maximus start out as a war hero before before being forced to become a gladiator.
Gladiator made $457m (£355m) at the box office and revived the historical epic drama genre, which had been out of fashion for decades. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65869287 |
Bath stabbing: Eleven teens arrested after boy, 16, killed - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Six boys and two girls, aged between 15 and 17, are arrested on suspicion of murder in Bath. | Somerset | Eleven teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the fatal stabbing of a 16-year-old boy at a party in Somerset.
Emergency services were called to an address on Eastfield Avenue, in Bath, just after 23:00 BST on Saturday.
Six boys and two girls, aged between 15 and 17, were initially arrested on board a bus half an hour after the stabbing was reported, police said.
Three more teenage boys were arrested on Sunday, detectives added.
Avon and Somerset Police said all teenagers - including the eight arrested on the bus travelling on Lansdown Lane at 23:30 - remain in police custody.
A 35-year-old woman was also stabbed but has been discharged from hospital, the force added.
Members of the public provided the boy with first aid before paramedics arrived but he died at the scene.
Emergency services were called to Eastfield Avenue on Saturday evening
In an updated statement on Sunday, Ch Insp Ronald Lungu, of the Bath Neighbourhood Team, said: "Understanding what happened last night and why is the utmost priority of officers working on this investigation, as they look to provide answers to the boy's family.
"Specialist liaison officers are now in place and have informed the boy's parents of this latest development. Our thoughts continue to be with them at this sad time."
He added: "Detectives continue to appeal for anyone who witnessed what happened, as well as anyone who has relevant phone, dashcam or CCTV footage, to contact them."
A post-mortem examination to determine the cause of the boy's death will take place in due course, police said.
The six boys and two girls being held are aged between 15 and 17
A large cordon was put in place on Eastfield Avenue throughout Sunday while police carried out their investigation.
"We've identified a number of witnesses and we'll be taking formal statements from them in due course," Ch Insp Lungu said earlier on Sunday.
"The community can expect to see a significant police presence in the area for the next few days, while officers and police staff carry out a number of actions including forensic examinations, a review of CCTV footage and house-to-house inquiries."
Anyone with information is asked to contact the force.
Follow BBC West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Send your story ideas to: [email protected]
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-65871840 |
Nicola Sturgeon arrested in SNP finances inquiry - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Scotland's former first minister attended a police interview on Sunday before being arrested by detectives. | Scotland | Ms Sturgeon attended a police interview by arrangement before being arrested
Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP.
Police confirmed a 52-year-old woman was taken into custody as a suspect and is being questioned by detectives.
It follows the arrest and subsequent release of her husband, ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, in April.
A spokeswoman for Ms Sturgeon confirmed she had attended a police interview by arrangement on Sunday.
The former SNP leader, who stood down in March, was then arrested and questioned by officers who have been investigating for the past two years what happened to more than £600,000 of donations given to the party by independence activists.
The spokeswoman said: "Nicola Sturgeon has today, Sunday 11 June, by arrangement with Police Scotland, attended an interview where she was to be arrested and questioned in relation to Operation Branchform.
"Nicola has consistently said she would cooperate with the investigation if asked and continues to do so."
SNP MP Angus MacNeil has joined opposition parties in calling for Ms Sturgeon to be suspended from the party - arguing that "this soap-opera has gone far enough".
Officers searched Ms Sturgeon's home and the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh on 5 April, with Mr Murrell being arrested before later being released without charge pending further investigation.
A luxury motorhome which sells for about £110,000 was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.
Almost two weeks later, SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was also arrested and released without charge while further inquiries were carried out.
Ms Sturgeon, Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie were the three signatories on the SNP's accounts and the arrest of the former first minister had been widely expected - although there was no indication of when it was going to happen.
A forensic tent outside Nicola Sturgeon's house when it was searched in April
Under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, police can release a suspect for further investigation, but they can be re-arrested at a later date.
A spokesman for the SNP said the party would not comment on Ms Sturgeon's arrest, adding: "These issues are subject to a live police investigation."
Ms Sturgeon served as Scotland's first minister for more than eight years after succeeding Alex Salmond in the wake of the independence referendum in 2014.
Nicola Sturgeon's arrest follows that of her husband Peter Murrell earlier this year
She announced on 15 February that she would be standing down as both SNP leader and first minister once a successor was elected, with Humza Yousaf winning the contest to replace her.
Ms Sturgeon said at the time that she knew "in my head and in my heart" that it was the right time to go, and has denied the timing was influenced by the ongoing police investigation.
She was Scotland's longest-serving first minister and the only woman to have held the position.
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the SNP was "engulfed in murkiness and chaos" and called on Mr Yousaf to suspend his predecessor from the party.
The SNP MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Angus MacNeil, also called for Ms Sturgeon to be suspended, writing on Twitter: "This soap-opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less.
"Time for political distance until the investigation ends either way."
Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray, described the developments as "deeply concerning" and said the police inquiry must be allowed to proceed without interference.
Police Scotland launched their Operation Branchform investigation two years ago after complaints were made about what happened to £666,954 that was donated to the SNP by activists for a future independence referendum campaign.
The party's later accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.
Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election.
The SNP had repaid about half of the loan by October of that year, but still owes money to Mr Murrell - although it has not said how much.
Police Scotland has been looking into SNP funding for some time.
Ms Sturgeon is the third high-profile arrest. Her husband - Peter Murrell - was previously arrested and released without charge. So was the party's former treasury Colin Beattie.
This is a live case, so there's a limit to what journalists can report.
But politically, there's no doubt this is a big blow to Scotland's governing party.
The new leader - Humza Yousaf - had been trying to move on from arrests and police probes, to talk about policy and his vision for government.
It's inevitable he'll now face days of questions about this arrest and what it means for the party. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65871857 |
Champions League final 2023: Fans react to Manchester City's win against Inter Milan - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | null | City supporters in a Manchester fanzone voice their joy at their historic 1-0 win against Inter Milan. | null | Manchester City fans were jubilant when their team won 1-0 against Inter Milan, in Istanbul's Atatürk Olympic Stadium.
Watching from a fanzone in Manchester, supporters celebrated Man City completing a football treble following their Premier League and FA Cup victories.
"The blue moon has risen," said one ecstatic fan. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65868100 |
Philadelphia Interstate 95 freeway partially collapses following underpass fire - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | null | Aerial images show the partial disintegration caused by an oil tanker fire underneath the I-95 highway. | null | Aerial images show damage caused by a fire underneath the I-95 highway in Philadelphia in the US.
The blaze was caused by an oil tanker on fire under the bridge according to local officials.
The partial collapse of the busy elevated freeway affected four lanes. Local media reported the fire started at 07:00 local time (11:00 GMT) when traffic was light. No injures have been reported so far.
The north-south highway is one of the busiest in the United States, connecting Maine to Florida and major cities along the East Coast. It remains closed in both directions in the Philadelphia area, officials said. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65873232 |
Welsh government's Vaughan Gething urges Eisteddfod to rethink rules - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | He spoke out after a rapper was told he could not play the festival if he performed in English. | Wales | Sage Todz posted on social media he would not be performing at the festival
A Welsh government minister has urged the National Eisteddfod to rethink its rules after a rapper was told he could not play using English.
Sage Todz said on social media he would not be performing at the festival because of its Welsh language policy.
Vaughan Gething said the national event could instead be more flexible in order to bring in a bigger audience.
The National Eisteddfod says the rule about the Welsh language was "fundamental" to the festival.
Mr Gething said Sage Todz brought the language to "a wider, more diverse audience" and performers like him helped grow the language.
He wrote on Twitter: "@eisteddfod could take this opportunity to reconsider their approach - this is the major showcase event for the future of the language."
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Responding to the comments, Eisteddfod president Ashok Ahir said the festival continued to work "to make Cymraeg accessible to a wider range of individuals and groups".
This, he said, included those in the creative sector who were not confident in Welsh.
Mr Ahir added: "Performance, competition, and discussion in Cymraeg - and in no other languages - is the primary purpose of the National Eisteddfod for the single week of the year during which the festival is held.
"We respect Sage Todz's passion and commitment to the languages he chooses to use in his music.
"It was his decision that he wished only to perform in English and bilingually.
Vaughan Gething urged the Eisteddfod to rethink its rules
"We wish Sage Todz could have performed at the festival but respect his decision not to perform solely in Cymraeg."
This year's festival takes place in Boduan, Gwynedd, the home county of Sage Todz, who is from Penygroes.
On Friday Children's Poet of Wales 2023, Nia Morais, questioned the National Eisteddfod's position.
"If that's the way he expresses himself I don't believe we have the right to limit that," she said.
Welsh learner of the year 2022, Joe Healy, said it was disappointing the audience would miss out on seeing him.
"On the other hand, you can't expect the National Eisteddfod to change its language rule for anyone," he said.
The National Eisteddfod's rules say: "All compositions and competing must be in Welsh unless specified to the contrary."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65868791 |
Blundell's School: Boy charged with two counts of attempted murder - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The boy, 16, is charged following a violent assault on two teenagers and an adult at a boarding school. | Devon | One boy is in a critical condition after the incident at Blundell's School
A 16-year-old boy has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after a violent assault at a boarding school left two students in hospital.
Police said the accused has also been charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent at Blundell's School near Tiverton in Devon.
The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, is due to appear before magistrates in Exeter on Monday.
One of the boys who was injured is in a critical condition, police said.
The other boy remains in a stable but serious condition, both have their families with them and are being supported by officers.
One man, a member of staff at the school, also sustained injuries and was discharged from hospital on Friday, Devon and Cornwall Police said.
The school is working with police, said head teacher Bart Wielenga in a letter to parents
Supt Toby Davies said: "Our thoughts remain with the injured boys and their families in what must be a harrowing time for them.
"My officers are continuing to support them and the wider school community."
The area has been cordoned off for investigations and was expected to remain there for the rest of the day, he added.
He also reminded people that by law the suspect could not be identified.
"These rules are not solely for media organisations to adhere to; they also apply to members of the public and includes information posted via social media," he said.
"This may be seen as interfering with a live investigation and an active criminal trial, and therefore could see those who do not adhere found in contempt of court.
"We therefore remind the public that it is vital that they do not speculate on the identity of either the victims or the suspect in this case."
Blundell's School - which has fees of £41,325 a school year for a boarder - has not commented.
Head teacher Bart Wielenga sent a letter to parents and guardians about the incident, which happened at one of the boarding houses on Friday.
He added the school was working closely with the police and urged parents and guardians not to engage in speculation or post about the incident on social media.
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The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-65867858 |
Nicola Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell arrested in SNP finance probe - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Peter Murrell was taken into police custody as officers searched his home and the SNP's headquarters. | Scotland | Mr Murrell has been married to Nicola Sturgeon since 2010
The husband of former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with an investigation into Scottish National Party finances.
Peter Murrell, 58, is being questioned after being taken into police custody on Wednesday morning.
Police Scotland said officers were carrying out searches at a number of addresses as part of the investigation.
Mr Murrell resigned as the party's chief executive last month, a post he had held since 1999.
He has been married to Ms Sturgeon since 2010.
A spokesperson for the former first minister said she had "no prior knowledge" of Police Scotland's action or intentions.
They added: "Ms Sturgeon will fully cooperate with Police Scotland if required, however at this time no such request has been made."
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Officers from Police Scotland have left the head quarters of the Scottish National Party with boxes
Ms Sturgeon stood down as first minister last month and was last week succeeded by Humza Yousaf.
The new first minister said it was "a difficult day" for the SNP.
Mr Yousaf said: "I obviously can't comment on a live police investigation.
"But what I will say is that the SNP has fully cooperated with the investigation and it will continue to do so."
He added that the party had agreed to carry out a review on governance and transparency.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Police activity has been seen outside Peter Murrell and Nicola Sturgeon's home in Glasgow.
There has been police activity at Mr Murrell and Ms Sturgeon's home in Glasgow and at SNP headquarters in Edinburgh.
Police Scotland said Ms Sturgeon was at the house when officers arrived at 07:35 to arrest her husband.
By 10:00 there were 10 uniformed officers stationed outside the couple's detached property, along with three police vehicles.
The house was sealed off with blue and white tape, while a tent was erected on the driveway. Items were brought from the house to the tent, where the BBC understands a vehicle was parked.
Police officers could be seen searching a small shed and storage box in the back garden, a police photographer took pictures and officers looked at a laptop.
The curtains and blinds remained drawn and there was no sign of anyone in the property.
Meanwhile, at least six marked police vehicles were parked outside SNP HQ and officers carrying green crates and other equipment were seen going inside.
In the afternoon, two vans left the city centre building, while police officers remained stationed outside.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Humza Yousaf: "This is a difficult day for the party."
In July 2021 Police Scotland launched a formal investigation into the SNP's finances after receiving complaints about how donations were used.
Questions had been raised about funds given to the party for use in a fresh independence referendum campaign.
Seven people made complaints and a probe was set up following talks with prosecutors.
Ms Sturgeon, then first minister and SNP leader, had insisted that she was "not concerned" about the party's finances.
She said "every penny" of cash raised in online crowdfunding campaigns would be spent on the independence drive.
Nicola Sturgeon gave multiple reasons for her resignation - but the police investigation into her party's finances was not one of them.
When I asked her about it on the day she stood down she declined to comment, but would later insist it had not been a factor.
I still wonder if it may have influenced the timing of her departure because her husband's arrest would be much more awkward for her if she was still in office as SNP leader and first minister.
Police inquiries have been under way for about 18 months and were triggered when questions were raised about how more than £600,000 raised for independence campaigning had been spent, when there had not been an independence referendum for it to be spent on.
The SNP has previously said that it always intended to spend an equivalent sum in that way.
Some weeks ago, the investigation reached a crucial stage when officers consulted the Crown Office on how to proceed. It is now much clearer what direction they received from those who oversee criminal investigations in Scotland.
According to a statement, the SNP raised a total of £666,953 through referendum-related appeals between 2017 and 2020. The party pledged to spend these funds on the independence campaign.
Questions were raised after its accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.
Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election.
The then SNP's chief executive loaned the party £107,620 in June 2021. The SNP had repaid about half of the money by October of that year.
At the time an SNP spokesman said the loan was a "personal contribution made by the chief executive to assist with cash flow after the Holyrood election".
He said it had been reported in the party's 2021 accounts, which were published by the Electoral Commission in August last year.
Weeks earlier, MP Douglas Chapman had resigned as party treasurer saying he had not been given the "financial information" to do the job.
Mr Murrell resigned last month after taking responsibility for misleading statements about a fall in party membership.
The number of members had fallen from the 104,000 it had two years ago to just over 72,000.
An SNP spokesperson said: "Clearly it would not be appropriate to comment on any live police investigation but the SNP have been cooperating fully with this investigation and will continue to do so.
"At its meeting on Saturday, the governing body of the SNP, the NEC, agreed to a review of governance and transparency - that will be taken forward in the coming weeks."
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar told BBC Scotland it was "an extremely serious situation" and that the police investigation must be allowed to proceed without interference.
He added: "But there are huge questions I think to answer for both Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon about what they knew and when."
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said: "This is clearly a very serious case and it's absolutely crucial now that those at the top of the SNP, including Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon, co-operate fully with this ongoing police investigation."
Alba leader Alex Salmond, who preceded Ms Sturgeon as first minister and SNP leader, told BBC Scotland: "I led the SNP for a long time. I'm very sad about what's happening to it and indeed about what it has become."
The scene on the outskirts of Glasgow is surreal. A quiet residential area with a very famous resident is witnessing a major police investigation.
Switch on the news most nights and you'll see images of houses being searched by police, tents in front gardens, fluttering blue and white tape.
But this happening at the home of the power couple at the centre of an election winning machine - the woman who was Scotland's longest serving first minister and her husband, the man who ran the SNP for nearly 24 years.
It's very hard to get your head around that.
In the steady drizzle, news crews are waiting for something to happen.
An ice cream van can be heard in the distance. People walking bedraggled dogs pass the scene of a huge news story. A woman pushing a pram films it all with her mobile phone.
It is a mind-boggling sight and who knows where it's going to lead. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65187823 |
Dragos Tigau: Romania recalls Kenya ambassador over racist monkey slur - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Dragos Tigau made a racist comment at a meeting in April but has only now been disciplined. | Africa | Diplomats say they were shocked by Dragos Tigau's racist remark
Romania has recalled its ambassador to Kenya and apologised after he compared Africans to monkeys.
Dragos Tigau made the comments during a meeting at a UN building in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, on April 26.
According to the AFP news agency, Mr Tigau said "the African group has joined us" when he saw a monkey outside a window.
Mr Tigau's behaviour was first made public on Thursday by Kenyan foreign affairs official Kamau Macharia.
On Twitter Mr Macharia said he was left "appalled and disgusted" by the incident, and claimed that attempts were made to cover up Mr Tigau's behaviour.
African diplomats on Friday demanded a public apology, according to Kenya's Standard newspaper, insisting that a private apology was not enough.
On Saturday, Romania announced that it had only been informed of the incident this week and had now begun "a procedure to recall its ambassador".
"We deeply regret this situation and offer our apologies to all those who have been affected," the statement from Romania's foreign affairs ministry read.
"Any behaviours or comments of a racist nature are completely unacceptable," it added, saying it hoped it would not affect its ties with African countries.
Romania mainly engages with African nations through its membership of the European Union, but it has bilateral trade deals with Egypt among others.
The Kenyan government has not commented on the decision to recall Mr Tigau.
Romanian media have criticised his behaviour, and say this is not the first time the country has been embarrassed by insults dished out by diplomats.
In 2014, Romania's ambassador to Armenia was recalled after making anti-Semitic jokes about Jewish bosses and questioning the morality of same-sex relationships.
The following year, Bucharest apologised after invitations to a reception at its Paris embassy accidentally included unflattering descriptions of some guests - labelling them "ghastly" and "undesirable" among other things. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-65867104 |
Manchester City's Treble 'written in the stars' says Pep Guardiola after Champions League win - BBC Sport | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | null | Manchester City's Champions League success was "written in the stars", says manager Pep Guardiola after his side seal the Treble in Istanbul. | null | Last updated on .From the section Man City
Manchester City's Champions League success was "written in the stars", said manager Pep Guardiola after his side sealed the Treble in Istanbul.
City beat Inter Milan 1-0 to win a first Champions League title, adding to the Premier League and FA Cup trophies they had already clinched this season.
"I'm tired, calm and satisfied. It's so difficult to win," said Guardiola, who also won the Treble with Barcelona.
"It was written in the stars. It belongs to us."
Midfielder Rodri's 68th-minute strike - just his second Champions League goal in 48 appearances - was enough to see off Inter Milan at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium.
"It's emotional. A dream come true. All these guys around here waited I don't know how many years," Rodri told BT Sport.
"They deserve it, we deserve it. The last years we were so close. I just want to thank everyone. It wasn't easy. What a team we faced, the way they defend and counter-attack.
"We gave everything. Finals are like this. You can't expect to play as well as always. Emotions and nerves are there. We competed like animals. It's a dream. This moment will never happen again."
Manchester City were appearing in their second Champions League final in three seasons, having lost to Chelsea in 2021.
They become just the second English men's team to win the Treble, following in the footsteps of city rivals Manchester United who achieved the feat in 1999.
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'An honour to be alongside Sir Alex Ferguson'
Guardiola won the European Cup as a player for Barcelona in 1992 but said he did not realise what he had achieved until the day afterwards - and it will be a similar feeling after City's success.
"Our chairman said 'oh London is where next season's final of the Champions League is' and I won't tell you my answer to him," said Guardiola.
"Now is time to celebrate. I am looking forward to Monday afternoon in Manchester on our coach and three trophies [as part of a victory parade]."
Guardiola joins United legend Sir Alex Ferguson as the only managers to win the Treble with an English side.
"It is an honour for me to be alongside Sir Alex Ferguson. I got a message from him this morning and it is an honour," added Guardiola.
"People say I have to win trebles every season. I am a good manager, but no. I like this competition for the fact we won it, it is part of history and players will be remembered for the rest of their lives.
"But now give credit for the five Premier Leagues won in six years. It is important now that people don't forget what we have done. Maybe they can create a museum so the fans can look at the trophies."
City are still waiting for the result of the 115 Premier League financial charges against the club. They have denied financial wrongdoing and Guardiola said last month he wants the charges dealt with "as soon as possible".
After their Champions League triumph the manager praised the influence of owner Sheikh Mansour, who was watching on in the stands in Istanbul.
"One of the main reasons why this club became where we are is people from Abu Dhabi - Sheikh Mansour taking over the club. Without that we wouldn't be here. They are the most important people," he said.
"They support me unconditionally in the defeats in this competition. In many clubs you are sacked so I give incredible credit to my hierarchy and to my CEO."
'Guardiola is the best coach in the world'
Striker Erling Haaland joined City last summer and netted 12 goals in this season's Champions League - the joint-most in one campaign for an English club alongside Ruud van Nistelrooy for Manchester United in 2002-03.
The 22-year-old Norwegian also broke the Premier League record for most goals in a season with 36, scoring 52 times in all competitions.
"In my wildest dreams I would never think of this," Haaland told BT Sport.
"It shows it's possible for a guy from a small hometown in Norway. It gives hope to younger people in my hometown. It's unbelievable.
"After a couple of days when this settles a bit and this feeling of winning this trophy, I will want to do it again for sure. I know myself and I know this is how I will think.
"We have to defend what we have achieved this season. That's how it works. In a month everything is forgotten and we have to start again."
Haaland said it was "really special" to work with Guardiola, who won two Champions League trophies with Barcelona before guiding City to their first.
"We have a good relationship and I look forward to next season to develop even more," he added. "To be getting trained by him every single day, the best coach in the world, is a good place to be."
Midfielder Kevin de Bruyne was consoled by Haaland when he was forced off with a hamstring injury in the first half, just two years after his appearance was cut short in the European final defeat by Chelsea.
"It has been a hard two months," said De Bruyne. "I had a lot of problems with my hamstring and it snapped.
"The team was good enough though and we won. We have been working so long for this, it is amazing."
'My dream is in your hands'
Guardiola's biggest decision before the match was to leave England defender Kyle Walker out of the starting XI.
Walker had started City's past seven matches, including the FA Cup final victory over Manchester United and both legs of the Champions League semi-final win over Real Madrid.
"I'm always going to be disappointed when I'm not playing but I'm 33. My example [is important for] the younger lads," Walker told BT Sport.
"I made a speech before they went out. I said 'my dream is in your hands, no pressure'. This club means so much to me. To experience what I've experienced, I'm forever in debt.
"I'm over the moon. I'm rarely speechless. My dream has come true, to achieve this with this club. To achieve a Treble is unbelievable.
"My mum and dad are in the stands. From where I come from in Sheffield it's not easy. I remember when my mum didn't have a pound for the ice cream van. To have this with them, I'm so thankful."
England international Jack Grealish, who joined City from Aston Villa for a British record £100m in 2021, was in tears at full-time.
"This is what you work your whole life for. I'm so happy. I was awful [in the final] but I don't care. To win the Treble with this group of players is so special," Grealish told BT Sport.
"Everyone who knows me knows how much I love football and this is what I have worked for my whole life. Seeing my family in the crowd makes me so emotional.
"I just said to the manager 'I want to thank you'. He has put so much faith in me. He is a genius."
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Covid inquiry: The questions we really want answers to - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | As a massive public inquiry in the UK opens to the public, we asked key people what questions they have. | Health | A massive inquiry to understand the UK's response to, and the impact of, the Covid-19 pandemic, throws its doors open later. Following a statement from chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett, a film featuring bereaved families will be played. Not one of us was left untouched by the effects of the pandemic, and we all have questions. I asked a range of people who were in the eye of the Covid storm what one question each of them most wants answered.
Lobby Akinnola had been due to return to his family home in Royal Leamington Spa, Warkwickshire, to celebrate his 29th birthday when lockdown began in March 2020.
Instead, he stayed at home, in London, apart from his parents and four siblings. A month later, his father, Femi, was dead.
"It changed my life forever," Lobby says. "He was isolating in the living room of our home and that's where he died. He was 60 and fit and healthy. We never expected him to die."
Lobby Akinnola wants to ensure the death of his father, Femi, and others were not in vain
Femi is one of nearly 250,000 people killed by Covid in the UK - and Lobby, part of the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice campaign group, wants to ensure these deaths were "not in vain".
For him, the key question is: How can we better protect people when there is another pandemic?
A crucial part of that will be looking at why people belonging to ethnic minorities were at such greater risk. There is no "physiological reason" why they had worse outcomes, Lobby says. Instead, he believes it is linked to society - the jobs and housing conditions people belonging to ethnic minorities experience.
But the people who died from Covid - and those still struggling with complications known as long Covid - are not the only victims of the virus. As restrictions were imposed on the UK, at the start of the pandemic, the government's chief medical adviser, Prof Sir Chris Whitty, warned about the indirect costs. They have been huge.
Children were unable to attend school, businesses were closed, non-Covid treatment delayed and mixing banned, stopping everything from socialising to seeing dying loved ones in their final days.
The legacy of that remains, in terms of rising rates of mental-health problems, lost learning and the economic hit. It's also there in the continued high rates of non-Covid deaths and ill health as the impact of missed treatment for conditions such as cancer and heart disease materialises.
So a crucial element of the inquiry must be to look at why the government imposed restrictions - and whether they were always necessary.
One senior public health official, who played a key role in the pandemic and is due to give evidence, says it is hard to see how the first lockdown could have been avoided once the virus was here. Put simply: "We did not know what we were dealing with." But after the first wave was over and scientists understood more, the government should not have been so quick to reimpose restrictions.
In one 80-day period during autumn 2020, England went from few restrictions, to the "rule of six" limit to gatherings, tiered levels of restrictions by region, a national lockdown and back to tiers.
"We had so many rules and regulations people could not keep up," the official, who asked not to be named because of rules on what they can say in public ahead of the inquiry, says. "It was very top down and heavy handed. It goes against all the evidence of what works during disasters."
So they want to know: How did the UK get to have such complex and confusing rules?
"One of the things Sweden did was rely on the strong social consciousness of their population," the official says. "In the UK, we did not place enough trust in the public - it was damaging.
"We could have given them good information and guidance and let them act. The public showed throughout they were, on the whole, cautious and responsible." And closing schools to all but the most vulnerable children and those of key workers was the "biggest system failure" of the pandemic.
UK children spent six months remote learning, with hairdressers and pubs opening before schools in the first lockdown - a decision repeated for hairdressers in Scotland after the second UK-wide lockdown, in early 2021.
England's children's commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, is extremely worried about the impact this has had on children - even now, school attendance is below its pre-pandemic level.
So her big ask is: How are we going to support children to recover and avoid such harm in future pandemics?
"Where they need additional support, be that because they are worried about their mental health or because they have fallen behind at school, they want it quickly," Dame Rachel says.
Dame Rachel de Souza says children must be prioritised
"Children sacrificed so much to keep adults safe, we need to make sure we give something back - prioritising their wellbeing."
For Association of Directors of Public Health president Prof Jim McManus, it comes down one basic question: How do we avoid lockdowns in future pandemics?
"We will only do that if we are better prepared, act at the earliest stage and have good testing and contact tracing in place," he says.
"The UK and much of Europe and North America was largely underprepared for a pandemic of this magnitude - and that cost us."
The UK decided to stop community testing in late March. And in England, it took until May to launch a national large-scale contact-tracing system and September for the government to start giving sick pay to people being asked to isolate
The way care homes were supported is another topic that needs addressing.
About 40% of Covid deaths in the first few months were in care homes, as the lack of testing and personal protective equipment (PPE), heavy use of agency staff and decision to transfer, en masse, hospital patients to care homes let the virus rip through the sector.
And NHS workers want the role of austerity during the 2010s examined.
Adult nurse Stuart Tuckwood had never worked in intensive care but was deployed there to look after the sickest Covid patients during the first and second waves, working through breaks to start with because he was worried about using up the limited PPE.
"The fact I had to work in intensive care because we didn't have enough trained nurses says it all really," he says. "But it wasn't a surprise - staffing shortages were terrible in the lead up to the pandemic."
And the NHS - and other public services - cannot wait until the end of the inquiry to rectify the problems.
The first time nurse Stuart Tuckwood worked in intensive care was during the pandemic
"We need action now," Stuart says, "staff are having to strike to get the pay they need."
So his key question is: What should be done to tackle staffing shortages, so we don't face the situation again?
The wait for the inquiry is something others are worried about.
One epidemiologist who advised government during the pandemic and will also be giving evidence to the public inquiry so does not want to be named fears another pandemic could hit before the necessary changes have been made.
Some say the inquiry could well last five years.
The inquiry team says recommendations will begin next year, as it is being broken down into six different modules.
However, the epidemiologist says: "The modular approach makes sense - but some elements are going to get dragged out too long. We can't wait - pandemics happen every 10 years."
They are particularly concerned with how decision-making became skewed.
"There was no cost-benefit done on the use of restrictions which we would with other policy decisions," the epidemiologist says.
So they want to know: How should the system be changed "so we can work out the trade-offs" of the decisions we make?
"The phrase 'follow the science' became really unhelpful," the epidemiologist says. "There was no acknowledgement of the uncertainty.
"Instead, we got trapped into looking at it through a narrow lens of Covid. Even now, I am worried the inquiry has not quite got the focus right.
"If it just looks at Covid deaths in 2020 and 2021 and not what has been happening with other deaths since, the inquiry will come to the wrong conclusions. This is about more than just the virus." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65843811 |
Brittany: Girl from British family shot dead in France named - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Solaine Thornton was playing on a swing in her garden when a neighbour shot her through a hedge. | Europe | An 11-year-old girl from a British family who was shot dead while playing on a swing in her garden in France has been named as Solaine Thornton.
The family were having a barbecue on Saturday evening when the shooting happened in the village of Saint-Herbot, north of Quimper in Brittany.
Her parents, Adrian and Rachel Thornton, were also hurt and are in hospital.
The family were named by the mayor of the commune where the family lived, Marguerite Bleuzen.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was providing assistance to a British family.
The girl and her eight-year-old sister were playing on a swing as their parents tended the barbecue, when a neighbour began firing at them with a shotgun through a hedge.
The younger girl ran to another neighbour's house to raise the alarm and is now said to be in shock.
A local resident told French media that the younger child ran to neighbours shouting: "My sister is dead, my sister is dead".
The suspect, described as a 71-year-old Dutch national, reportedly shut himself in his house following the incident but eventually surrendered to police and was arrested along with his wife.
Locals said the man was something of a recluse who was in dispute with the British family over a plot of land adjoining the two properties.
Local media reported that the family had lived in the village for several years.
A forensic officer was one of the staff spotted gathering evidence at the family home
Prosecutor Carine Halley said the circumstances around the incident were not yet known.
Ms Bleuzen, the mayor of Plonévez-du-Faou commune, said: "We knew the family well. There is a village fête every year and they always came.
"It is incomprehensible to have shot a child. No one can understand how that could have happened."
Regine Guillot, the secretary of the Plonevez-du-Faou town hall, said the village "is in shock".
"There were neighbourhood issues, yes, a hedge, a field, but nothing more than that, not that we were aware of," Guillot told Reuters.
A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: "We are providing consular assistance to a British family following a shooting in France and are in contact with the local authorities." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65874063 |
Diego Garcia: The tropical island ‘hell’ for dozens of stranded migrants - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | They set sail to flee persecution, they say - but ended up on an isolated island in the Indian Ocean. | UK | An image provided by one of the migrants shows people on the deck of their fishing boat
Dozens of migrants have been stranded for months on a tiny British territory in the Indian Ocean after being rescued from their struggling fishing boat.
They are desperate to leave for a safe place, describing conditions as hellish, but the unusual legal status of the island has left them feeling frightened and helpless.
All names of the migrants have been changed
Early one morning in October 2021, a fishing boat was spotted struggling near the island of Diego Garcia.
The vessel immediately attracted the attention of the island's authorities - the territory hosts a secretive UK-US military base, hundreds of miles away from any other population, and unauthorised visitors are forbidden.
It soon became clear that the 89 people on board - Sri Lankan Tamils who said they were fleeing persecution - weren't actually intending to land on the island.
They had planned to seek asylum in Canada, a claim backed up by maps, diary entries and GPS data on board, before rough weather and engine problems pulled them off course.
As the boat ran into trouble, one man on board said they started looking for the nearest place of safety. "We saw a bit of light and started sailing towards Diego Garcia," he told the BBC.
A Royal Navy ship escorted the boat to land, and the group were put into temporary accommodation.
That was 20 months ago. And communication between officials on the island and London gives clues as to why the migrants - some of whom have since attempted suicide due to their dire situation - are still there.
Communications in the immediate aftermath of their arrival were obtained through a Freedom of Information request to the Foreign Office by a lawyer representing some of the migrants, and shared with the BBC. They show officials wrestling with what to do about the "unprecedented development".
Early messages spoke of plans to "investigate repair options to the engine", but said "we can't rule out" that the group will try to launch asylum claims from Diego Garcia.
By the next day, that scenario had become a reality.
The Tamils had presented a letter to the commander of the British forces on the island saying they were fleeing persecution, having set sail from Tamil Nadu in India 18 days earlier, and "expressing a wish to be sent to a safe country".
Many have since claimed to have links with the former Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka, who were defeated in the civil war that ended in 2009, and say they have faced persecution as a result. Some allege they were victims of torture or sexual assault.
An official "information note", approved in London by the director of overseas territories, Paul Candler, said the "unexpected arrival" of the group had marked the first time asylum had been sought on British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) - the islands' official name.
It added that, if approached by the media, the official "defensive line" would be that the UK government was "aware of the incident" and was "working urgently to resolve the situation".
The group "currently have no means of communication with the outside world… [but] with time passing there is a high likelihood news will spread," it added.
In the coming months, as messages were going back and forth to London, more boats arrived on Diego Garcia. At one point numbers in the camp swelled to at least 150, lawyers estimate, as others arrived on the island from Sri Lanka.
Packed on their boat, the Marayan, the Tamils intended to voyage to Canada and claim asylum there
Meanwhile, the reality of their current situation was beginning to dawn on the asylum seekers.
"I was initially happy, thinking: 'I survived, I am getting food, and I am away from torture,'" Lakshani, one of the migrants, told the BBC last month.
But she said the tropical island refuge soon "turned out to be a hell".
She says she was sexually assaulted in October last year by a man who travelled in the same boat and was housed in the same tent as her.
"I started to scream, but no-one came to help," she said.
When she felt able to make an official complaint, she says she was told it was difficult to gather evidence as she had washed her clothes.
She says she had to continue staying in the same tent as her alleged attacker for almost a week until authorities finally responded to her demand to have him moved.
The UK government and BIOT administration did not respond to requests for comment about this allegation.
Lakshani and others told the BBC they or people they knew had attempted suicide or had self-harmed in their distress at the suffocating conditions, including by swallowing sharp objects.
Lawyers say they are aware of at least 12 suicide attempts and allegations of at least two sexual assaults within the camp.
"We are mentally and physically exhausted… We are living a lifeless life. I feel like I am living like a dead man," said Vithusan, another migrant. He told the BBC he had self-harmed twice.
Another man, Aadhavan, said that after having his initial claim for protection rejected, he "lost all hope" and decided to take his own life.
"I didn't want to live here like a caged animal forever," he said.
He told another migrant in the camp of his suicide attempt and she alerted the camp authorities, who arranged medical treatment.
Another woman, Shanthi, said her husband had also attempted suicide.
Lakshani said her own attempt to take her life had been provoked by an officer at the camp telling her she would be sent back to Sri Lanka, where she alleges she was raped and tortured by soldiers in 2021.
The UK government and G4S - the private security company brought in to guard the migrant camp - did not respond to requests for comment on this specific claim.
G4S said its officers treated migrants on the island with "dignity and respect at all times", while a UK government spokesperson said the "welfare and safety" of migrants on BIOT was "paramount" and that "all allegations of mistreatment are taken seriously and fully investigated".
The spokesperson added that the BIOT administration was providing "extensive medical support".
There have also been hunger strikes on the island, which lawyers say have involved children.
Another image sent by a migrant shows the tents, which are each shared by about a dozen people and watched over by security guards
In response to one earlier this year, lawyers say the BIOT commissioner confiscated migrants' phones, stopped access to the communal telephone and withdrew medical treatment "unless the individuals were willing to sign a form disclaiming certain liabilities of the BIOT administration".
The BIOT administration has dismissed this allegation in court documents, saying that in response to one hunger strike, sharp objects were removed from the camp and other measures taken to prevent self-harm.
All can agree that the Diego Garcia military base was not a place intended to house asylum seekers.
Britain took control of the Chagos Islands, of which Diego Garcia is part, from its then colony, Mauritius, in 1965 and went on to evict its population of more than 1,000 people to make way for the base.
Mauritius, which won independence from the UK in 1968, maintains the islands are its own and the United Nations' highest court has ruled that the UK's administration of the territory is "unlawful" and must end.
The UK resisted international pressure to begin talks about the islands - until late last year, when it agreed to open negotiations.
In recent decades, US planes have been sent from the base to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq - and it has also reportedly been used as a so-called CIA "black site" - a facility used to house and interrogate terror suspects.
Court documents filed in London say tents previously set up as Covid isolation facilities for military personnel are being used as a makeshift migrant camp. Fences surround the camp, and inside there are basic medical facilities and a canteen. G4S guards must accompany the migrants if they leave the area.
"We are the parrots, we are in a cage," said Shanthi, of the lack of freedom.
Lawyers representing the migrants say basic education became available about a year ago, but that classes have at times had to be held outside because of a rat infestation.
Some migrants have since returned home, having either given up their claim or had it rejected. Others set sail for the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, a French territory, hoping to claim asylum there, the lawyers say.
Currently, at least 60 Tamils remain on the island. They are awaiting decisions about their fate or challenging earlier rulings in convoluted legal processes playing out thousands of miles away in the UK.
While the UK is signed up to international laws about the treatment of refugees, court papers say this doesn't apply to BIOT, an area described as being "constitutionally distinct and separate from the UK".
A separate process, based on the idea that no-one should be returned to a country where they face torture or inhumane treatment, has been established to determine if they should be sent back to Sri Lanka or to a "safe third country".
Lawyer Tessa Gregory says the London firm she works for, Leigh Day, has launched a judicial review on behalf of a number of asylum seekers on Diego Garcia, challenging the "lawfulness" of this process - which she describes as "fundamentally unfair".
She says decisions to return some migrants to Sri Lanka were made based on rushed initial interviews, while later, fuller interviews were marred by translation errors. Others have been left "in limbo" as the UK government has not yet identified a suitable safe third country, she said.
Meanwhile, the UK government said the BIOT administration was "considering migrants' protection claims under BIOT law and in line with international legal obligations".
The UK office of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) told the BBC it was concerned by reports of the "deteriorating health situation" on Diego Garcia and had requested access from UK authorities, but this had not yet been granted.
Emilie McDonnell, UK advocacy and communications co-ordinator at Human Rights Watch, said the British government "should consider any and all options to ensure the welfare of these asylum seekers who are on British-controlled territory and therefore should be protected by the British government".
The UK has said it will not take in any of the Diego Garcia asylum seekers whose claims are approved, according to lawyers.
Three of the Tamils who arrived on Diego Garcia are currently in Rwanda receiving medical treatment after being evacuated from the island following self-harm and suicide attempts. Their transfer is not part of the deal struck by the British and Rwandan governments to send some asylum seekers from the UK to the east African country.
At one point, five of the migrants were sent to Rwanda for medical treatment - two were later returned to Diego Garcia
In a letter sent to one of them in May, and seen by the BBC, the BIOT administration said it would find and pay for private accommodation while they received treatment in Rwanda - including therapy.
"If you are not content with the proposal… we can arrange for your return to Diego Garcia. There is no other option available at this time," it said.
Four of the asylum seekers have had their claims to be sent to a "safe third country" approved. A letter sent two months ago to one of them, seen by the BBC, said "every effort will be made to do this expeditiously".
In a separate statement to the BBC this week, the UK government said it was "working tirelessly with the BIOT administration to find a long-term solution to [the migrants'] current situation."
But the situation for everyone could continue to drag on with no clear timeframe for finding a safe third country, and long legal processes for those disputing rejections.
After 20 months of waiting, one asylum seeker said everyone seemed to have "lost their hope". | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65777863 |
French Open 2023 final: Novak Djokovic says others must decide who is 'the greatest' - BBC Sport | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | null | Novak Djokovic says it is not down to him to decide if he is the greatest men's player of all time after winning a record 23rd Grand Slam title. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Novak Djokovic says it is not down to him to decide if he is the greatest player of all time after he won a men's record 23rd Grand Slam title.
Serbia's Djokovic won the French Open on Sunday, moving him one clear of Rafael Nadal in terms of men's majors.
He is level with Serena Williams on 23 and could equal Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 at Wimbledon in July.
"I don't want to enter in these discussions. I'm writing my own history," Djokovic, 36, said.
"I don't want to say I am the greatest. I leave those discussions to someone else."
In the past several years Djokovic has been locked in an engaging battle with Nadal and Roger Federer, who retired last year with 20 major titles, to finish with the most men's Grand Slams.
By beating Norway's Casper Ruud at Roland Garros, Djokovic has moved clear of his long-time rivals for the first time.
On this evidence Djokovic looks a good bet to extend the gap further, especially with the injured Nadal planning to retire in 2024 and 41-year-old Federer already retired.
"It's amazing to know that I'm ahead of both of them in Grand Slams, but at the same time everyone writes their own history," said Djokovic, who also regained the world number one ranking in Paris.
"I feel like each great champion of his own generation has left a huge mark and a legacy.
"I have huge faith, confidence and belief in myself and everything that I am, who I am and what I am capable of doing.
"This trophy is another confirmation of the quality of tennis that I'm still able to produce."
How many more Slams can Djokovic win?
Djokovic will attempt to tie Court's record at Wimbledon - a place where he has already won seven times and will be the favourite to equal Federer's record tally of men's titles.
"Grand Slams are the biggest priorities on the checklist, not just this season but any season, especially at this stage of my career," Djokovic said.
"The journey is still not over. If I'm winning Slams, why even think about ending the career that already has been going for 20 years?
"I still feel motivated and inspired to play the best tennis in these tournaments.
"These are the ones that count the most in the history of our sport."
Djokovic has cut back his schedule at tour level in recent years in a bid to peak at the right time for the four majors.
That strategy is clearly working, with Djokovic now having won six of the past eight majors he has played.
"He has this software in his head that he can switch when a Grand Slam comes," Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic's long-time coach, said.
"The day we arrived here [in Paris], he was better, he was more motivated, he was more hungry.
"It's fascinating to see, because sometimes you think 'OK, now you have 23'.
"But he's going to find some kind of motivation to win 24, maybe 25 - who knows where is the end?"
Does he still have the physical strength to win more?
Djokovic came into Roland Garros without a great deal of preparation having been hampered by an elbow injury in the European clay-court swing.
After needing treatment in his third-round win over Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Djokovic said he had a list of injuries "too long to name" and added the only way to deal with physical issues was to "accept it".
"I don't like to think about age and, it sounds like a cliché, but I really feel age is just a number in my case," said Djokovic, who surpassed 2022 winner Nadal as the oldest Roland Garros men's singles champion.
"My body is responding differently. I have to deal with more things physically than I have had maybe in the past.
"Maybe five to 10 years ago I was recovering much quicker or just didn't feel as much pain in the body."
Ivanisevic said he was never worried about Djokovic's condition and believes he still has "a lot more" in his body to win majors.
"He's keeping his body great - there's little ones [injuries] here and there but not major," said the Croat, who won Wimbledon in 2001.
"He's unbelievable and he's still moving like a cat on the court. He's there like a ninja, he's everywhere."
'No sign his powers are on the wane' - analysis
Djokovic's daughter Tara completed a few laps of honour on Court Philippe Chatrier on behalf of her father, as he conducted some final television interviews.
At 36, Djokovic is the oldest male champion in Roland Garros history, but he does not sound, look or play like it - even if he admits the aches and pains are gradually increasing.
Roger Federer had two Wimbledon championship points against Djokovic a month shy of his 38th birthday, so the Serb knows exactly what might still be possible as he begins a 388th week as the world number one.
He could lose top spot over the grass court season, but it's likely to be just temporary. Having skipped last year's US Open - and all its preceding events - Djokovic has no ranking points to defend until October.
He has won the last three Grand Slams he has contested, and even in his 37th year, there is no sign his powers are on the wane.
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Ukraine war: Russia moves to take direct control of Wagner Group - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It appears to be the latest in a public falling out between the Wagner boss and Russian officials. | Europe | Russia appears to have moved to take direct control of Wagner, after months of infighting between defence officials and the private military group.
Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said on Saturday "volunteer formations" will be asked to sign contracts directly with the ministry of defence.
The vaguely worded statement is widely believed to target the group.
But in a furious statement on Sunday, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces would boycott the contracts.
The private military group has played a major role in the war in Ukraine, fighting on the side of Russian forces.
But Prigozhin, who is said to hold political ambitions of his own, has been embroiled in a public dispute with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and military chief Valery Gerasimov for months.
He has repeatedly accused the pair of incompetence and of deliberately undersupplying Wagner units fighting in Ukraine.
"Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu," Prigozhin said in response to a request for comment on the defence ministry's announcement. "Shoigu cannot properly manage military formation."
He insisted that his group was well integrated with the Russian military, but said that its effectiveness would be damaged by having to report to the defence minister.
While Saturday's announcement did not directly reference Wagner or any other paramilitary groups, Russian media suggested that the new contracts were a move to bring Prigozhin and his forces under control.
But the defence ministry said the move was designed to "increase the effectiveness" of Russian units fighting in Ukraine.
"This will give volunteer formations the necessary legal status, create common approaches to the organization of comprehensive support and the fulfilment of their tasks," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the contracts must be signed by 1 July.
The long-running tensions between the Wagner Group and the army have threatened to boil over in recent weeks.
Last week the group kidnapped a senior frontline army commander, Lt Col Roman Venevitin, after accusing him of opening fire on a Wagner vehicle near Bakhmut.
Lt Col Venevitin was later released, and in a video shared by Russian military bloggers he accused the group of stoking "anarchy" on Russia's frontlines by stealing arms, forcing mobilised soldiers to sign contracts with the group and attempting to extort weapons from the defence ministry.
Prigozhin called the comments - which appeared to be read from a script - "absolutely total nonsense".
He has also suggested that he is ready to deploy his troops on Russian soil, saying on Telegram that Wagner was ready to fight against insurrectionist forces in the Belgorod region.
In December, the US estimated that Wagner had around 50,000 troops fighting in Ukraine.
And the mercenary group has increasingly become a tool of Russian state power around the world. Its troops are currently believed to have been deployed in Mali, the Central African Republic,Sudan and Libya. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65871232 |
Johnson and Sturgeon headlines make PM and FM's job to govern tougher - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Headlines about Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon are a distraction for Rishi Sunak and Humza Yousaf. | UK Politics | Who would be a prime minister or a first minister with predecessors keeping as… busy… as this?
There are many, many differences between the story of Boris Johnson and the story of Nicola Sturgeon.
But, politically what unites them is what has happened makes the business of being prime minister - or First Minister of Scotland - considerably harder.
The magnetism of the drama swirling around Mr Johnson should not distract from the two central points at its core.
Firstly, those implications for Rishi Sunak attempting to get on with the job right now giving the impression of running a calm, considered administration shorn of the turbulence of recent years.
Mr Johnson has made Mr Sunak's job harder - and that matters in the here and now.
Secondly, that a committee of his peers - containing a majority of Conservative MPs - has concluded in the strongest terms that Mr Johnson's integrity, or the perceived lack of it, was deserving of a sanction which would almost certainly have prompted a by-election.
In that case Mr Johnson would have had to win over his constituents in west London in order to carry on as an MP.
The man who was prime minister this time last year not just driven out of Downing Street, but driven out of parliament, by his fellow MPs. Even his fellow Conservatives.
Its members have been offered extra security, such has been the profile and anger this inquiry into Boris Johnson has provoked.
Some MPs are livid that Mr Johnson and his supporters have been, in their view, so cavalier in impugning the reputation of those on the committee, who have no capacity to respond publicly while they are compiling their report.
Mr Sunak and Mr Johnson met a week last Friday and discussed his honours list.
No 10 insist they have acted honourably - and have gone to considerable lengths to try to prove it.
They declassified a document to point out they had not tinkered with the list of nominees for peerages in recent weeks.
But critics are still not convinced - asking instead what did or did not happen much earlier.
Mr Johnson's allies claim they've been misled - even lied to.
Downing Street sources say this is "nonsense".
This week at Westminster will be dominated by Boris Johnson and the report into his conduct expected in the next few days.
But what gives this row a much longer tail is the three by-elections that will follow.
From what I am hearing, there is a desire within the Conservative Party to get on with them as quickly as possible, within the next month or so.
The parties are already out campaigning.
The Liberal Democrats are upbeat about their prospects in Mid Bedfordshire. Labour are upbeat about Uxbridge and South Ruislip, which is a marginal.
But it's entirely possible the Conservatives win at least some of the contests - especially given Mid Bedfordshire and Selby and Ainsty had big Conservative majorities at the last election.
But as one senior Tory put it to me, it'll be the swing that matters - if there's a big swing against the Conservatives it'll set off the jitters again for many, many Tory MPs who fear oblivion at the general election.
There is nothing good about these by elections for Rishi Sunak.
Meanwhile, at Holyrood, one of the defeated contenders to replace Nicola Sturgeon in spring's leadership race has called for her to stop sitting - for now - as an SNP MSP.
Ash Regan told BBC Radio Scotland Ms Sturgeon should resign - or the first minister should consider suspending her.
It is amid this noise and the headlines that both the prime minister and the new First Minister of Scotland, Humza Yousaf, have to find the time and the space to get on with the very business of governing.
But this is made vastly more difficult by their predecessors' capacities to generate attention. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65873673 |
French Open final 2023: Novak Djokovic plays Casper Ruud in Roland Garros men's showpiece - BBC Sport | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | null | Novak Djokovic says he is relishing the chance to make tennis history as he aims to become the first man to win 23 Grand Slam singles titles. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Coverage: Live text from 13:00 BST and radio commentary from 13:30 on BBC Radio 5 Live & the BBC Sport website and app.
Novak Djokovic says he is relishing the chance to make tennis history as he aims to become the first man to win 23 Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic, 36, faces Norway's Casper Ruud, 24, in the men's singles final at the French Open on Sunday.
A victory would take the Serb clear of Rafael Nadal's total of 22 wins.
"I like the feeling, it's an incredible privilege to be able to make history in the sport I truly love and has given me so much," Djokovic said.
"The motivation is very high, as you can imagine. There is one more to go to hopefully get my hands on the trophy.
"I have put myself in another really ideal position to win a Grand Slam.
"That's basically what still drives me when I wake up in the morning and think about things I want to achieve. The Grand Slams are what drives me the most."
Another victory would give Djokovic his third French Open title and he would also become the first man to win each of the four Grand Slam tournaments at least three times.
"I've been very fortunate that most of the matches in tournaments I've played in the last few years, there is history on the line," Djokovic said.
"As far as all the records that are on the line, again it's flattering, it's great, but I need to win.
"I'm proud of all my achievements and I try to stay present and in the moment. I know the job is not finished and we have another match."
Ruud reached the finals of the French Open and the US Open in 2022 but lost on both occasions, against Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz respectively.
At Roland Garros, Ruud won only six games in three sets as Nadal completed a routine 6-3 6-3 6-0 victory for his 22nd Grand Slam title.
"Obviously, I would like to try to do better than last year," Ruud said. "Let's see if I have learned something from the two previous ones that I played last year.
"It's going to be tough, for sure. He's playing for his 23rd, I'm playing for my first. So I'm going to just try to play without pressure and just try to enjoy the moment.
"That was my mentality last year as well, and it didn't go my way.
"It just feels great to be back in the final. I didn't think or necessarily believe in the beginning of the tournament I was going to be in the final."
Djokovic and Ruud have never played each other in a Grand Slam, but have met four times on the ATP Tour, with the Serb winning all the matches and not even dropping a set.
"It is going to be the toughest challenge of the year for me to play Novak," Ruud added.
"Novak has played great this tournament and in the Grand Slams he always raises his level.
"I have never beaten him before, so I'm going to have to try to come up with a better game plan.
"I know I'm going to have to play my 'A' game, my best level I've ever played if I want to have a chance against him."
How they reached the final
Djokovic did not drop a set in the first four rounds, beating Aleksandar Kovacevic of the United States, Marton Fucsovics of Hungary, 29th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru.
Russia's Karen Khachanov, the 11th seed, became the first player to take a set off Djokovic in their quarter-final before the former world number one took the next three sets.
A match with current world number one Carlos Alcaraz followed in the semi-finals and it was set up to be a classic at one set all in a high quality encounter before the 20-year-old Spaniard struggled physically, with Djokovic winning 6-3 5-7 6-1 6-1.
Ruud began with wins over Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer and Giulio Zeppieri of Italy in round two then fought back from a set down against Zhizhen Zhang of China in the third round.
He saw off Chile's Nicolas Jarry in the last 16, with his first win over a seed coming with the four-set victory over Denmark's Holger Rune, the sixth seed, in the quarter-finals.
Ruud made it back-to-back French Open final appearances thanks to a convincing 6-3 6-4 6-0 win over 22nd seed Alexander Zverev of Germany.
Can you name all the players Novak Djokovic has beaten in Grand Slam finals? Share your score with your friends!
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Three Britons missing after Egypt boat fire - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Twelve other Britons were rescued after a fire on a boat which was on a cruise in the Egyptian Red Sea. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: The boat, called Hurricane, caught fire off the coast of Marsa Alam
Three British tourists are missing after a fire on board a dive boat on the Egyptian Red Sea.
Twenty-six other people, including 12 Britons, were rescued from the boat, called Hurricane, which was off the coast of Marsa Alam, authorities said.
They added that initial reports suggested the fire, at 06:30 local time, was down to an electrical fault.
The boat had been on a dive cruise and had left Port Ghalib on 6 June and been due to return on Sunday.
The boat's operator, Tornado Marine Fleet, said 15 British passengers had been on board along with 12 crew members and two guides - a different figure to that given earlier by the local authority, the Red Sea Governorate.
The local authority said initial examinations had found an electrical short circuit in the engine room, while the public prosecution office had begun an investigation.
All of those who had been rescued were said to be well.
The Hurricane is one of several operated by Tornado Marine Fleet.
A spokesman said the fire happened while crew were doing the diving briefing at Elphinstone Reef - a diving destination known for its wealth of marine life including colourful corals and sharks.
Scuba Travel, which chartered the boat, said the group on board had been on a seven-day tour and the company was working with the local authorities and specialist advisers.
"Our first priority is the safety of our guests," a spokesman said.
The Red Sea is a popular resort for diving trips.
"This is really bad news for the tourism industry," said BBC News correspondent Sally Nabil. "They depend on tourism, particularly British tourism."
The Foreign Office said it was supporting British nationals involved.
A spokesman said: "We are in contact with local authorities following an incident aboard a dive boat near Marsa Alam, and are supporting British nationals involved." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65871310 |
How children survived 40 days in Colombian jungle - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The youngsters defied the odds in a part of the Amazon rainforest home to jaguars and wild dogs. | Latin America & Caribbean | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
On Friday, in the dead of night at the heart of the Colombian jungle, army radios crackled to life with the message the nation had been praying for: "Miracle, miracle, miracle, miracle."
The military code revealed that four children missing in the jungle for 40 days had all been found - alive.
The youngsters, all members of the indigenous Huitoto people, had been missing since the light plane they were travelling in crashed into the Amazon in the early hours of 1 May.
The tragedy killed their mother and left the children - aged 13, nine, four and one - stranded alone in an area teeming with snakes, jaguars and mosquitos.
Rescuers initially feared the worst, but footprints, partially eaten wild fruit and other clues soon gave them hope that the children might be alive after they left the crash site looking for help.
Over the next six weeks, the children battled the elements - and the odds - in what Colombia's President Gustavo Petro called "an example of total survival which will remain in history".
If there were ever children well-prepared to tackle such an ordeal, the Mucutuy family were the ones.
Huitoto people learn hunting, fishing and gathering from an early age, and their grandfather Fidencio Valencia told reporters that the eldest children, Lesly and Soleiny, were well acquainted with the jungle.
Speaking to Colombian media, the children's aunt, Damarys Mucutuy, said the family would regularly play a "survival game" together growing up.
"When we played, we set up like little camps," she recalled. Thirteen-year-old Lesly, she added, "knew what fruits she can't eat, because there are many poisonous fruits in the forest. And she knew how to take care of a baby".
Fidencio Valencia told reporters that the children had grown up learning to take care of themselves in the jungle
After the crash, Lesly built makeshift shelters from branches held together with her hair ties.
She also recovered fariña, a type of cassava flour, from the wreckage of the Cessna 206 plane they had been travelling in.
The children survived on the flour until it ran out and then they ate seeds, Edwin Paki, one of the indigenous leaders who took part in the search effort, told reporters.
"There's a fruit, similar to passion fruit, called avichure," he said. "They were looking for seeds to eat from an avichure tree about a kilometre and a half from the site of the plane crash."
The fruit from the avichure tree, also known as milk tree, is rich in sugar and its seeds can be chewed like chewing gum.
Henry Guerrero, one of the indigenous people who was part of the search team that finally located the children, said they had also been eating fruits from the Bacaba palm tree known locally as "milpesos", which are rich in oil and taste similar to avocados.
He said one of the young children had a seed from the tree in his mouth when they found him.
Astrid Cáceres, head of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare, said the timing of their ordeal meant "the jungle was in harvest" and they could eat fruit that was in bloom.
But they still faced significant challenges surviving in the inhospitable environment.
Speaking to BBC Mundo on Saturday, indigenous expert Alex Rufino said the children were in "a very dark, very dense jungle, where the largest trees in the region are".
And while there are leaves with which the children could purify water, he warned that "others are poisonous".
"It is an area that has not been explored. The towns are small, and they are next to the river, not in the jungle," he added.
In addition to avoiding predators, the children also endured intense rainstorms and may have had to evade armed groups said to be active in the jungle.
But Mr Rufino noted that a 13-year-old raised in an indigenous community would already possess many of the skills needed to thrive in such an environment.
John Moreno, leader of the Guanano group in Vaupés, in the south-eastern part of Colombia where the children were brought up, said they had been "raised by their grandmother", a widely respected indigenous elder.
"They used what they learned in the community, relied on their ancestral knowledge in order to survive," he said.
As the search continued, officials in Bogota came under pressure over its slowness. President Petro faced criticism after his office falsely published a tweet saying the children had been found.
Authorities dropped 10,000 leaflets with survival tips written in Spanish and the indigenous Huitoto language, and helicopters blared messages from their grandmother from speakers to reassure the children they were being looked for.
But unbeknownst to the media, the army was coming increasingly close to finding the family. On several occasions rescue teams passed within 20 to 50 metres (66 to 164ft) of where the children were found, search commander Gen Pedro Sánchez said.
By the time the children were discovered, about 150 troops and 200 volunteers from local indigenous groups were involved in the operation, which was combing an area of more than 300 sq km (124 sq miles).
"This isn't a search for a needle in a haystack, it's a tiny flea in a vast carpet, because they keep moving," Gen Sanchez told reporters during the hunt.
But on Friday, after a month-long search, specialist rescue dogs found the children.
The first words from eldest daughter Lesly, who was holding the baby in her arms, was "I'm hungry," one of the rescuers told Colombia's RTVC. One of the boys, who had been lying down, got up and said: "My mum is dead."
It later emerged that the children's mother had survived in the jungle for four days after the plane crash. "Before she died, their mum told them something like, 'You guys get out of here'" said the children's father, Manuel Ranoque.
A video shared by Colombia's ministry of defence showed the children being lifted into a helicopter in the dark, above the tall trees. They have been flown to the nation's capital, Bogota, where ambulances have taken them to hospital for further medical treatment.
The children's family thanked the army for continuing their search despite the low odds of survival, and they urged the government to bring the children home as soon as possible.
"I never lost hope, I was always supporting the search. I feel very happy, I thank President Petro and my 'countrymen' who went through so many difficulties," their grandmother told state media.
President Petro also hailed the efforts of the army and the volunteers, praising "the meeting of knowledge: indigenous and military", adding that "this is the true path of peace".
But he reserved special praise for the children and their relationship with the environment.
"They are children of the jungle, and now they are also children of Colombia," he said.
While many in deeply Catholic Colombia have referred to the children's rescue as a "miracle", Mr Rufino, the indigenous expert, said the real story lay in their "spiritual connection with nature".
"The jungle is not only green, but there are ancient energies with which the populations relate, learn and help each other," he said.
"It is difficult to understand this, I know, but this is a good opportunity for society, human beings, to learn about the different worldviews that exist in the territories.
"The same mother, who became a spirit after the accident, protected them," he said. "And only now is she going to start resting." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65871238 |
The Light: Inside the UK’s conspiracy theory newspaper that shares violence and hate - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Publishing 100,000 copies a month, the Light shares calls for war-crime style trials of MPs and doctors. | UK | Darren Nesbit, editor of the Light, defended calls in his paper to use force against "aggressors"
A UK conspiracy theory newspaper sharing calls for trials and executions of politicians and doctors has links with the British far-right and a German publication connected to a failed coup attempt, the BBC can reveal.
The Light, which prints at least 100,000 copies a month and has more than 18,000 followers on the social media site Telegram, grew to be a focal point of the UK conspiracy theory movement with its anti-vaccine, anti-lockdown stance during the pandemic.
In its pages and on its corresponding Telegram channels, the Light has shared hateful and violent rhetoric towards journalists, medics and MPs, as well as platforming far-right figures accused of antisemitism.
The paper is handed out free by volunteers in dozens of towns across the country, where local leaders have accused it of inflaming division and harassment with false and misleading claims about vaccines, the financial system and climate change, amid other more mundane articles on local politics, health and wellness.
Articles and content shared by the Light have called for the government, doctors, nurses and journalists to be punished for "crimes against humanity" in war crime-style trials sometimes called "Nuremberg 2.0" - referring to the execution of Nazi Party members after World War Two.
Recent articles declare "It's just a matter of time before these worst perpetrators of war crimes are facing trial" like in "November 1945" and "MPs, doctors and nurses can be hanged".
Other posts shared by the Light on Telegram have featured cartoons of gallows and included work addresses of "liable people to be held to account" for taking part in sinister plots to harm people with vaccines - plots for which there is no evidence.
On Telegram, the paper has also shared and endorsed content from UK far-right groups including Patriotic Alternative, promoting rallies and posts talking about the "replacement" of white people and asking people to "#GetInvolved".
It has also shared posts from an extreme group called Alpha Men Assemble offering military-style training to anti-vaccine activists. They say "it's time we show them who rules this country".
Darren Nesbit, editor of the Light, defended calls in his paper to use force against "aggressors" in power, telling the BBC it would be a matter of "self-defence" in circumstances such as the government ordering another lockdown or what he described as forced evacuations.
Bundles of copies of the Light were piled up at the protest in Totnes, Devon
He says he isn't in charge of the Light's Telegram channels, although acknowledges they are directly linked to the paper. Posts are sometimes signed off by the "Light Paper Team" and sometimes with his name.
Mr Nesbit says he speaks to the editor of the conspiracy theory newspaper in Germany, Demokratischer Widerstand (Democratic Resistance) - which is connected to a failed coup attempt in the country - "two or three times a year". He has published content endorsing the publication.
The German paper refers to the Light as its "partner" paper and its "colleagues" at the British publication, describing how they're "internationally connected".
Referring to concerns about the wider conspiracy theory movement more generally, the UK's Head of Counter Terrorism Policing Matt Jukes has told the BBC they are currently "seeing evidence of conspiracy theories being interwoven with extremism" and that this "connection is very much on our radar and in our sights as investigators".
Set up in 2020 as a print publication, the Light is distributed in about 30 places across the UK such as Brighton, Thetford, Stroud, Plymouth, Oxford, Bristol, Manchester and Glastonbury. Local conspiracy theory groups place bulk orders and distribute them on the streets for free.
In the Devon town of Totnes, a motivated minority have been distributing the Light for the past two years. Its former town Mayor Ben Piper says he first became a key target of the conspiracy theory movement there because of his role enforcing coronavirus restrictions.
Former mayor of Totnes Ben Piper says "aggression" in articles about him inflamed harassment over Covid restrictions
He fears an article about him in the Light exacerbated the harassment he experienced - from abuse in the street, to sinister phone calls, to someone driving a car at him.
"There was an aggression that bled through the editorial that was not as innocent as it was making out to be," he says.
The Light's editor, Darren Nesbit, is based near Manchester. He agreed to speak to me, only on the condition that he can ask me questions and record the interview too.
For him, everything from financial turmoil to climate change and 9/11 terror attacks in the US are part of a plan by governments to control and harm our lives. He thinks the pandemic was just one step towards doing that.
The paper has featured an article by a blogger called Lasha Darkmoon, saying that people should be able to question the Holocaust. And another article recommended a book by white supremacist Eustace Mullins - author of The Biological Jew and Adolf Hitler: An Appreciation. Mullins is referred to in the Light as a "renowned" author.
"If they write good articles on topics that are useful topics that are interesting to people, then we should [feature them] at the end of the day," Mr Nesbit says. He reiterates again and again that "people should be adults and make their own decisions".
"My aim is not to do anything else apart from get to the truth and then obviously let other people have a bash at seeing that information as well."
The Light directly defended a UK-based radio host called Graham Hart over antisemitic remarks he made on his show referring to Jewish people as "filth" and like "rats", suggesting "they deserve to be wiped out". He was sentenced to 32 months in prison for making the remarks.
Darren Nesbit defends the paper's right to publish opinions associated with the far right
While Mr Nesbit says those comments were "pretty harsh", he maintains that the paper defends the radio host's "right to say it".
I ask him whether he thinks calls for action in the paper could result in action that's not peaceful.
He replies, "Of course, people can make their own decisions, and they need to be responsible for their own actions."
He tells me that the paper doesn't "actually necessarily call for action". But, Mr Nesbit also says, "People should not be passive and just let the world change around them because there is, you know, an agenda and a purpose behind it."
I directly ask him, "Why don't you say there's no place for violence in our movement?"
He replies, "Because I might be wrong."
Throughout the interview, Mr Nesbit condemns violent action - and then gives cryptic answers, which seem to contradict that.
Telegram has not responded to the BBC's request for comment about why it has allowed the Light and other conspiracy theory papers to share violent and hateful rhetoric.
Research carried out by King's College London backs up the idea that calls to action endorsed by conspiracy theory media like the Light could be affecting attitudes.
A survey, commissioned by the BBC, suggested that an average of 61.5% of people - who said they would have attended rallies linked to common conspiracy theories, such as anti-vaccine beliefs - think violence could be justified at protests. They were more likely to think this if they read conspiracy theory media including the Light.
"Built within these theories [are] inherent demands to do something, to take direct action," says research team member Dr Rod Dacombe, who has studied the Light.
"We shouldn't get away from [how] this occasionally moves into either violence or some sort of violent right action. Not everybody who goes to a protest is going to be brought in by this. Most people won't, right? But some people will."
Markus Haintz, who used to write for the German paper linked to the Light, says its editor is an "extremist"
As well as links with the German paper Demokratischer Widerstand, The Light has related papers in Ireland, Canada and Australia.
Two whistleblowers spoke to the BBC over concerns about how radical they say the German paper has become.
They say some of the Demokratischer Widerstand's writers and a key donor to the paper met the Reichsburger group behind a failed coup attempt in Germany in December 2022.
One of the whistleblowers, lawyer Markus Haintz, who stopped writing for the paper in 2022, says the editor, Anselm Lenz, is an "extremist" which he defines as someone who "brings people in a position where they at least could think about getting violent".
Mr Haintz also says members of the wider conspiracy theory movement in Germany have been offered money by Kremlin-linked figures to push disinformation.
The other, Martin Le Jeune, who stopped writing for the paper in 2021 says it is creating a "hateful and divided" atmosphere, where "somebody who could be emotional or psychologically unstable could be triggered to do something terrible".
The editor of the German conspiracy paper, Mr Lenz, did not reply directly to any of the points raised by the BBC. He called me "a highly paid Nato and BBC Propagandist'' and said I was a threat to him and his family. He also accused me of slander of "our friends of the great English democratic movement".
"If needed, we are willing to take the fight by all means," he wrote.
What happened to the people who fell down the rabbit hole into a world of conspiracy theories during the pandemic?
Listen to the podcast Marianna in Conspiracyland on BBC Sounds and on BBC Radio 4.
And click to watch Conspiracyland: UK? on iPlayer (UK only) | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65821747 |
Energy bills: Hotels stuck in pricey contracts as costs fall - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Hotel boss Glenn Evans says he is paying 90p per unit of electricity - triple the current price. | Wales | Elyse Waddy said energy bills were "quick to go up and very slow to come down"
Hotel bosses have accused energy firms of failing to pass on lower prices, warning businesses could be at risk.
Hotel boss Glenn Evans from Betws-y-Coed, Conwy county, pays 90p a unit on his 12-month contract although prices have fallen to 30p a unit.
Hotel owner Elyse Waddy, in Llandudno, faces paying £200,000 more when her three-year fixed tariff ends in July.
The industry body said energy was bought in advance and changes took time to reach customers.
Energy regulator Ofgem said it had written to suppliers to ask them to "show flexibility" with businesses locked into fixed-price contracts signed when prices were at their peak last year.
Mr Evans, operations director at the Royal Oak Hotel, said the fixed price electricity tariffs offered in October were a "shock to the system".
Bill increases were about 400%, but the out-of-contract rate was even higher, so Mr Evans felt he had to sign up for 12 months as the six-month contracts had "disappeared".
Mr Evans wants UK ministers to order energy suppliers to allow firms locked into fixed peak tariffs from last year to renegotiate their contracts.
He added: "We're looking for the government to recognise that there was a dysfunctional market, and that between them and Ofgem, they allow us access to today's prices."
In April, the UK government scaled back its energy support for businesses.
Mr Evans said having already put up prices and introduced energy saving measures, there was not much more he could do to help pay the bills.
"We need hot water for our guests, we need the fridges on, we need the kitchen ventilation, we just can't cut back on parts of the operation."
Hotel boss Glenn Evans pays 90p a unit on his 12-month contract although prices have since fallen to 30p a unit
Ms Waddy, who owns the Empire Hotel, said her gas bill was going to triple and her electricity would double when her contract ends in July.
She likened her experience to "playing poker" with utility companies that "have the power".
Conservative MP for Aberconwy Robin Millar has launched a campaign in Parliament on the issue along with other MPs and hospitality trade bodies.
Energy UK, which represents energy companies, said: "It is important to bear in mind that, when contracts have been agreed and signed, energy is purchased at market rates on behalf of the customer."
Ofgem acknowledged that the costs faced by businesses locked in fixed-term deals were "an enormous challenge".
It added: "While as a regulator, we can't unpick private contracts, we want to see commercially sensible solutions that help non-domestic customers, and we recently wrote to suppliers to ask them to show flexibility, and we will continue to press suppliers on this, while we review the regulation of the non-domestic market more broadly."
The UK government said it had given businesses "unprecedented support" and was in regular discussions with them and Ofgem to ensure customers got a fair deal.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65856877 |
Hunter Valley: Ten people killed in wedding bus crash in Australia - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The bus was returning from a wedding in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, when it overturned. | Australia | The bus overturned while making a turn at a roundabout late on Sunday night
At least 10 people have died and 15 others are in hospital after a wedding bus crashed in an Australian wine region north of Sydney, officials say.
The passengers were returning from a wedding at a winery on Sunday night in the Hunter Valley when their coach overturned near the town of Greta.
Police have charged the 58-year-old bus driver with 10 counts of dangerous driving which resulted in death.
They said they were still in the process of identifying the dead.
The newlyweds were not reported to be on the bus, which crashed in the state of New South Wales.
The driver, who is from the town of Maitland, north of Sydney, has been refused bail and will appear in court in Cessnock on Tuesday.
Police commissioner Karen Webb said the site of the crash is "still an active crime scene". "We've got forensics officers processing the crime scene, we've got crash investigation unit officers, we've got rescue officers [on scene]," she added.
The accident occurred about 23:30 local time [13:30 GMT] on Sunday when, according to police, there had been heavy fog in the area. The bus had rolled over while making a turn at a roundabout off a highway. Authorities say the vehicle has now been pulled upright.
New South Wales Police acting assistant commissioner Tracy Chapman said the guests were travelling to Singleton "presumably for their accommodation". Two of the survivors were airlifted from the crash, she added. Local media report that at least one of them is still in a critical condition.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it is "so cruel, so sad and so unfair" for a "joyous day in a beautiful place like that to end with such terrible loss of life".
"People hire a bus for weddings in order to keep their guests safe, and that just adds to the unimaginable nature of this tragedy," he said at a press conference in Canberra.
Mr Albanese said some of the injured passengers are at John Hunter Hospital, but many had been flown to Sydney.
NSW Premier Chris Minns said the loss of so many lives was "nothing short of heartbreaking", adding: "For this horrific crash to have occurred on a day that should have been filled with love and happiness only adds to the heartbreak."
"For a day of joy to end in such devastating loss is cruel indeed. Our thoughts are also with those who have been injured," he said.
Hunter Valley in New South Wales is known for its vineyards and native bushland, making it a popular spot for wine lovers and group outings or celebrations.
A guest at the wedding said the day had been a "fairy tale" until news of the accident broke.
"We all started panicking," he told 7 News.
Police said they are still working to identify the crash victims and contact their next of kin.
"Family and friends of a person who may have been on board the bus are urged to contact Cessnock Police Station," they said in a statement. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-australia-65874374 |
Kherson flooding: Ukraine evacuation boat attacked by Russia, killing three - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Hundreds of people have been trapped on the Russia-held eastern bank of the Dnipro River. | Europe | Rescuers react to Russian shelling during evacuation efforts of those trapped by flooding in Kherson region
Three people were killed after Russia attacked a boat carrying evacuees from a flooded area in Kherson, the regional governor said.
Ukraine has been trying to rescue people trapped on the Russia-held eastern bank of the Dnipro River since the Nova Kakhovka dam was destroyed.
Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian troops shelled the evacuation boat and shot a 74-year-old man dead.
The man was trying to rescue a woman from gunfire, Mr Produkin said.
Two police officers were also injured.
The Nova Kakhovka dam burst on Tuesday, releasing a huge torrent of water which quickly flooded vast areas of land on both sides of the Dnipro river.
Ukraine has blamed Russia for "blowing up" the dam, located in a Russian-controlled area of Ukraine. Russia has denied this and has accused Ukraine of being responsible for its destruction.
The BBC has not verified either claim, although it appears likely that Russian forces, who controlled the dam, decided to blow it up in order to complicate Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive.
The eastern bank of the Dnipro River has been one of the areas worst hit by the flooding, with hundreds of people there posting on the Telegram app asking to be rescued.
Ukraine's military says it has been co-ordinating rescues from the eastern bank, but claimed "fearless volunteers" were carrying out some of the evacuations.
One of those involved in the rescue effort, Viktor, told the BBC he came under Russian fire while attempting a trip, saying Russian soldiers were "waiting for volunteers or soldiers to arrive so they can shoot them".
The BBC has not been able to independently verify these claims.
Meanwhile, the size of the flooded area in Kherson region has receded, officials said, but experts and officials fear infectious diseases may spread in polluted waters.
Thousands of Ukrainian homes remain flooded, and tens of thousands of people have lost access to drinking water.
Behind the dam, the huge Kakhovka reservoir - a vital source of water for the region - has drained of water.
The World Health Organization (WHO)'s Ukraine representative, Dr Jarno Habicht, told the BBC the situation was "devastating" and providing safe, clean water was a priority. He said it was important to keep an eye on water-borne illnesses and that precautionary sample testing was ongoing.
The UK's defence ministry said people were facing a "sanitation crisis" with limited access to safe water and an increased risk of water-borne diseases.
While Ukrainian officials said no cases of infectious illnesses have been reported so far, the city of Kherson - around 100km (62 miles) from the Kakhovka dam and badly affected by the floods - has introduced restrictions on the use of river water in order to prevent their spread.
The flooding of houses and sewage facilities means the water is now highly polluted, the city military administration said, meaning that bathing, fishing and drinking the water, or giving it to animals, is prohibited.
Ukraine's interior ministry said 32 settlements had been flooded in Ukrainian-controlled Kherson, while another 14 were flooded in the Russian-controlled part. Another 31 settlements were flooded in the Mykolayiv region.
The destruction of the Kakhovka dam has also likely led to the disruption of water supplies to Crimea, which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
The North Crimean Canal draws its water supply from the Kakhovka reservoir, located behind the now-destroyed dam.
Ukrainian hydro energy company Ukrhydroenergo said the water level in the reservoir had fallen by more than 7m (23ft) and on Sunday the UK defence ministry warned that "water will soon stop flowing" to the peninsula.
Drone footage filmed after the dam breach appears to show significantly reduced water levels near the entrance to the canal.
Drone footage appears to show water drying up at the mouth of the North Crimean Canal
Whoever was responsible for the destruction of the Kakhovka dam will have done so knowing that it would deprive Crimea of badly needed fresh water.
The canal was blocked by Ukraine following the annexation of Crimea in 2014, but Russia quickly unblocked it after it invaded southern Ukraine last year.
Russian commanders may have concluded that rendering the waterway useless again by blowing up the dam might have seemed like a necessary, if extreme, price to pay for complicating Ukraine's military plans.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky confirmed that his country's long-awaited counter-offensive against Russia had started.
"Counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place," he said on Saturday.
Ukrainian troops are reported to have advanced in the east near Bakhmut and in the south near Zaporizhzhia, and have carried out long-range strikes on Russian targets.
Ukraine said on Sunday that it had captured three villages in the south-east of the country, and that these were the first liberations of the counter-offensive.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: View from a boat on what used to be a street | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65869999 |
Michael Travis Leake, US musician, detained in Russia - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Russian state television broadcast footage from Mr Leake's trial that showed him locked in a metal cage. | Europe | A Russian court has detained US citizen Michael Travis Leake, a musician and former paratrooper, on drug charges.
Moscow's Khamovnichesky court claimed that Mr Leake had "organised the sale of drugs to young people", AFP reported. He denies the charges.
Russian state television broadcast footage from Mr Leake's trial that showed him locked in a metal cage.
In a separate video shared online, he said he "didn't know" why he was detained.
Appearing confused, he said he did not believe he had done what he was accused of, because he did not know what the charges were.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said embassy staff had attended Mr Leake's court hearing on Saturday, 10 June.
The department was closely monitoring the case, the spokesperson added.
He will be held in custody until 6 August, pending a possible trial, AFP reported.
Mr Leake is at least the third American detained in Russia in recent years amid heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow.
A musician and music producer reported to have lived in Russia for many years, Mr Leake was a member of Lovi Noch, an "American fronted rock band" based in Moscow.
US media outlet CNN reported that he appeared on the travel show Parts Unknown - hosted by the late chef Anthony Bourdain - for an episode in 2014 that was filmed in Moscow and St Petersburg.
Darya Tarasova, who produced the episode, told CNN that Mr Leake was a "showman" who was "very articulate" and who "loved Russia". He often worked with local rock bands, Ms Tarasova said.
Russian local media had earlier reported his arrest at his flat in Moscow.
US officials have previously accused Russia of deliberately targeting American citizens for arrest.
In March, Russian authorities arrested US journalist Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, on espionage charges. He remains in pre-trial detention.
Late last year, American basketball player Brittney Griner, who was jailed in Russia on drugs charges, was released in a prisoner swap for the Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.
US marine Paul Whelan is serving a 16-year prison sentence on "spying" charges - he was sentenced before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has weakened relations between US and Russia. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65873014 |
Donald Trump calls indictment 'ridiculous and baseless' in campaign speeches - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Mr Trump spoke at a Republican convention, his first outing since his indictment were announced. | US & Canada | Former US President Donald Trump made the comments at a speech in Georgia on Saturday
Former US President Donald Trump has called the federal indictment against him "ridiculous and baseless" in his first public appearance since the charges were announced.
A 37-count indictment made public on Friday accuses him of keeping sensitive documents at his Mar-a-Lago property.
At two campaign speeches on Saturday, Mr Trump said the indictment amounted to "election interference" by the "corrupt" FBI and justice department.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Mr Trump has been charged with mishandling hundreds of classified documents, including some about US nuclear secrets and military plans.
The indictment accused him of keeping the files at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago including in a ballroom and a shower.
He lied to investigators and tried to obstruct their investigation into his handling of the documents, the indictment alleged.
It is the first ever federal criminal prosecution against a former US president.
Speaking at the first Republican Party convention in Georgia, Mr Trump said: "They're cheating, they're crooked, they're corrupt - these criminals cannot be rewarded, they must be defeated."
He joked that every time he flies over a "blue state" - one controlled by the Democrats - he gets subpoenaed.
Mr Trump, who is running for the White House again in 2024, called the indictment a "hoax" by the "corrupt political establishment", also describing it as a "joke" and a "travesty of justice".
Both speeches - in Georgia and later in North Carolina - went on for more than an hour.
He thanked the "record crowd" as well as "patriots" who had supported his White House bid, and went on to criticise "sinister forces" that were running the country.
"We're going to stand up to the current political establishment … and we're going to finish the job we started, the most successful presidency," he said, a line that led to chants of "USA, USA" breaking out in the crowd.
"I will never yield, I will never be deterred," he said, before turning his attention to the groups he said were plotting against him.
This included Marxists, communists, "environmental extremists", Rinos - Republicans in Name Only - as well as "open border fanatics" and "radical left democrats".
Referencing the indictment, he claimed the highly-sensitive documents should have fallen under the Presidential Records Act, rather than the Espionage Act.
Under the Presidential Records Act, White House records are supposed to go to the National Archives once an administration ends. Regulations require such files to be stored securely.
He also said "gun-toting FBI agents" had raided Mar-a-Lago.
Special counsel Jack Smith, who oversaw the investigation, has denied the charges are politically-motivated, saying: "We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everyone."
Laws protecting national defence information were critical and must be enforced, he has said.
As momentum starts to build towards the 2024 election, Mr Trump was speaking at a Republican Party convention in Columbus, Georgia, before moving onto another Republican Party event in Greensboro, North Carolina.
He is currently the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican nomination.
His former vice president Mike Pence - who this week was highly critical of his former boss when announcing his own run for the presidency - spoke earlier at the North Carolina event, although the pair are not expected to cross paths.
Georgia is likely to be a key battleground in the race for the White House, and is where Mr Trump narrowly lost to current President Joe Biden in 2020 - it could also be the scene of further legal jeopardy for the former president.
Officials in the state are currently looking into whether Mr Trump broke the law when he asked Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to "find" the exact number of votes he needed to flip the vote in his favour. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65868294 |
Why was Nicola Sturgeon arrested and what happens next? - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The arrest of the former first minister is the latest remarkable twist in the investigation into the SNP's finances. | Scotland | Police searched the Glasgow home on Ms Sturgeon and her husband Peter Murrell on on 5 and 6 April
Nicola Sturgeon has been released without charge pending further investigations after being arrested by police investigating the SNP's finances.
It was the latest remarkable twist in Police Scotland's ongoing Operation Branchform inquiry.
The former first minister was taken into custody and questioned by detectives at a police station after she attended voluntarily shortly after 10:00 on Sunday.
Officers had up to 12 hours from the time Ms Sturgeon was arrested before they had to decide whether to charge her with a crime or release her while their inquiries continue.
In the end, she was released from custody at about 17:25 on the same day - well before the deadline expired and just over seven hours since her arrest.
Shorty afterwards, she published a statement on Twitter saying that she knew "beyond doubt that I am innocent of any wrongdoing".
She also said she would "never do anything to harm either the SNP or the country" and that the situation she had found herself in earlier in the day was "both a shock and deeply distressing".
Despite her release, police have said the case remains active for the purposes of the Contempt of Court Act 1981.
It means everyone has to be careful about what they say to avoid potentially prejudicing any future trial.
This applies to politicians and members of the public on social media as well as broadcasters and newspapers and the rules around what can and cannot be said about this - or any other - case are interpreted much more strictly in Scotland than in some other parts of the world.
Scotland is not the United States, for example, where pundits merrily speculate about the guilt or innocence of a suspect long before the case goes anywhere near a jury.
Convictions for contempt of court can be punishable by up to two years in prison and/or an unlimited fine.
The police investigation into this case began almost two years ago when complaints were made relating to more than £660,000 that was donated to the SNP by activists.
The money was raised after the party sought funds for a future referendum campaign, and Police Scotland launched Operation Branchform to examine what happened to it.
Earlier this year, officers sent an initial report seeking advice and guidance from the body which prosecutes crimes in Scotland, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
That advice was provided and the investigation continued.
On 5 April, officers searched Ms Sturgeon's home and the party's headquarters in Edinburgh and arrested her husband Peter Murrell, who was until recently the party's chief executive.
A luxury motorhome was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.
Almost two weeks later, SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested.
Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie were both treated as suspects and were taken into custody for the legally defined period of up to 12 hours of questioning before also being released pending further inquiries.
Under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, police can release a suspect for further investigation, but they can be re-arrested at a later date.
Over the coming days and weeks, the force is likely to continue to investigate and gather more evidence. They can also ask for more guidance from COPFS.
If a suspect is charged with a crime, they generally cannot be questioned again by the police although they can make a statement.
Peter Murrell was questioned for almost 12 hours after his arrest before being released pending further inquiries
Ultimately, the detectives will send what is called a standard prosecution report to COPFS.
Prosecutors will then consider whether there is sufficient evidence to suggest a crime was committed and the suspect was responsible.
They will take the public interest into account. That can be influenced by the particular circumstances of the case - for example, whether the person involved was in a position of trust or authority.
If they feel the evidence meets the necessary tests, the case will go to court.
Alternatively, COPFS can instruct the police to carry out further inquiries if they decide there is insufficient evidence.
If they are still not satisfied there is enough to justify a prosecution, the case would go no further.
The law officers at the top of the Crown Office will not be involved in this lengthy process.
The Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC and Solicitor General Ruth Charteris KC have dual roles as public prosecutors and principal legal advisors to the Scottish government, which has been run by the SNP since 2007.
For that reason, they will not be consulted when a decision is made about what should happen to Ms Sturgeon, Mr Murrell or Mr Beattie, with that task falling to others.
And for anyone wondering why the inquiry is called Operation Branchform, the titles for Police Scotland investigations are picked at random and the name does not actually mean anything. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65323861 |
Colin Beattie resigns as SNP treasurer after arrest - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | He said he would also be stepping back from his role on the public audit committee. | Scotland | Colin Beattie said he would co-operate fully with the police inquiry
Colin Beattie has resigned as SNP treasurer after his arrest as part of a police investigation into the party's finances.
He said he would also be stepping back from his role on the public audit committee until the police investigation had concluded.
The 71-year-old was taken into custody and released without charge on Tuesday.
It came hours before First Minister Humza Yousaf set out his government's priorities for the next three years.
In a statement, Mr Beattie said he had resigned as treasurer with "immediate effect".
He said: "On a personal level, this decision has not been easy, but it is the right decision to avoid further distraction to the important work being led by Humza Yousaf to improve the SNP's governance and transparency.
"I will continue to co-operate fully with Police Scotland's inquiries and it would be inappropriate for me to comment any further on a live case."
Mr Yousaf said the resignation was "the right thing to do" and that a new treasurer would be appointed as soon as possible.
Police Scotland launched its Operation Branchform investigation into the SNP's finances in July 2021 after receiving complaints about how donations were used.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. First Minister Humza Yousaf said the resignation of SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was the ‘right thing to do’.
Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, who is married to former SNP leader and first minister Nicola Sturgeon, was arrested two weeks ago at the couple's home in Glasgow before also being released without charge pending further inquiries.
Officers spent two days searching the house, and also searched the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh.
There have been newspaper reports that some people within the party are concerned that Ms Sturgeon could be the next person to be arrested in the inquiry.
Deputy First Minister Shona Robison, a close friend of Ms Sturgeon, said earlier on Wednesday that it would not be helpful to comment on the speculation and that she did not know if Ms Sturgeon had spoken to detectives.
Asked if she had been in contact with Ms Sturgeon, Ms Robison told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "Right at the beginning of the process I sent her a very short message asking after her welfare really and I got a very short reply.
"We have had no discussion whatsoever about the police investigation. It would not be appropriate for me to do so."
Mr Yousaf has dismissed calls for Ms Sturgeon, Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie to be suspended from the party while the police investigation is ongoing, saying he believes in people being innocent until proven guilty.
The party raised £666,953 through referendum-related appeals between 2017 and 2020 with a pledge to spend these funds on the independence campaign.
Questions were raised after its accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.
Officers involved in the investigation spent two days searching the couple's Glasgow home and the party's headquarters in Edinburgh earlier this month.
There was an inevitability about this announcement. It was hard to imagine Colin Beattie continuing as SNP treasurer while under police investigation.
He announced the decision to quit after a conversation with Humza Yousaf who says it was the right thing to do.
However, opposition parties say Mr Yousaf should have removed Colin Beattie as treasurer and gone further in suspending him from the SNP.
It means that Humza Yousaf is in temporary charge of the SNP's finances but he told me he's got enough on his plate and wants someone else appointed to the role as soon as possible.
The party faces major challenges as the police investigation into its finances continues, including trying to find new auditors to replace those that quit seven months ago.
A luxury motorhome was seized by officers from outside a property in Dunfermline on the same morning Mr Murrell was arrested.
The Mail on Sunday reported that the vehicle had been parked outside the home of Mr Murrell's 92-year-old mother since January 2021. It has since been moved to a police compound in Glasgow.
Leaked video footage published by the Sunday Mail at the weekend showed Ms Sturgeon playing down fears about the party's finances in a virtual meeting of the party's ruling body in March 2021.
The SNP's former Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, has insisted that there was "nothing untoward" in the clip and claimed that the party's finances are in "robust health".
The motorhome was transferred to a police compound in Govan on Tuesday
But the Sunday Times has reported that Mr Beattie told the NEC at the weekend that the SNP was struggling to balance its books due to a drop in member numbers and donors.
Scottish Labour's deputy leader Jackie Baillie said Mr Beattie's resignation was the "right decision made by the wrong man".
She said there had been a "culture of secrecy" within the SNP and criticised Humza Yousaf's decision not to suspend those subject to police inquiries.
Scottish Lib Dem leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said Mr Yousaf is being "consumed by the chaos wracking his party".
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy added the priorities of Scotland were being ignored as a result of SNP "chaos". | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65327953 |
Chloe Mitchell: Murder inquiry after suspected remains found - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Police say they have reason to believe 21-year-old Chloe Mitchell from Ballymena was murdered. | Northern Ireland | Chloe Mitchell had been missing since last weekend
A murder investigation has been launched following the discovery of suspected human remains during searches for a missing woman in Ballymena.
Chloe Mitchell was last seen in the County Antrim town between the night of 2 June and the early hours of 3 June.
A huge search operation has been taking place in an attempt to find the 21-year-old.
On Sunday night, Det Ch Insp Richard Millar said police now had reason to believe she was murdered.
"Our thoughts this evening are very much with Chloe's family and we have specialist officers providing them with support at this heart-breaking time," he said.
He added the remains had not yet been formally identified.
Two men, aged 26 and 34, who were earlier arrested over her disappearance remain in police custody.
The 34-year-old was arrested in Ballymena on Saturday, while the 26-year-old was arrested in Lurgan in County Armagh on Thursday.
On Saturday afternoon, police were granted a further 36 hours to question the 26-year-old.
Forensic teams have been seen entering a house in James Street
Forensic teams were seen entering a house in James Street in Ballymena on Sunday evening.
The property had been sealed off by police for a number of days.
On Friday, Ms Mitchell's brother, Phillip Mitchell, said he was broken by her disappearance and appealed for information.
At that stage, police had described her as a "high-risk missing person".
A prayer vigil for Ms Mitchell was held at Harryville Presbyterian Church on Sunday evening.
On Saturday, police said they were increasingly concerned for the young woman's safety and renewed their appeal for information.
Extensive searches had been carried out to try to find Ms Mitchell.
On Sunday the Community Rescue Service (CRS) said it had completed all search areas as requested.
In a statement it added: "The CRS would like to thank the people of Ballymena, those who live and work in the Harryville area and especially Chloe's family and friends for their exceptional support during our operations."
The MP for the area, Ian Paisley, said he was "deeply saddened and disturbed".
"This is heartbreaking news for Chloe's family and friends and will shadow the town of Ballymena with sadness," he said.
"The family have stated they are broken. No one can understand just how deep that break is."
Mr Paisley said he understood the police would hold a press conference on Monday. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65870085 |
Wildfire takes hold near caravan park at Daviot in Highlands - BBC News | 2023-06-11T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Fire crews are tackling a blaze at Daviot, south of Inverness, on the hottest day of the year. | Highlands & Islands | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Crews were sent to tackle the flames on the hottest day of the year for Scotland
Firefighters are tackling a wildfire which broke out south of Inverness.
Crews and six fire engines were sent to the Daviot area, near the Auchnahillin Holiday Park, at about 14:45 on Saturday.
The blaze is about 30 miles (48km) from Cannich - the site of another recent wildfire, thought to be the largest recorded in the UK.
It comes on the hottest day of the year for Scotland, after 29.8°C was recorded in Auchincruive, Ayrshire.
The SFRS had warned of a "very high" risk of wildfire this weekend.
A spokesperson told BBC Scotland that information about the latest blaze was limited as the incident was ongoing.
Six fire appliances were at the scene on Saturday evening
Local residents have been advised to keep windows and doors closed due to smoke.
Anita Gibson is the owner of the nearby Auchnahillin Holiday Park.
"There's a fire up on the hill across the road," she said. "We've been told we don't have to evacuate or anything. But the fire in Cannich was on our minds.
"We are just waiting to hear if we have to do anything, but we are not panicking yet."
Smoke from the blaze has affected the area stretching for several miles.
Smoke from the hill fire could be seen from all around the area
A spokesperson for the Meallmore care home in Inverness - about seven miles (11km) from the caravan park - said they had not been evacuated, but were "monitoring the situation closely and following advice".
The SFRS alert for wildfire risk covers most of Scotland. Parts of the Highlands, Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders were expected to reach "extreme" risk.
The blaze at Cannich burned for two weeks, causing extensive damage to an RSPB Scotland nature reserve.
Police Scotland said: "Emergency services are currently in attendance at a wildfire in the Daviot area south of Inverness.
"The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service are currently dealing with the fire and we would ask local residents to keep windows and doors closed due to smoke." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-65867733 |
Katie Boulter replaces Emma Raducanu as British number one women's player - BBC Sport | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | null | Katie Boulter replaces Emma Raducanu as the British number one women's player after reaching last week's Surbiton Trophy semi-finals. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Katie Boulter has replaced Emma Raducanu as the British number one women's player following her run to the Surbiton Trophy semi-finals.
Boulter, 26, will hold the top spot for the first time in her career when she plays at the Nottingham Open this week.
Raducanu, 20, became British number one after her US Open triumph in 2021 but has been hampered by injuries since.
"Naturally, I am very proud to join the women before me who have reached that historic spot," Boulter said.
"However, my main goal remains on improving my ranking and continuing to work hard.
"It's going to be an exciting summer as we are all very close in the rankings."
Ranked 126 in the world following her three victories at Surbiton, Boulter is two places and 19 points above Raducanu in the latest standings, with Jodie Burrage (131), Katie Swan (134) and Harriet Dart (143) all close behind.
Raducanu is set to miss the summer season - including Wimbledon - after undergoing hand and ankle surgery, which also kept her out of the French Open.
At Wimbledon last year, Boulter recorded the biggest win of her career in beating former world number one and 2021 runner-up Karolina Pliskova to reach the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time.
Leicester-born Boulter first picked up a racquet at the age of five before going on to represent Great Britain at eight.
Her breakthrough year came in 2018, when she won her first ITF 25k and 60k titles, before reaching her first WTA quarter-final at the Nottingham Open as a wildcard.
She reached a career-high ranking of 82 in 2019, however a stress fracture of the back kept her out for six months and disrupted her progress.
Boulter has been drawn against compatriot Emily Appleton in her first match in Nottingham on Tuesday, with coverage of this week's tournament available on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and app and the BBC Red Button every day.
• None On court legends and off court revolutionaries...: Meet the most iconic tennis players of the 1970s and 1980s | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/65845067 |
Colombia plane crash: Mum told children to leave her and get help - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The children's mother survived for four days after the plane crashed in the jungle. | Latin America & Caribbean | Colombian soldiers tend to the four children shortly after they were found
The mother of four children rescued after 40 days in the Amazon jungle was alive for four days after their plane crashed.
Magdalena Mucutuy told her children to leave and find help as she lay dying.
Speaking to reporters, the children's father, Manuel Ranoque, said his eldest daughter told him their mother urged them to "get out" and save themselves.
The siblings, aged 13, nine, five, and one, were rescued and airlifted out of the jungle on Friday.
They were moved to a military hospital in the nation's capital Bogota.
"The one thing that [13-year-old Lesly] has cleared up for me is that, in fact, her mother was alive for four days," Mr Ranoque told reporters outside the hospital.
"Before she died, their mum told them something like, 'You guys get out of here. You guys are going to see the kind of man your dad is, and he's going to show you the same kind of great love that I have shown you," he said.
Details have been emerging about the children's time in the jungle and their miraculous rescue - including the first things the children said when they were found.
Rescue worker Nicolás Ordóñez Gomes recalled the moment they discovered the children.
"The eldest daughter, Lesly, with the little one in her arms, ran towards me. Lesly said: 'I'm hungry,'" he told public broadcast channel RTVC.
"One of the two boys was lying down. He got up and said to me: 'My mum is dead.'" He said rescuers responded with "positive words, saying that we were friends, that we were sent by the family".
Mr Ordóñez said the boy replied: "I want some bread and sausage."
Members of Colombia's Air Force tended to the children
The children are members of the Huitoto indigenous group and their grandfather told Colombian media that their knowledge of edible fruit and seeds had been key to their survival.
The eldest child, 13-year-old Lesly, has been credited with keeping her siblings alive.
Henry Guerrero, an indigenous man who was part of the team which finally located the children, said they managed to build a small shelter.
"They had made a small tent from a tarpaulin and placed a towel on the ground. They always stayed near the river and she [Lesly] carried a small soda bottle which she used to [fill with and] carry water."
In footage released on Sunday of the children's rescue, the four siblings appeared to be emaciated from the weeks they spent fending for themselves in the wilderness.
Mr Guerrero said that "the only thing they had in mind was to eat, eat", when they were found. "They wanted to eat rice pudding, they wanted to eat bread," he said.
Ms Mucutuy and her children had been travelling on the Cessna 206 aircraft from Araracuara, in Amazonas province, to San José del Guaviare, on 1 May.
Their plan was to join the children's father, who had fled their home after receiving threats from a rebel group.
The plane crashed nose first in dense jungle in the south of Colombia after experiencing engine failure. It took search teams two weeks to locate the wreckage.
The bodies of the adults on board - the children's mother and the two pilots - were found at the crash site by the army but it appeared that the children had wandered into the rainforest to find help.
The missing children became the focus of a huge rescue operation involving more than 100 soldiers, local indigenous people and sniffer dogs.
The search teams repeatedly spotted signs in the jungle, including footprints and fruit that had been bitten into, which led them to believe the children had survived the crash.
Helicopters flew over the area broadcasting a recorded message from their grandmother in the Huitoto language urging them to stay put to make it easier to locate them.
The children told their rescuers that they had heard the helicopters and the message.
They were finally located on Friday in a small clearing by a team of rescuers who had heard one of the siblings crying. "When we found them, it was really a great happiness," Mr Guerrero said, describing the moment.
Their grandfather, Fidencio Valencia, said they were "very weakened, they have small wounds and bruises, they have illnesses that they contracted in the jungle, but overall they're well, they're in good hands".
Fidencio Valencia, the children's grandfather, has visited them in hospital
He added that a bag of cassava flour the children had found in the plane had sustained them for the first weeks.
They are being treated in hospital for malnutrition and dehydration and have been visited by their family and members of the search operation.
The Colombian military tweeted drawings the children had painted, one of which shows a sniffer dog known as Wilson.
Wilson, who lost contact with his handlers, is thought to have tracked the children down and spent some time with them in the jungle but is now unaccounted for.
The Colombian military said it would continue searching for the dog, assuring Colombians in a tweet that "we leave no one behind".
While recuperating in hospital, one of the children drew rescue dog Wilson | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-65874377 |
Ukraine counter-offensive actions have begun, Zelensky says - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Ukraine's president refused to say which stage the counter-offensive against Russian forces was in. | Europe | Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky appears to have confirmed that his country's long-awaited counter-offensive against Russia has started.
"Counter-offensive and defensive actions are taking place," he said.
But he added that he would not talk in detail about which stage or state the counter-offensive was in.
The comments come after an escalation of fighting in the south and east of Ukraine and speculation about progress of the widely anticipated push.
Ukrainian troops are reported to have advanced in the east near Bakhmut and in the south near Zaporizhzhia, and have carried out long-range strikes on Russian targets.
But assessing the reality on the front lines is difficult, with the two warring sides presenting contrasting narratives: Ukraine claiming progress and Russia that it is fighting off attacks.
Meanwhile in Russia's Kaluga region - which borders the southern districts around Moscow - governor Vladislav Shapsha said on Telegram that a drone crashed near the village of Strelkovk early on Sunday. The BBC has not independently verified the report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a video interview published Friday that Ukrainian forces had certainly begun their offensive but that attempted advances had failed with heavy casualties.
Speaking in Kyiv on Saturday after talks with Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Mr Zelensky described the Russian leader's words as "interesting".
Shrugging his shoulders, raising his eyebrows and pretending not to know who Mr Putin was, Mr Zelensky said it was important that Russia felt "they do not have long left".
He also said that Ukraine's military commanders were in a positive mood, adding: "Tell that to Putin."
Mr Trudeau announced 500 million Canadian dollars (£297m) in new military aid for Ukraine during the unannounced visit.
A joint statement issued after the talks said Canada supports Ukraine becoming a Nato member "as soon as conditions allow for it", adding that the issue would be discussed at the Nato Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, in July.
Meanwhile, fighting has escalated in recent days in the key southern Zaporizhzhia region, Russian officials say. Ukrainian forces are thought to be trying to push south to split Russian forces in two, breaking through the occupied territory which connects Russia to Crimea.
Ukraine's hope of advances in the region could be hindered by huge flooding in the south of the country after the Nova Khakovka dam was destroyed last week.
The flooding has covered around 230 square miles (596 sq km) either side of the Dnipro River.
In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr Zelensky said 3,000 people have been evacuated from the flooded Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
And Kherson's regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said water levels had dropped by 27cm, but more than 30 settlements on the right bank of the river - which is Ukrainian-held territory - were still flooded and almost 4,000 residential buildings remained underwater.
Nato and Ukraine's military have accused Russia of blowing up the dam, while Russia has blamed Ukraine.
However, it seems highly likely that Russian forces, which controlled the dam, decided to blow it up in order to make it more difficult for Ukrainian forces to cross the river as part of their ongoing counteroffensive, the BBC's Paul Adams says. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65866880 |
Scouts: Millions paid out over UK abuse in last 10 years, say lawyers - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | More than £6m was paid out in compensation payments in the last 10 years, lawyers tell BBC News. | UK | Millions of pounds have been paid out in the last ten years to people who were abused in the Scouts, lawyers say.
BBC File on 4 contacted 13 law firms who specialise in child abuse claims, and data from the eight that responded revealed more than £6m had been paid out in compensation in the last decade.
Some 166 cases were settled over the same time, while more female survivors were now coming forward, lawyers said.
The Scout Association said it was "deeply sorry" anyone suffered abuse.
It comes as two women, who both say they were abused in the Scouts, have started a campaign asking the organisation to change its safeguarding policy.
File on 4 contacted 13 firms who specialise in abuse claims, all in the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers.
According to data from the lawyers who responded, at least 260 claims were taken on against the Scouts in the last ten years, and 166 cases were settled. Some 50 had been unsuccessful and others were still ongoing.
The BBC asked the Scouts how much money it had paid out in the last ten years.
The association said it had not been able to get to a definitive number because much of the information related to historical cases and was spread across numerous insurers - but the number of payouts broadly matched what they were aware of.
According to the association, 96% of claims related to offences that happened prior to 2013 - with many from the 1960s to 1990s. But some have happened more recently, including in the last few years.
Hundreds of thousands of children across the UK are signed up as members of the Scout Association, whose programmes include Squirrels, Beavers, Cub Scouts, as well as Scouts and Explorer Scouts for older children.
Abbie Hickson, from Bolt Burdon Kemp solicitors, says her firm has settled more than 100 abuse claims in the last ten years. She said a key problem was "safeguarding policy relies much on the integrity of the adult involved".
"Scout leaders who sexually abused children in their care are by their very nature highly manipulative, secretive, devious and opportunistic individuals. And their very aim is to separate a child from the group in order to facilitate that abuse."
Dino Nocivelli, from Leigh Day solicitors, has spent the last 20 years representing abuse survivors. He said the number of female complainants was rising.
Young women were able to join the Venture Scouts from 1976. Then, in 1991, girls were allowed to join across all age groups - but it wasn't until 2007 that it became compulsory for Scout groups to accept girls.
"In the last 12 months, a number of women and girls have contacted me about sexual abuse in the Scouts," Mr Nocivelli said. "This is not an issue from the 60s, 70s, 80s. This abuse is happening in the 2000 and the 2010s and sadly the 2020s."
Sheanna Patelmaster, 27, and Lucy Pincott, 29, both say they were abused when they joined the Scouts, in 2007.
Sheanna was 13, and her leader was 24. She says he noticed she was having an unhappy time at home and offered to let her stay at his house one night a week after Scouts. It was there, she says, he sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions.
Lucy was also 13 when she says she was groomed by a young leader. He bought her necklaces and he would often arrange to meet her before Scouts.
It was at one of these meetings that Lucy says she was forced to have sex with him. She says the sexual abuse continued for nine months in the grounds where the Scout meetings took place and on camps.
Lucy says other adult volunteers were aware of what was going on but failed to report the abuse. She subsequently sued the Scout Association for failing in their duty of care. It didn't accept liability but settled out of court, paying Lucy £160,000.
Sheanna and Lucy have now set up a petition asking the Scouts to change their safeguarding policies.
They want a paid safeguarding lead officer in every Scout county in the UK, who would be responsible for monitoring the conduct of volunteers and ensuring allegations of abuse are properly reported. They are calling for both the Scouts and Girlguiding to be subject to an inspection regime, similar to Ofsted.
The campaign, called Yours in Scouting, includes a call for personal testimonies from anyone who has suffered abuse in the Scouts.
In a statement, the Scout Association told the BBC: "Any form of abuse is abhorrent and we're sorry for Sheanna and Lucy's terrible experiences."
It added: "In the UK almost half a million young people enjoy Scouts every week and nothing is more important than their safety. We have robust safeguarding policies, training and procedures in place. These are now reviewed every other year by the NSPCC." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65881603 |
Sex education: Some schools tell pupils homosexuality is wrong, says report - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A report says many schools use language in their sex education that stigmatises young people | Northern Ireland | The report was carried out by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission
Some schools in Northern Ireland are teaching pupils that homosexuality is wrong in relationships and sex education (RSE).
A Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) report said "many schools use language that shames and stigmatises young people" who had sex.
Some told pupils that those who "engage in casual sex must bear the consequences of their actions".
The NIHRC investigated schools policies on the teaching of RSE.
The detailed investigation found most schools were not providing "age-appropriate, comprehensive and scientifically accurate education on access to abortion services".
"Some schools actively contributed to the shame and stigma surrounding unplanned pregnancy and abortion, by making statements such as 'abortion is not a means of contraception and those who knowingly engage in casual sex must bear the consequences of their actions'," the NIHRC report said.
It also said about two-thirds of post-primaries promoted abstinence in their sex education policies.
One school's policy stated that "sexual abstinence before marriage and fidelity within it, will be presented as the positive and desirable option and an achievable reality".
The commission recommended that schools should be monitored to ensure sex education is taught in "an objective and non-judgemental manner".
That should include "detailed assessments of the content and delivery of lesson plans".
The NIHRC was established following the Good Friday Agreement.
It has the power to conduct investigations and compel evidence.
Its investigation into relationships and sex education focused mainly on legal and policy matters but it also made recommendations on delivery of the subject in schools.
About three-quarters (149) of post-primaries in Northern Ireland provided evidence to the commission's investigation and 124 provided their RSE policies.
Some schools provided lesson plans and teaching notes, and experts were also consulted by the commission.
Speaking about the findings, NIHRC chief commissioner, Alyson Kilpatrick told Good Morning Ulster that "an awful lot more needed to be done by a majority of schools in relation to age appropriate, comprehensive, scientifically accurate education and sexual reproductive health and rights".
"The Department for Education needs to work with schools, consult with parents and children, to work out what the appropriate content should be and that it is delivered properly," said Ms Kilpatrick.
In 2018, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) said RSE in Northern Ireland should be compulsory and comprehensive.
As a result, the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris recently laid new regulations in parliament making teaching topics like abortion and prevention of pregnancy compulsory in schools in Northern Ireland.
He said he had a legal duty to act on the recommendations made in the CEDAW report.
But the change has been criticised by Protestant and Catholic church leaders.
The NIHRC investigation into RSE was carried out before Mr Heaton-Harris's move.
But the commission said that there must be monitoring to "ensure that schools are meeting their new obligations".
"It's very easy to have a policy or to have a list of things you are going to teach, but it is the actual teaching of them and the way in which they are taught which is so influential," said Ms Kilpatrick.
At present, each school in Northern Ireland has to teach sex education but can decide what to teach "based on the ethos of their school," according to Department of Education (DE) guidance.
The NIHRC said that the majority of schools who submitted their RSE policy to the investigation "still promoted the value of the 'sanctity of marriage'", and related terms, such as "permanent committed sexual relationship", and "married love" in their RSE policies and school ethos.
"In addition to this idealisation and promotion of abstinence, marriage, and monogamy, many schools use language that shames and stigmatises young people who do engage in sexual practices," the report continued.
"Most schools also contributed to this association of shame with sexual activity, by attributing specific moral values and personal characteristics to those who engaged (or did not engage) in sexual behaviour."
The NIHRC said about two-thirds of post-primaries taught pupils about contraception, but it was difficult to know if they offered accurate information.
In their RSE policies, some schools stated that "they will present the Catholic teaching that 'the use of any artificial means of preventing procreation is not acceptable'," the report said.
"Some schools even outline their beliefs that "homosexuality" is wrong," in their polices, the NIHRC said.
"For example, one [school] writes that 'the belief that homosexual acts are against the nature and purpose of human relationships will be presented to pupils'," the report continued.
One third of schools who provided information to the NIHRC said their school would teach pupils that "heterosexual relationships was the 'main' or 'ideal' context for sexual intimacy".
The report also said most schools "indirectly contribute to the societal victim-blaming and slut-shaming of women and girls."
It said this was because they focused on how young people could stop themselves becoming victims of sexual abuse or violence, rather than challenging the perpetrators.
The NIHRC said that while their investigation showed some schools provided "comprehensive and scientifically accurate" relationship and sex education, the majority in Northern Ireland did not.
The commission concluded that the case for reforming the RSE curriculum was "compelling".
It provided 13 recommended reforms, including schools involving their students in drawing up RSE policies. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65871730 |
Country doesn't miss drama of Boris Johnson, says Shapps - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The energy secretary dismisses Boris Johnson's claim that he was the victim of a "witch hunt". | UK Politics | People want to move on from the "drama" of Boris Johnson, Grant Shapps has said, dismissing the ex-PM's claim that he was the victim of a witch hunt.
Mr Johnson resigned as an MP, saying he had been forced out by a "kangaroo court" of MPs investigating Partygate.
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Shapps said it was Mr Johnson's "own decision" to stand down.
The energy secretary denied reports Rishi Sunak's team prevented Mr Johnson handing out honours to key allies.
Mr Johnson dramatically stood down from Parliament, just hours after Downing Street published his resignation honours list without the names of key allies including Nadine Dorries, Sir Alok Sharma and Nigel Adams.
All three had been expecting to be appointed to the House of Lords, the BBC has been told.
Competing claims about how and why the names were removed are now at the heart of a rift within the Tory party following the former PM's resignation.
A source familiar with the process has told the BBC that Mr Sunak's political team removed some of Mr Johnson's suggestions months ago.
Asked if rumours were true that Mr Sunak's team had removed the names, Mr Shapps said: "No."
"The prime minster has exactly followed the very longstanding conventions" over honours, Mr Shapps said.
The House of Lords Appointments Commission (HOLAC) - the official body for checking and vetting new peers - has confirmed it rejected eight of Mr Johnson's nominations on the grounds of propriety.
Pressed on whether Mr Sunak's team had taken names off the list months before the nominations were sent to HOLAC, Mr Shapps said: "As far as I'm aware that is not true."
The spat might look grubby from the outside - but some of Mr Johnson's allies have no desire to let this lie.
Within 24-hours of the list being published both Ms Dorries and Mr Adams resigned as MPs - triggering by-elections in their constituencies, both of which are considered safe seats for the Conservatives.
Mr Johnson's resignation also triggers a by-election in his marginal constituency of Uxbridge and South Ruislip.
This hat-trick of by-elections have the potential to create major problems for Mr Sunak at a time when the Conservatives are trailing Labour by an average of 15 points in national polls.
Pressed on whether Mr Johnson had been the victim of a witch hunt, Mr Shapps said: "I don't think that's true."
"Boris himself has decided to step down - that is his own decision."
"People don't miss the drama" of Mr Johnson's time in office, Mr Shapps added.
Mr Johnson announced he was leaving parliament a day after seeing advance a report of the findings of the Commons Privileges Committee investigating into whether he misled the Commons over Partygate.
In an explosive and lengthy statement, he called the committee a "kangaroo court" whose purpose "has been to find me guilty, regardless of the facts".
In a written statement, Mr Johnson said the draft report from the committee was "riddled with inaccuracies and reeks of prejudice".
He said the committee was "determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament".
Asked about Mr Johnson's comments, Mr Shapps said: "I haven't seen what they've written, but I have no particular reason to think that is the case."
Labour's shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said the fallout from Mr Johnson's resignation shows "there should be a general election".
Speaking on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Lammy said: "We have a former prime minister crafting a letter undermining the sitting prime minister.
"And we've got three by-elections brought about, not in the usual way because an MP has passed away, or there has been wrongdoing, but simply because these MPs want to put pressure on the current government.
"I don't say this with any glee, I say it because I genuinely believe, in the interests of this country, we need certainty." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65870635 |
NI weather: Heatwave to hit Northern Ireland this week - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Temperatures will nudge close to 30C, which is 10C above average for this time of year. | Northern Ireland | Weather watchers enjoyed the Bangor coastal path at the weekend with better weather to follow
A heatwave is set to hit Northern Ireland as temperatures nudge close to 30C at times.
Thermometers could climb to the high 20s towards the east on Monday in parts of counties Down, Antrim, and Armagh.
Those are temperatures up to 10C above average for the time of the year.
That would make it as warm as some holiday hotspots like Benidorm and Gran Canaria in Spain, and Albufeira in Portugal.
The Met Office defines a heatwave in Northern Ireland as three consecutive days above 25C.
That heat could spark off thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday, especially across western counties where a warning has been issued.
The yellow alert for counties Fermanagh, Tyrone, and Londonderry lasts from noon until 21:00 BST on Monday.
It is expected that the yellow weather warning will extend to counties Antrim, Armagh and Down on Tuesday and will last from noon until 21:00 BST.
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Although many places will avoid them, the Met Office says 20-30mm of rain could fall in an hour where the showers hit.
A few spots could see between 40-50mm with lightning and hail.
The rest of the week will stay very warm with the chance of some heavy and thundery showers, especially the first half of the week.
Temperatures will stay in and around the mid twenties right through until next weekend, at least.
On Saturday the hottest day of the year so far was recorded as temperatures hit 25.3C in Armagh.
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In the Republic of Ireland, Met Éireann, has also issued a yellow weather warning for counties Leinster, Cavan, Donegal, Monaghan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Sligo, Tipperary and Waterford.
It said localised heavy downpours could lead to localised flooding and difficult travelling conditions in these areas. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65873712 |
'No reason' to suspend Sturgeon from SNP, says Yousaf - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Scotland's first minister describes the arrest of his predecessor as "quite painful personally". | Scotland | Alex Salmond never returned to the SNP and now leads the Alba party Image caption: Alex Salmond never returned to the SNP and now leads the Alba party
There has been much talk this morning of past suspensions from the SNP, and whether they suggest Nicola Sturgeon should continue as a member.
The most immediate precedent comes from this same investigation, which has seen two other SNP figures arrested and then released without charge.
Colin Beattie stepped down as SNP treasurer, but kept his party membership and continues to sit as an SNP MSP.
Similarly Peter Murrell – Ms Sturgeon’s husband and until recently the party’s chief executive – has not publicly renounced his membership and First Minister Humza Yousaf says he is “innocent until proven guilty”.
There have been other cases, covering a broad range of allegations, which provide a rather muddy picture of the party’s approach to discipline.
Ms Sturgeon’s predecessor as first minister, Alex Salmond, resigned his membership when he was accused of sexual offences. He was ultimately cleared of the charges at trial, but never returned to the party.
Others have also opted to resign or voluntarily “step back” from the party whip or membership – like the former MP Natalie McGarry, who was ultimately jailed for embezzlement.
Michelle Thomson also resigned the whip at Westminster amid allegations of financial irregularities, but would later say she was forced into the move by party bosses. The police investigation was dropped, and Ms Thomson now sits as an SNP MSP at Holyrood.
However, others have been suspended – like the MP Margaret Ferrier, who is currently suspended from the House of Commons after breaching Covid restrictions.
The former MSP Mark McDonald was also suspended amid harassment allegations, having resigned as a government minister. He was also suspended from Holyrood following a standards committee probe and sat as an independent member until the 2021 election.
Obviously many of these cases are in no way comparable to Ms Sturgeon’s situation – and there does not seem to be a clear precedent for the party to follow in terms of how it handles this. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-scotland-65876126 |
Wales' glass refund plan proceeding without Westminster agreement - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The Welsh government means to push on after the UK government barred glass from Scotland's scheme. | Wales | Wales' scheme is to start in two years, after Scotland's scheme was delayed
The Welsh government intends to press on with plans for a refundable bottles and cans fee after the UK government blocked similar ones in Scotland.
The scheme is set to start in Wales in two years, but Scotland's scheme was delayed last week after Westminster said glass could not be included.
The UK government said its decision would affect Wales' plans too.
Climate Change minister Julie James said she would take the UK government "to task".
The UK government has decided not to include glass bottles in its own deposit return scheme, and told the Scottish government it wanted glass excluded so a consistent UK-wide approach was taken.
Westminster used post-Brexit legislation called the Internal Markets Bill to stop Scotland's plans.
Julie James said she would take the UK government "to task"
Ms James said her reading of the UK Internal Markets Bill was that no single nation could interrupt the commerce of the others.
She said: "It's England that's the outlier here, not Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and they need to understand that."
Under the Welsh government plans, people would get their money back if they returned empty drinks containers made of plastic, glass, steel or aluminium.
Ms James insisted the Welsh government would continue to roll out its scheme in two years.
"We don't think we need the permission of the UK government to do that," she said.
Andrew RT Davies said Labour liked doing things differently "for the sake of it"
The Welsh government consulted jointly with the UK government and Northern Ireland executive on its plans.
When the UK government decided not to include glass it cited concerns about creating complexity and burdens for business.
The UK government said it wanted to deliver a consistent approach for the deposit return scheme across the UK, providing a simple and effective system for both businesses and consumers.
"We have listened to industry. Businesses have been clear that adding glass to a deposit return scheme will add fundamental complexity for our pubs and restaurants, increase burdens on small businesses, whilst creating greater inconvenience for consumers," it said.
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies accused Ms James of being different for the sake of it.
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In a tweet he asserted she had "obviously" not spoken to independent Welsh brewers.
Their belief, he said, was that including glass would "cripple" them.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65872759 |
Thunderstorm warnings to continue into Monday - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Music at the Parklife festival in Manchester was paused as a storm hit the area. | UK | People sheltering from the rain under umbrellas at Bournemouth beach
The Met Office has issued a new yellow warning for thunderstorms across parts of the UK after the hottest days of the year so far.
The new warning was put in place at noon on Sunday. It will run until 21:00 BST on Monday, the Met Office said.
Forecasters have warned torrential downpours may cause challenging conditions in parts of the UK.
On Sunday afternoon the Parklife festival in Manchester had to be briefly halted as one thunderstorm hit.
In Wales, one weather warning for heavy rain covers a large section of the country apart from the six council areas in the north. It will be in place for Sunday evening into Monday morning.
A yellow thunderstorm warning means there is a small chance homes and businesses could flood quickly and damage buildings.
The Met Office said delays and some cancellations to train and bus services could happen as a result of any flooding or lightning strikes.
Difficult driving conditions could also be expected as a result of spray and sudden flooding and there is a slight chance of power cuts.
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The UK Health Security Agency has an amber hot weather alert in place until 09:00 BST on Tuesday for much of south England and the Midlands.
It means high temperatures could affect all ages and impact the health service.
A temperature of 32.2°C in Chertsey, Surrey, made it the UK's hottest day of the year too.
Temperatures reached 29.8 C in Auchincruive, Ayrshire, on Saturday - making it the warmest day of the year in Scotland.
The Met Office forecasts that next week the risk of thundery downpours will continue in some areas and temperatures are likely to remain above average.
Have you been affected by storms or flooding where you are? You can get in touch by emailing [email protected].
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:
If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at [email protected]. Please include your name, age and location with any submission. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65869518 |
Silvio Berlusconi obituary: Italy's flamboyant bounce-back politician - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | A media mogul who went into politics, he survived several corruption allegations. | Europe | Berlusconi was a major public figure in Italian business, broadcasting, and politics
In the labyrinthine world of Italian politics, Silvio Berlusconi was the supreme wheeler-dealer - a man who merged business and public life like no other.
His flamboyant personality struck a chord with the Italian electorate, which continued to back him despite allegations of corruption and double-dealing.
Four times he was prime minister, and each time it seemed his political career was over, he managed to confound his critics and bounce back.
Nine years after he was banned from public office for tax fraud, he was back in parliament, elected to Italy's Senate before he turned 86 in September 2022.
But it was often his private life - his fondness for surrounding himself with beautiful young women, and the ensuing sexual scandals - that made headlines around the world.
Berlusconi, who has died at the age of 86, was a media mogul, football club owner and billionaire businessman who never gave up on politics - and helped shape Italy's image for decades.
Silvio Berlusconi was born into a middle-class family in Milan on 29 September 1936 and grew up in a village outside the city during World War Two.
From his student days, he demonstrated the ability to make money. While studying law at university, he played double-bass in a student band - and developed a reputation as a singer, working in nightclubs and on cruise ships.
Berlusconi had a spell as a singer on cruise ships
His first foray into using his natural charm for business was as a vacuum cleaner salesman and in selling essays written for his fellow students.
After graduation, he started in construction with his own company, Edilnord, building an enormous apartment complex on the edge of Milan - though the source of funding for the project was something of a mystery.
In 1973, the entrepreneur launched a local cable television company called Telemilano to provide television to his properties.
Four years later, he owned two more stations and a central Milan studio. By the end of the decade, he had created a holding company, Fininvest, to manage the rapid expansion of his business holdings.
Eventually, it would own Mediaset - Italy's largest media empire and owner of the country's biggest private stations - and Italy's largest publishing house, Mondadori.
By the time of his death, he was one of Italy's richest men, with a family fortune in the billions of dollars. His children - Marina, Barbara, Pier Silvio, Eleonora and Luigi - have all taken part in the running of his business empire.
Some of that wealth would be used to indulge his personal interests - including saving his hometown football club AC Milan from bankruptcy in 1986.
The football club AC Milan was just one of his business interests
That investment would pay off three decades later in 2017, when he sold the club to Chinese investors for £628m (€740m).
He never gave up on football either, later buying Monza football club and enjoying its rise to the top flight of Serie A for the first time in its history.
Berlusconi's remarkable ability to face down the courts repeatedly - and maintain his popularity in politics - was unrivalled.
He often complained of victimisation - particularly by prosecutors in his native Milan - once claiming to have made 2,500 court appearances in 106 trials over 20 years.
Charges over the years have included embezzlement, tax fraud and false accounting, and attempting to bribe a judge. He was acquitted or had his convictions overturned on several occasions.
His controversies were highly public and formed a regular backdrop throughout his political career. It was not until February 2023 that he was finally cleared of bribing witnesses to lie about the notorious "bunga bunga" parties he had held at his villa as prime minister.
He had founded his own political party 30 years earlier in 1993 and within a year, he was catapulted to power.
Leveraging his enthusiasm for football, he named his party after a supporters' chant - Forza Italia (Go Italy). At the time, a power vacuum had emerged in the wake of a scandal affecting Italy's centre-right - and Berlusconi offered an alternative to those voters that was not leftist.
A massive advertising campaign on his own TV channels had helped propel him to victory in the 1994 election.
However, his new appetite for politics was seen as a bid to avoid being implicated in corruption charges himself, after several of his businesses were drawn into the investigation.
But he dismissed the claims. "I don't need to go into office for the power. I have houses all over the world, stupendous boats, beautiful airplanes, a beautiful wife, a beautiful family. I am making a sacrifice."
Once he was in power, Berlusconi's government passed a law that gave him, and other top public figures, immunity from prosecution while in office, but it was later thrown out by the constitutional court.
Berlusconi's first coalition lasted only a few months - partly owing to friction between the different parties in it, and partly because of Berlusconi's indictment for alleged tax fraud by a Milan court.
He lost the 1996 election to the Left - but his political career was only just beginning.
In 2001, Berlusconi was back as prime minister, at the head of a new coalition known as House of Freedoms. The main plank of his election campaign was a promise to overhaul the Italian economy, simplify the tax system and raise pensions.
But Italy's finances were suffering in a worsening global economy, and Berlusconi was unable to fulfil his pledges. He lost to the Left in 2006 - but won again in 2008.
He remained a fixture in Italian politics until 2011, which would prove among his most challenging years.
Italy's borrowing costs soared during the eurozone debt crisis. The prime minister haemorrhaged support and was forced to resign after losing his parliamentary majority.
The same year, the constitutional court struck down part of the law granting him and other senior ministers temporary immunity.
Berlusconi eventually carried out community service as part of his conviction for tax fraud
By the end of 2011, he was out of power. In October 2012, he was sentenced to four years' imprisonment for tax fraud and barred from public office. Berlusconi declared his innocence and spoke of a "judicial coup".
But by then, he was over 75 years of age and was handed community service instead. He worked four hours a week with elderly dementia patients at a Catholic care home near Milan.
He was also banned from public office - a prohibition which lasted for several years before his next comeback.
Beyond politics, Berlusconi made headlines for his private life, which was often very public.
The flamboyant prime minister did not hide his pursuit of younger women. His most recent partner, party colleague Marta Fascina, is more than 50 years his junior. He was known to use hair transplants and plastic surgery to make himself seem younger.
He met his second wife, Veronica Lario, after she performed topless in a play. She would go on to express frustration publicly with her husband's behaviour around young women on more than one occasion.
She filed for divorce after her husband was photographed at the 18th birthday party of model Noemi Letizia.
His most high-profile scandal was the alleged "bunga bunga" parties at his villa, attended by showgirls - a story which ended in a conviction for paying an underage prostitute for sex.
Amid the scandal, both Silvio Berlusconi and Karima El Mahroug denied they had sex
It eventually emerged that in 2010, Berlusconi, while prime minister, had telephoned a police station and asked for the release of 17-year-old Karima "Ruby" El Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby Heart-Stealer, who was being held for theft. She was also a reported guest of the "bunga bunga" parties.
Italian media reported that the prime minister had claimed the girl was the niece or granddaughter of the president of Egypt, and he was attempting to avoid a diplomatic incident.
Berlusconi was found guilty of paying her for sex and abusing his power in 2013 - but that ruling was overturned the following year.
For his part, Berlusconi always rejected claims he had paid any woman for sex, saying to do so was "missing the pleasure of conquest". But he also admitted he was "no saint".
Beset by national budgetary problems and embroiled in personal scandals, Berlusconi's People of Freedom party did poorly in 2011 local elections, losing Milan, his home town and power base.
But he remained popular, coming within 1% of winning the 2013 national elections. Eventually, his party split - and Berlusconi relaunched it under its original name, Forza Italia.
Between his electoral defeats and the ban on holding public office because of his criminal conviction, it might have seemed that his political career was over.
In 2019, Berlusconi ran for election himself once more - and won
Yet Forza Italia came third in the 2018 elections with Berlusconi's name attached to its branding, behind the populist, anti-establishment Five Star and Forza Italia's own right-wing electoral partner, the League.
Berlusconi promised to "loyally support" League leader Matteo Salvini's efforts to form a government - but the League chose to rule without Forza Italia.
Once again, it seemed like Berlusconi's political career might be coming to a close. But in 2018, a court ruled that he could, once again, stand for public office - declaring him "rehabilitated".
The decision came too late for the 2018 elections, but in 2019 the eternal vote-winner announced he was running for the European Parliament. As the top candidate on his party's lists, he easily won himself a European seat.
Three years later, he was back in Italy's parliament and his Forza Italia a junior party in Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition.
With his slicked-back dark hair and raunchy scandals, Berlusconi was instantly recognisable and cultivated a larger-than-life personality.
He also became notorious for his questionable sense of humour after a number of high-profile gaffes. On one occasion, he suggested a German MEP would have made a good concentration camp guard - and on another, claimed Mussolini was actually a benign leader.
He dismissed these statements as jokes. However, he was also a long-time friend of Vladimir Putin and blamed Ukraine for Russia's invasion when his own government was strongly behind Kyiv.
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It is probably his involvement in almost every aspect of Italian life that angered his critics most - particularly his media empire, which, many say, gave him an unfair advantage at elections.
The many Italians who voted for him felt his success as a business tycoon was evidence of his capabilities, a reason why he should run the country.
Berlusconi himself dismissed claims that mixing business and politics had been more beneficial to him personally than to Italy as a whole.
"If in taking care of everyone's interests, I also take care of my own, you can't talk about a conflict of interest," he declared.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65121890 |
Silvio Berlusconi: Former Italian prime minister dies at 86 - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The billionaire tycoon was a divisive figure who dominated Italian politics for three decades. | Europe | Berlusconi tried to teach me to shake hands
At the end of our conversation, with the cameras still rolling, we shook hands. Quick as a flash, he said to me: “Don’t shake hands so strongly! Men will be frightened of you, and no-one is going to marry you!” When I replied, suggesting a firm handshake was a good thing, he insisted he was only joking: “You’ve got to joke every once in a while.” He then proceeded to teach me how to shake hands properly. “Let’s try this again”, he said. “No, no! Too strong! Any man will think you are trying to beat them up!” When the piece was published, many condemned him for his sexism and his lack of respect towards a female reporter. But others – especially at home in Italy – thought the exchange was funny and harmless. In my 10 years as a BBC journalist no other political interviewee has introduced this level of awkwardness. But having grown up in the Italy of Berlusconi, I wasn’t shocked. If anything, I reflected on the fact that there were at least six cameras filming our interview. Berlusconi knew exactly what he was doing. He wanted to be filmed making a joke. Because, he may have figured, that for as many people who would condemn him, there were just as many who would applaud the authenticity of a man who wasn’t going to conform to perceived political correctness. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-65192917 |
Danone's UK boss calls for higher taxes on unhealthy food - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Danone's UK president wants the government to use tax incentives to promote healthier products. | Business | The boss of one of the UK's biggest food firms is calling for higher taxes on salty, fatty and sugary foods.
Food producers had not "shown enough appetite to change", said James Mayer, who runs Danone in the UK and Irish Republic.
The French firm is best known for its yoghurt brands, but also owns bottled water brands Evian and Volvic.
He said only 10% of Danone's own products would be affected by what have been dubbed "sin" taxes.
"The UK food industry's efforts to improve the health profile of its products have not moved fast enough," Mr Mayer said in comments first shared with the Observer newspaper.
He said it was time for "meaningful intervention" by the government.
"We see this as the only way industry as a whole will be incentivised to move towards healthier, more sustainable products over the often cheaper but unhealthy alternatives," Mr Mayer said.
The UK introduced a "sugar tax" on soft drinks in 2018, but has rejected more recent proposals to put extra taxes on other unhealthy products, relying instead on manufacturers to engage with voluntary programmes to reduce salt, fat and sugar.
The steep rise in the cost of food over the last year makes it a difficult time to argue for higher taxes.
But Mr Mayer said the new approach should include restrictions on advertising as well as "looking at how VAT rates can be aligned to the health credentials of products".
Currently VAT, a consumption tax, is not charged on most food products, but the standard 20% VAT rate is applied to alcoholic drinks, confectionery, many crisps and savoury snacks, ice cream and soft drinks.
Mineral water, which makes up a significant part of Danone's product portfolio, is also subject to VAT.
The food industry has previously lobbied against additional taxes, arguing it would push up prices. However campaigners in favour of the strategy argue that tax revenues could be used to promote healthier eating patterns.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the government had taken "firm action" to tackle unhealthy foods, and would continue to work closely with industry.
"Our sugar reduction programme has delivered dramatic reductions in the amount of sugar in foods eaten by children - including a 14.9% decrease in the sugar content of breakfast cereals and a 13.5% reduction in the sugar content of yogurts and fromage frais," the spokesperson said in a statement.
The government introduced restrictions late last year on where unhealthy foods can be displayed in shops, but delayed new limits on "volume" offers such as buy-one-get-one-free, until autumn this year.
A ban on TV advertising of junk food before 21:00 has been pushed back to October 2025 to give the industry more time to prepare for the restrictions.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon fast-food chain, appointed as the government's healthy eating "tsar", resigned earlier this year, criticising the lack of progress.
His report last year, which recommended measures including taxes on salt and sugar used in processed food, with the revenues used to provide fresh fruit and vegetables to low-income families, was not taken up by the government.
Industry body the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) said manufacturers were committed to improving the "nutritional profile" of their products, in part by offering a range of portion sizes. As a result, the average shopping basket contained 13% fewer calories, 15% fewer sugars and 24% less salt than in 2018, the FDF said.
"Companies will continue to innovate, but this often takes time, requires significant investment and can be technically challenging depending on the food," an FDF spokesperson said.
Additional taxes would make the task harder by adding to the "financial burden" of rising costs that manufacturers were already facing, the FDF said.
Mr Mayer said Danone UK & Ireland had committed to keep 90% of its range of products below the threshold that counts as high in fat, salt and sugar, and would not launch any new products marketed at children that were in that category. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-65872962 |
Coleraine bomb: Jean Jefferson talks of friendship with bomber - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Jean Jefferson's aunt was killed 50 years ago but she forged a friendship with the man responsible. | Northern Ireland | Jean Jefferson says IRA bomber helped her come to terms with husband's death
A woman whose father was injured in an IRA bomb 50 years ago has said the friendship she forged with the bomber has helped her through the recent death of her husband.
Jean Jefferson's father was severely disfigured in the blast, which killed six people, including her aunt, in Coleraine in 1973.
In 2011, Jean met and forgave the man who was convicted of the bombing.
Sean McGlinchey spent 18 years in jail for his part in the car bomb attack.
Two car bombs exploded in the County Londonderry town on 12 June 1973.
All of those injured or killed were caught up in the first explosion, which went off on Railway Road at 15:00 BST.
A second explosion went off in Hanover Place five minutes later.
"I was teaching in England at the time and got a call that changed our lives forever," Mrs Jefferson told BBC News NI.
"My sister ran down town to see what happened. My father was sat with his head in his hands. She didn't even recognise him because he was that injured.
"I remember arriving back at the airport in Northern Ireland. Nobody was able to meet me at Aldergrove because of what happened at home.
"Home changed from then. How could someone do that in my home town, I thought."
Sean McGlinchey, who is currently a Sinn Féin councillor, faced criticism after being appointed as mayor of Limavady in 2011.
Mrs Jefferson said: "People gave him such a hard time and I remember being angry as he said he was sorry.
"My father also forgave Sean although he never told him directly. He was the instigator of forgiveness. How could we as a family not forgive then?
"I understand why some people can't do what we've done. I understand all sides."
She added: "My husband died last year and Sean has been a great friend to me. Bill had a great deal of time for Sean.
"Sean had a mass said for him in the monastery in Portglenone. He was really upset about Bill's death. That meant a lot to me."
When asked in advance about John Finucane attending an IRA commemoration in south Armagh, Mrs Jefferson said she "has a lot of time" the Sinn Féin MP.
"I understand how people struggle to understand it but I really think he was condemned before he gave his speech. That's not right either."
Mrs Jefferson said she will spend the 50th anniversary of the IRA bombing on her own at home to reflect.
The new memorial was unveiled in the presence of the mayor and relatives of victims
A memorial to the victims of the bombing was unveiled during an act of remembrance service in Coleraine on Monday afternoon.
Mayor of Causeway Coast and Glens Steven Callaghan said the memorial would ensure the innocent lives lost that day would never be forgotten.
"This beautiful sculpture will ensure the victims are never forgotten and will give the families a place to come and remember them," he said.
"We would not have reached this point without the help and support of the victims' families and I want to thank them for engaging with this long collaborative process to bring about this fitting memorial."
The permanent memorial follows the unveiling in 2022 of a granite plaque enshrined on a pavement at Railway Road in the town - marking the location of the first bomb. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65879451 |
Storms bring flash flooding and travel disruption - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Cars were seen ploughing through deep puddles as thunderstorms brought downpours to parts of the UK. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Thunderstorms have brought torrential downpours and flooding to parts of the UK on Monday.
Cars could be seen ploughing through deep puddles after flash flooding in north-west London.
Easyjet said some flights leaving Gatwick Airport had been disrupted after thunderstorms "caused air traffic control delays".
Meanwhile, lightning delayed Manchester City's victory parade celebrating their Treble win by 30 minutes.
Official weather warnings have now passed for Monday, but two storm warnings are in place for Northern Ireland and Scotland on Tuesday.
The yellow warnings, which mean storms may bring some disruption, will cover much of Northern Ireland, and a western area of Scotland from 12:00 BST to 21:00.
BBC Weather meteorologist Stav Danaos said a number of thunderstorms in the Midlands had brought intense downpours in places, with Woburn in Bedfordshire catching 26.4mm in one hour on Monday afternoon.
Tuesday will be drier and more settled, with large amounts of sunshine, BBC Weather said. There could be some isolated showers and cloud in the afternoon, mainly in western areas. Later in the week, temperatures are expected to be less humid.
It is hard to tie specific weather events to climate change, but we do know that extreme weather is becoming more likely and more intense because of human-induced climate change.
Drumnadrochit, on the western shore of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands, saw 32.4mm in one hour, followed by another 10.6mm in the following hour. Other parts of Scotland had their hottest day of the year so far, with Threave in Dumfries and Galloway reaching 30.1C.
There were around 7,500 lighting strikes recorded nationwide, with more expected.
Despite the poor weather causing delays, thousands of Manchester City fans lined streets in the city centre for the open-top parade celebrating the club's Treble.
Many of the club's players - including star striker Erling Haaland - were unfazed by the rain, taking their shirts off as they paraded their silverware around the city.
Former City goalkeeper Shay Given told BBC Radio 5 Live he had experienced "rain, hailstones and wind - four seasons in one hour".
Thousands of Manchester City fans braved poor weather for the club's open-top parade celebrating its Treble
Meanwhile, Luton and Dunstable Hospital in Bedfordshire asked people to only attend its emergency department for life-threatening illness and injuries because of "localised flooding". Heavy rain also caused flood-flashing in the centre of Stroud, Gloucestershire.
Some flight cancellations were also reported at London Heathrow.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has also issued an amber alert for hot weather until 09:00 BST on Tuesday in the West Midlands, East Midlands, east of England, South East and South West.
It means high temperatures could affect all ages and impact the health service.
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has also issued a high air pollution alert for Tuesday, the second of the year, caused by high temperatures and pollution travelling from Europe.
He urged people to avoid unnecessary car journeys, and instead to walk, cycle or take public transport. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65879069 |
Kylian Mbappe: PSG were told last year he would not extend contract, says France forward - BBC Sport | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | null | Kylian Mbappe told Paris St-Germain last July he would not extend his contract beyond 2024 as Real Madrid links persist. | null | Kylian Mbappe: PSG were told last year he would not extend contract, says France forward Last updated on .From the section European Football
Kylian Mbappe wants to stay at Paris St-Germain for now but says he will not extend his contract beyond 2024. The 24-year-old France forward's deal expires after next season, with the option of another year. On Tuesday he tweeted he "will continue" at PSG, but a letter from his camp said next season would be his last at the club. Mbappe says PSG were first told on 15 July, 2022 of his decision to reject the extension. Official correspondence has followed to that effect this week, with Mbappe saying the "only aim of the letter was to confirm what had already been spoken about". However, PSG are prepared to sell their record goalscorer this summer rather than risk losing him for free in a year's time. Mbappe said reports he wants to join Real Madrid this summer were "lies". His camp told the AFP news agency on Tuesday the possibility of extending his contract "has not been discussed since [he informed PSG last year] over the course of the year, except a fortnight ago to announce the sending of the letter". "No potential contract extension has been mentioned," they added. "After maintaining publicly in recent weeks that he would be a PSG player next season, Kylian Mbappe has not asked to leave this summer and has just confirmed to the club that he would not be activating the extra year."
• None Real Madrid? Man Utd? Where Mbappe might go next If Mbappe is sold this summer, Real Madrid are long-time admirers of the Frenchman, although he rejected a move to the Bernabeu to stay at PSG last year. The exit of Karim Benzema to Saudi Arabia means Real need a striker, but it was thought Tottenham's Harry Kane was top of their list. Mbappe, who joined PSG in 2017 initially on loan from Monaco before a 180m euro move, has scored 212 goals in 260 games. He has 38 goals in 68 games for France, including a hat-trick in last year's World Cup final in Qatar, as France lost to Argentina on penalties. Mbappe finished as Ligue 1's top scorer in each of the past five seasons and has won five league titles in his six seasons at PSG. PSG ended 2022-23 with just the Ligue 1 title after once again failing to win the Champions League, losing to Bayern Munich in the last 16. Mbappe would be the second high-profile forward to depart Parc des Princes this summer, after Argentina forward Lionel Messi left at the end of his two-year contract to join Major League Soccer's Inter Miami. Neymar, the third member of PSG's superstar frontline last season, has been linked with a big-money move to Saudi Arabia. The most important thing in Mbappe's statement today is that once again he is saying he doesn't want to leave the club this summer and that's important because now, it's all about PSG. They have to open the door (to a transfer this summer). In my understanding he will leave because he doesn't want to renew and his position won't change and I think PSG's position won't change so I think they will open the door (to a transfer) before the end of the market. The more complicated thing now is to find an agreement with Real Madrid because PSG won't want to do any gifts to Real and the Spanish club will try for a low price because they will say they don't want to pay a big amount of money for a player who is out of contract in a year. I think he wants to go to Real Madrid, but Liverpool is also there since many years as well. They kept contact with the family for many years. And I would add Manchester United because they will have a new project soon under new owners.
• None Our coverage of your Premier League club is bigger and better than ever before - follow your team and sign up for notifications in the BBC Sport app to make sure you never miss a moment | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/65882905 |
Police release Nicola Sturgeon without charge - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Ms Sturgeon says she is "innocent of any wrongdoing" after being released while more inquiries are carried out. | Scotland politics | Nicola Sturgeon had been taken into police custody on Sunday morning
Nicola Sturgeon has been released without charge pending further investigations after being arrested by police.
Scotland's former first minister was arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the SNP's funding and finances at 10:09 on Sunday.
After being questioned by detectives she was released from custody at 17:24.
She has since released a statement saying "I know beyond doubt that I am innocent of any wrongdoing".
Police said a report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
The force has been investigating for the past two years what happened to £660,000 of donations given to the SNP by independence activists for use in a future independence referendum campaign.
Officers had been able to question Ms Sturgeon for a maximum of 12 hours before deciding whether to charge her with a crime or release her while they carry out further inquiries.
A suspect released pending further investigations can be re-arrested at a later date.
Ms Sturgeon published a statement on Twitter shortly after police confirmed her release.
She said: "To find myself in the situation I did today when I am certain I have committed no offence is both a shock and deeply distressing.
"I know that this ongoing investigation is difficult for people, and I am grateful that so many continue to show faith in me and appreciate that I would never do anything to harm either the SNP or the country."
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She went on: "Innocence is not just a presumption I am entitled to in law. I know beyond doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing."
She thanked people for messages of support and also her family for "much-needed strength at this time".
Her statement ended: "While I will take a day or two to process this latest development, I intend to be back in Parliament soon where I will continue to represent my Glasgow Southside constituents to the very best of my ability."
A police patrol at the home of Nicola Sturgeon and Peter Murrell on Sunday - it is not known where the police questioning took place
Ms Sturgeon was succeeded as first minister and SNP leader in March by Humza Yousaf, who is now facing calls from opposition politicians and at least one of his own MPs - Angus MacNeil - to suspend her from the party.
Mr MacNeil tweeted: "This soap-opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less!"
Scottish Conservatives chairman Craig Hoy also called on Mr Yousaf to "show some leadership and suspend his predecessor from the SNP", in a statement posted on Twitter.
Ms Sturgeon had attended a pre-arranged police interview and was arrested and questioned after she arrived.
It follows the arrest of her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, on 5 April by officers who searched the couple's home in Glasgow as part of their Operation Branchform probe.
The SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh were searched on the same day and a luxury motorhome valued at about £110,000 was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.
Almost two weeks later, the party's treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested.
Both men were released pending further investigations, with Mr Beattie resigning as treasurer a short time later.
The arrest of the former first minister had been widely expected as she was one of the three signatories on the SNP's accounts alongside Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie - although there was no indication of when it was going to happen.
Police Scotland officers carried out a search of the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh in April
The Branchform investigation began after complaints were made about what happened to £666,954 that was donated to the SNP by activists for a future independence referendum campaign.
The party's accounts later accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.
Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election.
The SNP had repaid about half of the loan by October of that year, but still owes money to Mr Murrell - although it has not said how much.
Ms Sturgeon made a shock announcement on 15 February that she would be standing down as both SNP leader and first minister once a successor was elected, with Humza Yousaf winning the contest to replace her in March.
Ms Sturgeon said at the time that she knew "in my head and in my heart" that it was the right time to go, and has denied the timing was influenced by the ongoing police investigation.
She was Scotland's longest-serving first minister and the only woman to have held the position.
Three things immediately jump out from Nicola Sturgeon's statement.
The most obvious is her vehement denial of any wrongdoing, expressed in emphatic terms.
Another is her pledge to return to Holyrood in short order - something which will no doubt have the parliamentary press pack sharpening their pencils and doorstep questions.
The third highlight is something that isn't mentioned at all - the question of Ms Sturgeon's continued membership of the SNP, which some, including one of the party's own MPs, have been questioning.
When her predecessor Alex Salmond was accused of sexual assault in 2018, he swiftly resigned from the party with a pledge to clear his name. He was subsequently cleared of charges, but never did return to the SNP, instead setting up his own Alba Party.
Ms Sturgeon may well prefer the approach of Colin Beattie, who quit as SNP treasurer but remained within the party after his own arrest and release.
There is a recent precedent there - but this will doubtless still spark questions to Humza Yousaf about how he intends to handle the latest developments. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65873423 |
Trump arrives in Florida ahead of court appearance - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The former president prepares to be formally charged with illegally retaining classified documents. | US & Canada | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Donald Trump is spending the night in Miami, Florida, before he appears in court there on Tuesday charged with mishandling national security files.
The former US president flew from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, to his Trump Doral resort near Miami.
Mr Trump is facing dozens of charges of illegally retaining classified information, including some about nuclear secrets.
It is the second time this year he has been charged with a crime.
Mr Trump, campaigning to make a return to the White House in 2024, has denied wrongdoing as he faces the first ever federal criminal prosecution against a former US president.
He appeared muted but unflustered as he strolled into the steakhouse at his Miami golf resort on Monday evening.
Mr Trump greeted the smattering of guests at the BLT Prime restaurant with his signature thumbs-up, and even posed for a photo with a group of men enjoying their happy hour.
"With you all the way!" shouted one patron seated at the bar.
"Thank you very much," Mr Trump replied, before security escorted him to the dining area.
The guests had an inkling of Mr Trump's arrival when several security agents appeared and casually swept diners with metal detectors. A few had their phones ready to snap photos.
The staff, on the other hand, were nonchalant about their boss' presence, continuing to mix drinks and serve guests.
A handful of supporters were also at the bar. One woman sipped wine with a Trump flag draped over the back of her chair.
Mr Trump has continued to strike a defiant tone. In an interview on a Spanish-language talk radio programme in Miami, he aired grievances with the indictment, while accusing the Biden administration of weaponising law enforcement agencies against him.
Meanwhile, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez told reporters the city was preparing for Mr Trump's court appearance.
Police will be deployed in anticipation of crowds up to 50,000 people, he said, though other sources told US media the expected number was in the low thousands.
"We encourage people to be peaceful," Mr Suarez said.
The former president flew to Miami on his Trump Force One jet
He is holed up at his Trump Doral golf course complex near Miami
On Saturday, in his first public appearances since the charges were filed, Mr Trump said the case amounted to "election interference" by the "corrupt" FBI and justice department.
The former president will appear in court alongside a close aide, Walt Nauta, who was charged by the same grand jury in Florida.
Mr Nauta faces six criminal counts related to alleged handling of national security documents. Both men are scheduled to make their initial appearances at 15:00 local time (20:00 BST).
A federal judge denied a request by news organisations for photo and video access during Tuesday's hearing - though a court sketch artist will be present.
Afterwards, Mr Trump is expected to return to Bedminster to make remarks to the media.
Last week's 37-count indictment comes after more than 100 documents with classified markings were found at Mr Trump's private Florida resort Mar-a-Lago in August.
Federal prosecutors accuse the Republican of illegally retaining documents, storing some in a ballroom and a shower at Mar-a-Lago and engaging in a conspiracy with an aide to obstruct the government's attempts to retrieve them.
The documents allegedly contained information about the defence and weapons capabilities of both the US and foreign countries, and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.
Mr Trump, the indictment claims, tried to obstruct the FBI inquiry into the missing files by suggesting his lawyer "hide or destroy" them, or tell investigators he did not have them.
Legal experts say the criminal charges could lead to substantial prison time if he is convicted. Mr Trump has vowed to continue his campaign for president whatever the verdict.
Mr Trump has also pointed out that classified files were also found in Mr Biden's former office and Delaware home, including in his garage.
The White House has previously said it immediately co-operated with officials as soon as those files were discovered, a contrast with Mr Trump's alleged efforts to obstruct investigators.
A federal investigation into Mr Biden's handling of classified documents is being led by Special Counsel Robert Hur and is still under way.
What do you want to know about Donald Trump's court appearance? Our US experts will be answering your questions on Tuesday.
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If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or send them via email to [email protected]. Please include your name, age and location with any question you send in. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65883615 |
John Finucane defends 'right to remember' at IRA commemoration - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Sinn Féin MP John Finucane was speaking at an IRA commemoration in south Armagh on Sunday. | Northern Ireland | A Sinn Féin MP has told an IRA commemoration that everyone has "the right to remember, and the right to commemorate".
John Finucane was the main speaker at what has been billed a "South Armagh Volunteers commemoration".
He said there was "nothing to celebrate in conflict", but commemoration was "a right which everyone is entitled to".
His involvement in the event was condemned by IRA victims, unionists and the Irish government.
Earlier on Sunday, Belfast East MP Gavin Robinson of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) said Mr Finucane was "a hypocrite" for taking part.
Mr Finucane told the event that truth and justice were "something which every person who has been impacted by our conflict deserves."
"For just as truth and justice applies equally to everyone, so too does the right to remember, and the right to commemorate," he said.
Mr Finucane's father, solicitor Pat Finucane, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen at his home in Belfast in 1989.
The Sinn Féin MP said he would defend commemorations by other groups - including loyalists - "without hesitation".
"There is nothing to celebrate in conflict, or in our difficult and painful past, but to commemorate those we have loved and lost is a right which everyone, including every single one of us gathered here today, is entitled to, and we do so with dignity and with pride," he said.
The event was held earlier in south Armagh
Speaking ahead of the event, Belfast East MP Mr Robinson said Mr Finucane had a few hours to decide if he wanted to "proceed with being a hypocrite on these issues or withdraw".
"You cannot burnish your credentials as a victim one day and then tarnish the memory of victims and their loved ones the next," he told the BBC's Sunday Politics programme.
But Mr Robinson, the newly-elected deputy leader of the DUP said victims were "hurt" by the prospect of Mr Finucane's attendance at the event in Mullaghbawn.
"This should not be happening," he said.
"When we consider the need to reconcile our communities that anybody, let alone a member of Parliament and a victim, would go to a family fun day to show respect for terrorists, shows just how shallow some of the commitments about an Ireland for all are, that have been shared with us over the previous number of weeks."
Gavin Robinson said victims of terrorism were "hurt" at the move
On Friday, a relative of one of the victims of an IRA bomb atrocity in Coleraine nearly 50 years ago criticised Mr Finucane's planned appearance.
Lesley Magee's grandmother, Nan Davis, was among six Protestants killed in the Coleraine attack on 12 June 1973.
"I don't think we should be commemorating terrorism on any level, whether it be Protestant, whether it be Catholic," she told BBC News NI.
"I have equal animosity towards both. I have no issue with anyone's religion, whether it be Protestant, Catholic, Judaism - whatever; I don't care.
"I don't think any MP should be at some kind of commemoration to celebrate a terrorist," she added.
Alliance Party assembly member Sorcha Eastwood said she was disappointed Mr Finucane took part in the event.
"There is a difference between remembering and paying tribute to individuals, and commemorating terrorist organisations, including the IRA and its South Armagh 'brigade', particularly without reference to its many victims," she said.
Ulster Unionist Party leader Doug Beattie said he thought the commemoration was "scandalous".
Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) Micheál Martin had urged Mr Finucane not to address the commemoration, saying any attempt to "celebrate or glorify horrible deeds from the past" was not the correct way forward.
But earlier in the week, Sinn Féin assembly member Conor Murphy dismissed the row as a diversionary tactic by the DUP.
"I think what we are in here is distraction politics," Mr Murphy said.
"The real issue is here is the fact that public services are crashing round our ears." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-65870490 |
Humza Yousaf will not suspend Sturgeon from SNP - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Humza Yousaf says he sees "no reason" to suspend his predecessor following her arrest. | Scotland | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Humza Yousaf says he sees 'no reason' to suspend Sturgeon's SNP membership.
First Minister Humza Yousaf says he will not suspend Nicola Sturgeon from the SNP.
The former party leader was arrested and released without charge on Sunday as part of a police investigation into SNP finances.
Mr Yousaf told BBC Scotland he saw "no reason" to suspend a party member who has been released without charge.
Ms Sturgeon has said she is "innocent of any wrongdoing".
Her arrest follows that of her husband and former party chief executive, Peter Murrell, and the party's ex-treasurer Colin Beattie in April.
Both were also released without charge pending further investigations.
Mr Yousaf said the news of his predecessor's arrest was "personally painful" due to their "long-standing friendship".
He added: "I'll not suspend Nicola's membership. I'll treat her in the same way I've treated, for example, Colin Beattie.
"Those that have been released without charge I see no reason to suspend their membership."
Nicola Sturgeon was arrested and released without charge on Sunday
Mr Beattie, the SNP MSP for Midlothian North and Musselburgh, resigned as SNP treasurer following his arrest.
Mr Murrell had quit as chief executive in March after taking responsibility for misleading the media about party membership numbers.
Earlier SNP MSPs Ash Regan and Michelle Thomson urged Ms Sturgeon to quit the party while the police investigation continues.
Angus MacNeil, the SNP MP, said there should be "political distance" between the SNP and its former leader.
Asked if his predecessor should resign the whip, Mr Yousaf said: "There's no pressure on her to do so from the party or from me as leader of the SNP."
He added: "She has been released without charge and I think it is so important that presumption of innocence is upheld."
Opposition party MSPs have joined calls for Ms Sturgeon to be suspended, with Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross saying the SNP to "follow their own precedent".
And Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: "If you look at previous incidents in the SNP normally people in that position have been suspended. And the question for Humza Yousaf is whether he is strong enough or whether he is too weak to show leadership."
Police launched their investigation after complaints were made relating to more than £600,000 donated to the SNP by activists.
An SNP spokesman said the party was co-operating fully with the investigation.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon arrested as part of SNP finances investigation - in 80 seconds
Ms Sturgeon was taken into custody and questioned by detectives at a police station after she attended voluntarily shortly after 10:00 on Sunday.
She was released from custody at about 17:25 on the same day.
Police said a report would be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
In a statement released on Twitter, Ms Sturgeon said she was "innocent of any wrongdoing".
"To find myself in the situation I did today when I am certain I have committed no offence is both a shock and deeply distressing," she added.
"I know that this ongoing investigation is difficult for people, and I am grateful that so many continue to show faith in me and appreciate that I would never do anything to harm either the SNP or the country." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65879317 |
Nicola Sturgeon arrested in SNP finances inquiry - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Scotland's former first minister attended a police interview on Sunday before being arrested by detectives. | Scotland | Ms Sturgeon attended a police interview by arrangement before being arrested
Former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been arrested in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the SNP.
Police confirmed a 52-year-old woman was taken into custody as a suspect and is being questioned by detectives.
It follows the arrest and subsequent release of her husband, ex-SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, in April.
A spokeswoman for Ms Sturgeon confirmed she had attended a police interview by arrangement on Sunday.
The former SNP leader, who stood down in March, was then arrested and questioned by officers who have been investigating for the past two years what happened to more than £600,000 of donations given to the party by independence activists.
The spokeswoman said: "Nicola Sturgeon has today, Sunday 11 June, by arrangement with Police Scotland, attended an interview where she was to be arrested and questioned in relation to Operation Branchform.
"Nicola has consistently said she would cooperate with the investigation if asked and continues to do so."
SNP MP Angus MacNeil has joined opposition parties in calling for Ms Sturgeon to be suspended from the party - arguing that "this soap-opera has gone far enough".
Officers searched Ms Sturgeon's home and the SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh on 5 April, with Mr Murrell being arrested before later being released without charge pending further investigation.
A luxury motorhome which sells for about £110,000 was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.
Almost two weeks later, SNP treasurer Colin Beattie was also arrested and released without charge while further inquiries were carried out.
Ms Sturgeon, Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie were the three signatories on the SNP's accounts and the arrest of the former first minister had been widely expected - although there was no indication of when it was going to happen.
A forensic tent outside Nicola Sturgeon's house when it was searched in April
Under the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, police can release a suspect for further investigation, but they can be re-arrested at a later date.
A spokesman for the SNP said the party would not comment on Ms Sturgeon's arrest, adding: "These issues are subject to a live police investigation."
Ms Sturgeon served as Scotland's first minister for more than eight years after succeeding Alex Salmond in the wake of the independence referendum in 2014.
Nicola Sturgeon's arrest follows that of her husband Peter Murrell earlier this year
She announced on 15 February that she would be standing down as both SNP leader and first minister once a successor was elected, with Humza Yousaf winning the contest to replace her.
Ms Sturgeon said at the time that she knew "in my head and in my heart" that it was the right time to go, and has denied the timing was influenced by the ongoing police investigation.
She was Scotland's longest-serving first minister and the only woman to have held the position.
Scottish Conservative chairman Craig Hoy said the SNP was "engulfed in murkiness and chaos" and called on Mr Yousaf to suspend his predecessor from the party.
The SNP MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Angus MacNeil, also called for Ms Sturgeon to be suspended, writing on Twitter: "This soap-opera has gone far enough, Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less.
"Time for political distance until the investigation ends either way."
Labour's shadow Scottish Secretary, Ian Murray, described the developments as "deeply concerning" and said the police inquiry must be allowed to proceed without interference.
Police Scotland launched their Operation Branchform investigation two years ago after complaints were made about what happened to £666,954 that was donated to the SNP by activists for a future independence referendum campaign.
The party's later accounts showed it had just under £97,000 in the bank at the end of 2019, and total net assets of about £272,000.
Last year it emerged Mr Murrell gave a loan of more than £100,000 to the SNP to help it out with a "cash flow" issue after the last election.
The SNP had repaid about half of the loan by October of that year, but still owes money to Mr Murrell - although it has not said how much.
Police Scotland has been looking into SNP funding for some time.
Ms Sturgeon is the third high-profile arrest. Her husband - Peter Murrell - was previously arrested and released without charge. So was the party's former treasury Colin Beattie.
This is a live case, so there's a limit to what journalists can report.
But politically, there's no doubt this is a big blow to Scotland's governing party.
The new leader - Humza Yousaf - had been trying to move on from arrests and police probes, to talk about policy and his vision for government.
It's inevitable he'll now face days of questions about this arrest and what it means for the party. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-65871857 |
UK immigration: Little evidence Albanians at risk and need asylum - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | But more needs to be done to support the Albanian victims of people smuggling, a report finds. | UK | There is "little evidence" Albanians are at risk in their country and need asylum in the UK, a committee of MPs says.
Albanian nationals should not routinely be granted asylum, the Home Affairs select committee said.
A total of 51% of asylum claims by Albanians were initially accepted over six months to June last year.
Some making asylum claims, particularly women, had been trafficked and need protection, MPs said.
The government said it was working with Albania to stop illegal migration.
It follows a rise in Albanian arrivals to the UK last year via small boats crossings.
In a report published on Monday, the cross-party committee stressed Albanian migrants to the UK were unlikely to require asylum.
It cited figures showing that 51% of Albanian cases were initially accepted in the first half of 2022 - the majority of these claimants arrived on ferries or planes rather than small boats.
The committee said nine countries, including Germany, had accepted no asylum claims from Albania during that period.
It called on the Home Office to explain why the UK's acceptance rate was so high - particularly compared to other countries.
The report also highlighted figures showing that in 2022, more than a quarter of the 45,755 people who crossed the Channel in small boats came from Albania - "and most claimed asylum".
It added the number of Albanians arriving in the UK by this route had gone from 800 in 2021, to 12,301 in 2022.
"Albania is a safe country," the MPs said. "It is not at war and is a candidate country to join the European Union.
"There is no clear basis for the UK to routinely accept thousands of asylum applications from Albanian citizens, the committee finds."
It suggested that driving factors for people coming to the UK from Albania largely included better job opportunities and higher wages.
But the MPs also flagged there were "unquestionably cases of Albanian citizens being trafficked to the UK".
It said more needed to be done to support the Albanian victims of people smuggling - especially women.
Labour MP Dame Diana Johnson, the committee's chairwoman, said there had been a "substantial sudden increase in asylum claims from a seemingly peaceful country".
She said: "While it is important that questions are asked and lessons are learnt, it is clear that the immigration picture is not static and will continue to evolve."
The MPs recommended the government promote seasonal work visas in agriculture and construction to give more Albanians the opportunity to come to the UK without making unauthorised Channel crossings.
It also said appropriate safeguards must be put in place before any victims of trafficking were returned to Albania, and recommended the UK maintain strong links with the country's government.
Dame Diana said: "Changes in migration will inevitably place strain on any system, but the government must do much more to ensure it can better handle these stresses."
She also said it was important the "UK improves its overall approach to asylum".
Last week in Kent, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said his plan to tackle migration is progressing, but there is "work to do".
He said a deal with Albania to return migrants had led to 1,800 people being sent back, and that was having a deterrent effect.
A Home Office spokesperson said "this government's priority is stopping the boats".
It went on: "Last year, 28% of those who arrived by small boat to the UK were from Albania - a safe European country and Nato ally - placing further strain on our asylum system.
"We've worked closely with the Albanian government to disrupt criminal gangs and deter illegal migration. In the five months to the end of May, Albanian small boat arrivals are down 90% on last year and we have returned 1,800 illegal migrants and foreign criminals back to Albania. Thanks to changes to our asylum system, we have gone from accepting 1 in 5 Albanian asylum claims to just 1 in 50, in line with other European countries.
"We will carefully consider the report and respond in due course."
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65872070 |
Three Britons dead after boat fire - tour operator - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | In a statement, Scuba Travel said the tourists' families had been contacted by the Foreign Office. | UK | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. WATCH: The boat, called Hurricane, caught fire off the coast of Marsa Alam
Three British people have died after a fire on a dive boat in the Egyptian Red Sea, the tour operator for the trip has said.
In a statement, Scuba Travel said the tourists' families had been contacted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Twenty-six other people, including 12 Britons, were rescued from the boat called Hurricane, authorities said.
Initial reports suggest the fire, which started at 06:30 local time on Sunday, started after an electrical fault.
The BBC has contacted the Foreign Office, which has not yet confirmed the deaths - but earlier a spokesperson said British nationals were being supported.
The boat left Port Ghalib on 6 June and been due to return on Sunday.
"It is with great regret that we, as tour operator, with heavy hearts, must accept that three of our much-valued dive guests... perished in the tragic incident," said the statement from Scuba Travel.
"Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to their families and friends at this very sad time."
It said the 12 Britons on board had been present at an early-morning briefing on Sunday, and the three others who went missing were not as they had "apparently decided not to dive" that morning.
All of those on board were described as "qualified diving enthusiasts".
The statement said the "severity of the fire" meant that the 12 divers present at the briefing were immediately evacuated to another boat nearby.
They were followed by the 14 crew members, including the captain and two dive guides, after attempts to reach the missing guests were unsuccessful.
Scuba Travel said it had been working with the boat's operator, Tornado Marine, since 2001.
Guests rescued from the boat were brought on shore to the village of Marsa Shagra, where they were provided with medical assistance and are understood to have given statements to local police.
Scuba Travel added the British tourists rescued from the boat were likely to return to the UK in the coming week, and local authorities would conduct a full investigation into the fire. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-65876322 |
Calls for Nicola Sturgeon to be suspended from SNP following arrest - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Humza Yousaf is being urged to suspend his predecessor after she was arrested and later released. | Scotland politics | First Minister Humza Yousaf should consider suspending Nicola Sturgeon from the SNP if she refuses to resign, a former minister has said.
MSP Ash Regan called for "decisive action" after Ms Sturgeon was arrested by police and released without charge on Sunday as part of an investigation into SNP finances.
The former party leader said she was "innocent of any wrongdoing".
An SNP spokesman said the party was co-operating fully with the investigation.
Police Scotland is investigating what happened to £660,000 of donations given to the SNP by independence activists for use in a future independence referendum campaign.
Ms Regan, who quit as community safety minister over the gender recognition reform bill and finished third in the SNP leadership contest, told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland that Ms Sturgeon should resign her party membership.
"There is precedence in the party for people involved in issues of this type to resign from the party voluntarily and suspend their membership until it is cleared up," she said.
"If she [Ms Sturgeon] did that, I think it would reaffirm her commitment to the principles of the party."
Asked if the former first minister should be suspended if she does not quit the party, Ms Regan added: "I think Humza should consider it under those circumstances, yes, if she doesn't resign.
"We do have a code of conduct in the SNP, which says members should refrain from conduct likely to cause damage or hinder the party's aims.
"I think Nicola will no doubt be considering whether to resign from the party at the moment."
Ash Regan has called for "decisive action" from the first minister
SNP MSP Michelle Thomson has also called for Ms Sturgeon to resign the party whip.
"This is not because she doesn't deserve to be treated as innocent until proven guilty – she does, but because her values should be consistent," a statement read.
Thomson, a former SNP MP, resigned the party whip in 2015 following an investigation into alleged mortgage fraud.
She later said she was given no choice but to resign by the party and criticised her treatment by its leadership.
In August 2017 the Crown Office confirmed there was insufficient evidence to launch criminal proceedings.
Meanwhile SNP MP Angus MacNeil said "this soap-opera has gone far enough".
"Nicola Sturgeon suspended others from the SNP for an awful lot less," Mr MacNeil tweeted.
Scottish Conservatives chairman Craig Hoy said Mr Yousaf must "now show some leadership and suspend his predecessor from the SNP".
Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie also said Ms Sturgeon should be suspended.
She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The question in my mind is, given all this chaos, given the kind of secrecy and cover-up that has been the hallmark of how the SNP operate, is whether Humza Yousaf, the current first minister, is indeed strong enough to suspend her and protect the party."
Ms Sturgeon was taken into custody and questioned by detectives at a police station after she attended voluntarily shortly after 10:00 on Sunday.
She was released from custody at about 17:25 on the same day.
Police said a report would be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Nicola Sturgeon arrested as part of SNP finances investigation - in 80 seconds
In a statement published on Twitter shortly afterwards, the former first minister said: "To find myself in the situation I did today when I am certain I have committed no offence is both a shock and deeply distressing.
"I know that this ongoing investigation is difficult for people, and I am grateful that so many continue to show faith in me and appreciate that I would never do anything to harm either the SNP or the country."
She went on: "Innocence is not just a presumption I am entitled to in law. I know beyond doubt that I am in fact innocent of any wrongdoing."
It follows the arrest of her husband, former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, on 5 April by officers who searched the couple's home in Glasgow as part of their Operation Branchform probe.
The SNP's headquarters in Edinburgh were searched on the same day and a luxury motorhome valued at about £110,000 was also seized by police from outside the home of Mr Murrell's mother in Dunfermline.
Almost two weeks later, the party's treasurer Colin Beattie was arrested.
Both men were released pending further investigations, with Mr Beattie resigning as treasurer a short time later. Mr Murrell quit as chief executive in March after after taking responsibility for misleading the media about party membership numbers.
Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell was arrested and released without charge as part of Operation Branchform
The arrest of the former first minister had been widely expected as she was one of the three signatories on the SNP's accounts alongside Mr Murrell and Mr Beattie - although there was no indication of when it was going to happen.
Mr Yousaf said in April that Mr Murrell would not be suspended from the SNP because he is "innocent until proven guilty". But the SNP leader confirmed the party would not be paying Mr Murrell's legal fees.
Several SNP politicians who faced police investigations under Ms Sturgeon's reign were suspended or had the whip removed - which automatically leads to suspension.
Her predecessor Alex Salmond quit the party in 2018 after it emerged Scottish government staff members had complained about his behaviour when he was first minister. Police Scotland said it was assessing the case at the time. Mr Salmond was later cleared at trial of sexually assaulting nine women.
SNP MP Patrick Grady was suspended from the party for making a sexual advance to a teenage member of staff. He had the whip restored in December following a six-month suspension.
Former finance minister Derek Mackay was suspended from the SNP after admitting he "behaved foolishly" by messaging a 16-year-old boy on social media. A police investigation concluded there was "nothing to suggest that an offence has been committed".
Margaret Ferrier lost the SNP whip after speaking in the Westminster Parliament while awaiting the results of a Covid test in September 2020, before travelling by train back to Glasgow instead of isolating.
Margaret Ferrier will appeal against the proposed ban
She was later ordered to complete a 270-hour community payback order by a court after admitting culpably and recklessly exposing the public "to the risk of infection, illness and death".
Ms Sturgeon was among those who consistently called for Ms Ferrier to resign as an MP. She has now been suspended from the Commons, a move which is expected to trigger a by-election.
Another former SNP MP, Natalie McGarry, withdrew from the party whip in 2015 amid a police investigation into her finances.
She was sentenced to two years in jail for embezzling £25,000 from the SNP and a pro-independence group. The sentence was later cut to 20 months. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-65874678 |
Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi dies at 86 - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The four-time prime minister bounced back from sex scandals and corruption allegations. | Europe | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian former PM who overcame various scandals to hold office four times, has died at 86.
He died at the San Raffaele hospital in Milan. In April, he was treated for a lung infection linked to leukaemia.
Berlusconi's death leaves a "huge void", Italy's defence minister said, with a national day of mourning due to take place on Wednesday.
The longest-serving prime minister in post-war Italy, he had bounced back from sex scandals and corruption cases.
After taking political office in 1994, the billionaire media tycoon led four governments until 2011 - though not consecutively.
Last September, Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party went into coalition under right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
Reacting to the news, Ms Meloni remembered her predecessor as a "fighter". In a video message, she said he remained "one of the most influential men in the history of Italy".
Her deputy Matteo Salvini said he was "broken" and thanked Berlusconi for his "friendship", "advice" and "generosity".
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said: "An era is over... Farewell Silvio." His death left a "huge void", Mr Crosetto added in a tweet.
The Italian government has declared a national day of mourning for Wednesday, the same day Berlusconi's funeral is scheduled to take place at Milan Cathedral.
"All Italian and European flags on public buildings will be lowered to half mast from Monday nationwide," a spokesman told the media.
Another figure to pay tribute was Vladimir Putin, who called Berlusconi a "true friend". In a statement the Russian President said he had always admired Berlusconi's "wisdom" and "ability to make balanced, far-sighted decisions".
French President Emmanuel Macron sent his condolences to Berlusconi's family and the Italian people on behalf of the French people.
He described Berlusconi as "a major figure in contemporary Italy", saying he was "at the forefront of the political scene for many years, from his first election as a member of parliament in 1994 to the senatorial mandate he held until his final days".
In the US, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said Italy was a major US ally and Berlusconi had "worked closely with several US administrations on advancing our bilateral relationship".
Berlusconi had been suffering from a rare form of blood cancer, chronic myelomonocyte leukaemia, doctors at San Raffaele revealed in April.
He had repeated health problems after contracting Covid in 2020. So far, there has been no official confirmation of the precise cause of death.
Born in 1936 in Milan, Berlusconi began his career selling vacuum cleaners, before setting up a construction company.
He went on to become one of Italy's richest men, building a business empire that included television networks, publishing companies and advertising agencies.
On top of that, he gained international recognition as owner of legendary football club AC Milan - which he saved from bankruptcy in 1986 - before going into politics in the 1990s.
Former AC Milan player and manager Carlo Ancelotti, who now manages the Real Madrid team, remembered Berlusconi as a "loyal, intelligent, sincere man".
Mr Ancelotti, who twice won the Champions League with AC Milan under Berlusconi's ownership, said the former PM had been a fundamental part of his journey "as a football player first, and then as a coach".
Berlusconi was a polarising politician. He was praised by supporters for his business acumen and populist verve, but reviled by critics for his disregard for the rule of law.
Throughout his political career, he faced a string of legal troubles, including charges of bribery, tax fraud, and sex with an underage prostitute. He was convicted on several occasions, but avoided jail because of his age and the expiry of statutes of limitations. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65877241 |
Sir Tom Jones says he still loves singing at 83 - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The veteran singer is performing 30 shows in 54 days across 11 European countries this summer. | Wales | Sir Tom Jones became the oldest man to top the UK album chart in 2021
Sir Tom Jones said he still loves singing now as much now as he ever did, less than a week after turning 83.
The veteran singer kicks off a summer tour on Wednesday that will take to him to 11 European countries.
Sir Tom is performing 30 shows in 54 days, including three performances at Cardiff Castle.
As well as his new tour, the great-grandad from Treforest, Rhondda Cynon Taf, said new members of his family were giving him "a lot of joy".
"I've got a great-grandson now, it's a wonderful thing to see your family grow," he said.
"I remember my grandkids being born and seeing them growing up.
"Now they're wonderful adults and they're having a family now, so all that is very important to me as an older person."
Reflecting on his years of performing, Sir Tom said he had changed musically, as well as physically.
"When you're young, you feel young. I think I used to attack things more vocally," he said.
"When you get older through the decades, you treat things differently, because you're changing hopefully for the better - and you do that musically as well."
The 83-year-old also said he used to sing gospel songs in Elvis's hotel rooms after performances in Las Vegas.
Tom Jones at the Flamingo Hotel with Priscilla and Elvis Presley in 1968
"He was hard to stop," he said.
"The only problem was… we used to play Vegas a month at a time then, and when he would finish his month, sometimes I would still have shows to do.
"So he had finished his stint and I was still doing shows. He would come over every night. I used to say 'Elvis, I've still got two shows to do tomorrow' - he would just want to keep going.
"It's a weird thing to say, but it was hard to get away from Elvis Presley." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-65875886 |
Ukraine offensive: What will it take for military push to succeed? - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | If Kyiv can split Russian troops in the south and hold ground, its push will have achieved its aims. | Europe | Ukrainian soldiers from 35th Brigade posted a photo, saying its soldiers retook the village of Storozheve in the eastern Donetsk region
"Don't call it a counter-offensive," say the Ukrainians. "This is our offensive, it's our chance to finally drive out the Russian army from our land."
All right, but what will it take to actually succeed?
First off, let's not get distracted by the recent hard-fought but tiny territorial gains Ukraine has been making as it retakes obscure, half-abandoned villages in the eastern Donetsk and south-eastern Zaporizhzhia regions.
After months of stalemate, images of victorious, battle-stained Ukrainian soldiers holding up their country's blue and yellow flag in front of a bullet-ridden building is a welcome morale boost for Ukrainians.
But in the big strategic picture, this is a sideshow.
The area of Russian-held territory that matters most in this campaign is the south: the area between the city of Zaporizhzhia and the Sea of Azov.
This is the so-called "land corridor" that connects Russia to illegally annexed Crimea, the central part of that purple-shaded strip on the map below that has barely changed since the early weeks of the invasion last year.
If Ukraine can split that in two and hold the ground it's retaken, then its offensive will have largely been successful.
It would cut off Russia's troops in the west and make it hard to resupply their garrison in Crimea.
It would not necessarily spell an end to the war - which some are now predicting could drag on for years - but it would put Ukraine in a strong bargaining position when the inevitable peace talks finally take place.
But the Russians have looked at the map, quite some time ago, and reached the same conclusion.
So while Ukraine sent its soldiers off to Nato countries for training and readied their 12 armoured brigades for this summer campaign, Moscow spent that time constructing what is now being called "the most formidable defensive fortifications in the world".
Blocking Ukraine's path to the coast - its own coast, let's not forget - are layer upon layer of Russian minefields, concrete tank-blockers (known as "dragons' teeth") bunkers, firing positions and trenches wide enough and deep enough to stop a Leopard 2 or M1 Abrams tank literally in its tracks.
All of this is covered by pre-determined artillery impact zones calibrated to rain down high explosive on Ukraine's armoured vehicles as they and their crews wait for their engineers to find a way through.
The early signs are - and it is still very early in this campaign - that those Russian defences are so far holding fast.
Russia's military claims that a number of Ukraine's western-supplied tanks and armoured personnel carriers have been destroyed in fierce fighting
Ukraine has yet to commit the bulk of its forces - so these are probing, reconnaissance attacks designed to reveal the whereabouts of Russia's artillery and search out areas of vulnerability in their lines.
In Ukraine's favour is morale. Its soldiers are highly-motivated and fighting to liberate their own country from an invader.
Most of Russia's troops do not share that motivation, and in many cases their training, equipment and leadership are inferior to Ukraine's.
The General Staff back in Kyiv will be hoping that if they can achieve a sufficient breakthrough then a collapse in Russian morale will be contagious, spreading across the battlefront as demoralised Russian troops lose the will to fight.
Also in Ukraine's favour is the quality of hardware that Nato countries have provided. Unlike Soviet-designed armoured vehicles, Nato's tanks and infantry fighting vehicles can often withstand a direct hit, or at least enough to protect the crew inside who then live to fight on.
But will that be enough to counter the strength of Russia's artillery and drone attacks?
Russia, as the vastly bigger country, can draw on more resources than Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin, who started this war in the first place, knows that if he can only wear down the Ukrainians into a stalemate that drags on into next year then there is a chance that the US and other allies will tire of supporting this expensive war effort and start to pressure Kyiv to reach a ceasefire compromise.
Finally, there is the matter of air cover, or lack of it. Attacking a well dug-in enemy without sufficient close air support is highly risky.
Ukraine knows this, which is why it's long been pleading with the West to supply it with F16 fighter jets.
The US, which makes them, did not give the green light for this until late May, by which time the first, preparatory, phase of Ukraine's offensive was already under way.
This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: A video on social media purports to show a Ukrainian flag being raised in Neskuchne, Donetsk Oblast
Critically for Ukraine, the game-changing F16s may now arrive too late on the battlefield to play a key role in the early phases of this counter-offensive.
This is not to say the Ukrainians will lose.
Time and again they have proved themselves agile, resourceful and inventive. They successfully drove the Russian army out of Kherson by hitting their rear-area logistics hubs to the point where the Russians could no longer resupply their troops in that southern city.
Equipped with long-range weapons like Britain's Storm Shadow cruise missile, Ukraine will be attempting to do the same now.
But amidst all the claim and counter-claim of a propaganda war, it may yet be weeks or even months before we get a clearer picture of who is likely to ultimately prevail in this war. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65881261 |
MPs' misconduct cases need professional HR, say former whips - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | MPs in charge of party discipline aren't equipped to handle misconduct allegations, one senior figure tells the BBC. | UK Politics | Former senior party whips have told the BBC a "professional" HR system is needed in Parliament to handle sexual misconduct allegations against MPs.
It comes ahead of a debate on Monday on whether to ban some MPs under investigation for violent or sexual offences from Parliament.
Currently, there is no single authority at Westminster that deals with sexual misconduct cases against MPs.
Whips are senior MPs in charge of their party's discipline and welfare.
But they are often expected to handle misconduct cases.
Some allegations are reported to Parliament's Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, some to parties or whips, some to the Commons Speaker or leader of the House, and some to police.
The BBC has spoken to multiple senior MPs and former MPs, who have served as whips for different parties.
Many argue Parliament needs a formal HR system to stop allegations being dealt with in different ways, on a case-by-case basis.
"There should be a better HR system for the employment of members' staff," said a former chief whip, who wanted not to be identified.
MPs currently hire their staff directly, but the former chief whip argued they should be employed in the same way as ministers' special advisers.
"Although they are the appointment of the minister, they are centrally employed, and come under the HR umbrella of the rest of the civil service.
"That would give [MPs' staff] the protection of being able to speak to somebody else other than their employer, where it might be a very small office.
"So their employer is not necessarily the member of Parliament, but the House authorities," they said.
Former Conservative MP Anne Milton was deputy chief whip from 2015-2017
Others the BBC spoke to, who have served as whips, also said they wanted HR "beefed up" to help resolve grievances and other issues, citing a lack of clarity and training for whips on how to handle such cases beyond directing individuals to complaint processes, support services, or even the police.
Former deputy chief whip Anne Milton told the BBC: "In the short period of time I was involved with the allegations against Charlie Elphicke, I was clear that the whips' office was not the place to consider issues such as this.
"You can help people through difficult periods in their life - but the whips' offices are not equipped and don't have the expertise to deal with complaints of this nature."
Elphicke was a Conservative MP who was suspended by the party after "serious allegations" were referred to the police, and was subsequently convicted of sexual assault.
Ms Milton added: "I felt that the House of Commons - because allegations of misbehaviour or sexual harassment or sexual assault bring the House of Commons into disrepute - that the House of Commons needs to deal with that.
"You need a process that should be handled by an external organisation, who are professionals, to investigate allegations swiftly."
She said the whips' office was an instrument of the party leadership - and in the case of the government, its role was to get government business through Parliament.
"The whips' offices do not have the HR skills needed."
"Trying to crack the nut of MPs acting like small businesses is quite a difficult nut to crack. But using an external agency to resolve workplace issues is not difficult.
"Neither Parliament nor the whips' offices are equipped to do it. This is highly specialised stuff."
She said whips could remove the whip from MPs, but "that's a political party decision".
"The whips shouldn't be enacting sanctions as part of the complaints process. It may be considered prudent by a political party to withdraw the whip pending an investigation."
Current MPs have also raised concerns about a lack of "HR professionals" to deal with cases like this.
One Conservative MP said: "Where does the buck stop? The whips, the police, the Speaker, there's also the parties. I don't see that there is any formal coming together of those."
Parties often "live in fear of someone saying: 'why didn't you take action?' That's where the judgement comes," they added.
This MP said that, while they still wanted a say in who their staff were, "I do think there's a benefit in more HR support for MPs - I'm not an HR expert."
They compared MPs employing their own staff with Parliament "dealing in effect with 650 small businesses".
Another former chief whip the BBC spoke to echoed the argument for "external supervision", saying the role of the whips was to "look after their flock, not to sit in judgement of them", and to persuade them to vote with their party the "right" way.
On Monday, MPs will debate proposals to bar some MPs under criminal investigation for violent or sexual offences from setting foot in Parliament.
The proposals have been drawn up by the House of Commons Commission, a body of senior MPs which oversees the working of the Commons, following a consultation.
If approved, the plans could allow MPs or peers to be barred from the Houses of Parliament if they are deemed to pose a risk.
The exclusion would apply to the parliamentary estate in Westminster and any parliamentary-funded travel.
MPs are being asked to have their say on the plans, but a formal vote has yet to be arranged.
The Commission has proposed that if the parliamentary authorities were presented with credible allegations of a sexual or violent offence by the police at any point in the criminal justice process, a staff panel would assess the claims.
If the panel undertook a full risk assessment on the basis of information provided by the police, it would consider the nature of the alleged misconduct and whether there were any safeguarding concerns.
If this led to exclusion being recommended, this would be put to an adjudication panel for a decision.
Under the proposals, excluded members would get a proxy vote so their constituents were not disadvantaged.
The BBC has been told there is some disagreement on the plans - with a number of MPs arguing members should not be excluded unless they are charged by police, and others arguing that the threshold for exclusion should be lower.
One former chief whip said excluding people who had not been charged flew "against natural justice".
"Allegations can be made against members of parliament that may be false, and they may be made in a vexatious way."
Ms Milton said she believed Parliament should be able to vote on excluding MPs from the Commons, because it was "quite a serious issue democratically".
"Their [MPs'] job is to hold the government to account. If you're going to withdraw an MP's ability to do this on behalf of their constituents. that's serious enough for the whole House to make a decision." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-65856484 |
Ukraine war: Kyiv claims more villages retaken but picture mixed - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Kyiv claims to have snatched back a number of settlements in recent days - though they are all small in size. | Europe | We're wrapping up our live coverage now, thanks for joining us.
Today's developments from Ukraine largely centred on reports from Kyiv that a number of settlements were reclaimed from Russian control.
As the BBC's Ukraine correspondent James Waterhouse explains, this counter-offensive is still in its early phase and this is reflected by the Ukrainians attacking in multiple areas with modest gains.
You can read a detailed analysis of how today's events unfolded and what this means in terms of Ukraine's counter-offensive by our security correspondent here.
Today's page was edited by James Fitzgerald and myself, and written by Jack Burgess, James Harness and Ece Goksedef. We'll be back tomorrow with more live updates on the conflict in Ukraine, so until then, goodbye for now. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-europe-65872310 |
Brittany: Girl from British family shot dead in France named - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | Solaine Thornton was playing on a swing in her garden when a neighbour shot her through a hedge. | Europe | An 11-year-old girl from a British family who was shot dead while playing on a swing in her garden in France has been named as Solaine Thornton.
The family were having a barbecue on Saturday evening when the shooting happened in the village of Saint-Herbot, north of Quimper in Brittany.
Her parents, Adrian and Rachel Thornton, were also hurt and are in hospital.
The family were named by the mayor of the commune where the family lived, Marguerite Bleuzen.
The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said it was providing assistance to a British family.
The girl and her eight-year-old sister were playing on a swing as their parents tended the barbecue, when a neighbour began firing at them with a shotgun through a hedge.
The younger girl ran to another neighbour's house to raise the alarm and is now said to be in shock.
A local resident told French media that the younger child ran to neighbours shouting: "My sister is dead, my sister is dead".
The suspect, described as a 71-year-old Dutch national, reportedly shut himself in his house following the incident but eventually surrendered to police and was arrested along with his wife.
Locals said the man was something of a recluse who was in dispute with the British family over a plot of land adjoining the two properties.
Local media reported that the family had lived in the village for several years.
A forensic officer was one of the staff spotted gathering evidence at the family home
Prosecutor Carine Halley said the circumstances around the incident were not yet known.
Ms Bleuzen, the mayor of Plonévez-du-Faou commune, said: "We knew the family well. There is a village fête every year and they always came.
"It is incomprehensible to have shot a child. No one can understand how that could have happened."
Regine Guillot, the secretary of the Plonevez-du-Faou town hall, said the village "is in shock".
"There were neighbourhood issues, yes, a hedge, a field, but nothing more than that, not that we were aware of," Guillot told Reuters.
A spokeswoman for the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: "We are providing consular assistance to a British family following a shooting in France and are in contact with the local authorities." | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65874063 |
HotSat-1: Spacecraft to map UK's heat inefficient buildings - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | HotSat-1 will sense heat loss through roofs and walls to help direct insulation improvements. | Science & Environment | This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. Watch: Take a tour of HotSat-1, filmed by the BBC's Kevin Church
A novel British satellite designed to map the heat signature of buildings has been launched.
The idea is to highlight those dwellings that are wasting energy and could benefit from better insulation.
The relatively small spacecraft is appropriately called HotSat-1 and it will be operated by the London-based start-up Satellite Vu.
Its infrared sensor has been developed with funds from the UK and European space agencies.
HotSat-1 launched on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California at about 14:35 PDT (22:35 BST), a little later than planned.
Flying at an altitude of 500km (311 miles), it will have the resolution to see individual roof tops and walls.
The UK has some of the most inefficient housing stock in Europe, with the vast majority of dwellings built pre-1970.
If many of these properties can be retrofitted, it would not only save on householders' fuel costs but help the country as a whole achieve its ambition of becoming climate-neutral by 2050.
(L) Airborne infrared view of houses; data de-resolved to simulate HotSat-1. (R) Properties graded for their energy efficiency
"There is grant money there to improve insulation, but for councils and utilities there is a challenge in knowing where best to apply it," said Satellite Vu CEO Anthony Baker.
"With city-wide data, we'll be able to show you the worst 20% of buildings very quickly. And after the upgrades are done, we can check to make sure that it's done well."
The company plans to fly eight satellites as a constellation of "thermometers in the sky".
It has already had pre-launch commitments worth £100m from users who plan to use the thermal data in multiple ways - both within the UK and internationally.
As well as describing the heat profile of buildings, HotSat-1 should quickly identify the structures and open spaces that exacerbate the so-called urban heat island effect. These include the large car parks at retail centres that pump up the temperatures in towns and cities.
Planners could get an idea of where best to plant trees to cool the environment.
Artwork: HotSat-1 is expected to be followed by seven more satellites
The data will also provide intelligence to the financial and insurance sectors - and even the military - by showing how temperatures in a scene change over time. It's possible, for example, to get a sense of the volume and type of output from a factory just from its heat signature.
Pollution monitoring ought to be another application. Watching for sudden changes in the temperature of river water might be an indicator that something is awry.
A discharge from an industrial complex changes the water temperature in a nearby canal
Ordnance Survey (OS), Britain's national mapping agency, will have early access to HotSat-1's data.
It has already conducted a trial of the sensor flown on a plane over the London Borough of Ealing. An aircraft is, obviously, much closer to the ground than a satellite, so the data had to be de-resolved to simulate more accurately what the space information will look like.
But it's given OS a head start on what to expect.
"Earth observation is tremendously powerful but it can be difficult to understand and use; few people have a degree in spectral analysis," observed Donna Lyndsay from OS.
"But as soon as you put that information on one of our maps, people get it - they understand it's hotter over here compared with over there. So, we'll have that early discovery of Satellite Vu data, combining it with our intelligence and then testing it on our customers."
HotSat-1 has been manufactured by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd in Guildford.
The spacecraft is based around its new low-cost bus, or chassis, referred to as Carbonite (named after the fictional substance used to freeze Han Solo in the movie The Empire Strikes Back).
"It's been a fun project to work on, very fast-paced," said SSTL engineer Ellie Sargeaunt.
"We only started integrating modules properly for the satellite in January/February. We've now got a second satellite in manufacture for launch next year. And then, hopefully, six more to come."
A heat map of a French steel works: The data can be used to estimate the plant's output
Satellite Vu flew its airborne sensor over the Nordstream pipeline leak in the Baltic Sea. The natural gas surfacing from the broken pipeline appears cooler than its water surroundings | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-65775901 |
French Open 2023 final: Novak Djokovic says others must decide who is 'the greatest' - BBC Sport | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | null | Novak Djokovic says it is not down to him to decide if he is the greatest men's player of all time after winning a record 23rd Grand Slam title. | null | Last updated on .From the section Tennis
Novak Djokovic says it is not down to him to decide if he is the greatest player of all time after he won a men's record 23rd Grand Slam title.
Serbia's Djokovic won the French Open on Sunday, moving him one clear of Rafael Nadal in terms of men's majors.
He is level with Serena Williams on 23 and could equal Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 at Wimbledon in July.
"I don't want to enter in these discussions. I'm writing my own history," Djokovic, 36, said.
"I don't want to say I am the greatest. I leave those discussions to someone else."
In the past several years Djokovic has been locked in an engaging battle with Nadal and Roger Federer, who retired last year with 20 major titles, to finish with the most men's Grand Slams.
By beating Norway's Casper Ruud at Roland Garros, Djokovic has moved clear of his long-time rivals for the first time.
On this evidence Djokovic looks a good bet to extend the gap further, especially with the injured Nadal planning to retire in 2024 and 41-year-old Federer already retired.
"It's amazing to know that I'm ahead of both of them in Grand Slams, but at the same time everyone writes their own history," said Djokovic, who also regained the world number one ranking in Paris.
"I feel like each great champion of his own generation has left a huge mark and a legacy.
"I have huge faith, confidence and belief in myself and everything that I am, who I am and what I am capable of doing.
"This trophy is another confirmation of the quality of tennis that I'm still able to produce."
How many more Slams can Djokovic win?
Djokovic will attempt to tie Court's record at Wimbledon - a place where he has already won seven times and will be the favourite to equal Federer's record tally of men's titles.
"Grand Slams are the biggest priorities on the checklist, not just this season but any season, especially at this stage of my career," Djokovic said.
"The journey is still not over. If I'm winning Slams, why even think about ending the career that already has been going for 20 years?
"I still feel motivated and inspired to play the best tennis in these tournaments.
"These are the ones that count the most in the history of our sport."
Djokovic has cut back his schedule at tour level in recent years in a bid to peak at the right time for the four majors.
That strategy is clearly working, with Djokovic now having won six of the past eight majors he has played.
"He has this software in his head that he can switch when a Grand Slam comes," Goran Ivanisevic, Djokovic's long-time coach, said.
"The day we arrived here [in Paris], he was better, he was more motivated, he was more hungry.
"It's fascinating to see, because sometimes you think 'OK, now you have 23'.
"But he's going to find some kind of motivation to win 24, maybe 25 - who knows where is the end?"
Does he still have the physical strength to win more?
Djokovic came into Roland Garros without a great deal of preparation having been hampered by an elbow injury in the European clay-court swing.
After needing treatment in his third-round win over Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Djokovic said he had a list of injuries "too long to name" and added the only way to deal with physical issues was to "accept it".
"I don't like to think about age and, it sounds like a cliché, but I really feel age is just a number in my case," said Djokovic, who surpassed 2022 winner Nadal as the oldest Roland Garros men's singles champion.
"My body is responding differently. I have to deal with more things physically than I have had maybe in the past.
"Maybe five to 10 years ago I was recovering much quicker or just didn't feel as much pain in the body."
Ivanisevic said he was never worried about Djokovic's condition and believes he still has "a lot more" in his body to win majors.
"He's keeping his body great - there's little ones [injuries] here and there but not major," said the Croat, who won Wimbledon in 2001.
"He's unbelievable and he's still moving like a cat on the court. He's there like a ninja, he's everywhere."
'No sign his powers are on the wane' - analysis
Djokovic's daughter Tara completed a few laps of honour on Court Philippe Chatrier on behalf of her father, as he conducted some final television interviews.
At 36, Djokovic is the oldest male champion in Roland Garros history, but he does not sound, look or play like it - even if he admits the aches and pains are gradually increasing.
Roger Federer had two Wimbledon championship points against Djokovic a month shy of his 38th birthday, so the Serb knows exactly what might still be possible as he begins a 388th week as the world number one.
He could lose top spot over the grass court season, but it's likely to be just temporary. Having skipped last year's US Open - and all its preceding events - Djokovic has no ranking points to defend until October.
He has won the last three Grand Slams he has contested, and even in his 37th year, there is no sign his powers are on the wane.
• None Alerts: Get tennis news sent to your phone | http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/tennis/65873721 |
MOVEit hack: Media watchdog Ofcom latest victim of mass hack - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | The regulator says information about firms and employees has been affected by a cyber-attack. | Technology | Media watchdog Ofcom has confirmed that it is a victim of a cyber-attack by hackers linked to a notorious Russian ransomware group.
Confidential data about some companies regulated by Ofcom, and personal information from 412 employees was downloaded during the mass hack.
A number of firms, including British Airways, the BBC and Boots, have been affected by the software breach.
Transport for London also told the BBC on Monday it had been affected.
The mass hack breached software called MOVEit, which is designed to move sensitive files - such as employee addresses or bank account details - securely and is used by companies around the world.
Ofcom said it had "swiftly" alerted all the affected companies that it regulates and referred the matter to the data and privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioners Office (ICO).
It is understood that no payroll data was compromised.
"A limited amount of information about certain companies we regulate - some of it confidential - along with personal data of 412 Ofcom employees, was downloaded during the attack," said Ofcom.
"We took immediate action to prevent further use of the MOVEit service and to implement the recommended security measures. We also swiftly alerted all affected Ofcom-regulated companies, and we continue to offer support and assistance to our colleagues."
It said that none of its own systems were compromised during the attack.
Transport for London (TfL), which operates the capital's public transport, told the BBC it too had been affected.
It said one of its contractors had suffered a data breach.
"The issue has been fixed and the IT systems have been secured. The data in question did not include banking details and we are writing to all of those involved to make them aware of the incident".
The breach did not relate to passenger data. TfL said the ICO had been informed.
Accountancy firm Ernst & Young (EY) also told the BBC it was a victim.
As soon as it became aware of the problem with MOVEit the firm "immediately launched an investigation into our use of the tool and took urgent steps to safeguard any data".
It said the vast majority of its systems which used the software were unaffected but added: "We are manually and thoroughly investigating systems where data may have been accessed.
"Our priority is to first communicate to those impacted, as well as the relevant authorities. Our investigation is ongoing."
The hack is known as a "supply-chain attack".
It was first disclosed when US company Progress Software said hackers had found a way to break into its MOVEit Transfer tool.
A security flaw was exploited by hackers to gain access to a number of companies.
Some organisations that do not even use MOVEit are affected because of third-party arrangements.
The BBC, for example, has had data from current and past employees stolen because Zellis, a company that the broadcaster uses to process the payroll, used MOVEit and fell victim.
It is understood eight companies that use Zellis are affected, including the airlines British Airways and Aer Lingus, as well the retailer Boots. Dozens of other UK companies are thought to be using MOVEit.
The criminals responsible for the hack are linked to the notorious Clop ransomware group, thought to be based in Russia.
They have threatened to begin publishing data of companies that do not email them to begin the negotiations by Wednesday.
BBC cyber correspondent Joe Tidy said the group is well-known for carrying out its threats and it is likely that organisations will have private data published on the gang's darknet website in the coming weeks.
He said it is usually the case that if a victim does not appear on Clop's website, they may have secretly paid the group a ransom which could be hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin.
Victims are always encouraged not to pay though as it fuels the growth of this criminal enterprise and there is no guarantee that the hackers will not use the data for secondary attacks. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65877210 |
Ukraine war: Russia moves to take direct control of Wagner Group - BBC News | 2023-06-12T00:00:00 | https://www.facebook.com/bbcnews | It appears to be the latest in a public falling out between the Wagner boss and Russian officials. | Europe | Russia appears to have moved to take direct control of Wagner, after months of infighting between defence officials and the private military group.
Deputy Defence Minister Nikolai Pankov said on Saturday "volunteer formations" will be asked to sign contracts directly with the ministry of defence.
The vaguely worded statement is widely believed to target the group.
But in a furious statement on Sunday, Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said his forces would boycott the contracts.
The private military group has played a major role in the war in Ukraine, fighting on the side of Russian forces.
But Prigozhin, who is said to hold political ambitions of his own, has been embroiled in a public dispute with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and military chief Valery Gerasimov for months.
He has repeatedly accused the pair of incompetence and of deliberately undersupplying Wagner units fighting in Ukraine.
"Wagner will not sign any contracts with Shoigu," Prigozhin said in response to a request for comment on the defence ministry's announcement. "Shoigu cannot properly manage military formation."
He insisted that his group was well integrated with the Russian military, but said that its effectiveness would be damaged by having to report to the defence minister.
While Saturday's announcement did not directly reference Wagner or any other paramilitary groups, Russian media suggested that the new contracts were a move to bring Prigozhin and his forces under control.
But the defence ministry said the move was designed to "increase the effectiveness" of Russian units fighting in Ukraine.
"This will give volunteer formations the necessary legal status, create common approaches to the organization of comprehensive support and the fulfilment of their tasks," the ministry said in a statement, adding that the contracts must be signed by 1 July.
The long-running tensions between the Wagner Group and the army have threatened to boil over in recent weeks.
Last week the group kidnapped a senior frontline army commander, Lt Col Roman Venevitin, after accusing him of opening fire on a Wagner vehicle near Bakhmut.
Lt Col Venevitin was later released, and in a video shared by Russian military bloggers he accused the group of stoking "anarchy" on Russia's frontlines by stealing arms, forcing mobilised soldiers to sign contracts with the group and attempting to extort weapons from the defence ministry.
Prigozhin called the comments - which appeared to be read from a script - "absolutely total nonsense".
He has also suggested that he is ready to deploy his troops on Russian soil, saying on Telegram that Wagner was ready to fight against insurrectionist forces in the Belgorod region.
In December, the US estimated that Wagner had around 50,000 troops fighting in Ukraine.
And the mercenary group has increasingly become a tool of Russian state power around the world. Its troops are currently believed to have been deployed in Mali, the Central African Republic,Sudan and Libya. | http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65871232 |
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